The Flip Book

Right now I am working on a book for High School students to get passionate about themselves, their ideas and the possibilities of an entrepreneurial future.  This is fun but challenging.  I keep thinking of myself at their age. As a mother of two kids, 7 and 11, I know how important it is to tell the story using the right language and emphasis to have it be understood by different age levels or better yet stage levels. The age I hope to reach is the elusive teenager.  Coming into their own this group is not quite a child and not yet an adult (sounding an awful lot like a Britney Spears song just about now).  So I am doing my research.  I met with a focus group of my target market and their teacher.  It was a frightening experience as its not the college crowd I have been around for the past 14 years, its the would be freshmen.

I really loved being that age.  It had a lot of drama and excitement.  We had our own real life soap operas going on.  Crazy weekend parties when various parents went out of town; stress of what college to apply to as we prepared to take our SAT tests, this is just one weekend I can recall.  But squeezed into that teen world of yesteryear, we also did find time to have a part-time job and do volunteer work.  This is not the reality of today's youth and their are not so many opportunities to find work let alone have it encouraged in Croatia.  This leads to an increasing importance of the theme of entrepreneurship.  Being able to push thinking and action to a new level, to go beyond what is currently accepted and see things and manifest things in new ways.

The best hope is for students to come with some kind of passion for some interest/hobby that connects them to the world around them.  From this passion could be the seed that starts them on the journey to building their future instead of waiting for it to happen.  The book we are creating will flip stories that students are familiar with and retell them with an entrepreneurial twist.  Once we have acknowledgement that the book will be published we can reveal more but for now I can just give some real life examples of people turning their passions into businesses.  Once such case is that of Ketra Oberlander, a blind painter who started Art of Possibility Studios http://www.aopstudios.com/index.php which is a cooperative of talented illustrators, graphic designers and artists who also happen to be choosing to emphasize what they can do rather than what they can't. Be inspired.

Food issues - the lunchbox pictorial

What moms pack for lunch in Japan: Custom rice creations in a Bento box

Hello Kitty and her friends make lunch more colorful and fun to share with classmates.

Offers up pretty and healthy edible storytime.

Animae in cold cuts and seaweed form the perfect superhero

fighting for a balanced diet everywhere.

Watched it on BBC's "Japan's Amazing Lunchboxes and had

to spend 30 minutes learning more about it.

Even came across the book

A book by Christopher D. Saylers which is now on my

Wish list!

Can you ever look at food the same way again and not think

about the possibilities?

Entrepreneurship in flight

Its amazing what a little bit of free time can bring.  On my travels to a UNESCO conference in Thessaloniki, I had to go from Zagreb via Frankfurt.  I tried to track the entrepreneurship ideas I came across in the variety of free media sources available to me.  Several inflight magazines, USA Today and the International Herald Tribune supplied me with enough to inspire a mindmap of sorts.  On the fly, and wherever you are their are inspiring ideas that can take you in new directions if you are simply open to them.  

EN ROUTE

Being inspired by beauty and traditions found in Croatia Airlines’ inflight mag

Croatian island hopping recommendations from Award-Winning CBS Producer, Pete Radovich

1. Well Known: Korcula, Hvar, Brac

2. Lesser Known: Lastovo, Rab, Vis

3. Hidden Treasures: Kaprije, Pasman, Zverniac

Every wonder where your salt comes from….well they describe the heritage of salt harvesting around the town of Nin that has been in place since the 6^th century.  The Nin Salt Pans Park produces salt with all natural methods using sun and wind which expose the salt ready for the taking.

Note to self

I have been experimenting with playing music during exams….to calm the savage beast that seem to show up at exam time instead of my average student.  While this raised some eyebrows it was a great classroom management tool and even the initially resistant students asked for the calming tunes to remain on.  Then the USA Today I was given Weintraub (2011) reported that in America, there are more than 5,000 musical therapists in an industry that should experience growth.  The results of music therapy in treating everything from physical problems to mental stress and even aging has been promising. This gave me hope that musical applications for learning also need to researched and could make for interesting pedagogical studies worth pursuing.

New regime and new rules have enterprising individuals filling niches

New found freedom over daily life has citizens of Tripoli flocking to get items they were not previously allowed to consume in places they were not previously permitted to buy.  Now windows can be tinted, decorative jewelry can be worn and an abundance of fruits and vegetables are now available through many channels.  The rule of law is free as well and it will take a while to get crime, violence and traffic in order as well.  Freedom to choose also makes people have to understand the rights and responsibilities that come along side of this new reality.

ON THE GROUND

Thessaloniki tour of shops when out and about

Fine Chocalatier, Papillion Colore, was just opened on the day we arrived.  The shop was jammed with eager buyers and the chocolates were encased in dreamy glass and wood displays befitting fine jewelry.  They tasted just as good and the nut lover in me got a hand packed and hand picked items directly from the owner.  They have been manufacturing and wholesaling their products but chose to launch their own high end retail space to attract the next generation of entrepreneurs, their daughter and the next generation of customers as well.

Kids clothing, independent retailer, Angela.  The owner of the shop gave us conversation, handmade Christmas decorations, angels (ofcourse) and hugs!  The neighborhood and welcoming feel of this authentically decorated shop comforts you with clothing advice that only a real Grandma would know.

Chain excellence, JUMBO.  Upon landing in the airport and waiting for luggage, I ran into a woman just like me…an expat married to a local.  In her case, a Greek and found herself married with children.  I knew she would have the answers to my time constrained search….Where can I buy toys?  Her immediate answer was Jumbo, www.jumbo.gr.  This is one giant space that is beyond toys into the realm of everything at a value oriented price. Sold on the her recommendations, went to store, made purchases in less than an hour.  Got something for everyone on the family Christmas list.

RETURN TRIP

Athens’ innovation trends…as found in Aegean Airlines in Flight Magazine, Blue

Troofoodliberation.com is described as “gastronomy activists, raw-food enthusiasts and sworn vegetarians, this group is trying to emphasize the benefits of healthy eating” (Valatos, 2011).  Their website tagline lists…Fighting Food Crime Since 2009.

The Meet Market is a trendy mix of gently used clothing, art bargains and eco-food wrapped up into festive gathering point for hipsters.  You can find them online at www.themeetmarket.gr and also on their Facebook page where you can join their 4834 friends and counting.

Blogger extraordinaire Costas Voyatzis offers insights into his unique design sense and provides pictorials and commentary on categories ranging from architecture to V.O. W.  The latter which can only be fully appreciated by visiting his site: www.yatzer.com. He offers inspiration to those at a creative roadblock.

References:

Krauss, C. (2011, November 30). Elation and trepidation in Libya's capital. International Herald Tribune, p. 4.

Petricusic, T. (2011, Autumn). Nin's flower of salt. Croatia Inflight Magazine, 96-102.

Valatos, F. (2011, Autumn). Athens: The modern identity of an historic city. Blue Magazine, (38), 142-151.

Weintraub, K. (2011, November 30). Music can heal mind, body soul: The therapy lifts spirits while helping retrain an injured brain. USA Today, p. 10b.

Zlof, K. (2011, Autumn). Passion as a driving force: Interview with Pete Radovich. Croatia Inflight Magazine, 6-11.

Global Entrepreneurship Week at ZSEM and beyond

November 14th through the 20th, celebrates the theme of entrepreneurship around the world.  Students, teachers, practitioners and the general public get some increased exposure of the entrepreneurs past, present and future in impacting our lives.

Every year I have students conduct an interview with an entrepreneur.  These one on one sessions which I encourage to be face to face is one of the easier, straight forward assignments in the array
of tools used to teach the course.  But the exchange is not as impactful as it could be if it happens between 2 people and it is not shared.  I get so much joy out of seeing the dialog exchanges and the wisdom, honesty and reality checks most entrepreneurs provide to the students.  Every year I try to have the post-interview sharing with peers be a little different.  Some years its a poster session, some years its live entrepreneurs like show and tell and this year its all about the video presentations.

As of Monday, the start of GEW there are now over 60 videos posted by students on our event Youtube page and on the Vimeo playlist also created.  The levels of creativity, technical ability and storytelling vary greatly.  But I appreciate the full range of ideas that are behind the creations so its the process not just the product that I will recognize and in teaching terms I must grade.  There are some who planned in advance with a clear vision and were able to execute; there were others who kept it to a clean and simple story and format and resulted in a standout; there were others inspired or intimidated by the technology who pushed themselves out of their comfort zone or retreated to an online template transfer of ppt to video.  There are some who are not satisfied with the work they did either because they are perfectionist or because they started late and don't want to be compared to their peers.  Any way you slice it, entrepreneurs were celebrated and students engaged in some facet of being entrepreneurial themselves in the process.  If we were able to do this in conjunction with a global initiative then that is just the cherry on top.

I also made a submission and I showed them the process...with a simple powerpoint, research I added music, posted and played in front of an audience 4 times, got feedback, retooled and reposted.  I gave them permission to one up the professor and some took that challenge and soared in their own unique vision of the assignment.  There are many more who will need to learn how to take feedback without getting defensive and learn the lifelong lesson "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again".

To learn more about Global Entrepreneurship Week, please visit www.unleashingideas.org
You can check out all the activities registered for each of the 123 countries participating.  

Green Ideas for Recycling Entrepreneurs

It all started with a friend.  My friend Tamiko Franklin came as a guest to one of my Entrepreneurship classes this semester.  She came in last week and the students had to project what kind of entrepreneur she was.  They thought of cliches like Fashion (not a bad association, just predictable as Tamiko is a well dressed professional) and the more against type like Construction company magnate.  In the end, they got a clue that she was considering entering into the recycling business from a career as a Copyright Attorney.  10 teams of 5 to 7 prepared short video presentations on the kind of Recycling Entrepreneur she could be....paper, plastics, tires, aluminum and many garbage to art themes emerged.  The creativity the students mustered was an impressive array but they failed to Google Tamiko and really learn about her and how she might shape her new business.  This was a valuable lesson about ideas versus opportunities.  Ideas can be fun and come easily but to really have the right fit the opportunity has to be right on many levels...a right fit to the entrepreneur, to the context or environment that the enterprise will operate and a right fit to the potential customer markets in a way that will be better than the existing competition.  Thus, the students exhibited much creativity but when they match it with research as they progress through the course learning modules they will discover the value creation elements of the enterprise and the different approaches which can maximize profits of all kinds: people, planet and profit in terms of money as well.

Here is a sampling of research that could be done along the various components to building a business plan for Tamiko Franklin
1. Background - http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/10/23/interview-tamiko-franklin/, http://www.intelektiv.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=20
2. Idea Generation - http://www.which.co.uk/money/bills-and-budgeting/guides/10-ways-to-make-money-by-going-green/green-money-making-ideas/, http://www.springwise.com/eco_sustainability/ourgreendistrict/, http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/businessideas/a/greenbizideas.htm
3. Marketing - http://www.nerc.org/,http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/post-consumer-recycled-goods-recycling-waste-into-stuff.html, http://www.recycleinme.com/
4. Operations - http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/recycle-one-thing1.htm, http://www.ehow.com/how_2019569_start-recycling-business.html
5 Finance - http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/4-ways-to-earn-cash-from-recycling.html, http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/rmd/finance.htm

What other resources could you investigate and where would you put them in her business plan?

Let's Talk about TED

One of my favorite things is introducing new people to the wonders that the TED movement has brought about.  TED...from http://www.ted.com/ - focuses appropriately on spreading the themes of Technology (T), Entertainment (E) and Design (D)but that is only the what.  Its really the HOW that captures the imagination and draws online and face-to-face audiences awaiting new speakers and new ideas.  The formula is simple...present the presentation of your life. 

As a TEDxZagreb alum, I know it is an honor to take the stage with an audience who has high expectations but who is also rooting for you to deliver that message that keeps you up at night thinking.  The imagination and journey allows each speaker to keep a fast pace to punch out key points in less than 20 minutes to save the world.  Its exciting to go back to the site often and see what new topics are being explored.  Some of my favorites have been presented to me from my students like did you ever wonder... how house plants can reduce indoor polution, how we can ship and save by designing and manufacturing items that are stackable and take up less space, how can we make government statistics sing and my alltime favorite, how can we look at people for their abilities and not box them into their disabilities.

This week 15 students in my current course had to check out TED and I ask they share it with the wider group of blog readers by putting their favorite themes by listing the speaker, theme, link and what impressed them the most about this particular idea worth spreading....in the comments below.

Creativity in You, Your Teams and Your Companies

If your image of creativity is one of childish whimsy and unlimited possibilites then you are not far off in my book.  But kids aren't the only ones who can have all the fun.  Adults need to keep this spirit alive and not put up the blinders and barriers that responsibility and the school of hard knocks may put in our creative paths.

Do you know how creative you are?  There is a quick and easy quiz you can take at http://www.mindtools.com/.  The first step in becoming more creative is finding out where you stand right now.  After taking the quiz be brave and give us your score in the comments with some analysis of what makes you more or less creative.  Then try out some of the tools to enhancing your creativity through the simple exercises of word association, random input from this interactive fortune cookie (click on the cookie for your random message), mindmapping or try out some more advanced methods to use in a group found on mindtools or from your own search.  Lego is one company that embraces systematic creatitvity throughout their business culture, listen to members of their staff describe the work environment and think how your companies might get some inspiration for creating innovation space.

Interview with An Entrepreneur

Asking questions is an art form.  It requires critical thinking to engage in an exchange and the interviewer directs and elicits responses from the interviewee.  This process is likened to the yin/yang or Tao of Communication by Vadim Kotelnikov found on 1000ventures.com.  An often used tool, the interview is one of the skills that are essential to learn right.  This can only be done through practice.  Whether on the receiving or giving end of questions, being prepared is essential.  For the ZSEM course I teach, I found early on that there are many online interviews with entrepreneurs that fail to help an outsider understand the basics of what business, where is it located, how does it work, why did it start, when the process started and where is at now.  The template I have created for students is a great starter to help them stay on point and collect information and insights along the lines of background, idea generation, marketing, operations, finance, results and the personal reflection that comes through the entrepreneurial process.  Below in the comment area, I ask my students and blog readers to give me the name of entrepreneur they would like to interview, the business and industry that entrepreneur represents, why they would like to interview them and any link to a pre-existing interview or profile on that person.

Book and Related Business Models

The days of leisurely hanging out in books stores across the US maybe numbered, atleast for those who are fans of Borders.  My favorite location was there in my annual 2009 visit to NYC and gone the next in 2010.  I knew it was a bad sign.  In my inbox this morning, Barnes &Noble was ready to fill the void by declaring its new features.  But the thoughtful, brand loyal customers of Borders forty year run will enjoy the article by Todd Leopold at CNN.  I particurlarly enjoy his description of what a bookstore could be:

 "....there's something about a bookstore. It's a library, a gathering spot, a refuge, a journey. Often it's small, maybe an 800-square-foot storefront jammed into a city street. Or it's idiosyncratic: an old house or converted barn, a rambling lobby or strip-mall space. It may not even be in your neighborhood, but that's where you go."

My challenge to you, students in my SUR(Students who work) class at ZSEM and any other readers who want to join in is to find a book selling business model that is working.  In your comment, please link us to the website or article featuring the book business model and describe it by product, price, place and promotion so it is easier for us to compare and share.

Researching Guidance

Our course Blackboard page has many resources to help students add depth to their business plans through primary and secondary research techniques to garner insight into the customers (market) and the competition (industry).  One of the references used in the course is John Mullins' New Business Roadtest. 

Our clients this semester represent the following industries: Health & Beauty (H&B), Hotel Restaurant Cafe Bare (HORECA), Social Media Consulting (Web2.0), Art Gallery (Creative Community) and Jewelry (Gold Retail, Souvenir).  Its important when researching an industry to get both the macro (world trends) and micro (local competitors, partners, associations) perspective.  I always recommend doing plus searches.  This means simply adding the industry + a key word to a search engine such as Google.  So try your respective industry + association (to result in finding the established industry groups that mandate and track trends) as well as + magazines (which will be a great source of topics facing the industry as whole).  Here is an example:

Social Media Industry + Associations result in some of the following useful resources:
Social Networking and Media Association
Word of Mouth Marketing Association

Social Media Industry + Marketing result in some of the following useful resources:
Social Media Marketing Magazine
Media Post
and how social media is affecting other industries like
QSR (Quick Service Restaurants), as only one example

Social Media + Agencies
Blogger who compiled list of 50 top social media agencies
and ofcourse many individual agencies from around the world
Multinational example
Ignite
KrazyFish

Other words to use as + search key terms are:
+ trends
+ customers
+ best practices
+ competition
+ future
+ news
+ Croatia

Think about what the data you collect says, how to communicate it effectively within your plans like through a table, chart, graph, where it belongs in the business plan and if you need to check through primary research tools if this information is also something the local market relates to.

For primary methods of data collection including observation, data mining, surveys, focus groups or interviews you can refer to:
Entrepreneur Magazine
Know This.com
MarketingProfs

For a overall tutorial on Industry and Marketing Research, this is a comprehensive site.  If you have other suggestions for your colleagues please be sure to leave your comments below.

The Idea Pitch

When pitching an idea to an existing firm, there are many ways to sell the idea.  A few key factors are Flow, Research, Scope and Delivery.  Flow - The introduction should grab the attention of the audience and follow a logical sequence of introduction, body and conclusion.  Research - Ideas should be supported with market and industry research  to clearly establish who is the customer, who is the competition and why this idea will generate value for the firm in light of the customer and competition? Scope - presentation guidelines, in our case the pitch template, or modified slides are used to help the audience connect to the pitch team's vision in the alloted time.  Delivery - the idea should be enhanced with a persuasive, message using confidence and committment to the "winning" idea for the client.  Guy Kawasaki, author of Art of the Start has some wonderful words of wisdom on the subject.

Design - Business - Concepts

Today, the ZSEM Summer School course in Entrepreneurship visited the Sheraton Hotel Zagreb for a tour of their food and beverage operations and a brainstorming session hosted by their General Manager, Ivan Sekulic.  Design, Modern, Croatian as leading words.  Walking later in the neigborhood, I ran into a former student, Borna Matkovic, at Croatian Chamber of Economy Center for Design.  We caught up and it was so inspiring to see what Croatian designers could do to apply their creative ideas to the spaces in the Sheraton.  Have a look at what over 70 designers in their network are inspired by this year in their catalog.  Please post your visions of the hotel restaurants and cafes from your youthful and international perspectives in the comment section with links.

TED - What ideas are worth spreading to you?

Summer school students enrolled in my Entrepreneurship course this month and into next month were shown one of my favorite TED talks "The Opportunity of Adversity" by Aimee Mullins to continue to develop our discussion on ideas vs. opportunities in the context of the entrepreneurial process.  I ask them to use the comments section of this blog entry to share links and briefly explain ideas they find connect what people are good at with something they care about towards solution that create value.

The Burger Business Model Challenge

In class today, we examined how the layers of the burger reflect the type of processes, ingredients and delivery could change the business model of how the burgers are made and sold to different customer groups.  The top ten burger restaurants in the US as rated by a top food magazine you can find through the links provided: Here are 12 different business models delivering America's "Best Burgers".

http://www.dumontburger.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/kingdom-Sports-Bar-Grill/190402510128#!/pages/kingdom-Sports-Bar-Grill/190402510128?sk=info
http://www.palenarestaurant.com/cafe.html
http://www.lunchboxlaboratory.com/
http://www.zunicafe.com/
http://www.pienburger.com/
http://www.rouge98.com/
http://www.holeman-finch.com/
http://www.radiusrestaurant.com/
http://www.rosebudrestaurants.com/rest4.php
http://portofcallnola.com/
http://www.bobcatbite.com/

These are top rated though you may have never heard about them.  They offer a similar product that are valued in their local communities. Through this list you can see the product, price, place and promotional variations within a seemlingly single product category.  Find different types of burger business models by modifying ingredients or elements of the 4 p's to illustrate how diverse something everyone has an assumption about (burgers, in this case) can be drastically different.

Be sure to put a link to your example and explain in the comment area.

Social Enterprise Continuum

My writing partner, Dr. Kyleen Myrah and I wanted to come up with a model that would unite both CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and SE (Social Enterpreneurship).  We work our first paper on it for the 9th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility.  We continued to refine the paper and its on track for acceptance into the Social Responsibility Journal.  In the meantime, we have been testing out the model in the classroom setting and it has proven very successful in getting students to engage in meaningful discussion and plot their own cases of se and csr activity on the tool.  We make it accessible here for students, teachers and researchers and are readying both a research primer and a teaching note to further its application.  If you are visiting this site and want to know more please contact me or leave your comments below.  Here is the model preview:

Cause-related Parenting

Tonight I am taking my daughter to her first concert.  It will be to see Shakira.  This is one of many concerts I have attended but its special because it is the first time I have purchased tickets not because I simply like the artist but more so that I believe that by doing so I am also supporting the artist and her genuine passions for music and the improvement of lives. 

Last month, while teaching in France one of my students chose to profile Shakira and the Barefoot Foundation.  While I am fascinated by stories regarding social innovation, ones that also feature "celebrity" even get me raising my eyebrows first and investigating later.  However, I was pleased to learn that Shakira has been genuinely devoted to the issue of a child's right to an education and its solution since she was 18 years old.  I am glad to share this story with my daughter who knows Shakira mostly from her dance moves and her catchy tunes.  Tonight, I am glad I can share this "first" with my daughter and experience the energy of an artist that appreciates her success and shares it by giving back to her communities in Columbia and around the world.  I just became one of over 35,000 Facebook fans of the Barefoot Foundation.

I would like to thank my student from Rouen Business School, Camila Rincon for educating me on how Shakira inspires her.

Purpose Built Communities

I am spending my Spring Break reading through my literature for my doctoral dissertation.  The problem always lies in the fact that there are great stories behind each of the social entrepreneurs and social enterprises I read about that I am compelled to search further.  Today, this lead me to the Purpose Built Communities Organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

The story originated with a vision of change for a crime riddled, poverty stricken neighborhood called East Lake Village.  Many people just shake their heads in disbelief at the senseless deterioration of our society which makes for saucy headlines, breaking news and stark realities.  But some take charge and put change in motion.  Tom Cousins, a famous Atlanta real estate developer, sports enthusiast and philanthropist weaved a system of support now termed Holistic Community Revitalization which pools local resources across sectors to solve local issues and created a national model that is being scaled to other communities in need.

In a span of about five years (1995 to 2000), the progress from ground breaking idea to the launch of a renewed and sustainable model community became reality.  A historic golf club was the centerpiece to the revitalization and systematic private-public partnerships.  The story is retold in all its dramatic detail in a 12 minute video well worth watching.  This single initiative is now being scaled and applied in other communities through the sharing of knowledge and resources of the Purpose Built Communities organization.

Forced Relationships = Fun

One of the techniques I often use in the classroom is Forced Relationship (Also known as Forced Analogy).  You take two words or pictures and try to come up with creative combinations.  First you can list attributes and categories of each and then start to play around with your imagination of how the two sets of data can be linked.  I find lots of examples in many different forms.  Its now pretty clear to me the endless combinations and when I stumble upon the pairings it always brings me ah ha moments.  The image above illustrates a small news piece I read on one girl who took 3 years to make her prom dress out of duct tape.  A skill she learned in girl scouts and a creation she will wear to her own prom along with her date dressed head to toe in duct tape creations.  This is not a new concept to the brand managers at Duck brand duct tape and they have made it into an annual contest.

Opening new doors with Johan Ronnestam

Johan is on his way to the airport by now but my mind is abuzz with all the new info he transferred to me and a room full of my students and ad people from the region.  The good people at Best Marketing put on another wow conference and the participants will no doubt benefit from the knowledge this approachable and forward thinking curator of information deposited.  I am a fan.

For those of you who were not so lucky, I will pass on a summary and fascinating links that are worth sharing and give some value back to my network...

1. Everything is Social!
2. Transparency is allowing users to compare, verify, reference and choose in short cycles.
3. Traffic without conversion is a missed opportunity.
4. Content, technology and distribution are being democratized.
5. The meaning of Mobile is every expanding making transactions.
6. Create with a customer centric passion to connect sustainably.
7. There are markets at the extremes of low cost and high end, opportunities are a plenty in filling the gap.
8. Keep it clean, simple and user friendly with room for the educated consumer to engage.

These are the take aways that I gleamed from my notes on the conference.  He also supplemented his presentation with meaningful examples and inspired me to mix in some of my own:

Design is nice but content rules over style...Amazon.com, Facebook.com, Youtube.com
The price comparison business model is not just for C2C or B2C but also B2B in categories such as concrete and beyond: Getprice.com.au, Compricer.se, Comparethemeerkat and you can even compare comparison sites.
Brand communication is at its best when its not manufactured but personalized...with a capacity for manageable responses..Forum.hr, Koletiva.hr, SocialKiva.com

Be open to the conversation in the Art of listening, learning and sharing care of Brian Solis.
Youtube sensation Keenan Cahill and who he gets to watch him lipsynch in his room;)

The amazing talent site to find or be found that is Elance.

A few new doors have been opened and I am off to order my ipad and iphone, relaunch my twitter account and start to be a more fierce blogger.  Ronnestam set out to inspire us to keep on learning and all the gifts he gave today will go to great use.  I invite my students in attendance to comment as I am sure Johan would like the feedback and I certainly am interested to see what they took away as it applies to our current course CRM at ZSEM.

Possibility Radar/What is Useless Garbage? Revisited

In 1997, I was teaching Microsoft Word to students in the first generation of RIT's ACMT.  This was post-war Dubrovnik, there was a bit of random garbage on the streets and in unkept yards.  I gave the assignment for students to bring in some "useless garbage" and write a short story of what this item was before.  This was simply to have something worthy of typing up in our word processors.  But this was so much more and the little ideas with big impacts have me recalling this exercise over a decade later.

In Zagreb, nowadays and I suppose in many other parts of the world it is spring cleaning time.  Many residents are identifying items hidden in closets, basements, attics and garages that do not serve their original purpose and are going unfulfilled in their destinies.  Many of these items are finding there way into the trashbins or with the overflow, more accurately near them.  The scavengers of all types have their possiblity radar (coin I think I termed to describe what I intended on spreading when it was my time to speak at TEDxZagreb 2010).  I count myself as one of these hunters.  Currently I am on the look out for chairs. 

My friend Kim Woods has this infectious idea to "pimp" (in the MTV sense of the word) the chairs and give them a second life as functional art.  We hope to create some artistic creations with a few of our friends in the near future.  I ran across this fab site call Green Muze which has lots of brilliant ideas of revisiting found objects and giving them a new purpose.  One chair artistic created this breath taking octopus chair which makes you just appreciate the humble octopus and the humble chair that much more.

Feel free to post about new uses for the generally overlooked items in your trash;)

Offline Action

Its amazing that I have not posted in months.  Shocking really as I am online multiple times a day.  This is due mostly to the fact that February and March have seen some major events transpire for me in the offline world. 

Firstly, I implemented some projects for the non profit where I preside as president this year, the International Womens Club Zagreb.  While it is presumptious to conclude that we are ladies who lunch, we are a pretty diverse group that span countries of origin and generations.  In February we held an event with UNICEF towards their efforts for safer schools with Medvescak Hockey team and also held our cultural event, our Brazilian Carnival Ball which raised awareness and funds for Vise od Stolice (More than a chair).  Then just this week, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day filling the Sheraton Zagreb's grand ballroom with over 150 people of which 90% were women.  The event centered around the theme of valuing women who work and how Croatia can address the issue of harnessing more the female talent in its pool of available resources that are underutilized.  I then launched ZENA100 blog to document women who inspire me and I dedicate it to my daughter, Josie so she envisions the impact she can have on the future, her own, her community and the world at large.

Then there is also the trip I took to participate in my dream conference, Ashoka U. Exchange at Duke University.  After following Ashoka and its efforts to develop social entrepreneurship around the globe since 2005, I certainly felt very validated to be invited to present at the conference with many of my esteemed colleagues from around the world.  It was a meaningful conference in the people I connected with and the creativity workshop I was able to share with highly engaging participants. Many of whom I hope to keep tabs on.

Shout Out to the Modern Renaissance Men and Women

My daughter likes to make up songs.  My son, her younger brother, likes to copy her.  A riff on the popular..."Billionaire" got twisted by her beautiful mind into "I want to be a Genius".  It was both amusing and fascinating for me to witness her wrap her creativity around what she wanted to be when she grows up (she is 10 and managed to incorporate getting a nobel prize into her song).  It seemed to catch my imagination for the better part of today.

I often ask my friends and students and even randomn strangers..."What are you good at?"  This often leads to a discussion not about their professions or career path but rather a hobby they are passionate about.  We all have way more potential than our resume would convey.  This brings up the topic of the genius on more than one level, the polymath.  According to the dictionary, the term orginates from two greek words: poly (much or many) and manthanein (to learn).

Sometimes, those who pursue more than one area of interest are referred to as Renaissance men or women.  This refers to the period of time in European history where diverse interests were encouraged and people were driven to excel across varied fields.  If creativity seeks to contribute to society by aligning new combinations, then we must be able to manifest these new combinations of interests within ourselves over our lifetimes.

Here are a few examples, I share with you and my kids:

Frank Hyman - discusses his close to quarter of century dedication to the polymath path in a recent NYT article simply entitled: "I'm Making a Living From My Hobbies".  The preoccupation with pursuing his avocations has led to personal satisfaction through being a lifestyle entrepreneur.

AskMen.com has their top ten list of modern day, Renaissance men which reads off with such luminaries as
F. Story Musgrave (1.), Murray Gell-Mann (2.), Douglas Hofstadter (3.), Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller (4), Viggo Mortensen (5),  Brian May (6), Eric Lander (7),  Stephen Wolfram (8), James Ephraim Lovelock (9), Noam Chomsky (10.)

It would be nice to be able to have a similar top ten list on Renaissance women but as yet I have not unearthed one. 

There was however. Dr. Perri Klass: mother, doctor, authoress and many blogs, interviews, and even a movement trying to define and align with the meaning of Renaissance as applied to the modern woman.  It will take a bit longer to help my daughter find her inspiration but I will continue to help her find her inner Genius.

Community for Entrepreneurial Women

My dear friend and entrepreneur, Lea, just sent me to this wonderful site http://en.shapewhatstocome.com/ which is a collection of female entrepreneurs and mentors.  At first glance, it is inspiring to have the sort of "girls club" that encourages, inspires, and trains women to be at their best.  In categories of art&media, fashion, music and my personal favorite, social change, this site helps bring out all the positives in expressing our female energy toward full productivity.  Digging a little deeper, I realize it seems to be part of a corporate social responsibility initiative or the very least some very clever crm by Levi's.  Explore for yourself and let me know what value you find in stories and exchanges that catch your eye.

Moderator at Epica Awards

On January 21st, I will be moderating for the Creative Advertising Conference which will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Arts.  This is a great venue and the line up of speakers and presentations will be truly inspiring.  The event features a conference by day and the Epica Awards for Masterpieces of European Advertising.  This is the first time the event will be held in Zagreb.  Volunteer opportunities are available to students and tickets are still available for professionals.  It will be a great networking event for creatives of all types.  There are also surprise fun elements planned so I hope some of my former students and friends in town will join me.  Until then, Happy New Year!