The Culture People Want

The culture of an organization is manifested in the way that people behave in that organization. Of course, behavior is prompted by antecedents or activators. Behavior should also result in consequences, hopefully good but sometimes bad.

When leaders think about developing a culture in their organization, they really are trying to position a set of antecedents or activators and consequences to behavior. These are the things that can be affected by the leader. Behavior is the decision of the employee.

So, what can leaders affect and what do employees want and need?

Conducting Teleconferences

We can’t always be in the same parcel of geography with everyone we need in a meeting. Technology has given us tools that allow us to connect cheaply for the spoken part of a meeting.

All too many people have difficulty with telephone conferences. Conducting and participating in one is different than a face-to-face meeting. The following tips and tricks can help:

Macomb Pitch Offering $20,000 in Prizes

Calling all technology entrepreneurs – you won’t want to miss this!

Mac-OU INC is offering $20,000 in cash and in-kind prizes during its “Macomb Pitch: A Competition for Small Businesses.” This is the biggest competition we have held to date, and we couldn’t be more excited to give well-deserving tech startups some cash and resources for growth! Applications are due by October 14, which means about two more weeks to perfect your answers to application questions.

First through third place winnings include:

• First Place: $8,500 (cash); one-year affiliate membership to Mac-OU INC (which includes access to the Business Advisory Services Program; the Executives-in-Residence, currently including Butzel Long, Advicoach of Michigan, BiancoCPA and Jim Ruma, local defense expert; Pitch Prep; assistance with access to capital; and one-on-one business development with Mac-OU INC staff)
• Second Place: $1,500 (cash); one-year lease for a Mac-OU INC cubicle; five hours of consultation with Butzel Long; a two-hour strategic-planning session with Advicoach of Michigan
• Third Place: $500 (cash); one-year lease for a Mac-OU INC cubicle; five hours of consultation with Butzel Long; a two-hour strategic-planning session with Advicoach of Michigan

The Beginning of My Passion for Start-ups and Business Incubation

Small business accounts for approximately 99% of the employers in the United States and represents 98.3% of all employers in Michigan. Given this relevant statistic, it is no wonder that business incubation has increased more than five-fold in our country in the past decade. Incubation provides an entrepreneurial ecosystem in which to support small businesses. If run well, incubators are effective in helping to accelerate the pace of small businesses in our country as well as across the globe.

I have been in business incubation for close to 15 years, which is a fairly long time in this relatively new industry (in 1980 there were only 12 incubators in the United States). When I started in New Hampshire in 1997, there were no incubators in New Hampshire and less than 200 incubators in our country. Today there are over 1,100 incubators in the country and counting. Yes, I was the brunt of many egg & chick jokes.

How did I end up in business incubation? Although my career “hatched” in New Hampshire, my love and passion for small business was “incubated” in New Jersey where I was born and bred. Back when I was in fifth grade, my father made the decision to leave Wall Street to start his own retail business, the Sport Spot, a sporting goods store with a major focus on down-hill skiing. Yes, N.J. had skiing and was only a 4.5 hour drive to some of New England’s finest.