From Greg's Head

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. 

There is a great book called, Houston, It’s Worth It and the title says it all.  Houston is a great place to live and do business.  If you’re considering relocating your business, consider Houston.

We were recently recognized by Forbes as one of the Best Places in the Country for Business and Careers.  They also recently ranked the Houston Technology Center as one of the Top 10 technology incubators changing the world. 

The Greater Houston Partnership has a section of their website dedicated to the business climate and provides resources for businesses looking to incorporate here.  They have also launched the Houston Young Professionals Endeavor or HYPE, which is quickly becoming the go-to destination for all things business related for Houston’s YPs.

The local tax structure makes Houston an attractive low cost center for doing business.  Our diverse business community has the positioning to be your jumping off point into the global marketplace. 

These days so much of the news is focused on the negatives in the economy and in business, it’s good to hear about the bright spots.  Houston is one of those bright spots.  Choose to do business here and you’re making a good choice for the future of your business.

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Well I spent a few days in Denmark and visited Copenhagen and some of the surrounding communities to the north.  I was very impressed with Denmark and the people.  While the weather was hit or miss it was tolerable on the wet/cold days and absolutely wonderful on the sunny and warmer days.  Warmer being defined as mid to high 60s.  I was able to navigate the airport and train situation with some guidance from some locals.  I took the train from the airport to my destination in Vedbeck.  I also took the train on my personal sightseeing trips to central Copenhagen.

I took two tours of the city, one by boat and the other by tour bus and got a quick and effective feel for the city.  Then I embarked upon some of my own sightseeing by walking around the city center.

The people and the food was quite wonderful and I had a very good time and was able to easily navigate around the city on my own. 
One my hosts Henning Lund from Partner Power took me to the famous Kronberg Castle which is situated near the town of Helsingor and was originally built in 1420.  It was quite impressive.
I then spent some time with Henning at the Partner Power offices and got to see firsthand the International Headquarters in Hoersholm.

My final two evenings were spent with Partner Power personnel Pia Quist Monday, and Poul Kjaer (and his lovely wife Pia) Tuesday at dinners respectively.  Pia took me to an Italian Restaurant near the Hoersholm Marina and Poul took me to a traditional Danish Eating House near Microsoft’s HQ in Vedbeck.

The area reminded me of two locations…..The Hamptons on Long Island, and the area around Carmel, California….now all three are some of my favorite places.

I highly recommend Denmark!
 

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I want to let all of the Aggies and friends of Aggies know that the nomination period for the 2010 Aggie 100 closes on May 31, 2010. To submit nominations, visit www.aggie100.com and click on “Nominate.”

To be considered for the Aggie 100 program companies (corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships) must meet the following criteria:

• Company Size and Longevity – The Company must meet both of the following criteria:
     o Have been in business for 5 years or more as of June 30, 2010, and
     o Have had verifiable revenues of $100,000 or more for calendar year 2007.
• Aggie Leadership – The Company must meet one or more of the following three criteria:
     o A Texas A&M University former student or group of former students must have owned 
        50% or more of the company from January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2009, or 
     o A Texas A&M University former student must have served as the Company’s chief
        executive (for example chairman, CEO, president or managing partner) from January
        1, 2007 through December 31, 2009, or
     o A Texas A&M University former student must have founded the company and been 
        active as a member of the most senior management team from January 1, 2007
         through December 31, 2007.
• Company Character – The Company must operate in a manner consistent with the Aggie 
  Code of Honor and in keeping with the values and image of Texas A&M University.

As the accountants for and the sponsors of the Aggie 100, PKF Texas is proud to play a part in the celebration of Aggie entrepreneurship. If you have any questions contact Lenae Huebner at 979-845-4882 or E-mail: lhuebner@mays.tamu.edu.
 

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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. 

It pays to work smarter, not harder. According to a recent study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, organizations that are significantly outperforming their industry peers also happen to utilizing innovation and technology to do things differently.

So when we talk about work, are we are talking about the things we do in our offices, with our co-workers.  Our, has it evolved to something broader and more encompassing that sometimes escapes the reaches of our mind.  Is work now defined to be a broader set of characters, which includes but is not limited to: employees, partners, vendors, contractors, and an increasingly scalable and reliable network of smart devices and interconnected systems, which care little for geographic location, time zone or distance of its participants?

I recently traveled to Turkey and met with several business contacts and customers from around the world and we all agreed that the world is indeed getting smaller.  And in that context, our collective success is tied to our individual successes.  And yet, some of the very leaders of many of our global organizations lack the fundamental understanding that we are in a global, innovative world, moving faster and faster towards one economy.

IBM’s study was conducted over several months and they surveyed more than 275 executives around the world.  They have identified 15 approaches to accomplishing work in a more collaborative, dynamic, and connected fashion.  In the coming weeks we will talk about some parts of this survey.

However, their analysis surfaced several key findings:

• Leading organizations use smarter working practices far more extensively than their lower-performing peers. And they’re doing so to fuel growth, not just drive efficiency.
• Across organizations, the three most pronounced capability gaps blocking greater agility are: process and skill reconfiguration; broader and more embedded collaboration; and integrated, real time information for decision making.
• The most dynamic, collaborative and connected companies have widely adopted specific technologies that make smarter working practices viable.

How do you rate your organization in working smarter?

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I’m in Copenhagen, Denmark for several Partner Power meetings this week.  I’m looking forward to reconnecting and meeting with several of the people I met in Istanbul during the March Partner Power World Conference.   I’ll be blogging about my trip while I’m there, keep an eye out for posts.

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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

In the past, I have drawn some comments from the book, “Conscious Business” written by Fred Kofman.  It’s a book that I highly recommend.  While the ideas are easy to understand, they are not always easy to implement.

Over the next few weeks I will be commenting on some topics from this book.  I hope you find the areas thought provoking and professionally challenging.

Our first topic is “Success beyond success”.  So how do you define success in your business, your personal life? How do you bring alignment between these two key areas?

Kofman challenges us to ask the following questions:

1. What brings authentic happiness?
2. What is my real life purpose?
3. What is true success?

To be conscious means to be awake, mindful. To live consciously means to be open to perceiving the world around us within us, to understand our circumstances, and to decide how to respond to them in ways that honor our needs, values, and goals. 

I was reading some excerpts from others who have read Kofman’s guidance and I found this one to be truly compelling, “Kofman solves the false dilemma of “selling out” to pursue financial success or “dropping out” to have a meaningful life.  Through conscious Business, he provides the principles, the practices and the tools to become a true leader.  At work and in life.

So how do you define success?
 

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“Try not to be a person of success, but a person of value.”  Albert Einstein

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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

So in our last segment on this topic we talked about how our CEO used Aerial Photography and Two Bricks to make a stand and get his people the same page.

Any thoughts?

Well first he organized a meeting in a neutral site and brought the entire organization together.  He laid out his plans, his vision and asked for their cooperation.  He committed to them that if they followed his vision, they would indeed become successful and make their organization one of the best places to work in the cities that they were located in.

After that discussion he worked with setting up some groups of employees, mixing together folks from both organizations and then created a ruse of performing some “treasure hunt” activities.  Eventually they all ended up in the parking lot of the location they were at. 

Afterwards they returned to the auditorium and were stunned to see an aerial photo of them spelling out the Company’s name in the parking lot.  A plane flying overhead took the photo and it was submitted digitally, via electronic email to the CEO. He then presented it via projector on screen.

As they left the meeting he saw that each employee was given two bricks. No explanation, just two bricks.  Later an employee came to him and said that he couldn’t do anything with two bricks. The CEO’s response was, “Exactly!”  Soon, word got around that they were expected to work together and build something with their bricks. 

In both instances the employees found the exercise highly motivational and successful.

Who is this organization you ask? “The Planet and Doug Erwin is the CEO.”
 

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