Overdrive : August 2008
This page contains all of the articles for this month's edition of Overdrive.
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The following announcements about upcoming regional and multi-chapter events are open to all EO members. Go beyond local and tap into the resources available to you outside your home chapter!
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Event Title: EO Oktoberfest Event/BMW ExperienceHost Chapter: EO Germany - MunichDate(s): 3 October – 4 October 2008Location: Munich, GermanyDescription: Wiesn 2008 – “The festival with heart”Let’s enjoy the Bavarian way of life in the traditional “Hofbräuzelt,” with guests joining us from all over the world. Besides a jamboree in the beer tent with traditional music, the Wiesn 2008 offers a lot more. Numerous fun rides invite you to have fun and experience tremendous amusement— you will have the time of your life!Fees – BMW Experience: 150 EUR; Oktoberfest Event (with dinner the day before): 200 EURContact Information: Karin Rupprecht, eogermany-muenchen@web.de. Register: To register for the Octoberfest, including the warm-up evening in the BMW museum, click here.
Event Title: 2008 EO Singapore UniversityDate(s): 5-9 November 2008Location: Republic of SingaporeDescription: Come to our wonderful region, and be a part of the story as it continues to unfold. Bask in the hospitality and warmth, and discover the dynamism and spirit of achievement that is Singapore. For more information, visit the University's Web site. Register today!Fee: US$3,150/US$2,350Contact Information: EO Events, +1.703.519.6700, events@eonetwork.org
Event Title: 2009 EO Arizona UniversityDate(s): 25-29 March 2009Location: Arizona, USADescription: Announcing 2009's main event ... it's the EO Arizona University, where you'll experience plenty of blue skies and wild frontiers! This University will make you forget about the cold with warm weather and enough action to kick your adrenal glands into overdrive. For more information, visit the University's Web site. Register today!Fee: US$3,150/US$2,550Contact Information: EO Events , +1.703.519.6700, events@eonetwork.org
If you have or know of an event you'd like to see included in this section, please e-mail Nicholas Thomas, Publications Manager.
Sometimes it pays to follow a dream. That’s the lesson learned by EO St. Louis Dan Lauer, who was hired in 1980 as a bank teller in Missouri, USA. Dan eventually worked his way up to vice president, but he was a banker with a secret: He wanted to invent a realistic baby doll based on water balloon dolls his sisters used to play with in the ’60s.
“My sisters would tie water balloons together, draw faces on them with markers, and carry them around like warm, little jiggly babies,” recalled Dan.
In a leap of faith, he quit his job at the bank to pursue his dream and spent three years studying the doll industry, raising capital and building prototypes. The result: a line of water-filled dolls that replicate the warmth, weight and feel of a real baby. Dan calls them, appropriately, Water Babies.
“Water Babies are innocent and wholesome, like dolls of yesteryear,” he said. “You fill them up with tap water from the kitchen sink, and they allow girls to have simple, nurturing play experiences.”
Still, retailers were slow to catch on. But despite getting more than 700 rejection letters from toy companies—and even one cease-and-desist letter—he persisted until he was able to get a local retailer to carry his invention for a test.
Dan and his friends went to the local store and handed his warm, water-filled dolls to shoppers. The shoppers loved the way Water Babies felt and, as a result, the store couldn’t keep them in stock. The demand for the dolls grew and retailers all across the world began ordering them.
Since then, more than 17 million Water Babies have been sold, making them the second best-selling large doll of all time (behind Cabbage Patch Kids).
Today, 20 years after Dan’s decision to quit his job at the bank, Water Babies are being reintroduced to a whole new generation of young “mommies.” They’ve been redesigned and are being re-launched by toy company Wild Planet.
As for his big idea paying off, since inventing the dolls, Dan has gotten married, and he and his wife have had four real babies of their own. Dan supports his family with the money he earns from his invention.
Water Babies are available in stores and online at several retailers, including www.shopwildplanet.com.
In my quest for greatness as an entrepreneur, I know that accomplishments and changes are just two steps toward achieving life's higher goals. It is the process of continuous improvement that makes success complete and propels me to reach the highest bastions of excellence in my country.
The finance business in India is both a challenge and an opportunity. It is a challenge because there are too many players willing to fund nearly anything and everything at the lowest possible interest rates. This makes competition tougher and unbalanced as players start to defy convention to get business. It is an opportunity because everybody is increasingly becoming conscious of their state of existence; they want to have the best of things even with limited resources. That is where I come in.
I made the conscious decision of merging my company with another so that I could become a small part of a large pie instead of remaining a large part of a small pie. This merger provided us with a much larger market capitalization. Almost overnight, our joint entity became a force to be reckoned with. We were able to borrow at a much lower rate and our bargaining power increased, thanks to our increase in size. The merger has resulted in the formation of a US$1.5 billion asset company with more than 4,000 employees.
Leading affairs and managing the total operation of this newly formed company is a wonderful learning experience. I’ve discovered that technology is a must to grow your business. I’ve also discovered that size matters. I started thinking big, and my whole thought process changed. In all, the two factors that have determined the success of my business are sound management principles and quality human resources. Both need to work in harmony to achieve success in totality.
During the years, I have seen how the management order has changed from being one of control to one of delegation. Organizations are accepting this change and gradually shifting over to the “teamwork” model, which allows employees to better integrate with corporate objectives. As an entrepreneur, I have always relied on teamwork, because it provides avenues for a more holistic growth.
I keep coming back to the concept of change, since it is one thing that is constant in today’s world. Everything else seems irrelevant. If I hadn’t learned to adapt to and embrace change, my business would have been left behind in the business wake. It is this change that is compelling organizations like ours to look for innovative models of growth. Knowledge and its application are certainly the key elements of corporate growth, which remains the core values of my organization.
I recently received an e-mail from my assistant, who encouraged me to go to the beach. No kidding. It was actually more of a directive than encouragement. When I discussed what I had on my plate, she said to me, “I’m here to help you. You shouldn’t be doing this stuff! Let me handle it. You should be at the beach.”
I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such insight, commitment and loyalty from my staff. I shared this with my partner, and he said, “Are you kidding? You’ve mastered leadership. You don’t manage them, you lead them. You’ve set them free to do what they do best, and in turn, they’re setting you free.”
In all honesty, I’m a leader by accident. I’m no good at management, but the paradox is that I’m great at leading. As an entrepreneur, the details don’t interest me, but driving the growth of the business through my people does.
I thought about what my business partner had said, and I jotted down what I feel makes a great leader. Here is what I came up with:
Like many of you, I wear more than one hat in life. I co-own a child development business with my husband, and I am also a full-time attorney who works with closely held business owners. At the age of 40, I am already working on a plan to help me leave or scale back from my two businesses, even though I won't leave for decades.
When it comes to business ownership, one thing is certain: At some point, all owners leave their businesses. I have found that the best personal, professional and financial results are consistently achieved by those who work with an exit plan, especially since they also help us achieve our business goals of working on, and not in, our businesses.
If done properly, an exit plan will help you achieve your business goals, which will result in the freedom and fulfillment you’ve been working toward for years. In my experience, there are certain elements we should all consider in connection with leaving a business. The basic steps are briefly described below:
Step 1: First, seek the help of a CPA, lawyer and financial planner with whom you feel compatible and whose specialty is exit planning. Unlike a book or seminar, they will help you establish what you want from your future. They will also tell you exactly how to get there.
Step 2: An advisory team can test your goals by matching them up to hard numbers. I have seen "excellent" plans fail because the owner sold his company for the purchase price he wanted, but the net proceeds weren’t enough to maintain the lifestyle he had in mind. A hard-numbers test would have caught this flaw.
Step 3: Once goals are set and tested, it is time to write out a plan. Certain parts of it will involve legally binding documents that must be signed now. Not having these documents in place can and will destroy an entire plan. The plan should also be flexible for business, life or goal changes.
Step 4: I’ve learned that it’s important to have meetings annually (at a minimum) to ensure that your exit plan is on track. As business owners, we all work on our companies to identify changes, remove roadblocks to success, identify opportunities, etc. The same applies to an exit plan.
Step 5: Many owners leave their businesses unexpectedly because of illness or death. With this in mind, an estate plan should coordinate with the exit plan.
I am happy to say that exit planning helps me maintain discipline in running my businesses, and it will help me leave in my own time and on my own terms. It will also protect my family in case the worst should occur. As an entrepreneur, that’s the kind of freedom and flexibility I need.
As a Forum Trainer, I’ve been asked numerous questions regarding how to achieve the magic of a Forum experience. I will answer two of the most popular questions and elaborate on the best practices my Forum uses to reach—and stay—at the highest level of trust and confidence.
Why should we use the EO Gestalt Language Protocol?Experience-sharing is non-threatening and non-judgmental. Everyone can learn from stories, there is no room for misinterpretation and it creates a safe environment. Forums that use opinions rather than experience-sharing do not reach the level of depth and confidence they can achieve.
Forum members may be afraid or concerned to present sensitive issues because of their fear of criticism and judgment. Criticism and advice will not create a safe environment, and it will not help the Forum reach the magic they seek; on the contrary, it can create a consultant/client relationship with your Forum peers, which may prevent openness and can create a problem in the Forum dynamic.
It is very important for Forum members to understand the foundation of experience-sharing and practice it, as well as understand the dangers of not using it. The EO Gestalt Language Protocol has changed my perspective of looking at problems and situations, and it has helped me be more empathetic. We are not born with opinions— our opinions come from experiences we have had in our lives. The challenge is for us to go deeper in our thinking process regarding where the opinions come from and relate to our Forum peers through feelings and empathy. This is how Gestalt helps achieve the magic in my Forum.
What exercises should we use during our first retreat?In my experience, during the first retreat the lifeline exercise helps the Forum reach an excellent level of bonding, which is crucial to achieve at this early stage. This exercise helps build the foundation of the Forum for the future. Depending on the Forum members, this exercise may take a day or two during the retreat— two hours for each member to create the lifeline and one hour per person to present the lifeline.
The Brown Bag exercise is a very good complement to the lifeline. Taking the time to do outdoor activities in combination with something you could not do on your own is also helpful. When the members realize this can be achieved through Forum, the level of commitment grows instantly, because you come to realize that the Forum is stronger than an individual.
Best Practices:Monthly UpdateThe monthly update is one of the most crucial elements of the Forum meeting. Complete the monthly update form before the Forum session as a best practice, and be sure to do it properly. There are different formats of monthly updates, but you should use the one the Forum feels more comfortable with. Changing the format after two or three years helps the Forum get out of the comfort zone— this can be one of the touch points to discuss during the retreat.
CoachingCoaching is critical to the presentation’s success. Presenters who have not been coached do not bring the full value of the experience to the group. Open coaching of the presentation that comes from the monthly update (not assigned) is a very powerful learning tool, as it helps make your peers better coaches. All of the Forum members should be able to achieve effective coaching through open coaching during Forum meetings.
PresentationsI recommend a combination of scheduled presentations and 30-minute presentations in each Forum meeting. The 30-minute presentation comes from the monthly update, and it’s done during the Forum meeting with the open coaching.
MatrixIn my Forum, we agree on 15 or more issues that should be tracked by one of the members— issues such as sharing feelings, being back from the break on time, not interrupting, not talking to your neighbor, etc. All of these items are included in a matrix with our names, so whenever someone incurs a “fault,” we account for it in the matrix. We review the matrix after the first presentation, at the end of the Forum meeting and at the beginning of the next Forum meeting. The idea behind this tool is to improve the Forum meeting’s performance.
As with every EO benefit, the Forum experience is what you make of it. If you commit yourself to your Forum and your own growth, the possibilities for improving personally and professionally are endless.
Are you ready to learn in an innovative and exciting way?
EOtv, EO’s new online video series, will launch on 8 September 2008. The weekly Webcasts will include videos, benefits and partners, peer-to-peer learning and expert tips of the week, among other valuable content. You can get a sneak peek by watching the trailer shown at this year’s Global Leadership Conference.
EOtv will feature stories you want to see. That means the EOtv team is currently looking for stories that fit these categories:
Want to submit EOtv content?
Submitting is easy. All you need to do is send a one-paragraph overview of your story, along with any visuals that support it, to eotv@eonetwork.org.
A few notes:
That’s it! If you have any ideas, questions or comments, please send them to eotv@eonetwork.org, and remember to check your e-mail in September!
After hitting the 7,000-member mark, the Entrepreneurs' Organization happily announced the FY2007/2008 Membership Award winners at the 2008 EO University: Boston, held 23-27 July 2008. Thanks to each chapter’s dedication to expanding and strengthening its peer network, EO is well on its way toward another monumental year.
The following chapters/members were recognized:
Bill Trimble Award (most new members):
Highest Percentage Growth Award:
Century Award (chapters reaching the milestone of 100 members for the first time):
Half-Century Award (chapters reaching the milestone of 50 members for the first time):
Congratulations to all of the FY2007/2008 Membership Award winners! To learn how you can increase your chapter’s membership, contact Miranda Barrett, Recruitment Director.
The Entrepreneurs’ Organization is proud to be a Global Partner of The Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, held 17-23 November 2008. Countries all around the world are joining together to carry the banner of Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative aimed at young, aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.
During the Week, partner organizations will conduct a wide range of activities—from simple speeches to comprehensive competitions—designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs. EO will assist in these endeavors by promoting the significance of the program and encouraging chapters to get involved.
As you lead your chapter into the new fiscal year, take a moment to consider what you and your chapter can do to elevate your entrepreneurial experience from Success to Significance. You are a model of entrepreneurial success in your community. What steps can you take to expand your sphere of influence and make a significant impact on the EO members of tomorrow?
Read examples of suggested Global Entrepreneurship Week activities that any chapter can implement with minimal effort but maximum impact. While it may be global in scope, at its heart Global Entrepreneurship Week is a local initiative that reflects the entrepreneurial culture of each community. Be creative in deciding how your chapter can participate!
For more information about implementing these activities in your chapter, contact Courtney Shafer, Senior Vice President of Communications and Marketing.
Most people look at non-profits and assume it’s an easier ride than the big, bad business world. Truth is, the endless treadmill of servicing clients, entertaining donors and negotiating with granting agencies over territory and funding is made all the more urgent when your passion for helping others lives right at the surface. It’s exhausting and exhilarating at the same time, and the payback of philanthropy is euphoric.
In 2006, our then-chapter President, Chris Bryant, suggested that we establish a new board position. The idea was to have someone reach out to a deserving non-profit so that EOers could exercise their charitable muscles and give back. After just two months in EO, I got the job of EO New York Philanthropy Chair. My mission was to find a non-profit to support.
I started out by surveying our members regarding their own philanthropic endeavors to ensure we addressed their interests. In a 200-person chapter, the responses were all over the map. Roughly 40 percent of the chapter was already actively giving, so we decided to step back and take stock on something we could all agree upon: supporting other entrepreneurs.
The next step was finding a reputable and growing organization with the same mission as EO, but one that required help and wasn’t a “hit-it-out-of-the-park” success story. In other words, we wanted to make sure that we could make a difference in the lives of the entrepreneurs, the organization and the members.
After months of identifying and interviewing relevant groups, we found the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO). It is a 42-year-old, New York-based non-profit that hosts a 16-week boot camp designed to help more than 300 women, minority and immigrant entrepreneurs create their business plans and get their businesses started on the right foot. As it happened, WIBO was ripe for change. We were ready to lend a hand.
We procured members’ interest at the annual EO New York holiday party through a silent auction, in which attendees donated and bid on member-submitted items. In one night, we raised more than US$10,000! Throughout the year, we held learning events with fundraising components, solicited chapter sponsors for support and held another silent auction.
In just two years, these efforts have allowed us to raise more than US$27,000 for WIBO. Working together as a chapter has allowed us to show other up-and-coming entrepreneurs a path to problem-solving, profitability and success. So many of us feel that, while we need our own mentors, it’s equally worthwhile to be a mentor. There’s tremendous satisfaction in giving knowledge back to those who are taking their first steps into entrepreneurship. We continue to be inspired by their growth and root for their success.
If your chapter would like more information on how the EO New York chapter selected their non-profit, please contact Susan Lindner.
A historic city with a revolutionary past, Boston is a red-hot region leading the way in academics, biotechnology and business. As the first Global event of FY2008/2009, the University, themed “Revolutionary Ideas,” set the bar high. Members from around the world experienced the progressive business culture first-hand and engaged themselves in exciting EO activities.
Some of those activities included a “City of Champions” event that highlighted the region’s premier sports teams; an '80s concert at Quincy Marina’s Bay Beach Club, fresh with a lobster feast and volleyball instructions by professional players; and a private dinner with Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino at Moakley Federal Courthouse. Not to be outdone, the Off-Site Activities offered members a chance to cook with world-renowned chef Ming Tai, take in a Boston Red Sox baseball game and go on an exclusive boat tour, among other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
Those members looking for entrepreneurial enlightenment weren’t disappointed. In an intimate setting, members heard from various brilliant Boston minds, including keynote speakers Jon Luther, CEO and Chairman of Dunkin' Donuts; George Naddaff, Founder of Boston Market; and Ben Zander, the Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. Members also heard from other business experts. Speakers from MIT, Harvard and Babson College discussed how to finance for growth, adopt a global sales strategy, outsmart upstarts and keep businesses together during IT troubles.
The excitement of this event wasn’t lost on anyone in attendance, nor did it get overlooked by the local press. The 2008 EO University: Boston was covered in the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe, which tied perfectly into the “External Awareness” factor of EO’s overarching TEAL initiative. The articles touched on members’ infectious personalities, the networking opportunities offered and the stellar speakers.
If you missed out on this amazing University, you can get the full scope by viewing a slideshow of University images and watching the daily wrap-up videos. Sad you missed out? There are plenty more EO events designed to inspire you to grow and lead. Check out our EO Global events, and sign up for an event today!