I knew the labor shortage was acute when I started seeing signs out on the street advertising for employees. The University’s parking services as signs in all the parking lots describing “great jobs” for students on campus, retail stores are trying to persuade customers to become workers, and companies are using signs out by the road and on the highways hoping someone driving by will decide it is a good day to apply for a new job. The shortage of qualified job applicants is particularly severe in many professional areas. It has gotten to the point that CEOs are approaching me at events and whispering: “Got any accountants you can send me?”

One approach to managing recruiting — and it is the approach most often used in Utah — is to let the market dictate the hiring process and just roll with the situation. This, however, can be a problem. When the business cycle is down and there is a labor surplus, firms can hire outstanding people, often at a bargain. But what about when business is expanding and there is a labor shortage? The difficulty is growth is impeded by an inability to hire qualified employees, and failure to grow in the good times means the company never grows to its full potential. Sure, some companies grow during when the general economy is in a slowdown, but even this growth tends to be during the transition from start-up to mature company, so at some point every firm needs to be poised to take advantage of the “good times.”

There is another hiring strategy that is based on establishing relationships in the job market, and this strategy yields the very best employees in good and bad times. In one sense it is more expensive because it incurs some costs that market-driven firms do not incur, but it is much more effective because it ensures firms have access to top employees when there are labor shortages and they need to take advantage of growth opportunities. Plus, these firms are not putting clowns in sandwich signs on the sidewalk out front trying to hire right now, which I have to believe is not the image you want to project for your business.

Firms that emphasize relationship building in human resources recruiting have a strong presence on university campuses with two types of programs, internships and campus recruiting. Companies with internship program are incurring costs with the pay for interns and some marginal costs for supervision of the interns, but they are saving an enormous amount by not making bad hires that take months to unwind and by hiring individuals who they know will be immediately productive, which can save months of learning investments in a new professional employee who is likely to make a lot more while they are learning than three interns. Plus, interns can be highly productive individuals who can be let loose on lingering problems that need fresh ideas and creative solutions. Finally, the management effort necessary to run an intern program is an excellent management development opportunity for a young manager who needs experience managing complex projects and running professional teams, i.e., every manager who is working up to higher level responsibilities.

In addition to the “preview” an internship provides, the internship program is a point of interaction with an emerging professional labor pool that is going to be working in Utah for the next 40 years. This group is not very experienced at age 22, but they may be just the people a firm hopes to attract when they are 42 and well established in professional careers. Internship and recruiting programs are an opportunity to establish a human resources brand in the labor market, and for some firms this is also an important opportunity to establish their services brand as well. The professional accounting firms “get it,” understanding presentations on campus to potential interns and as part of their recruiting effort are also an opportunity to tell the firm’s story as a service provider to a group who will need to hiring accounting firms in the future.

The second practice that defines excellent hiring is recruiting on campus. I have had several CEOs tell me, “Recruiting on campus is too much trouble. We just put an ad in the newspaper and your students apply.” Forget all the issues around labor shortages and the fact that newspaper ads do not seem to work right now and consider the possibility that “students apply” might just be the individuals who did not successfully interview with the companies that come to campus, i.e., you are getting the lower tail of the distribution. A president of a large national financial institution with a local office was stunned when I shared this comment with him, so he decided to do some “campus screening” to see how recruiting on campus might work. He told me he did not expect to hire, but he thought I had good points about having a campus presence. He ended up hiring two individuals from the first interview pool and is now on campus every year.

In addition to adopting the simple steps of establishing an internship program and recruiting on campus, firms with excellent hiring practices sustain their programs even when they are not hiring a lot of employees. First, most firms need to hire a few replacements for positions that are vacated by retirements and normal turnover every year, and excellent hiring practices are about getting the very best employees every year. Second, “employer of choice” is an investment worth sustaining, and like all investments, it is best made in advance of when the business needs the resources to grow and prosper. In the scheme of the investments most businesses are making every year, excellent hiring practices are a trivial cost with a high return. They just require a commitment to excellence.

And the answer is, “No, I do not have any accountants.” They all had offers in November to start jobs when they graduate in May. About all I can suggest is a clown with a sandwich sign down on State Street.

Later.

On the wall beside my desk sits a small bronze plaque.  It was a gift, purchased in Italy, from one of my partners.  On it are engraved just four words:  I am still learning. 
What’s unusual about that simple, seemingly mundane, statement is that is was spoken by the renowned Renaissance artist, Michelangelo – in his 87^th year. 

Given the scope of his achievement in painting, sculpture, poetry and architecture, this humility is striking and strongly reminiscent of another quotation attributed to the Greek philosopher Socrates.  He said, “The wise man knows that he knows nothing.”
Beside the Michelangelo quote is taped another gem, this one from the best-selling business book, Leading Quietly.  It’s a three-word motto that I also try to keep top-of-mind.  It reads, “Modesty. Restraint. Tenacity.”  I don’t think Michelangelo would mind that the two sit side by side on the wall.
At one point in my career, I helped create and produce advertising for Major League Baseball.  One spring it was my assignment to write and record a series of radio spots featuring Cal Ripken and his brother Billy, who happened to be his teammate on the Baltimore Orioles.  For those not so passionate about baseball as I am, Cal Ripken, now retired, was a perennial All-Star infielder who broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played in the Major Leagues.  He’s hailed as the modern-day “Iron Horse” for that feat.  He won batting titles.  He won fielding titles.  He was a team captain, an MVP, a hero.  He had every reason to be proud, cocky and aloof.
His brother, on the other hand, was mediocre, as professional baseball players go.  He never earned any of the accolades that his older brother had.  Yet, during our recording session in an announcer’s booth high above the baseball field where their team was about to play a pre-season game, Billy was disruptive and foul-mouthed.  He acted how I imagined a superstar like Cal was more likely to act.  At one frustrating point, Cal, anxious to get back down on the field for more batting practice, looked Billy squarely in the eyes and firmly said, “Billy, it’s time to shut up.”  The session went smoothly after that.
For the most part, all of the seasoned baseball stars with whom I worked over a several-year period were well-mannered, humble and earnest about improving their skills.  They were, to use words from my wall quotations, tenacious about learning, and tempered with modesty. 
How much time do you set aside for learning?   How much money do you set aside for the training and teaching of your employees?  Since when did you know it all?  Since when can you rest on your laurels?  It’s a very competitive world, as you’ve no doubt discovered.  Resting leads to losing. Businesses can fail for any number of reasons, even if their products or services are unique and their leadership is charismatic.  All you can rely on, when all is said and done, is your own set of skills.  And skills at any level of the corporate heirarchy dull quickly without constant sharpening.

One of my neighbors is a successful, self-employed real estate salesman.  He works primarily by himself.  No one else is responsible to train him, teach him or motivate him.  Recognizing that fact, he’s wise enough to take two, self-imposed “feed the fire” trips each year.  He leaves home, kisses his family goodbye, and heads for a rented condo in Park City.  He then focuses for several long days on learning how to improve his performance.  Tapes, books, magazines, videos and fresh air are all part of his curriculum.  He readily admits that those one-man, learning soirees contribute mightily to his annual success.
A well-respected leader by the name of Thomas S. Monson once said, “Can we not appreciate that our very business is life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves?  To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever – this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves.”
And somewhere, Michelangelo is still studying sculpture.

The Intrepid Group regularly conducts media training sessions for clients. We focus on teaching, training and preparing them to present key messages effectively and professionally to the media. There’s usually a large focus on crisis in our training, where we assist them in dealing with the media in high-stress, demanding and often the most critical environments. Training includes an overview of media outlets, a discussion on communication techniques and then delves into message preparation and interview simulations. It’s intense. Our clients hate us during the process; they love us when they put the training to use. 

I’ve been conducting media training sessions for about four years and have never been interviewed on camera – I’ve done plenty of print, radio and phone interviews, but have always stood behind the camera while my clients went on air. I prefer it that way. My expertise comes from my education, from my experience under the auspices of Ari Fleischer while at the White House, from watching countless media interviews, and from conducting these training situations. 

Today I found myself on the other side of media training when a local news producer that I work with regularly called and asked if I would be a source for a story she was working on. The issue was easy and uncontroversial – she simply wanted to talk to me, on camera, about how my family’s financial savings situation. It would be brief – 10 minutes at the most – and she would only be using one or two soundbites from the entire interview. Cake, right? I agreed. 

An hour before the interview I was surprised at how nervous I was. Not because of the interview, but because I was testing my own expertise. I regularly conduct these training sessions where I tell clients exactly what to do when talking to the media and today I found myself in this exact situation. I was nervous because I had such high expectations for myself. I turned to my mentor and boss, Chris Thomas. Chris has been interviewed countless situations and under the toughest circumstances. He has been a spokesperson on national TV such as The Today Show, Good Morning America and CNN, as well as local broadcast news. I couldn’t have had a better expert at my disposal. 

Chris simply revisited the key media training points I’ve given so many times before. Since they’re fresh in my mind, I thought I would share them with you in case you find yourself in front of a news camera in the near future: 

1. What’s your objective? What are you trying to accomplish with this interview? What are you trying to avoid? 

2. What are your key messages? Have two or three prepared, know them well, and keep them short. 

3. Brainstorm possible questions – what could the reporter ask you? How will you respond? How can you tie your key message into each question. 

4. Ask the reporter ahead of time for as much information as possible. Know what the reporter’s objective is so you can help them accomplish their goal for the story, but also figure out how your objective and messages tie in. 

5. Don’t go off the record. EVER. 

6. Practice outloud. 

7. Practice Some More. 

8. Speak in soundbites. The average television quote is 12 seconds or less, so keep your messages short and simple. 

9. Look the reporter in the eyes and talk to them as they’re a friend and an equal, not a stranger or an enemy. 

10. Breathe, have some water, and stay calm. 

The world’s best athletes have coaches or trainers who work with them consistently to improve their technique, learn new skills and maintain their game. It should be the same with media preparation. Just because you had a media training session three years ago (or conducted one last month) doesn’t mean you’ll be ready when called upon by the media for an interview, especially in a crisis situation. The game is constantly changing. We highly recommend our clients continuously refresh their techniques and practice their messaging so when they do get the chance to be on national or cable television, they use that opportunity to their advantage. 

My interview went fine, although I’m sure I’ll hate how I look when the story runs. Such is the life of being a woman. But today I understand better what it’s like to have that bright light in your eyes, a camera and microphone right in your face, and the solid gaze of a producer questioning you and only you. It’s nerve wracking even under the kindest of circumstances. Luckily, I was ready for it. Are you? 

It seems like just about everything is ranked these days. Best dog park, best 10 all night diners, and best sweaty workouts seem to appear weekly in every news outlet. Of course there are also best and worst dressed at the Oscars, what is in and what is out listings, and all manner of ratings of food, song, movies, people, and ice creams that invariably get turned into a ranking by someone. Some rankings matter to those being ranked. Take the BCS in college football, for instance. This matters to the colleges whose post season depends on it. But does it really matter if Indian cuisine is ranked a notch below Thai cuisine by those stopping for gas in Levan?

Higher education used to operate in a world where potential students came to campus, met an advisor, met the professors, took a look at a dorm room, went on a campus tour, and looked at the catalog to see what courses were offered. Potential students weighed programs of study, talked to current students, and looked for a campus that was the right challenge and the right opportunity. There was a sense of prestige associated with each campus, but the rankings were high, good, and they will let me into the program. Mostly, students looked for a “good fit” and an engaging campus experience. The research showed individuals generally matriculated at a campus they had visited, and students were happy with their choices.

It is a totally different world when it comes to applying to college today. First, you can hire a consultant to help you manage the application process. Does this strike anyone who actually went to college as strange? Second, applicants need “a strategy” made up of aspiration schools, target schools, and fallback schools. Looking over the advice on application strategies is strangely reminiscent of the portfolio allocation advice that comes with retirement planning materials. And do not even get me started on the financial planning that needs to accompany the college application process. I hope you started before conception.

There are quality differences across educational institutions, but the differences that matter for students are the programs offered and the range of learning opportunities. But these are not what the rankings measure. Most rankings are devised to sell magazines, who are the great rankings proliferators, and the people doing the rankings have a story to write on deadline, which precludes any type of serious effort to evaluate the actual education offered. So instead of evaluating schools based on actual education offered, the rankings predominantly use “beauty contests” that are little more than asking a bunch of people who do not know the answer what they think. Ask enough people to pretend the results are “significant,” put the data into a statistical meat grinder to produce some variance, and you have yourself a ranking. But of what? And does it matter?

The other twist on this that never ceases to amaze me is when individuals talk about going to a school, taking a job, or pursuing a career based on “prestige.” We talk about these choices as if prestige is something an institution bestows on us. A few years ago I had an epiphany that continues to serve me well: prestige is something an institution gets from me. It is the work I do, my accomplishments, and my dedication that is the institution’s prestige, and I bestow it on the institution every day. The same is true for students who attend any university. “Prestige” is what alumni achieve based on the quality of programs and the educational experience, not something that comes with every sweatshirt sold at the bookstore.

The rankings game is reality for everyone in higher education, and we live with it. But being in the game does not require playing the game. If we focus on providing great programs and an exceptional learning experience, I figure the rankings will take care of themselves. Yes, it is possible to put funding into PR and marketing efforts to affect the rankings, but what does this accomplish in terms of the educational mission of a university? True quality is enduring, it is what matters, and it is what we do in the classroom, not what we put in the brochure.

Picking a college is a major life choice. It is a commitment of a significant chunk of lifetime and a major investment of financial resources. It is a choice that should be informed by an understanding of what the experience is going to be and what the student will learn. It should be about the program and the education, because this is what students take into careers and adult life. I fear for the young person who is picking 12 over 34 for the “prestige” as if the college choice was all about the logo apparel once wears to the gym.

Later.

Right now it’s March and that means my mind is wandering to the important questions of life: Does Florida have the talent to repeat? Can Villanova really go to the Sweet 16? Who will this year’s George Mason be? And since I have been invited to be a part of six different brackets, I’m obviously dedicating a few minutes of today to pondering these questions.
Fortunately, I work at a really cool place. My bosses happen to be huge sports freaks so they encourage us to participate in brackets, and actually have two separate games going on in the office. There’s no cost to enter, but there is a cash prize at the end. Starting Thursday, the conference room will have a game on the flat-screen consistently … until we need the conference room for real work.
The understood March Madness law is that no work gets neglected, no client gets ignored, and no job goes undone. But as long as we’re doing what we need to be doing, why not have a little fun?
The Salt Lake Tribune ran this fact in a recent article: “According to Chicago-based firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., companies stand to lose close to $3.8 billion in worker productivity during the tournament. The firm estimated companies would lose $4.05 for every 13.5 minutes employees viewed games online rather than tending to their duties.”
This could be a compelling argument for business owners to set strict rules about the tournament, but what my bosses understand is that they have employees who care about March Madness and are going to be paying attention to the games whether or not it’s allowed. They don’t want us sneaking around, calling in sick, taking long lunch breaks to watch the game, or constantly checking the Internet for scores. Plus, the bosses care about the games as much as the employees. So they use this common interest as a chance to connect with their employees, and an opportunity to build company morale. We love March around here. And the winner of the bracket REALLY loves March, and our bosses, who provide cash as a reward at the end of the tournament.
Work is just that: work. But I’m impressed with companies that truly recognize that its employees are its most valuable asset. The most important aspect of public relations – and unfortunately, the most overlooked aspect – is INTERNAL relations. You know, relationships with your employees.
I’m not saying you have to make every day a nonstop party. Obviously you’re in business and that means working hard. But encourage your employees to play hard too. Make sure they have lives outside of the office and you are supportive of those lives.
And at least for the next three weeks, let your employees linger a little longer in the break room to watch a close game, or a top seeded team get upset. Because, let’s face it, you know you want to know the score.

I presented to a community group Friday evening on technology/innovation and economic development, and during the Q&A someone asked a question that used to come up frequently but has fallen off the radar in the past couple of years: What are business schools doing about the terrible state of business ethics in America? During the Enron/WorldCom years, this question came up every time I addressed an group, and I suppose it is making a comeback now because of the options back dating scandals that are in the news.

While public interest seems to change with the latest news, I see a lot that gives me confidence in the future of American business in today’s students. First, they care. The students who are in business school today have a much greater sense of social responsibility than any group I have seen in my 30 years in higher education. There is a recognition of the public leadership role of business leaders, and our students are interested in programs that prepare them for community service. Our Board Fellows Program, which places students in internships with local non-profits, was created by students interested in getting more community experience and has 25 students placed this year. Our non-profit consulting group serves 5-8 non-profits in our community every year by providing business consulting designed to make these organizations more effective in the delivery of services, and we are currently working on a social ventures fund that will help develop sustainable non-profit organizations in our community through the provision of one-time investment capital. And the service learning programs at all the universities in the area are experiencing record student participation.

Second, I think we know a lot more about preparing students for the ethical challenges they are going to face in the course of their careers. Early ethics courses focused on the “rules,” but knowing the rules did not really prepare individuals for the conformity pressures and incremental “legal” activities that often lead to unethical practices in the real world of business.

Seventeen years ago, the David Eccles School of Business took on the challenge of preparing students for business leadership by starting their training with a course that challenges each student to translate personal values into a credo of business conduct that will define their business career. I did a short piece for an alumni magazine that details this approach, and I think it remains timely. Take a look.

Business news was seldom carried on the front page in the past. This has changed dramatically in recent years with one corporate scandal after another. The amounts involved are staggering, and the resulting impact on stock markets and pension accounts has made most Americans innocent bystanders.

The impact of these crimes on how business is conducted is wide ranging. Recent federal laws demand a much greater level of business accountability in financial reporting, and appropriately so. The change in attitudes towards business was captured in a recent movie mini review in Entertainment Weekly: “The Perfect Score. A movie about high school students trying to steal SAT answers. So they can go to business school and learn how to steal millions.” (pg 16, February 6, 2004)

As a business educator, it is bewildering to see business education included among the presumed rotten apples. Still, we do not want to dodge questions about ethics and business education, they are valid and challenge our assumptions about the effectiveness of what we are doing to prepare our graduates for business careers.

“Ethics” in Business Schools

My experience teaching in a number of business schools has convinced me most are getting business ethics wrong. I think the elite business schools might be even worse at teaching this subject than others. One recruiter recently characterized a visit to a prestigious Ivy League business school as a “walk in the Land of the Velociraptors.” It was not a compliment. Students can walk out of an ethics class and not see a connection their next class, even when the organizational behavior case is about corporate fraud.

The core problem is business schools tend to teach business ethics as a set of rules, typically the law. Students too often conclude it is okay to walk the boundary of the law as long as the do no stumble into illegal behavior. This is the opposite of what we want our students to learn, because the boundary of ethical behavior is typically crossed well before one gets to the boundary of illegal behavior.

There has to be a better way.

David Eccles School of Business faculty started struggling with the problem of teaching business ethics about fourteen years ago. As we better understood the failure of traditional approaches to preparing people for ethical leadership, we started to understand two issues we needed to address:

1. In cases of illegal behavior, individuals cross the boundary of unethical behavior long before they start engaging in illegal acts. The difficulty is ethical dilemmas are subtle shades of gray, and the boundaries are hard to see. What our students seemed to need was a much better grounding of their business behavior in personal values and “gut instincts.” This approach is not about externally defined rules, it is about understanding core personal values and how they relate to business decisions.
2. The second feature of ethical business dilemmas is they occur in complex social systems with concentrated authority, distributed responsibility, and diffuse accountability. In many instances of illegal activity, hundreds of people are involved, yet no one raises an alarm. It is in understanding the complexities of “being ethical” when one lacks authority that we found personal attributes like courage, skills like effective dissent, and the importance of career preparation matter, leading to the quip, “Six months salary in the bank is the key to integrity.” There is no textbook on courage. We do not have easy answers when it comes to teaching our students how to act with integrity, but we are asking the right questions.

The David Eccles School did something extraordinary twelve years ago, replacing introductory business with Foundations of Business Thought, a course examining personal values and business practice. David Eccles School students begin their business studies with questions about the community responsibilities of business, the moral obligations of leadership, and market economy values. More than 2,000 students a year take the class, and just 60% are business majors.

The Foundations of Business Thought course now enrolls over 2,500 students a year and 50% are pursuing majors other than business. We were ten years ahead of everyone else on this, and we will be here with the same focus year after year because we know this is the right kind of education for every student who will eventually work in large organizations with a concentration of economic, social, and political power. And as I said in the beginning, I am confident because today’s students care.

Later.

I absolutely hated middle school. I was surrounded by beautiful blond girls named Staci and Tiffani and other 80s “i” names. But I was too skinny, wore huge plastic framed glasses, had braces, and didn’t really ever learn how to do make up or hair. I was ugly. And the girls at Herndon Middle School let me know it.

So I anxiously waited to finish middle school so I could get to the stage of life where people don’t write notes about people they don’t really know, don’t push the ugly girls into lockers, and don’t pick on smaller kids. I survived by thinking, if I can only endure school and get to adulthood where people use common sense, and live by the golden rule… Or karma… Or some other philosophy that all adults seemed to understand that made them nicer than teenagers. Yes, adulthood. That would be better.

But here I am, all grown up, and it still feels like middle school. I recently heard a story from a client who had gotten an anonymous e-mail (I’m not making this up, someone actually created a fake e-mail name like somethingyoushouldknow@hotmail.com). In the e-mail, there was a link to a negative web site article about a person this client works with regularly. As he told me about this, my mind wandered back to the time Staci slipped a note into my best friend’s locker telling her that she shouldn’t be friends with me. Staci didn’t sign it, but we knew it was her.

In this situation, my client already knew the fact provided by the anonymous tipster and it had the reverse effect – the client had a good idea of who the sender was and thought it looked pathetic and desperate. But it did get me thinking … where are the adults? I hear all the time that it’s a “dog eat dog” world, but I disagree. Dogs seem more honorable than a lot of business people these days. I think the honest truth is that some of us never grew up and we’ve maintained middle school attitudes.

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly support a competitive marketplace because healthy competition is good for the consumer, and it forces companies to create and offer better products and services. But I’m also an advocate of fair play. Anonymous e-mails? Seriously? Again, where are the adults? What ever happened to “good goes round,” “do unto others,” and qualities such as share, respect, honor? Is adulthood going to be one huge disappointment?

Another notable component of this story is that e-mails are easily tracked. The same way we could tell the note given to my best friend was from Staci by the way she dotted her I’s with hearts, here in 2007 it’s VERY easy to track IP addresses. Who comes out looking worse — the subject of the e-mail or the person who sent it and reverted to juvenile habits, even creating a silly e-mail address?

This story emphasizes that public relations is much broader than media relations alone. Today, anything you say can be used against you. Every memo, every e-mail, every conversation over lunch or in an elevator or behind closed office doors… it’s all public relations. You are defining your own brand by what you tell others and how you treat others. Do you want to be the company or executive who is always verbally attacking and criticizing competition, making enemies with everyone else on the playground? Or shouldn’t you be the company who is involved in the community, has healthy relationships with competition, and uses the industry as a gauge to improve your own product or service offering? The company that people respect.

I think it will be fun to see Staci at our ten-year reunion. I plan on putting on a smile and letting things from the past remain in the past. I’m an adult now. (Besides, I landed a hot husband and will enjoy showing him off … again, I’m a fan of healthy competition!)

A lot of us get so emotionally involved in our jobs that we often don’t step back and look at the big picture. We say negative things about others to help ourselves in the moment, but often end up hurting ourselves in the long run. When we’re tempted to criticize or burn the competition, we need to remember that Salt Lake is a very small market. Word gets around in a small town, and our reputation is our most valuable asset. Unless you’re in the business of making enemies, it’s best to think positively, speak positively and act like adults.

To me, this title essentially sums up everything I want to say in this blog. Yesteday I had a client approach me about possibly helping with online branding efforts, but he was incredibly hesitant because it didn’t deal with newspapers or magazines. I conducted a two minute crash course in PR 101, explaining to him that our agency was equipped to handle any number of projects outside the realm of media relations.

Today on my list of things to do, I am working on developing Web site coby, editing radio ad copy, working on a technical writing project that will be a resource guide for a new software program, and trying to get a client on Oprah. And as of yesterday, I’m working on an online branding project.

Public Relations has endured countless definitions since first being introduced. Here at The Intrepid Group, a huge amount of time is dedicated to media relations (essentially, working to get our clients mentioned in the media in a positive light). But beyond that, we can get involved anytime a company is communicating with a public, whether it’s the media, employees, stakeholders, etc.

If your current public relations strategy is limited to media relations alone, I recommend reevaluating your strategy. PR is MUCH MORE than media relations and your PR person will be thrilled to hear you say it.

I am delighted to see Utah Business announce Jim Sorenson, alumnus of the David Eccles School of Business, as their CEO of the Year. I knew he had been selected and was waiting for the official announcement to comment. Many know Jim’s business accomplishments, and he deserves the recognition based on these alone. But Jim is also active as a supporter of higher education, and higher education for every student in Utah has benefited from his many contributions.

Jim was the founding donor who helped us jump start the University Venture Fund (UVF), surely one of the boldest initiatives in business higher education in this decade. It is easy to see the vision now. Things looked different in 2001 when UVF was a vision staffed with five undergraduate students who did not know how they were going to raise the funds, let alone invest them. Jim immediately caught the vision for a sustainable education program that would provide an extraordinary experience for the students involved, and this is exactly what UVF has become. With $18.3 million in the Fund, our students are partnering with over 40 national venture capital funds, doing some of the best due diligence in Utah, which is what keeps our partners coming back, and achieving extraordinary returns for students and investors. Jim serves on the Board of UVF along with several other community members, and he continues in the role of “holder of the vision.” The success of UVF is a challenge in its own right, and all the Board members, including me, look to Jim as the person who keeps us focused on what the purpose of the fund is: to educate students while making money for our investors.

Jim serves on the advisory board for the Lassonde New Venture Development Center, a program at the University of Utah that brings together science, engineering, and business students to work with university researchers on the commercialization of new technologies. This is tough work, because it is technology looking for markets, and it is not easy to find the right markets and understand how new technologies can create commercial value. This is what business innovation is all about, and very few are good at it. The contributions of an astute businessman like Jim Sorenson are hugely valuable to the student teams associated with the Lassonde Center, both in giving them direction and helping them ask the right questions of the technology and the business.

Given the experience with the Lassonde New Venture Development Center, Jim is partnering with the David Eccles School on a new program that will be announced this spring. This is an exciting development for the University and the Utah business community, but what is most exciting is the innovative concept for providing an educational experience that will benefit students across the universities in the entire state. Jim Sorenson understands the value for business that comes from investing in Utah’s most precious natural resource: our children. Once again, he is providing the risk capital to make a vision of what is possible a reality. We will be announcing this program soon, and I hope to provide details in a future blog.

Jim also serves on the David Eccles School of Business National Advisory Board along with about 60 other friends and alumni. The Board’s focus is providing strategic insight and working to ensure the David Eccles School continues to be one of the world’s best business schools. While the School has a record of achievement and recognition that places it consistently in the ranks of the World’s Best Business Schools as evaluated by publications like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, it takes constant innovation and attention to delivery to sustain this ranking. The School’s National Advisory Board makes sure we keep our edge and keep striving to improve our programs every day.

Jim Sorenson is a MVP for the David Eccles School of Business and for higher education in Utah. He dedicates a great deal of time to serving Utah’s students and has served as a visionary investor in supporting new programs that are establishing Utah as an innovator in higher education. Does this matter? Think about national centers of excellence in higher education, which include Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco Bay Area, LA, and San Diego. Exciting things happening in these economies? The answer is obvious. Jim Sorenson is a MVP in my book because he is investing in Utah’s future, and he understands innovative higher education is the secret to his success and Utah’s success.

I started work on a project for the Podango boys a few weeks ago. Podango, like myself, all work virtually out of home offices. The saved overhead, non-existent commute, and luxury of remaining close to family is twenty first century goodness, yes. But one of the biggest downsides in working from home is when you and the client need a good ole fashion conference room or business office for necessary several-person meetings. In the past, I've mustered up private library rooms or a quiet restaurant, but they've always been far from ideal. Since neither I or Podango have a central office, their team recommended we meet at Noah's in Lindon, Utah. "What's Noah's?" I asked. "It's a multi-purpose rental building with online bookings," they replied. "Cool," I thought, but I had my doubts.

I was wrong. Noah's great and spacious multi-purpose rental building is awesome! It has business rooms, gaming rooms, racket ball courts, basketball court, studio rooms, rec centers, reception rooms, private theatre and even a freakin' ice skating rink. All the business rooms include 50 inch plasmas, mini-bar, bottled water, 20" iMacs, leather sofas, conference table white board, laptop to TV cables, free wireless, and our room even had a pool table to boot. It's a very nice, flexible, and accommodating facility. You book a room (for as little as $18/hour) online or by phone and they send you a passkey with a room number. Granted, our key didn't work right away, so we had to get assistance, but the place is only a couple of weeks old. Kinks are expected, but I see this thing as having tons of potential. Expect to see several more of these facilities in the near future as more and more individuals work from home. Me and Noah's Rental Ark are tight right now.