From Greg's Head

Last week, I had the opportunity to introduce Jason Pontin, Editor-in-Chief of Technology Review magazine and technologyreview.com, at the MIT Enterprise Forum April Flagship event.

Jason gave a great presentation on the Top Emerging Technologies of 2009. They are:

• Intelligent Software Assistant
• $100 Genome
• Racetrack Memory
• Biological Machines
• Paper Diagnostics
• Liquid Battery
• Traveling-Wave Reactor
• Nanopiezoelectronics
• HashCache
• Software-Defined Networking 

These companies are all doing really cool things.  For example, Paper Diagnostics created by George Whitesides, has developed cheap diagnostic tests made from paper.  This technology can be used to screen people in developing nations for a host of diseases, effectively and inexpensively.  The $100 Genome uses a nano chip to unravel DNA, untangling long strands of DNA molecules much quicker than standard techniques.  Bionanomatrix, the company developing the technology, is currently working on a process for sequencing the DNA.

We’re now linking to Jason’s blog, The New Commonplace in our blog roll, be sure to check it out when you're reading the PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook every Friday!

I also want to share a few of my thoughts that I included in my remarks before introducing Jason.  I believe the idea of community is very important to the success of the emerging market and technology sector based here in Houston. 

The human spirit needs a sense of belonging to achieve its highest scale of success.  While Houston has a long tradition of success in innovation and technology development, most folks outside of our fair city don’t necessarily share that knowledge of our legacy.  And yes, while many people on the planet know of the Johnson Space Center, few understand the business and financial impact of that research center on a local and global basis.  Another equally important research center is the Texas Medical Center.  Between these entities, and many global oil and gas research and development centers our “community” has already established a track record for success.

We developed the Fast Tech 50 Awards program in connection with many of our friends and family in the Houston community.  During the past 8 years the Fast Tech 50 program has highlighted and showcased some outstanding examples of human spirit and achievement.  More importantly, we see tangible results that prove Houston is the place to be if you are entrepreneur.

I am struck with a sense of pride and accomplishment pertaining to the region’s tenacity and desire to take an idea and make it a reality, which quite frankly in other parts of the country would never see the light of day.  It’s a commitment to community-not the transaction that is the recipe for success.  When we lose sight of that, we lose our bearing or compass point.
 

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“Houston is where the future of the world is happening today.” – Dr. Stephen Kleinberg

I like the above quote, and no group demonstrates that better than the U.S. Commercial Service, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The more I learn about their interactions in the Houston marketplace, the more I am impressed with their international connectivity. I’m not sure enough business owners in Houston know about the U.S. Commercial Service’s outreach efforts.

For example, they will have a large presence at the upcoming Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), May 4-7, 2009. One event of note is the Showtime event, where U.S. Commercial Service energy specialists along with representatives from the U.S. Export-Import Bank will be available at OTC to counsel U.S. companies on their exporting strategy. Energy specialists from 18 countries including Brazil, Mexico and Saudi Arabia will be attending OTC.

The U.S. Commercial Service’s Global Energy Team has coordinated several other seminars and events during OTC. Below is the schedule of events:

Monday May, 4
• International Partner Matchmaking

Tuesday May, 5
• Brazil Offshore Industry Breakfast
• Showtime
• Invest in Houston Lunch
• Briefing by China Shandong Chamber of Commerce for Petroleum Equipment on CIPEE 2009

Wednesday May, 6
• Offshore Asia Breakfast
• 2009 Algeria Energy Day
• Malaysian Business Briefing and B2B Meetings
• Nigeria: PETAN Matchmaking Seminar

Thursday May, 7
• Oil and Gas Frontiers of the Caribbean Basin

If you have any questions about the U.S. Commercial Service events, visit www.buyusa.gov/houston/otc09programs.html.

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

How much international business is your company doing?  Are you using all of the international resources Houston has to offer?

Finding the tools you need to boost your international business opportunities is as simple as knowing where to look.

The Greater Houston Partnership, the District Export Council, the Houston International Protocol Alliance and the various international chambers of commerce all have programs and work to assist business owners looking to do business internationally.  Many of the 90 consulates also have local trade offices focused on facilitating business between the U.S. and their home country. For example, the UK Trade & Investment office and the Brazil Export & Investment Promotion Agency both have a large presence in Houston’s international business community.

Attending events such as the GHP’s World Trade Soiree, or seminars and presentations from the World Affairs Council of Houston is a good way to network with international business leaders.

With our resources, it is no surprise that, to quote Dr. Steven Kleinberg, “Houston is where the future of the world is happening today.”
 
 

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The 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition is over and it was a whirlwind three days of competition.  I was impressed with all of the teams that presented. Over 350 teams applied to make the list of 42 with over 50 teams from around the globe vying to join the select group of Rice Business Plan Competition winners.

Congratulations to Dynamics, Inc. from Carnegie Mellon University, this year’s Grand Prize winner!  They are producing next-generation interactive payment cards that utilize programmable magnetic stripes to communicate dynamic information to the 60 million 1970s era magnetic stripe readers that are used in our day-to-day payment card transactions.

Check out the extended entry for the full list of winners.

I also want to say a hearty "Well Done!" to Brad Burke, and the staff and student volunteers at the Rice Alliance and the Jones School. Both Brad and I were quoted in a story about the competition in Saturday’s Houston Chronicle.

America's future and its strength lies in the hope and dreams of our youth: innovation, entrepreneurism, and a belief in yourself to make the future better.  The best stimulus plan in the world is the encouragement we should give these MBA students.  America is still the home of success!  I couldn't be prouder of our city, our country and our youth.

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Many of the friends of PKF Texas have asked to be informed about events we are a part of in the marketplace.  I’m moderating a panel at the next HTC Educational Seminar Series on May 1^st.  The topic is Building and Managing Boards in Venture-Backed Start-ups.  The panelists, Jeff Harder, Managing Shareholder, Winstead PC, Dan Parsley, Former CEO, AssetNation, N.J. Pierce, Principal, NJ Pierce & Associates, will be discussing the following:

• Why boards are relevant to entrepreneurs?
• Selecting and recruiting board members - when, who, what kind, how many?
• Defining roles and managing expectations - who's in charge?
• Roles and fiduciary responsibilities of Directors
• Roles of Advisors

The networking will begin in the HTC Conference center at 7:00 am and the panel will begin at 7:30.  If you have an interest in attending, please contact Sue Moore, 832-476-9280, Smoore@houstontech.org.

In more HTC news, they are gearing up for the 10^th Anniversary Gala – A Celebration for Entrepreneurs. Spotlighting honoree, Robert C. McNair, Founder and CEO of the Houston Texans, as well as 60 of Houston's landmark entrepreneurs, this year's event will be a red carpet gala to remember. The evening will also feature the presentation of 5 special and lifetime achievement awards:

• Aerospace – Gale Burkett
• Information Technology – Rod Canion
• Life Science – Dr. Nancy Chang
• Energy - Dan Duncan
• Nanotechnology - Dr. James Tour

A limited number of individual tickets are now available. For more information about the Gala, contact Deena Carstens, 832-476-9235, dcarstens@houstontech.org.

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

People are critical to operational excellence.  Turbulent economics often evoke knee-jerk cost cutting at the expense of future flexibility.  Eliminating jobs is easier than reinventing processes, and the cost savings are more quickly realized.  But when companies look to their core missions, it is their unique combination of people, process, technology, and work environment that makes up the business, with process and work environment highly reliant on corporate learning and corporate culture for success.  And that means people need to remain positive and feel like they are relevant to the execution of strategy.

Empower people with better processes.  Keeping people at the center does not mean that all painful human resource decisions can be eliminated; rather, it means thinking through the implications. 

“People” decisions are often clouded by ineffective systems that have grown rampantly and organically in times of affluence and that force talented individuals to act as coordinators. 

In stark economic times, individual talents need to be unleashed to help navigate change and prepare for the next economic upturn.

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Over the weekend I was watching the Masters Golf Tournament on television with my family, and lo and behold there was my good friend, Dr. Bernard Harris talking about his Summer Science Camps, he sponsors with ExxonMobil.

Dr. Harris, the current Chairman of the Houston Technology Center established the Harris Foundation in 1998 as a non-profit organization based here in Houston whose mission is to invest in community based initiatives to support education, health and wealth. The commercial for the Summer Science Camps can be found at:

http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/news_ad_masters_summerharris30.aspx

You might remember that back in October he also appeared in the Microsoft I'm a PC! campaign.

Dr. Harris, we salute your efforts to educate America’s youth! The only true stimulus for the future of America are the minds of our young people.

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The Rice Business Plan Competition kicks off Thursday morning.  Things are a little different for me as a judge this year.  I will be still sitting in on one of the flights, but will not turn in any scores on the teams.  I am the one who will be tabulating all of the results for each flight during the competition. In order to stay independent, I won’t be live blogging like I have in years past.  Below is the competition schedule:

Thursday, April 16, 2009
 
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm - Team Registration and Lunch
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm - Equipment Check for Teams
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm - Feedback Round for Teams (non-scoring)
5:30 pm – 8:30 pm - Kick-off Reception & Team Showcase, Elevator Pitch Competition, and Texas Bar-B-Q Dinner
 
Friday, April 17, 2009
  
7:30 am – 8:30 am - Breakfast
8:30 am – 9:00 am - Welcome and Review Judge Instructions
9:00 am – 3:00 pm - Semi-Final Round Competition (lunch provided)
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm - Teams receive feedback from Judges
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm - Finalists’ Reception and Announcements
 
 
Saturday, April 18, 2009
  
8:00 am – 9:00 am - Breakfast
9:00 am – 11:00 am - Wildcard & Challenge Round Competitions
11:00 am – Noon - Lunch
Noon – 4:00 pm - Final Round Competition
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm - Cocktail Reception and Company Showcase
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm - Awards Banquet

Good luck to all the teams competing!

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

Reading Microsoft’s position on balance its noted that turmoil in markets shakes confidence, diminishes the value of the financial assets, and creates uncertainty for business, consumers, and governments. 

History, however, informs us that shifts in the economic landscape also off unique opportunities for those who are able to look past the near-term difficulties and seek out opportunities. 

Organizations can choose to retrench, or they can choose to prepare for success and leadership roles.  If they take the latter approach, returns from hard-fought cost-reduction battles can be turned into infrastructure improvements and fundamental changes in market presence or positioning to fill new niches or those surrendered by competitors.

Seeing opportunity in times of turmoil reframes challenges in a way that projects the lessons of history onto the future.  Suggesting that organizations seize new opportunities during economic strife does not minimize the significant difficulties that they will encounter.  Although picturing the future is difficult, turbulent times call for balance against new factors. 

Organizations that can balance near-term concerns with forward-looking expectations will be better poised to succeed as markets calm; those that retreat risk becoming an anachronism while the world reinvents itself.

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Everything in gelling for the upcoming Celebrate!Enterprise events.  You may recall back in February I blogged about the call for nominations.  Well, the finalists for the Best CFOs of the Year have now been announced.  They are:

• Emerging Private Company CFO (2008 revenue of less than $75 million):
  • John Biedermann, Entelligence LLC
  • Donna Charleson, The Right Step
  • Roy Johnson, Rig-Up Services Inc.
  • Kimberly Macias, ADC Rig Services Inc.
  • Stephen Odom, SolArc
  • Jesse Perez, Geotrace Technologies Inc.
• Mid-Cap Private Company CFO (2008 revenue $76 million to $700 million):
  • Al Gallo, Redstone Hospitality
  • Luke Saban, Falcon Gas Storage Co. Inc.
  • Harvey Schnitzer, EMS Group LLC
  • Dennis Turnipseed, Total Safety US Inc.
  • Trenton Thornock, US Zinc Corp.
• Large Private Company CFO (2008 revenue of more than $701 million):
  • Carl Lenz, Texas Pipe & Supply Co.
• Emerging Public Company CFO (2008 revenue of less than $150 million):
  • David Hollaway, Prosperity Bancshares Inc.
  • Michele Merz, Decision Strategies U.S.A.
• Large Public Company CFO (2008 revenue more than $801 million):
  •  Randy Meyer, Amegy Bank of Texas
  • John Rickel, Group 1 Automotive Inc.
  • Michael Taff, McDermott International Inc.
• Large Nonprofit CFO (2008 total gross receipts of more than $5 million):
  • Patrick Calelly, Collaborative for Children
  • Denise Castillo-Rhodes, Texas Medical Center Corp.
  • Patricia Chandler, Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services Inc.
  • Ray Chung, Neighborhood Centers Inc.
  • Melissa Fisher, Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center
  • Beth Tanner, Houston Food Bank Inc.
• Best Growth Manager:
  • James Kauderer Jr., OTC Global Holdings LP
  • Margaret “Meg” Lassarat, Mustang Engineering Inc.
• Good Samaritan: 
  • Patricia Chandler, Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services Inc.
  • Margaret “Meg” Lassarat, Mustang Engineering Inc.

Congratulations to all of the finalists! 

I’m pleased to announce that noted economist, James K. Galbraith will be the keynote speaker at the luncheon.  I’m looking forward to hearing his thoughts about the current economic situation.

To purchase tickets for the Best CFOs of the Year luncheon or any of the other Celebrate!Enterprise events, click here.

Also, be sure to check out the Celebrate!Enterprise promotional video below.  It’s about a minute long and gives a taste of what’s to come during the four days of events.

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Big news on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV front, NAV 2009 has now been launched!

 The release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 gives new meaning to the term “personal productivity.” Based on rigorous research into the way people really work, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 delivers a breakthrough user experience with RoleTailored home pages—called Role Centers—that make it easy for people to view their work priorities and access the information and tasks they need for their specific job, not just anyone’s job. The result? An innovative solution that frees employees and business leaders to direct their talents and skills towards business success.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 was designed for people in job roles ranging from the president, to the sales manager, to the warehouse worker. When Microsoft says the design reflects the way people really work, they’re speaking about people at all levels of the organization.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, they’ve listened to what customers are saying: “We need technology to help us stay focused on our business and be competitive. But make it simple for us to work with, so that our people want to work with it. Give us solutions that help people work smarter. And don’t stop at innovation as an end point in itself—use innovation so that our business can move forward now and into the future.”

How do the current economic times impact your decision to make an investment in technology?  Should you stay put and make no investments, try to ride it out?

Well some organizations chose to not make capital investments and allow their people to do more with less, but history has shown time and again that is failing prophecy.  Those organizations that move forward and allow their employees to take advantage of technology to get more information faster, and make more informed decisions will be clear winners.  Whether management wants to believe it, employees actually do take notice of whether you allow them to grow, or stay with old, obsolete technology.

Look for opportunities amid the turbulence.  Even during turbulent economic times, opportunities exist.  They are, however, unevenly distributed.  Economic instability does not imply a retreat from technology, but it may require refocusing or relaxing boundaries.  Business Intelligence (BI) and integrated communications technologies can help organizations better understand the world that exists by rapidly revealing changes in customer or market behavior. 

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

The next generation of employees, the Millennials, have a lot to offer our businesses if we take the time to listen.

They are finding seats at the corporate table faster than previous generations and they’re doing it in their own, unique way.  With an entrepreneurial education in their back pockets upon graduation from universities like Rice and Texas A&M, who have dedicated entrepreneurship centers, the Millennials are equipped with that mindset from the get-go.  They are competing in competitions like the Rice Business Plan Competition and they are being recognized by programs like the Aggie 100.

These young professionals are our future, and it behooves us as experienced business owners to take the time to guide and mentor them.  We should also take the time to be mentored BY them.  They have a unique perspective and can bring a fresh voice to your business. Their pulse points can be vital to your efforts when using new technologies to grow your company.

What are you doing to engage your young professionals?  By making the strategic decision to include them in your business conversation, you are building your future.

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The Rice Alliance has announced the 42 teams who will compete for $800,000 in prizes during the 2009 Rice Business Plan Competition, April 16 – 18, 2009.

From a company providing a college sports recruiting web platform, to another company developing a way to deliver pharmaceuticals to the brain using intranasal delivery technology, this year’s field is shaping up to be quite competitive. 

The Rice Business Plan Competition has grown steadily since its inception. They now have a page of success stories on the website. It’s interesting to find out about how the teams have fared from years past. Several of the companies I judged in the preliminary rounds, CertoLabs, Optimal Vision Corporation, SampleSaint, and Secure Surfer (formerly Internet Security Company) have all found success after the competition.

Congratulations to the below teams that will compete! I’m looking forward to hearing about your companies and what your plans are.

                                                                                                              
SOCIAL VENTURE COMPETITION      

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As PKF Texas focuses on the next phase of supporting our clients and the friends of our firm, please allow us to introduce five of the talented Keys to our Future.
 
We would like you to get to know the next generation of team members who are serving you and your business.  They are committed to providing you with the highest level of service as we navigate these unprecedented times of change together.
 
With our eyes on the future of Houston, we are proud to announce our co-sponsorship of the first annual 40 Under 40 awards, recognizing Houston's talented professional individuals.  Make sure to save the date, May 21, 2009, for the 40 Under 40 awards presented in conjunction with the third annual Battle of the Business Bands at Warehouse Live.

Also, this week's PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook® will talk about Listening to our Youth, make sure you tune in to the BusinessMakers Radio Show on Saturday morning at 8:00am!

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