Home Rent Rates Jump 5% + How Smart is Your Home?
Corporate America MAY 2015 • WWW.CORPORATEAMERICA-NEWS.COM
Why is Competitive Intelligence Still a Practice? Patrick Reinmoller, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University Explains.
How Much Do Natural Disasters Really Cost Corporate America? Sales growth of supplier firms directly hit by a natural disaster drops by around five percentage points, according to a study.
PLUS: DALLAS CITY FOCUS
It may only be the third largest city in Texas, but it is the largest in terms of global business.
GOOD MORNING MONDAY, HELLO CYBER ATTACK!
Drop in detected malware attacks in organisations coincides perfectly with weekends.
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Contents 18 Feature
HOW SMART IS YOUR HOME? Home Series helps create an innovative, interconnected home.
10 Feature
WHERE DOES YOUR TALENT LIE?
According to a study of Illinois-based business leaders, the majority of middle market companies in the state report positive performance, with more than half (51%) noting employment gains over the past year.
24 Feature
GOOD MORNING MONDAY, HELLO CYBER ATTACK! Drop in detected malware attacks in organisations coincides perfectly with weekends.
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News Sub Heading
HOME RENT RATES JUMP 5% Rental market leaders team up to release rental housing statistics on rent, vacancy and saturation rates.
38 Deals Sub Heading
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HOW MUCH DO NATURAL DISASTERS REALLY COST CORPORATE AMERICA?
Sales growth of supplier firms directly hit by a natural disaster drops by around five percentage points, according to a study.
42
City Focus
DALLAS
As always, we’ve selected companies from a variety of different industries, and picked out a special feature that really highlights the great work each business is doing.
Calendar/ Planner Sub Heading
On the Cover 8
Feature: Why is Competitive Intelligence Still a Practice Patrick Reinmoller, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University Explains. May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 3
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News
Savvy Investor Savvy Investor is an Instant Hit with Institutional Investors By Andrew Perrins, CEO, Savvy Investor. A new type of professional social media is growing rapidly. The new professional network for pensions and investment professionals has proved an instant success, with 2000 registered members, only two months after launch. Savvy Investor represents a new breed of professional social media. A knowledge network, focusing on providing institutional investors with the best white papers and professional research from around the web. With most social media, such as LinkedIn or Twitter, content is disposable and instantly forgotten. A knowledge network is different. The focus is on content with substance, educational and of lasting value. Savvy Investor is a new type of industry portal, focused on helping investors to work smarter, hence the name! The Savvy Investor website www.savvyinvestor.net aims to provide an educational platform which enables institutional investors to work smarter. Members have access to a searchable library of over 8000 white papers and articles, curated from around the web or published directly to the site by investment managers and consultants. Chief Executive Andrew Perrins, formerly an actuary and asset allocator with Abbey Life and Chase Manhattan, said; “The early response to Savvy Investor has completely surpassed our expectations. We’ve only just started marketing the site, but a lot of our new members are already coming by word of mouth, and it seems to be taking on a life of its own. I’m pleased for our team, who have worked so hard to build a site which has the networking functionality of LinkedIn, but is founded upon excellent content, all within a compliant framework. We’ve been delighted by the response, particularly from US, UK, Canadian and Australian investors. In the last few days we’ve begun to see the larger asset managers like State Street and Natixis establishing their company profiles and using the site as a publishing platform to post their research.” Membership of Savvy Investor is free, but access to the site is provided only to pension funds, other institutional investors and their service providers. Members must register using their professional email address, which is then verified. Membership is geographically diverse; broadly 40% North America, 30% UK, 20% Europe (ex UK), 10% Australia and ROW.
Keeping Up With Marketing Transformations Built to feature, connect and promote marketing professionals from all disciplines, Shocase functions seamlessly as a social network, professional crowd-sourced marketing archive and personalized online portfolio. Most importantly, Shocase is the place marketers come to discover and be discovered by the people who can advance their business and careers. As the marketing world continues to undergo major transformation, experiential marketing has become exceedingly important as a tactic to reach new customers and audiences. For example, research shows the majority of Millennials are more inclined to become part of a brand and much more likely to buy a product after a good experience at an event. “There has never been a platform for experiential marketers to truly share their craft and connect with others, until now” To help these experiential marketers more effectively reach their target customers, Shocase, Marketing’s Professional Network and a premier sponsor of this week’s Experiential Marketing Summit in San Francisco, announced today that five of the world’s top minds in the industry will be joining the company in senior advisory roles. In their positions, Louise Glasgow, Chad Hutson, Rod Mickels, Fergus Rooney and David Wilkinson will offer their insights, expertise and advice on the features and functionalities of the Shocase network and inspire a new generation of marketers by showcasing and sharing their award-winning work, while also helping others in the field be discovered. “Given today’s rapidly changing marketing landscape, the power of an experiential event is at an all-time high,” said Ron Young, Shocase’s founder and CEO, who is hosting a networking reception this evening at the Experiential Marketing Summit. “By adding some of the world’s best experiential marketers, Shocase will become the hub for those in the business to display their work and be found by others in the marketing sector. To have a verticalized social network designed to help marketers find these talented individuals is an extremely valuable proposition.” The five advisors are among the top experiential marketers in the world: Louise Glasgow is the logistics genius behind the production of Maker Faire, an educational event designed to celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the DIY mindset. As executive producer she plans the flagship events held throughout the country. Chad Hutson is the president and executive producer at Leviathan, a conceptual design company that creates engaging narrative content and experiences for brands and entertainers worldwide. Hutson has done work for top brands including BMW, John Deere, Dodge, HP and The North Face. Rod Mickels is the co-founder and CEO of InVision Communications, a high level strategic communications agency that builds dynamic experiences that transforms audiences into passionate brand advocates. He has created global experiential marketing campaigns for the likes of Cisco, Oracle, Williams-Sonoma and Coach. Fergus Rooney is the founder and CEO of agencyEA, an experiential marketing company behind some large-scale projects, including Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure, holiday décor at the White House and the Boeing 747-8 International launch in Seattle. He has also worked with brands such as GE, Target and Hilton. David Wilkinson has been an international innovator and sponsorship marketing industry leader for more than three decades. He is currently the president and CEO of The Wilkinson Group, an experiential marketing agency, where he conceived, developed and managed Cisco Systems’ NetAid program and, more recently, the San Jose Grand Prix for The Canary Foundation. “There has never been a platform for experiential marketers to truly share their craft and connect with others, until now,” said Mickels. “Our community has greatly needed a network like Shocase, and now that we have one, I expect collaboration across the industry to soar.” Shocase is the first of its kind professional social network that offers its members greater visibility to display work, build a reputation and be inspired by the industry’s best. The network also enables members to stay informed of the latest news and trends that impact their professional lives, build working relationships and ultimately grow their business.
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News
Less of the Harmful Chemicals Beautycounter has banned more than 1,500 ingredients linked to health concerns in its cosmetics and skin care products, setting a new standard for high performance, health focused beauty products. Based in Santa Monica, Calif, Beautycounter is leading the way to better beauty, putting performance and health first. A certified B Corporation, Beautycounter develops and sells chic, professional-grade cosmetics and skin care products made without ingredients linked to health concerns. The company has banned from its products more than 1,500 harmful ingredients linked to cancer, hormone disruption, reproductive toxicity, skin irritation, cumulative exposure risk and other hazards. Beautycounter was founded in 2013 by Gregg Renfrew, a forward thinking entrepreneur known for turning concepts into thriving businesses. She sold her successful bridal registry company, The Wedding List, to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where she served the company in executive management. Gregg has served as a new concept advisor and consultant to Bergdorf Goodman, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, Intermix, Lela Rose, and Jessica Alba, among other high profile corporate and entertainment clients.
better beauty, and our growing customer base proves that the market is ready for the change” Today Beautycounter, one of the only certified B Corporations in the cosmetics industry, announced it has sold more than one million skin care and cosmetic products since launching in 2013. Beautycounter sales have grown 325% year over year since Q1 2014, and the company expects to reach two million units sold by the end of 2015. “We’re turning decades of conventional thinking in the cosmetics industry on its head in a quest for better beauty, and our growing customer base proves that the market is ready for the change,” said Gregg Renfrew, Beautycounter’s founder and CEO. “When we started Beautycounter, some people were telling us our vision was impossible. Now we’re well on our way to reducing harmful chemicals in people’s daily lives through our expanding product lines.”
Just two years ago, few cosmetics labs had any experience with Beautycounter’s unconventional approach to beauty products made without ingredients linked to health concerns.
Beautycounter has banned more than 1,500 ingredients that are linked to or suspected of contributing to serious health concerns. Examples of ingredients on Beautycounter’s Never List include phthalates, BPA, BHA, formaldehyde and synthetic colors and fragrances. Only 11 such chemicals are currently banned from skin care products in the United States, while the European Union has banned or restricted more than 1,300 ingredients.
“We’re turning decades of conventional thinking in the cosmetics industry on its head in a quest for
As Congress considers legislation that would update federal cosmetics laws for the first time since 1938,
Beautycounter’s growing sales are a clear indication that the company is ahead of regulators, and consumers are voting every day for safer products. Expanding Product Line Beautycounter’s skin care and cosmetics line expansion is a significant factor in its sales growth. In 2015 Beautycounter will introduce more than a dozen new products. Notably, on May 1, Beautycounter introduced Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer, its first product with SPF protection. Other recently released products include hand wash and lotion, body butter and a range of spring color cosmetics. Many more new products with added functionality targeting new consumer segments will be introduced throughout the year. Beautycounter’s growth also reflects a shift in consumer demand toward brands that value more than simply maximizing profits. A 2014 Nielsen study revealed that brands with a strong commitment to social responsibility saw their sales increase faster than those without such a commitment. Beautycounter’s B Corporation certification by the non-profit B Lab means the company meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 5
What:
We partner with high technology companies to assist in developing intellectual property assets, formulating and executing strategic plans for achieving maximal value for our clients. Our clients have achieved over $1.6 Billion (USD) in market value, either through financing rounds, merger and acquisition, licensing or litigation awards. To achieve this success, we combine professional and technical skills with level-headed business principles and experience. Or practice is devoted to supporting our client’s intellectual property asset development, commercialization and, when necessary, enforcement.
Planning:
The focal point of an intellectual property plan is to secure maximum value for intellectual property assets. This is achieved by first defining the business objectives to be achieved.
Strategy:
Once the IP plan has been identified, a management team, including business, technology and legal expertise, reviews the business objectives, considers the congruence between the plan and the objectives, then pressure tests the plan against identified opportunities to challenge that the intellectual property assets will achieve those objectives. Being dynamic, the plan will be consistently and constantly assessed, revised, and reassessed as new objectives are identified, new opportunities are presented or new challenges arise. A coherent IP strategy will include IP landscaping to identify and analyze existing IP rights and players in the relevant technology space. The white space opportunities will be identified and an evaluation of the coherence between the IP plan and the white space analysis will be completed. In addition, IP forecasting may be undertaken to predict, based upon a third party’s prior IP behavior, what are the likely IP protection pathways a third party will be pursuing with their IP portfolio. Additionally, licensing and collaborative research and development opportunities may be undertaken, “blue sky” evaluation for next generation products and/or superseding technology and opportunities for developing IP in those areas, freedom-to-operate issues relevant to the pre-commercial products under development to minimize the risk of material liability in litigation should be undertaken and processes for dynamic and real time IP tracking within the technology space, may be implemented.
Who:
Members of the firm have scientific training and regularly work across a spectrum of technologies including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, therapeutics, diagnostics, nanotechnology, organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, materials science, agricultural chemicals, plant breeding, environmental protection systems, semiconductor processing, industrial and medical lasers, computer hardware and software, digital and analog electrical systems, water purification systems, evaporative cooling systems, skin care products, clothing, motor vehicle assemblies and systems, and general mechanical and electrical technologies.
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We combine professional and technical skills with level-headed business principles and experience.
”
Address: 1480 Techny Road Northbrook, Illinois 60062 Tel: 847-770-6000 Fax: 847-770-6006
info@RosenbaumIP.com www.rosenbaumip.com
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News
Accelerate Innovation Deloitte Launches nCino Delivery Center of Excellence to Accelerate Innovation in Financial Services nCino, the leader in secure, cloud-based operating solutions to the financial services industry have announced that Deloitte Digital, a digital consulting agency within Deloitte Consulting LLP, is launching an nCino Delivery Center of Excellence to bring increased value to its banking clients. “We believe nCino’s groundbreaking Bank Operating System platform coupled with our insight, experience and global delivery power represents a tremendous opportunity to drive results. Since nCino’s founding, the company has experienced strong demand for its Bank Operating System and we’ve seen the positive impact its technology can make on bank operations,” said Dounia Lievan, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and banking lead for Deloitte Digital. “As the company continues to move upmarket into regional, super-regional and global banks, Deloitte is positioned to be a part of that growth through investment in our new nCino Delivery Center of Excellence and our selection as a preferred systems integrator.” The Delivery Center of Excellence will enhance Deloitte Digital’s broader Global Salesforce. com Alliance and complement Deloitte Digital’s existing suite of services while providing a focused
team, tools, processes, models and accelerators for Deloitte practitioners to deploy nCino across multiple client implementations.
model also opens up each loan to all stakeholders, creating an awareness and accountability unrivaled in today’s market.
The Delivery Center of Excellence will focus on:
“In the current interest rate and regulatory environment, our banking clients need to find a way to profitably grow, collaborate and dramatically increase efficiency,” said Larry Calabro, principal and Banking and Securities leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “We believe nCino’s groundbreaking Bank Operating System platform coupled with our insight, experience and global delivery power represents a tremendous opportunity to drive results.”
Combining nCino’s powerful cloud-based platform and Deloitte Digital’s industry experience to advance innovation and accelerate business transformation for financial institutions; and Using Salesforce-based applications to drive increased profitability, productivity gains, regulatory compliance and operating transparency for banking clients. “We are thrilled to align with Deloitte Digital’s banking practice,” said Pierre Naudé, CEO, nCino. “Deloitte is one of the world’s strongest Salesforce. com implementation partners and is delivering some of the most innovative projects in the industry today. We are delighted they see the value of our Bank Operating System and have chosen to bring this solution to financial institutions across the globe.” nCino’s Bank Operating System combines essential loan origination functions with customer relationship management, business process workflows and reporting dashboards all in one place to automate and simplify the entire lending process. Its unique
Can Pocket Money Determine Your Child’s Future? Cardinal bankers teach Children about saving money Cardinal Financial Corporation, a financial holding company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, serves the Washington Metropolitan region through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cardinal Bank, with 31 conveniently located banking offices. Cardinal also operates George Mason Mortgage Cardinal Bank joined with more than 15,000 financial leaders and 572 banks across America to participate in Teach Children to Save Day. This national program, established in 1997 by the American Bankers Association, spotlights the importance of teaching our nation’s youth about saving money. Since the program’s launch, the campaign has taught money management skills to over 7.2 million young students through the commitment of 210,000 banker volunteers. Twenty employees from Cardinal participated in this year’s event during the week of April 20.
Cardinal Bank. “Research shows that kids who save are more likely to attend college. We hope our efforts will motivate and inspire students to take an important step in learning their financial ABCs, which in turn can help them achieve their financial goals and dreams.” “Today was really special when the President of Cardinal Bank came to our school,” said a kindergarten student from Armstrong Elementary School in Reston, Virginia. “I learned about saving money and not always buying stuff.” Cardinal Bank has a long history of actively promoting financial literacy to students within its markets. Its award-winning school bank program provides students with hands-on experience in basic financial management, and offers insight into career opportunities in the financial services industry. Cardinal has student run school bank partnerships with area school systems in Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties.
“Cardinal Bank is committed to promoting financial literacy, and Teach Children to Save Day is one exciting event that allows our employees to reach out to hundreds of young students in our communities,” said F. Kevin Reynolds, President,
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 7
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Feature
Why is competitive
intelligence still a practice?
We hear from Patrick Reinmoeller from the Cranfield School of Management at Cranfield University, about the strategy behind why competitive intelligence is still a practice.
Despite being essential to strategy, competitive intelligence is often tainted by scandals that erupt because of excessive or illegal use of techniques associated with the practice, for example spying on competitors. The latest study I conducted at Rotterdam School of Management with Prof Shaz Ansari from Judge Business School questioned the practice of competitive intelligence. We tried to understand why businesses still engage in an opaque activity where there is no palpable evidence on the return on investment. Our research led us to find that the reasons why companies protect their investments from competitors are not always rational. We looked at a practice that lies at the core of how companies develop strategy , competitive intelligence (CI). We looked at large US companies, such as IBM, Intel, Motorola, and Procter and Gamble, and we were able to trace the development of CI in this market between the 1980s until the early 2010. Four observations were striking. First, we found that firms who had suffered excesses like dumpster diving or corporate espionage were among those becoming thought leaders and an example of best practice. These cases often laid the foundation for rapid adoption and scaling up of CI organizations within companies and diffusion between companies.
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Second, we found no clear cost-benefit analysis that went beyond anecdotes of damage suffered and benefits of CI. Emphasizing the perceived risk of not having CI seemed enough to justify even considerable investments. The benefits of the practice were seen as so obvious that they did not need detailed assessment. Third, strong beliefs in the efficacy of CI did not only lead to adoption and diffusion. Beliefs also made it very difficult to abandon a practice. Once diffusion of CI had become more widespread, later becoming standard practice, it was risky to stop doing what everyone else was doing. Unilateral abandonment of what is seen as common sense is difficult. Fourth, companies who embraced CI have learned how to provide CI related products and services. This economic logic of seeing CI as a business opportunity is an interesting turn in the development. Intelligence is no longer about protecting business interests, it has become the business interest that offers many opportunities. In essence, we found more psychology and less economics that could explain the rise of a management practice and its resistance to scandals. It may be good to heed the lessons learned by predecessors, examine beliefs and check assumptions before plunging head first into an expensive arms race.
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Patrick Reinmoeller from the Cranfield School of Management at Cranfield University May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 9
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Feature
Business growth depends on talented workers, and executives in Illinois are telling us that they’re having a tough time finding the people they need at all levels,” said Thomas A. Stewart, Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market.
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Where Does Your Talent Lie? According to a study of Illinois-based business leaders, the majority of middle market companies in the state report positive performance, with more than half (51%) noting employment gains over the past year.
The Illinois Middle Market Study surveyed 110 executives from the Illinois middle market (companies ranging from $10 million to $1 billion in annual revenue) to examine topics related to business capabilities and performance, growth drivers and economic outlook among other topics. The survey was conducted by RTI International on behalf of the National Center for the Middle Market in partnership with GE Capital, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Illinois CPA Society, Illinois Technology Association, Illinois Retail Merchants Association and Illinois Food Retailers Association.
industry in which they operate will expand as a whole in the coming year. In fact, Illinois middle market companies are more optimistic about business growth in the next 12 months than the national middle market average. State business executives anticipate a mean gross revenue growth of 6.4% in the year ahead, compared to a 5.4% expected increase by the national average.
The Illinois Middle Market Study, that has recently been released by The National Center for the Middle Market with the support of GE Capital and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, found that 65% of these businesses currently report open positions, 71% of which are full time.
“Illinois’s mid-market businesses have weathered the recent recession and are now poised to invest in the talent and capital structures of their businesses in the year ahead,” said Trevor Schauenberg, president and CEO, GE Capital Corporate Finance. “As seen in the survey and in our daily conversations with customers, a large majority are expecting an increase in gross revenue and 91 percent are expecting employment to either grow or hold steady. GE Capital is proud to support its mid-sized customers by providing customized financing to help companies grow and benefit from the broader macroeconomic recovery.”
Building off positive hiring trends over the past year, Illinois middle market businesses are expected to outpace the national anticipated average for employment growth in the year ahead. Middle market business leaders in the state predict employment growth of 3.5%, while the national average sits slightly lower, at 3.2%
Illinois middle market business leaders noted the importance of acquiring top talent for their businesses. While most firms (65%) have open positions, one in four survey respondents said they were concerned about attracting, training, and retaining talent. Positions in the highest demand included marketing, sales, and operations jobs.
“Over half of the middle market businesses in our state experienced employment growth last year,” said Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, in response to the study. “There’s a real opportunity for the middle market to be the driving force behind employment in Illinois.”
“The findings of study reflect the environment we’ve seen, especially in terms of our upcoming ability to add talent and prepare for growth in the year ahead,” said Giancarlo Turano, Principal of Turano Baking Company. “Working with GE Capital, we continue to secure the necessary capital to make quality investments in the company that have led to our business’ growth.”
Business growth extends beyond employment, as 69% of middle market companies also reported increases in revenue in the past year. In addition to individual company growth, one third of survey respondents expect that the
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 11
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John Textor Saves the Day! John Textor’s Wyndcrest is set to pay off bonds and re-open Tradition Studios with $62 Million gift for South Florida City John Textor, entertainment technology executive and pioneer of the emerging holographic music performance industry, through his holding company Wyndcrest Holdings, LLC, has reiterated his offer to fully pay the annual principal and interest payments of the $62 million bonds that have impacted the city of Port Saint Lucie, since the closure of Digital Domain’s Tradition Studios. In February of 2015, Textor submitted a written offer to meet with city officials, including City Manager Jeffrey Bremer and Mayor Greg Oravec, to discuss plans for accelerated facility due diligence and a plan for Textor affiliated businesses to assume responsibility for principal and interest payments on the $62 million Digital Domain studio bonds. Further written clarification of Mr. Textor’s offer to repay the bonds was provided to City leadership on April 23, 2015. In response to reports of the City Council’s apparent decision to discount and sell the facility, thereby approving a $50 million loss on the bond debt, Textor again, on April 27, submitted a written offer to cover the City’s annual debt service. Citing the City Council’s decision to move forward on a $13 million sale of the building, and its willingness to accept a substantial loss on the debt without required public discussion of the proposed alternatives to prevent such loss, Textor also requested a formal written response to his offer to cover the City’s Digital Domain studio debt. Mr. Textor’s offer affirms his desire to assume all principal and interest payments on the city of Port St. Lucie’s $62 million bond debt associated with its economic development incentives originally offered to Digital Domain. Such offer would provide an attractive alternative to the city council’s decision to accept a sizable loss on the bonds. A re-opening of Tradition Studios, as a combined animation and digital media education facility, would provide a strong path to realize the job creation benefits once envisioned by Digital Domain, and that are already underway in Port
12 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
St. Lucie by Mr. Textor’s market leading, globally recognized character animation company. In submitting his offer, Mr. Textor directed his comments to the city council of Port St. Lucie, “It is never too late to engage in discussions that will inform your decision-making process and provide much needed debt repayment solutions for the City. Our plan for economic development and high-wage job creation was the right plan for the City and we are still here, on the same team as are you, devoted to seeing it through.” Textor concluded his remarks with a reference to the proposed buyer of the former studio, “I also commend the leaders of Christ Fellowship Church for making a bold and well-advised decision, as did I, to invest in the promising city of Port St. Lucie. Surely there is a way, with council leadership, to bring their beautiful and inspiring vision to the City, without committing one of the City’s most powerful economic development assets to waste. I stand ready to work with you to make this possible.” About John Textor and Wyndcrest Holdings, LLC Mr. Textor is Executive Chairman of Pulse Evolution Corporation, a next generation technology and intellectual property company, established to produce specialized, high-impact applications of computer-generated human likeness, or digital human beings for utilization in entertainment, life sciences, education and telecommunications. In its first year of operation, Pulse emerged as the leader in the new, globally relevant digital performance industry. Mr. Textor is also a Founding Partner of Wyndcrest Holdings, LLC, a Florida-based private venture capital firm which, since 1997, has focused on high-risk, high-return investment and operating opportunities in startup, early stage and challenged businesses, principally in the industries of Entertainment, Telecommunications and the Internet.
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Clicks or Bricks? Cartridge World Reveals Buying Habits of Small Businesses
While B2B retailers continue to invest heavily in e-commerce solutions, they may want to put equal attention toward their brick and mortar stores, according to a recent study. Cartridge World is the leading ink and toner retailer and franchisor in the $80 billion printer cartridge industry. Stores offer customers a tremendous cost saving alternative to printing, offering a 30% discount over full priced OEM cartridges and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Cartridge World has more than 1,200 franchised retail locations in over 50 countries. Research sponsored by Cartridge World, the leading ink and toner retailer and franchisor in the $80 billion printer cartridge industry, set out to determine the methods, and preferences of how small to mid-sized businesses order printing supplies. Among other findings, Cartridge World’s study revealed that 76% of small to mid-sized businesses use the internet to order printer cartridges, followed by 58% that prefer in-store visits. The research analyzed results based on a sample of 400 respondents from 40 different states and included companies of up to 100 employees. Businesses ranged from computer services to real estate, schools, construction/contracting, law offices, hotels, mortgage brokers and more. “One consumer insight is that while shopping for printing supplies, the online channel remains primary among business customers but a significant market share still prefers a personalized in-store experience,” said William D. Swanson, CEO of Cartridge World North America. “Based on this insight, Cartridge World launched a refresh plan to update more than 500 brick-andmortar locations in North America. Plus, we’ll continue to deliver best-inclass customer service for our e-commerce buyers.”
In addition, the Cartridge World study found that businesses with a higher number of employees placed more importance on customer service and extra services, such as repair of printers and copiers. More than half of office-based businesses (versus home-based) find a higher value in printing products and services being bundled together. Last year, Cartridge World announced that it was shifting its model to better serve business customers by expanding beyond printing products to a full range of B2B printing solutions that fill a need neither big box nor office supply stores meet. As part of the new offering, Cartridge World implemented a Printer Bundle service that supplies businesses with printers, ink, toner and paper along with providing maintenance and service for their printers. The Cartridge World study also found that larger, office-based businesses are more likely to use online purchasing and use multiple purchasing channels, while smaller, home-based businesses do more in-store shopping. “Cartridge World is evolving to best serve our existing and target business customers,” Swanson said. “Cartridge World franchisees who adopted our new B2B model are experiencing larger volume sales and ROI through building relationships with business customers. The research confirms our service remains extremely relevant in today’s marketplace.”
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 13
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Feature
How Much do Natural
Disasters Really Cost
Corporate America? Jean-Noel Barrot, Assistant Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Julien Sauvagnat, Postdoctoral Researcher at ENSAE-CREST, discuss the sales growth of supplier firms that have been directly hit by a natural disaster.
14 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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Hurricane Katrina, U.S. (2005) Cost: $81 billion total damage cost Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the worst disasters in the U.S. history. It made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Aug. 25, 2005. At least 1,836 people died in the hurricane and in the subsequent floods. Five years later, thousands of displaced residents in Mississippi and Louisiana were still living in temporary accommodations. The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $81 billion (2005 U.S. dollars). It also generated the largest single loss in the history of insurance - $41 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute
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Feature As spring begins in New England after record setting snowfall this winter, the economic consequences of natural disaster are a common topic of discussion. We know it will have a big impact on New England, but will it affect other parts of the country? If so, who will be affected and how much? We hear these types of questions a lot following any type of disaster whether it is weather related or not. For instance, the fear of contagion was at the root of the decision of the U.S. government to bailout Chrysler and GM in 2008. Surprisingly, Ford’s CEO Allan Mullaly himself advocated the bailout of his two competitors in front of a U.S. Senate committee, as he recognized that “the collapse of one or both of our domestic competitors would threaten Ford because we have 80% overlap in supplier networks and nearly 25% of Ford’s top dealers also own GM GM 0.75% and Chrysler franchises.” So the key question is: When a shock, like a natural disaster or financial crisis hits a supplier, what really happens to the firms in that network? Is there a spillover effects? To address this issues, we studied the transmission of shock caused by natural disasters in the past 30 years in the U.S. within the supply chain of publicly traded firms. We analyzed a sample of 2000 large corporations and 4000 of their suppliers. You’d think that at a firm level, shocks could easily be absorbed in production networks. Even when they face disruptions, firms are supposedly flexible enough to change their production mix or switch to other suppliers. However, our study showed that shocks cause significant effects in production networks. First, we found that the sales growth of supplier firms directly hit by a natural disaster drops by around five percentage points. The customers of these suppliers are also disrupted, as their sales growth drops on average by two percentage points when one of their suppliers is hit by a natural disaster. This is a strikingly large effect. We also found evidence that customers with lower inventories are the most exposed to disruption affecting their suppliers. Then we investigated whether the drop in firms’ sales caused by supply disruptions translates into value losses. Our study shows that supply disruptions caused a 1% drop in customer firms’ equity value. This effect is almost twice as large when the disrupted supplier is a specific supplier, meaning a supplier producing differentiated goods, generating high R&D expenses, or holding patents. Finally, we looked at whether the shock originating from one supplier propagates to other suppliers of the same firm, which were not directly affected by the natural disaster. You might expect that firms would continue to buy from other suppliers outside of the natural disaster zone, or that the other suppliers would find alternative buyers. However, our research shows large negative spillovers of the initial shock to other suppliers. We found that other suppliers of a main customer see a drop in sales growth by roughly three percentage points. These findings highlight the presence of strong interdependencies in production networks. In other words, production networks matter. When one of your suppliers or customers is experiencing a negative event, there will be important implications for you. This research likely applies to contexts beyond natural disasters, such as strikes and financial recessions. More generally, shocks that originate in one part of the economy can be amplified because of the strong interconnections between firms. As for the economic impact of the weather in New England this winter, there is good reason to think that the effects will be propagated to other parts of the economy through relationships that Massachusetts firms have with customers all over the country. But who will be affected and how much? We’ll have to wait and see.
16 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
Northridge California Earthquake 1994
$69 billion total damage cost
Winter Storm 2008
$789 million total damage cost
Hurricane Andrew 1992
$26 billion total damage cost
Hurricane Ivan 2004
$20 billion total damage cost
Hurricane Katrina 2005
$81 billion total damage cost
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18 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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How Smart is Your Home? NuTone’s latest product line puts the power of managing the home at homeowners’ fingertips
In today’s busy world, it’s easy to forget. People forget to turn off the lights at night, unplug the curling iron or even shut the garage door when leaving for vacation. But, instead of worrying about what we may have overlooked at home, wouldn’t it be nice if our homes remembered for us? With the NuTone Smart Home Series, integrated home automation and management, whether from the living room couch or across the globe, is now just a click away. May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 19
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20 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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Feature The NuTone Smart Home Series is our next generation of product offerings that will do just that. Homeowners now have the power to manage their homes climate, secure access to their homes, and control lighting and appliances, either automatically or with just one touch. The NuTone Smart Home Series provides the ultimate home automation solution, placing security, energy savings, convenience and control at one’s fingertips. While some other brands lock you into their system, NuTone Smart Home Series devices work with your favorite Home Automation hub and app. “At NuTone, we strive to make consumers’ lives easier and more efficient with our smart, interactive technologies,” said Jessica Lindquist, Marketing Manager, Low Voltage/Specialty Product Categories, for Broan-NuTone. “The NuTone Smart Home Series is our next generation of product offerings that will do just that. Homeowners now have the power to manage their homes’ climate, secure access to their homes, and control lighting and appliances, either automatically or with just one touch.” With a Z-Wave hub and a smartphone, homeowners are able to monitor, dim, turn on/off, open/close, schedule or automate their NuTone Smart Home Series devices, which include the Smart Garage Door Controller, Smart Outlets and Smart Lighting products. NuTone Smart Home Series Devices The NuTone Smart Home Series line of connected and smart devices provides homeowners with a variety of options to wirelessly automate their homes. Purchase your favorite Home Automation hub with Z-Wave featuring industry leading security and scalability, connect it to the internet and start adding NuTone Smart Home Series devices to control. Smart Garage Door Controller: Wirelessly control and monitor the garage door. The Smart Garage Door Controller provides safe, secure operation, preventing unauthorized access to the home. Smart Dimmable LED Light Bulb: Smart lighting control as easy as screwing in a bulb. The Smart Dimmable LED Light Bulb automates lighting without the need for rewiring or electrical work. Smart Fixture Control: Operate and control virtually any electrical device or appliance without the expense or hassle of running new wiring. The Smart Fixture Control is ideal for lighting, ventilation fans, ceiling fans and more. Smart Wall Dimmers and Switches: Choose from the Smart Wall Switch, Smart Dimmer Wall Switch, and Smart three Way Wall Dimmer Switch. With one tap on your smartphone, you can group your lights to create the right mood, light an outdoor pathway, or dim lights to watch a movie. Smart Wall Outlet: Make anything plugged into the outlet a smart device. The Smart Wall Outlet lets homeowners automatically turn on/off appliances plugged into the outlet or schedule them.
The average household could save $100 a year by unplugging appliances that aren’t in use!
Smart Plug-In Dimmer Module: Make anything plugged into the module a smart device. The Smart Plug-In Dimmer Module is ideal for table and floor lamps. Smart Plug-In Appliance Module: Making your appliances smart is as easy as plugging in an outlet. The Smart Plug-In Appliance Module is ideal for any light-duty appliance like a coffee pot. Setting the Scene With the number of product options available in the NuTone Smart Home Series and their home automation hub, homeowners are able to group various devices to create a scene, fully integrating control of their home. When returning home from work, the opening of the garage door signals the lights to turn on and the thermostat to adjust to a predetermined setting. When waking up in the morning, the touch of a button turns on the kitchen lights, sets the coffee pot into brewing mode and switches on the television to a morning news program. The options for creating a scene are unlimited, and homeowners are able to tailor their scenes to meet their specific needs.
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 21
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Feature
Home Rent Rates
Jump 5%
Rental market leaders team up to release rental housing statistics on rent, vacancy and saturation rates Real Property Management, the nation’s leading property management organization, and RentRange, the nation’s leading provider of Rental Market Intelligence have teamed up to release rental statistics that show national rental home rates are rising. “Rental rates are up throughout the country and we expect that trend to continue in the near future” said Wally Charnoff, CEO of RentRange. Through the first quarter 2015, the companies reveal that the average monthly rent for single-family homes was $1,286, representing a 5.4% year over year increase. The rental market data was limited to three-bedroom single-family homes in the U.S. Rental rates were up in all 10 regions analyzed. The Pacific and Northeast regions saw the largest upturns with 13% and 10.9% year over year increases, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, the Mid-Atlantic and South-Atlantic regions had the lowest gains at 1.6% and 2.6% year over year increases, respectively. “Rental rates are up throughout the country and we expect that trend to continue in the near future,” said Don Lawby, President of Property Management Business Solutions, the franchisor of Real Property Management. “There are a lot of economic indicators supporting that viewpoint, not the least of which is America’s continual shift toward renting.” Vacancy rates through the end of the first quarter, the percentage of homes considered unoccupied, were also examined. The national rate rose slightly to 5.7%, up 9% year over year. The Midwest region had the highest vacancy rate at 7.2% whereas Texas had the lowest at 3.6%. Lastly, the report analyzed the saturation rate across the country. This is the estimated percentage of rented single family homes as a share of all single family homes. Nationwide, 23.4% of single family homes are rented, according to the data. “Higher rents and the availability of detailed rental market data create unprecedented opportunities for investors to make good decisions,” said Wally Charnoff, CEO of RentRange. “Along with professional property management, such information reduces the risk of investing in a broader range of geographic areas.” 22 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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Rising Assets National home prices have risen by 5.9% in one year CoreLogic), a leading global property information, analytics and data enabled services provider, have released its March 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index which shows that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 5.9% in March 2015 compared with March 2014. This change represents 37 months of consecutive year over year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 2% in March 2015 compared with February 2015. Including distressed sales in March, 27 states plus the District of Columbia were at or within 10% of their peak prices. Seven states, including Colorado, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming, reached new home price highs since January 1976 when the CoreLogic HPI started. Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased by 6.1% in March 2015 compared with March 2014 and increased by 2% month over month compared with February 2015. Excluding distressed sales, only New Mexico (0.4%) showed year over year depreciation in March. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate-owned (REO) transactions.
“The homes for sale inventory continues to be limited while buyer demand has picked up with low mortgage rates and improving consumer confidence,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “As a result, there has been continued upward pressure on prices in most markets, with our national monthly index up 2% for March 2015 and up approximately 6% from a year ago.” “All signs are pointing toward continued price appreciation throughout 2015. In fact, the strong month over month gain in March may be a harbinger of accelerating price appreciation as we enter the spring selling season,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Tight inventories, job growth and the inexorable impact of demographics and household formation are pushing price levels in many states, and especially large metropolitan areas like Dallas, Denver, Houston, Seattle and San Francisco, toward record levels.”
The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices, including distressed sales, are projected to increase by 0.8% month over month from March 2015 to April 2015 and on a year over year basis by 5.1% from March 2015 to March 2016. Excluding distressed sales, home prices are expected to increase by 0.7% month over month from March 2015 to April 2015 and by 4.7% year over year from March 2015 to March 2016. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.
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Good Morning Monday, Hello Cyber Attack Drop in detected malware attacks in organisations coincides perfectly with weekends New research in the annual NTT 2015 Global Threat Intelligence Report shows a massive increase in malware detections on Monday mornings when users reconnect their devices to the corporate network. This trend supports the contention that the security perimeter in organisations is dissolving. This is because end users increasingly use their devices both inside and outside the corporate security perimeter. In fact, the user is today’s new organisation perimeter. What’s more, IT and security management can no longer count on well-defined network security perimeters to protect their organisations. The Global Threat Intelligence Report contains analysis of over six billion security events worldwide gathered during 2014 by NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, Solutionary, NTT Com Security, NTT R&D, and NTT Innovation Institute (NTTi3). Matthew Gyde, Dimension Data’s Group Executive - Security, says threats targeting end users are higher than ever. In addition, security vulnerabilities are mostly related to end-user systems and not servers. “It appears that successful exploits occurs over the weekend when end users - and their devices - are outside the security controls of the corporate network. This indicates that traditional security controls are effective at protecting the corporate network, however assets that transition between corporate and external access points are at greater risk. Gyde says controls that address this trend must focus on the user and their devices, regardless of location, and points out that seven of the top 10 vulnerabilities identified were on end-user systems. End users become a liability and that’s because their devices often have many unpatched vulnerabilities.” According to Gyde, the malware industry is maturing, with malware becoming commoditised and available through dark net marketplaces. This means the barrier to entry for cybercriminals is a minimal financial investment, but for a potentially large return.
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Matthew Gyde said “This trend is not about to disappear As users become more accustomed to always-on, real-time access to corporate data, they also become the targets of criminals wanting those same data sources. In summary, users and their devices become the criminal’s entry point.”
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“Cybercrime continues to grow in sophistication and organization, we understand that there is power in numbers to fight back,” said Rob Bening, Chief Information Security Officer, ING Bank. “Sharing threat information via IBM’s X-Force Exchange initiative is a big step toward better understanding potential attacks and anticipating measures to mitigate them.”
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26 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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Feature Community Approach to Threat Intelligence Designed to help move the industry forward on threat intelligence sharing, IBM’s vast library of security intelligence data via IBM X-Force Exchange includes: •
One of the largest and most complete catalogues of vulnerabilities in the world;
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Threat information based on more than 15 billion monitored security events per day;
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Malware threat intelligence from a network of 270 million endpoints;
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Threat information based on over 25 billion web pages and images; •
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Deep intelligence on more than 8 million spam and phishing attacks; Reputation data on nearly 1 million malicious IP addresses.
Let’s Beat Cyber Crime More than 1,000 Organizations Join IBM to Battle Online Threats IBM have announced that more than 1,000 organizations across 16 industries are participating in its X-Force Exchange threat intelligence network, just one month after its launch. IBM X-Force Exchange provides open access to historical and real-time data feeds of threat intelligence, including reports of live attacks from IBM’s global threat monitoring network, enabling enterprises to defend against cybercrime. IBM’s new cloud based cyber threat network, powered by IBM Cloud, is designed to foster broader industry collaboration by sharing actionable data to defend against these very real threats to businesses and governments. The company provided free access last month, via the X-Force Exchange, to its 700 terabyte threat database – a volume equivalent to all data that flows across the internet in two days. This includes two decades of malicious cyberattack data from IBM, as well as anonymous threat data from the thousands of organizations for which IBM manages security operations. Participants have created more than 300 new collections of threat data in the last month alone. “Cybercrime has become the equivalent of a pandemic -- no company or country can battle it alone,” said Brendan Hannigan, General Manager, IBM Security. “We have to take a collective and collaborative approach across the public and private sectors to defend against cybercrime. Sharing and innovating around threat data is central to battling highly organized cybercriminals; the industry can no longer afford to keep this critical resource locked up in proprietary databases. With X-Force Exchange, IBM has opened access to our extensive threat data to advance collaboration and help public and private enterprises safeguard themselves. In the past month since the launch of IBM’s threat intelligence network, there have been more than 1,000 data queries per day from organizations around the world. These organizations include six of the world’s top 10 retailers and five of the top 10 banks, as well as the top 10 companies across the automotive, education and high-tech industries. By freely consuming, sharing and acting on real-time threat intelligence from their networks and IBM’s own repository of threat intelligence, users can identify and help stop threats. The IBM X-Force Exchange features a collaborative, social interface enabling users to easily interact with, and validate information from, industry peers, analysts and researchers. Also with a library of APIs, security analysts can facilitate programmatic queries between the platform, machines and applications, helping businesses to operationalize threat intelligence and take action. For example, a Fortune 1000 retail chain is using the X-Force Exchange to collect and analyze threat intelligence - streamlining from seven separate sources of threat data to just one - enabling the chain to significantly reduce the time required to identify and investigate each potential threat. May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 27
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City Focus /Dallas
City
Focus
28 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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City Focus /Dallas Brought to you by:
Dallas
For over 175 years, Dallas has enjoyed a reputation as a hub of world class business innovation. It may only be the third largest city in Texas but it is the largest in terms of global business. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is home to some of America’s largest companies including Exxon Mobil, AT&T and American Airlines. In total 21 Fortune 500 companies call the Dallas area home. However, there are many more companies doing some really cool things in Dallas that you may not have heard of. We’ve picked out eight of the most interesting for this list.
As always we’ve selected companies from a variety of different industries, and picked out a special feature that really highlights the great work each business is doing.
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 29
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City Focus /Dallas
Ilumi produces the world’s smartest light bulb. The lights can be controlled via a tablet or smartphone using the company’s well designed app. This means you can adjust the brightness and even color of your home’s lighting without having to move from your seat. Ilumi was created by Swapnil Bora and Corey Egan two classmates from the University of Texas in Dallas. They entered their idea for a light bulb controlled by a smartphone into the University’s Business Idea Competition and won first place. In 2013 they managed to secure more than $200,000 worth of funding using Kickstarter. And Shark Tank fans may recognize Ilumi from season 5, where Mark Cuban was impressed enough to invest $350,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in the business.
Special Feature: Innovation The idea that sparked Ilumi was a great one, but so many companies fail to get off the ground in the competitive world of crowd-funded startups. Ilumi’s success is a credit to everyone who has worked to turn the initial idea into a reality over the last 5 years. The product Ilumi has created is wonderfully innovative, flexible and easy to use. The future for the company is as bright and colorful as the bulbs it has created. Founded: 2010 Founded By: Swapnil Bora and Corey Egan Industry: Technology Area Served: Worldwide Website: Ilumi.co 30 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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City Focus /Dallas
Monkey King Noodle Co. can be found in Dallas’ Deep Ellum district. The hand-pulled noodles and soup dumplings they serve have quickly become one of the favorite eats in Dallas. Whatever the weather Monkey King’s food is always in high demand. The Monkey King Noodle Co. opened for business out of an old Taco stand in 2013 and was busy right away. In an interview with the Dallas Eater the four founders (Andrew Chen, Michelle Midyette, and Michael Wang) mentioned that they didn’t tell anyone they were opening, so all the initial success was down to word of mouth alone. When you serve good food it speaks for itself.
Special Feature: Hand-Pulled Noodles As the Monkey King Noodle Co. has become more popular it has become increasingly difficult for them to produce enough noodles by hand to meet demand. But they have stuck with tradition and still manage to get customers their food quickly. If the Monkey King founders decide to open a second location and can’t find another noodle master this may have to change, but for now it is business as usual. As Andrew Chen puts it “we’ve always been of the belief that if we’re going to make something, then it’s going to be the best damn thing possible in that category.” Not every business has this attitude, so credit to the Monkey Kings!
Founded: 2010 Founded By: Andrew Chen, Michelle Midyette & Michael Wang Industry: Food Location: 3014 Main Street, Dallas, TX, United States Website: monkeykingnoodlecompany .com May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 31
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City Focus /Dallas
Jimmy’s Food Store is one of the most popular lunch spots in the Dallas Fort Worth Area. It is a traditional family run business that first opened as a grocery store in Dallas in 1966. The running of Jimmy’s has been passed down through many generations, but the quality is still as high as ever. As well as offering its own takeout lunch menu Jimmy’s produce also features in restaurants all over Dallas.
Special Feature: Community Involvement Brothers Mike and Paul brought Jimmy’s back to its original roots in 1996 by deciding to focus solely on Italian food. They began to roll their own meatballs to sell in the store, and spoke to customers about the sorts of foods they wanted to see added to the menu. It’s the family and community feel that makes Jimmy’s such a great place to shop and eat. Traditional family run businesses with a rich heritage can be just as rich as cool quirky new startups, so well done to everybody at Jimmy’s.
Founded: 1966 Founded By: James & Marie DiCarlo Industry: 4901 Bryan Street at Fitzhugh Location: 3014 Main Street, Dallas, TX, United States Website: jimmysfoodstore.com
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City Focus /Dallas
Founded: 2000 Chairman: Chris MacFarland Industry: Information Technology Area Served: Worldwide Website: masergy.com
Masergy offers global cloud services for the modern business world. The managed cloud networking, advanced managed security and cloud unified communications solutions they offer are completely customizable and empower enterprise companies to achieve profitable results today while optimizing for their future business goals. Masergy has developed many patented technologies including software defined network control, real-time analytics and an adaptive behavioral security platform. In addition to their unique technology, Masergy’s unmatched service and support philosophy have elevated the customer experience, setting a new standard for what enterprises should expect from their technology service providers. Masergy was founded in the year 2000 and now has more than 350 employees. Everyone that works at Masergy has great things to say about the company and the working environment it has created.
Special Feature: Product Quality Masergy is great for Dallas, as the company is one of the leaders in its field. In the last few years Masergy has won numerous awards, including ones for customer service, technology innovations and company culture. It’s important for an area to have cutting edge businesses creating skilled job opportunities. This is what Masergy is doing for Dallas, so it definitely deserves its place on the cool list.
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 33
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City Focus /Dallas
The Deep Ellum Brewing Co. was founded to show Dallas what it has been missing out on in the beer department. The company even has a Beerfesto in which it pledges: To never waste your time with gimmicks To let our beer do the talking To never live or work in a dry county To remember our roots To never serve a single glass of bad beer This is craft beer as it should be.
Special Feature: Branding Everything about the Deep Ellum Brewing Co.’s brand is cool. The founders have managed to create something that feels totally unique and special in what is an extremely competitive market. You only have to glance at the company’s Facebook or Twitter pages to understand that this is a brand people care about and want to connect with. One of the Deep Ellum Brewing Co.’s most recent events was a Donut Dash 5k (with lots of beer added in of course). A cool event put on by an even cooler brand.
Founded: 2011 Founded by: John Reardon Industry: Food & Beverages Headquarters: 2823 St Louis St Dallas, TX 75226 Website: deepellumbrewing.com
34 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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City Focus /Dallas
Texas811 works with utility companies and municipalities to prevent damage to underground infrastructure by assessing each digging job before it begins. Texas811’s 200+ employees take great pride in helping to keep people safe by notifying underground stakeholders of a planned dig so that those stakeholders can mark the location of underground lines before ground is broken. Texas811 operates an 811 call center for the entire state of Texas, and last year answered over two and a half million underground line locate requests. Texas811 is a non-profit entity and is driven by a board of directors, which is made up of representatives of the firms it serves.
Special Feature: Working Environment For 3 years in a row Texas 811 has been named one of the Dallas Morning News’ top 100 places to work and it’s easy to see why. Its employees are very pro-active in their jobs, and rave about other benefits including a free on-site gym and a free on-site clinic. With great benefits like these, and the high levels of job satisfaction helping people brings, it’s not surprising that Texas811’s employees voted it the number 1 Midsized Company in the Dallas Fort-Worth area in 2012. In fact Texas811 is a regular winner of employer awards.
Founded: 1984 Industry: Damage Prevention Area Served: Statewide Website: texas811.org
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 35
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City Focus /Dallas
Genband is a leading name in the communications space and focuses on the new technologies like VoIP and Unified Communications. It sells its services to large businesses like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint rather than directly to consumers. Genband was founded in 1999 under the name General Bandwidth in another great Texan city, Austin. In 2010 the company moved to Frisco which is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Genband now has operations in more than 50 countries and works with most of the largest network operators around the world.
Special Feature: Pioneers of New Technology Genband is close to achieving something special. They are using new technology to completely transform the customer service industry. Imagine if you could call your bank directly and have the customer service agent on the other end see exactly what is on your screen? This could also work for troubleshooting errors on e-commerce websites, or for fixing any problem you are having with an online transaction. This new communications platform being offered by Genband is called Kandy. It was launched last year and has already been adopted by SAP. It’s exciting that this revolution is taking place in the Dallas area.
Founded: 1999 Founded by: Brendon Mills, Paul Carew, Steve Raich and Ron Lutz Industry: Telecommunications Area served: Worldwide Website: genband.com
36 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
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City Focus /Dallas
Modx is an open source content management system (CMS) that is completely free to use. The first version was only released in 2004 but Modx has already built a great reputation and a large user base.
Special Feature: Creative Freedom The most well-known and widely used free, open source CMS is Wordpress, but Modx is certainly a worthy rival and is actually a better platform for many people. It offers more control to those capable of handling it, meaning users can create websites that are better suited to their individual needs. Platforms like Wordpress are very well structured but if you’re looking for a CMS that allows you to be more creative Modx is for you. Modx is only limited by your own imagination. The finished product is a credit to the small team that created it. Founded: 2004 Founded by: Ryan Thrash & Jason Coward Industry: Internet Technology (Content Management System) Headquarters: 25 Highland Pk Vlg Ste 100-413, Dallas, TX 75205-2789 Website: modx.com
May 2015 • CorporateAmerica • 37
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Corporate America /Deals
Deals
38 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
Here at Corporate America, we like to keep you up to date with what’s happening in your industry, giving you the lowdown on the need-to-know sales, mergers and acquisitions taking place across the US. Which is why we’d like to welcome you to our regular monthly roundup of the biggest, most newsworthy deals from the past month.
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Corporate America /Deals
Amazon and JetBlue to Bring an Unmatched Entertainment Experience to the Sky Amazon and JetBlue have announced that they will bring unlimited, on-demand entertainment to airline travel later this year through JetBlue’s free high-speed Fly-Fi broadband internet, the industry’s fastest complimentary inflight internet service, to create an unmatched entertainment experience in the sky. The collaboration will enable Fly-Fi for Amazon Prime members to instantly access tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, including exclusive Amazon Original Series such as Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle and Bosch, at no additional cost to their membership. In addition, all JetBlue customers will be able to rent or purchase hundreds of thousands of titles in the Amazon Instant Video store, including new-release movies and day-after TV programming, over the free broadband internet. Prime members will be able to instantly stream binge-worthy
Amazon Original Series, including the Golden Globe award-winning series Transparent, the hour-long police drama Bosch, and the Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola comedy, Mozart in the Jungle, in addition to original kids series such as the Emmy and Annie award-winning series Tumble Leaf and the Emmy-nominated live-action series Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street. They can also enjoy top network series available on Prime Instant Video such as The Americans, Downton Abbey, Justified, The Good Wife, Grimm, Mr. Selfridge, Orphan Black, Sons of Anarchy, Suits, Veronica Mars, and Vikings. On top of unlimited instant access to movies and TV episodes, Amazon Prime members will be able to access and listen to more than one million songs available on Prime Music. All JetBlue customers will be able to purchase and download songs from the Amazon Music store, eBooks from the Kindle store, and
IDT Teams With Blu Wireless to Unite Wireless Charging and WiGig Data Transmission Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT®) (NASDAQ:IDTI) have announced their collaboration with Blu Wireless Technology to demonstrate integrated wireless charging with ultra-fast 60 GHz WiGig® data transmission, a combination that will enable consumers to charge their phones and tablets while streaming the highest quality 4K HD video and photos to their televisions and computers—all without the need for cords. The collaboration will team IDT’s expertise in wireless power with Blu Wireless’s know-how in WiGig, which allows devices to communicate wirelessly at multi-gigabit speeds. The single-module technology targeted by the companies will, for example, enable consumers to wirelessly charge their devices while cordlessly transmitting uncompressed video of 1080p directly to their HDTV. WiGig technology uses the 60 GHz band to deliver 7 GHz bandwidth. A synchronization of data on a portable device that today would take two hours and use up nearly a third of a battery’s
charge can be completed, with WiGig, in just 45 seconds and consume only 2 percent of the charge. IDT’s semiconductors are enabling wireless charging today in a quickly growing ecosystem of applications that includes smartphones and accessories, wearables and furniture.
Sailesh Chittipeddi, vice president of global operations and chief technology officer at IDT said: “Between Blu Wireless’ expertise in WiGig and IDT’s in wireless power, we are developing a solution that keeps pace with demands in an age of massive multimedia content”
apps and games from the Amazon Appstore and earn TrueBlue points when they shop specific categories on Amazon over the free Fly-Fi broadband internet while inflight or through JetBlue promotions.
Jamie Perry, Vice President, Brand and Product Development, JetBlue said: “We want to provide the best digital video experience to our customers and we’re excited that, with JetBlue, we will raise the bar in airline entertainment”
Humana Partners with FIU Nursing to Launch Nurse Practitioner Clinical Preceptor Program at its Florida Clinics Supporting the community along with the education and expanding role of nurse practitioners is at the heart of a new collaboration between Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) and the Florida International University (FIU) Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The nurse practitioner (NP) clinical partnership with FIU Nursing is Humana’s first with a Florida university. The agreement to place some of FIU’s 160 master’s nursing students at select Humana-owned clinics from Miami to Orlando began this spring semester. Under the arrangement, FIU graduate nursing students can obtain the required clinical hours and rotations for graduation under the guidance of nurse practitioner or physician preceptors at Humana medical home clinics. Currently, students have been placed in clinics in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Along with providing clinical experiences, the collaboration will also promote the NP’s role in meeting the health care needs of the community.
Fernando Valverde, M.D., Regional Market President for Humana’s South and North Florida Medicare markets said: “The patient-centered medical home venue is gaining popularity across the country. Placing students in this unique environment allows them to practice and define their positions in the team-based health care delivery model that drives these facilities.”
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Information Today, Inc. Renews Partnership with Mobeon to Capture and Stream from Streaming Media East Information Today, Inc. and Streaming Media announced a continued partnership with Mobeon, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based new media studio, to capture all sessions and live-stream keynotes and other selected content at the Streaming Media East conference. Being held May 12–13, the event is the premier trade conference for the online video industry. Streaming Media East 2015 is taking place at the New York Hilton Midtown. The conference features dozens of how-to sessions and panel discussions with industry thought-leaders and technology experts, and Mobeon’s production team will capture the complete conference on high-definition digital video, with all keynotes and an entire conference track scheduled for live streams “Streaming Media East is an influential summit where all media innovators come to exchange their knowledge and ideas with others in the industry,” comments Mark Alamares, Mobeon CEO. “As a streaming partner, it is of great significance for us to live stream this event since
it provides valuable and relevant information that impacts various industries on many different levels worldwide.” Conference chair Dan Rayburn describes Streaming Media East as “the place where content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, and others come together to see and hear the latest in online video technology and what the future might bring.”
Steve Nathans-Kelly, video publishing director for Information Today, Inc.said: “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Mobeon again as streaming partners for Streaming Media East”
Jim Ellsworth Joins Innovative Commercial Real Estate Platform RealConnex
LeaderOne Financial and Morf Media Inc. Build a Game Plan to Attract and Train Millennials in the Mortgage Industry Professions
RealConnex, the most innovative online platform in the commercial real estate industry, announced today that Jim Ellsworth has joined the company as an advisor and member of the Board of Directors. Ellsworth brings to RealConnex decades of high-level experience in commercial real estate and finance. He most recently served as a Managing Director for AIG’s Global Real Estate division and previously held the position of Senior Vice President at the Trust Company of the West for nearly a decade. Ellsworth is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Harvard Business School.
Morf Media Inc. have announced a collaboration with LeaderOne Financial Corporation, a pioneer in full service mortgage banking, to build a game plan for attracting and training new talent in the mortgage banking professions. They are focused on delivering innovative ways, such as Morf Learning™ enterprise compliance training for the mobile workforce, to train new hires and educate their staff to perform at their best.
Abrams, named last year as one of the top 100 tech innovators in the world by Web Summit, established RealConnex to provide an online marketplace for real estate professionals seeking to be connected to new capital, investments, services and opportunities. By bringing together all aspects of the real estate marketplace, Abrams has created the most comprehensive B2B commercial real estate site in the world and has delivered a way to safely and 40 • CorporateAmerica • May 2015
securely network and transact. Launched in 2014, RealConnex is an unparalleled platform that bridges technology, finance and commercial real estate by matching professionals to capital, lenders, advisors, joint ventures and developers in real time. RealConnex was named one of the top 150 startup companies in the world at the 2014 Web Summit conference because of its potential to shift the traditional commercial real estate market.
“Jim is one of the most brilliant minds in commercial real estate and finance today,” said Roy Abrams, CEO of RealConnex. “His positions as an advisor and member of our Board will dramatically extend RealConnex’s capabilities to the commercial real estate industry. I am excited to work with him to continue establishing a 21st Century model “
LeaderOne is focused on developing career opportunities that empower their professionals to continually add to their skills in meaningful ways. As one of the most respected leaders in the industry, LeaderOne offers their staff the flexibility they need to meet their goals with flexible schedules that allow for personal enrichment. Compensation is typically above average for successful originators, which earn on par with technology workers. LeaderOne is in pilot with Morf Learning to deliver enterprise compliance training with patented technologies that speed learning, personalize rewards, map training to profit strategies, streamline administration and simplify change management -- key benefits for effec-
tively managing regulatory mandates. “LeaderOne is one of the nation’s top mortgage lenders in pilot with Morf Learning,” said Roy Hanif, co-founder of Morf Media, Inc. “Morf Learning is designed to bring innovative training to the best in the mortgage industry like those professionals across the generations at LeaderOne.” Morf Learning leverages human-focused design, gamification, interactive media, personalization and brain science to engage professionals in a more effective training process.
A.W. Pickel III, CEO and founder of LeaderOne Financial Corporation. said “Morf Learning is designed to bring innovative training to the best in the mortgage industry like those professionals across the generations at LeaderOne.”
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Unit4 Appoints Kara Walsh as Chief Human Capital Officer
Scale Venture Partners Leads $25m Series C Funding in OneLogin
Unit4, a fast growing leader in enterprise applications for service organizations, today announced the appointment of Kara Walsh as Executive Vice President - Chief Human Capital Officer.
OneLogin, the innovator in identity management, today announced it has closed a $25 million Series C funding round, led by Scale Venture Partners, which will be used to accelerate research and development, sales, channel, marketing and support efforts to meet growing market demand for OneLogin’s solutions.
The appointment follows the launch of the company’s new corporate identity which reinforces its commitment to people-centric industries with the purpose statement “In Business for People”. At the same time, Unit4 is dedicated to helping its own people develop, prosper and innovate. Kara will be responsible for building an infrastructure that supports the full employee lifecycle with a focus on career development and creating an environment within which people can grow and contribute. Unit4’s established YOUniversity program will now roll up under her leadership to ensure end to end delivery of training to all Unit4 employees via a virtual personalized platform focused on professional development.
Jose Duarte, Unit4 CEO said: “Our success depends on the quality, motivation and engagement of our people. Kara’s role is critical to achieving our ambitions and supporting our people to be successful”
Rory O’Driscoll, Partner at Scale Venture Partners, will join the OneLogin Board. Previous investors CRV and The Social+Capital Partnership also participated in the current round. This latest investment brings OneLogin’s total funding to $44 million. Launched in 2010, OneLogin is the leading provider of a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution, enabling enterprises to secure every application, user and device. The company is now working with more than 1,000 companies from nearly every major industry, including healthcare, financial ser-
vices, high tech and retail, with users in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Co-founder and CEO of OneLogin, Thomas Pedersen said:
“This additional funding is a great vote of confidence in OneLogin’s vision of how companies will put identity first, as well as in the long-term potential of our company to fuel innovation and prepare our customers for a mobile cloud world. “We plan to use this funding to further invest in strategic product development and further accelerate our growth.”
Thinfilm, World Customs Organization Team to Bring NFC to the Fight Against Global Counterfeiting and Piracy Thin Film Electronics ASA, a leader in the development and commercialization of printed electronics and smart systems, today announced that its NFC products will be the first NFC-based solutions to be included in the World Customs Organization (WCO) IPM anti-counterfeiting tool. The WCO selected Thinfilm’s NFC OpenSense™ and NFC Barcode™ products, printed smartphone-centric NFC (near field communication) tags that enhance brand security, in order to enable a wider range of product protection than otherwise possible. The Thinfilm tags are unique in that they deliver both ease-of-use and high security levels through a commonly available reading device – an NFC-enabled smartphone, tablet or industrial reader – and do not require special hardware or infrastructure. With 179 member countries, the WCO is the international authority on customs-related matters. WCO provides the best available tools to combat counterfeiting and piracy around the world. IPM is a global database that enables rights holders to provide customs officers with real-time data on their products.
Davor Sutija, chief executive officer for Thinfilm said: “We believe NFC OpenSense can play a significant role in helping the WCO to combat illicit trade and the growing threat it poses to our society and economy.”
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