In 2007, the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) celebrated ten years of helping women presidents of multimillion dollar companies achieve even greater success. Over the course of those ten years, President and founder Dr. Marsha Firestone learned a lot about fast-growth businesses and has had first-hand exposure to their leaders..jpeg)
To many, small is the new big (and beautiful!). Are you wooing top-notch corporate executives to work at your growing business? If not, you should be. With the U.S. economy faltering a bit, a growing number of seasoned workers are finding themselves moving from large companies toward smaller professional firms.
We felt privileged to attend the inspiring celebration for WPO Chicago downtown II chapter member Mary Bahr on her being honored by the Network of Women Entrepreneurs (NWE) at their 15th Annual Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards Breakfast February 22nd.... an intelligent, giving and hands-on leadership style.Congratulations Mary. We are very proud of you!
Facebook and MySpace have made social networking famous -- but do you need to be a social-networking company to make use of social networks? A growing number of companies don't think so, and are beginning to create their own. What's their appeal and how will it help grow your business? Find out here.
Enterprising Women Magazine has announced the 2008 Women of the Year award winners. Out of the 76 winners, 22 of them are members of the WPO -- and two are from Chicago. We are so proud!
There has been a tremendous amount of chatter about social media and social networking over the past couple of months. Both mediums bring content and information sharing from a passive to an active experience for everyone from a President (like you) to an individual who makes coffee at your local Starbucks. Think Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and Kaneva.Josh Bernoff and I conducted an interesting experiment. I (Jeremiah) encouraged the twitter community (social media, marketing, advertising mavens) to join in on providing real-time ratings about ads during the superbowl.The experiment was a huge success. They had over 2000 responses from over 70 people over a 4 hour period.
Coincidently, today is Super Tuesday where many Americans will be voting, and I see that Google and Twitter are working together to create a map mashup (read what a mashup is here) to show real-time voices of which user is voting for who.We encourage you to use these platforms as a way to grow your business, build meaningful user-generated content, interaction and long-lasting value for your clients, vendors, constituents, partners, visitors and shareholders. And if you are already, please let us know what you are doing and how you are doing it. We'd welcome a chance to share your success stories with the world.
Expect this trend of real-time rating through social media to continue, and by this time next year, I hope to work with a sophisticated group who can take our little experiment to the next level.
The Women Presidents' Organization headquarter office in New York has responded against the enactment of the new proposed rule from the Small Business Administration that limits contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses. Though there are 7.7 million businesses that are 51% owned and controlled by women (approximately one-third of all privately-held companies), only a mere 3.4% of federal procurement contracts are awarded to women- owned businesses.
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I will be out of the office but wanted to take a moment to remind you of an important event coming up on Wednesday, January 23rd.
Read more about it here. We will report additional information at the end of the month. Stay tuned. 
Happy New Year!
To our members, friends, colleagues, partners, hosts, and sponsors ... we extend our heartfelt best wishes for a joyous holiday season and successful new year!
To make sure clever people do their best work at your company, you must harness their talents.
Cross-referencing to our headquarter blog. Interesting post. We have also created a private wiki (wetpaint) for WPO Chicago members and use it to communicate important events and share knowledge.
Strategy & Business published its seventh annual survey of the year’s Best Business Books in 2007, where noted business practitioners, scholars, and journalists select and judge the most significant and useful books in their areas of expertise. This is one of my favorite things to track.
Why is this different from the other articles you have read on organizational design? 
Recently, the Wall Street Journal featured books and Web sites to help business owners prepare for an eventual transfer. Here are a few:
For priests, police officers and doctors, it isn't really possible to be completely off-duty. They may enjoy uninterrupted breaks when times are calm. But if a big enough crisis arises, it doesn't matter whether they are holding a tennis racket or taking a nap, they are expected to get back in action right away.How true, how true. See for yourself here.
It's time to add big-company chief executives, small business owners and entrepreneurs to the list of jobs that involve always being "on." Regardless of whether bosses favor laid-back or intense management styles during normal times, they need to take command -- fast and in person -- when trouble hits, no matter how much it may disrupt their lives away from the office.
It isn't easy to manage change. That's true whether it be a change in a company's business, the way an organization is structured, people's responsibilities or compensation, or anything else that disturbs the status quo.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to WPO member Sarah Stopek Hirsch, president of Sublime Promotions, Inc., in Chicago for her 2007 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year Rising Star award. She is pictured holding roses (presented to her by her WPO sisters) and surrounded by her extremely proud family. She received her award at the 2007 Women's Business Development Center Conference in Chicago.
When you put all the pieces together, a new picture (the cartoon says it all) emerges for why women don’t make it into the C-suite (and, of course, why they start businesses). It’s not the glass ceiling, but the sum of many obstacles along the way.In 1986 the Wall Street Journal’s Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt gave the world an answer: “Even those few women who rose steadily through the ranks eventually crashed into an invisible barrier. The executive suite seemed within their grasp, but they just couldn’t break through the glass ceiling.” The metaphor, driven home by the article’s accompanying illustration, resonated; it captured the frustration of a goal within sight but somehow unattainable. To be sure, there was a time when the barriers were absolute. Even within the career spans of 1980s-era executives, access to top posts had been explicitly denied. Consider comments made by President Richard Nixon, recorded on White House audiotapes and made public through the Freedom of Information Act. When explaining why he would not appoint a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, Nixon said, “I don’t think a woman should be in any government job whatsoever…mainly because they are erratic. And emotional. Men are erratic and emotional, too, but the point is a woman is more likely to be.” In a culture where such opinions were widely held, women had virtually no chance of attaining influential leadership roles.Read more here at the Harvard Business Review article, Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership, authored by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli.
Times have changed, however, and the glass ceiling metaphor is now more wrong than right.
A global survey shows that marketers already regard digital tools as very important for advertising and for managing sales and service—but frequently don’t use them. Why? Although respondents to this McKinsey study are applying both established and Web 2.0 technologies to reach customers at every stage of decision making, they complain about a shortage of skilled people to run online vehicles and about a lack of metrics to assess them. Learn “How companies are marketing online” and how they expect to be doing so in 2010. Highly recommend. It requires a quick (free) registration but it's worth it.
Picture perfect photo opportunity (L-R): Kate Koziol (President, K Squared Marketing and Public Relations), Caitlin Jenkins (national Director of Communications for WPO) and Kali Evans-Raoul (President, The Image Studios) -- all having a grand time at our booth during the conference.
Come visit us at our WPO Booth No. 636 during the Women's Business Development Conference in Chicago September 26-27 at Navy Pier. Our national Director of Communications, Caitlin Jenkins, will be on hand to meet and greet folks and several WPO Chicago members plan to attend.
It's never too early to start educating young women about the merits to entrepreneurship. In this Entrepreneur magazine article, "Girl Power," WPO is recognized for putting on a nationwide event that brought together women entrepreneurs and elementary-age girls in 11 cities from Phoenix to Toronto, all to play the game Cashflow for Kids. WPO members served as facilitators, and mentors, helping the girls learn lessons in financial literacy.
As president of your organization, what happens if you lose your spouse or partner? Or your father-in-law passes away? Do you think either of these events will impact your performance in a negative way?Such things don't normally figure in investment decisions. But maybe they should, according to a recent study by three finance professors. Mining a trove of Danish government data on thousands of businesses, they were able to track links between CEO-family deaths and the companies' profitability over a decade.Read more here for the very controversial results. Do you think employees should know as much as they can about your life before they sign on? Where do we draw the line?
It slid by about one-fifth, on average, in the two years after the death of a CEO's child, and by about 15% after the death of a spouse.
Women Presidents' Organization Chicago Survey Predicts Business Growth in 2007 for 86% of Members: Group Leadership Guides $400 Million in Regional and Global Business
I suspect that nearly all of you who run a business have had at one time or another -- employee issues. Specifically ones that run the line of expecting your employees to do things the way you would and then it doesn't happen. Right? You finally ask yourself, "What am I doing wrong that my employees just aren't motivated to get things done?" Good question.
In "The Future of Management," a book due to be published this autumn by Gary Hamel, our keynote speaker at our WPO Chicago 2006 Conference, he argues that Google's innovations go beyond the fine points of search-engine algorithms -- extending into big, enduring aspects of general management. He believes that Google is committed to building a company that can evolve as fast as the Web.Hamel explains how to turn your company into a serial management innovator, revealing:Looks like we have to wait until September 10 to find out what else Gary has to say on the hot topic of serial management innovator.
• The make-or-break challenges that will determine competitive success in an age of relentless, head-snapping change.
• The toxic effects of traditional management beliefs.
• The unconventional management practices generating breakthrough results in “modern management pioneers.”
• The radical principles that will need to become part of every company’s “management DNA.”
• The steps your company can take now to build your “management advantage.”
Our 4th Annual WPO Chicago Summit was a HUGE success. Congratulations to Dr. Marsha Firestone (our founder), Cindy Solomon (our guest speaker), all WPO Chicago members and special guests for making our event so magnificent.
Please join us for our "4th Annual WPO Chicago Summit and No-Host Dinner" on Thursday, August 9 from 11:00 a.m - 9:00 p.m. at the IBM Innovation Center. The purpose of the Summit is to learn, grow and celebrate (10-year anniversary) together!
To attend, you must be a WPO Chicago member in good standing. For further information or to register, please contact Laurel Delaney at 773-381-1700 or email her at ldelaney@globetrade.com. You need a special password to access our WPO Chicago Wiki where registration takes place.
IBM (a WPO corporate sponsor) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, launch a small business toolkit to create jobs and fuel growth in the underserved and emerging markets.
What's the best way for a small company to fund expansion? Would you rather be indebted to a banker or a venture lender? Find out what people said here.
A cross-posting off our WPO national headquarter office blog. I had to ... I just love the photo. Read more here.
Emotions play a vital role in how we make business decisions. Do you find that to be true? If so, then this article will show you how to leverage the power of emotions.
We could spend a lifetime compiling a list without ever agreeing on who deserves a mention. From the pirates of Silicon Valley to the captains of industry, there are far too many figures to choose from to give anyone the final say.
Much of the literature on entrepreneurship focuses on how to find and evaluate opportunities. But for many entrepreneurs and managers, seeing the opportunity is the easy part. The real challenge lies in seizing it.
Tomorrow's successful small business owners will be far more reliant on technology than their current counterparts. They'll be more connected in a mobile world, market to customers in ways only imagined today and blur the lines between the virtual and physical worlds as the hype surrounding today's technology becomes tomorrow's reality.
Two WPO Chicago members are award winners:
A fellow WPO member, Anne Pauker Kreitzberg, has started a blog, Leaders In the Know: Reinventing the Practice of Leadership. Anne, who is a New Jersey chapter member, encourages all WPO members (and prospects!) to participate as a guest author, share links to informative content, post comments, and maybe even begin your own blog!
Please join us for our "4th Annual WPO Chicago Summit and No-Host Dinner" on Thursday, August 9 from 11:00 a.m - 9:00 p.m. at the IBM Innovation Center. The purpose of the Summit is to learn, grow and celebrate (10-year anniversary) together!
... because they found what they love to do.You approached the same opportunity so very differently. What did you learn about running your own business that you wished you had thought of sooner or thought of first by watching the other guy?In looking back, what do you wish that you would have thought of sooner and taken action on? Do you feel like the luckiest gal on the planet?
Mr. Gates: I'd give a lot to have Steve's taste -- in terms of intuitive taste, both for people and products. We sat in Mac product reviews where there were questions about software choices, how things would be done, that I viewed as an engineering question -- that's just how my my mind works. And I'd see Steve make the decision based on a sense of people and product that is even hard for me to explain. The way he does things is just different, and I think it's magical.
Mr. Jobs: Because Woz and I started the company based on doing the whole banana, we weren't so good at partnering with people. And, you know, actually, the funny thing is, Microsoft's one of the few companies we were able to partner with that actually worked for both companies. And we weren't so good at that, where Bill and Microsoft were really good at it because they didn't make the whole thing in the early days, and they learned how to partner with people really well.
And I think if Apple could have had a little more of that in its DNA, it would have served it extremely well. And I don't think Apple learned that until a few decades later.
In case you are wondering what is involved when you receive venture capital, these documents are free and created using the “best of breed practices” and, in addition to the Venture Capital community, can be used by entrepreneurs to prepare themselves for the onslaught of due diligence and general paperwork required for almost any financing.
Family-owned businesses face unique issues—succession planning, marriages and divorces, complicated relationships—as well as routine issues that emerge around turf battles, shareholder control, compensation structures, and processes for strategic decision-making.
Here's the author's lead:Workforce Crisis had just been published; my coauthors and I had dedicated the book to our five teenage children.Read more here. Hint: The most enlightening part is the comment area. What's your reaction?
“Hey, Mom! Do you want to hear something funny?” my then-16-year-old daughter asked. “You guys have just dedicated a book on the workforce to people who never plan to be in it!”
Now, despite what it sounds like, I’m (reasonably) confident that she is not planning a life of leisure. She’s an energetic and ambitious young woman. But whatever the word “workforce” triggers in her mind, it does not describe a club she wants to join.
The ways young people respond to the language of work give us some interesting clues on the preferences of our newest adults.
How global is your business, really? Put your company to the test with Pankaj Ghemawat's Globalization Survey, and after completing it, download a free PDF of his 2006 McKinsey Award-winning article, "Regional Strategies for Global Leadership."
As you know, companies simply can't survive, let alone grow, without ingenuity and originality. UPS (who happens to be a WPO national sponsor!) understands this and today kicked off a program that seeks the best small businesses across the globe -- from Alabama to Argentina and from Zimbabwe to New Zealand.The entries will be judged by an international panel of renowned small business experts, including: Laurel Delaney, President and Founder, Global TradeSource, Ltd.; Joshua Lau, Founder and CEO of YesAsia; Juan Antonio "Oso" Oseguera, editor of Entrepreneur en Español and Hayden Bradshaw, publisher and editor of Enterprise Magazine.Read the press release here. I am honored and cannot wait. See you there!
Ever wonder where successful people get their ideas from and how startups are really created? Well this book, Founders At Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days, by Jessica Livingston will give you the answers you've been searching for and is a must-read. I could not put it down. Out of 32 founders profiled, three are women: Caterina Fake of Flickr, Mena Trott co-founder of Six Apart and Ann Winblad of Open Systems, and Hummer Winblad.
30 years ago, huge corporations dominated the business world. Read about the seismic shifts that turned America into a nation of entrepreneurs.
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