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Here's an Op-Ed piece from the Boston Business Journal on global commerce. "Think global, act local" is the objective, but sometimes things don't work out as planned... Congratulations to our 18 teams of MBA students who turned in some stellar work on Friday for our Business Planning and Entrepreneurship course. We've spent all weekend reading their Plans and writing comments, and their two competitions begin the first week of December (Elevator Pitch and Finals). Listen to this Radio Entrepreneurs link to learn more.
Cliché or not, he—or she—who has the money...usually gets to make the rules. Except...when things don’t go as planned. Venture Capital, Private Equity, Bank Loans, Credit Card Bootstrapping...as you acquire funding for your business, your obligations go up faster than your cash flow. If you don't keep up your end of the bargain, you won't be getting any sympathy, no matter what the excuse is. Episode #8 (Investing and Cash Flow) is now on-the-air. The full 30-minute episode is here, featuring Don Nelson, Aaron Cai, Ben Littauer and Dan Weller. Click on their names below for the individual interview segments. Continuous business improvement for start-ups, and established ventures: The Language of Business. To facilitate viewing in mainland China, please use the link below: Full Episode #8, non-YouTube version Don Nelson Donald Nelson is a co-founder and Managing Director of Harken Capital. Previously, Don founded NelCap Advisers in 2007, and spent nearly a decade with SV Life Sciences. He initially served as an investment professional and CFO, and was then promoted to Head of Fundraising and Fund Strategy. Don was responsible for raising SV Life Sciences Funds III and IV, which constitute nearly $1.0 billion of the $1.6 billion of private capital under management by SV Life Sciences. His company's web site is here. Aaron Cai Aaron Cai is a seasoned professional with experience in technology and investment research, global value chain development, and process improvement and control. He has worked in Utilities, Electrical/Electronics products, and Investment Management industries and his goal is to combine operations and investment management experiences and his specialties are in Capital Goods, Fundamental Analysis, Global Sourcing, Process Improvement, Program Management; Research, analyze, identify and manage Global, Technological Investment Opportunities, Financial Statement Analysis and Modeling. His LinkedIn profile is here. To facilitate viewing in mainland China, please use the link below: Aaron Cai interview, non-YouTube version Ben Littauer Ben Littauer is an angel investor with expertise in Internet and communications technologies, as well as healthcare IT. Currently an active member of Boston Harbor Angels and Walnut Venture Associates with investments in a wide variety of startups, he sits on the boards of two portfolio companies. He is a mentor for Mass Challenge and The Capital Network, and is on the advisory board at TCN. Mr. Littauer is a judge for Mass Challenge, MITX Innovation Awards, and various academic competitions. Mr. Littauer was Technology Strategist for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he defined the architecture for PatientSite, allowing patients to communicate securely with their healthcare team and view their own medical records. He was a consultant to the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium on healthcare data security projects. His profile is on this link. Dan Weller The Weller family has been in carpeting for three generations. Mike Weller spent many years in Boston, working for Warren Allen, a carpet distributor in New England. Mike's son, Bob Weller decided to carry on the carpeting tradition and in 1954; he started Robert Weller Corporation, a carpet conversion factory located on A Street in South Boston. Bob would purchase carpet remnants from the various carpet mills and convert these remnants into first quality area rugs. To this day, we are one of the last of our breed in the northeast, supplying much of New England with the highest quality area rugs. In 1999 Bob's son Dan joined the company and is now the acting president. The company has enjoyed steady growth in our wholesale division and astonishing growth from our retail division. In 2000, Weller Carpets was faced with a decision - with the continued restructuring of the South Boston Waterfront, Weller Carpets would be forced to relocate. After a long search, we first resettled in Avon, MA, and then finally here in Norwood, MA.. Here's his company's web site. Congrats to full-time MBAs Matthew Person and XiaKai Cheng, evening MBAs Matthew Trainor, Joseph Mooney, and Stephen Cromack and full time MSF student Zhen Wang. They were selected to represent Boston College in February/2014 at Babson's regional VCIC competition. Presenters were Ryan Traeger, Chris Thorpe and John Francis and thank you to judges Don Nelson, Minde Kornfeld, Alan Goldsworthy and John Murphy. A terrific afternoon. Pictures below re-printed with permission. Many thanks to '98 BC alum Don Nelson for getting the Carroll School involved with VCIC, now in our 3rd year of competition. Our students had a kickoff meeting with Don and with me tonight, and have begun preparing in earnest for the local competition this coming Friday. VCIC is the opposite of our Business Plan course, in that the students compete in the role of venture capitalists, negotiating mock Term Sheets with entrepreneurs we invite, and are judged on their knowledge of financial terms, creativity, establishing a rapport, etc. The judges will award two prizes-- the winning team and then a 5-person "dream team" who will represent Boston College in the Regional Competition in February at Babson College (where we'll be competing against five other MBA teams). See pictures below, reprinted with permission. Don't sit on the sidelines if you have a new venture idea! Last night we tried an experiment, which we hope to repeat next month, and we'd love for you to join us.
By the numbers... a) We had 4 entrepreneur presentations, in front of over 25 graduate business and law students, business experts, attorneys, and BC faculty members. We then further divided the audience into 4 groups, and each entrepreneur presented / discussed a second time in a more intimate setting, outlining the two or three specific areas they need help with. b) A few weeks later, each of these groups will be preparing a 2-3 page written Memo for each entrepreneur (which will be previously reviewed by business experts and licensed attorneys). All participants are donating their time, including our students, who are not receiving academic credit. c) All work is completed free-of-charge, the entrepreneurs maintain all IP and commercialization rights, and all of the participants (the entrepreneurs, professionals and students) sign legal waivers outlining these conditions. If you're interested, please contact me using this email address. Photo below is courtesy of Jackie De La Rosa and has been used with permission. Congratulations on some great press for Betsy Nelson, on an idea our BC MBA students are working on in the Business Plan course.
The article link from the Portland Press Herald is here. Enjoy, Greg Congrats to the school here for a great international week. Over 140 students from France, Germany, Poland, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Colombia, Russia and China. Nice mention of BC in second to last paragraph, too (in bold type).
Greg Du 7 au 11 octobre, l'UFR de droit, économie et gestion (DEG) ainsi que l'UFR d'ingénierie, du tourisme, du bâtiment et des services (ITBS) organisent pour la première fois conjointement une semaine internationale "France-Asie". Près de 145 étudiants français, 10 étudiants polonais double diplôme, 5 étudiantes russes double diplôme, 8 Indiens et 11 Indonésiens formeront des groupes multiculturels, mélangeant les nationalités et les composantes de l'université, pour travailler sur le management interculturel, avec un focus particulier cette année sur l’Asie. Finance, marketing, ressources humaines, tourisme... chaque groupe choisira un thème à développer et soutiendra son travail à la fin de la semaine. "Travailler en groupe, même entre Français, peut parfois être difficile, note Catherine Crapsky, enseignante de gestion, responsable de la mention Management International. L’ITBS et DEG ont une approche complémentaire. Les étudiants vont s’enrichir mutuellement." Plusieurs conférences prévues Ils devront également prendre en compte les différences culturelles au sein de leurs groupes de travail. "Les problèmes interculturels peuvent gêner le développement d'une entreprise" poursuit Catherine Crapsky. Ils ne sont pas seulement liés au simple fait de parler une autre langue. La manière de penser, d’agir et d’entretenir des relations peuvent également être source de méconnaissance. "Lors d’une négociation, les différences culturelles peuvent à elles seules compromettre la signature d’un accord" développe Gerold Beyer, enseignant d'allemand et responsable des relations internationales à l'ITBS. Plusieurs professionnels et enseignants gèreront les différents groupes de travail. Parallèlement, plusieurs conférences en anglais, ouvertes à tous sur le management interculturel, seront données par Gregory Stoller, professeur invité du Boston College et par Gerold Beyer. Les étudiants seront ainsi amenés à mieux appréhender le monde dans lequel ils évoluent et les interactions internationales. Les retours sont positifs. "Les années précédentes, les étudiants ont réellement apprécié le dispositif, assure Dominique Peyrat-Guillard, Vice-Doyen de l’UFR DEG, en charge des relations internationales.Ils ont vécu une expérience différente et ont appris à mieux se connaitre." Une découverte mutuelle Durant la semaine, les étudiants indiens et indonésiens vont découvrir la ville d'Angers et ses environs par le biais de plusieurs visites culturelles. Une course d'orientation pour l’ensemble des étudiants est également prévue lundi après-midiafin de renforcer leur esprit d’équipe. Enfin, pour clôturer cette troisième semaine internationale, les prix de la course d’orientation seront remis aux meilleures équipes et un repas de clôture, pour lequel chaque participant étranger et français préparera un plat typique de son pays, sera organisé. Lawyer, Avocat, Anwalt, Abogado, 弁護士、律师,변호사... Love 'em or hate 'em, eventually you're going to need a lawyer, especially in business, or in any language where commerce is done. Continuous business improvement for start-ups, and established ventures: The Language of Business. Episode #7 on Legal Matters is now on-the-air and please click on the names below for their respective TV interviews! Emily Taylor is a corporate associate in the Boston office of Latham & Watkins, and has a broad corporate practice with a focus on Emerging Companies, Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets. Her LinkedIn profile is here. Gene T. Barton, Jr. is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group of Pepper Hamilton LLP, resident in the Boston office. His Super Lawyers entry is here. Christopher Robertson is Co-Chair of the National Whistleblower Team and a member of the Complex Litigation, Securities and Investment Management practice areas in the Boston Office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. His LinkedIn profile is here. Internationally recognized for financial services technology, marketing and e-commerce expertise, Julio Gomez is a trusted advisor to business leaders and was ranked in Time Magazine's "Fifty Most Important People Shaping Technology" and Institutional Investor's "Fifty Most Influential People on Wall Street". Here's his LinkedIn write-up. The full, 30-minute episode is on this link below, and thank you for supporting our show. |
The Language of Business |
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