Businesses create revenue and income relative to how they utilize assets. When a business owner goes into the marketplace to try to raise money, the bigger the business’s asset base, the better its position to do so — whether it needs to buy things to sell or make things to sell, says Michael Denning, Ph.D., professor of practice, marketing, at the W. P. Carey School of … [More]
Matthew Feeney, Snell & Wilmer
Arizona is recognized as a key state for entrepreneurship and business startups, but our economic vitality also needs those small businesses to scale and grow. There are resources available to the business community to assist companies in reaching that higher level. But businesses can look inward to leverage their resources and invest in themselves to grow business, opportunity … [More]
Manage Energy, Not Engagement
After 20 years of trying to get it right, few organizations truly understand employee engagement or have failed to see its improvement in their company. And yet, there are organizations that have increased engagement — but find their employees are drained and depleted. What causes this “engagement paradox”? It’s simple. Managing engagement turns out to be just another drain … [More]
Criminals Have a Plan to Steal Your Money. What’s Your Plan to Keep It?
Cyber criminals have become more sophisticated than ever. Thwarting cyber thieves begins with awareness and education — for business owners and everyone in their organization. Common Scams and Ways to Defeat Them “Our bank account was compromised … please wire your payments here, instead.” A trusted vendor sends an email with new wire instructions, claiming that their bank … [More]
Raising Awareness of Financial Resources
According to a recent Wells Fargo/Gallup national study, “Diverse Small-Business Owners Share Their Experiences,” 71 percent of women business owners say they feel very satisfied as a business owner and 89 percent would own a business rather than do anything else. Yet, surprisingly, the survey also found that women are largely unaware of the many resources available to help … [More]
Coaching for Fundraising Success
Though they possess innate fundraising instincts and a passion for their nonprofit missions, Kristin Priscella and Annet Ruiter admit they weren’t necessarily born fundraisers. Priscella, Arizona Science Center’s chief operating officer for external affairs, started within her organization in a marketing capacity. Ruiter, vice president of external affairs for Planned … [More]
Equity Crowdfunding Comes to Arizona
Arizona’s new crowdfunding law, which is intended to give small companies in the local Arizona economy greater access to capital, took effect on July 3, 2015. Arizona joins a growing number of states that have recently enacted laws permitting some form of equity crowdfunding. For startups and other emerging growth businesses that may not have ready access to traditional sources … [More]
Jeffrey Martin: Creating an Industry for Natural, Renewable Rubber
Fifteen years ago, Jeffrey Martin co-founded the Yulex Corporation with Dan Swiger after learning about a technology licensed from the United States Department of Agriculture to extract natural rubber latex from the guayule plant. Yulex’s mission is “to protect and improve the planet and its people by providing pure and improved plant-based products, which promote the … [More]
Model Behavior: 3-D Printing Is Building
“In construction, we’re bidding the concept of what we can deliver,” says Jeff Perelman, senior vice president and chief growth and strategy officer of Sundt Construction, Inc., explaining the advantage of 3-D over 2-D is “it’s hard to go from a two-dimensional piece of paper to give people a sense of scale of what you’re building.” Building a model rather than simply producing … [More]
Domestic Medical Travel as Healthcare Cost Solution
Companies today face mounting pressure to provide appropriate healthcare coverage despite staggering costs. Rising to the challenge, a growing number of business owners and corporate executives have sought strategies to help avoid substantial monetary penalties for non-compliance under reform’s new regulations and, concurrently, curb healthcare costs. In this … [More]
Go! Gargle!
Improving on the tried-and-true sore throat home remedy of gargling with salt water, registered nurse January O’Connor devised her GoGargle! formulation initially for her husband, adding honey, aloe, mint and chamomile for their immediate soothing benefit as the salt-water gargle works to reduce swelling. The Scottsdale resident began marketing it as a compressed and convenient … [More]
Expanding Delivery
The new name of Abrazo Community Health Network better expresses the sense of caring that underlies the philosophy of the healthcare system that has evolved from what was previously a hospital system (“abrazo” means “embrace” in Spanish), explains Kat Rondeau, chief business development officer. “The new brand rolled out in May was the result of research regarding what a … [More]
Niche Concept and Sports Name Drive Business Launch
With the help of the National Football League as an economic development resource, Arizona Cardinals’ long snapper Mike Leach and his wife, Julie, recently entered the Greater Phoenix area’s entrepreneurial mix with Potty Pals, a multi-faceted system to help parents potty train their toddlers. The Leaches initially came up with the concept for Potty Pals in 2011 while they … [More]
Cyber Security Hire Platform
Cybrary launched its Cyber Security Job Platform. This talent platform is designed to meet the demand for skilled cyber security professionals, which is growing four times faster than the overall IT job market and 12 times faster than the total labor market. Currently, there are more than a million open job postings for cyber security positions around the world. … [More]
Feedback Tool
Hinted, a people analytics app, has launched and is available in the Apple App Store. This new social network mobile application enables small teams or individuals to provide peers with semi-anonymous feedback. The tool is gamified and sessions last less than a minute. The app is used for hiring, team composition, and learning and development decisions. The Hinted App is … [More]
Anywhere Communication App
Webchat, social media channels and mobile communications are quickly taking over the role of traditional telephone contact in the field of customer service. In order to enable organizations to provide the best-possible service for their customers via all channels of communication, European market leader Workstreampeople is launching a new version of Anywhere365. This platform … [More]
Arizona Business & Education Showcased in Film Series
A series of 10 videos aimed at promoting the Arizona technology industry and education throughout the U.S. as well as globally is being produced by MediaTHP, a local media/film production company, as part of on-going efforts by the local government to promote a favorable business climate in Arizona to external parties. The series focuses on specific topics related to the … [More]
Multicultural Marketing and a Changing Mainstream
Without doubt, the multicultural market in the United States is an increasingly powerful consumer. Research by Geoscape, the leader in business intelligence across the multicultural market, shows Hispanics currently represent 18 percent of American households but were responsible for nearly half of the growth in consumer spending from 2013 to 2014. Between Asian-American and … [More]
