Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Eric Ries, "The Lean Startup: Innovation Through Experimentation."
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.
Every so often a business book comes along that changes how we
think about innovation and entrepreneurship... The Lean Startup has
the chops to join this exalted company. Financial Times
“The roadmap for innovation for the 21st century. The ideas in The Lean Startup will help create the next industrial revolution.” —Steve Blank, lecturer, Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School
"The key lesson of this book is that start-ups happen in the present—that messy place between the past and the future where nothing happens according to PowerPoint. Ries's ‘read and react’ approach to this sport, his relentless focus on validated learning, the never-ending anxiety of hovering between ‘persevere’ and ‘pivot’, all bear witness to his appreciation for the dynamics of entrepreneurship." —Geoffrey Moore, Author, Crossing the Chasm
"If you are an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are just curious about entrepreneurship, read this book. Starting Lean is today's best practice for innovators. Do yourself a favor and read this book." —Randy Komisar, founding director of TiVo and author of the bestselling The Monk and the Riddle
“How do you apply the 50 year old ideas of Lean to the fast-paced, high uncertainty world of Startups? This book provides a brilliant, well-documented, and practical answer. It is sure to become a management classic.” —Don Reinertsen, author of The Principles of Product Development Flow
“The Lean Startup is a foundational must-read for founders, enabling them to reduce product failures by bringing structure and science to what is usually informal and an art. It provides actionable ways to avoid product-learning mistakes, rigorously evaluate early signals from the market through validated learning, and decide whether to persevere or to pivot, all challenges that heighten the chance of entrepreneurial failure.” —Professor Noam Wasserman, Harvard Business School
“One of the best and most insightful new books on entrepreneurship and management I’ve ever read. Should be required reading not only for the entrepreneurs that I work with, but for my friends and colleagues in various industries who have inevitably grappled with many of the challenges that The Lean Startup addresses.” —Eugene J. Huang, Partner, True North Venture Partners
"What would happen if businesses were built from the ground up to learn what their customers really wanted? The Lean Startup is the foundation for reimagining almost everything about how work works. Don't let the word startup in the title confuse you. This is a cookbook for entrepreneurs in organizations of all sizes." —Roy Bahat, President, IGN Entertainment
“Every founding team should stop for 48 hours and read Lean Startup. Seriously stop and read this book now.” —Scott Case, CEO Startup America Partnership
“In business, a ‘lean’ enterprise is sustainable efficiency in action. Eric Ries’ revolutionary Lean Startup method will help bring your new business idea to an end result that is successful and sustainable. You’ll find innovative steps and strategies for creating and managing your own startup while learning from the real-life successes and collapses of others. This book is a must read for entrepreneurs who are truly ready to start something great!” —Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The One Minute Entrepreneur
“Every entrepreneur responsible for innovation within their organization should read this book. It entertainingly and meticulously develops a rigorous science for the innovation process through the methodology of “lean thinking”. This methodology provides novel and powerful tools for companies to improve the speed and efficiency of their innovation processes through minimum viable products, validated learning, innovation accounting, and actionable metrics. These tools will help organizations large and small to sustain innovation by effectively leveraging the time, passion, and skill of their talent pools.” —Andrea Goldsmith, professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and cofounder of several startups
“Business is too important to be left to luck. Eric reveals the rigorous process that trumps luck in the invention of new products and new businesses. We've made this a centerpiece of how teams work in my company . . . it works! This book is the guided tour of the key innovative practices used inside Google, Toyota, and Facebook, that work in any business.” —Scott Cook, Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit
About the Author
ERIC RIES is an entrepreneur and author of the popular blog Startup Lessons Learned. He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup, and has had plenty of startup failures along the way. He is a frequent speaker at business events, has advised a number of startups, large companies, and venture capital firms on business and product strategy, and is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School. His Lean Startup methodology has been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, and many blogs. He lives in San Francisco.
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.
Every so often a business book comes along that changes how we
think about innovation and entrepreneurship... The Lean Startup has
the chops to join this exalted company. Financial Times
“The roadmap for innovation for the 21st century. The ideas in The Lean Startup will help create the next industrial revolution.” —Steve Blank, lecturer, Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School
"The key lesson of this book is that start-ups happen in the present—that messy place between the past and the future where nothing happens according to PowerPoint. Ries's ‘read and react’ approach to this sport, his relentless focus on validated learning, the never-ending anxiety of hovering between ‘persevere’ and ‘pivot’, all bear witness to his appreciation for the dynamics of entrepreneurship." —Geoffrey Moore, Author, Crossing the Chasm
"If you are an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are just curious about entrepreneurship, read this book. Starting Lean is today's best practice for innovators. Do yourself a favor and read this book." —Randy Komisar, founding director of TiVo and author of the bestselling The Monk and the Riddle
“How do you apply the 50 year old ideas of Lean to the fast-paced, high uncertainty world of Startups? This book provides a brilliant, well-documented, and practical answer. It is sure to become a management classic.” —Don Reinertsen, author of The Principles of Product Development Flow
“The Lean Startup is a foundational must-read for founders, enabling them to reduce product failures by bringing structure and science to what is usually informal and an art. It provides actionable ways to avoid product-learning mistakes, rigorously evaluate early signals from the market through validated learning, and decide whether to persevere or to pivot, all challenges that heighten the chance of entrepreneurial failure.” —Professor Noam Wasserman, Harvard Business School
“One of the best and most insightful new books on entrepreneurship and management I’ve ever read. Should be required reading not only for the entrepreneurs that I work with, but for my friends and colleagues in various industries who have inevitably grappled with many of the challenges that The Lean Startup addresses.” —Eugene J. Huang, Partner, True North Venture Partners
"What would happen if businesses were built from the ground up to learn what their customers really wanted? The Lean Startup is the foundation for reimagining almost everything about how work works. Don't let the word startup in the title confuse you. This is a cookbook for entrepreneurs in organizations of all sizes." —Roy Bahat, President, IGN Entertainment
“Every founding team should stop for 48 hours and read Lean Startup. Seriously stop and read this book now.” —Scott Case, CEO Startup America Partnership
“In business, a ‘lean’ enterprise is sustainable efficiency in action. Eric Ries’ revolutionary Lean Startup method will help bring your new business idea to an end result that is successful and sustainable. You’ll find innovative steps and strategies for creating and managing your own startup while learning from the real-life successes and collapses of others. This book is a must read for entrepreneurs who are truly ready to start something great!” —Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The One Minute Entrepreneur
“Every entrepreneur responsible for innovation within their organization should read this book. It entertainingly and meticulously develops a rigorous science for the innovation process through the methodology of “lean thinking”. This methodology provides novel and powerful tools for companies to improve the speed and efficiency of their innovation processes through minimum viable products, validated learning, innovation accounting, and actionable metrics. These tools will help organizations large and small to sustain innovation by effectively leveraging the time, passion, and skill of their talent pools.” —Andrea Goldsmith, professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and cofounder of several startups
“Business is too important to be left to luck. Eric reveals the rigorous process that trumps luck in the invention of new products and new businesses. We've made this a centerpiece of how teams work in my company . . . it works! This book is the guided tour of the key innovative practices used inside Google, Toyota, and Facebook, that work in any business.” —Scott Cook, Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit
About the Author
ERIC RIES is an entrepreneur and author of the popular blog Startup Lessons Learned. He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup, and has had plenty of startup failures along the way. He is a frequent speaker at business events, has advised a number of startups, large companies, and venture capital firms on business and product strategy, and is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School. His Lean Startup methodology has been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, and many blogs. He lives in San Francisco.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The Business of Running a Business with Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady
(Melinda Emerson, Karen Taylor Bass, James Andrews and Pam Perry #twitter buddies)
Ken Harris, former MMSDC VP, now President Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce
Hear the Diverse Business show
with Melinda Emerson and Ken Harris
Listen to internet radio with Diverse Business on Blog Talk Radio
Monday, December 5, 2011
2011 Stars of Diversity Winners and Download the Program book
"Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure." - Napoleon Hill
Motor Company's Global Purchasing Vice President, Mr. Tony Brown. Through his leadership MMSDC has increased it footprint in the global economy and opened doors for even greater success in the future.
To celebrate this milestone, MMSDC will "Pay It Forward" by awarding scholarships of $2000 each to 10 minority disadvantaged students. This exciting program will assist students in Michigan to achieve their academic and professional goals
Here is the program book, download it! http://www.minoritysupplier.net/awards/awards_book.pdf
Ford won "Corporation of the Year"
Pictured: Louis Green (left) and Ford Motor Company Staffers, Tony Brown
Tony Brown
Since January 2009, MMSDC corporate members and certified minority businesses received tremendous opportunities and growth through our chairman of the board, Tony Brown.
Motor Company's Global Purchasing Vice President, Mr. Tony Brown. Through his leadership MMSDC has increased it footprint in the global economy and opened doors for even greater success in the future.
To celebrate this milestone, MMSDC will "Pay It Forward" by awarding scholarships of $2000 each to 10 minority disadvantaged students. This exciting program will assist students in Michigan to achieve their academic and professional goals
Here is the program book, download it! http://www.minoritysupplier.net/awards/awards_book.pdf
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The 3s of Supplier Diversity #nmsdc2011
BRIAN TIPPENS | INNOVATION MATTERS
There is no global supplier diversity “cookie cutter-method” for implementation. It is a mistake for companies to believe they can be successful by simply adopting a “copy exactly” approach and transporting the companies’ U.S. supplier diversity tools, processes, and policies into non-U.S. locations. While some process and policy consistency is required, supplier diversity programs must be adapted to reflect the cultural and societal norms of the geographies in which they are implemented.
Despite these regional differences in implementation, the business case for global supplier diversity is consistent. I frequently discuss this business case in the context of what I refer to as “the three C’s” of supplier diversity:
Compliance
In the United States, many companies’ supplier diversity programs are built around a compliance core. These programs are designed to help ensure that the company meets compliance requirements mandated by its public-sector customers. The U.S. federal government requires that any company that provides goods and services to it, above a certain mandated minimum level, meets aggressive goals of subcontracting spend with a list of enumerated categories of underrepresented small businesses. These categories include ethnic-minority-owned, woman-owned, and veteran-owned businesses.
These compliance requirements have become pervasive over the past 50 years as many states, municipalities, school districts, and other public sector entities have developed supplier diversity mandates that mirror or closely reflect the U.S. federal requirements. Even companies that don’t source directly to the public sector may be required to adhere to these types of requirements, if they source to other private sector companies which themselves are public sector suppliers and are required to “flow down” requirements.
With limited exceptions, outside of the United States there are no similar legislative mandates requiring that companies subcontract with diverse businesses. While no other countries have identical mandates to the United States for minority business inclusion, two countries have enacted their own legislative framework to ensure inclusion of minorities or disadvantaged people. First, there is the case of South Africa and their Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BEE) legislation. Second, more recently, is Australia, which has implemented requirements for including indigenous aboriginal-owned businesses in certain contracts. In addition, while visible minorities in Canada are not included in any government scheme for protected status, they do have a government set aside for Aboriginals based on self-certification. However, absent extensive compelling mandates, supplier diversity performance has been slow to expand outside of the United States.
Those companies that have chosen to expand their global supplier diversity programs outside of the United States for compliance reasons, have done so with an aim to:
Address existing or developing supplier diversity mandates that currently exist in regions where those companies do business outside of the United States (for example, to meet the requirements of Australia’s Indigenous Opportunities Program (IOP) or the South African Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment code requirements); or
Remain “ahead of the legislative curve” by designing and implementing robust supplier diversity procurement policies ahead of government mandates in regions that appear to be evaluating the adoption of such mandates.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
These policies are seen to function as built-in, self-regulating mechanisms whereby businesses monitor and ensure active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. Many companies position their supplier diversity programs as supporting CSR pillars, by:
Enhancing the company image and brand by demonstrating commitment to high ethical standard of inclusion
Working to ensure that the diversity of the company’s supplier base reflects that of its employee base and customer mix
Supporting the CSR requirements of its customer in the marketplace.
These CSR drivers are not at all unique to U.S. supplier diversity programs. It can truly be said that, with these drivers in mind, …if ensuring an inclusive supply chain is ‘the right thing to do’ in the United States, it is ‘the right thing to do’ everywhere that the Company does business …
Competitive Advantage
Among the most successful of U.S.-based supplier diversity programs are those hosted by companies that position the programs as a business imperative, a revenue enabler, a competitive advantage. Hewlett-Packard, for example, estimates in it’s Global Citizenship Report that in 2010 more than $10 billion -worth of business required the company to demonstrate its efforts in supplier diversity.
By working to meet contractual- and compliance-driven diversity subcontracting requirements of its customers, a company with a business-to-business (B2B) sales model can leverage its supplier diversity performance to win in the marketplace. Similarly, a company with a business-to-consumer (B2C) business model can weave its supplier diversity investments in diverse communities into its marketing and advertising and help it to create a competitive advantage across a diverse consumer base.
Collectively, these elements combine to form the business case—a set of compelling drivers for global supplier diversity expansion. Note that not every company will find each of the three important to the same degree, if at all.
Source: The 3 C’s of Supplier Diversity | Brian Tippens | Innovation Matters
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