Work(s) in Progress

7th Annual Business Plan Competition

Three years ago, I was a competitor in the Bard Center Business Plan Competition. The first place winner for my year now teaches two courses in Social Entrepreneurship at the Bard Center. I am now the host of this amazing event. I am amazed at just how quickly things can change, how rapidly dreams can come true.

We are quickly approaching the May 1 deadline to submit a Business Plan. It’s also time to reserve your seats for this fun and exciting event.

Event Facts

The Award: This event will present awards to six aspiring entrepreneurs and their teams. The Bard Center Business Plan Competition seeks to promote the development of high caliber business plans, recognize the most outstanding plans with cash and in-kind awards from area businesses, and encourage the creation of new businesses. The specific objectives of the Business Plan Competition include:

• Encourage the commercialization of promising ideas and the creation of new ventures
• Be a catalyst for economic development and new business growth in Colorado

Cash Awards

• 1st Place $10,000
• 2nd Place $5,000
• 3rd Place $2,500
• 4-6th Place $1,000

Special Cash & In-kind Awards

• Best Bioscience $5,000
• Best Nonprofit $5,000
• In-kind over $80,000

When: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Where: Grand Hyatt-Downtown Denver (1750 Welton Street)

• 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.  Six Finalists Present - 15 minutes followed by 10 minutes of Q & A
• 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.  Luncheon Keynote:  Bradley Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group
• 1:00 - 1:30 p.m.  Awards Ceremony Winner acceptance

Cost:

• Presentations: Free and open to the public
• Luncheon: $50 (PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED - please register by June 5.)

Sponsorship Opportunities:

• Platinum Sponsor $10,000
• Gold Sponsor $ 5,000
• Silver Sponsor $ 3,000
• Table (10 seats) $ 500 (no sponsorship benefits)
• Individual Ticket $ 50 (no sponsorship benefits)
• In-kind $ 5,000 (services available to finalists)

For more information or to reserve your seat contact the Bard Center at (303) 620-4050 or [email protected]

The Bard Center for Entrepreneurship is a privately funded Center of Excellence that supports new business growth in Colorado. Celebrating our 10th year, more than 1900 students have participated in Bard Center programs, and annually over 20 companies are formed and supported by the Bard Center. The Center resides on the third floor of the historic Masonic Building in downtown Denver.

The Richard H. and Pamela S. Bard Center for Entrepreneurship was established in 1996 as a vehicle to foster economic opportunities in the Denver metropolitan area. Richard and Pamela Bard's generous endowment turned their dream into the reality of creating a program that would prepare future entrepreneurs for successful ventures, as well as to promote entrepreneurial spirit in the corporate environment.   

As part of the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver, the Bard Center fosters and promotes new business opportunities by advancing the teaching, study and practice of entrepreneurship and new venture creation.   The Center provides students with education, experience, incubation, funding, networking, and results!

Notes from the back of the classroom

One of the best perks of my job is the ability to sit in on a variety of classes, especially when guest lecturers or students present. As a student I was one of those people who was always early and always in the front row. Now, I generally sneak in and grab a seat in the back just as class is starting. My office is conveniently located about 20 feet from the classroom. Sitting the back helps me to remember that I am a guest and not a participant.

Last week, David Laube, who serves on the advisory board for the Business School and who literally wrote the Text Book for one of my classes (IT Management), gave a lecture in our Business Plans and Seed Financing course. This was one of the few classes I did not take as a student, so it was fun to sit in. Dave spoke on two major topics with the first leading into the second.

Apparently there are four key attributes that are desirable to companies recruiting business school graduates. None of these were surprising but the rank order was somewhat remarkable.

1. Communication and Interpersonal Skills
2. Ability to work well within a Team
3. Personal Ethics and Integrity
4. Analytical and Problem Solving Skills (note: while these may be critical, they are also considered implicit)

The real key here is that communication and presentation skills can make or break your career. Dave told several stories of colleagues whose careers plateaued or crashed and burned due to their inadequate presentation and communication skills. Don't let this be you.

While I'm not going to reiterate his specific presentation advice here (come take his class!), I will share a model he uses to think about communication and presentation. He shared a theory on social styles that I had not seen before. It's similar to Myers Briggs and Insights, both of which I've written about before. Apparently all of us develop a preferred style in adolescence. This is innate and cannot be changed. These four types (Analytical, Driver, Amiable, and Expressive) are equally prevalent in the population, with about 25% of us in each quadrant. If you're interested, Dave is a Driver. He leads, and when frustrated becomes autocratic. Most of the scientists I've interacted with are analytical, with a tendency to avoid interaction if pressured.

Interestingly, none of these social styles are correlated to business success.

The important skill is one's ability to be versatile and utilize other styles when needed. If your boss is a Driver, you must start with the summary; get to the point first. Let her ask for facts and data if she wants it. Most importantly, let that person lead your presentation. If your boss is an analytic, you must have FACTS and DATA to back up your presentation.  The ability to be versatile and adapt your style depending on your audience is strongly correlated with career success.

Final bit of advice from Dave, tailor your presentation to the most important person in the room. You might need to do your homework to learn his or her preferred communication style but your success will be worth the effort.

Lost and Found

Something that I thought was lost has now been found.

I can finally write about it as it is now official.

On January 1, I begin a new professional journey. My escape the rut post was entirely  auto-biographical. Those were the steps I took to leave the well trodden path that was laid before me. I am so very excited (and utterly terrified).

Pondering Oprah

I've been thinking a lot about Oprah Winfrey over the last few weeks. I've never seen her TV show but know that it is popular. She  routinely makes the top 50 lists of the most powerful women in the world hosted by Forbes or Fortune. I am always interested in how people in such positions decide to use their power.

Oprah made headlines last month for some alleged abuses by a head mistress at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls she opened in South Africa in January of 2007 (wikipedia link).

Back in July of 2006, I shared my dream of boarding schools, such as that built by Oprah, being safe havens for any who need them. This idea, for me, started back at least a year prior in an international entrepreneurship class where we were asked to come up with international franchise opportunities. I presented a scaled down version of a non-profit boarding school that grew during my visionary leadership class as described here.

My thought on hearing about the scandals at Oprah's school was not "oh the horror" but "oh my gosh she built my dream!" Oprah started this dream back in 2000 after a meeting with Nelson Mandela. She almost gave up when people could not see her vision for this school. She built a magnificent learning center for young women in South Africa. The mission of her school is simple.

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls - South Africa supports the development of a new generation of women leaders who, by virtue of their education and leadership, will lead the charge to positively transform themselves, their communities and the larger world around them. To accomplish this goal, the Academy provides a rigorous and supportive educational environment for academically talented girls who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The Academy strives to equip its learners with the intellectual and social skills necessary to assume positions of leadership in South African society and beyond.

I can already envision the impact these young women will have on the future of our world.

You can learn a lot about a person by observing how they react in a crisis. When Oprah learned of the alleged abuses at her school, she literally dropped everything and went to South Africa. The headmistress accused of the assaults was fired. Oprah apologized to the students and their families. Each student was provided a cell phone and Oprah's direct number. The girls were told to call her with any problems or concerns. It is so uncommon these days to see leaders taking responsibility. Oprah completely owned this problem, claimed it, and empowered all in her care, even if really they are only in her care in name only, to contact her directly.

I think that all of our educational leaders could learn from Oprah's response to this crisis. The next time you see a bomb threat or shooting on a college or high school campus, could you imagine the principal or president responding in this way? You might think that these people could not possibly have the time to answer so many phone calls, to personally talk to each person who is concerned or affected. I used to think so myself. But if Oprah has time to do this, how could they not? In the face of this extraordinary example, how can any of our educational leaders do less.

When did I become we instead of me?

As I am putting together the materials I need to apply for my dream job, I realized that sometime in the past year or so I have lost the ability to call successes "mine." When I updated my CV to outline my duties, tasks, responsibilities and achievements, I  realized that I do nothing alone. Indeed, I had a friend and colleague look it over and he reworded many of the items to make the achievements sound more singular. Yes this makes for a stronger document and is how people in my position word things but I did none of them alone. None of these were my independent accomplishments. Even this application will be reviewed and revised based on the comments of people I respect and trust.

I was not always this way. For as long as I can remember, I preferred to do things by myself. Me. Alone. One of the hardest challenges I faced in business school was all of the forced team projects. Initially I was not certain whether I would survive the experience.

As a scientist, I do use the "we" pronoun in writing and talking about work being done in my lab. But like most scientists I know that if time were not an issue I could have done it all alone and the ideas were generally mine alone.  Thus, there is the retention of ownership for the success. They may have done the work but it was my idea. Mine.

For the last two years I have been heavily involved in two distinct group projects. Both stemmed from my going to business school in the first place. One is my involvement with a local biotechnology start-up company, Beacon Biotechnology, which was born from my efforts in a local business plan competition. The second is my role as the interim director of my research institute. In both of these organizations I literally do nothing alone. I may do a large percentage of the task at hand but some aspect will always have contributions from others. For almost all major decisions and tasks I do these days, I invariably start and end with a meeting. At times my life feels like a meeting. And yet, with many of these projects it would be next to impossible for a single individual to do it alone. No one person has all of the needed expertise or time to do everything. And thus the end product is better than any of us could have done alone. Ours.

I spent this morning watching the 7th annual Bard Center business plan competition presentations.  I remembered being one of the contestants two years ago. As a past winner of one of the awards, I often get invited to events like these. I love to go. It's so much fun sitting in the audience seeing these new business ideas be articulated. Today I spent a lot of the time thinking about how the business school experience changed me. The keynote speakers discussed the practicalities of teaching entrepreneurship and innovation. But to me the impact was so much greater: How I think; how I interact with others; how I approach solving problems; and how I consider the group impact and not just my own. Somewhere along the way I became we.

Resisting Change

Dave Cheong, who is writing again after taking break when his  child was born, wrote a wonderful article entitled Embrace Change, Your Life Depends on It. Wow.

There are very few people who naturally adapt to and embrace change. It is in our very nature to resist and fight. To keep the status quo. Change is scary. For those of us who like stability, all changes, even good changes, can be incredibly frightening. I fight this fear every day.

My own organization and I have been in a constant state of change since 2003. Acquisition by a local university. Changes in job expectations and duties. Change of Director. Death of Founder. Layoffs. Planned move to campus. More Layoffs. Search for a new Dean to oversee us all. I think it is fair to say that even those of us who are driving some of these changes feel a bit overwhelmed by the chaos of this process. Thus, Dave's article was incredibly timely. He introduced me to the Satir Change Model (link to an article by Steven M. Smith describing the model that is outstanding).

I found this specific image of the model (also Copyright by Steven M Smith) here.

My own organization is muddled in resistance and chaos (also known as the pit of despair). There are many transforming ideas, but they have yet to take hold to to be integrated. I strongly support all of the changes that have been happening as I can see how they will lead to the new status quo, which will be better, but it is hard to keep that in mind when one struggles with the chaos.

Let me end with a quote from Dave:

To change your life for the better, you have to introduce a Foreign Element, trigger or change agent. Shake things up. Do things differently. Adopt an improved mindset. Be a different person.

Your life depends on it.

potpourri

Late at night when I am too exhausted to sleep I browse vacations on-line. I need one.

My husband learned this week that he passed the Colorado Bar exam. Ho! Ho! Ho! He finished up law school in December and took the exam in February. Since then it's just been waiting. (I hate waiting). While I am thrilled and relieved for him, I am sad to say that his school had an abysmal passage rate. Only 53% of his peers passed the exam. Other schools in our region have a much better (90%) passage rate. So with him having passed the Colorado Bar and the Patent Bar, I am hoping that the job offers will start coming in. So if you know anyone searching for a harding working shiny new attorney who is interested in IP work, please let me know.

We are wrapping up the search for my new boss. Over the past few weeks we interviewed three candidates, each for two days. I am grateful to be on the search committee, to have a voice in this decision. The three candidates we brought in were all at the top of my personal list based on their resumes, vision statements, phone interviews and letters of recommendation from the larger pool of candidates. Each has a very different set of strengths and weaknesses. While I liked some of the candidates more than the others, I'm uncertain as to whether this matters. I think all of the candidates are good and could do the job. I suppose the hard part for me is that I enjoy working with my current boss. Yet this change is coming. In a few short weeks or months someone else will be in that role, but I cannot yet see any of these candidates in that role. I suppose that this is good in a way as I am unlikely to be disappointed by whomever is finally chosen.

The sheer scope of preparing a 50,000 square foot research facility for closure so we can move the labs to campus has been an incredible learning experience. I sit on a variety of regulatory committees at my University (Animal, Biosafety, etc) that help make research safe. However, I was not aware of the myriad rules involved with moving the tools for these things from one place to another, on public roads. Some of these things are regulated internally, by the state, by the feds and in some cases by the city. I have been trying to create a document for the laboratory staff that addresses most of the major issues. Luckily, another university has also been moving laboratories from one campus to another and had many documents which I could modify for our use. One major concept that I've learned over the last month that is critical to building out our new laboratory space correctly is that of the "air plenum". We have certain work spaces that cannot have the air shared with other spaces and need to be negative to the the halls and other rooms. Thus, you can seal off the room, above the ceiling tiles, to enclose the "air plenum" to prevent this contamination. Neat.

Not much I can say on the biotech front. The technology is progressing nicely. Many hours have been spent with investors. Several have asked for our PPM recently which is promising. There are bursts of activity and then it gets quiet for a few days or weeks. We spent Saturday with a potential collaborator/competitor who asked very pointed questions about our technology, our business model and our competition. It reminded me of being in graduate school, the hostile Inquisition challenging the precious hypothesis. It was nice to be mostly an observer and note taker. There is a local man who would like to step in as CEO. He's had a lot of experience in CEO jobs with larger companies taking devices through FDA approval. I think his experience and expertise would be helpful but as with the search for my new boss above, I have very mixed feelings. I like the person we have now with whom I've been working with for the last few years.

I had an odd conversation with a colleague the other day. He said to me "Cathy, you've taught me that sometimes it is the low hanging fruit that tastes the sweetest." It's oddly accurate. I do generally like and value very much what I have and what is available (possible) and yet I am always striving for more, better, shinier.

I have a hard time admitting, even to myself, the things I really want. I applied to attend this HERS institute in Denver in the Fall. DU will be sending two faculty to attend. Although I have an incredibly non-traditional position, I am really hoping to attend.

My Nana (mom's mom) is losing her mind to Alzheimer's disease. She is my last living grandparent. I do not have anything lasting, aside from pictures, for my other grandparents so I started a separate blog about my Nana. My mom has been sending me Nana stories for years. I wished I had saved them all. I have begun to collate them all here. Ultimately I will intersperse more research and development into it, but for now it is a real time look at the ups and downs of living with a person with Alzheimer's each day.

Fitness. Pfft. Pants are tight. I started lifting weights again this past week. Diet is OK in content but not volume. I know what to do I am just not spending enough time doing it. I think for me it all starting falling apart when I stopped tracking every gram of food, every minute of activity. I thought I was getting OCD about it but I think it it is necessary for me. The only thing missing is the time where I will fit it in but it looks like my schedule is only going to stay crazy so I just need to find a way. When I was teaching I kept telling myself, things will ease up when the Quarter is over. But now it's time move a 50,000 sq foot building. When that's done surely something else will spring up in its place. Look for a formal plan soon, although I may track it all on my muscle tank profile. It's pretty boring to read about 5 meals of chicken and asparagus with a workout tossed in. But I need the public math for some odd reason.

Ben's Book

I started reading Ben's blog in the summer of 2004 during my second semester of business school. Brad Feld had spoken at one of my classes and mentioned his own blog. In one of Brad's posts, he mentioned Ben. I've been reading Ben's blog ever since. I find it somewhat humbling to read Ben's blog. For one, he has accomplished more with his very short life than most people I know. He's an articulate writer who reads extensively and thinks very deeply about a variety of topics. It is no surprise that he was asked to write a autobiography of his extraordinary entrepreneurial life even though he is not yet old enough to toast his success with a glass of champagne.

His new book, My Start-Up Life, will be released in May. You can read some early reviews on Ben's blog and learn more on the website dedicated to the book. Way to go Ben!

October Slips By

This month slipped by. Trick-or-Treaters are ringing my doorbell. I have a plastic pumpkin full of candy. It's interesting. Some of the children are so polite and grateful that I let them pick their own candy. They carefully select a single choice piece of candy. Other kids jam their hands deep into the mass of candy and pull out as many pieces as their small hands can hold. Thick or thin, tall or short, there does not appear to be any correlation. Although it's the boys that seem to take the biggest handfuls.

This has been a tumultuous month. October is the time of year that my employer conducts performance evaluations. As the acting head of my administrative unit, this means I have the pleasure of writing or at least reviewing many evaluations. In theory this process does not tie directly to merit raises (we don't do cost of living increases) and yet merit occurs about 2 weeks after the review process. Hmm. I did this last year having been in the position about 2 weeks. This time I've had a full year. While I was more comfortable doing it this year, it was still not easy. One person I review wanted the position I obtained. This person does not speak to me except to remind me how sub-optimal they find me. One person held the position for 20+ years and was my direct supervisor for more than a decade.  Some people I enjoy working with tremendously and others are so unhappy I wish they would move on to someplace, anyplace, else. This process requires my best fledgling diplomacy skills. In many ways I try to treat the process as SWOT analysis: Where is the person strong? Where can they grow? What opportunities might they take in the future? What have they missed that jeopardizes their position? Most of all I try to be fair and remove my personal biases as much as possible. I'm not sure it is possible. For example, in my own lab, I like and respect my head technician both personally and professionally. She literally reads my mind on many work related issues. I trust her fully to ensure that she will keep the lab going strong, even if I am not giving her and the rest of the staff enough of my time. At the same time, I simply like her. I cannot separate these when it comes time to review her performance. I am not sure that I should. But is it unfair if I do not when I review someone I simply like less? The reviews are done but these things I ponder.

I spent a few days in DC reviewing scientific grants for the government. First of all, the Watergate hotel is lovely. At check-in, I was upgraded to a suite. Be sure to request a non-smoking room. All I can say is wow. My accommodations were incredible, not that I had much time in the room to enjoy them. I was able to see my brother and his family one evening. I generally get to see my brother every few trips but have not seen the rest for a few years. They say that you can't pick your family but I am lucky to be related to my brother. He is a funny, smart and interesting person. I always enjoy seeing him. The grant review process was depressing. Given the current federal funding situation, most grants (likely more than 90%) will be denied. I reviewed 9 of the 109 in our group. Given the odds, it is unlikely that any of the grants I reviewed will be funded, even though some were quite interesting and certainly meritorious.

This was also a month of PhD defenses. I am on the thesis committee (these generally have 5 people) for two students. Both were given extensions beyond their normal 7 year deadline. Both defended this month. One was awarded the PhD yesterday.  The fate of the other remains uncertain. Today was the deadline. It was extended again for the thesis to be rewritten. The oral defense has been postponed. This is heart breaking. The overall body of work is solid. The writing was simply incomplete.  The student has two weeks to complete the thesis to the satisfaction of the committee to determine whether the oral defense will occur. I hope the student pulls through. There is no joy in crushing someone's hopes and dreams, especially after 7 years of work.

On the fitness front, running at sea-level is a thing of joy. How swift I am where there is ample oxygen. I am running more than I am lifting. Most runs have been under 5 miles but they have been fun. Holding steady at about 131 lbs. I still need to add more weight lifting to my workout schedule, but for now I am focusing on finding the joy of it. The joy was lost during the marathon training schedule. I do better on a schedule and will be ready to lock into one soon, or at least after the holidays. For now, maintenance and fun are my primary goals. So much of my life is work or work-like, I need the joy of health and fitness more than goal oriented fat loss at the moment.

Beacon Biotechnology was formed last month. I am one of many co-founders. In the hours between those scheduled for my day job, I work on business plans and corporate strategy. There are so many opportunities to seize with deadlines always looming. While my efforts here are not likely to have any immediate personal financial impact, they do create so much hope in me. Our technology and our team has so much potential. There are so many ways for us to succeed. Yes, I know that most start-ups fail, and yet...there is so much potential here. It shines so brightly.

What else? I am addicted to this blog. Start at the beginning. It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. I am simply mesmerized. I read a few housing market related blogs: one local, one DC related and one pertaining generally to lending practices. Both the local housing blog and the lending practice blog had articles on Casey Serin, who has now been featured everywhere from NPR to USA today. I started reading about Casey Serin about 2 days after his blog went live. I watched it go off line for a few days and resurrect like a phoenix.  Perhaps he will be rescued; perhaps he will go to jail for loan fraud. I simply cannot look away. The comments are about as entertaining as the posts.

In my blog travels, I stumbled across a few interesting things. First, did you know that angry/negative people were bad for your brain? This post is simply fascinating. I have noticed that while I used to be a fairly pessimistic person, I have been drawn lately to those people who are full of joy and hope. I find that I am so very tired when surrounded by the pessimistic and angry. Uncomfortable. Yes, I am a realist and yet I would rather surround myself with those that share my joy and hope for the future. Apparently there is a scientific basis for this. Who knew?

In my international entrepreneurship class, we talked extensively about micro-finance opportunities around the world. I stumbled across this new business, Kiva, which connects every day people (who would perhaps normally donate to non-profits) with global entrepreneurs in need of small loans to back their businesses. It's the middle men making money, not the lenders of the money. The business model fascinates me. I liked the concept so much I emailed my professor from last year about it. The actual donors, in theory, break even or at least feel good about helping someone try to start or grow a business. This model is somewhat like Prosper except with prosper the donors can earn a profit. Anyone can be a bank. I realize that some of these ideas may be obvious to those of you reading this but it never occurred to me that I could be a "bank." Sure, I support the non-profits I believe in as I can, but what Kiva and Prosper are doing would never have occurred to me.

Going to Abilene

Back in 1974, Jerry Harvey wrote an article, the Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement, to demonstrate the peril of agreement. Eventually he wrote a book on the same concept. I was exposed to the Abilene Paradox in several of my MBA classes. One of my favorite professors, Dr. Edward O'Connor, even brought in the movie made to demonstrate this problem in a variety of settings.

There have been some things at my work, beneficial to me personally but potentially problematic in the future for the organization, that make me fear we are taking a trip to Abilene. I see the Abilene Paradox as similar to the Hans Christian Andersen story about the Emperor's New Clothes. Fear prevented almost everyone from pointing out what was obvious to them all: the emperor was quite naked.

This situation has caused me days of insomnia. Do I stay quiet or take the risk of bringing the problem to someone's attention? Is this worth losing my job over? Can I face myself in the mirror if I stay quiet? These things gnaw at me. I tend to use my ability to sleep well as a measure of what I need to deal with both personally and professionally. Last night I started drafting my concerns to someone I hope can help. I slept deeply.