Soapbox - Blog

Post 2

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It’s been a very, very busy spring….and it’s only half over! The UC campus—and downtown Cincinnati—has been entertaining visitors from all around the world who are deeply involved in creating and thinking about the built environment. Architects, historians, builders, designers and manufacturers have come to Cincinnati to SEE what all the fuss is about and to LEARN what they can from our successes (and presumably, our failures). They are surprised to discover the depth and breadth of design talent and creativity in this otherwise typically Midwestern city, one that is rumored to be quite conservative. In fact, I’d wager that architecture and design are increasingly responsible for a great deal of travel to Cincinnati!

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) came to Cincinnati in late April to hold their annual, international conference. The conference was originally to be held in Montreal, but the sale and demolition of the designated conference hotel left the organizers scrambling for a new venue. I don’t know how they came to chose Cincinnati, but I think they’re glad they did. We (the faculty of the UC School of Architecture and Interior Design) learned about it from the hotel management from whom the SAH had requested price quotes. One thing led to another and, ultimately, a team of a dozen or so UC faculty formed to shape the conference experience, designing tours, social events and special speakers to provide a local context for the conventional series of paper sessions and keynote lectures.

After the opening reception, Mayor Mallory welcomed the group of over 400 architectural scholars who came to Cincinnati, along with local faculty, students, practitioners and boosters. The local tours were popular and included guided views of Columbus, Indiana, the Serpent Mounds of Central Ohio, and walks through Over the Rhine. There were multiple tours of the UC Campus, which has been transformed over the past 15 years from an hodgepodge of nondescript (some even ugly), primarily brick buildings to a curated collection of contemporary architecture, designed with some of the most important architects practicing at the turn of the 21st century. Our visitors were surprised….and pleased.

In our own backyard, they saw one of the country’s largest concentrations of late Victorian architecture (OTR), a well-known collection of late Modern architecture (Columbus, IN) and an important collection of contemporary architecture (UC). You may be as surprised as they to learn that Cincinnati also generated a significant number of mid-century modern architectural gems, many designed right here in Cincinnati, by Cincinnatians. Fifty of these buildings (both still standing and long-gone) were documented in a cataloged in a brochure-cum-book titled 50 from the 50’s.

Two weeks after the DFC and just one week after the historians left town, a select group of educators representing 16 schools came to Cincinnati to discuss the present and future opportunities for collaborative education between architecture and interior design programs. Graced with sunny weather, our one-hour campus tour stretched to two hours, before we returned to the Vernon Manor for a BBQ on the rooftop deck and a fabulous view of the region from Cincinnati’s highest viewing spot. We then spent a full day discussing curriculum and brainstorming about the future of environmental design education. I’m still getting emails from participants remarking on their experience here.

Surprised and impressed, too, were twenty industry giants from the Board of the Design Futures Council (DFC), who came to Cincinnati for their semi-annual, think-tank style meeting just days before SAH conferees arrived. They spent their first hours in Cincinnati on the UC campus. On a spectacular spring afternoon, we gave them a quick tour of the campus, focusing on MainStreet, and then went inside DAAP to discuss emerging trends in the design fields, with an emphasis on collaborative, interdisciplinary research and practice.

We were nervous about this visit; the Design Futures Council publishes the journal Design Intelligence, which conducts the annual survey that, for the past nine years, has ranked UC in the top 10 among schools of architecture, interior design, and industrial design. This ranking relies on one central survey question, “of those graduates you’ve seen, which school(s) best prepare students for the present and future practice of architecture/interior design/industrial design?” How is it that this Midwestern, public institution has managed to produce graduates that so impress employers in practice, all across North America?

Many believe it is simply due to our 102-year old cooperative education system that delivers graduates with a year and a half of work experience completed while they’re still students. That’s a compelling argument, but it does not explain why employers are also quite impressed with students that come to work in their offices as sophomores and juniors, with little or no prior experience. It does not explain comments that I hear from practitioners, such as “UC students are able to fit right into our firm’s culture; they quickly contribute to our work.” I believe that there are, and would have to be, a number of factors that contribute to UC’s rankings in this survey.

One may be a Midwestern ethos of hard work. When Herman Schneider first conceived cooperative education at UC in 1906, he sought a practical solution to local industry and educational needs that also built upon the history of apprenticeship in many applied trades. The result is a particular culture of education and practice that students choose conscientiously, knowing they will begin working at the age of 19 or 20 and that they may be moving four times a year, as they alternate between work and school.

The co-op lifestyle makes one nimble and encourages students to integrate theory and practice. Wide-eyed freshmen become scruffy, sometimes scrappy, sophomores, but they transform as they approach their first co-op assignment in the spring of their second year. They return to school with new haircuts, new clothes, and a new, more mature attitude. Each cycle in and out of school brings new perspective to their studies and to their work. Co-op is more than mere work experience. It offers students amazing opportunities and choices, in great contrast to our demanding curriculum and their (most likely) suburban lives. Students stretch themselves (and their parents), taking jobs in “tough places” like New York City and as far away as India. Our students become entrepreneurs, seeking and shaping their own experiences. It’s no surprise to me, therefore, that UC alumni are launching and leading companies of all sorts.

Michael Graves, B Arch class of 1958, is a dramatic example of this entrepreneurial spirit. He went on to graduate school at Yale after leaving UC, and then went on to create a successful practice that reaches well beyond architecture, to the design of furniture and household products. Many people have seen his buildings (e.g., the Engineering Research Center on the UC campus), but many, many more have seen (and bought) the small appliances and bathroom accessories he’s designed for Target stores.

This spirit is evident in our students, both on campus and off. The DFC’s tour was highlighted by UC’s entry into the Solar Decathlon competition, sponsored by the US Department of Energy. The competition has three main phases. First, universities around the world respond to an open call for proposals. From hundreds of submissions, twenty are selected for competition and awarded a $100,000 seed grant from the DOE. The selected schools then have two years to develop designs and build a 900 square foot house that will support typical domestic life “off the grid.” Finally, the houses are all transported and installed along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for a series of competitive tests over a period of two weeks.

A remarkable fact is that the UC entry was entirely initiated by students, who wrote the proposal and solicited faculty and university support. We never dreamed the proposal would make it to the second round! However, we followed the students’ lead (how could we not?) and reorganized ourselves to pull this off. In the end, students, faculty and staff from the colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Business and DAAP spent countless hours (for credit and not) designing, fundraising, scavenging material and building the house, in the middle of campus.

Ultimately, our house finished 15th among the twenty entries. We find this a remarkable accomplishment, especially given our late start and (sometimes desperate) lack of experience and resources in nearly every aspect of the competition. We can be proud of the fact that, at about $300k, ours was one of (if not the) least expensive of the entries, which topped $2 million at the high end (the winner, in fact). Built on trailer bases, it was one of few that did not require a crane for installation on the Mall. In addition to the requisite photovoltaic cell technology, the UC house deploys other innovative systems that, among other things, use heat to cool the interior.

UC students, faculty and staff work hard at the enterprise of teaching and learning, along with our partners in practice, many of whom are also alumni. A Midwestern culture of hard work, dedication to practice, and entrepreneurship distinguish UC from the cultures and expectations of the coasts. Collectively, we have much to be proud of, and much to offer.

Post 1

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Architecture is at the center of my life—it’s my career and the lens through which I see and experience many things. I choose to believe that architecture and design affect people’s lives, both directly and indirectly. Events of the past few weeks helped shore my belief, as I’ve witnessed the affect that Cincinnati’s design community/arts and designed environment has had on visitors.

Last night, May 10, the CAC celebrated Visionary Jay Chatterjee, who for 19 years served as Dean of UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (locally known as “DAAP” and formerly known as DAA). Jay’s influence has been key to the development of contemporary architecture in Cincinnati and, most notably, on the UC campus, during the past 20+ years. The CAC is one Cincinnati institution that benefited from Jay’s advocacy; he helped bring Zaha Hadid—chosen among a field of six renown architects—to design the center’s‘new’ building, the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, now five years old.

The lobby was overflowing with supporters, which included artists, architects, designers, and UC President Nancy Zimpher, with even a greater cross-section than is normally found at the popular Friday night exhibit openings at the CAC. Architects, in particular, were drawn to the CAC this evening. Yes, they were there to honor our colleague, Jay Chatterjee, but they were also there to honor the fifth anniversary of Hadid’s first and only North American building, and the first and only museum in the world to be designed by a woman. They also came for the exhibits, featuring ‘chairs’ designed by ten world-renown architects (including Hadid). Earlier that week, the Daniel Libeskind show closed, including drawings and photos of several of the architect’s recent work and featuring drawings, models, and photos of the Ascent condominium project now open in Covington.

This event demonstrates and highlights the increased appreciation for and interest in architecture as a contemporary art. The CAC is often at the center of Cincinnati’s eclectic arts community, a place where the mature and established meet the emerging and unknown….all of whom are essential in sustaining a creative—and productive—class of citizens.

Post 3 - Cincinnati? A VUCA Community?

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

By Barbara Diamond

VUCA is an acronym coined by the Army War College. It stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. Its original point was to help the Army think about the strategic environment for decisions about training, leading and stationing forces. Do you feel that you are living in a VUCA world?

Nowadays, it applies to the settings for work, philanthropy, global business, leadership, and, most recently, public education. The KnowledgeWorks Foundation / Institute for the Future 2006-2016 Map of Future Forces Affecting Education is a provocative picture of the forces that will play out in the urban United States over a decade. “VUCA Communities” is a “hot spot” on the map. That means that VUCA presents both challenges and opportunities for big improvements both in public education and in our community life together.

Does Cincinnati experience this VUCA environment? In my view, the answer is yes.

What is volatile? The job market. And it goes both ways. The city is losing manufacturing and finance jobs, but it is gaining global jobs, through “in-sourcing” and our global companies. And in fact the whole world feels volatile: change is accelerating.

What is uncertain? We may feel that we are “beyond” September 11, but loud noises, network breakdowns and power outages still scare us, and make us wonder what the future holds.

What is complex? We don’t like to talk about race in many parts of Cincinnati, but it is hard to deny that our race relations remain complex.

What is ambiguous? We seem to be moving toward a consensus that global warming is a real phenomenon, with human causes, but we have a whole new set of questions. Can we address this problem without ruining our economic well-being? What matters most? How much time do we have?

You can add your own examples – they might include your reactions to crime, drugs, gangs, economic inequality, a lack of shared norms, a weakening infrastructure, or whatever else keeps you up at night.

What we have learned about handling the challenge of the VUCA world is two-fold: First, to cope in this kind of world we need the skills of readiness and resilience. It is impossible to plan for every eventuality, so we need to be ready. Even when we aren’t ready, we need the capacity to bounce back.

Second, there are qualities of leadership that work best in a VUCA world, and they add up to a different kind of VUCA: Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.

My fondest hope is that we in Cincinnati can cultivate these skills and this kind of leadership, so that we can create the future we want.

Post 2

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

By Matt Williams

There is no argument that technology has changed the way we absorb information and interact with others. As a father of three, technology has also changed the way my wife and I provide opportunities for our children. We are always looking for ways to expand their horizons and to expose them to a wealth of experiences.

As transplanted Texans to Cincinnati, our children keep in touch with their grandparents through e-mail, a webcam, and soon I am going to encourage our seven-year-old to blog about his baseball season. Even our one-year old e-mails. It looks a little like this: 34ndf weru80 ehjdjp but it is the thought that counts, right? Technology has helped to bring our family closer to our loved ones as well as teach our children that the world is a mere mouse click away. Some might grumble that it is not the same as face-to-face communication, and no, maybe it isn’t, but it can deepen relationships, provide a platform for frequent and varied contact, and help our children cultivate technical, communication, and written skills, which are all foundations for success in the 21st Century.

Our family computer (and sometimes my laptop) has become a hotbed of exploration. Often our seven-year old will come home from school wanting to research further something he learned that day in school. Recently it was killer whales and polar bears. It was a wonderful opportunity to research online what the two animals eat, their migratory patterns, etc. Our daughter became fascinated with Groundhog Day, so we used it as an opportunity to dive deeper into the world of Punxsutawney Phil. Together, we’ve constructed PowerPoints (we use the open source office suite, Open Office,) made movies, and of course played games. We have used Lego Designer, which allows for a kid (or adult) to design a Lego creation online, print it out, and construct it in real life using real Legos. These are the fundamentals of engineering and architecture being played out in my house. It really is a whole new world.

Our family’s plunge into a more technology rich world has also allowed us to gain greater insight as parents into our children’s likes and dislikes, communication styles, willingness to experiment, ability to logically tackle tasks, and solve problems.

Post 1

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

By Jeff Edmonson

Imagine two students sitting next to each other in the same classroom: one has recently finished writing her first dramatic play and the other cannot read the word “toe”. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty standard experience for many teachers, including my wife, who has taught 9th grade English in school systems across the country.

The problem can be blamed on a host of reasons. Barbara Diamond outlined the realities of students growing up in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) communities. The experiences of these students and their history inside and outside the classroom can lead to divergent outcomes.

But let’s put aside for a second why this happens, and focus on the challenge this presents to teachers. The two students highlighted above just represent the extremes, not the range of abilities students have in the classroom. How would you meet their unique individual needs so they could all make the improvements standardized testing demands?

My wife’s response is to spend 80 hours per week developing unique individualized learning plans for each student. When she taught in Washington, D.C. she would tap into the rich cultural and non-profit resources in the community, most if not all of which are available right here in Cincinnati, such as the Museum Center and Playhouse in the Park. In the end, she would derive a curriculum for each learner.

This is the response required not only to meet the needs of individual students, but to meet their expectations. The 21st Century is defined in part by the increased ability we have to tailor our lives to our unique individual tastes and interests. This is due in great part to the explosion of technology. We can customize everything from our entertainment to our social networks. Students are beginning to expect the same from their education.

And this expectation presents a whole new challenge. It requires a whole new system. We have to break down the artificial walls of the schoolhouse and realize that learning happens everywhere. We need to think differently about not only teaching, but how we incorporate all the resources in our community more purposefully into the learning process. We need to use these diverse resources to meet students where they are, both in their skill sets and their learning styles that are shaped by their interests.

The bottom line is that while our society has embraced for years the belief that each and every person is unique, we have not created the education system that embraces this ever-increasing reality. The manufacturing model of education, “Velveeta High,” as one of my mentors put it, simply cannot work in the information age.

We all must see ourselves as educators and we all must be part of the solution, regardless what sector we come from – education, business, non-profit, civic, faith, or philanthropic. How do we work together reimagine schooling so it has no walls? How to we tailor learning so it is personalized to truly meet the unique, individual needs of every student? What role do you play?

Post 3 - A good place for women and celebration

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

One of my personal "top tips" for what women should do to succeed in their careers is to "enjoy the climb and take time to celebrate successes". The reasons are obvious. Work is hard and it's important to make sure that you are finding ways to rise above the daily grind and enjoy yourself along the way.

And one of the best ways is to celebrate - not just personal successes, but also the achievements of other women. These celebrations increase the visibility of successful women in our community, give powerful role models to other women and provide enjoyable networking opportunities.

Cincinnati has a long tradition of high profile celebrations honoring women. On April 22, The Enquirer's Women of the Year event attracted a sold out crowd of 1000 people to honor the volunteer work of ten exceptional women. This is the 40th year that The Enquirer has hosted the event and Margaret Buchanan, Enquirer president and publisher, noted that "this time honored tradition has recognized a total of 401 phenomenal women for their work in our communities." This year's winners were Holly Collinsworth, Amelia Crutcher, Yvonne Gray, Beth Guttman, Carrie Hayden, Suzanne Kathman, Ruthann Sammarco, Marcella Trice, DeeDee West and Judith Wimberg. Their volunteer contributions are varied and far reaching and include chairing the board of the United Way, working for the arts, raising money for The Alzheimer's Association and for renovating Highlands High School, and helping homeless, low-income and elderly citizens.

On April 29, the YWCA of Cincinnati holds its 28th annual Career Women of Achievement Awards celebration luncheon. The event was established in 1980 to increase community awareness and appreciation for the diverse contributions of women in the workforce and the community. Eight women who have positively influenced the community and their particular industries will be honored at another sold out event of 1500 people that has become one of the most illustrious events in Greater Cincinnati. This year's honorees are Laura Brunner, Managing Principal, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, Virginia Drosos, President, Global Personal Beauty, Procter & Gamble, Crystal Faulkner, Partner, Cooney Faulkner and Stevens, Dr. Uma Kotagal, Senior Vice President, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Sandra Meyer, President of Duke Energy in Ohio and Kentucky, Celine Piri, President and CEO, TariCel Management Staffing, Monica Posey, Vice President of Academics, Cincinnati State, and Maribeth Rahe, President and CEO, Fort Washington Investments.

An interesting dynamic with these two events is the number of women who have been recognized by both organizations. Several women were first honored by the YWCA for their career achievements, and were subsequently recognized by The Enquirer for their community leadership, including Charlotte Otto, Cynthia Booth and this year's Yvonne Gray. Other women were first honored by The Enquirer, and then channeled their community work into successful careers, like Dianne Dunkelman, founder and CEO of National Speaking of Women's Health. These awards illustrate the truth in the adage that if you want something done and done well, give it to a busy person. Another very positive dynamic resulting from these events is the connection established among the winners. Both events have produced hundreds of alumni who are proud to be part of such esteemed groups and now support each other in their career and community endeavors.

There are other wonderful events in Cincinnati that celebrate women's' successes. The Leading Women award started in 1995 with a mission to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote. Each year, approximately 20 women are recognized as leaders in many different categories, including science, arts, volunteer service, entrepreneur, law, media and ministry, among others. A newcomer to Cincinnati is the Athena Award program that held its first events in Cincinnati in 2006 and 2007. The Athena Award is part of an international organization that is devoted to supporting, developing and honoring women leaders. Both of these programs recognize their honorees at luncheons that are open to the public and are upbeat, fun to attend and excellent networking opportunities.

One of my favorite celebration venues is the YWCA Women's Art Gallery, located in the YWCA's downtown headquarters at 898 Walnut Street. Founded in 1993, the purpose of the Gallery is to promote local women artists and is the only Cincinnati area art gallery exclusively for women's art. The Gallery hosts lively, well-attended opening receptions to celebrate the launch of each new show. The Gallery is also open to the public Monday through Friday.

These are just a few of the events that are dedicated to honoring and celebrating women in our community. Tell us about others. And in your busy life, take time to join the celebration!

Post 2 - A good place for women and networking

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I think one of the most valuable things that women can do to advance their careers is to take advantage of networking and mentoring opportunities. I put networking and mentoring in the same category - because I think that they go hand in hand as a lot of informal mentoring (the best kind!) comes from the social interactions and deep relationships we develop through networking.

I have read many articles about the failure of business women to network and use our network connections to advance our careers. The articles say that we should learn from our male counterparts on this important technique. There are many different kinds of networking events. For example, I have heard for years about the important business deals that are negotiated on the golf course by businessmen. Spectator sports like baseball and football are also popular with our male peers - and are certainly available to women. But I think Cincinnati career women are finding new and perhaps more female friendly ways to interact with other working women.

As I mentioned in my first blog, many law firms and accounting firms host events that focus on connecting their professionals with women clients and prospective clients. My law firm, Thompson Hine, has developed the Spotlight on Women initiative that offers a mix of educational events and purely social gatherings throughout the year. In the past we have sponsored seminars on sharpening negotiation skills for women (in the courtroom, at the closing table and in the workplace) that provide CLE (continuing legal education) credit to our guests, followed by wine tasting and mini spa treatments. We get educated, relaxed and manicured - a perfect mix! Who needs golf?

A very popular networking event in Cincinnati is the quarterly bizwomen breakfast series presented by the Business Courier and sponsored by National City, U.C. Surgeons, Health Alliance and Thompson Hine. Over 300 women gather at 7:30 a.m. to participate in roundtable discussions and hear a keynote speaker talk about her career challenges and successes. The next bizwomen event is on May 2 at the Cincinnati Museum Center and the speaker is Sister Marie Thrailkill, President of the College of Mount St. Joseph. Check the Business Courier for details on upcoming events.

Excellent networking opportunities are available through various leadership development programs. The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce sponsors the Women Excel WE Lead Program, as well as the co-ed Leadership Cincinnati and C-Change programs. The YWCA offers the Rising Stars program for women between the ages of 25 and 40 who are rising in their careers and want to connect with Career Women of Achievement winners and other rising career women. The Urban League, the West Chester Chamber and the Northern Kentucky Chamber also offer leadership programs. Selection to these programs is competitive and participation requires an extended commitment of time over several months. But the rewards are great in terms of learning about the community and interacting with the next generation of leaders in our region.

Career women can also network through their participation on nonprofit boards and related fundraising events. Cincinnati's nonprofit organizations, especially the arts, have strong support from the business community and provide a worthwhile venue to interact with the area's power brokers. The key to reaping the most benefit of course is to undertake a significant project and produce outstanding results in order to build your credibility with this important audience.

One of my most valuable and enjoyable networking experiences has been through my membership in the Women's Capital Club, an investment club launched over 10 years ago by a group of 40 women. A requirement of membership is either notable career success or significant community volunteer activities (or both!). The membership roster includes many high profile women leaders. The main goal of the Women's Capital Club is to learn about investment strategies and grow our portfolio. But a significant by-product has been the opportunity to interact with the other members in a relaxed and fun setting - and to establish connections that we can count on to support each other's business and community interests.

These are just a few examples of networking opportunities that I know about. I am sure that there are many more worthwhile events and programs - in fact, tell us about them! The main message is that career women should make every effort to take advantage of the events and programs in order to get connected with other working women. Follow an example that has worked in the past for men and create the Old Girls' Club! And use those connections to enhance your career and to support other women who are rising in the Cincinnati business community.

Post 1 - A Good Place for Women

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:18:24 GMT

Recently, I was one of several women interviewed by Stepfanie Romine of the Enquirer for an article she was writing about some past and current winners of the YWCA Career Women of Achievement award and how women are doing in Cincinnati. She quoted me as saying: "This is a really good time for women in Cincinnati. We have some terrific women in very visible leadership roles." If you missed Stepfanie's article, search for 'A Good Time for Women' in the Business Section of the Sunday, March 16, 2008 edition of the Enquirer.

I want to elaborate on my view that Cincinnati is a good place for women to achieve leadership positions. The list of high profile women in key roles is impressive and grows each week. And numbers do count. So I want to note a few of the women who are changing the face and fabric of doing business in Cincinnati.

Perhaps best known is Dr. Nancy Zimpher, President of the University of Cincinnati, who is revitalizing U.C., raising the bar for students and faculty and finding ways to connect the university with the economic growth of the region. Other women in notable positions are Margaret Buchanan, Publisher of the Enquirer, Kathryn Merchant, CEO of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Ellen van der Horst, CEO of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, Kay Geiger, recently appointed Regional President of PNC Bank, Susan Croushore, CEO of Christ Hospital, Sandra Meyer, President of Duke Energy Ohio-Kentucky, Charlotte Otto, Global External Relations, P&G, Susan Arnold, President, Global Business, P&G, Maribeth Rahe, CEO of Ft. Washington Investment Advisors and Charlene Ventura, CEO of the YWCA. All of these women were recognized as part of "The Power 100 - the Tristate's Most Influential People" - by Cincy Magazine (February 2008).

Other successful women who are leading and owning their businesses are Cynthia Booth, CEO of COBCO Enterprises, who owns seven McDonald's franchises and works on national initiatives for McDonald's, Janet Reid, CEO of Global Lead Management, who travels throughout the world as a consultant to significant international companies on diversity and workplace issues, Candace Kendle, Chairman/CEO of Kendle International Inc., a publicly traded company medical research company with operations inside and outside of the U.S., and Tillie Hidalgo Lima, CEO of Best Upon Request, a concierge service to major corporations and building owners.

Women are also leading significant nonprofit organizations. A few outstanding examples are: Dianne Dunkelman, founder and CEO of National Speaking of Women's Health, delivering health and wellness information to tens of thousands of women each year through workshops, books and the internet, Donna Jones Baker, CEO of Urban League of Cincinnati, advancing the mission of eliminating the barriers of racism and leveling the playing field for African Americans, Sara Peller, CEO of the Red Cross of Cincinnati, providing care and shelter to victims of emergencies, and Shannon Carter, founder and CEO of Crayons to Computers, providing a warehouse of school supplies to the area's teachers.

Arts organizations are becoming well represented by women leaders. Mary McCullough-Hudson is President and CEO of the Fine Arts Fund, D. Lynn Meyers is Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Victoria Morgan is Artistic Director and CEO of the Cincinnati Ballet and Patty Beggs is General Director and CEO of the Cincinnati Opera.

Women are making an impact in government positions. Hon. Sandra Beckwith and Hon. Susan Dlott serve as United States District Judges and several of our elected municipal and common pleas court judges are women. Cincinnati City Council includes Laketa Cole, Leslie Ghiz and Roxanne Qualls (former Mayor of Cincinnati). This fall two women will compete for the Second District seat to the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbent Jean Schmidt and challenger Victoria Wulsin. Captain Terry Theetge is the new police commander of District 1 and Marilyn Shazor is the new President and CEO of Queen City Metro. And not to be overlooked are the many lawyers, doctors, accountants and other professionals who are succeeding in formerly male dominated arenas.

I am a lawyer with Thompson Hine, a firm of over 400 lawyers with offices in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, New York, Washington, D.C., and Brussels, Belgium. I was the first woman elected to the firm's Executive Committee in 1999 and since 2001, I have been the Partner in Charge of the Cincinnati Office, the firm's second largest office with approximately 70 attorneys. During my nearly 30 year career, I have seen significant changes in my profession. Women regularly take the lead in our client's most important litigation cases or transactional matters and are asked to assume key management responsibilities at the firm. Just as noteworthy are the programs that most large firms have implemented to focus on women's issues. Thompson Hine has the "Spotlight on Women" initiative that has a two fold purpose of providing mentoring and support to our associates as they strive to balance the demands of family and career and of providing networking opportunities with our women clients.

The women identified above are only a FEW of the women I know and respect. They are just a representative sample, but I hope they make the point that there are significant opportunities for women to rise to the top of their professions. However, the picture is not perfect in Cincinnati. Even with this impressive list of women, we are still under represented in terms of the numbers of women who are in the top positions of every sector. And in my own legal profession, approximately 30 percent of the nation's lawyers are women, but only about 15% are partners.

Tremendous progress is being made. And my personal view is that when women see other women succeeding, that gives the evidence and encouragement that more women can reach their goals. This is not just a "woman's issue". When our community sees high profile women making significant contributions, more doors are opened for businesses, professions and government to select the best qualified person for the position regardless of gender. I think Cincinnati is establishing a strong framework to make that a reality.

What do you think?

Post 3 - City of Brands and Brand Builders

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As noted in my previous post, the Design Management Institute will hold its 2008 International Brand Design Conference in Cincinnati this June. This is particularly appropriate when you consider that it was in Cincinnati over 70 years ago that Neil McElroy of Procter & Gamble penned his famous memo that changed marketing worldwide forever by inventing brand management. Most branded enterprises in the world now organize their business along some version of the brand management vision invented here.

Today, Cincinnati, of course, is home to the world’s largest consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble. It is headquarters for Macy’s, the world’s largest department store company and Kroger, the world’s largest supermarket chain. Another of the world’s top bananas, Chiquita, can be found in the heart of our city. It is indeed a city of brands.

What is less well known, perhaps, is that Cincinnati has emerged as one of the world’s top centers for advanced brand design. WPP’s Landor has a large office in Cincinnati. Omnicom’s Interbrand has a large office here as well. Major independent shops: BRANDIMAGE – Desgrippes & laga, Deskey, Fisher, FRCH, and my company, LPK, are headquartered here. Other cities have reputations for finance, publishing or music. When it comes to brand building by design, Cincinnati has assembled a unique collection of large, successful brand design agencies.

Design, as a brand-building tool, is in its ascendancy. Brand aesthetics must be managed strategically today. Leading brands understand that brand design management is not a one-time project, but an ongoing process. A brand’s design franchise serves as a repository for the goodwill assigned to a brand over time. That goodwill comes from the experience that a consumer has using the brand, of course, as well as the investment in advertising, public relations and other communication. But, it is a brand’s design (logo, composition, color, etc.) that triggers those imbedded memories. Design equity is a powerful contributor to brand equity.

The city’s advanced brand design agencies today are not only supporting the great brands based in Cincinnati, but are consulting with leading companies worldwide. Indeed, a walk down any supermarket anywhere in the world presents brand design born or burnished in this city.

Cincinnati brand design agencies have achieved a scale unmatched in other regions. Because of the size of these agencies, they are equipped to undertake assignments that involve a degree of complexity and geographic reach that smaller agencies cannot successfully manage. These large agencies are recruiting the best and brightest from design schools across America and beyond, further ensuring the ascent of the region’s reputation for brand design leadership. Economists call this phenomenon an agglomeration.

Education is also part of the Cincinnati advanced brand design story. A number of strong design programs are found in the area. Of special note, the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning is regularly ranked as one of the world’s top design schools. The Co-operative Education Program at the University of Cincinnati has placed students in the ranks of design leadership of many of the world’s most successful companies.

Importantly, the University of Cincinnati has opened the Center for Design Research and Innovation at DAAP under the leadership of Craig Vogel, an internationally recognized author and scholar. The Center is coordinating interdisciplinary programs involving medicine, engineering, business and other colleges, forming design-led innovation studios with Fortune 500 corporate sponsors from around the country.

Conventions in many areas of brand building are under review. Digital advertising is quickly replacing legacy advertising (it’s real this time, just read the rants of Sir Martin Sorrell or Maurice Levy). One area of brand building that will remain vital is design. And for an increasing number of leading brands, Cincinnati is the destination for brand building – by design.

This is good news for the area. It helps keep Cincinnati competitive by having a unique creative class story unmatched in other regions. In a world that seems to have developed a brand fetish – politicians, celebrities and even cities are now described as brands – Cincinnati has caught a wave. Let’s enjoy the ride.

Post 2 - Just Visiting: Imagining a business trip to Cincinnati

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In my previous post, I talked about perspective and the fact that there seems to be an absence of objectivity amongst the locals when describing our city. I want to take another pass at perspective. This time, I want to develop an imaginary tale of a business visitor to our fair city and what his/her experience might be. How would that experience measure up to other destinations?

My business travels have taken me lots of places. In my consulting work, I’ve been to many of the glamorous, over-crowded capital cities of the world. I have also traveled down muggy dirt roads in the Mississippi heat, and felt the sting of the winter wind as I parked my car in the middle of nowhere in Western Michigan. The dull toil of commerce brings you to quite a range of places. Like many a business traveler, I feel like I’ve seen it all. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the places I’ve visited. In other cases, I walked back onto the plane scratching my head saying, “I don’t get it. Why does this place have such a great reputation?” Preconceived notions lead to disappointment or delight, depending on your perspective. I suspect my experience is typical.
Now imagine a business traveler coming to Cincinnati. I am in fact serving as co-chair for a conference that will be held in Cincinnati in June. The Design Management Institute is holding their annual International Branding Conference in Cincinnati. The attendees are mid-career types. Most of them have large departments reporting to them. They run the design functions in places like BMW or IBM. Alternatively, they may be a manager in one of the large brand design consultancies located in the United States, Europe or Asia. This conference has taken them to places like Vancouver, Chicago and Montreal in recent years. These are well-traveled folks. I’ll write more in my next piece about branding and the unique concentration of brand design expertise in Cincinnati. In this post, however, I want to focus on that imaginary visit to Cincinnati.

First of all, the pilot announces that you’ve just landed - in Kentucky. There’s a momentary panic where you think you walked onto the wrong plane back in your embarkation city. You then get into a cab. The cab ride is a bit creepy, but then that’s pretty much the norm everywhere, unless you are coming from Britain or Japan where the standards are quite good. In other words, your expectations are pretty low for the cab experience. If you are lucky, you don’t have to indulge in some sort of tedious conversation with the driver on a topic that has no interest whatsoever to you.

You arrive at the Netherland Hilton in Downtown Cincinnati (that’s where the DMI Conference will be held). You are pleasantly surprised by the elegance of the art deco architecture. You walk into the lobby, take a peek into the restaurant, and by now are feeling quite good. This is a world-class hotel and you’re soaking in the beauty of the place. It’s an afternoon in late spring. The weather is temperate and there are flowers everywhere. In the lobby, you bump into a fellow member of the Design Management Institute and you agree to spend the afternoon and evening together. The conference sessions will actually begin the following morning.

You turn to the concierge and ask for some tips on food and things to do. You’re delighted by the variety of restaurant choices – everything from a French bistro to a brewery pub. Because you are a designer, you ask about museums and galleries. You are astonished to learn that you can walk to six or eight museums and galleries from your hotel.

As a seasoned traveler, you can’t remember the last time you had so many choices available to you without the complexities of jumping on a train or getting into another one of those creepy cabs.

You particularly enjoy house museums and so you elect to head to the Taft Museum of Art (the concierge begs you to also see the Contemporary Arts Center and the fabulous Zaha Hadid design while you are in town). The Taft is a delight – a lovely important American building housing a great collection of art. Your colleague is a bit of a baseball nut and convinces you to stop at the Reds Museum on your way back from the Taft. You find out that Cincinnati had the first professional baseball team – who knew? The museum is a celebration of America’s great summer sport. You see the Pete Rose exhibit and are reminded that Pete hit a lot of balls (and had a lot of balls). By now you are a bit tired and the thought at stopping at the Freedom Center causes you some hesitation. Your friend has more energy than you, and you decide to go for it. You walk inside, not sure what to expect.
Once again, you are dazzled by your environment. You are forced to confront America’s original sin – the African slave trade in a setting of great beauty and gravitas. You learn some things about what life was like for the victims of this barbaric institution. You are surprised to learn the economic scale of American slavery in the 19th century. You then learn a bit about human trafficking today. Most painfully, you realize that this issue is bigger today than at any other time in history. You are moved and, in an odd way, rejuvenated by this jolt to your sensibilities.

You head back toward the hotel. You stop at the French Bistro the concierge recommended. You find it authentic and welcoming and have a delightful meal. (You remind yourself that you’ve got to get back to Paris again.) The sights and the sounds of the fountain beckon you. You notice the Graeter’s Ice Cream store. Your talkative concierge told you that Oprah Winfrey claims this is her favorite ice cream. You are required to give it a try. You sit near the fountain watching the ambiance of city life. It is a thoroughly cosmopolitan experience. You weren’t expecting to be delighted. You came to this city not sure what to expect. Your friend confesses that he thought he was going to Cleveland. He hadn’t read his itinerary carefully.

You head back to the hotel. You are tired but look forward to the conference sessions and the networking that will begin in the morning. You agree to meet your colleague for a run along the river in the morning before the sessions begin. You are given a running map that will send you along a scenic path to a great urban park on the river.

It happens here every day.

Stories like this occur every day in Cincinnati. Some of the most famous cities on Earth are not necessarily great business trip destinations. I recall going to a conference in Vancouver. I was elated at the thought of spending time in what everyone says is one of the great cities of North America. When I landed, the physical beauty of the city was not to be denied; the water and the mountains are breathtaking. The downtown, however, is a bit dull. There aren’t a lot of good restaurant choices. There are no museums or galleries that come close to the quality that is available in Cincinnati.

Business travelers bring a different set of expectations with them. They are not tourists. They have been lots of places and are generally open-minded about any city they visit. Cities delight or disappoint these travelers every day.

Cincinnati is fully capable of delighting a business visitor. If a visitor has the ambition and time to explore further, the Museum Center and the Cincinnati Art Museum are world-class destinations. The encyclopedic collection housed at the Cincinnati Art Museum is a rare find anywhere in the world. Of course, Mount Adams, Northern Kentucky, and a list of other places, are also great discoveries for a visitor.

Cities talk a lot about quality of life, and they should. But it is interesting to ponder for a moment what the quality of a visit entails. We look pretty good in Cincinnati.

Post 1 Who's Your 'Nati?

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I’m on a flight to Singapore as I write this article. I’m going about as far away as you can get from Cincinnati. Somehow it seems vaguely appropriate at this time to reflect on my relationship with Cincinnati (24 hours in the air can make anything seem profound).

I am a native son, a product of the working class parishes of the west side. At a young age, I was a restless searcher, I suppose, and found a need for both artistic expression and travel. I picked up a degree in design at UC. My travels started with a backpack, relying on my thumb or a Eurail Pass to get me to my next destination. Today, I find myself sitting in this tony seat, on an airplane headed for the other side of the world. (Yes, ma’am, I believe I will have another chardonnay.)

So, my restlessness has served me well. I’ve built a great career based on some fundamental passions I discovered early. Importantly, my travels have given me a dose of something that seems to be in very short supply in Cincinnati – perspective.

Singapore is a fascinating place to visit. It is described by some as “Asia light,” pristine and modern with just a touch of Little India, Chinatown, and Malay life, all thriving side by side in this tiny city-state of three million. Singapore is different than Cincinnati in almost every way imaginable. It’s fun to spend a moment thinking about the Singapore story and then reflect on our hometown. Lee Kuan Yew took hold of a desperately poor city-state that was badly served in turn by the British, the Japanese and the Malay Federation. He turned this backward city into one of the most remarkable places on earth, all within the time frame of one generation. Benevolent dictators can make things happen fast.

Singapore has developed a certain arrogance; Singaporeans are noted for their self-confidence, bordering on boastfulness. But even they are a bit edgy today, as they think about their place in the evolving global economy. They are looking to new ideas, like design, to be an engine for growth in the worldwide creative economy that’s unfolding. What got them there, won’t keep them there, and they know it. And by the way, Singapore, for all of its success, is described by some as the most crushingly dull place in Asia.

My thoughts then turn to Cincinnati; a city with a remarkable history – beautiful topography, great architecture, great parks and an impressive art scene. In the 19th Century, Cincinnati was something of a Singapore; big, brassy, inventive and confident – a must see on the world tour of the likes of Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde.
Not all that long ago, we still maintained an unbearable sense of our superiority. We were the first large city that wasn’t on the East Coast. Even in my lifetime, we were the only city worth mentioning between Chicago and the East. Upstarts like Atlanta, Charlotte, and certainly our neighbors, Indianapolis and Columbus, were not even worthy of consideration.

It seems almost in an instant everything changed. Other cities passed us by. A surge of cynicism developed and a precipitous drop in our self-esteem enveloped us. Soon, we were scrambling to outdo one another in finding new ways to insult our town. It makes we wonder whether Singapore, as it adjusts to a changing world, could find itself on the wrong side of self image in a relatively short amount of time. It seems preposterous but then I never thought it could happen here.

Of much more interest to me, however, is the recent return toward confidence in our city. Urban living is cool again and Cincinnati is once again in its ascendancy. Yes, there are still vestiges of the negative thinking out there, but those opinions are increasingly the uninformed remnants of old stories.

Let’s Get Spiky

Richard Florida in his latest book, Who's Your City, challenges the basic assumption of Thomas Freedman in his book, The World is Flat. Freedman argues that technology has made the world flat; globalization spreads out economic activity. As Freedman writes, “You can innovate without having to immigrate.”

“Not so fast,” says Florida. “The world isn’t flat.”

Yes, the spread of routine economic functions; such as, simple manufacturing or service work, can be done in a more cost-effective way in low cost countries. But, other high-level activities; such as, innovation, design, finance, and media are clustering in a relatively small number of locations. The world is not flat; in fact, the world is a bit spiky. These spikes create their own eco systems of leading edge universities, high-powered companies, flexible labor markets, and venture capital. The world is full of spiky peaks and valleys. People in the spiky places are often more connected with others, even from halfway around the world, than they are to people and places in their own back yards. That could explain why I’m flying halfway around the world to lecture at a Singapore Design Council Conference. Florida writes that, “Peak to peak connectivity is, in fact, accelerating by a highly mobile creative class of about 150 million people world-wide.”

This type of thinking makes us reflect on our outlook for Cincinnati. The struggle between the innovative talent attracting “have regions” and the talent exporting “have not regions” is escalating. Florida and others suggest that talent clustering is a primary determinate of economic growth. When people, especially talented and creative ones, come together, ideas flow more freely. Clustering makes each of us more productive, which in turn, makes the place we inhabit even more so. This is called the clustering force.

That is why the Regional Chamber is focused on young professionals. Harnessing young professional energy (H.Y.P.E.) is a good place for the Chamber to focus. Young professionals bring energy, creativity and stamina to the work of community building. Cincinnati will be more fun, more tolerant, more diverse and more prosperous as we create an environment that serves the ambitions of YPs. We are on our way. We have far to go. Let’s enjoy the journey.

Watch your back Singapore!

Post 3 - Black coffee and collared shirts

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Maybe I’m just old-timey in a new-timey world. I like my coffee black, I like my shirts collared, and I like my neighborhood nosey.

Everybody these days wants to flip and flop out to the suburbs for their plot of land and their two-car garage, and their next-to-no-one-ness. What happened to the good old days when neighbors used to know one another, borrow each other’s ketchup, and talk suspiciously about the new couple on the corner? Where went the afternoon walk to the corner store to pick up some milk and pork rinds? Nowadays, everybody squeezes into the family minivan and drives 20 miles to the mind-numbing superstores where nobody knows a damn thing about a cup of coffee or a collared shirt.

But, if you live in Northside, you’ll find that those days of old still carry on. Let me explain.

If I take one step out my door, I can count on next-door Steve to holler a “hello” and offer to help me move in my new desk. If I’m in the yard, I can count on old Bob to be there with cigarette-attached finger, ready to lend a hand in trimming my catalpa tree. He’s like 104 but he loves to help. As I take off down the street, I know I’ll run into Skylar, Gabe, and Alex who’ll challenge me to tricks on their skateboards.

Once I turn left onto Chase, I’ll hopefully see Kevin at Portofino, and if I do, he’ll surely shout out a “How’s it going Two Veggie Hoagies?!” (That’s my new nickname and my favorite order.) I’ll walk a right onto Hamilton and head into Sidewinder Coffeehouse where Jen Shepherd will welcome me with a “Hey Jake, how’s the baby?” We’ll chat about newborns and music, she’ll get me my regular, and I’ll say “So long” and head right to Ace Hardware.

Once inside Ace, I’ll ask old man Bill for sixteen bronze screws, a pack of razor blades, and a wire brush, and he’ll fish through the mess and somehow come up with them. He’ll charge me $7.49 but I’ll only have a five-dollar bill, so he’ll just take it and say “Get me next time.”

I’ll step outside again, and sure enough Chuck Cleaver of the band, Wussy, will limp by, pull on his goatee, and chat a minute about taking the music on the road. As we part, Chris and Shelley will zip by on their new Vespa, honk a little dance, and park in front of Shake It Records. On my way to meeting them there, Ed at the Northside Tavern will be carrying in cases of beer and stop me for a second to book The Freddies and me for six more months of first Fridays at the Tavern. He won’t write it down – we’ll just know.

I’ll cross the street, smell the Park Chili “Veggie Mess,” but remember that I’m broke, so I’ll pop into Shake It where Darren will greet me with a “Hey Jake, I have a great old folk record that I’ve been meaning to give you,” and I’ll take it and love it.

I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon chatting with friends, browsing for new music, and sipping hot black coffee in my collared shirt, happier than hogs in honey in my old-timey neighborhood where everybody knows my name.

Post 2 - Close Shave

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I just moved to Northside. I live around the corner from a barbershop. I never get my hair cut there, even though it’s a 40-second walk from my house.

As I walk by on my way to Shake It Records or Melt or the Northside Tavern, I always nod or wave "hello" or say "’sup" to the stoop of fellas who sit in rows behind the picture window. But the guys in the barbershop never acknowledge me. Where’s the jovial, Norm-from-Cheers-style "heeeey" that you’d expect from a shop full of jolly haircutters? Where’s the closed-mouth smile or the under-the-breath "’sup" or even the macho head-nod-reply? Here I am, committing an all-out "How y’all doin’?" with head-nod and partial wave (the two-finger point), but I’m like tumbleweed rolling by.

They always seem to have such a good time in there, shouting out jams and laughing like they just finished listening to Cedric the Entertainer go off on Queen Latifah. And when I hear their bellows through the open door, I can’t help but want to get into the action. But I never do.

As I pass the picture window, I shake my head in confusion as a skinny lady in a North Face jacket smiles big at me and raises her Sidewinder white café latte in a gesture of "hello." In my post-barbershop daze, I almost forget to return her gleeful gesture, but then her chocolate lab stops long enough to sniff my shoes, and I’m smacked back into the moment. I undo my furrowed brow, say my "hey there" to the dog and the lady, and then wave her off. I watch her as she powers down the sidewalk past the barbershop.

Maybe it’ll be different for her. She doesn’t nod. They don’t wave. Nothing personal. Just the way it is in Northside.

Post 1 - Nicknames in Northside

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

All I ever wished for was a good nickname. Northside made it happen.

In high school, I tried to convince the baseball team to call me "Crazy Eights" or "Goose Egg," but 10 years later, I’m still the only one who remembers. My wife’s nickname is Flique, a shortened version of Flique Nique, coined by a long-gone friend after a night of margaritas. My unborn baby’s nickname is Steamboat, an allusion to his current situation. Even my guitar dons the nickname of Woody, a three-fold moniker. (Figure out all three on your own.) I love and long for a nickname so much that I work hard at giving them to people. I refer to my friend Caroline as "Lion." I call Chris Bongorno "Bibs." My friend Adam is known as "Double Stack." Bryan Wallace is "Dr. Double Jubs." Matt Reynolds is "Chicken Bone." I’ve given all of the Freddies their nicknames: J-Dog, Sugar Britches, and Kentucky.

Generally, the sequence of events leading to the acquisition of a nickname reveals an irreverent comfortability with someone else. The only way to get a good nickname is to either

A) do something memorable (see "Double Stack" and/or "Chicken Bone") or
B) be someone loveable who has a crappy Mom-given name.

Up until now, it seems that I’ve done nothing quite memorable enough to earn me a nickname (besides being born red-headed, a curse that came with the default nickname of "Red" which doesn’t count). And in an effort to maintain a relatively stable sense of self-worth, I’ll choose to believe that I am someone loveable. Therefore, I’m unofficially relieved to find that perhaps the reason I’ve never had a nickname is because my Mom-given first name of "Jake" actually sounds cool. And I was riding that wave for a while, but then I discovered that the name of "Jake" is cool if you happen to be a dog. According to statistics, American dog-owners have chosen the name of "Jake" over all other dog names for the last dozen years.

So, there I was, wandering the streets of Northside in a nicknameless stupor. And everywhere I’d turn, people were calling me to "come here boy" or screaming at me to "get back inside" or "roll over." I was hungry for a nickname. I was confused. Lost.

And then I heard it. The words sprang from the mouth of Kevin, the dude that takes orders at Portofino, the little Greek restaurant by my house. He spoke them with such love and memorability – they were more of a profession than just an utterance. He said, "Hey, what’s going on, Two Veggie Hoagies with Italian Dressing?" And there my nickname was born. "Two Veggie Hoagies with Italian Dressing." My regular order at the store. Yeah, a bit wordy and a tad awkward, but I finally have my very own nickname.

Kevin called me "Two Veggie Hoagies with Italian Dressing" at Ace Hardware the other day, and then again at the Northside Tavern. He’s used it twice on his walk home from Portofino. When I call the store, I say "Hey Kevin," and he immediately delights me with his currently shortened version, "Two Veggie Hoagies." I look forward to the days when Kevin and I are elders, and he simply refers to me as "Veg" or "Hoag" or just "Two." Maybe he’ll lose his voice in the end, and have to simply hold up a couple fingers when he sees me. That’d be great.

Any way it works out, I’m happy to know that Northside is the type of neighborhood where dreams really do come true.

Post 4 - A thiving tech region

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So we all now understand the need to have a growing economy and the critical role that technology-oriented businesses play in this, but what are our chances of success? How do we do this?

There are two clear approaches:

1. Persuade existing technology companies to locate their offices in our region, and
2. Create new technology companies that can become the MicroSoft or Cisco of the next generation.

We’re currently doing both. Led by the CincinnatiUSA Partnership, our regional chamber of commerce and their economic development partners work hard to attract new technology businesses to our region with some success, but it’s a tough job. These businesses are being aggressively courted by every region because everyone knows how important they are to economic growth.

What has generally proved more successful is to create these technology businesses ourselves. Start them from scratch here in our region and keep them here. That’s the major focus of the technology growth initiatives in our region and the states of Kentucky and Ohio – to convert all the basic technology research, innovation and entrepreneurship into thriving, growing technology companies headquartered in our region.

It’s not easy. To start a new company requires great ideas, great technology and great sales execution that can drive the adoption of new, leading edge technology in the market. And, did I mention money? Lot’s of that, too.

But, we’re doing it and it’s working. Led by a great partnership among the States of Ohio and Kentucky with regional tech growth organizations like CincyTechUSA, regional incubators, academic research centers, angel investors, venture capital funders, etc. we are making it happen. The rate of new technology companies being founded in our region is up dramatically over the last few years as these strategic growth programs have gained traction.

So, what’s for me to do? It sounds like we’ve got a good program going and all the right people working together to make it happen.

You can help by supporting this effort whenever and however you can. It can be as simple as encouraging your neighbor who is considering taking a job with a local technology start-up company to make the leap, or encouraging that young engineering graduate to stay in our region and exploit their learning here.

But moret importantly, you can provide the public support that will get the job done. This means voting yes on bond issues needed to fund this work, talking to everyone you know about how your region, the Cincinnati Region, is on the move with technology growth and generating a positive view - it’s happening here and it’s happening fast.

Post 3 - Driving Economic Growth

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In previous blogs, I’ve tried to make the case that economic growth is critical to every person, every business, every organization, every…. So, the obvious next question is: How? How do we drive economic growth in our region so that we continue to prosper and enjoy the regional lifestyle that we value so much?

The good news is that the answer is well known – drive the growth of technology-based businesses. When I was first working on the region’s technology growth program, CincyTechUSA, we looked at the comparative growth rates of our Cincinnati region versus other similar regions around the US. Depending on what statistics you use, the growth of technology companies account for over 70% of the difference in growth from region to region.

The facts are already pretty well known about the on-going decline of the manufacturing sector in the United States as well as the growth of the service sector of our economy. But if you drill down on the numbers, you quickly see that the higher paying jobs that are really driving economic growth are mostly in the technology sector.

There are lots of different definitions for the technology sector, but I think of it as those businesses that design, develop and manufacture technology goods or are the services that support the application of these goods. Don’t get too hung up on the definition – my wife’s definition of technology is anything that was invented after you were born. Our grandparents thought refrigerators, ovens and cars were technology. We think of computers, consumer electronics and advanced medical devices as technology. But our children who grew up with all these technologies will think of them as appliances. What will be the technologies of their lifetimes?

We know the names of the big, growing technology companies: MicroSoft, Apple, Verizon, Google, etc. These companies and their smaller siblings are what’s driving economic growth in our generation. We need to be part of this boom in our region.

But, how do we do this? All those big companies are already located somewhere else. Is the game over or can we still get our share of this growth to keep our regional economy thriving?

We’d better.

Post 2 - Why Care?

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before about the globally competitive economy, but why should I care? I’ve got a good job, my children are doing well, the housing market isn’t that bad and I think things are going pretty well. I don’t really need to worry about our regional economic growth and the global economy – things are fine.

Well, you’re right. Things are fine, right now. But what about next year, the next decade, the future that your children can have living in this region? Are you all that certain that driving regional economic growth really isn’t that important to you?

Like most people, if things are going okay, we tend to feel okay about today and the future. But we all have friends who have been laid off jobs or needed to move to another region to find a job or have seen their wages not grow as fast as their household expenses. These are all a function of living in a region where the economy is not growing fast enough to absorb all of the labor available. So wage rates tend to stay low and jobs remain scarce.

If we could get our economy growing faster the region would be a better place for all of us to live, work and play. The connection to job opportunities is easy to see. But, the broad connection to the quality of life of every citizen is frequently overlooked.

Think about it. A faster growing economy means more higher paying jobs and a larger tax base for government. That bigger tax base supports many of the things that are absolutely critical to our quality of life – police, fire, public schools, libraries, parks, etc.

A stagnant or slow growing economy means the budget for these critical public services is always in trouble. If expenses increase faster than the tax base, the only way to pay the bill is through increased tax rates. That’s really bad for everyone – it means you and I are paying higher taxes, and businesses looking to locate in our region are discouraged because of high tax rates.

A thriving economy has exactly the opposite effect – increased economic activity means increased tax revenue without having to increase individual tax rates. And, it means our region is more competitive because it has all the quality of life services that people seek without a high tax burden.

Growth is a good thing.

Post 1 - Grow or Die?

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Seems harsh, doesn’t it? But in today’s globally competitive world, it’s absolutely true – there is no “steady state” for an economy – it’s either growing or dying, and changes are occurring at an ever increasing rate.

Examples are all around us – the steel business moves to Asia so Cleveland and Pittsburgh are really hurt; the global automobile market evolves and Michigan is in deep economic trouble; and Ohio’s economy is hurting as well while centers of innovation like Boston, Austin and Silicon Valley are booming.

So, how about the Cincinnati Region? Seems like things are pretty good:

Our economy is growing modestly
Unemployment is reasonably low
Our anchor companies like P&G, Kroger and Macy’s don’t seem to be going anywhere soon

So have we beat the rap? Are we simply a shining example of how at least one region can sustain modest growth and have a rosy future in the new global economy?

This kind of thinking is why we may be in the most precarious situation of all. Because our economy has continued to grow and we haven’t had the dramatic declines experienced by some of our neighbors, we’re pretty complacent. Bad idea.

Our region has been extremely fortunate compared to most of the heavy industry states. Our situation is OK for the moment, but will it stay that way if we don’t act? Almost certainly not. Global competitive forces are at work here as much as anywhere else, but like the famous quote attributed to Mark Twain – they’ll just arrive in Cincinnati 10 years later.

We can’t afford to have that happen. A growing, thriving economy is what drives almost everything else around us. I’ll talk more about this is a later blog.

Meanwhile, we all should be very thankful that we have organizations like the Cincinnati USA Partnership, CincyTechUSA, the Ohio Third Frontier Project, regional business incubators, venture investors, etc. all working hard to make certain growth in our region continues – and continues at an increasing pace.

In upcoming blogs, I’ll talk about why economic growth is so important to every person, every business and every organization in our region.

Post Four - Commuting

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My house on Cutter Street in the West End is 1.3 miles from my place of work on Walnut Street, around the corner from Fountain Square. 1.3 miles is precisely .4 miles longer than I would have chosen for my commute. It takes 23 to 24.5 minutes to walk to work or, more important, home for lunch where I like to indulge in a tuna sandwich and take a five minute nap on the sofa. When I walk home on the lunch hour, I have to bolt that tuna and forget about the nap. I could, I suppose, step up the pace, or take a route that does not go past Gus Miller’s hat shop, where I am often distracted by the possibilities Gus offers those of us who have been ordered by the dermatologist to stay covered. So, if I walk, I have to shell out for lunch in town. (One reader of a local blog whined about the lack of cheap lunches downtown. Other commenters piled on quickly. They’re all over the place. Nice the way the blogosphere self corrects.) I have my choice of three bus routes, but by the time you’ve shelled out three bucks for a round trip, you might as well have bought the six inch tuna at Subway. So I have a brace of commuting solutions, the motor scooter and the bike. The motor scooter takes eight minutes, but messes with my carbon footprint which I’m trying to keep down to a 9D. The bike takes ten minutes, but I get screamed at by local drivers who seem to believe bicycles are demonic. It’s always something.

I’m curious. Are you reading this on your BlackBerry while stuck in the traffic coming in from West Chester on the Mill Creek “Expressway” or are you waiting for the tow trucks to pull the jackknifed semi-trailer from the Cut In The Hill?

Post Three - Go West: Part 2

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I live in a social experiment. My home is a three story townhouse built where Lincoln Court, the southernmost of the nineteen-forties housing projects that once flanked Ezzard Charles Drive, which was once Lincoln Park Drive, about halfway between Music Hall and Union Terminal, which stands on what was once Lincoln Park, all of which was a stone’s throw from an Indian mound at Sixth and Mound Streets that was leveled in the city’s earliest days.

The social experiment is to see whether replacing a concentration of low income renters in outmoded metropolitan housing with a mix of rental units and owner occupied houses and a mix of subsidized and unsubsidized citizens will be a good thing for the city.

I didn’t have dreams of living in a social experiment. After thirty years of rehabilitating old houses, I had dreams of living in a house with electrical outlets where I needed them to be and a garage with an automatic door. I’ve lived in the social experiment for four years now, and I can tell you that being able to plug in the vacuum cleaner in the room it/s going to be used in is worth any amount of money. As it happens, the price on the house was very good, there’s a pleasantly long tax abatement, the neighbors in my row are better dressed than I am, and my wife, who grew up in the suburbs and wasn’t keen to go back there, is happy. So my particular experiment is working.

I still get a kick setting out on foot for the opera from a front door that’s just a couple of blocks away from where I used to park on the street in order to beat the rapacious fees charged by the Music Hall garage.
From time to time, people whose ideas of city life are formed by breathless local newscasters ask if it isn’t dangerous here. I don’t know whether to tell them that the most menacing aspect seems to be the surprisingly large population of fairly aggressive crows that hang around the neighborhood.

Post Two - Go West: Part 1

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Years ago, fresh out of school, full of energy and bent on carving out a life, my wife and I joined close friends in a hunt for property in town that we could afford to fix up and live in. We wanted something close to the center city, something with a little character, the antithesis of the suburban dream.

What can I say? The sixties had just happened.

We drove through nineteenth century street after nineteenth century street in the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. To our disappointment, Mt. Adams, the obvious choice was already too wonderful and way too expensive for beginners. As it happened, the combination of right house and right price in 1972 turned out to be in the triangle of streets at the eastern end of Over-the-Rhine, so it was there that we started tearing out the tons of linoleum, carpeting, venetian blinds, and, in one case, a basement full of tires that had accumulated in the checkered lives of our houses. It was and is a great neighborhood. Our children were born there and we still have friends on the old block.

But I never forgot our first look at the West End, which had its own flavor and history, an unbeatable location a walk away from Fountain Square, and a beauty that the wise Enquirer artist Caroline Williams turned to time and again in her superb line drawings. So when, after many years and several moves, the chance came up to buy into the West End, we did it.

We are, from time to time, congratulated for what some people seem to think moving to the West End was a bold act. There was nothing bold about it. It was the right place at the right time in a city that is, at long last, appearing to have its own right time.

Post One - Best In Class

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A few years ago the Powers That Be, faced with impossible expense and nearly insurmountable technical difficulties, backed off of a plan to make Cincinnati’s convention center roughly the size of the airport in order to compete with Chicago’s McCormick Place and other enormous convention centers. The fallback position was to make the place a little bit bigger and a lot better. The catchword was Best In Class.

That was smart. The changes are good, and business seems to be coming back. It’s an intelligently planned and well executed convention center, and I think Duke Energy got a great deal.

Best In Class seems to be where we’re headed with the city, and that’s even better. There were years when the planners and fixers seemed to be perpetually apologetic for Cincinnati’s not being New York. They never seemed to grasp that Florence doesn’t apologize for not being Milan, that Oxford has no desire to be London, or that Denver is perfectly fine with being Denver rather than Seattle.

A different mentality seems to be in place now, and it shows. The moves the city has made in recent years, the moves the city is making now seem no longer to have as their raison d’etre to be the next Jacksonville or Charlotte or even, God help us, Indianapolis, but to be the best Cincinnati. There appears at last to be an understanding in the right places that the intellectual wealth here is at a level with the great physical beauty of our city, that we can make adult decisions with the involvement of people from every reach of the metropolis, and that the past is the past.

It will be good to be best.

Editor's Note: Don't forget to check back tomorrow to read Albert's views on urban living.

Post 3 - The Case for Place Branding

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The Case For Place Branding

In my current role, I am often asked why I believe place branding is a right strategy for accelerating the economic growth of a location.

Global competition for capital investment in increasing, driven in part by companies deciding to increase their capability and capacity to service emerging markets in Asia. This puts pressure on the amount of practically available capital for investing in developed markets. Additionally, advances in telecommunications are making it possible for companies to service developed markets from virtually any location that can provide a high-speed internet connection. Limited dollars and increased choice are the classic conditions that demand effective place branding to attract capital investment and drive accelerated economic growth.

Place branding is a strategy being used by an increasing number of locations around the world to effectively compete for an increased share of foreign direct investment dollars and capital expansion of resident companies. However, too often place branding initiatives are little more than sales campaigns with limited sustainable impact.

I think the work supported by Cincinnati USA to communicate the region's promise and the purposeful integration with the Ohio branding work to ensure delivery of a consistent and persuasive message, is among the best in class examples. The Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland business communities are supporting similar initiatives. From my vantage point, this is a very positive development that will make Ohio even more competitive for capital investment. However, other locations like St. Louis, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City, Triangle Park, and so on, are strengthening their investment and capabilities in place branding as well. We need to continue to focus efforts on improving our state and local business environment, and on effectively communicating our Ohio and Regional brand promises to potential capital investors.

I thought you might find it interesting to read the following 7 tips I provide to economic development professionals to help ensure maximum return on investment from place branding efforts. The greater Cincinnati region does a good job across all seven. Continuing to keep these in mind will help ensure long-term success.

TIP #1 – Create a team of trusted advisors.
It is important you seek the guidance of marketing professionals to cut through the jargon used by advertising agencies and place branding consultants. They can help ensure the process being recommended will deliver the results you expect, and the price is reasonable. These experts can easily be found in private industry companies. Your board of directors is a good place to start looking for a marketing professional resource to provide you guidance. Often, just a couple of meetings with professional marketers during the strategic phase of your place branding initiative can make a huge difference in ensuring a positive outcome.

TIP #2 – Enroll your business community thought leaders as ambassadors.
One sure way to cripple a place branding initiative is to involve too many opinions and not enough data. Thought leaders can be key in helping you enroll local private and public sector managers to the design and output of your place branding initiative. Defining the right brand promise without having broad based buy-in will cause you to fail. Thought leaders can often help ensure your vocal influencers are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

TIP #3 – Focus on a few industries and do the job well.
No industry or company wants to be left out of a place branding effort. However, in the short term it is often better to limit the playing field to gain a competitive share of promotional voice. Spreading limited resources across multiple fronts increases the risk of failure. Begin with your driving industries first. These are the industries representing the majority of your location’s gross domestic product. A good resource to help define driving industries is Moody’s economy.com database. These industries have experienced success in your area and their vitality is critical to economic growth. Build from strength. To ensure a balanced approach, select one or two emerging industries to add to your focused portfolio. This conscious and controlled speculation is often prudent to managing your economic portfolio. Your budget and internal resources will guide your decision on how many industries is too many to focus on.

TIP #4 – Get to know industry experts in your business community.
Once you’ve selected industries to focus your place branding efforts against, you need to generate insights into which assets in your area are key points of competitive difference. Industry experts can keep you current on emerging trends that will affect profitability and global competitiveness. They are outstanding sounding boards to evaluate campaign concepts proposed by your agencies. They help keep your communication focused and relevant.

TIP #5 – Translate your location assets into business benefits.
There is an old saying in business circles … features tell, but benefits sell. An excellent university is a wonderful feature. The benefit is a sustainable pipeline of qualified labor. You need to connect the dots for the capital investor and explain the business value of your location assets. Great branding copy states the benefit and uses features as reasons to believe the benefit can be realized. Your industry experts are an effective resource to help you understand why an asset is important to their business performance. It is often easiest to brainstorm the most important assets in your area and then use your industry experts to ladder the assets up into benefits.

TIP #6 – Partner with other communities in your region to be more competitive.
Economic clusters are not limited by geographic boundaries. Often a manufacturers supply chain will include multiple communities and regions. When communities have an interdependent economy, then the assets of the broader geography are important to consider. These assets can be leveraged to make a more compelling case than could be made by focusing on your community alone. And, if there is true interdependence, a capital investment made anywhere within the economic cluster benefits everybody connected to it.

TIP #7 – Provide adequate support for your project.
Two truths about place branding is that it takes time and costs money. If you want to change people’s opinion about your location quickly, you need to be prepared to invest to buy a leadership share of voice. If you have a limited budget, you need to be patient to see measurable results. This is a hard, but important, discussion to have with your community leaders. You need a sustainable effort at competitive levels to make a difference in the minds of capital investment decision makers.

Post 2 - Capital Investment Decisions are Based on Emotion

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Capital Investment Decisions are Based on Emotion

In my last post, I made a promise to deliver on my personal brand equity of "provocative professor". I am hoping you find the title of this blog starts to payoff on the provocative component of my equity. To understand why I believe that in the end capital investment decisions are based on emotion rather than hard, cold, rational facts, I need to share what I have learned about the process.

There are three Moments of Truth in the capital investment decision process. The First Moment is about winning the right to compete. This is when the capital investor (or consultant) is seeking to converge on a few locations for due diligence. These locations receive a request for proposal. In this phase, any misperception may be sufficient to eliminate a location from receiving an RFP. The elimination choice is typically emotionally based versus rationally based.

The Second Moment of Truth is winning the competition. This is the Moment where the capital investor "kicks the tires" and seeks to understand what the risks and benefits are to building a business in each location. A detailed set of questions and data requirements are provided, and a project net present value is calculated over the project’s planning horizon. This is not a closed bid process, so most of the time the CEO is faced with 2 – 3 projects that have essentially equivalent NPV valuations and meet the minimum criteria for selection. There is no longer a rational basis to differentiate one choice from the others. The CEO then is forced to decide based on perception. This perception is formed over time and either reinforced or reprogrammed during the evaluation process. But it is the emotional perception of the CEO that drives the final location choice decision.

The Third Moment of Truth is all about winning the repeat investment. This Moment is won or lost based on the actual day-to-day experience the executive and employees have while working and living in the location. The interaction creates a perception that makes the location feel like either the ideal choice to grow a business, or a wrong choice to continue investing capital in. This is the Moment where you hope to create passion for and loyalty to the location that can be leveraged when the opportunity for expansion arises. And, when that Moment arrives, the decision to go or stay will be fundamentally emotional, albeit rationalized with a financial argument.

In each Moment, there is a choice that is underpinned by both rational and emotional considerations. But, the final choice in each Moment requires the CEO to assume risk and is ultimately made based on emotional considerations supported by a rational argument.

The implication of this insight is the critical importance of positively influencing perception in each Moment of Truth. The best location that "feels" wrong will rarely, if ever, be selected for capital investment. Making a competitive rational argument is, more often than not, the "ticket to entry" versus the reason for selection. The question this begs is "Are economic development professionals investing sufficient time, energy and money in creating a strong, heart opening emotional connection with capital investors?". My observation is that the answer is no. More attention should be invested in addressing the needs of Companies currently working to build a successful business in a location. For perspective, the national data argue that roughly 80% of new job growth will come from Companies already in a given location like a Region or state. Consequently, delivering against the needs of existing Companies helps create a collaborative partnership relationship that builds passion for a location and makes it "feel" like home. This passion becomes a powerful barrier to relocation and helps retain and expand jobs in an area.

Because successful collaboration is such an important driver to winning the Third Moment of Truth, I thought it might be helpful to share 9 keys to success I have compiled from research, the wisdom of others, and personal experience.

1. Senior leadership involvement. It is important to establish a single point of accountability within each partnering group (or geography) who is committed to the success of the collaboration. This person must have decision-making authority and the ability to bring additional resources to the alliance on an as needed basis in order to overcome inevitable obstacles. Without senior leadership commitment, collaborations are at risk of failing the first time there is a difference of opinion in direction or a perceived unequal benefit. It is important that all appropriate levels of government are represented.

2. Adequate resources to get the job done. This includes having the right people/organizations involved and sufficient funding to achieve the objective. Many collaborations fall apart because the resources were never put in place to permit success, or funds were anticipated and never materialized.

3. Clear objectives. Collaborations are an organizational choice to more efficiently or effectively achieve a specific objective. The objective needs to be transparently defined, time bound and understood by everybody involved.

4. Clear roles and responsibilities. It is extremely important each member of the collaboration understands what is expected of him or her and how their contribution helps deliver the overall objective. A set of aligned guiding principles helps ensure collaborative behavior and conflict resolution.

5. Frequent, respectful communication. The leaders at all levels must be routinely and fully informed to ensure the best decisions are being made and appropriate progress is being delivered. This is often facilitated through face-to-face meetings and written updates. Key is objectivity and candor.

6. Formal decision structure. Unilateral decision-making creates distrust and is the surest path to failure of the collaboration. A defined process helps the operating Team by establishing decision rights between the Team and Leadership levels. One of the more effective decision processes is the RACI model. A description of the model can be found at the following website -http://finance.isixsigma.com/library/content/c040211a.asp

7. Measurement of progress. Collaborations need to have a measurement system in place to provide all members with feedback on progress. This helps to establish realistic expectations and forces data driven decisions.

8. Integrated work systems. It is important that partners bring their unique resources to the collaboration and that common work is done in a consistent way. For example, leads generated for economic development need to be managed in a consistent manner by all members of the collaboration.

9. Aligned conflict resolution process. It is important that decisions are made that focus on delivering the objective and managed constructively. Partners must keep common interests in mind. They need to clarify the issue, seek to understand the partner’s point-of-view, present their own point-of-view, discuss the differences and resolve to solve the problem together. How collaborations manage through conflict has a large effect on overall success or failure.

Post 1 - Stand for something or the world will either define or forget you

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Stand for something or the world will either define you or forget you

When I speak on the topic of branding, I typically start with the concept that a brand is a promise. It sets an expectation of what the experience will be when interacting with your offering. This concept applies equally well to tangible products like consumer package goods and, as I have come to learn, conceptual products like the state of Ohio. For a brand to be effective, it requires several things. It must be relevant, competitive and authentic. In my experience, when brands fail it is because they have fallen short on one or more of these requirements.

In subsequent blog submissions, I am going to share some of my learning on translating the principles of classic product branding to place branding. In this posting, I want to focus on Brand You; the application of branding principles on you as a leader in business and the community.

The concept isn’t new or novel. In fact, I would encourage you to read the book entitled The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters. It is a quick and fascinating read. Tom does a really nice job of helping you see yourself as a brand and forcing you to consider the implications.

Two of my P&G mentors (shhhh, they may not know they are), Bob McDonald who gave me the challenge and Charlotte Otto who taught me the way, got me started on a personal journey to discover my brand. And a third P&G mentor, Jim Stengel helped me get comfortable with my core equity (which I will share at the end).

What struck me the hardest in the journey was this notion of defining yourself for others versus letting others define you, assuming they care enough to do so, and don’t simply choose to forget you. The idea of living a life defined by others did not hold an appeal for me.

The tangible output of my Brand You exercise is a document I authored and share broadly titled 12 Things I Believe. I thought, by way of introduction, it would make sense to share it with you in this first blog posting. Hopefully, you will find it an interesting skim.

12 Things I Believe

1. Superior insight is the key to winning in business.
It begins with genuinely caring about meeting the true needs of your consumer or customer, and then delivering against them. Insight requires you to suspend your beliefs, listen, empathize, and walk the mile in their shoes.

2. Writing improves thinking.
I’ve learned it is better to fail on paper than in the market. Writing forces you to expose your logic to critique, and flaws are more easily identified. Writing is a means to an end. It takes courage to commit thinking to paper for others to judge.

3. Integrity and trust are earned by one’s behavior, not words.
I believe what is said behind someone’s back is a truer measure of the individual’s character than what is said directly to their face.

4. Success is best measured by sustained performance.
Leaving a personal mark requires focus on building organizational purpose and capability. Winning once may be simple luck. Winning time after time requires skill, passion, and clear vision.

5. Teaching somebody to fish is the greatest gift you can give.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

6. Truth has boundaries.
My professors in theoretical mathematics taught you not only need to understand the conditions under which something is true; but, also the conditions that make it false. Many times when reasonable people disagree, it is because they are not looking at the same facts. Getting clarity on the "truth" of a situation by looking at it through another person’s eyes often leads to a third alternative solution. As boundaries are understood, they are often expanded. The only limits are those of vision. Seeing beyond your own horizon is key.

7. There are some choices that are always wrong regardless of circumstances.
A mentor of mine positioned this as choosing the harder right versus the easy wrong. As an Eagle Scout, I have learned the importance of having a strong moral compass to guide your actions. In business, it is sometimes helpful to leave your ego at the door; it is even sometimes helpful to suspend your personal values to understand another culture’s view; however, it is never right to abandon your morals.

8. People begin each day with the hope of contributing value and being valued.
Nobody consciously chooses to fail. The key to success is to help people achieve the greatness that is inside them. To see that greatness, coach it and nurture it so people can maximize their personal performance.

9. It is always better to inspire than inform.
People intellectually committed can achieve impressive results. But, great things are achieved when people are emotionally committed. I have always been impressed by the underdogs who defy the odds and win. They play with passion and often will their way to success. They inspire greatness in others because of their actions.

10. Agreeing to disagree is a valid outcome.
If two reasonable people cannot find a win:win solution that benefits both, then it is appropriate to "agree to disagree agreeably" and have no deal. This position avoids the destructive behaviors of manipulation, pushing for your position at the expense of others, and disrespect.

11. When you plan to win, and prepare to win, then you have a right to expect to win.
A disciplined process of thinking dramatically increases the odds of success.

12. Service above self is true leadership.
A servant leader is willing to place self-interest behind the goal of achieving the Organization’s objectives and helping others to win. It is a method for empowering people and enhancing Organizational productivity.

So, what is my personal brand? Jim Stengel describes it as "provocative professor." When Jim first shared it with me, I will candidly admit I wasn’t certain if I approved. It wasn’t an equity that brings to mind images of an aggressive leader, a take-charge manager, or a hard driver. It felt soft and a little mushy to my ego. That was nearly a decade ago when Jim shared his insight with me. And over the last decade, I have come to appreciate why he is a corporate marketing officer in P&G. Jim had succinctly summed up my personal equity in two words, only 20 letters.

Now I embrace my brand and unabashedly promise your experience when interacting with me will be to have your paradigms challenged and your understanding of brand building deepened. With that promise, look forward to my next posting on the Three Moments of Truth in the capital investment decision process.

Post 3 - Times of Change

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We're in a tough spot at Richards Industries at times - a manufacturing company that is placed right in the heart of one of the nicest residential neighborhoods in Cincinnati. We've strived over the years to be the best neighbor we can be to both the surrounding businesses and residents. It's part of our culture - one of giving back and supporting the community. We have to stay up to speed with the proposed changes to the neighborhood and how they might affect our business.

It's always been important to us to hire people who we feel will fit in with the family here. One of the last questions we ask before we hire someone is "would I take this person home with me for dinner with my family?" If the answer isn't yes, we have some additional interviewing we need to do. The point is that we are a family based company in the heart of a residential community... and we're a manufacturer.

And according to the news, the papers, etc., the competition in manufacturing and in the business world in general is fierce... and probably only getting more and more competitive. Today we face more competition than ever before; opportunities don't last as long as they used to; We have to be able to make changes quickly if we want to truly make change a competitive advantage and succeed versus our competition.

Over the last several years I've seen a lot of proposed change and a lot of opposition to change in Hyde Park and in Cincinnati. For the most part, I've witnessed more people being scared of or opposed to change than I have seen people who accept it. I see or hear about the struggles in many companies who are going through tough times when the economy shifts. But not at Richards Industries. Even in tough times, we've taken care of our employees. In fact, there's never been a layoff in Richards Industries' history. We attribute this to both the broad customer base as well as careful workforce management. We're conservative in terms of the workforce and our approach has paid off.

One of the more valuable lessons I've learned over the years, basically growing up at Richards Industries, is to embrace change. We've done a lot of things over the last few years to continue changing and growing with or ahead of the industry.

The universal truth is that things change and the pace of change is accelerating every day! For us at Richards Industries, it means that we need to embrace change and master adapting to it. Because we're a small company, instead of fearing change, we have the opportunity to take advantage of it and use it as a competitive advantage. Change is a part of our daily lives.

The reality is that no company can master change just because the management team tells employees to do so. We have to all be on that bus together... The accelerating pace of change is an opportunity for us to put our competition on stand-by. They'll have to react to what we're doing...trying to keep up with us.

We have a number of choices do nothing and fail, do enough to survive or be a leader and make Change a true and sustainable competitive advantage. The biggest risk we take is in doing nothing. We have to perpetually adjust, refine, innovate, adapt, and learn.

I'd love to see all of us adopt that "for now" attitude when it comes to our lives, our communities, our businesses. Information or "the way things are" doesn't have to be that way for long periods of time. The goal should be to move as fast as we can - as long as we continue to chase perfections, we'll achieve excellence along the way. Learn to accept that while whatever it is may be great today...it's inevitable that it will change...and that's a good thing. And when you go up against those who are anti-change, encourage them to become part of the solutions instead of just complainers.

Away we go...