December 2007 Archives

Companies can only execute strategies through their people. In this introductory segment (download 9 minute iPod compatible video, 50MB), Rich Berens explains how Root Learning helps minimize the canyons that exist between senior leadership, managers, and workers world views as they try to make their companies succeed.

One of Root's central tools in this quest is the learning map. Root interviews senior management and draws a picture of what they hear. They then bring it back to management and use it to start a discussion about what people really mean by the words and phrases they use to describe their company's business situation and strategy. Once senior management comes to agreement, then Root repeats the process with different stake holders. With this method, a consensus can start to emerge among potentially thousands of stakeholders in a very short time of weeks or months.

In future segments, we'll further explore Root's tools sets and methodology.

Judy Ravin, CEO of the Accent Reduction Institute, knew she had to start a business once the requests for her services started pouring in from companies (download 9 minute iPod compatible video, 49MB). However, she also realized that the need was great and that she could only provide limited human resources to fill the gap. So, she set about automating parts of the process. Her first effort was to create software so that students could practice on their own.

Enters Rich Sheridan of Menlo Innovations. Menlo saw the potential for online delivery of Judy's material and made an offer to purchase Judy's company a bit over two years ago and relaunching the concept as the Accent Reduction Institute. Since Judy has moved from almost exclusively onsite training to a solid mix of onsite and online training.

Throughout this transition, Judy has maintained her focus on developing a method that delivers results. Students see a 70 to 80% reduction in the first month. The online modality allows her to service many more students, but the secret to success remains the same.

Wayne Millette, Director of New Beginnings Academy, is troubled by the nature of urban schools (download iPod compatible video, 45MB). Part of this sentiment comes from personal experience when as a teenager he made the transition from his bucolic home in Grenada to Brooklyn, NY. Part of this sentiment comes from his dissertation thesis where his research revealed that, on average, university faculty training school administrators had themselves not stepped inside a school in 13 years.

After completing his Ph.D at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Wayne did a brief sojourn at University of Michigan before taking a position at Olivet College to help start their Master of Arts in Teaching. It was during this period that he began to form the idea to start a charter school. He and a colleague spent their one hour commute to and from Olivet discussing what K12 education meant to communities and planning how they could make more of an impact.

Two years ago, Paul Schutt felt that there were not enough local publications covering small business growth. Small business growth is part of the multiplier effect that accompanies any regional investment and accounts for the lion's share of the growth attributable to that investment. So, Paul teamed up with Brian Boyle and founded Issue Media Group to create a paper of record for growth in the Detroit area. Issue Media now comprises six publications in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.

As Paul explains in this 8 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 44MB), he wants Issue Media Group to be like Fast Company, but for a place. Regular, well-connected business people are the source for the stories, and he counts on word of mouth to build his referral base. In future segments, we'll review the details of Issue Media's production process, how it makes money, and how it enters new markets.

n.b. We wish to thank Pure Visibility for the use of their offices during this interview.

Tom Meloche thinks of himself as off-shoring to Michigan. In this five minute segment (download iPod compatible, 27MB), Tom describes how he tries to use Procuit's Michigan location to advantage while competing in a "Web 2.0" space that has its epicenter in Silicon Valley. The advantage of doing development in Michigan is that it lowers the cost of doing business.

However, there are also disadvantages. The capital markets are not as developed and there is less critical mass for idea flow. Oddly, this too may be an advantage because Michigan companies are required to find a business model early to fund themselves while not imposing an additional burden of cross-cultural communication.

Judy Ravin is an accidental entrepreneur. In this 8 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 40MB), Judy, the CEO of the Accent Reduction Institute, describes what she means by accent reduction and how she got into the accent reduction business. Judy first became aware of the need for accent reduction when, as a junior in college, she landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and could not make herself understood. Her French grammar was perfect, but she could not pronounce the words well enough to effectively communicate.

Fast forward a few years. Judy has earned a Masters in History and is teaching English as a Second Language at Eastern Michigan University where she invents the Ravin Method for rapid accent reduction. She starts to get calls from major local area employers. They're looking for help improving their foreign national employees' pronunciation and also for a way to help their native english speakers better understand different accents. A personal consulting business is born.

In the next segment, we'll learn how the Accent Reduction Institute was brought to life as a wholly owned subsidiary of Menlo Innovations.

In this 6 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 32MB), Tim Daley outlines his plan for building Crime Cog into a business with $150 Million in revenue over the next three years. Much like Dennis Blanchette at Ensure Technologies, he sees four avenues for growth. One is by a direct sales force. The second is by acquisition. Tim estimates that there are over one hundred independent record keeping firms that operate in part of Crime Cog's market. He intends to acquire them and convert their customers to Crime Cog's more comprehensive system.

The third growth avenue is through partnering, and the fourth is through increased tie in with federal programs. All of these avenues for pushing into the market are helping Crime Cog become a de facto standard resulting in strong word of mouth.

In this 6 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 38MB), Al McWilliams describes how Quack Media became the mini media conglomerate it is now and what he would like to do with it in the next twelve months. Up until two years ago, Quack was focused on educational videos. Then, it signed the band Tally Hall two years ago. Six months later it started distributing Found Magazine, adding the final leg to its mix of video, music, and print. The idea is that there will be synergies between the three, e.g., people who like the print publications Quack produces will also like its artists' music.

Al now feels he has the right mix of media. In the next twelve months, he would like to strengthen the current base. He aims to refine his new music distribution model and augment his traditional print distribution model.

In this final two and a half minute segment (download iPod compatible, 13MB), Matt Sharp lays out an agenda for continuing thought leadership at the Michigan Business Review. He wants the publication to part of the solution to Michigan's current economic woes. To this end, the Review is working on a series on Rebranding Michigan that aims to change the rust belt image of the state.

In terms of the business model, Matt targets reader interests. As select, high value readership grows, advertising and other revenue sources take care of themselves.

In her final three and a half minute segment (download iPod compatible, 19MB), Jan Davies McDermott reaffirms hear goal of starting a new chapter of the Women Presidents Organization. Currently she has members coming from as far away as Grand Rapids (3 hour drive) and Cadillac (3 hour drive). Members get to know each other intimately. She would like the meetings to be as easy to access as possible to facilitate the interactions.

In this eight and a half segment (download iPod compatible, 44MB), Wayne Millette describes the steps he had to go through in launching New Beginnings Academy. There were three challenges. First, the school had to become authorized by an authorizing authority in order to undertake any operations as school such as hiring staff. After a period of working with nearby Eastern Michigan University, New Beginnings decided to seek a more expedited process with the market leader, Central Michigan University. New Beginnings was able to get its charter in August of the year it started, barely in time.

Second, New Beginnings faced an eight week period from the third week in August to the third week in October during which they would have to operate without revenue. To fill the gap, they obtained a state start-up grant of sixty-five thousand dollars.

Third, they needed a building. The first building fell through due to difficulties with zoning changes. However, New Beginnings was fortunate to find a church location that could accommodate them for two years. They then moved to their current building in 2001 after completely gutting and renovating it.

In our next segment, we'll discuss why Wayne wanted to start a charter school.

In this six and a half minute segment (download iPod compatible, 35MB), Larry lays out Inovo's significant expansion plans for 2008. First, they want to double in size, both in terms of staff working directly for Inovo and in terms of collaborators. Second, they want to turn their current arrays of tools and methods into online products and services, a theme with many service-oriented companies featured on this site, such as Inner Circle Media, Procuit, and Auto Watch.

Many companies seek an outside perspective to help them with the innovation process, providing the basis for Inovo's growth plans. In some sense, these companies realize that their internal perspectives may be victims of their current success. To truly innovate, they need to see beyond the current businesses and practices that have helped them succeed to date.

In this seven and a half minute segment (download iPod compatible, 39MB), Tom Meloche makes the provocative statement that he needs only five minutes per day to assure mastery of key facts. Procuit's plan is to develop Facebook applications around key books used for training. One of the applications' key features will be to drill learners on the key facts they need to master the domain. It's the number of repetitions over multiple sleep cycles that matter.

Since the applications will be gathering points for communities, Tom expects community input to play a role in determining the facts to be mastered.