I just landed in Sodom and Gomorrah - at least the weather is nice.

Here are ten quick observations about Las Vegas:

1. “sober” is a swear word here
2. Everybody smokes.
3. My taxi had more advertising on it than ah…humm…well…a Las Vegas taxi.
4. The buffet at the Paris is still there and is as good as ever.
5. The $1.2 billion Wynn Casino is beautiful. This great and spacious building almost looks like it floats without a foundation.
6. People sitting at the slot machines are the most depressed looking people I have ever seen in my whole life.
7. Carrot Top has a show here. That’s proof anyone can make it in show biz.
8. The billboards make me blush
9. A 24 oz bottle of water in my hotel room costs $4. A pancake, bacon and sausage breakfast at the Barbary Coast costs $3.75. 
10. The end is near

At least I can still watch 24 tonight. I can’t wait to go home tomorrow. The more I travel the more I appreciate Utah.

As you know Lumin Publishing and Grow Utah Ventures recently released Launch Magazine - a publication for Utah entrepreneurs. I have the great privilege of sitting on the editorial board for Launch.

Launch now has a new feature called “the dashboard”, which lists Utah deal flow information, new product launches, new companies, etc.  If you know of any information that can be added to Launch please send it to press “at” launchutah dotcom.

Stay tuned for the next issue. Its coming soon. I’ll also have an article on consulting based sales strategies that I look forward to sharing with you in the March issue of Launch.

Founders, especially in startups, are often squeezed by investors and the needs of the company. Those who are active in startups accept this to some degree. The acquiescence to the company needs is considered to be a necessary evil. Having the investors squeeze creates much more tension. While I first posted on this here, it’s worth repeating.From Canadianbusiness.com: Founders need a raise.

To solve the mystery of the underpaid entrepreneur, Wasserman collected data from 1,200 executives at more than 500 U.S. high-tech companies. After controlling for numerous variables such as experience and company size, his findings were stark: founders earn about $30,000 (U.S.) a year less than hired-gun managers doing pretty much the same job. In fact, 51% of founders earn less or the same as their employees.

The good news: the founder discount isn’t forever. It shrinks over time and with the growth of the company. The bad news? Founders’ compensation is inversely related to their control over the organization and their own job satisfaction. As I read it, as a company grows and gets more complicated — with more layers of management, boards of directors, outside investors and stricter management-performance metrics — founders get paid more because their jobs get harder.

But why does the gap exist in the first place? In simple terms, it’s because founders tend to care too much about their own creations. Outside executives have to be paid market rates or more to join a company, and if their compensation doesn’t keep pace with the outside world, they have little incentive to stay. Founders take a longer view. Like Cullen, they often put the company’s financial needs ahead of their own. And their boards of directors don’t worry that founders will bail out, because they know that founders are emotionally committed to the organization.

And there’s this:

Paul Britton, a compensation consultant to businesses big and small, sees this problem again and again. The founding partner of Crossford Consulting in Toronto says there are two stupid reasons why entrepreneurs underpay themselves.

First, he says, some entrepreneurs think they can use their own lousy compensation as a lever when negotiating subordinates’ pay. By pointing to their own pay packages, they think they can convince their employees to accept less, too. The problem, of course, is that your best people have lots of job options and know you have an ownership stake; it’s generally only less valuable employees who will agree to work for below-market pay.

The other reason entrepreneurs underpay themselves is bad budgeting, says Britton. Instead of factoring in an appropriate salary for themselves ahead of time, founders will wait and see how much money the business makes over the year, and draw from that. When he asks groups of entrepreneurs if they have built a rate of return for themselves into their forecasts, Britton says only about one person in 20 will raise their hand.

Last Thursday I gave a presentation to a group of roughly 30 attendees on the topic of search engine optimization. The idea was to show people some easy things they could do to their websites to dramatically improve their rankings, along with some other relevant advice. The content, including the powerpoint, is available on MWI’s new blog.

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment."——unknown

Making mistakes. I'm not sure if there is any other way. Sure, counsel from those with experience can increase knowledge thus mitigating some mistakes, but knowledge and experience (or wisdom) are very different things.

NOTE: I didn't make another big mistake recently, though I'm likely to do so. Just found this quote in an old book of mine.

In this time of increasingly sophisticated personal communications - instant messaging, social media sites, e-mail, cell phones, and now iPhones – it is beyond belief that a young woman recently walked out of the Cambodian jungle, unable to communicate in any intelligible language. If the story checks out, the woman is 27-year old Rochom P’ngien, who disappeared as a child, presumably living for 20 years in some primitive existence, and now returns only able to grunt and point to make her needs known. What a contrast to the back-and-forth instant electronic messaging of her generation miles away in a city or town anywhere on the planet.

A recent blog entry at http://blogs.mediapost.com/media_riffs/?p=337 announced the launch of a cooperative blog with students at Ball State University and MediaPost. Notes From The Digital Frontier http://blogs.mediapost.com/digital_frontier/ will serve as a sounding board for students to express their opinions about the media. It’s no surprise that the first few student postings on the site made it very clear that lap top computers, Facebook, digital cameras, iPhones, iBook (G4) and the like aren’t just desirable playthings – they’re a necessary part of student life.

I think I’ll check in every now and then on The Digital Frontier to see what media college kids prefer using and why. It’s cheaper than focus groups and seems like a great way to keep up with the latest opinions and trends. You might want to do the same, otherwise your PR efforts to reach this audience may seem as primitive as pointing and grunting.

I exchanged about a dozen e-mails with an alumnus today. He contacted me asking for faculty recommendations for a training program in the Bay Area. I recommended several David Eccles School faculty for the various topic areas he sent. About a half hour after I sent the recommendations to him, I had an e-mail telling me I had recommended a faculty member who he had as a student. He went on to share a story about a class experience, how much he had learned that “was not in the textbook,” and how much the class had contributed to his career.

When I replied, “Wow, I bet you also had Professor W,” I got a response back with another anecdote, some appreciative comments, and then questions about other professors. I think you can see where this is going. Many of the faculty he asked about are now retired, but many were here when I joined the School in 1999, and some I know as emeritus faculty and from hearing stories related by alumni. The e-mails went back and forth for several hours. I am not sure we are done.

Over twenty years after completing his business studies, this alumnus could remember the classes where he learned lessons that contributed to his career success. Some lessons were so important he felt a need to share them with me so I will pass them along to our faculty.

What were they? You probably know they were not what was on the final exam in most of the classes, although the technical knowledge he gained surely did matter in his day-to-day proficiency on the job. What mattered were lessons about ethics derived from hearing the professor talk about the complexity in simple decisions, critical judgment derived from case studies, skills developed articulating an analysis in a class presentation, and leadership lessons learned serving as an officer in a student-run association. These lessons were learned in classrooms from professors and other students, working on homework with his study group, in the course of tutoring sessions with career services staff, through alumni mentors, and taking on student leadership opportunities in extracurricular activities.

Business is the most actively contended market in higher education. According to the AACSB, which accredits business schools worldwide, there are 2,000 business schools in the U.S. and more than 8,000 business schools outside the U.S. Many of these programs offer “business made easy” with options that require little engagement. Just read the books, take the tests, which are conveniently offered online, and collect a degree. Degrees are certainly earned, but do these schools offer an education?

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on a study of employer evaluations of “alternative degree formats,” finding employers tend to discount them and generally do not regard them as sufficient preparation for professional positions. Degrees are nice, but when it comes down to hiring decisions, the vast majority of employers want to hire people with an education because successful employees need to know more than how to take a test. In addition, the “extra stuff” that makes up an education, the stuff that the David Eccles School alumnus shared with me today, adds a lot of fun to the process and is life enriching. Students in great programs make friend for life who are future partners and collaborators in business deals.

A great education is transformational. Human beings are learning machines, and a motivated human being is capable of learning in every situation. But a great education transforms people, preparing them for career success, to lead others, and to represent their firm, nonprofit, or agency to the public, legislature, and other firms.

There are educational programs that produce this result consistently and predictably, and they do it year after year. They do it by engaging students in the process of education, by facilitating a learning environment that has lessons “outside the book.” Many of these programs offer different degree formats and scheduling flexibility, so they provide options for working adults. But what they do not compromise is the commitment to providing an education that is transformational.

To spend time and money in a business school and not get a great education is an opportunity lost, because you will never do it again. If you pick the right school and program, you will be writing the dean 20 years later and reflecting how much your education meant to your life and career. I think this is the point of going to school, at least it was for me.

Later.

Over recent years there has been an increasing interest in the study and practice of entrepreneurship.  Where many in the past sought a job with a premier corporation intending to live out their professional life in relative security, today many are opting for the world of the self employed - the world of the entrepreneur.
Colleges and universities which a few years ago didn’t recognize the study of entrepreneurs, today offer dozens of premier university programs delivered across several university campuses - hundreds of classes filled with thousands of students seriously studying entrepreneurship.  This growth is driven by increasing student demand.  At many schools, including several top ranked schools, entrepreneurship is the hottest area with the largest student enrollment.  Students are driven by the personal dream that they too can become a successful business owner.
What is driving this interest is not only the promise of success for the individual entrepreneur, but the recognition by governments and policy leaders of the tremendous contribution small business growth makes to the overall economy.  Contributions include job creation, innovation, product development, economic growth and personal wealth.
Dr. Jeffery Timmons, in his recognized book, New Venture Creation said “Classical entrepreneurship means new venture creation.  But it is much more…It is arguably the single most powerful force to create economic and social mobility.  Because it is opportunity centered and rewards only for talent and performance…and could care less about religion, gender, skin color, social class, national origin, and the like…it enables people to pursue and realize their dreams, to falter and to try again and to seek opportunities that match who they are, what they want to be, and how and where they want to live.  No other employer can make this claim.”
We should continue to invest in entrepreneurship and business creation and growth.  Understanding this phenomenon of entrepreneurship and factors contributing to its’ success are important to economic growth, opportunity and jobs for future generations.  How are we doing currently?  What challenges are faced by would-be entrepreneurs?  What can be done to remove barriers?  What can be done to facilitate entrepreneurship and encourage participation?