From Greg's Head

The Houston Business Journal recently ran an article that should come as no surprise to regular blog readers.  The headline was “Houston Named Hot Spot for Tech Jobs.”

As we get closer to the FastTech 50 on November 4th, articles like these serve as a reminder that our tech community is being taken seriously around the country.  No longer are tech start-ups only flocking to Silicon Valley or Austin.  Houston is making its mark and it’s nice to see our tech community finally be getting the recognition it deserves.

With resources like the Houston Technology Center, the Houston Angel Network, the Rice Alliance and the largest medical center in the world at your fingertips, quite frankly, I can’t see any reasons why a company wouldn’t choose Houston. 

If you’re a tech company in Houston, what do you see as the biggest advantage of being located here? What else do you think Houston should be doing to continue building our tech profile in the global economy?
 

Posted In Tecknowledgy Comments Permalink

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.

If you’re not exploring social media options, or are just dipping your toe in the water, now is the time to make the move.  While social media won’t eliminate other forms of communication, it has changed the landscape of where, when and how we are communicating.

Erik Qualman author of the Socialnomics blog and book has created a video called the Social Media Revolution, with facts and figures about the rise of social media that will make you realize the power of communicating via social media networks.  The video can easily be found on YouTube.com or via the Socialnomics website, Socialnomics.net.

How many of you are using social media for personal or professional reasons?  If you’re not, why the hesitation?  Do you know where your employees and customers are online?  If you don’t, you could be missing valuable information.

Posted In PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook® Comments Permalink

Have you heard about Willard Wigan?  He’s a micro-sculptor whose sculptures are so small, they can fit in the eye of a needle or on the head of a pin.  He’s made appearances on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, spoken at the TED Conference and was awarded an MBE by Prince Charles for his contributions to the arts.

He’s going to be the guest speaker at The Parish School Fall luncheon on October 5th, at the Junior League here in Houston.  This is a once in a life time opportunity to hear Wigan speak about how he creates these micro masterpieces. The Parish School offers multi-age, language based developmental curriculum for children 18 months through fifth grade. 

Click here to watch his interview with Conan O’Brien.

Click to watch his TED Conference speech.

The luncheon will also honor Karol Musher for her dedicationto early intervention and service to children with language and learning differences.  For more information about the luncheon, visit http://www.parishschool.org/Fall_Luncheon.html or contact Brittany Lacy at blacy@parishschool.org.
 

Posted In In Our Community Comments Permalink

Great news! Rice University has been named the number five for Graduate Entrepreneurship Programs by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. This year they jumped from 16 to five. That’s 11 spots! I’ve posted their press release below. Congratulations!

Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program Ranked No. 5 in the United States by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine

Jones Graduate School of Business graduate entrepreneurship program moves up 11 spots.

HOUSTON – September 21, 2009 – Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program is ranked No. 5 in the United States by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine (www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges). Within the last two years the program has moved up a total of 17 spots, from No. 22, in 2007, to No. 16, in 2008 and currently No. 5. 

Further, Rice University is the No. 1graduate entrepreneurship program in Texas and again the only Texas graduate entrepreneurship program to make the Top 25 ranking.

 The rankings, released today, review 2300 entrepreneurship programs on key criteria in the areas of curriculum, faculty and student involvement with entrepreneurial activities and extra-curricular support for entrepreneurship, the survey showcases the strengths of our program. 

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is the flagship entrepreneurship center at Rice University and was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.  

The Rice Alliance hosts a number of programs each year:

• Annual venture capital forums in four sectors: Energy and Clean Technology, Information Technology and Web 2.0, Nanotechnology and Sustainability, and Life Sciences
• Facilitating more than 100 programs attended by over 24,000 individuals in last nine years
• Hosting more than 750 companies benefiting from participation and mentoring provided through the Rice Alliance
• Assisting in the launch of more than 235 start-up companies that have raised more than half-a-billion dollars in early-stage funding
• Rice Business Plan Competition – largest and richest competition in the world
  • Over 85 new ventures have been successfully launched after competing at Rice
  • These companies have raised more than $150 million in early-stage funding
• Program funding and sustainability – more than 150 corporations support the Rice Alliance
• Professional and media recognition

“We are extremely pleased and humbled to be recognized by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine as the No. 5 best graduate entrepreneur program. The best entrepreneurship programs in the U.S are represented in this prestigious ranking,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance. “We are committed to helping build successful technology start-up companies through education, guidance and connections. To be acknowledged by this esteemed organization is a confirmation of our work to advance entrepreneurial education and new business ventures.” 

Other academic programs to the Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program contributed to the ranking including a course in social entrepreneurship, a novel initiative to develop education entrepreneurs for K-12 school leadership, and two new concentrations – one in Entrepreneurship and a related concentration in Mastering Innovation and Creativity.    

“Entrepreneurship has become an important area of excellence for our school,” said Bill Glick, dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. “Our mission has been to build a quality curriculum, taught by the best professors and entrepreneurs. We felt adhering to this one principle would ultimately be recognized not only by those familiar with the Jones School but by the larger community involved with entrepreneurship. Today, we are honored to be ranked #5 among graduate programs by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.”

About the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is Rice University's flagship initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship. The Rice Alliance's mission is to provide entrepreneurship education and to support the commercialization of technology innovations and the creation of new companies in the Texas and Houston region. Since its inception in 1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 235 new technology companies, which have raised more than half-a-billion dollars in early stage funding.  Of these, approximately 35 companies have been launched based on technology developed by Rice faculty and researchers and licensed from the Rice Office of Technology Transfer.

Unique among many entrepreneurship centers, the Rice Alliance was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools at Rice University: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

In 2009

• Jones Graduate School of Business and Rice Alliance were named the named No. 5 Graduate Entrepreneurship Program in the United States by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.
• Rice Alliance named top the Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program for technology entrepreneurship in the U.S. by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
• Rice Alliance awarded Houston’s Greatest Economic Development Ally by the Greater Houston Partnership.

In 2008 and 2007

• Rice University was recognized as having one of the top 25 graduate entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneurmagazine (No. 16 in 2008, No. 22 in 2007).

In 2007

• Rice Alliance was recognized as the No. 1 university entrepreneurship center in the U.S. for enterprise creation by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

 About the Jones Graduate School of Business

The Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, one of seven academic units of Rice University, excels in developing principled, innovative thought-leaders in global communities. In 2009, the Financial Times ranked the Rice Full-Time MBA program top 10 globally and the Rice MBA for Executives program 4^th globally in ‘Top Salaries in Finance’, in 2008. The Economist 2008 survey ranked the Rice MBA program the best in Texas and the Southwest.

 The Jones School offers the Full-Time Rice MBA, MBA for Executives, and MBA for Professionals degrees as well as joint MBA degrees in mechanical engineering and medicine. The Jones School also offers a Ph.D. in Management, an undergraduate business minor, and a full schedule of non-credit executive education and customized courses for business and industry. The wooded campus is located in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, and home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other U.S. city except New York.

###

Posted In In Our Community Comments Permalink

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.

As an entrepreneur, where do you look for innovative ideas?  How often do you venture outside your industry to get new ideas?  What are thought leaders from other industries saying that you can apply to your business?

The magazine, The Economist, hosts numerous conferences each year on different topics, bringing in the thought leaders from a variety of industries. 

The TED conference, founded in 1984 has grown to be one of the premier conferences devoted to quote, “ideas worth spreading.”  It’s an invitation only conference, but you can access the conference webcasts via their website, TED.com.

These types of conferences can provide you a cache of ideas that you can apply to your business to take it to the next level.  Right now, innovation is king, and if you don’t stay on top of trends (in and out of your industry), you could get lost in the shuffle.
 

Posted In PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook® Comments Permalink

Received the below information in my inbox this morning about a great event from the Houston Technology Center.
 
101—Introduction to Nanotechnology
Friday, September 18
HTC Conference Center
 
The International Organization of Standards defines Nanotechnology as the application of scientific knowledge to control and use matter at the nanoscale, where size related phenomena and processes may occur.  This short course is designed to take the complex scientific arena that is nanotechnology and make it accessible to the business community and the general public. 
 
You will learn what it means to be ‘nano’ and why scientists say nano is so revolutionary, as well as a brief history of nanotechnology, the current state of nanotechnology research and applications, and where nanotechnology will take us in the next 5 to 50 years. This first of two sessions will concentrate on physical nanotechnology, nanomaterials, and nano in aerospace, energy and electronics.
 
7:30—8:00 a.m.   Networking and light breakfast
 
8:00—11:00 a.m. Course
Intro by: Dr. Wade Adams, Director, Richard E. Smalley Institute
Course by: Dr. Daniel Mittleman, Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University
LANCER Director
 
11:00—Noon - Nanotechnology company presentations
Oxane, Dr. Andrew Barron & SeprOx Corporation, Dr. Robert Shucker

Contact Deena Carstens deena.carstens@houstontech.org for more information
 

Posted In In Our Community Comments Permalink

In case you haven’t been following my blog, one the organizations I endorse is the Rice Alliance for Innovation and Technology.  I have been an active member of the Rice Alliance since its inception in January of 2000.  Today, I also serve on the Advisory Board for the Rice Alliance and my firm is also an active Platinum Sponsor of the Rice Alliance.  Brad Burke and the staff of the Rice Alliance do an outstanding job.  Last week was their kickoff event for the 2009-2010 year and its featured guest was George Foremen, former 2 time Heavyweight Champion and Successful Entrepreneur.

I listened to George being interviewed by another friend of our firm, Russ Capper for his Business Makers radio show.  During this interview I gained some insight in George’s thinking, his experiences and his advice for folks of all ages.  Some takeaways I garnered from my seat were:

As an entrepreneur it’s a good idea to have lots of friends…And friends with money is OK too.

Later George addressed a packed house at the Shell Auditorium in the Jones School.  I was taken by his humility and ability to speak candidly about his background and where he was headed as troubled youth in the mid 1960s.  He talked about how the Job Corps saved his future and got him focused into boxing.  Many young people today only know George as the Foreman Grill CEO, but George was the 1968 Heavyweight Gold Medal Champion of the Mexico City Summer games.  And for those of us who can remember, George saluted the crowd with an American Flag after knocking out the Russian competitor he faced that day.  George recalls that one of the things he is most proud of is that he was called an “American Winner”.

Recalling his time through the boxing times George was successful, broke and then regained his financial freedom along his way.  His story is one of self-accountability and steadfastness.  He looked only to himself to help his family and himself get to where they are today.

As a two time Heavyweight Champion, he called how at 45 years of age, he was forced to get back into boxing to get himself financial secure.  He indicated later in his life that Muhammad Ali and he become good friends, even though Ali took the title from him the first time.

He also recalled the story of how the George Foreman grill came to be and gives his wife all the credit for telling him to get behind the product.  Today it has sold over 110 million units and is the Number 1 selling appliance in the US.

George was accompanied by three of his children this evening.  In his own words his greatest accomplishment is his wife of 25+ years.

George has a new book out called “Knockout Entrepreneur”.  I have read the first few chapters but I am already very impressed with his comments re business success.  As many of my readers know, we are champions of free enterprise and free markets.  We believe in entrepreneurs at PKF Texas I can tell that many of friends and followers will like his book. 

After reading the first few pages of his book, I think George Foreman, a native Houstonian, is also an “American Legend”.  Thanks for a great evening George, we wish you and your family the best.

Posted In In Our Community , Observations Comments Permalink

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.

As we enter the fourth quarter of the year, many businesses have begun their budget process for next year.  Take this opportunity to look at where your money is going.  Many companies tightened their belts in 2009 and aren’t sure if and where to cut for 2010. 

Now is the perfect time to start negotiating with your vendors.  Often businesses sign contracts and don’t look at them for years.  Or, they ignore incremental increases and don’t check for competitive pricing. 

Can you negotiate a lower advertising rate?  What insurance plans are available for your size company?  Is there a way to decrease your printing costs by bidding out a job?  Can your vendor offer a bundled deal if you use multiple products? Ask about new products that might be a better fit for your company. 

By negotiating with your vendors now, hopefully you can free up some cash flow for next year. 
 

Posted In PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook® Comments Permalink

CNNMoney.com ran a story recently from Fortune Magazine’s interview with the founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman.

Something that immediately jumped out at me was that he said, “every individual is now somewhat entrepreneurial.”  I couldn’t agree more.  The rise in nominations for the FastTech 50 and Aggie 100 and the number of nominations for the first year of Houston’s 40 Under 40 is a testament to this.

Hoffman advises entrepreneurs to “be willing to change course.”  He says that too many entrepreneurs tend to think, “I’ve got my idea, I’ll go until I die.”

His path as an entrepreneur mirrors many on the Inc. 500, FastTech 50 and Aggie 100 lists.  I think there’s much to be gained from listening to their stories of success and failure.

One of my favorite interviews on the BusinessMakers Radio Show was one that Russ Capper did with former CEO of Continental Airlines, Gordon Bethune.  Bethune was able to turn Continental around and he talks about how simple changes can make the biggest impact on a business.

Using these interviews that appear in major publications, on the BusinessMakers website and even the Aggie 100 Words of Wisdom gives you a plethora of best practices you can apply to your own business.

Who do you admire as an entrepreneur?  What have they done that you’ve applied to your business?

Posted In Observations Comments Permalink

I’d like you to watch an insightful video, The Social Media Revolution on YouTube from Erik Qualman, author of the Socialnomics blog and book. 

I first learned of this video last week via one of my connections on LinkedIn.  Similar to the popular Did You Know 2.0 video that made the rounds a while back, this video is full of statistics about the rise of social media that will make you realize the power of communicating via social media networks.

If you’re not exploring social media options, or are just dipping your toe in the water, now is the time to make the move.  While social media won’t eliminate other forms of communication it has changed the landscape of where, when and how we are communicating.

The comments on YouTube are very telling about the direction social media is moving, and substantiate the statistics in the video. 

How many of you are using social media for personal or professional reasons?  If you’re not, why the hesitation?  Do you know where your employees and customers are online?  If you don’t, you could be missing valuable information.  How can you apply the information from the video to your business?

Posted In Observations Comments Permalink

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.

Are you getting the financial information you require from your business application?  Have you asked your users how long it takes them to get the financial information so they can make timely and fully informed decisions?  Our research shows that most of the users of business applications take what they can from their databases and then massage the numbers through several extractions to arrive at hopefully an accurate accounting.

How did we get this way?  Weren’t the millions of dollars we invested in such large scale business applications like SAP and Oracle supposed to make life easier?  Well the thought and goal was admirable, but the practicality is that the Power of People contributed to this failed strategy.

Both financial management and information technology management can work together to solve the issue if they collaborate in solving this problem.  The key is not which technology to use, but getting the people to use the technology the way it was intended.  In today’s workforce we generally see two types of workers.  First is the Baby Boom generation that grew up with mainframe computers and business at business.  Second, is the Millennials who grew up with PCs, PDAs and in general have been using technology since birth.

So you have the perfect storm for information breakdown, one group that understand process but goes manual to get its needs answered.  And the other group that doesn’t understand process but get its need through technical sources.

Make sure both groups understand how both process and technology work together and how your business application works the way it was intended.

Posted In PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook® Comments Permalink

Several friends of PKF Texas are participating in a panel for the next Houston Technology Center  Education Seminar Series presentation on September 11th. They will be discussing “Selling Yourself Up in a Down Economy.”

Panel:
Terri Ammerman, President and CEO, The Ammerman Experience
Blair Garrou, Managing Director, DFJ Mercury
Joe Heller, President and CEO, Brooke Staffing super human resources

Discussion Points:
- Develop a "personal story" for you and your company
- Learn what VC's are looking for in you, rather than your business, in order to invest
- Position you and your job to "pay for itself"
- Provide assurances to your employees, customers and partners that you and your company will make it through these tough times

 
7:00 - 7:30 a.m.   Networking and light breakfast
7:30 - 9:00 a.m.   Program

For more information contact Deena Carstens, Director, Marketing & Communications at deena.carstens@houstontech.org.

Posted In In Our Community Comments Permalink