Michael Mann, the entrepreneur who bought seo.com for a newly acquired business, operates his entire investment fund after Keiretsu. He says that the purpose of this practice is to allow each small business that he has acquired to have reduced expenses.

According to Google define (I love this, use it all the time) Keiretsu literally means series or related sequence. I really like this principle. It’s synergy at its finest! Why not make the most of your resources and decrease your expenses?

Chinese business also works after a similar principle. Guanxi, a Cantonese word, is a basic force that drives people to have personal social networks of influence (also from Google define). According to Wikipedia Guanxi is “a state of general understanding between two people: ‘he/she is aware of my wants/needs and will take them into account when deciding her/his course of future actions which concern or could concern me’. Sounds like respect, eh?

Karen E. Klein, Keiretsu for small biz?

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2007/sb20070815_210136.htm

“48% of employees would like to fire their boss; 29% would like to have their boss assessed by a psychologist” I referred to this statistic once before. Possibly those bosses who employees would like to fire are more managerial oriented than they should be. A great quote sums it up.

“Leaders don’t inflict pain, they bear it.” — Max Depree, Leadership is an Art

– Max Depree, Leadership is an Art

 

“Leaders must assess capability. This is the risk of leading. A leader must be a judge of people. For leaders choose a person, not a position.” –Max Depree, Leadership is an Art

I have an affinity for leaders. I admire those who have lead me. I am more than willing to follow a good leader. I am interested in learning leadership skills from my admired leaders. Even leaders need role models.

69% of business leaders say it’s important to have a mentor. –Grant Thornton’s View newsletter, December 2005

What defines a leader?

Emotional intelligence is what defines a leader, according to the authors of Primal Leadership. This book lists the ingredients for a successful leader:

– Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee; Primal Leadership

 
 

 

“Leaders owe people … freedom in the sense of enabling our gifts to be exercised. We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity.” – Max Depree, Leadership is an Art

 How to build a team:

 
 

Foster in each member… 

1. The right to be needed, involved

3. The right to a reciprocal relationship in which everyone receives what was agreed to

4. The right to understand the mission, their own personal career, competition, and to feel comfortable in their working environment.

5. The right to affect one’s own destiny

6. The right to be accountable

7. The right to appeal

8. The right to make a commitment- a right to be allowed to do their best.

 
 

Leadership is never handled carelessly- we share it, but we don’t give it away. We need to be able to count on the other person’s special competence. We can see that we can’t go very far without each individual. By ourselves we suffer limitations, but together we can be something wonderful. –Max Dupree, Leadership is an Art

75% of executives say good physical fitness is critical for career success at the executive level. –TheLadders.com, November 2005

 

The winners of the Tech Valley Collegiate competition take home up to $50,000 in cash and prizes. The cash awards are as follows: first place – $5,000, second place – $4,000, and third place – $3,000.

The other prizes for first-place winners include submission to a national business plan competition, including up to $2,000 in travel and meal expenses; one-year membership to the Virtual Incubator Program, which provides select services through the Venture Affiliates of RPI organization;

$5,000 in engineering and design services from the school’s Center for Automation Technologies and Systems, which could be used to develop prototypes, further product design or develop a manufacturing strategy; and up to $20,000 in direct investment capital and $15,000 in services, based on successful completion of milestones after launch of the actual company.

The contest begins with a written business plan of no more than 40 pages, which is due the second week in April. A team of judges, made up of private investors, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurial businesspeople, look at these plans and determine their validity. Within 10 days, they notify the semi-finalist teams that will continue in the competition. These semi-finalists give presentations to the judges during the last week in April. The next day, the finalists are notified and given one more week to prepare their final presentations and elevator pitches, usually the first week in May.

The elevator pitch contest on the day of the finals is separate from the rest of the contest. Only one member of each semi-finalist team is allowed to give a two-minute pitch to the judges. The winner of the elevator pitches takes home an additional $1,000 prize and could be separate from the final first-prize winner.