News of Interest: New Rule Hurts Not Helps Women-Owned Businesses

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.

The new rule is a flawed amendment to Public Law 106-554. Public Law 106-544 was passed in 2000 to give federal contracting officers the ability to restrict competition for up to 5% of all prime contracts to women-owned businesses whose industries are under- represented. The amendment is flawed because it only identifies four industries in which women-owned businesses are under-represented in contracting: cabinetmaking, engraving, other motor vehicle dealers, and national security and international affairs.

Read more here.

Event of Interest: Accelerating the Growth of Businesses Owned By Women of Color

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.

The Center for Women's Business Research's groundbreaking 3-year study -- Accelerating the Growth of Businesses Owned by Women of Color -- centers around a series of focused research forums across the country, where women business owners of color will participate, educate, network, and learn.

One of our very own WPO Chicago members, Tracey Alston, will be serving as a panelist.

More information can be found here. Hope to see you there!

News of Interest: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 Report Released

The latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 Report has been released.

Download it here.

News of Interest: WPO Annual International Conference in Boston April 24-26

Read more about it here. We will report additional information at the end of the month. Stay tuned.

Malcolm Gladwell (pictured) is one of our keynote speakers!

Sound Advice: Trend Toolkit for 2008

Happy New Year!

To help you focus on now and the future, we have put together a batch of trends -- better referred to as a "trend toolkit" -- to watch and capitalize on in the coming year.

From the WPO Chicago hub we say this: Make it great in ’08!

Prediction for 2008: Business and Website Globalization, Technology, and Business Models

Web Globalization Predictions: 2008 and Beyond

Resolutions To Do Business Globally in 2008

Eight Business Technology Trends To Watch

Advertising Trends to Watch in 2008

Top 10 Marketing Trends for 2008 (look for the listing and PDF file to download)

10 Media Trends to Watch in 2008

2008 Top Hotel and Restaurant Trends to Watch

Ten Wine Trends to Watch in 2008

Six Enterprise Application Trends to Watch in 2008

5 Wireless Trends to Watch in 2008

Small Business Trends (constantly updated)

Five Tech Trends to Watch in 2008

8 Important Consumer Trends for 2008

Seven Virtualization Trends to Watch in 2008

E-commerce Trends to Watch in 2008

E-business Trends to Watch in 2008

Packaging Trends to Watch in 2008

Pantone Fashion Color Report for Spring 2008

Financial Trends for 2008 by Wall Street & Technology

Stuck? Visit Google's Trends Lab

Have we missed your trend report? Let us know and we will post it.

Season's Greetings from WPO Chicago!

To our members, friends, colleagues, partners, hosts, and sponsors ... we extend our heartfelt best wishes for a joyous holiday season and successful new year!

Together ... let us grow, let us grow, let us grow!

Article of Interest: Leading Clever People

To make sure clever people do their best work at your company, you must harness their talents.

Who most determines your company’s success? Clever people—employees whose knowledge and skills enable them to produce disproportionate value for your firm. Think the pharmaceutical researcher who formulates a new drug, or the programmer who creates a new piece of code. Their single innovation may bankroll their entire organization for a decade.

To make sure clever people do their best work at your company, you must harness their talents. But that isn’t easy: Clever people don’t want to be led. They don’t care about titles or promotions. And they’re easily bored.

What to do? Find out more here.

Sound Advice: What Is a Wiki?

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.

Are you using a wiki? If so, how?

Sound Advice: Books To Read in 2008

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.

See what you missed and get busy reading in 2008! Go here for list (may require quick registration).

Article of Interest: Do You Need To Redesign Your Organization for 2008?

Why is this different from the other articles you have read on organizational design?

First, it is clearly focused on communicating a process for creating any new or different organization. The emphasis is on how you get there, not what it looks like when the process is done.

Second, this process is flexible and can be used in large or small organizations.

Third, the authors (Diane Beakey, Phd, Kathleen Wells Webster, MBA and Jackie Rubin, PhD) have integrated the thinking of both those who emphasize process improvement (working from the bottom up) and those who operate from a more strategic perspective (working from the top down).

Start at the beginning. Take the "Pop Quiz" and find out if you need to redesign your organization.

Hint: Focus on "excellence."

Sound Advice: Books and Web Sites To Build Your Business

Recently, the Wall Street Journal featured books and Web sites to help business owners prepare for an eventual transfer. Here are a few:

1. Family Business Succession: The Final Test of Greatness

Respects the time of a busy entrepreneur who's got to start thinking about succession.

2. Exit Strategy Planning: Grooming Your Business for Sale or Succession

Talks about the reality of selling versus succession.

3. Family Firm Institute

A broad resource for issues of business continuity, family-management strategies and ownership transfer.

4. National Center for Employee Ownership

A valuable resource when an Employee Stock Ownership Plan is a viable alternative.

To see more on this post, go to the WSJ's Independent Street.

Article of Interest: For CEOs, Off-Duty Isn't an Option

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.

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.

How true, how true. See for yourself here.

Article of Interest: Making Change

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.

Among other things, an effective "change manager" has to know how to set up informal networks and delegate responsibilities, empowering people throughout the organization.

But perhaps the first step in managing change is to eliminate some common assumptions about the way change works. Here are eight of them:

1. Don't assume that individuals have a natural aptitude to adapt.
2. Don't assume that individuals will function rationally.
3. Don't assume that change is automatic.
4. Don't assume that organizations are naturally dynamic.
5. Don't assume that company culture is easy to change.
6. Don't assume that every aspect of the project will work out exactly as planned.
7. Don't assume the change manager can be effective without explicit authority.
8. Don't assume that anyone can improvise being a change manager.

To read the recommendations on steps companies should take to more effectively manage change, read the entire article here.

News of Interest: Sarah Stopek Hirsch Is Award Winner!

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.

Article of Interest: Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

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.

Here's a quick clip:

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.

Times have changed, however, and the glass ceiling metaphor is now more wrong than right.

Read more here at the Harvard Business Review article, Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership, authored by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli.

Let us know what you think.

Survey of Interest: Digital Marketing -- From Web Sites To Wikis

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.

And if you would like a simpler version to McKinsey's analysis, try this one on for size. It's a story, "Who Moved My Client Base?," about how a business owner who is faced with a slowing small business uses social media to turn things around and grow his business by tapping into a global client base. See if it strikes a chord with you. Feel free to comment and forward the story to whoever you think might benefit.

Event of Interest: WBDC Conference in Chicago 9/26-27

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.

Event of Interest: WBDC Conference in Chicago 9/26-27

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.

During the conference, a WPO Chicago member will be honored with the Rising Star Award; another is giving a keynote and still another serves as a panelist during the "Go Global" workshop! So it's not just about Martha!

Hope to see you there! More information can be found here.

Article of Interest: Girl Power

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.

How are you helping young women learn what it takes to start a business?

Article of Interest: Scholars Link Success of Firms To Lives of CEOs

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?

That is the thorny privacy question put to test in a recent study based on CEOs of publicly-traded companies and the findings are intriguing.

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.

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.

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?