4-I's : Information, Intelligence, Ideas, Innovation

InformatIon

reinventinG ameriCan eduCation Douglas County Schools Strives to Be the Best in the world

BLue Star reCyCLerS People, Planet, Profits – A 100% Solution

water iS the key to Life An Interview with USAID’s Chris holmes

IntellIgence

Ideas

InnovatIon

Leader to Leader™

Scott McNealy the co-founder of sun microsystems sits down with gayle dendinger to talk careers, vision and leadership - PG 54

creating and

sustaining a

Don Quixote

effort - Pg 82

ensuring Sustainable Development for Abu Dhabi

n

n

A

n C o

resilient electrical Power Distribution for Urban Communities

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SPirae

i e nte d rvIe u w C w k I w th o r th

maSdar inStitute

We bring together private equity, donors, foundations and lenders around a common goal:

her.

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table of contents | volume 4 issue 4

D

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enver has a mission, according to the City and County of Denver, Mayor’s Proposed 2013 Budget, “to enhance Denver’s quality of life and economic vitality through premier public venues, artworks, cultural programming and entertainment opportunities.” The estimated budget for 2013 allotted to the convention and visitor’s bureau is $14,669,400. VISIT DENVER is the city’s contracted convention and visitor’s bureau.

Letter From The Editor

8

Letter From The Publisher

12

Inspirations

14

Advisory Board

18

Opinion

102

Collaboration Close Up

108

Thank You

Bolstering the Economy Through Art and Culture Art as an Economic Driver

Out-of-the-Box Ideas Lead to Success

Transforming Marketing and Sales Strategies in the Road Weather Industry page 64 2

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VISIT DENVER also is the official and contracted marketing agency for the City and County of Denver. The bureau is a private nonprofit that markets metro Denver as a convention and leisure destination. It is funded publicly and privately. Public sources include a voter-approved lodging tax.

Specifically, the 2013 proposed budget states, “The 2013 lodgers’ tax forecast is projected to total $15,658,700, representing an increase of $456,100 or 3.0 percent over the 2012 revised estimate. This forecast incorporates Visit Denver’s 2013 projected lodgers’ tax growth rate.”

The success of VISIT DENVER is striking. “In the last seven years tourism in Denver has grown 40 percent, while the national average... continued on page 74

The needs in the developing world for clean water, sanitation and food security are staggering. More than a billion people do not have access to safe water, and well over two billion people live without adequate sanitation.”

– C h ri s H o l m e s (Page 34)

Energy Africa

90

Water is

LIFE!

Dedicated to providing CLEAN WATER and sanitation to the people of Malawi, Africa freshwaterintl.org

FRESHWATER Project International

table of contents | volume 4 issue 4

Academia

business

46

20 Clean Energy Education and Empowerment

Blue Star Recyclers

70 Colorado Cleantech Industry Association The Cleantech Fellows Institute

Building a Global Sustainable Energy Future

People, Planet, Profits–A 100% Solution

22

48

New Americans and Financial Integration

Spirae

74

Reinventing American Education Douglas County Schools Strives to Be the Best in the World

26 Masdar Institute Ensures Sustainable Development for Abu Dhabi Research Projects Focus on Health Care, Wind and Solar Energies, Smart Grid Smart Building, Telecommunications and Microsystems

28 Practicing What They Preach How Colorado State University-Global Campus Utilizes the Best Business Practices from Its Courses for the University’s Own Operational Success

Proven Technology to Create Resilient Electrical Power Distribution for Urban Communities

50

32 Sustainable Technology

78

54

82

Leader to Leader™ An Interview with Scott McNealy and Gayle Dendinger

Water Is the Key to Life An Interview with USAID’s Chris Holmes

58 What the Future Holds

60 SOBCon

Iowa’s Innovation Ecosystem In Iowa We Make It Possible

40 Why the World Bank Matters to the United States

42 NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility

44 In Massachusetts, Collaborations Generate Health Innovation Public and Private Participation Put the Massachusetts HIway on the Health IT Map 4

volume 4 issue 4

The Role of Renewables

Creating and Sustaining a Don Quixote Effort

86 Business Is a Pathway to Peace, Passion and Purpose An Interview with Connie Duckworth

Where the Virtual Meets the Concrete

90

62

What Does Sustainability Look Like?

Out of This World Innovation

64 Out-of-the-Box Ideas Lead to Success

38

Bringing Greater Energy Security to Africa

Building “Don’t Laugh At Me”

A Critical Element in Military Mission Effectiveness

34

Bolstering the Economy Through Art and Culture

Creating the High-Performing, High-Profit Organization by Using the Four I’s and Five C’s.

A Conversation with John Kelley, CEO of CereScan government

72

Transforming Marketing and Sales Strategies in the Road Weather Industry

66

Developing Energy for Africa

92 Water-Energy Nexus

94 Viable Energy Development Nigeria’s Journey to 80% Access

Listen and Deliver

96

Moving Business Beyond Surviving to Thriving with Strategic Programs

Exploring Emerging Technologies

community

68 Freshwater Malawi A Fresh Focus on Water and Maternal/Child Health

EcoPower Africa

98 Energy Africa

100 Creating Shared Value in Emerging Markets How Focusing on Literacy and Transparency Profited Both the Local Community and the Bottom Line

Helping refugees build safe and rewarding lives in America.

COmmuniTy EnTErpriSE DEvElOpmEnT SErviCES CEDS supports refugees with economic self-sufficiency with the programs of Business Ownership, Asset Ownership and Financial Literacy.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Leadership Information, Ideas, Intelligence, Innovation and Ideals

By Jan Mazotti

one must “push the envelope” to stay on the forefront. While that is absolutely true, the really good organizations realize the importance and the fundamental nuances between the 5 I’s and can appreciate all they have to offer the leaders of an organization.

This issue has countless examples from academia, government, business and nonprofits that most certainly possess the 4 I’s but have also fully embraced the 5th. They are motivated and guided by the fundamental concept that business can be done right, all the while being successful.

Ideals/ethics is the application of values to behavior and can apply to all aspects of a business.

“

If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”

- Dolly Parton

T

his issue is focused on the 4 I’s–information, ideas, intelligence and innovation.

The root of the concept comes from business but perhaps lacks one important aspect–a fifth “I”–ideals Ideals–ethics, principles, standards, morals–are absolutely integral. Without this, who cares about the rest? I would go so far as to argue that there can’t be good balance within an organization without the fifth “I.”

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Ideals/ethics is the application of values to behavior and can apply to all aspects of a business–from the boardroom, to sales, to accounting. “Ethics goes beyond the legal requirements for a company and is, therefore, about discretionary decisions and behavior guided by values. Business ethics is relevant both to the conduct of individuals and to the conduct of the organization as a whole,” according to the London-based Institute of Business Ethics.

With a rapid, ever-changing landscape of the 4 I’s (along with its cousin the 5th I), businesses of all types are constantly evaluating, tweaking, learning and re-evaluating business practices of all kinds–everything from hiring practices and funding mechanisms to social media guidelines. It is expected in this global marketplace that to stay ahead,

That’s why they are in this issue. They get it! They live it! They embody it!

Although I am not an expert in business strategy or ethics, Dolly Parton’s words, in my opinion, are dead-on. Read on to be inspired by those who are excellent leaders and who really get it. Read on to learn from those who are creating a legacy that inspires others to more–to learn more, to do more and to become more.

All the best, Jan

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Sparking the Conversation

LETTER FROM THE Publisher

The 4 I’s

By Gay l e De n di nger , w it h A n n et te Per e z

Information:

Information can be equated to raw knowledge. It is acquired in its most basic form by the five senses (sight, scent, taste, smell and touch) and is stored and processed in the mind.

Without information, the mind is useless. Therefore, we think of information as the building block of the mind.

Intelligence:

Intelligence is the ability to use information, tying bits of information together in innovative ways to solve problems. In an organization, intelligence is the ability to sense the value that a particular opportunity will bring to the organization.

Ideas:

An idea can be thought of as the manipulation of intelligence and information to determine a possible course of action.

Innovation:

“

First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, in your imagination.” - Napoleon Hill

O

n this latest issue of ICOSA you will notice that our tagline has changed from “Connection and Collaboration” to “Empowering Leaders through Connection, Collaboration, and Communication.” We as an organization are continuously transforming. Our overall purpose is to showcase “the best of show,” whether it is by this magazine that you are reading, our radio station, our website or any other of our media platforms that empower leaders to thrive.

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People band together under the notion that two heads are better than one. Why do we believe this statement to be true?

Because individuals realize that in order to achieve their goals, they often need more than they can offer alone. All organizations differ, yet they share a common goal: to maximize their strategic resources, which we at ICOSA call the “4 I’s.”

In the last five issues of ICOSA you have witnessed the collaborative principles that we abide by. The next issues of ICOSA will continue to introduce you to our philosophies, and in this issue we introduce you to the 4 I’s.

Every successful organization has its own information, intelligence, ideas and innovation, which it uses in a way that sets it apart from all other organizations. We define them as the following:

Innovation is a new idea, method or device.

Information binds humans socially to one another. We share information in the hope of gaining the mechanisms to survive and even flourish. Individuals possess different knowledge and can process certain types of information better than or differently from others. Individuals are brought together–connected–to share information so that they might accomplish something greater than they could alone. If an organization has access to a large quantity of relevant information, its people are more likely to make wise decisions than if they had access to a smaller quantity of relevant information. Information is abundantly available and free-flowing via the Internet, encyclopedias, statistics, research studies, news reports, interviews, speeches,

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Letter from the publisher

government documents, newspaper columns, editorials and magazine articles.

Intelligence depends on cognition, past experiences and genetic dispositions. Because everyone differs in these realms, everyone differs in intelligence; for example, some people excel in math while others are stronger in language. Intelligence is the ability to sense the value that a particular opportunity will bring to the organization and how each opportunity will affect the organization’s present, and future.

Strong organizations realize that different individuals are able to tie information together differently and recognize different opportunities. To run smoothly, or-

Innovation determines what ideas are “good” (morally sound, feasible, financially responsible, etc.). A company is more likely to implement only ideas that will strengthen both its revenue and its reputation, bringing it closer to its state of perfection. But innovation is more than a means to perfection. To be successful in the long run, organizations must make a commitment to innovation.

Everyone knows that successful organizations are made up of great individuals.

However, if information is reserved for only one individual to use, the amount of intelligence that can come from within even a large organization is limited. The

Founder and Publisher

Gayle Dendinger

President & Editor-In-Chief Jan Mazotti

Vice President and Editor-At-Large Kim DeCoste

Managing Editor Annette Perez

Contributing Writers

Bader Al Zarei, Keenan Brugh, Martha Butwin, Anna Conrad, Kelly de la Torre, Andrew Dixon, Eric Drummond, Pamela Goldberg, Kim Griffiths, Kathleen Hancock, Jack Harris, Amy Hart, John Holm, Diane Irvin, Molly Osadjan, Beth Pickett, Lynn Price, Heidi Rickels, Candace Ruiz, Graham Russell, Rebecca Saltman, Steve Shoppman, Steve Sorensen, Mittpheap Steele, Norman Stucker, Jon Tarleton, Judy Taylor, Sisay Teklu, Cinamon Watson, Peter Yarrow

Staff Writers

The 4 I’s are more than separate vital resources; they are crucially interdependent.

Michael Connors, Maria E. Luna, Emily Haggstrom

Advertising Inquires

Please contact Jan Mazotti at janm@icosamag.com

Art Director ganizations need strong leaders, creative minds and organized individuals making sure every aspect of a project gets finished and is done right. That is why the best organizations actively seek out members with a variety of skills and talents. The mind is the machine where intelligence occurs. Although information can be stored in various places other than in the mind–filing cabinets and computers, for example–intelligence is only in the mind.

Ideas are incredibly important; they provide the link between mind and body that empowers action. Additionally, ideas are the backbone of activity. Behind every action that occurs, there is an idea supporting it. If we did not have the ability to form ideas, then we would never actually do anything. Ideas are not just important to individuals; ideas are also instrumental to organizations. Having an idea is what sells. Ideas have the ability to turn our thoughts into action. A company’s future could also depend on the ideas its people generate in order to make the company revitalize, renew and rebuild. Whether an organization is product- or service-based, only the organization’s ability to convey that its ideas and goods can provide some benefit will persuade stakeholders to work with the organization. As a leader, treat every idea from an employee as a valuable contribution, and make it your challenge to bring it to life.

way information is shared within a company is vital to intelligence of the organization as a whole. The easier it is for individuals to share information, the more intelligence an organization can obtain.

Nick Heckman

Photography and Design Andrew Thompson

Videography

Tim Bungum, Blake Rubenstein, Tammy Schmidt

The 4 I’s are more than separate vital resources; they are crucially interdependent. Together they form a dynamic cycle, which is imperative to the function of an organization. The cycle begins with information, gathered from both external and internal sources. By using our intelligence, relevant and related pieces of information are tied together to form ideas. These ideas are then filtered through to determine if they are innovative before they are put into action. Innovation helps to assure the information, intelligence and ideas are developed in a positive manner.

Social Media

If organizations properly use these 4 I’s, they will see both financial and emotional returns on their investments. Although organizations are typically defined through their use of these assets, many groups are short in supply of one or all four of these resources.

ICOSA Corporate Headquarters

Maria E. Luna, Annette Perez, Tammy Schmidt

Copy Editors

Maria E. Luna, Melissa Root ICOSA® welcomes editorial submissions from its readers.

Whenever possible, submissions should be sent in electronic format. All unsolicited materials should be submitted to the publisher at the address below. Items not sent electronically will not be returned. The publisher reserves the right to decline use of materials at their discretion and assumes no liability for unsolicited materials.

ICOSA® (ISSN1938-2081) is published four times a year. No part of ICOSA® may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. ©2012 4100 Jackson Street / Denver, CO 80216

Office 303.333.3688 Fax 303.333.4832 Email janm@icosamag.com Website www.icosamag.com All third class postage paid at Denver, Colorado To view an electronic copy of ICOSA® (ISSN1938-209X) or to get your free subscription, go to www.icosamag.com.

Sincerely, Gayle Check the ICOSA Channel on YouTube www.youtube.com/user/ICOSAmagazine Friend us at ICOSA Magazine on Facebook www.facebook.com/ICOSAMAGAZINE

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CAPITAL INTELLIGENCE. CAPITOL INSIGHTS. Patton Boggs’ Energy and Natural Resources Group A proud supporter of ICOSA

Eric Drummond 1801 California Steet Suite 4900 Denver, CO 80202 303.894.6131 edrummond@pattonboggs.com

INSPIRATIONS

Peter Watson The Enchantment of Ideas

By Gay l e De n di nger , w it h A n n et te Per e z

“

We are not living in a creative time.

Today in terms of fundamental ideas we are much less inoperative than at various points in the past.”

- Peter Watson

P

eter Watson is renowned for his work on the history of ideas and is also an intellectual historian, author and former journalist. Watson was born in 1943 during an air raid in a town just outside of London. He attended universities in Durham, London and Rome.

Over the years he has worked for many American and British newspapers.

His numerous books range from history to crime novels. The abundant amount of books include The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century; The

German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century; The Great Divide: Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New; The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities–From Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums (co-authored with Cecilia Todeschini); Capo; War on the Mind: The Military Uses and Abuses Psychology; The Nazi’s Wife; Landscape of Lies (Felony and Mayhem Mysteries); From Manet to Manhattan: The Rise of the Modern Art Market; Sotheby’s: The Inside Story; The Caravaggio Conspiracy; The Death of Hitler: The Full Story with New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives; Terrible Beauty; Nureyev: A Biography; Wisdom and Strength; Psychology and Race; Twins: An Uncanny Relationship; Stones of Treason; Crusade; and Double Dealer: The John Blake Conspiracy. His most current book,

released in 2012, is The Great Divide: Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New. However, the most notable and inspirational to us is Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud.

In the book, Watson’s overall theme stems from ideas. He elaborates on medieval Eu-

They’re all coming together as if they’re telling the same reality, and that for me is utterly enchanting.

- Neils Bohr

rope, how they used concepts that were generated long before their time, and turned them into better more functional ideas.

He purports, “The eleventh and twelfth centuries were a hinge period, when the great European acceleration began. From then on, the history of new ideas happened mainly in what we now call the West.” Ideas starts in Africa and then spirals around the world to include philosophies from the Mesopotamians, Romans, Greeks, Hindus, Chinese, Israelites, Muslims and Christians and then remains focused on the antiquity of Europe. Watson labels scientific method as “the purest form of democracy there is.”

HarperCollins best describes Ideas as a “stimulating history of ideas from deep antiquity to the present day–from the invention of writing, mathematics, science, and philosophy to the rise of such concepts as the law, sacrifice, democracy, and the soul. It offers an illuminated path to a greater understanding of our world and ourselves.”

In October 2006, the conference The Enchantment of

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forward.” Additionally, Watson gave examples on three important ideas in history saying that Francis Bacon thought the three most important ideas in history, were printing, gun powder and the magnet, whereas, Thomas Carlisle overlapped with printing and gun powder but thought the Protestant religion was the third most important.

When talking about Ideas, Watson explains that his book was written based on two ideas. The first idea is the soul and the experiment. “It seems to me that most religions have a concept of the soul, which is that it is insubstantial and survives death, but equally important is this idea. In the medieval times they called it Holoplex–which means there is a different self, very often a better and higher self. It seems to me that the technology of the soul–confession, prayer, the institutions of purgatory, and limbo enabled the Church to keep control and kept man’s focus inside himself rather than outside.

This is of course what happened with the advent of the experiment to eventually not just become a method but a rival form of authority.”

Ideas: A Discussion with Dr. Bill Bryson, Dr. Matt Ridley and Mr. Peter Watson was held at Durham University; Watson was a panel member. The main question, “Are you enchanted by ideas? And if you are what are they?” Watson replied, “There are two ways to me in which ideas are enchanting–if you write about regular history, which is about battles, reigns of kings and queens, political treaties and so forth, the books would be different but would

include vast amounts of the same material pretty much in the same order. Whereas when I started A History of Ideas I wondered about what the definition of ideas might be … Rather than set out on that way by reading I looked out about what other people had done and this I think moves my point

The second notion is the idea of tractual entrapment through observation.

“Through experiment what I found in response to my book is that people loved the links and connections. An early one, for instance, was Galileo with the improved telescope studying four moons orbiting Jupiter. Just as Copernicus had said the Earth was orbiting the sun decades before. Similarly Neils Bohr spotted, before the war, the configuration of the atom and helped explain the differences and links the differences between chemistry and physics.” Additionally, he goes on to discuss the fascination of overlap. “The Earth has developed great similarities, findings, overlaps of the findings of genetics, linguistics and archaeology. They’re all coming together as if they’re telling the same reality, and that for me is utterly enchanting.”

The works of Peter Watson will most certainly extend beyond his years for future generations to continue to be inspired by his thoughts and intelligence.

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Advisory Board

LISA M. VENTRISS

L

isa M. Ventriss is president and chief spokesperson of Vermont Business Roundtable, a nonpartisan, nonpolitical, public affairs organization composed of 120 CEOs from among the state’s most successful private sector and not-forprofit employers. Through thoughtful policy research and analysis, collaboration and advocacy, the Roundtable seeks to leverage the entrepreneurial capital of its members to benefit the welfare of all Vermonters on economic, social and environmental matters.

Prior to joining the Roundtable in 2002, Ms. Ventriss was president of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (1997-2002), in which she represented the industry and strategic partners as it grew into the largest domestic domicile and third largest captive domicile in the world. The hallmark of Ms. Ventriss’s contributions was in laying the foundation for what has become the industry’s leading educational organization, the International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE).

Within the Roundtable Ms. Ventriss has lead the organization to become effective and respected business champions for public investments in the early life of a child. The Roundtable’s efforts have resulted in meaningful legislation at the state level and have earned a national reputation and recognition for successful community building on this issue. The Roundtable’s leadership efforts have been funded by Pew Center on the States.

Ms. Ventriss currently serves on the boards of Champlain College; Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation; Maine Mutual Group; Mercy Connections, as chair; University of Vermont; Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies; Vermont Medical Society Education & Research Foundation; and Vermont Public Television.

In 2009 Ms. Ventriss was appointed by

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Governor Douglas to the Building Bright Futures Council, which is organized to create a unified system of quality health, early care and education supports for young children and their families. She currently serves as co-chair.

In 2010 Ms. Ventriss was presented with the Key Achieve Award by KeyBank in recognition of her years of leadership and contributions to both the business and nonprofit communities throughout Vermont.

In 2011 Ms. Ventriss was presented with the first Youth Development Award by the Greater Burlington YMCA for her tireless efforts in advocating for investment in quality early education. And in 2012 Ms. Ventriss was presented with the Hope Award by the National MS Society of Greater New England for her leadership in the business and philanthropic communities.

Ms. Ventriss is a sixth-generation native from Middlebury, Vt., and holds a master’s of public administration and a B.A. in political science from the University of Vermont. She is married and has three sons.

Lisa M. Ventriss President Vermont Business Roundtable 30 Kimball Avenue South Burlington, VT 05403 t: 802.865.0410 e: Lisa@vtroundtable.org w: www.vtroundtable.org

worldbank.org

Advisory Board

Brian Vogt

B

rian Vogt has been the CEO of the Denver Botanic Gardens since April 2007. His 25 years of community leadership and an extensive background in fundraising, organizational management, communications and branding, cultural development and volunteer coordination have proven invaluable as the Gardens engages in a historic capital campaign, and the subsequent build-out of its new Master Development Plan. In the past three years, more than 30 construction projects, and nearly $50 million worth of investments have been completed, including the Mordecai Children’s Garden, the new parking complex, the Bonfils-Stanton Visitor Center and the Greenhouse Complex.

Previously, Vogt served in three Cabinet positions for the State of Colorado, from 2004 through January 2007, including all three years as director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, which includes the Colorado Tourism Office.

Vogt also served for more than a year as the secretary of technology and as executive director of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, and was a member of the Governor’s Homeland Security and All-Hazards Senior Advisory Committee.

He is on the board of Porter Adventist Hospital and Plant Select, has co-founded and chaired for five years the Greater Littleton Youth Initiative, and managed the incorporation movement that created the City of Centennial. Prior to working for the state, Vogt spent 14 years as the president of the South Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Vogt serves as a facilitator for numerous community organizations; has delivered more than 1,000 speeches over his career; and teaches classes in public policy, economic development, public speaking and writing. He is an avid painter, hiker and writer and has traveled to all 50 states and more than 30 countries.

He holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado with a double major in classical antiquity and political science.

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Brian Vogt CEO Denver Botanic Gardens 1007 York Street Denver, CO 80206 t: 720.865.3500 e: VogtB@botanicgardens.org w: www.botanicgardens.org

S E C C L • V • E U M T B S t M B C B G A t • L • V • E U M T B S

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) • Tradigital • Likeonomics • Audience Engagement • Brand Advocates • Customer Acquisition • Receptor to Customer Conversations • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) • Customer Lifecycles • Change Agents • Downside Risk • Leverage• Brand Loyalty • Monetization • Marcom Strategists • Marketing Communications • ROI – Return-on-Investment • KPI – Key Performance Indicators • Go Viral • Componentize • VC Funding • Workflow Automation • Critical Path • Mindshare • Cost of Debt Ratio • Interest Coverage Ratio • Capital Employed • Valve-add • Move the Needle • Brand Assessment • Consumptive Use • Installed Costs • Administrative Controls • Lipper Average • Facilities Management • Optimized • Control and Reliability • Segment Margin • Traceability • IfEnvironmentally Sensitive • Agile Software Development • you feel like your audiences just don’t get you, call on MGA. Brand Management finding clear • Data-driven • Turn-key • We specialize• inEndangerment making complex information and compelling, Synergies • SWOT Analysis • Value bringing your audiences closer bringing you and your audiences you closerand together. togethersults-oriented • Level-set • Leveraged Buyout • Technology-driven Marketing • Scalable • Execution Control System • Cycle Times • Proprietary Bets • Capability Maturity Model (CMM) • Constructability • Critical Chain Project Management • Earned Value Management (EVM) • Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) • Asset Turnover • FOB - ‘Free On Board’ • Gearing • Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) • Tradigital • Likeonomics • Audience Engagement • Brand Advocates • Customer Acquisition • Receptor to Customer Conversations • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) • Customer Lifecycles • Change Agents • Downside Risk • Leverage• Brand Loyalty • Monetization • Marcom Strategists • Marketing Communications • ROI – Return-on-Investment • KPI – Key Performance Indicators • Go Viral • Componentize • VC Funding • Workflow Automation • Critical Path • Mindshare • Cost of Debt Ratio • Interest Coverage Ratio • Capital Employed • Valve-add • Move the Needle • Brand Assessment • Consumptive Use • Installed Costs • Administrative Controls • Lipper Average • Facilities Management • Optimized • Control and Reliability • Segment Margin • Traceability • Environmentally Sensitive • Agile Software Development • Brand Management • Endangerment finding • Data-driven • Turn-key • Synergies • SWOT Analysis • Value Chain • Customer-focused • Results-

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MISUNDERSTOOD?

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opinion

Innovating Yourself and Your Business

By Anna Conrad

hold a mirror up to themselves and take an honest look at what they see.

Who You Are: Holding Up a Mirror

It’s not easy to see a gradual change process.

Our values, vision, wants and needs may be different than what they once were. For the first decade of our professional lives, most people seek a job that aligns with their degree and the path they chose as a young adult. But as time goes on, experi-

the hardest part of this is innovating in an authentic way.

I

nnovation is a term thrown around a lot in today’s business world. Companies want to innovate and change, to adapt to what consumers and customers need.

Most companies miss one key element–in order to innovate, a company must have leaders who also believe in innovating themselves.

Identifying who you have become, accepting both the good and bad of this, and committing to change other behavior requires courage. Being innovative means being vulnerable–not a trait that many think is positive. However, learning to be vulnerable will propel you to the next phase, as a person and in your career. People respond strongly to leaders who are human–those leaders who admit their faults and embrace growth.

In the most basic sense, to innovate means to change. It’s one thing to talk about innovating or changing your business strategy, but what about innovating or changing

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yourself? Most people have a feeling of fear if not downright resistance to this idea. But innovating yourself does not mean changing who you are on a fundamental level, it means re-examining who you are at this moment, and who you ultimately want to be. And the hardest part of this is innovating in an authentic way.

People often come to me because they have climbed the corporate ladder and yet they feel a sense of loneliness or emptiness. I also receive a lot of requests from leaders who feel disengaged or “not themselves” in the role they play at the office. This often comes out in their inability to excite the organization to tackle changes, in personal fatigue or in some more serious cases, illnesses. The first thing I help leaders do is

Being innovative means being vulnerable

ences open up different opportunities and different things that we didn’t even know existed. Often the values we cling to are aligned with the person we were when we identified them, not with the person we are today. And one day you may realize you are looking at things a little differently. Perhaps it is election time, and you realize you are not voting down your party line. Or maybe it’s when you apply to that job that is the logical next step in your career, and you are filled with a sense of dread, not excitement.

This step of the development process is one of the hardest for leaders to undergo.

It requires an open mind and self-compassion. To do this, you need to look at your leadership style as you see yourself, your style as others see it, and re-examine your values.

How Do You See Yourself?

Self-assessments such as Myers-Briggs, DiSC, or Insights

are a good start, but they are only your view of who you are. I recently facilitated a team effectiveness session to the senior leaders of a large oil and gas company. As part of this session, we used Insights as both a self-assessment and then a 360° version where other people determined their characteristics, leadership and communication styles.

Eight of the 12 leaders saw themselves with different styles than others saw them!

Take an honest look at the difference between who you are now, and who you want to be.

to fake being someone you are not, others will know it. Your true feelings about what you are doing will leak nonverbal cues, and people will consciously and subconsciously pick up on it. If you have been told that you need to be more focused on people, you may ask them about their weekend, or their child’s soccer game. But are you truly listening to the answer, or are you only partially listening as you check your email?

How Do Others See You?

Who You Want to Be

How to Get There

A more realistic view of who you are is a true 360° assessment, where others rank you and make comments on specific behaviors that you feel are important to your leadership style and effectiveness.

As a coach, self-assessments and 360s show me how the person sees himself, and who he would like to be. It shows me the behaviors that the person thinks makes her successful because most people do not purposefully admit or see behaviors that they know are unacceptable.

Ask any emerging leader to describe characteristics that make a leader, and the list will undoubtedly include “gets results” and “takes charge.” Yet if you ask these same young leaders who they would follow, the characteristics they identify are usually different. The traits they describe are usually more about collaboration than command, respect rather than dictating.

You must decide for yourself who you want to be, and how you want to be seen as a leader. I frequently have clients describe and define “professional,” including describing in detail how professional people behave, what they say, and how they make decisions. This usually gives me an indication of the person they have modeled themselves after. Next, I have them describe someone whom they would follow to another company or another team. We then compare the two. An amazing realization often occurs–the former is whom they thought they wanted to be, and the latter is whom they themselves are really wanting to become.

Take an honest look at the difference between who you are now, and who you want to be. Keep what has worked in the past, as long as it still serves you. Your competitive nature has gotten you results and success, but is your company and your position requiring collaboration? If so, you must work with the rest of the organization and colleagues. A lone wolf reputation may work for an individual contributor but not for a leader of a department or organization.

Values

When I work with executives, I push people to identify their current values, and I force them to look to see if they are living these values. I was working with a senior VP of human resources.

She pointed to a picture of her two young children, smiled and proudly proclaimed family her top priority. Yet she worked a minimum of 70 hours a week, including weekends and evenings. If a value is real, you use it as your compass and the basis for all of your decisions.

Who are you

• Self assessment • 360° review • Values

It is important to be honest with yourself about who you want to be. If you try

Who you want to be

• What will work • “Professional” • Who would you follow?

Scientists have watched different areas of the brain light up in response to certain thoughts, and they consistently come to the same conclusion about change: We try to avoid it. If you are serious about being innovative with yourself, make an action plan with timelines. Just as you need employees to support an initiative, you must have someone who will hold you accountable and support you as you change.

Innovation in your company cannot occur if you are not innovating yourself. These suggestions give you a great start in doing just that.

How to get there

• Action plan • Find an accountability partner

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Academia

MIT Energy Initiative & C3E

Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Building a Global Sustainable Energy Future

By K e l ly de l a Tor r e

C

oal was essential to the industrial revolution. It provided the power to drive steam engines and to build our infrastructure. The result is that in developed countries today, we have an incredible infrastructure that supports thousands of industries that, in turn, support our industrialized lifestyles. Industrialization, however, came with a cost. Oil, coal and fossil fuels produce harmful side effects in terms of greenhouse gas emissions that have been linked to climate change. Moreover, the reality is that the global appetite for energy is growing exponentially, especially as underdeveloped countries focus on economic development. We are at a transition point where we need to secure a sustainable energy future–globally. Fortunately, some of the greatest minds around the world have come together to focus on this challenge.

“A sustainable energy future is the most important challenge of this generation,” declared Susan Hockfield, president emerita, MIT, during her keynote address to the first Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Symposium held September 28, 2012, on the MIT Campus in Cambridge, Mass. The MIT Energy Initiative (MITei) was designed to put MIT’s weight behind this challenge. The strength of the initiative is in the recognition that great technology alone will never win. Great technology must be paired with good policy and strong alliances with industry partners. Led by Executive Director Melanie Kenderdine, MITei has been transformative for MIT. “The time is right,” said Hockfield. “In my mind, the efforts of MITei are designed to deliver real results for the real world. It is a wonderful problem. The threat of climate change is daunting. The number of nonbelievers is daunting. But this is a problem with solutions. We can, if we pull together, make a significant change.”

Transformation is underway from multiple directions, and one leader is corporate America. “True transformation will only occur through sustainable development,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting. This is a message that is clearly internalized by Wal-Mart, British Petroleum (BP), General Electric (GE) and Cummins, all sponsors of the C3E program, an initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in strong partnership with MITie. Each of these industry-leading companies has implemented corporate initiatives that focus on both sustainability and the bottom line.

“These companies really do care,” said Kim Saylers-Laster, vice president of energy for Wal-Mart International. “Wal-Mart has three

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» MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield

broad goals,” continued Saylers-Laster. “Be 100 percent powered by renewable energy, create zero waste, and sell sustainable products.” BP has made a commitment to invest $8 billion in clean technology in ten years, said Terry Wood, vice president of technology for BP. Cummins, the world’s largest independent manufacturer of diesel engines, is driving cleaner products while still producing a product that meets the needs of the customers. Using this strategy, Cummins has virtually eliminated NOx, a byproduct produced from the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen gases in the air during combustion, and particulate emissions from their engines. They are taking advantage of the abundance of cleaner burning natural gas to develop natural gas engines, said Jennifer Rumsey, executive director of heavy duty engineering at Cummins.

“When it makes good economic sense, it’s easy to convince the shareholders that it’s the right thing to do.”

These corporations recognize that true transformation can’t happen when we don’t engage all of society in the solutions. “It is critically important that women play a significant role,” said Kenderdine. The need for a sustainable energy future is a problem with an incredibly important purpose, a problem that touches the lives of everyone on the globe. “When more women enter the workforce, it spurs innovation, increases productivity and grows economies. Families then have more money to spend; businesses can expand their consumer base and increase their profits; in short, everyone benefits,” said Secretary Clinton during opening remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative.

A sustainable energy future is a global issue, especially in places where there is a chance to develop energy infrastructure the right way–learning from the mistakes of the developed world. South Africa is one of nine countries that participate in the C3E program. Elizabeth Dupuo Peters, energy minister of South Africa, addressed the audience from the perspective of a continent where women leaders in energy are few, and in some countries no more than seven percent have direct access to electricity.

“The development of the clean energy sector marks a revolution in the energy sector, which will in the long run change amongst others: the economics of energy, the dominant energy technologies for energy production, issues of transformation, the way we consume energy, as well as the form and structure of energy as we know it today,” began Minister Peters. An energy revolution is underway, and women are beginning to take decisive roles in the economy.

Energy poverty is one of the debilitative factors which militate against development of communities and society at large.

- Minister Peters

”

There are signs of an industrial revolution, but access to power is a crucial prerequisite to force this positive industrial change.

Positive change can only happen if energy poverty is eradicated. “Energy poverty is one of the debilitative factors which militate against development of communities and society at large,” emphasized Minister Peters. The statistics are staggering: Globally, around 1.5 billion people don’t have access to electricity, and 2.5 billion rely on traditional biomass for sustainability. This model is not

sustainable considering that the proportion of people in Africa without electricity and the rate of electrification is lower than any other continent. “Affordable, reliable energy is a fundamental hindrance to human social and economic development. Poverty in education will remain a dream as long as energy poverty is not solved,” remarked Peters.

Worldwide, however, there is economic opportunity. We can improve infrastructure, and we can look to demonstrated progress.

“The influence and drive for C3E has resulted in gender parity. Over 50 percent of the personnel in the Department of Energy in South Africa are women. Significantly, women have been kept back in the past for our skill in ‘soft’ issues. However, it is that ‘soft’ understanding that we need to drive issues forward helping to overcome huge obstacles by working together and supporting collaboration.

In every country we have the responsibility to ensure that we grow. We want women in Africa to be empowered,” Peters declared.

Advancements for the developing world Access to electricity globally is possible with new technologies and new business models.

Not only that, but we can do it better. We can leapfrog the steps in development that we

undertook in industrialized nations and implement today’s solutions. For example, rather than investing in traditional infrastructure for landline telephones, underdeveloped countries recognize that they can jump directly to mobile telephones. “We can use the same strategy to bring high-quality energy solutions to off-grid populations,” said Allison Archambault, president, Earth Spark International.

With emerging micro-grid and distributed generation technologies, it is possible to support communities without the huge investment required to support an extensive grid infrastructure. “We work on business models that bring high-quality energy solutions to offgrid populations in Haiti–75 percent of Haiti’s population. There are a number of pathways for clients to access these services,” continued Archambault. Providing pathways to access and finance the technology is crucial to providing global electricity access.

Whether the perspective is that of corporate America or a developing country, no one can argue that energy is critical to our future. The challenge of our generation is to ensure that it is sustainable, and the way we get there is to leverage the tremendous talent working on these challenges and make the economic case. Transformation of this magnitude, however, requires global collaboration and leadership–two concepts exemplified by MITei and C3E.

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Academia

Doug las County Schools

Reinventing American Education Douglas County Schools Strives to Be the Best in the World B y C i n a m o n Wa t s o n

G

ame changer. Risk taker. Innovator. Collaborator. These are just a few of the desired traits sought by the nation’s largest employers. “Unfortunately, for the last 100 years the American education system has been geared toward outcomes suited more for the assembly lines of the Industrial Revolution rather than the economy of the future,” says Douglas County School District (DCSD) Superintendent, Dr. Elizabeth Fagen. “Our goal is to prepare our students to compete on the world stage for the college or career pathway of their choice.”

Douglas County School District (DCSD) is located a short 20 minutes south of Denver, Colorado. The 63,000-student district spans 900 square miles and is home to some of the highest ranking schools in the state. In fact, DCSD ranked #1 in reading achievement in the metro area, but maintaining the status quo is not enough for Dr. Fagen or the reform-minded school board.

“We want more for our students and our community, so we are transforming education,” says Fagen. “We don’t want to be the best in the state or even the nation. We want to be the best in the world.”

Dr. Fagen’s passion for reform is evident in every aspect of her daily routine–from regular school visits, to parent communications, to teaching professional development classes for teachers and administrators. With a goal of preparing students to compete on a global stage for any college or career path they choose, DCSD is implementing a systemic transformation plan. The plan begins with focusing education on new outcomes aligned to what students will need to compete on the global stage, and continues with better approaches to measuring and teaching those outcomes.

Fagen explains the plan and the urgency to parents and the community with a simple comparison to the medical profession.

“Would you be satisfied if your doctor employed techniques from the year he graduated from medical school, or would you expect him to use the latest, less intrusive and safer techniques?” Fagen

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asks. “Our challenge is to transform our classrooms and our teaching methods designed in the 1900s into a learning environment for the future.”

As the mother of two young daughters, Fagen also has a personal interest in making sure DCSD continues to be innovative. “My 2-year-old can effectively navigate my iPad,” says Fagen. “We know that students learn differently now, and we must employ new strategies to meet their needs and prepare them for the future workforce.”

Education is in her blood. Fagen’s mother was a teacher, and she followed in her mother’s footsteps. She started in the educational trenches as a high school science teacher in Iowa. She served as a high school principal in two schools, and worked her way up the ranks in the Des Moines School District, as director of high schools and associate superintendent before being hired as the superintendent for the Tucson Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona. The Douglas County School Board unanimously hired her as their superintendent in July 2010.

DCSD Board of Education President John Carson affirmed the board’s selection of her saying, “Dr. Fagen’s proven track record of success as a superintendent, her experience as a teacher and professional in the education field, her advocacy for parental choice and her demonstrated leadership in innovative reforms in public education make her an excellent choice to lead Douglas County School District.”

Under Fagen’s leadership, DCSD developed a strategic plan based on four district traditions–excellence, innovation, efficiency and safety–and focused on three major priorities: choice, world-class education and system performance. The timeline for implementation of the plan is very aggressive.

“We can’t wait,” says Fagen.

Choice DCSD acknowledges that every child learns differently. Instead of offering students the one-size-fits-all education that most school districts provide, Fagen explains these focus areas below, in her own words. She says, we have been committed to providing our students and their families with the tools they need to find the learning environment that best meets their needs and provides them with the maximum opportunity for success.

With feedback from our community, the district created 27 different strategies to expand choice in Douglas County. Strategies

We have aligned our work to make the changes necessary to ensure that our students are the best prepared in the world. - Dr. Elizabeth Fagen

”

range from developing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and Artful Learning programs at our neighborhood schools, to supporting charter schools, to revising open-enrollment policy. Still, the single program that has dominated the headlines has been DCSD’s Choice Scholarship Program.

In 2011, the school board took an unprecedented vote to create the first district-authorized program of its kind in the United States. The Choice Scholarship Pilot Program was approved and launched for 500 students in the 2011–12 school year. Under the program, eligible students can receive scholarships worth the lesser of private school tuition, or 75 percent of their per-pupil public revenue ($4,575 for 2011–12), and families are allowed to supplement the scholarships.

Unlike other voucher programs, the district remains accountable for the scholarship students by having them participate in the same state and district testing as every other student. Each private school partner was fully vetted to ensure that

scholarship students are in a stable, private school environment that has a track record of academic performance at least as strong the district schools.

The program was placed on hold when then ACLU sued not only the district, but also the Colorado Department of Education, citing violations of the Colorado Constitution prohibiting the use of public monies for private and religious schools. The case is currently awaiting a hearing at the Colorado Court of Appeals.

“I think it’s pretty simple to understand that our goal is to guarantee that every single child who lives in Douglas County receives an educational experience that provides the maximum opportunity for success, or as sometimes we say ‘unleash the genius of every child.’ We know that you don’t unleash that genius by using a one-size-fits-all system, so opening the door for parents and allowing them to explore other options that we don’t have in the district allows a student to reach his or her full potential,” continues Fagen. “For me, that’s what it’s all about.”

The Choice Scholarship Pilot Program was crafted following the model of other programs that have been upheld by state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Like the federal Pell Grant, it is the parent, not the district, that chooses where state funding will be spent.

World-class education “Terms like 21st-century and world-class have become somewhat cliché, but in Douglas County when we say ‘world-class,’ we mean it,” says Fagen. “We have reviewed the research, data, literature and best practices to create a synthesis of the best-of-the-best in modern education. We have reviewed the most desired attributes in a modern workforce from companies like Nike, Apple, Cisco, Intel and Google, and we have aligned our work to make the changes necessary to ensure that our students are the best prepared in the world.”

According to Fagen, most adults describe their educational experience as memorization of information and developing skills such as reading and writing. “We have to remember that when we were starting our education system, we were preparing students to be assembly-line workers. That’s not what we need today.”

She continues, “The first step for us is to rethink what we teach–even to really broaden the idea of the word ‘teach.’ Teachers are less dispellers of knowledge, and more facilitators of skill development.” DCSD has created the Douglas County Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum, and according to Fagen, it is pushing the boundaries. “Part of having a world-class education is having world-class outcomes focused on the right things–developing highly creative kids that can collaborate with people around the world; children

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Academia

Doug las County Schools

that can communicate through writing, speaking and listening; and children that can think critically, who understand how to collect research and synthesize it, evaluate it, and come out with something new.” Assessing these outcomes is where Douglas County really earns the reputation of a pioneer.

System performance DCSD is engaged in creating a cutting-edge system performance framework that will not only measure student performance, but also measure the performance of teachers, schools, administrators and the district overall. Dr. Fagen and her team have been collaborating with teachers to develop new outcomes and measure what is important.

“For the past 10 years, we have been obsessed with standardized testing, but we have neglected to pay attention to whether those tests measure what students really need to be successful,” says Fagen. DCSD is creating a Balanced Assessment System that will authentically measure the most important outcomes for students.

The data collected in the new system will also inform the new pay for performance compensation system for DCSD employees.

“The goal of the system is to recruit and retain the very best teachers and employees.

We know that is what is going to be best for our students. The research is clear: the quality of the teacher is the number-one factor impacting student success,” explains Fagen.

Once the transition is complete to the new system, teachers who are effective and highly effective will have opportunities for pay increases and bonuses. Those who are not will receive feedback and training to improve their skills. Opportunities for professional development through coaching and training will, however, be available to all employees, ensuring that exemplary employees become models for others in their field.

“We can’t give everyone flat raises year after year because that violates our belief that teachers should be paid like professionals– that great teachers should make more than good teachers, and good teachers should make more than fair teachers,” says Fagen “Good teachers are not afraid of accountability, they are afraid of accountability gone wrong–the kind we have experienced for the past 10 years due to No Child Left Behind. We are going to show the world that we can identify the most important

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» Dr. Elizabeth Fagen with parents and students

outcomes for our students, measure them the right way, and use that data to reward our amazing employees.”

There is little argument that Douglas County is on the cutting edge of reform and has drawn the attention of leaders across the nation. Ken Kay, CEO of EdLeader 21, an organization of education professionals, recognized the district as a beacon for the rest of the country. “I am impressed with Douglas County Schools’ approach to 21st-century learning. They have not only identified the important learning outcomes, but are committed to embedding them in key education strategies in the district such as incentives, compensation and technology,” Kay said.

Transforming the district into a 21st-century model is not without challenges.

DCSD’s collective bargaining agreement with the teachers’ union expired June 30, 2012. The district conducted public negotiations, which allowed Fagen and her cabinet to go out and talk to teachers. Her team used the feedback to draft a budget and negotiations package with three major goals–maintain fiscal stability, improve employees’ quality of life through a raise and additional benefits, and prepare every student to compete on the world stage for any college or career of their choice. “We had hoped to come to a consensus and were disappointed that we could not agree on what we believed would be best for our students,” says Fagen.

After the collective bargaining agreement expired, Fagen’s team put together a compensation and benefits program, which replaced the collective bargaining agreement, and the school board acted quickly on behalf of its employees. “With the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement, we wanted to provide our outstanding teachers and staff with assurance,” says Board President Carson. “The raise and improved benefits package will be effective July 1, and employees will see the increased compensation on their next paycheck.”

Changing education is a long, difficult process, but it must be done. “We are going to continue down the path we started. We are educating our future leaders and reinventing American education,” continues Fagen. “We know that we can create the innovators, game-changers and risk-takers that the American workforce requires.” Fagen recognizes that what is happening in Douglas County will have a broader effect. “American education has always been a foundation of the American economy, and if we are successful, it can continue to be,” she says. “Our students will be the best prepared in the world, and that will be good for our students, Douglas County, Colorado and our country.”

For more information about Douglas County School District and their strategic plan, visit www.dcsdk12.org or contact the Community Relations Department at 303-387-0030.

the changing world —

one

child time

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

To learn more about our work, visit us at

www.worldvision.org.

NMS102735_1010 Š 2010 World Vision, Inc.

at a

Academia

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

Masdar Institute Ensures Sustainable Development for Abu Dhabi Research Projects Focus on Health Care, Wind and Solar Energies, Smart Grid Smart Building, Telecommunications and Microsystems

By Bader Al Zarei

M

asdar Institute of Science and Technology is an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies. The academic institution that represents innovation remains fundamental to Masdar’s core objectives of developing Abu Dhabi’s knowledge economy and finding solutions to humanity’s toughest challenges, such as climate change.

In its drive to nurture innovation that has eventually led to several patent filings, Masdar Institute continues its focus on some of the key areas in sustainability and future energy. Covering sectors such as health care, wind and solar energies, smart grid smart building (SGSB), telecommunications and microsystems, the research-based institution already has one issued patent with 15 pending at various stages with the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO). According to the latest statistics available, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) currently has 61 patent filings, out of which five are from Masdar Institute.

Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh, president, Masdar Institute, said, “For an institution that was established only in 2007, the number of patent filings has so far remained remarkable. The number is also a strong indication

of the extent of research that is currently being undertaken at Masdar Institute, independently and in collaboration with other major energy leaders and academic institutions. Such innovations were possible only because of the support of the UAE’s leaders, who firmly believe that sustainable development alone will ensure the right path for the global community’s future.”

Masdar Institute was established as an ongoing collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It integrates theory and practice to incubate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, working to develop the critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow. In fact, one of the key factors that has placed Masdar Institute as a pioneer in innovation is its partnerships with global pioneers and renowned institutions. Such collaborations continue to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange of expertise.

» Masdar Institute and Technische Universität Dresden at ATIC » Rana Qudeih with Borealis award » Masdar PV signing the MOU

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The most recent collaboration was the arrangement with GlobalFoundries–the world’s first full-service semiconductor foundry with a global footprint. The company recently granted a number of Masdar Institute students and professors privileged access to its process design kits (PDKs) for advanced semiconductor technology nodes, including the latest and revolutionary HKMG 28nm channel transistor technology. Masdar Institute is also among the first academic institutions worldwide to gain access to 65 nanometer technology. In addition, graduate students preparing for their research project are also given the opportunity to apply for a three- to six-month internship at one of GlobalFoundries sites worldwide.

Moreover, an agreement between the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi and the state of Saxony, Germany, ensured the establishment of “Twin Labs”–at Masdar Institute and Technische Universität Dresden. The two research labs focus on three-dimensional chip stacking–a potentially faster and more energy efficient semiconductor technology.

This collaboration is expected to contribute to the education of highly skilled scientists and engineers to participate in Abu Dhabi’s growing science, technology and innovation (STI) workforce.

There are other collaborations as well. An agreement with Siemens covers solar energy technology research and development to enhance the use of photovoltaic (PV) panels in the Middle East, as well as joint testing and research activities focusing on solar panel coatings. Siemens and Masdar Institute are focusing on developing coatings and soiling models for these modules that require less water for cleaning than current high-performance modules.

A similar arrangement with Masdar PV GmbH, a leading Germany-based manufacturer of photovoltaic films, aims at joint research related to silicon thin film photovoltaic technologies. The collaboration is initiated with three individual research projects–transparent conductive oxide

Masdar Institute is also among the first academic institutions worldwide to gain access to 65 nanometer technology.

(TCO) glass layer optimization, photovoltaic device simulation and light management optimization.

Such industry/academic collaboration in high-technology areas aims to provide the necessary support to Abu Dhabi for achieving the objectives laid out in its Vision 2030 economic plan.

Probably the most compelling collaboration was with MIT, the founding partner. This collaboration paved the way for Masdar Institute to begin its research work in clean energy and sustainable technologies. The continuing collaboration is multifaceted.

Right from the development of academic programs and curriculum planning, to recruitment and research collaboration, the close cooperation between the two institutions has benefited Abu Dhabi, the region and the global community.

The MIT support continues to help produce clean energy professionals, who have also won global recognition for their alma mater. In June 2011, the first class of scientists and engineers, comprising 72 graduates in five master’s programs, received their degrees. The second batch of 55 graduates in seven master’s programs received their degrees in May 2012, establishing Masdar Institute as a leader among those institutions that prepare youth as future energy leaders.

The alumni have done Masdar Institute proud. Rana Qudaih won the 2011 Borealis Student Innovation Award for her thesis on polyolefins (plastics), while Steven Meyers was named in the Forbes “30 Under 30” achievers list in the “clean energy” category for his research in thermal and optical modeling of the Beam Down Solar Thermal Plant in Masdar City.

Masdar Institute has continued to climb to greater heights throughout 2012. A paper by Mustafa Amir Faisal, a computing and information science student, titled "Securing Advanced Metering Infrastructure Using Intrusion Detection System with Data Stream Mining" won the Best Paper Award for its research innovation, potential significance, rigorousness of research methods, clear presentation, and relevance at the Pacific Asia Workshop on Intelligence and Security Informatics (PAISI 2012) in Kuala Lumpur.

Global acclaim also came Masdar Institute’s way when Team Crowdscanner, a team of crowd-sourcing experts led by Dr. Iyad Rahwan, associate professor of Computing and Information Science, Masdar Institute, in collaboration with Dr. Manuel Cebrian, Research Scientist at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), won the international Tag Challenge competition. The feat redefined the limits of technology-mediated social mobilization and rapid information gathering.

Regionally, the selection of Masdar Institute as the lead research institution to represent the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the EU-GCC Clean Energy Network justifies its status as an academic pioneer. The network has been set up to develop strategic cooperation in clean energy among various players in the European Union and the GCC region.

A world-class faculty and high-caliber students, a one-of-a-kind research environment, and high-technology equipment that further drives innovation keep Masdar Institute in the forefront among the globally prestigious institutions. Such accomplishments also help Masdar Institute contribute to Abu Dhabi’s commitment to tackling the impact of climate change. More importantly, the research-based institution has steadily strengthened its role in human capital development, helping Abu Dhabi move faster toward a knowledge-based economy.

About Masdar Institute Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (Masdar Institute) was established by the government of Abu Dhabi as a not-for-profit, private graduate university to develop indigenous R&D capacity addressing issues of importance to the region. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Masdar Institute has developed an academic and research platform that articulates its mission and vision according to critical energy and sustainability challenges.

An important characteristic of Masdar Institute is its focus on complex real-world problems that require a multidisciplinary approach for the development of solutions from an integrated technology, systems and policy perspective. This multi-interdisciplinary and integrated approach is supported by the structure of its academic programs and by the emphasis placed on engaging external partners from industry, government and other academic institutions in collaborative activities. To learn more, visit http://www.masdar. ac.ae, or contact Bader Al Zarei at balzarei@masdar. ac.ae or +971 02 8109372.

Masdar Institute offers the following degree programs: • MSc Engineering Systems and Management • MSc Computing and Information Science • MSc Materials Science and Engineering • MSc Mechanical Engineering • MSc Water and Environmental Engineering • MSc Microsystems Engineering • MSc Electrical Power Engineering • MSc Chemical Engineering

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Academia

Colorado State University-Global Campus

Practicing What They Preach How Colorado State University-Global Campus Utilizes the Best Business Practices from Its Courses for the University’s Own Operational Success

By Andr ew Dixon

T

he first class for most master’s degree-seeking students at Colorado State University-Global Campus is ORG502: Effective Organizations–Theory and Practice. This course is designed as a way to “gain a contemporary understanding of managing operational and strategic issues in public and private organizations” and includes assignments that help learners focus on the critical thinking and decision-making processes they need to improve their on-the-job performance.

“Within the first week of my first class, I was using what I learned to help in my professional responsibilities,” says Amber McDonnell, a graduate of the master’s of science in organizational leadership program. “I remember reading about company structure and communication and applying it to make my department more efficient.”

Many students have a similar crossover between their academic and professional lives, but McDonnell’s was a bit different because her school and employer were one in the same. “It seemed strange at first to use what I was learning in a CSU-Global class in my CSUGlobal career,” she continued with a laugh, “but the information I was learning fit perfectly. I used what I learned from the university to make the university better.”

While not every employee at CSU-Global is working toward their next degree or has even taken a class, the university as a whole ensures that the lessons present to students are the very principles that it abides by. From its leadership and management programs to its human resources, communications and marketing specializations, CSU-Global is built on the foundation that knowledge begets intelligence and intelligence begets innovation.

It’s working. Colorado State University-Global Campus is the first university of its kind; a 100 percent online public institution with independent accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Many other schools offer online classes, but CSU-Global is unique in its approach because it combines the innovation and flexibility of what

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has typically been associated with for-profit institutions with the high quality and academic standards of a public university. By utilizing industry experts with professional experience as faculty, in curriculum development and as a part of advisory councils, CSU-Global ensures that it stays at the forefront of advancement in the fields for which it is preparing its students.

CSU-Global was founded in 2007 by the Board of Governors for the Colorado State University System. As a state university system with traditional ground campuses in Fort Collins and Pueblo, the board set out to redefine the boundaries of public higher education. And so, from its inception, CSUGlobal Campus was structured differently– created to meet the needs of modern students with classes and degree programs specifically designed to be 100 percent online and taught with a professional focus for the needs and interests of working adults. The first term in 2008 had just 204 students. Four years later, the university has more than 1,300 alumni and more than 6,500 active students. This exponential growth allowed CSU-Global to repay the $12 million start-up loan it received from the CSU system a year ahead of schedule, and it now operates exclusively from its own cash flow without future appropriations from the State of Colorado.

As management students learn during MGT505: Market Planning, collecting the right information and knowing how to

analyze it properly is one of the first steps in creating a successful business strategy.1 CSU-Global conducts market research and hires external consultants to help in program development and enhancements that drive corporate direction. For example, when a Bureau of Labor Statistics report projected 3.2 million new health care jobs by 2018, including overall growth of 28 percent in the administration and management positions of the industry, CSU-Global developed curriculum for both bachelor’s and master’s degree programs to meet this demand. Less than six months after the health care degrees were introduced, student enrollment has produced enough revenue to cover the program development costs and begin generating positive income.

“One of the reasons that we continue to be so successful is that we respond to market dynamics,” says CSU-Global Campus President Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker. “We fully understand that higher education is a competitive field, just like any professional industry, and we have to be able to meet the needs of our consumers–students interested in a high-quality rigorous education–while responding to market changes, adapting to new models and implementing new technologies.

We don’t just change for the sake of change; our improvements are made after extensive research and feedback, but we believe that a good suggestion can come from anywhere.”

Collaboration, as learned by students in ORG521: Managing Dynamic Environments, results in improved performance because individuals and groups are working toward a common goal.2 The input and accountability of CSU-Global staff are the

One of the reasons that we continue to be so successful is that we respond to market dynamics.

- Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker

”

building blocks for the university’s continual advancement. This starts with the hiring of intelligent, highly motivated employees and empowering them to become self-sufficient, expressive and exploratory of new ideas.

“There are no unheard ideas at CSU-Global,” McDonnell states, “If you have a suggestion that will make the university better, it will be openly discussed and thoroughly considered. If you can provide evidence as to how you can improve an internal process or the experience of our students, it’s often worth trying.” McDonnell knows firsthand 1

Lehman, D., & Winer, R. (2008). Analysis for market planning (7th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. 2 Spector, B. (2012). Implementing organizational change: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson. volume 4 issue 4

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Academia

Colorado State University-Global Campus

Responses from 2012 alumni survey

» H ow much did your program of study

contribute to your personal development?

Not at all: 2% Slightly: 17%

Significantly: 56%

the importance of collaboration. She effected positive change in her department by contributing ideas about making the student experience better when she was a student adviser. She has since completed her master’s degree and been promoted to department manager where she continues to pay attention to every idea from her team. “It doesn’t always take a complete overhaul to improve effectiveness,” she continues, “simply listening to everyone and knowing a good idea when it comes up can accomplish a lot, even if it’s just a little at a time.”

While utilizing provided information to generate new ideas and intelligently implement change is in itself a recipe for success, the culmination into true innovation is the differentiating factor for corporate sustainability. Students in ORG500: Foundations of Effective Management explore the importance of innovation at all organizational levels in great depth along with its relationship to long-term success.3 As the first 100 percent online public institution with independent regional accreditation, the university’s model has since sprouted many imitators who attempt to create a similar student experience of combined academic rigor with flexibility and convenience. But through CSU-Global’s continued evolution, it has become a recognized industry leader. In July 2012, Dr. Takeda-Tinker was invited to represent the university at a congressional caucus in Washington, D.C., where she participated as a panelist on the role of e-learning within the educational system and promoted its importance in future policy and fiscal planning. CSU-Global has also received numerous awards for its online programs, educational access and course design.

Even as some for-profit universities struggle to stay profitable and are at risk of losing their accreditation, and many ground campuses are being forced to raise tuition rates again, CSUGlobal is expanding into new markets and integrating inventive business strategies. In an effort to increase access to public education and ultimately help support students in achieving their personal and professional goals, the university announced its new OpenLearn™ online education program (open.csuglobal.edu). This series of self-paced online courses, which will be offered soon, are free to the public and designed to promote professional development by gaining advanced knowledge and learning new skills. CSU-Global was also the first university in the country to accept transfer credit for undergraduate students who complete a free introductory computer-science course and exam from Stanford University spinoff, Udacity.

The next endeavor for the university will be to further develop corporate training programs for individual organizations and to initiate collaborative arrangements that serve to support the advancement of public universities and colleges into online education.

“It is our firm belief that learning is essential for development. We are not a university that is interested in putting students into programs that are not the right fit for them, nor are we a university that feels that learning can only happen in a classroom,” states Dr. Takeda-Tinker.

“This is why we work to incorporate the past learning experiences of our adult students and why we accept credit through prior learning assessment, military experience and other nontraditional yet validated sources.”

3

Very Much: 25%

» T o what degree did your program of study contribute to your professional goals?

Not at all: 7% Slightly: 25%

Significantly: 41%

Very Much: 26%

It is clear that the idiom “those who can’t do, teach” has no place within the CSU-Global walls (or virtual walls as it were) as the university’s concentrated efforts to impart knowledge and encourage critical thought and progressive ingenuity to its students is exemplified in its own actions and behaviors.

Students who have completed CSU-Global’s ORG560: Leadership Development course can tell you that effective leadership should be transformational, authentic and inspired, and CSU-Global will continue to be an organizational leader by adhering to the same lessons that its teaches.

Robbins, S.P., & Coulter, M. (2012). Management (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. 4 Northouse, P.G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

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government

| Base Camp Integration Laboratory

Sustainable Technology A Critical Element in Military Mission Effectiveness

By K e l ly de l a Tor r e

and enhance the natural environment.

According to the Army’s Sustainability Report 2012, “The Army’s innovative solutions in 2010-2011 lessened the logistical challenge of providing water and fuel, reducing the number of convoys needed and thus reducing the risk to soldiers during combat operations.”

The challenge is to lighten the logistical burden on the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs). Staffing focused on resupply is a resource not focused on the mission.

"We need to figure out how to enable our soldiers to go out on patrol, to set up camps, without this long logistical supply train," said Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Environment and Energy Katherine Hammack. "We want to enable our soldiers to go further with less of a supply train so that they can really fight better."

Technology enables soldiers to focus on the mission

T

he military is testing technology that supports the operational base camp smart grid called SAGE, for Smart and Green Energy for Base Camps program. SAGE is using commercial offthe-shelf technologies including utility hardware and open source control software to demonstrate and validate whether they can design a smart base camp microgrid technical specification capable of reducing the need for JP8 fuel by 30 to 60 percent at basecamps for 600 to 3,000 soldiers.

To test the concept and the technology the Army launched the Base Camp Integration Laboratory (BCIL) using sites modeled after forward-operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The BCIL is split into two 150-person camps called “Force Providers” that house energy-efficient shelters and structures within a 10-acre compound to test a micro-grid, an energy storage system, a shower and laundry water reuse system, a waste management system, a

T

hink about the military, and you probably conjure up images of guns, ammo and tactical vehicles–not energy and water. Yet these two resources are critical in enabling the military’s continued operational capabilities, including maneuvers, mission command, sustaining troops and equipment and humanitarian services.

Implementing ways to reduce the staffing required to deliver fuel and water and to reduce the vulnerability to supply shortages are critical to improving readiness, minimizing casualties and reducing operational costs.

Sustainable technologies can enable significant reductions in fuel and water, and their efficacy is not lost on the military. Indeed, the military recognizes the importance of implementation of sustainable technologies to decrease future mission constraints, increase flexibility and resilience, safeguard human health, improve Army quality of life,

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SAGE is described as a holistic energy generation, storage and management solution.

Of the 12,000 gallons of water that can be treated per day, 75 percent of it can be reused, which results in the potential savings of 9,000 gallons of water per day or 3.2 million gallons of water per year in just one shower facility.

solar hot water system and a power management system. The BCIL also provides a live soldier environment where service members training at Fort Devens stay at the BCIL and provide input on what is being tested there.

The solution envisioned conjures up images of a futuristic utopian society–except that the future is now. SAGE is described as a holistic energy generation, storage and management solution. The SAGE microgrid interconnects easily transportable, purpose-built shelters that consist of insulated structures as well as integrated solar water heating, plug-in charging stations, integrated renewable energy, energy storage and optional interconnectivity to the grid.

Critical to understanding how this arrangement is possible is an understanding of how these technologies work together to significantly reduce fuel and water requirements. One aspect is energy capture, another is taking advantage of renewable resources that are readily available at these remote locations, and yet another aspect is to not use the energy to begin with. Energy-efficient technology such as lighting and insulation provide opportunities to drastically cut the energy that is required to power the basecamp.

After all, the cheapest energy is the energy that is never used.

Water reduction is also a focus, and water reuse drastically reduces the logistical burden on units. “Within the Army, 70 to 80 percent of our resupply weight or convoy weight is fuel and water,” said Hammack. Once all of the security and logistics factors are taken into account, the cost per gallon of water delivered can range between $5 to $30, according to the Army. One saving measure tested by the BCIL is the Shower Water Reuse System (SWRS). In simple terms, the SWRS uses a series of filters, membranes and chemicals to recycle waste for future use. Significantly, although the water is only approved for reuse within the shower, the recycled water falls within potable quality standards. The capacity of the system is also impressive. Of the 12,000 gallons of water that can be treated per day, 75 percent of it can be reused, which results in the potential savings of 9,000 gallons of water per day or 3.2 million gallons of water per year in just one shower facility.

The Army evaluates technology in terms of force multipliers. In this case, use of SWRS reduces the water required for transport, which in turn, reduces the number of water convoys and the soldiers who would be on those water convoys are now available to remain engaged in the mission. The SWRS also impacts placement of new FOBs because strategic considerations can weigh more heavily

on location determination rather than ease of resupply. "We need to figure out how to enable our soldiers to go out on patrol, to set up camps, without this long logistical supply train," said Hammack. "We want to enable our soldiers to go further with less of a supply train so that they can really fight better."

If successful, these technologies are immediately rolled out to remote FOBs such as Afghanistan, and the return on investment is almost instant. Each SWRS system costs roughly $170,000. If used to its fullest capacity, the Army could realize a potential savings of millions of dollars per unit each year. It is this type of innovation that the Army is banking on to enhance their capability and "do more with less," according to Army officials.

Ideally, like the Internet and GPS, both technologies that were developed by the military and subsequently commercialized to transform the consumer market, these

Sustainable technology is not just about being green. concepts could be used to support resilient domestic civilian communities. The recent strike of Hurricane Sandy left 8 million people without power. Building sustainable communities that use less power, mitigate risk and use more renewable energy resources could help protect against increasingly complex and disastrous weather patterns. Sustainable technology is not just about being green. Ask the military–sustainable technologies enable mission effectiveness. volume 4 issue 4

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government

| USAID Water Programs

Water Is the Key to Life An Interview with USAID’s Chris Holmes

By Jan Mazotti

C

hris Holmes is the senior representative within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is responsible for coordinating the implementation of key water policy initiatives, including USAID’s water strategy. He also serves as the primary spokesperson and liaison with public and private organizations, including congressional leaders, to coordinate water efforts.

Since rejoining USAID in January 2010 as the Senior Adviser for Energy and Environment, he has supported missions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ghana on water and food security matters. Mr. Holmes brings extensive experience in the international economic development, humanitarian assistance and environmental protection sectors. He served as the Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Refugee Programs, and Acting Director of the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). During a recent visit to Denver he took the time to talk with ICOSA about the work of USAID’s water initiatives and the astounding results of their work.

ICOSA: Why and how did you get into the water business?

HOLMES: Water is, of course, the key to life. By concentrating on the water sector and other water-related sectors such as heath and food security, I believe I can help make a significant contribution to sustaining human life and the environment. I have been fascinated by water since a very young age. My awakening, so to speak, occurred as a 14-year-old at the Webb Schools of California, where a wonderful teacher took us to a small pond to collect and subsequently examine pond water under a microscope. To see the abundance of microscopic life, to learn how water both sustains life and can transmit life-threatening disease has never ceased to amaze me. And since then, so much of my work has indirectly or directly related to water. When I began my government service as an administrative assistant to a congressman from California, I helped develop a National Aquaculture Act, as well as National Wildlife Refuges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Subsequently, at USAID, in my capacity as director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, I worked on a wide range of water-related crises, including severe drought in the Sahel Region in Africa, and flooding throughout Asia. When I directed the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, we did analyses related to dam construction in China, including the well-known Three Gorges Hydropower Facility. In my work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as the deputy assistant administrator for enforcement, I spent a great deal of time concentrating on developing new approaches for remediating polluted groundwater at the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons production facilities and at various military bases. And, in industry, I served as vice president for environment, safety and health for Tenneco Energy, concentrating on groundwater remediation and the overall compliance of Tenneco Energy's natural gas pipeline transmission system with water-related 34

volume 4 issue 4

environmental regulations. Now, at USAID, as the USAID Global Water Coordinator, my work in the water sector touches upon practically every possible water-related discipline, including food, health, education, conflict and climate change. I work with a wide range of wonderful, skilled and highly committed public servants at USAID, other government agencies, as well as in business, universities, nongovernmental organizations and other civil society entities.

ICOSA: What are some of the most important water projects USAID is working on right now?

HOLMES: Considering Africa–while we know we can't prevent drought, we can make real progress in ensuring that the

next drought is less devastating. The 2011-2012 drought was one of the worst in 60 years, yet no famine struck rural Ethiopia last year. An important part of our work at USAID, and that of the government of Ethiopia, was to link our water efforts with other interventions from donors and others. In fact, we have been successful in several ways.

To help prevent famine, USAID supported the government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program–a program jointly funded with nine donors–that linked the predictable needs of 7.6 million chronically food-insecure Ethiopians; provided cash and food transfers as wages for labor on such public works as dams, gully reclamation, tree plantings, potable and multiple use of water stations, schools, health clinics, health posts and water harvesting structures. The drought’s impact was lessened by a food-and-cash-for-public-works program USAID supported. In fact, from 2010 through 2016 the agency’s Food for Peace office has budgeted $110 million per year.

Another important program that USAID supports began in 2011–the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Transformations for Enhanced Resilience Project, wherein International Rescue Committee (IRC) and CARE Ethiopia operate in the Afar, Oromia and Somali regions of Ethiopia to improve access to clean and sustainable water sources for target communities. The effort provides 146,000 people with access to water year-round at a total estimated project cost of $7 million.

The program improves hygiene awareness and access to sanitation among beneficiaries, improves pastoral rangeland land management practices, and uses approaches to reduce actual or potential conflicts over natural resources. This program is slated to continue through FY2013.

Among the most effective ways to enhance the resilience of large numbers of people at scale in urban and rural areas is through the WASH programs."

– Chris Holmes

volume 4 issue 4

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government

| USAID Water Programs

Among the most effective ways to enhance the resilience of large numbers of people at scale in urban and rural areas is through the WASH programs. In that regard, the USAID Indonesia Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (USAID IUWASH) project is supporting the government of Indonesia in their efforts to achieve Indonesia’s Millennium Development Goal targets for safe water and sanitation. The project has been active in 34 urban areas, and in the coming year will expand to 20 additional cities. To achieve the targeted outcomes, the project will bring increased access to safe water for 2 million people, and improved sanitation for 200,000 people, with a 20 percent reduction of per unit water costs paid by the poor in targeted communities. The USAID IUWASH project will work with the Indonesian government agencies–central, provincial and local–as well as local government-owned water utilities, the Association of Indonesia Water Utilities, nongovernmental organizations, communities, universities, and the private sector to achieve these goals. The project will also address the challenges water utilities face while ensuring water quality and availability, in a context of climate change and increasing demand for water.

We also have important activities underway with a number of organizations in Colorado. For example, a University of Colorado Boulder team is partnering with USAID to assess snow and glacier contributions to water resources originating in the high mountains of Asia that straddle 10 countries. This assessment will be crucial in helping to forecast the future availability and vulnerability of water resources in the region, beginning with accurate assessments of the distinct, separate contributions to river discharge from melting glacier ice and seasonal snow. Such data will ultimately provide a better understanding of the timing and volume of runoff in the face of climate change.

ICOSA: What are you doing differently from your predecessors?

What has been the impact?

HOLMES: The needs in the developing world for clean water, sanitation and food security are staggering. Consider this … the lack of safe water and sanitation is the world’s single largest cause of illness. More than a billion people do not have access to safe water, and well over two billion people live without adequate sanitation. More than four 36

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“The needs in the developing world for clean water, sanitation and food security are staggering.

More than a billion people do not have access to safe water, and well over two billion people live without adequate sanitation.”

– Chris Holmes

billion cases of diarrhea cause 2.2 million deaths annually–mostly in children under the age of five. As immune systems are progressively compromised with each bout of diarrhea, related illnesses indirectly kill millions more each year. Moreover, almost one billion people across the globe will go to bed hungry, 200 million of them children. And, in the developing world, approximately 195 million children under five years old are growth stunted, due in great part to the impact of diarrheal disease on their nutrition.

To help meet these needs, USAID’s intent is to build on past successes and lessons learned to meet our overarching goal of avowing and improving lives. In so doing, we are paying a great deal of attention to meeting food and health needs through the water programs developed and implemented

by USAID and its partners. This approach is reflective of USAID’s effort, known as USAID Forward, to make the agency more effective by changing the way we partner with others, embracing a spirit of innovation and strengthening the results of our work.

To do this we are utilizing a certain set of tools and approaches–catalysts, if you will–that we believe will provoke speed and action toward the overarching goal of saving and improving lives. These tools are derived from open source-based development, partnerships and finance, science and technology, integrated programming and resilience and scale. These all help catalyze the development and implementation of solutions.

Underscoring these tools is the engagement and empowerment of women throughout our water programs. This is not to imply that these are the only set of tools utilized

by USAID in meeting health and food needs through its water programs. Rather, we discuss them given their game-changing potential to strengthen our ability, as well as that of our partners, to develop and apply new solutions, which have significant scale, results and impact; secure funding; increase our understanding of the present and future magnitude of water, health and food challenges; and by creating synergies between water, food and health programs, which meet multiple needs.

ICOSA: Who are you collaborating with on the projects you just spoke about, and how are these collaborations going? What are your expected outcomes?

HOLMES: We seek partnerships that bring different perspectives and expertise, while supporting the enhanced impact of working with one or more partners, and bringing the additional funding needed to augment USAID’s limited funds. We seek to engage a wide range of partners in our efforts to

meet multiple needs. Earlier this year, the United States Water Partnership (USWP), a U.S.-based public-private partnership (PPP) was established to unite American expertise, knowledge and resources to address water challenges around the globe, especially in the developing world. This includes a commitment by the Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Africa to the USWP to advance sustainable water access in African countries facing the greatest clean water challenges.

In Tanzania, the Water and Development Alliance (WADA), the innovative partnership between USAID and the Coca-Cola Foundation, takes an integrated approach across natural resources management; rural development; and Water, Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WSSH). This program employs a multiple-use services approach to meet WSSH needs, while sustainably managing watersheds.

In the Dominican Republic, Ghana and the Philippines, the International H2O Collaboration, a new worldwide alliance of Rotary International, the Rotary Foundation and USAID, is initially developing water and sanitation projects.

In the Coral Triangle, we launched a $40 million, five-year Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) to better manage the biologically rich marine and coastal area known as the "Amazon of the Seas," in the waters surrounding Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands. The CTI seeks to regulate the management of fisheries, protect threatened species, and help residents adapt to climate change in one of the world's most populated regions. Other partners in the initiative include the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of State, the Australian Government, Walton Family Foundation, CTI Secretariat, Asian Development Bank and the Global Environment Facility.

There is also USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), a grant program using staged financing to invest in game-changing ideas, rigorously test those using cutting-edge analytical methods, and scale solutions that work. DIV is an open competition for ideas in any sector, any country or any region of the world. Through DIV, we have supported WASH for Life, a $17 million partnership between USAID/DIV and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to achieve cost-effective, sustained development in the water, sanitation and hygiene sectors.

In Kenya, for example, eight million people in urban areas do not have access to a simple, hygienic latrine, and instead are forced to use a pit latrine with hundreds of other people. Through WASH for Life, DIV/ USAID has invested $100,000 in Sanergy,

a start-up social enterprise that is building and franchising a dense network of 60 lowcost latrines to slum residents, collecting the waste daily, and processing it as fertilizer and biogas. Designed by MIT engineers and architects, these low-cost, modular hygienic latrines can be assembled in one day. These sanitation centers are franchised to local entrepreneurs and local youth groups. This effort and its profitable roll-out model have earned awards from MIT, Echoing Green, MassChallenge and others. Within five years, Sanergy plans to expand to 3,390 centers reaching 600,000 slum dwellers–further creating jobs and profit, while aiming to reduce the incidence of diarrhea by 40 percent.

Sanergy’s low-cost latrines are designed to serve 77 people who will pay for the service.

Important to note is that the waste from each person generates 22kWh of electricity and 40kg of fertilizer annually therefore, the 10 million people in Kenya’s slums create a potential annual market of $72 million.

ICOSA: There are so many exciting things going on in the water area of USAID. What are some of the results you can share?

HOLMES: There are many exciting results in this area, but two initially come to mind.

In 2005 in Ethiopia, the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) invited the USAID-supported hygiene improvement program to bring at-scale approaches to the Ministry of Health’s implementation of the newly endorsed National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy. Together they agreed to focus on the Amhara region, selected because it was a USAID and WSP priority geographic area with great Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) needs, fewer donor investments than other regions, and a committed regional leadership. More than 5.8 million people in the region have been reached by hygiene and sanitation promotion activities, and an estimated 2.8 million people have stopped the practice of open

“Sanergy plans to expand to 3,390 centers reaching 600,000 slum dwellers–further creating jobs and profit, while aiming to reduce the incidence of diarrhea by 40 percent.”

– Chris Holmes

Another cutting-edge project is WaterSHED, an NGO based in Cambodia that seeks to seed the commercial introduction of an innovative hand-washing solution in Vietnam. Vietnam is a country with 900,000 cases of malnutrition and 9,000 deaths per year that can be associated with improper hand-washing practices. In rural Vietnam, only 6.1 percent of people wash hands with soap before eating. Due to poor sanitation, the economic costs are estimated at $262 million per year. Effective hand-washing with soap in Vietnam could significantly reduce over 10 million cases of hygiene-related communicable diseases per year. With support from DIV, WaterSHED has commercially launched a marketable hand-washing device to encourage proper hand-washing at critical times. With a retail price of $6 per unit, this “HappyTap” device, along with behavior-change messaging, could help create a new market for attractive, aspirational, but low-cost sanitary products that encourage better hygiene practices. The device will be evaluated based on its market performance and whether uptake leads to improved hand-washing practices, and in turn, improved health outcomes.

defecation and now use a basic pit latrine.

Amhara’s high-involvement districts saw significant drops in open defecation and large increases in the number of households using unimproved latrines. The practice of open defecation dropped from 64 percent to 40 percent, and access to unimproved sanitation increased from 17 percent to 46 percent.

Another example was in Madagascar, where the Hygiene Improvement Program (HIP) at-scale strategy focused on four USAID priority geographic regions–Analamanga, Amoron’i Mania, Haute Matsiatra and Atsinanana–with an estimated population of 6.4 million. HIP focused on priority communes in each region based on an assessment of diarrheal disease prevalence, access to water, sanitation coverage, presence of development partners and general vulnerability. From 2007 to 2010 the practice of open defecation dropped from 38 percent to 23 percent, while access to unimproved latrines rose from 59 percent to 73 percent.

It was a great success.

To learn more about USAID’s global water initiatives, go to www.usaid.gov. volume 4 issue 4

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government

| Iowa Innovation Corporation

Iowa’s Innovation Ecosystem

And that is where our story begins.

More than a decade ago, business leaders from all corners of the state, with a mandate from the governor, began systematically working on a model that would create an effective, efficient method of supporting innovation. They created committees, commissioned studies and collaborated to design an innovation ecosystem that would support the development of technologies to support the state’s targeted industries–advanced manufacturing, biosciences and IT. No other state in the nation has devoted as much time and executive leadership as we have, and the results have been positive.

In Iowa We Make It Possible B y J a ck H a r r i s

Innovation Leader

I

I

n mid-October at the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) Fall Conference, we received a surprise award from the NASVF: the Best Technology-Based Economic Development approach in the nation. Why? We are innovative.

For such a simple word, it implies so many things. If something is new and hip and different, it’s innovative. If it is a change, it’s innovative. If we want someone to believe that our product is better than anything else in the marketplace, it’s innovative. The late Steve Jobs stated “that innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

When we talk about innovation at the Iowa Innovation Corporation, we’re talking about solutions that help Iowa’s companies move forward and compete in their marketplace. It may not always have broad public market appeal, but it is something that is new, different and fulfills a need.

Every day at the Iowa Innovation Corporation we are exposed to just that type of innovation. From the researchers at the state’s universities to entrepreneurs who are nurturing their good ideas in their home office to the labs or offices of existing businesses, Iowans are working to secure our competitiveness in the global economy.

This is critical to Iowa’s future success. Our innovation-based economy needs continual change to grow and prosper, and that comes in economic development strategies that not only encourage growth but also create jobs and develop a skilled talent pool. Look across the country, or globally; everyone is looking for ways to demonstrate that they have the ecosystem to support innovation.

It has been clear for some time that economic growth must occur from within. The traditional economic model–attracting and retaining businesses with large incentive packages–still plays a role, but there are drawbacks. Encouraging growth from within by supporting and providing the connections that entrepreneurs, start-ups or emerging businesses with high growth potential need, we can create both jobs as well as the talent pool necessary to support the industries already established within the state.

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n early October, the Iowa Innovation Corporation was invited to a White House briefing about innovation.

This wasn’t a random ask. It was a briefing that included all the Economic Development Administration’s i6 Proof of Concept Center Challenge grant winners since 2010, which in itself is an exclusive club. In two years, there have been only 12 grants presented to organizations that accelerate technology commercialization, new venture formation, job creation, and economic growth across the United States. Our efforts, in partnership with the technologies coming from Iowa State University, have created a model that can be replicated nationally, the primary reason we were awarded the grant.

Ultimately, the i6 challenge grant allowed the state to address one of the greatest challenges in economic development–technology transfer. There are many great ideas being developed at the state’s universities, but they generally have lacked a process to determine proof of commercial relevance. Because of this, it has made it more difficult than necessary to pair these developing technologies with interested companies.

So how do we move the good ideas into bankable ventures?

We put in place the model that Iowa’s top industry leaders spent 10 years developing and fine-tuning. The Iowa Integrated Innovation and Commercialization Network (IIICN) assists in both proof of concept and proof of commercial relevance. It also serves as a review panel to score, rank and provide written feedback to the applicants and to the funding entity.

The process and resulting database is designed to ensure continued consideration for future funding of viable projects that meet milestones and seek to advance both the concept and the resulting companies. Vetted projects are able to fast-track their assistance with business processes, product development, investment opportunities, technology transfer opportunities along with services and data that support the innovation economy, all through the IIICN. We are making it possible to actively engage in effective, efficient and successful tech transfer. This is demonstrated by our ongoing work to match our universities’ technologies

with Iowa businesses that may be potential customers. We do this through a number of “pitch and grow” opportunities called Partnering for Growth that include periodic webinars and networking events. The process is efficient. The technologies are presented quickly and in layperson’s terms. Then, if a company is interested in learning more, we make the introductions.

The i6 challenge grant is just one of our responsibilities as the state’s innovation intermediary. We are currently partnering with other organizations to distribute similar information, as well as manage the programming that will only enhance the infrastructure and talent needed to support the continued growth of our state’s economy.

No other state in the nation has devoted as much time and executive leadership as we have, and the results have been positive.

The Future

N

ow is an exciting time in Iowa. There are companies in communities large and small that are engaged in developing new, exciting, and yes, innovative technologies and solutions. You’ve seen some of them on the business page of the local newspaper, and there are so many more that are operating under the radar.

So what are the next steps? With more good ideas that have moved past proof of concept and proof of commercial relevance, establishing a fund to provide the critical next stage funding is key to growing and expanding these companies in Iowa. It is expected that we will launch the Iowa Innovation Fund in 2013. The goal is raising a $100 million fund to be professionally managed and to work closely with other funds throughout the state.

In the end, we’re all part of Iowa’s innovation ecosystem. Some of us are problem owners, and others provide the solutions to solve those problems. And yet others are facilitators. The bottom line is simple: We have the processes and commitment to make Iowa a global leader. With continued collaboration in Iowa, we will all make it possible.

For more information about the Iowa Innovation Corporation, contact us at 515.421.4039 or Karen.Merrick@ IowaInnovationCorporation.com.

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government

| World Bank

Why the World Bank Matters to the United States

By Mittpheap Steele

E

lizabeth Goryunova, executive director of the World Trade Center in Salt Lake City, carefully combs through the website of the World Bank, an international organization based in Washington, D.C., searching for procurement opportunities that her clients in the Intermountain West might be qualified for and interested in. Jessie Yu, manager of the International Investment and Trade Department at the Greater Houston Partnership, hosts a conference on investment opportunities in Africa with a World Bank expert for an audience of 100 private-sector representatives in the Houston area. Rebecca Riebe, director of global business initiatives at the Global Midwest Alliance in Chicago, advises a consulting firm on how to bid on a World Bank project in Brazil.

What do they all have in common, and why does the World Bank matter to them?

Elizabeth, Jessie and Rebecca are part of a global network of private-sector liaison officers, or PSLOs. They serve as a resource for private-sector companies within their individual communities, by providing information on business opportunities and services available through the World Bank. Ultimately, PSLOs work with the World Bank to help American businesses expand their access to international markets.

“The World Bank matters to Utah because there are billions of dollars worth of projects financed by the bank, around the globe with contracts that U.S. companies can bid on,” says Goryunova.

“We’re here to help Utah businesses recognize and take advantage of some of these opportunities.”

Owned by 188 member governments, the World Bank provides loans and advice to developing countries for large-scale projects designed to improve living standards. These projects– building health clinics and schools, investing in roads so farmers can get goods to market, improving telecommunications and sanitation–frequently involve international competitive bidding, under guidelines established by the World Bank. These guidelines help level the playing field for U.S. companies.

World Bank commitments to developing countries totaled more than $57 billion in the last fiscal year and more than $70 billion the previous year. Projects supported by these loans and credits can be a great source of business opportunities for local and international companies.

The PSLOs initiative is a network of business advocacy organizations, such as chambers of commerce and trade associations, that work to foster trade and investment between countries with the support of the World Bank. Fully financed by their host organization and trained by the World Bank, the PSLOs provide information about the bank’s products and services by hosting seminars on business opportunities in emerging markets, conducting one-on-one counseling sessions to companies interested in expanding their international business presence, facilitating access to World Bank expertise in a wide variety of international development issues, and organizing trade missions to emerging markets to help American companies develop relationships on the ground.

The PSLOs guide U.S. companies through the procurement process, creating better understanding and more opportunities to bid on these projects. There are currently 129 PSLOs around the world, including 10 across the United States. The U.S. PSLOs are located in Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Texas, Utah and Washington.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, more than 50 percent of U.S. exports are to developing countries, which is where World Bank lending programs are helping to open markets. The U.S. Treasury estimates that exports to emerging markets where the World Bank operates are responsible for creating or sustaining millions of U.S. jobs each year.

The World Bank’s mission is to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public 40

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» Elizabeth Goryunova, Private Sector Liaison Officer to The World Bank Group and David Gossack, Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Jakarta, Indonesia

and private sectors, with the goals of promoting economic growth and overcoming poverty. “This is a win-win opportunity for the World Bank and U.S. businesses,” says Ian Solomon, United States Executive Director to the World Bank. “This is an opportunity to improve living conditions in some of the world's poorest countries while creating opportunities for American workers and helping American companies expand their international business.”

The first PSLO created in the United States was with Global Midwest Alliance in Chicago, Illinois. Since the Alliance became part of the PSLO network in January 2008, there has been a substantial increase in the number of Midwestern companies bidding on World Bank procurement contracts, resulting in an 83 percent increase in the number of those companies winning contract bids.

As the PSLO in the Midwest, Global Midwest Alliance provides an essential link for the private sector to the World Bank in the form of educational outreach, both to individual companies and to private sector groups; hosts industry sector seminars with relevant development topics of focus; and organizes program visits by World Bank representatives. The Alliance holds multiple events each year, of which the PSLO role is a focus. Rebecca Riebe, director, Global Business Initiatives, who serves as the PSLO, has also helped co-organize a number of development programs with other PSLOs, both to the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as well as in-country programs in emerging markets.

Rick Stephens, senior vice president of administration and human resources at the Boeing Company and chair of the board of the alliance, fully supports the efforts of the PSLO program. “By aligning and integrating existing resources, Global Midwest Alliance connects trailblazing entrepreneurs and companies to technology, capital and

World Bank commitments to developing countries totaled more than $57 billion in the last fiscal year and more than $70 billion the previous year.

global markets. The Global Midwest Alliance PSLO is opening global trade flows vital to our region. We encourage area businesses to capitalize on these opportunities to build high-growth, innovative companies.”

The PSLO in the Midwest is also proud to point to the tangible results of the PSLO program. "Due to GMA’s PSLO efforts on our behalf, Smart City Initiative/First Response (SCIFR, Inc.) has been provided the opportunity to develop and execute a sponsored sustainable development program for Haiti. We were consistently informed that one of the principal reasons these ranking decision makers took our meeting was because of GMA’s status with the World Bank Group and other ranking organizations," said Cal Barksdale, president of SCIFR, Inc. The Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) joined the PSLO network in January 2010. GHP hosts the PSLO, and is joined by a number of local business and educational organizations that collaborate and support the PSLO mission in Houston: the Mayor's Office of International Trade & Development; Rice University; University of Texas, Center for Energy Economics; U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Commercial Service, Houston; and the World Affairs Council of Houston.

As an international city, Houston was a natural fit for a PSLO. Ninety-four countries have official representatives in the city, and six of Houston’s top 10 international trading partners in 2010 were client countries of the World Bank Group. To build upon this international foundation, GHP was excited to become the third organization in the United States to join the PSLO Network.

In joining the PSLO Network, GHP has facilitated Houston companies’ greater access to business opportunities in emerging markets. GHP has connected them to other business initiatives and seminars and hosted World Bank Group representatives that focus on industry sectors and regions. Examples of seminars where GHP has hosted a World Bank representative include a World Bank procurement seminar; a project financing business seminar for the oil

development work on energy. Another recent successful PSLO collaboration was a multicountry trade mission to Colombia, Peru and Haiti in November 2011. Forty-six participating companies from the United States, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands had a unique opportunity to learn from experts at the World Bank Group and Inter-American Development Bank about viable business opportunities in the region and the overall business environment.

Andres Salazar, director of hydrology and hydraulics at Walter P. Moore and Associates in Houston, was one of the 46 participants on the PSLO mission to Colombia. "The PSLO Network and GHP trade mission to Colombia was a unique opportunity to learn about the main infrastructure projects in that country, and to hear insights and goals from different agencies.

The mission's networking environment helped us with establishing first contacts with potential partners, local government and funding agencies. The trip gave us accurate information to select the projects that fit our skills, and to determine the level of participation we want to achieve."

In October 2012, the North American PSLOs collaboratively led a similar private-sector mission to Indonesia and Vietnam. The goals of the mission were twofold: to learn about the current business, political and social environment in Indonesia and Vietnam, and to learn how companies can

» World Bank delegation in Vietnam

» World Bank mission in Jakarta

and gas industry; an educational seminar discussing Africa’s future, and the World Bank’s support of it; and a trade seminar discussing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and its future impact on Houston, Texas and Colombia, which involved congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Ambassador Michael McKinley, U.S. Ambassador to Colombia and Gloria Grandolini, World Bank Country Director for Colombia and Mexico.

The PSLO network is a dynamic group of committed professionals that are collaborating, communicating and coordinating their efforts to assist businesses all over the world. The Annual PSLO Energy Mission, to the World Bank and other international financial institutions, is organized by PSLOs from the United States, Canada and Italy, and attracts companies from around the world who are seeking to get a competitive edge on the latest international

do business with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on financed projects in these countries.

Elizabeth Goryunova, executive vice president at the World Trade Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, is one of the newest PSLOs to join the network. Goryunova speaks enthusiastically about being part of the network: “It is an honor to be a part of a team that aspires to make a difference in the world; I am looking forward to leveraging resources available to the PSLO network through the World Bank to bring tangible opportunities to private businesses, specialists and researchers.” volume 4 issue 4

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government

| An Update from NREL

NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility

By Martha Butwin

A

n Update from NREL is a new segment that we will run in ICOSA, written by me–Martha Butwin, a senior international trade specialist for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Service in Denver, Colorado. I participated as a member of the 2012 NREL Executive Energy Leadership Program, a group of public and private sector professionals who took part in a 10-day training program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Going forward, An Update from NREL will focus on the collaborative efforts of the United States’s premier renewable energy research facility. Coming editions of ICOSA’s An Update from NREL will feature alumni projects that have come to fruition, as well as the latest and greatest in renewable energy being developed at NREL. I am not a stranger to NREL–I have taken part in short training programs along with my Commercial Service colleagues and have escorted numerous trade missions, including foreign presidential delegations, to tours and meetings at the facility’s various laboratories. I applied to participate in the 10-day NREL Executive Energy Program (EEP) because it would be hands-on and would introduce me to a group of energy professionals that could potentially benefit my exporting clients. But as an added bonus, it could satisfy my engineer “geek” leanings that are generally set aside in my standard workday. At the EEP, our days were filled with overviews from the greatest minds in solar, wind and virtually every area of renewable energy, followed by field trips, both inside and outside of NREL facilities, to show us how each type of renewable energy works.

The biggest question, however, was how the different types of energy would work together. That’s where NREL’s new Energy Systems Integration Facility–ESIF–comes into play.

When the ESIF opens its doors on NREL’s main campus in late 2012, it will enable them to work together with industry leaders to overcome the challenges of integrating renewable 42

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energy solutions into the electrical grid.

Given the critical nature of our nation’s power grid, it cannot be shut down or overhauled purely for testing purposes. And there has not been a facility that operated at the level that could conduct integrated megawatt-scale research and development of the components and strategies needed in order to safely move clean energy technologies onto the electrical grid “in-flight” at the speed and scale required to meet national goals.

Enter ESIF, a research facility that will house approximately 200 scientists and engineers and a full-range of state-of-theart laboratories, including but not limited to power systems integration, energy storage, smart power, thermal storage process and components, fuel cell development and testing, as well as manufacturing. The facility will also feature a high-performance, one-half petaflop-scale computing data center that is expected to expand to a one petaflop-scale in the intermediate term. This data center will expand NREL’s capabilities in modeling and simulation of renewable energy technologies and their integration into the existing energy infrastructure.

Because these processes and systems would be too expensive or impossible to study by direct experimentation, private industry has expressed interest in conducting its own research and development at the ESIF. “Participation from utilities, equipment manufacturers, renewable systems integrators, universities, and other national labs and related industries in fully utilizing ESIF’s capabilities will dramatically accelerate the research required to transform the energy systems to one that is cleaner, more secure and more reliable,” stated Dr. Dave Mooney, director of NREL’s Electricity Resources and Building Systems Integration Center. Fittingly, the facility that is being built to help take our nation into a cleaner energy future will also serve as an example of energy efficiency, being built to a minimum LEED Gold Certification, and demonstrating the “office of the future,” with natural ventilation through operable windows, daylighting, open air cubicles and “chilled beam” technology.

My classmates and I have graduated into the NREL Energy Execs Alumni group and have taken the tools that we acquired in our summer program and applied them in our own work settings. We plan to meet again at alumni gatherings, with an introductory tour of the ESIF building certain to be a highlight.

If you would like to learn more about NREL, visit www.nrel.gov.

To learn more about ESIF, go to www.nrel.gov/esi/esif.html.

government

| Massachusetts Technology Collaborative

O

n Tuesday, October 16, 2012, in the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital, Governor Deval Patrick made history by sending his electronic health record from MGH in Boston to a different health system at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

It is fitting that the first electronic health record transmission across the state would be sent from the Ether Dome, which was Mass General’s operating room from its opening in 1821 until 1867, and the site of the first public demonstration of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic, on October, 16, 1846, 266 years before the health information exchange (HIE) launch. And now, it is the site of the first transmission of a patient record over the HIway, Massachusetts’ new HIE. It is also fitting that Governor Patrick would be the one to send his patient record as the first electronic health record (EHR) transmission. Since assuming office in early 2007, one of the governor’s top priorities has been to ensure that Massachusetts patients have access to world-class, high-quality care, while addressing spiraling costs.

“We believe in this Commonwealth that health is a public good, and that everyone deserves to receive quality care,” Governor Patrick said before transmitting his patient record over the Massachusetts HIway. With the adoption of the HIway, Massachusetts health care providers will be able to securely send and receive patient records over the Internet for better coordinated care, patient safety and lower health care costs. While the HIway is not intended to replace private HIEs in the state, it offers a “dial tone” for HIE service, a provider directory and security via public key infrastructure (PKI) protocols–a collaborative effort of care.

Collaborative Inspiration

In Massachusetts, Collaborations Generate Health Innovation Public and Private Participation Put the Massachusetts HIway on the Health IT Map B y P a m e l a G o l db e r g

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A

t the recent event inside the Ether Dome, Governor Patrick was joined by health care leaders and physicians from health care organizations serving the Commonwealth. The Massachusetts HIway would not have come together without support from the health care industry and both state and federal public partners.

The state effort was led by policy leaders including Senator Richard T. Moore and Representative Steven Walsh, who continue to work tirelessly on advancing health innovation. The HIway provides the foundation for a new era of health care IT innovation, and is excited to help shape this progress.

Massachusetts, a global hub of innovation and technology development, has long

enjoyed a reputation as a center for excellent health care delivery. The state hosts medical centers, insurers and research institutions and boast an enviable talent pool. The Commonwealth’s public policy development has long recognized the role technology can play in improving health care quality while reducing costs and, as the CEO of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, I am proud that our team is part of this important mission.

Funding the HIway

T

he Massachusetts HIway could not have been built without significant support from the Obama administration and the Massachusetts state legislature. A unique funding combination of $13.4 million from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, $16.9 million in Medicaid funds and $5.7 million in state-provided funds all facilitated getting the state to this point.

Healthcare organizations will pay a low annual fee for HIE service, ranging from $60 for solo practitioners to $16,000 for the largest medical centers.

To take this funding and create a system that is secure and trusted by patients, we assembled a core coalition of state agencies, quasi-public state agencies, health care thought leaders and public advocacy organizations.

Overall development of the HIway is governed by a 21-member Health Information Technology Council, supported by workgroups including more than a hundred health care leaders across the state. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Mass Health, the state’s Medicaid agency, are responsible for building and securing the core infrastructure, while the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI), a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, will focus on the “Last Mile” connection of health care providers from across the state to the HIE. The Massachusetts legislature has charged the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and MeHI with creating a comprehensive health IT plan that ensures every health care provider in the state is using interconnected electronic health records by 2017.

Last Mile to the HIway

M

eHI’s Last Mile program has three concurrently running phases: education, connection, and optimization. In this key role, the organization is working closely with EHR vendors to ensure that health care providers using their systems

can successfully connect to the HIE. To stimulate the technical work necessary, MeHI’s Last Mile Direct Assistance Program, funded by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC, a division of the U.S. Health and Human Services department) will provide grants for qualified ambulatory and hospital settings, behavioral health providers, unaffiliated primary care physicians, community hospitals and health centers, specialists and long-term care providers and will make EHR–HIE workflow optimization services available to all Massachusetts providers.

The Last Mile Direct Assistance Program also includes grant monies to assist providers with connection to the HIE. Following a vendor assessment to determine which EHR vendors have the highest market share, MeHI is also offering grants in the neighborhood of $75,000 to the larger vendors such as eClinical Works, Siemens and Cerner to enable their systems to communicate directly with the MA HIway quickly.

These grants are designed to accelerate product development and testing and will

Direct standard, the MA HIway is providing many different options for connecting. These options include browser-based secure email, appliance-based translation technology and native integration with EHRs. Over time, we plan to offer additional connection mechanisms and services as the need and best value becomes clear. With our incremental approach, we are planning for an ongoing series of improvements that will best serve the community at large.

Economic Engine

M

assachusetts has committed to using the HIway to help patients gain access to their own health data, and this commitment has incredible potential to drive the growth of start-up health IT companies. While Massachusetts has a vibrant eHealth start-up community, including the recent launch of classes from accelerators Rock Health and Healthbox, a

Massachusetts has committed to using the HIway to help patients gain access to their own health data, and this commitment has incredible potential to drive the growth of start-up health IT companies. give vendors an early location to test their implementation of the standards required

by Stage 2 Meaningful Use ONC.

A HIway under Construction

A

t the moment the governor sent his EHR to Baystate Health, the Massachusetts HIway officially opened for business. The Last Mile program is now building the critical on-ramps and off-ramps that will allow every health care entity in the state to connect within the next few years. The MA HIway uses the national standard Direct protocol to transmit patient records. Direct was created by a consortium of public and private entities and endorsed by the Office of the National Coordinator as a viable mechanism for achieving Meaningful Use Stage 2, which calls for production implementation of health record exchange for at least 10 percent of a practice’s patients by 2014.

Recognizing that currently not all providers have EHRs that support the national

key issue for many start-ups is access to data.

By leveraging the national Direct protocol and the HIway, this challenge can be largely overcome. Patients will be able to specify where their data are sent and this could help make start-ups with applications as diverse as personal wellness, disease management and population health more viable.

We believe meaningful economic growth forms best through public-private collaborations, where innovative thinking is encouraged among many stakeholders. Right now, we are experiencing the emergence of an exciting health IT cluster in our state, which industry and public partners alike are eager to support.

Health IT is advancing our health care system by helping lower costs, increasing quality of care for patients and growing our innovation economy. We are proud to be part of collaborations that are driving innovative changes in health care delivery for Massachusetts.

Pamela Goldberg is the CEO of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. volume 4 issue 4

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business

Blue Star Recyclers

Blue Star Recyclers People, Planet, Profits–A 100% Solution

By Graham Russell

» Canon City team

» Pueblo West team

» Nathan working away

I

n 2008, after 25 years in the telecommunications industry and in need of work, Bill Morris took a job as a program manager for Community Intersections (CI) in Colorado Springs. CI is a local service provider to the Resource Exchange, the local community center board serving people with developmental and other disabilities in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. Morris soon observed that many adults with developmental disabilities (as unpaid volunteers) displayed strong aptitude and interest in the disassembly of electronics–at that time donated by the public. Convinced that this activity could be developed into a vocational opportunity for a workforce facing more than 80 percent unemployment in Colorado, Morris proposed a work skills and paid employment program in partnership with GRX, an electronic waste (e-waste) recycler based in Denver. In November 2008, the program was launched to employ four disabled adults who disassembled desktop computers into constituent base materials. Payroll was totally funded from the sale of those materials and from proceeds from consumer recycling drop off fees.

In September 2009, Morris had a chance meeting with Tony and Mary Fagnant, owners of Qualtek Manufacturing in Colorado Springs, who were working on an idea to open an electronics recycling business in an empty warehouse they owned. Discussions quickly led to an agreement that this location could become a new locally owned and operated home for the CI employment program, under the name Blue Star Recyclers. Morris was hired as president in November 2009, and during the first quarter of 2010, the leadership team and six disabled adults moved over to Blue Star from GRX. Blue Star’s operating model is to focus solely on the disassembly of computers into their base commodity materials, which are then sold and processed for re-manufacture. Other e-waste (e.g., computer monitors, keyboards, etc.) is sent off to larger commercial electronics recyclers for processing. Several large national recyclers have been willing to offer Blue Star special pricing for handling this general e-waste material, recognizing the special nature of Blue Star’s business model, and helping it to maintain a competitive position in the market. In some cases this has been possible by allocating subsidies received by these larger recyclers from electronic equipment OEMs like Samsung and Hewlett Packard.

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» Senator Bennet & James

“It’s important for them to have skin in the game to underscore that this is a social entrepreneurship business model and not a charity endeavor.”

- Bill Morris

In June 2011, Blue Star received determination from the IRS to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Fagnant family donated its entire investment of more than $200,000 to Blue Star, and made another $30,000 donation in late 2011. Today, Blue Star employs 17 staff in its Colorado Springs operation, 11 of whom are people with developmental disabilities. Morris estimates the total social return on investment is approximately $20,000 per worker per year in terms of reduced taxpayer support, for people who would otherwise be essentially unemployable and totally dependent on government benefits. These workers have reacted to their new status as genuinely productive members of the economy with near-100 percent attendance records, no lost-time accidents, and remarkable levels of productivity and attention to detail.

In addition to these social and economic benefits, Blue Star’s environmental impact is also significant. Recycled material volume rose from 670,000 pounds in 2010 to more than 1.2 million in 2011. To date, the organization has processed more than 3 million pounds of e-waste and has moved into a new 12,000 square foot facility as of August 2012. The company has recently added a fluorescent bulb recycling service, based on a grant from Rotary to purchase the bulb-crusher. Book recycling capability will be added in Q4 2012 along with electronics testing and refurbishment activities, adding an additional two jobs for people with disabilities. It should be no surprise that the compelling nature of Blue Star’s social mission gives it a powerful edge in winning work from new customers.

So successful did this imaginative model prove to be that in July 2011, Morris was able to secure an $89,000 award from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Recycling Resource Economic Opportunity grant fund. This allowed Blue Star to create VERN– Vocational Electronics Recycling Network–as a way to replicate its proven model and provide smaller

» Senator Michael Bennet & the Blue Star team

cities and rural communities in Colorado and potentially elsewhere with a viable and ongoing e-waste recycling option.

Using proceeds from this grant and the Colorado Springs operation as a template, VERN worked with local community service organizations in La Junta, Cañon City and Pueblo to establish an ongoing electronics recycling program, assist in the selection of appropriate disabled workers, and set up an initial marketing effort. To date, these three initial VERN operations have added 10 jobs for individuals with developmental disabilities. Each program is locally owned and operated with multiple stakeholders–including forprofit business partners, municipalities and school districts, and disability service organizations. Every VERN member community contributes a wide range of in-kind resources in support of their program. Says Morris, “It’s important for them to have skin in the game to underscore that this is a social entrepreneurship business model and not a charity endeavor.” All three communities now have vibrant ongoing e-waste solutions modeled after Blue Star’s own operation that simultaneously provide local vocational training and jobs for people with disabilities in their communities.

Alamosa has just recently come online to process e-waste from a sixcounty rural area of southern Colorado, adding an additional four jobs, and Blue Star expects to bring Wheat Ridge and Woodland Park, Colorado, and Ogallala, Nebraska, into the VERN program before the end of 2012. Boulder, Colorado, and Casper, Wyoming, are also interested, and inquiries have been received from upstate New York and even Australia.

With the completion of the initial CDPHE grant-funded project, Morris is actively seeking additional grant funding from foundations and elsewhere to boost the expansion of VERN throughout Colorado and nationally. The large for-profit e-waste recyclers require very large volumes to feed their business models and concentrate on the largest metropolitan markets, ignoring smaller markets and leaving most small cities (populations under 100,000) and virtually all rural communities without an ongoing e-waste recycling solution. Correspondingly, unemployment for people with disabilities is much higher in these same areas. This is why smaller communities are already enthusiastically embracing the VERN model.

Communities wishing to join VERN typically raise money from local government and private sources–sometimes supplemented with state

Blue Star’s environmental impact is significant. Recycled material volume rose from 670,000 pounds in 2010 to more than 1.2 million in 2011. grant funds–to get the ventures established. Blue Star’s role in getting these ventures off the ground is now therefore less financial in nature and increasingly focused on providing expertise, in the form of feasibility studies, grant-writing assistance and identifying and training a productive workforce of disabled individuals. Blue Star receives modest fees for all of these upfront services, which are used to help balance the books of the core Colorado Springs operation and provide funds for marketing and promoting the VERN model.

In June 2012, Blue Star Recyclers was awarded the Colorado Association for Recycling’s “Outstanding Outreach Award.”

It offers a recycling solution for obsolete electronic equipment in rural communities, preventing thousands of tons of toxic e-waste from being dumped

in U.S. landfills or developing countries, and ensuring that the constituent materials are recycled responsibly into a variety of other products. Not only that, it is providing genuinely productive jobs at market wage rates for an increasing number of underprivileged people who otherwise would be placed in “programs” at taxpayers’ expense at a time when local government budgets are stretched to breaking point. Importantly too, revenues from operations fund up to 70 percent of the organization's financial needs, which fosters a strong commercially driven culture throughout the company and its workforce.

It is a shining example of what social entrepreneurship can accomplish in providing a marketbased service while addressing the social and environmental needs of our planet. volume 4 issue 4

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business

Spirae

Spirae Proven Technology to Create Resilient Electrical Power Distribution for Urban Communities B y K e l ly d e l a T o r r e

“ E

ight million people without power,” read the headlines as a result of Hurricane Sandy that hit the East Coast on October 29, 2012. In large part this extensive power failure was a result of the grid’s architecture. Our current electrical power system or “grid” is arguably the largest machine made by humankind. The grid is a network of interconnected electrical wires and power systems, and this network is operated in much the same way as it has been operated for the past 100 years. In addition, the “old” grid comprises a one-way path that is based on very little knowledge about what is going on with the consumer, so it is difficult to identify ways to shift power usage.

There is, however, an exciting transformation underway, and the importance of this transformation is underscored by the devastation left in the wake of Sandy. Spirae, a company based in Fort Collins, Colo., is creating and proving the technology that could change the way we power urban environments. Spirae pioneered active distribution management techniques to integrate high levels of renewable and distributed energy resources. In other words, Spirae supplies the hardware and software to create “smart” electricity grids. “When we say ‘smart grid,’ we are talking about the set of technologies that will enable this transformation and bring new service opportunities to consumers,” says Sunil Cherian, CEO of Spirae. These technologies enable many resources to work together and react to the electricity grid’s needs. Ultimately, this allows individual elements, such as wind, solar, biomass, electric cars, all to be optimally exploited.

There is a shift happening away from use of large centralized power plants to use of smaller assets of all different types. “Today, electricity can be produced much closer to the point of use. We are moving from a passive distribution network to an active one,” says Cherian. “With new technology, we can operate the electrical power system in more intelligent ways.”

Spirae’s product is a distributed control system that augments a utility’s existing grid management system to dynamically manage large amounts of distributed energy resources. The critical element is that all of these

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different energy resources must work together, and deliver innovative energy solutions to customers.

Spirae is working with the Danish Municipality of Kalundborg, to demonstrate that it is technically and commercially feasible to link electric utility operations, energy service providers and service subscribers (customers) with “grid-responsive” energy services.

For Kalundborg, now touted as one of the most promising smart city projects in Europe, there were two primary concerns: (1) is it possible to integrate increasing amounts of wind and other renewable and distributed energy resources while maintaining grid stability; and (2) is it possible to deliver energy

services that are responsive to the grid’s operating conditions and limitations. A project of this magnitude required commitment and collaboration. “The main ingredient in smart city Kalundborg is the three-way commitment to intelligent energy solutions from the local authority, residents and the private sector,” according to the article, “The Path To A Smart City Goes Via “Intelligent Energy.” ” “We started working with Denmark in 2005,” says Cherian.

“In 2005, Denmark had a big focus on wind and had incorporated close to 25 percent wind on their system. On the other hand, many central plants including coal were shutting down and being replaced

“Today, electricity can be produced much closer to the point of use. We are moving from a passive distribution network to an active one.”

- Sunil Cherian

by natural gas-fired distributing systems all over the country. Denmark had also invested in combined heat and power systems and planned on incorporating more wind-powered generation onto the system. As big power plants become less and less, the grid operator doesn’t have the necessary tools to deal with distributed generation and intermittent generation,” explains Cherian. This led to a situation where there was plenty of potential power generation but also the potential for failure if not managed properly.

Ultimately, it was a question of how to optimize use of local resources.

Uncontrollable Wind Can Be Controlled

T

he project was dubbed the Cell Controller Pilot Project (CCPP), and Spirae and CCPP successfully demonstrated that uncontrollable wind can be controlled when all generation resources function as an integrated, intelligent power system. A key discovery of the CCPP project was that “coordinated control of local assets such as combined heat and power plants, wind turbines, and load control could mimic the operation of a single large power plant, and therefore provide ancillary services such as power balancing, import/export of active and reactive power, and voltage control at select locations within the distribution system,” according to the CCPP final report.

The report further notes that “in the event of a transmission system emergency, local distribution networks (60 kV and below) could be rapidly isolated from the transmission network (150 kV and above) and operated autonomously using local resources, thereby reducing the impact on consumers and contributing to more rapid recovery from the emergency.” Applying this analysis to an event on the level of Hurricane Sandy, the ability to isolate from the grid lends itself to resiliency in our communities.

According to Cherian, cities, municipalities and communities are

taking the lead and developing initiatives to become “smart cities,” such as the FortZED project in Fort Collins which aims to convert downtown Fort Collins and the main campus of Colorado State University into a netzero energy district–a district that generates as much energy as it uses from local resources.

Similar to the CCPP project, FortZED requires coordination of a number of different power resources. Spirae provides the software to enable capture of key information about what resources are available, how long these resources are available and how much capacity they have.

This information can be used to optimize these diversified resources and maintain the stability of the system. Spirae is the glue that holds the system together.

Companies like Spirae are transforming the way we power urban environments and enabling synergistic integration of technology. The result is a system composed of a diversity of resources and the ability to isolate portions of the grid to

FortZED aims to convert downtown Fort Collins and the main campus of Colorado State University into a netzero energy district–a district that generates as much energy as it uses from local resources. control failure. In other words, Spirae is developing the recipe to build resilient communities. The technology developed more than 100 years ago was clearly not developed to withstand increasingly chaotic weather patterns. Rebuilding is the perfect time to consider using new technology as a defense. volume 4 issue 4

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The Four I’s and Five C’s

and the like, is critical to the success our business. Second, however, with information doubling at that rate, it becomes like food. It’s not how much you consume that will make you healthier, but what is only important to your specific needs.

Creating the HighPerforming, High-Profit Organization by Using the Four I’s and Five C’s.

B y St e v e S o r e n s e n

I

f you’re a business owner or a corporate executive, your day is logically spent looking for the strategic advantage to move your company into the brightest possible future. These are the advantages all organizations seek to get out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary, high-performing profit engine. For those looking for the strategic advantage that will position any organization for prosperity, read on.

I’ve led very large business units within the Fortune 500 and now currently own and operate my own business consultancy group … nothing has changed in the 30-plus years that I’ve been running business, my charter remains … successfully leading teams and successfully engaging customers. We’re all seeking a strategic advantage and a better way to go about our business.

In that vein, I’ll provide the question that’s rarely asked, but always intimated: “How do I acquire the magic dust to create a highly profitable business that doesn’t keep me up at night?” You’re in luck … there actually is magic dust that will make this happen for you and your organization. And crazy as it sounds, it begins with you and how you will create the organization that has a highly prosperous future.

But first, let’s define the Four I’s. They are information, ideas, intelligence and innovation. The Four I’s are mission-critical to the success of your business … the first bag of magic dust.

Information: In the future–which starts now–we will stop hiring people solely on the basis of their knowledge, but rather on their ability to learn and to learn very quickly. Successful organizations will seek those who will possess the unique talent of effective learning and unlearning.

As J. W. Wilson puts it in Cracking the Learning Code: “The information doubling rate is the main factor that is rendering Ancient Learning Theory obsolete. In the 21st century, all the information that exists in the world is estimated to be doubling at the incredible rate of once every 18 months. This phenomenal rate is causing an information explosion in which two million new books are published each year,

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at least one significant new software program comes out weekly, millions of new pages are added to the Internet each day, and a new technology is produced every 15 seconds.

Information has not always been generated at such a fast rate. Consider that 2,000 years ago, knowledge was doubling every 1,000 years; in the Middle Ages, 1,250 years later, it was doubling once every 750 years; and in the 1700s it was doubling once every 350 years. At the time of the U.S. Civil War, it was doubling at only once every 100 years, and by 1950 information was still only doubling at the rate of once every 25 years. Today information is doubling every 18 months and the prediction is that in ten years, information will be doubling every 30 days.”

There are a couple of ways of looking at this phenomenon. First, I believe that timely, relevant information, such as business intelligence, customer intelligence, market trends,

Intelligence: IQs as we know them have been significantly and appropriately downgraded, taking a back seat to emotional and social intelligence. In the future (as you recall, it begins today), the future belongs to those who have the ability to learn rapidly, unlearn outdated concepts and create winning relationships within and outside the organization.

Smart people are plentiful, smart people who can successfully navigate customer issues every day for a positive outcome … priceless!

Emotional intelligence (EI) has a significant payoff. Every one-point increase in emotional intelligence equates to $1,300 per year. Improve your EI points by three, and your income goes up nearly four thousand dollars. Improve your IQ three points, and your income goes nowhere.

Emotional intelligence is the future … for well-run, high-profit people, teams and organizations.

Ideas: The aforementioned information dilemma/overload requires new ways of thinking. Enlightened individuals will develop strategies required to overcome challenges that will flourish through ideation.

Your workforce, your consultants, your vendors and most importantly your customers must collectively share thoughts and ideas in order to successfully respond to threats and opportunities.

Gone are the days when decisions were made in the boardroom and then disseminated to the “troops” to implement and make successful, “or else”. Winning ideas start with full customer engagement, where the environment is looked upon as a partnership. No longer do we look at our clients and customers as “someone to sell too” but rather “someone to partner with.” Selling is an idea that needs to go away (unless you’re a commodity … then sell away). If your desire is to be in business for the long term, selling is the polyester leisure suit you left at your parents’

In the future we will stop hiring people solely on the basis of their knowledge, but rather on their ability to learn and to learn very quickly.

house 30 years ago; customer engagement is the idea that creates a visionary program to create a sustainable profit engine.

The best and brightest typically have the best and the brightest ideas … are you evaluating those you’ve surrounded yourself with?

What’s the quality of ideas being put forth within your organization?

Are you still selling? If so, stop: implement a customer engagement program, today; your profitable future depends on this.

Innovation: What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There is a book by Marshall Goldsmith. It is not so worthy for its content as much as its title, which epitomizes some of the thinking we consultants run into. Executives and business owners think they’re going to run their business the same way they have always run their business. The same treadmill, creating more activity, staying the course, doesn’t work.

If companies aren’t getting out of the everyday and innovating a new, brighter future; innovating new products and services; innovating ways to engage and delight their

customers, vendors and even their community, they are doomed.

And logically so–given the pace of business, the demand for better products and service requires a new vision.

This vision comes from the interconnectedness of your workforce with your customers. Innovation happens when your activity nurtures communication with the art of active listening. The best source to innovate new products and services is asking your customers what they need. In addition, who knows most about the needs of your customers than those who engage your customers daily? That’s right, your workforce. Yes, it’s obvious, but if so obvious why do I need to coach each and every one of my clients on how to do this? The short answer is, it’s not as simple as it sounds.

The Four I’s are a great methodology to create a thriving business.

But to make the Four I’s a real strategy, one must employ the Five C’s. As a matter of fact, the Five C’s, correctly implemented, will produce a business that is highly profitable, high performing and has

a sustainable profit engine built in.

If you’re a business owner or company executive who’s struggling to make a substantial profit or unable to leave the business for a day for fear that pandemonium will ensue, then you need the Five C’s.

The Five C’s are culture, customer centricity, capability, capacity and caring.

Culture: Culture is the Holy Grail to organizational prosperity. I use this phrase in every public speaking engagement and every program I provide to my clients: “The culture you have is the one you’ve created, nurtured and made manifest.” Just like the word leadership, culture in and of itself is a subjective word; it doesn’t distinguish between the good, the bad or the ugly. Those who surround us distinguish this culture for us.

That brings me to my second statement on organizational cultures: “The existing culture will attract those who gravitate to a like culture.” This means, if you have a prosperity culture that fosters ideas, innovation and intelligence volume 4 issue 4

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At least one significant new software program comes out weekly, millions of new pages are added to the Internet each day, and a new technology is produced every 15 seconds.

(emotional intelligence), you will attract those who value that same culture.

Birds of a feather, flock together.

A culture that’s highly collaborative will achieve a level of prosperity far beyond those locked in mediocrity. If the culture creates value, then effectively partners with clients, it will have an opportunity to become a strategic component in the customers’ business, achieving trusted adviser status.

Positive cultures create a dynamic customer experience that fosters mutual respect for the workforce, solves customer issues beyond expectations, and creates an enviable customer retention record and reputation.

Authoritarian cultures that micromanage, demand compliance and have a “tell” mentality will attract automatons looking for a paycheck. This culture is one of high turnover, commodity selling programs, low price and subvalue products and service. This culture creates high customer churn ratios, and selling becomes a way of life, continuing to lower prices, hiring those who need a job.

That brings me to the third statement on culture: “The culture and organization will prosper to the degree of the capability, commitment and caring of those who comprise it.”

Caring: Employees focus on what those in charge value. (For the sake of clarity, I will purposefully leave out the word leadership. Those who own companies or manage organizations are not by default leaders. Those who embrace the strategies contained herein … you are on the path to leadership/ great cultures.) Those in charge should live the vision, not be micromanagers enforcing someone else’s vision. Caring, like leadership, is difficult; that’s why so few engage in it. However, those who do reap the rewards.

To attract caring workers who care about your company, your customers and your future, you must put heart and soul into a culture that cares about its people. In other words, leadership and a radically successful culture is about “them,” not you! It starts with caring enough about yourself and your company to surround yourself with people who share your vision/dream.

Remember one thing: “Happy employees create happy customers.”

Customer centricity: Happy employees creating happy customers doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Prosperous, well-positioned organizations place

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the customer at the hub of the wheel and then build the organization around serving the needs of customers. If we put the customer at the hub, then the spokes of the wheel become organizational culture, leadership, people, and one of the C’s, capacity, or the ability of the organization to deliver on its promises. This includes process. capability: The ability for the organization to work as a highly functioning unit eliminates speed bumps, innovates new systems, and shares ideas within teams for growth and a higher level of capability. Capability encompasses metrics and measurement to ensure quality customer interactions are solutions-based; advance a partnership mentality; and achieve measured, repeatable results.

Capability is also about adaptability … critical to long-term success.

I have yet to have a company owner/executive admit they’re not customer centric; however, their reality doesn’t match their actions. It takes that rarefied leader to understand how to move his or her organization into customer centricity; it’s complicated, time intensive and requires 360 degrees of mindshare of every worker on your team. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

The Four I’s are terrific, but without the Five C’s, they will languish as just another program. The Five C’s are the framework to bring the Four I’s to fruition. They are the essence of a radically successful business that creates prosperity and a fun work environment filled with the best and the brightest workers–who in turn are creating delighted customers, who are telling others about your products and services.

It begins by understanding what information is mission-critical, moves into the sharing of ideas through ideation, at which point those with high levels of emotional intelligence are engaged at the customer level, and provides innovation to the organization that will become critical to a prospering organization. This is imbued in the culture, which features 360-degree collaboration due to a customer centricity focus and an organization that has the capacity to deliver positive results and the capability to adapt and grow.

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business

Wayin & Scott McNealy

» Scott McNealy and Gayle Dendinger

Leader to Leader™ An Interview with Scott McNealy and Gayle Dendinger B y K i m b e r ly D e C o s t e

I

f you really knew Scott McNealy, you would find out that …

He is a hard-charging, self-deprecating man with a wicked sense of humor. He has an intensity about him that one might expect when he is “on,” but at the same time, he has a relaxed confidence that only comes with time and experience. He is articulate and focused and he has diverse interests and areas of concern. A straight shooter, McNealy has the old-school work ethic we greatly admire. His secret to success? Work hard. And then work some more.

We had the good fortune to sit down with Sun Microsystems co-founder McNealy when he was in Denver to give the keynote address at the Colorado Technology Association’s DEMOgala, which is a culminating event that followed their annual APEX Awards, and as good planning would have it, it fell in the same week as the inaugural of “Denver Start-Up Week”. McNealy founded a company called Wayin, headquartered in historic downtown Denver. It was in his office where we sat down for an early morning chat. So now, the man who sat at the helm of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest offspring, Sun Microsystems, is splitting his time between California, where his family still resides, and Colorado. We are delighted to have him here. Wayin is a great example of the type of company Denver is proud to be showcasing, and ICOSA is happy to highlight all of its successful innovation.

Our conversation with him was an easy one. Gayle Dendinger, CEO and founder of ICOSA, quickly established a rapport that seemed to be based on common experience and common values. The conversation started with a few laughs and then turned to the topics we like to highlight

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at ICOSA as Dendinger and McNealy exchanged ideas.

Vision is something all CEOs must have. McNealy is quick to admit, however, that it is a fleeting thing. Not only to us, but also in other interviews, has he spoken about the elusive nature of vision.

One must be ready to realize the vision and then accept that the business landscape–particularly in technology–is so rapidly changing that a truly visionary leader must be able to adapt. He has been quoted saying, “Your business is going to change above, below and around you, and your direction is going to change so fast it’ll make your head spin.”

What, exactly, uniquely imbues a successful business leader with the ability to work in these circumstances? We are not sure, but it is clear when we watched the two CEOs talk that there is a special talent that they have honed and that they recognize immediately in one another. This mutual and shared skill set of leading organizations as they have is something it seems

“Your business is going to change above, below and around you, and your direction is going to change so fast it’ll make your head spin.”

- Scott McNealy

only experience grants. Seasoned leaders who have fought many battles recognize the scars in one another and admire each other’s tenacity. This is a foundation, perhaps, for why ICOSA’s conversation, CEO to CEO, was such a good and insightful one.

Connection as a topic is one thing McNealy could talk a lot about in the traditional sense of his businesses. Clearly, Sun Microsystems built an ecosystem of connections that was vast and far-reaching. He is famously known for the quote, “The network is the computer.” McNealy, like Dendinger, also acknowledged the “family of co-workers” that is built over time and the enormity of that as a CEO. He has been responsible over the years for 235,000 people’s jobs and, by default, their lives. He shared the fact that when people left Sun, he always tried to take the time to understand whether they were “running to something, which is fine, or were they running from something, which is not okay.” He believes, as we do, that the connections we make with the people with whom we work are vitally important. Teams are successful when the people on them are invested in the work they do and the people with whom they do it. Shared responsibility becomes a motivating factor as much as the drive to recognize individual and group success.

Leadership, McNealy has said, is about making leaders of your followers. Executive leadership at the CEO level, however, is a challenging thing to manage, the gentlemen agreed. As the CEO, a leader finds him/herself both alone and a part of a team, which is uniquely isolating. How does McNealy empower himself to manage some of that burden of isolation?

Through sports, for one. He is known as a tremendous golfer and enjoys the individual performance aspect as a way in which to challenge his mind and body and force relaxation. He also enjoys hockey for its fast pace and the team aspects. Both sports are also something he can do with his sons.

If you knew Scott McNealy, you would know how important family is to him. At ICOSA we talk about the concept of reach. All of our motivation

begins with our immediate network, which is our family. McNealy is also a huge family man. He has been married to the same woman since he was 27. They have four resilient and energetic children: Maverick, Dakota, Colt and Scout. When he made the decision to step down as CEO of Sun, it was for his boys. At the time they were 2, 4, 6 and 8 and he knew his first obligation was to them. They laughed together as we all talked about kids and, in Dendinger’s case, his beautiful grandchildren who are his muses.

McNealy said people often ask him why he runs his kids around so much from school to sports and activities. His reply, “So that they are always too tired to do drugs!”

We loved that honest, straightforward approach because we share that view. The principles that guide our work at ICOSA are informed by our collective business experience.

What we found so refreshing about McNealy was how approachable and unassuming he was with us over the days we worked with him and with his Wayin staff to make this

interview and cover story happen.

“Down-to-earth” actually does describe this iconic business leader despite his obvious personal and financial success.

Transformation and the importance of driving change is clearly something that is important to McNealy. He talked about this in the context of government. He is known to be outspoken in his criticism of the role government is playing right now and how it is hurting business, in his view.

McNealy identifies himself as a Libertarian, though we did not really talk about politics in our interview. We talked about business and economics. The context, however, was in the form of a question from Dendinger as to why McNealy chose Colorado for Wayin’s headquarters. We will print his “Top Ten List of Why It Is Better to do Business in Colorado than California” elsewhere, but fundamentally, he told us he really thinks California has devolved into “the poster child for bad fiscal behavior.” Through over-regulation and taxation, among other things, it has become a wildly unattractive place for business, and it has created problems for the rest of the country. “At least Europe wants to keep Greece,” McNealy quipped. But he was quite serious. Businesses have to transform to survive, and leaders have to adapt to survive, but he worries about what is happening to the United States. Prosperity seems to be diminishing and as he said to us, “If you don’t have economic freedom, you can’t have personal freedom.”

Infrastructure for individual and personal responsibility is what’s needed. McNealy spoke about Milton Friedman, with whom he shares a mutual affiliation through Stanford, where Friedman worked through the Hoover Institution and which is McNealy’s undergraduate alma mater. McNealy’s work is informed by his down-home, old-school work ethic, which we share. He reflected quite a bit on his upbringing. His father was an autoworker. He was born in Michigan and did some of his early work in the auto industry. He reflected on the fact he always had boundless volume 4 issue 4

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energy. Even as a child, he said he would often play until he practically collapsed, and then his mother sometimes had to toss water on him to wake him up. But, the point is that he was always moving–always eager to play, learn and work. He took ownership of his ability and energy and attributes that led to his success. He talked to us about “unleashing entrepreneurship” in this country. And he reflected on the fact that one of the fastest growing suburbs in the country sits just outside the beltway in Washington, D.C., where government has become one of the biggest employers in the region. “This explosion is turning D.C. into Death Valley,” he said.

Government should instead be focused on how to support private-sector growth and job creation, not on being a primary employer. He feels strongly that this is a problem in America.

Innovation in education now sits high on his priority list. Probably because he is raising four children and is actively involved in their lives, he is motivated to transform the way we consume education. He spoke to us about the “luggage on wheels” that his boys drag to and from school. Textbooks, he feels, which are “gratuitously revised,” are relics of another era. “By the way,” he reminds us, “2 + 2 still equals 4.

You don’t need a revision for that.”

Curriki is his education undertaking (www.Curriki.org). With 45,000 learning assets and growing every day, it is becoming a platform where students, parents and teachers can find and consume good, rich, current content, and it–and other platforms and tools like it–are transforming the way people learn. Shouldn’t we be driving this process if we want the kids to be successful in the new world into which they are - Scott McNealy

“If you don’t have economic freedom, you can’t have personal freedom.”

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growing? Dendinger’s grandchildren are still small and not quite at the technology stage yet, but McNealy points out from his own experience, “When was the last time you had to force a kid to put down a text book?

Never! On the other hand, give them a computer and a dynamic learning platform, and they never want to stop.” He points to this as both an opportunity and, again, an obligation of leadership. We have to support future generations in the best ways given the challenges they will face.

Mistakes happen–McNealy and Dendinger agreed on that point.

Leaders, they agreed, just know how to make them matter. Leaders know how to bounce back bigger and stronger from their mistakes. Leaders, they suggested, recognize opportunity in their mistakes. And the ICOSA principle of continuity certainly applies here; leaders are persistent.

Doggedly so. Leaders, even with the changing vision we talked about already, are driven to recognize success for themselves and their organizations at all costs sometimes. It is a skill set few will possess, but from which many can learn. And it is the convergence now of business, politics and education that really excites McNealy. When he talks about Wayin, the new company, one can see the light in his eyes.

Wayin’s business is to create mobile and web engagement platforms that enable conversations between individuals, brands and enterprises with their fans, customers, employees and communities.

The company’s first product suite focused on enhancing employee engagement for the enterprise customer, and just recently it launched a new product called WayinHub, which is an easy-to-deploy microsite creation platform fueled by Twitter for brands to interact, drive marketing messages and increase sales with their most loyal consumers in real time. Wayin closed a $14 million series B funding round in February 2012, and that round brought the total investment to date to the neighborhood of $20 million. This infusion of capital enabled Wayin to expand its staff to 35; build and deploy initial products; and forge business relationships with political campaigns, consumer products companies and private sector enterprises while

McNealy bounces between his life in California and the work he is doing in Denver.

The art of war or the game of business? Both are blood sports.

Back to where we started in our conversation, the two men swing the conversation to strategy for success. There is no magic bullet or simple answer. It’s a game of trial and error. McNealy has said that you have to “be noisy” and be “willing to pick fights.” We generally agree–though Dendinger is less inclined to pick a fight and more inclined to concede, but he will never walk away from one.

You also have to be willing to constantly innovate and try new things. After 28 years with Sun, McNealy threw himself headlong into Curriki and Wayin. For Dendinger, who built his successful logistics business, CAPLogistics, which just celebrated its 30-year anniversary in September, ICOSA is now the encore career that consumes much of his time (except on the precious days every other week when he babysits those grandkids). Both men approach these two vocations with the same vigor and enthusiasm they applied to their earlier works, but with different formulas for success, different benchmarks for progress and a few lumps and bruises. But both men, if you knew them, are regarded as people who have done well without breaking rules, with personal integrity intact.

Both men can agree to live by the closing words of McNealy’s parting letter to the employees of Sun. He simply closed the letter by telling them all to continue doing good work and to “kick butt and have fun!” We think that is an excellent close. We like to kick butt and have fun, and we believe doing good and doing well are also not mutually exclusive, as McNealy and Dendinger both continue to prove.

Thanks to Scott McNealy and his team at Wayin, especially Kelsey Cullen and Tammy Schiff, for helping us connect so we can share these insights from this iconic and admired leader. To learn more about the Colorado Technology Association’s DEMOgala visit, www.ColoradoTechnologyAssociation.org. To learn more about Denver Start-Up Week visit, www.DenverStartUpWeek.com. To learn more about Wayin, visit www.wayin.com.

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business

CereScan

What the Future Holds A Conversation with John Kelley, CEO of CereScan

By Michael Connors

I

nformation. Ideas. Intelligence. Innovation. All of these concepts are essentially related to human ingenuity and wisdom. But without passion, purpose and empathy, such wisdom is often wasted. Perhaps no industry better represents the nexus of these concepts with the role of compassion better than medical technology. At the end of the day, most people in the industry are in it to help other people, and I could see this sincerity of purpose and hope to change the world for others in the eyes of John Kelley, CEO of CereScan. With a disarming smile and persuasive exuberance, I found myself as excited as he is about the advances in medical imaging technology and the potential revolution in brain injury/disorder treatment that could affect millions of people, perhaps hundreds of millions worldwide. Kelley has an extensive background in technology and found himself in the epicenter of the computer revolution in California in his formative years. He was the CEO of McData and held an executive position with Qwest.

But CereScan is different. CereScan is not, specifically, a medical device but a multilayered, or “stacked,” technological approach to the imaging and diagnosis of an afflicted human brain. CereScan is a Denver-based company that has taken the MRI into the 21st century by enabling doctors to see, in real-time, the behavior and activity of the working mind, helping identify such disorders as ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer disease and dementia; anxiety disorder; bipolar disorder; depression; OCD; Parkinson disease; toxic brain injury; and traumatic brain injury. While Kelley may be a techie at heart, he also deeply cares about what his product can do for those afflicted with brain injuries, giving power to his passion for innovation.

The real difference between CereScan and an MRI, for example, is a model of how an impaired brain functions, what it means for our understanding of that disorder, and ultimately how that understanding impacts treatment.

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Kelley outlined the different technologies and approaches: “You've got two pieces of the puzzle. There is the MRI CT, but there are two other modalities there as well–patent SPECT other cameras and New SPECT. Here's the best example.

My wife and I were in a head-on collision on February 29. We were taken to emergency care where they immediately did CT. A CT MRI looks at the physical structure of the brain–so if we had a cracked skull or if we had this tumor, the MRI would detect it–it looks at structure. And, if we would have died, and they had done an MRI 15 minutes later, it would have still shown good structure. It would not be able to tell if we were alive. But, on the PAT SPECT, it is basically measuring the glucose being used by the cells, and we get 5 to 7 million data points when you come in, but if you die, it goes blank.” So, by gauging the amount of glucose being consumed in different areas of the brain, a more

detailed picture of brain injury and/ or damage can be generated.

Kelley is direct and says that their number-one concern is to use nothing but the best available technology, and for them, it is SPECT. For clarification, SPECT, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a “single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging, using a gamma camera to create 3-D pictures. While imaging tests such as X-rays can show what the structures inside your body look like, a SPECT scan produces images that show how your organs work.”

Therefore, an MRI CT is a vital tool for those in an accident, and the most pressing concern is to detect structural damage. A SPECT and CereScan are valuable tools to help with long-term recovery.

Kelley tells me he does see, in the foreseeable future, a convergence of the two technologies into one, so doctors have the best of both capabilities. He also tells me that soon, as the technology advances, he expects to be able to provide 10, 20 or 30 million data points.

CereScan and SPECT are invaluable when trying to identify the specific region of an afflicted brain, as well as the long-term effects of the damage. This long-term analytic tool, therefore, can provide a more accurate roadmap to be used during treatment. Kelley elaborates, “We provide differentiated diagnoses for doctors to be able to use to treat. A camera is really a computer.

Then on top of that you have the software that compiles the images mathematically. Then you have another layer of software that takes the bits and makes them into mathematical measurements, and then you have software that takes those measurements and combines it with clinical. It’s a layered approach.

In the computer world it’s called a stack. We’re taking each plank that provides the stack that allows for a higher-quality diagnosis.”

At the end of the day, the technology is about a more precise diagnosis that hopefully guides a more effective and targeted treatment, allowing for a faster recovery. Kelley continues, “So the diagnosis is, ‘Look

you’re experiencing xyz because the damage is sitting in the part of the brain that is correlated with what we are seeing in you.’ Now you get peace of mind. Not only do we know what caused it, I can see it; I know what symptoms are occurring; then perhaps there are treatments that can be targeted to it. More importantly, if the treatments occur, then down the road you can take another image, and you will be able to measure the effectiveness of that treatment, or if the brain is beginning to heal itself.”

As exciting as the research is, I was also curious if the procedure and some of the treatments he described were covered by insurance. “We’re one of about 150-plus entities that do scanning for Parkinson’s. It’s called DATscan and that’s a General Electric proprietary product, and it’s used throughout the United States. So that’s insurance reimbursed. If you come in for one of the traumatic brain injuries, there are codes that exist in the insurance system and it is likely that it will be insurance reimbursed. On the psychiatric side, which includes bipolar disorder or ADD/ADHD, treatments are not universally accepted by insurance–it depends on the severity of the case,”

Kelley assures me that some truly ground-breaking and revolutionary discoveries are coming–soon. But he promised to keep quiet until I can write my follow-up on this story. Believe me when I say you will want to stay engaged with this story to see what is coming next.

But I digress. As with all stories in ICOSA, there should be a mention of collaboration. And here is where the passion for others meets the advances in technology. Perhaps no other occupation has the risk for brain injury more than that of soldier. While Kelley tells me they have treated NFL players, he is excited for the opportunity to give back to those that have selflessly given so much to us. It looks like there will be announcements on the collaborative effort soon. He says, “With respect to the military, we are hoping to be able to announce a relatively sizable collaborative effort, specifically focusing on traumatic brain injury, before the end of November. It's been a year since the first contact, but six months of multiple presentations by multiple doctors at all levels. But you just can’t report it.

You’ll want to be back. If what I tell you is true, you’ll want to be back.” » John Kelley, CEO of CereScan

CereScan has taken the MRI into the 21st century by enabling doctors to see, in real-time, the behavior and activity of the working mind. says Kelley. Current out of pocket expenses average $3,500–including two sets of scans and the whole stack. But what’s more exciting is that as the technology advances, costs will come down. He tells me that there are new treatments that CereScan is currently working on that could lead to type-two medical devices that could be purchased at local pharmacies, such as Walgreens or CVS. The near-term potential for dramatic life-changing and affordable technology that correctly diagnoses and treats brain injuries and disorders in the near future is certainly palpable.

What I can say is that the research is startling, and if true, has profound implications for the treatment of brain injuries for not only our service men and women, but anyone with a brain injury or disorder. The benefits to humanity and the impact of such innovative techniques and devices are clearly what drives John Kelley and the people behind CereScan. I can say that I am genuinely elated to be able to tell their story and share what the future holds. I am looking forward to a follow-up in the next issue of ICOSA to outline the success and results of their research. Stay tuned.

» Advanced brain imaging

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SOBCon

» xxxxxxxxxxx

» The Brogan family at SOBCon

SOBCon Where the Virtual Meets the Concrete B y R e b e cc a S a l t m a n

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hat would you do if you knew you would not fail?” This quote by Robert H. Schuller is used often by motivational speakers to inspire people to think differently, to seriously contemplate what actions they would choose if they were assured a different outcome. SOBCon (the Small Online Business Conference) is described as “where virtual meets concrete” and deconstructs this quote by repurposing it, suggesting, “What impossible idea would you attempt if surrounded by people who won’t let you fail?”

When you attempt to parse this question, to define its terms and in doing so create a road map to success, you inevitably come to cost. What would you pay or sacrifice to find a group of people who wouldn’t let you fail? If you have got that supportive network and so much more, how do you then compass the value? It becomes academic whether you are running to take advantage of such an opportunity, or running away with your skepticism, when the cost-benefit analysis writes itself.

There is only one impediment to true knowledge–the dissolution of any promising learning environment–and that is sacrificing the potential gain to prevent imagined cost. SOBCon represents a complete answer to that initial question in the form of attendees that will take you to that impossible idea. Suddenly your attempts at impossible ideas have intrinsic value that outweigh every cost.

Wanting to take advantage, I literally ran to this opportunity to experience this inspirational community chock full of ideas; innovation; and most of all, some of the most intelligent people I have ever encountered. I was so inspired, I participated in both SOBCon Chicago in May and SOBCon Northwest (Portland) in September.

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The remarkable founders of SOBCon, Liz Strauss and Terry St. Marie (a.k.a., “Starbucker”), have developed a locus of ideals and talent that has not only provided tremendous value as a standalone conference, but has created new communities, networks and businesses. The innovations are boosted by a deep feeling of community; by planting a seed when you choose to join the conference, you will not be allowed to fail. SOBCon’s founders and avid attendees have come to live and breathe collaborative entrepreneurism by looking at information and ideas as anchoring one end of a continuum where the opposite end is intelligence and innovation. Conference attendees see these qualities–the “4 I’s”–as interacting with and informing the others, not one acting as a channel or steppingstone to another until such time as your concept could take root and bloom. As Starbucker likes to point out, “Information gets exchanged through our unique ‘models and masterminds’ approach, where we give the attendees a chance to talk about the grand ideas that are raised by our guest speakers.

These ideas typically evolve into innovative visions and strategies that attendees can take with them after the event.”

He goes on, “When ideas and innovations are supported so strongly at an event like this, it can result in some extraordinary breakthroughs.” He is proud to point out, “I’ve seen several new business partnerships blossom right in the room. I’ve seen many people who were lost and frustrated find their purpose and their confidence in that room. And yes, I’ve seen more ‘ah ha!!’ moments than I can count.”

Author, speaker and repeat SOBCon attendee Barry Moltz explains: “When I first sat down at SOBCon, I felt like I had come home. Here were people that would help me get unstuck and finally move forward. “ Strauss’s story is one of drive and determination, a seed that has bloomed. An “opportunity creator,” an international business strategist and keynote speaker, she’s been called the most influential “real-ebrity” on the web. From her father’s saloon to years in education (across all age groups: preschool to

The dynamic was made even more extraordinary by the elevated level of questioning by both attendees and presenters. People empowered by their surroundings to use their intelligence can always innovate. I was comfortable exchanging ideas and information with industry rock stars such as Tim Sanders, Rick Turoczy, Les McKeown, Katherine Burdick, Carol Roth, Laura Fitton, Rick Calvert, Lisa Horner, Gary W. Goldstein and Chris Brogan by simple virtue of the conference’s air of camaraderie.

The recent event in Portland became a prism through which every attendee’s stories and questions became a guide for the others.

Some key points that I took away:

» xxxxxxxxxxx

» The Chicago SOBCon panel

graduate classrooms in USC and City University London) through the conceptualization and execution of an innovative, strategic relationship model that built an international corporate publishing network on four continents, she has gained a deep understanding of influence, human behavior, community, communication and solid business strategy. She is no less effusive than Starbucker in her unwavering love for SOBCon: “SOBCon is the Cirque du Soleil of business strategy events. It’s an interactive think tank that moves ideas to action–packed with business strategies and social media immersion. You will walk away with new ideas and the energy and network to implement them.”

St. Marie has similar drive from a completely different direction. A native Midwesterner now living in Portland, Oregon, he has been spreading “realistic optimism” through a philosophy he terms “Half-Fullism.” He moved away from 30 years in the business world (most recently as the senior vice president of operations for Bresnan Communications, a cable TV operator in the Rocky Mountain west) to become a strategist, coach and angel investor.

His leadership philosophy is unabashedly personal: It’s all about positivity, purpose, empathy and compassion, humility and love.

Brick and mortar entrepreneurs, strategists and traditional corporate management may easily dismiss these personalities as unnecessary and outmoded. They believe real business results are based on a single bottom line, not empathy, compassion or unquantifiable qualities. Yet these precise qualities are exactly what drive attendees to SOBCon, from the average Joe to Chris Brogan (www.chrisbrogan.com). And those qualities are exactly what attendees use to thrive.

Two-time SOBCon attendee and author Elizabeth Marshall adds: “SOBCon is so much more than an event–it’s a community where rich relationships are made, and conversations turn into meaningful collaborations and tangible business opportunities.”

What I experienced at this year’s event did not fail to enlighten me.

The theme for Chicago 2012 was Creating and Leveraging Opportunity:

Strategy and Execution. St. Marie and Strauss had gathered a panel of luminaries to discuss qualitative and quantitative critical thinking, with a focus on action as opposed to cerebral envisioning. The panel had decided on a menu of topics revolving around the seven keys to strategy and execution: Mission, Vision, Position, Conditions, Decisions, Networks and Systems.

Each presentation, model and mastermind session was organized around the guiding tenet that each would change the way you see yourself and your business.

As a connector who has always been able to connect with new people, I clearly found that SOBCon made my strength (confidence in meeting and supporting collaborative goals) available to all attendees and even heightened my own experience of connecting to others. When your goal is elevated access to success, this type of authentic connection secures the path–and with “real-ebrities” in the room, the possibilities are endless!

• Don’t be afraid to re-evaluate your business model if it’s not working.

• When you’re telling someone about your business, remember to relate it to what you can do for that person. They want to know “what’s in it for me,” whether they are a VC, a potential business partner or a potential customer.Your business “pitch” must be practiced, but natural. Convey what you can do for the person you’re talking with, very briefly. Have multiple versions of your pitch at the ready, depending on how much time you’re given.

• We are all in the content-creation business now, and content going “viral” is the result of convergence of authenticity and surprise. It can’t be concocted.

• Leverage large; as a small business, seek out larger partners and opportunities to move “up the chain.”

• No matter how far up the chain you climb, you must make room for giving back.

Perhaps most importantly: Surround yourself with people who won’t let you fail; find those few key people who are fully invested in what you’re doing and will support you.

Rebecca Saltman is a social entrepreneur and the president and founder of an independent collaboration building firm designed to bridge business, government, nonprofits and academia. To learn more, visit www.foot-in-door.com. volume 4 issue 4

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Space Race 2.0

Out of This World Innovation B y N o r m a n St u ck e r

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ast summer, for the first time in human history, the opportunity to privately achieve our furthest-reaching imaginations became possible as the U.S. government fully embraced the concept of commercial space development. For most of humankind’s existence, the ability to travel to the stars was limited by our technology, not our dreams. After the USSR launched Sputnik, the world realized our technical ability had the potential to take us beyond our planet, but this event also catapulted the emerging Cold War to new heights as space became the ultimate battlefield. In the 1960s, the “Space Race” was defined as a mission to the moon and back. We won that race, which was the greatest achievement in this country during my lifetime. In the 1980s, the concept of Star Wars went from Hollywood to Washington as the government openly debated what a space-based battlefield could look like. Currently, the threat of cyber warfare is real and increasingly jeopardizes our information-based economy.

With space being the domain of military and government activities, there was little oxygen in the air for private commercial activities. NASA played a critical role in shuttling experiments back and forth to the Space Station, and communication satellites were launched by the large defense contractors who knew how to play Washington’s game. Yet this industry failed to fulfill the potential of what is possible; however, in July 2011, the Space Shuttle landed for the last time, and there is renewed imagination of what can be.

Much has been written about the advent of Space Race 2.0 or what has come to be known as New Space, and there is renewed excitement about going “to infinity and beyond,” but there remain significant regulatory, technical and financial hurdles to realizing these dreams. The retirement of the shuttle by the Obama administration was not universally accepted–could future

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administrations change this policy?

Even if this policy is not altered, the FAA and other foreign government agencies have yet to agree on all of the regulatory issues required to make this future possible. The cost of flying the shuttle made it very difficult to create business models that made financial sense; new technology that applies reusable vehicles that don’t require reassembly with each re-entry is needed to lower the cost of space exploration.

New propulsion systems that lower the cost of sending a person or a payload into orbit are necessary to create the Moore’s Law of Space, but it may surprise some to learn that the greatest need for this industry to take off is not technical or regulatory–it is financial.

The phrase “I am not a rocket scientist” connotes a level of deep technical expertise not shared by the general public, but is that what is most needed to advance this industry? One of the historical arguments for continued investment in NASA has been the technical innovations that have come out of our space program–from the microprocessor, to solar power, to GPS, to Tang. These innovations have created the technical foundation for the companies that have driven our economy for the last 40 years; however, do we primarily need new technology for the private commercial space industry? To capitalize on this opportunity, I firmly believe what is mainly needed is not new technology; it is new capital and new business models to make use of this capital. Technical innovation will always play a significant role in this industry, but after 50 years of funding NASA, there are significant technologies that exist and are just waiting to be commercialized wherever there is a market to be served.

In short, the primary innovation needed for this industry not only to take off but to leave orbit is a shift in thinking: from serving missions to serving markets, from completing programs to creating profits.

Although this may sound intuitive, it is a 180-degree shift in thinking to most people who are in the space industry. A cursory review of NASA will highlight the various programs this agency has overseen, from Mercury to Apollo, from the Space Shuttle to the current Commercial

Crew program, and within each program are a series of well-defined missions. The most audacious program was the Apollo program (1961-1972), and the success of the Apollo 11 mission to put a man on the moon continues to inspire 40 years later. Yet what market was served by this? At the cost of more than $200 billion for the entire program, what profits were realized?

Of course, the government is not in the business of making a profit, but for the privately funded commercial space industry to move forward, this shift of emphasis is sine qua non of all New Space business plans.

Earlier this year, the FAA together with Space Florida conducted a market study of opportunities for suborbital reusable vehicles and identified five existing markets, including: • Commercial Human Spaceflight • Basic and Applied Research • Technology Demonstration • Media and Public Relations • Education and Satellite Deployment This study forecasts a total of between 2,378 and 4,518 commercial suborbital flights over the next 10 years; with current costs ranging between $100,000 and $200,000, this equates to a market size of $2 billion to $9 billion. Many believe this study is extremely conservative and misses the exponential growth curve of new industries. Others believe the largest market is point to point suborbital transportation, which could be a $100 billion market when the technology develops in the next couple of decades. The Brookings Institute supported by McKinsey & Company studied the existing Colorado space industry, including space system manufacturing and operations, satellite-based services and their supply chain, and determined this market encompasses $15 billion and employs more than 50,000 people.

Although this market is primarily composed of traditional space activities, the private-sector work makes up the strongest growth potential, and with the looming possibility of reduced federal spending, this is a trend that looks to continue. Earlier this year, the Investor’s Business Daily ran a story

suggesting that the first trillionaires will make their fortune in space.

Yogi Berra once said, “Predicting is difficult, especially when it involves the future;” but it is clear that a significant need for this emerging industry is good market intelligence and appropriate strategies to capture these markets.

So who will be the risk-takers who capitalize on this trillion-dollar opportunity? Again, the future will determine the winners and losers, but I predict it will not be the large defense contractors who currently receive significant NASA and Department of Defense spending. This may seem counterintuitive as these large companies have a workforce in place to best solve the technical challenges, but as I have stated, I believe engineering hurdles are not the prime limiting factor. Also, these companies have established very sophisticated protocols to avoid risk and are used to accepting small profit margins to do so.

This system has worked very well for NASA and our federal government, but the exact opposite is required for the private commercial space market. What is required are companies and investors willing to embrace risk for the commensurate returns the market forecasts.

Space has long been the domain of dreamers and visionaries, from Star Trek nerds to our most brilliant minds, from ancient astronomers, to Galileo, to Einstein, to Stephen Hawking; humankind has consistently looked to the heavens with questions resulting in technical answers that are nothing short of amazing. I still don’t understand E=mc2, but a mind that can reduce the equations of the universe to such simplicity is the epitome of the word genius. But again, such higher-level thinking is not the main requirement for us to commercialize the final frontier. What is needed is smart investment based upon fundamental business principles. So the trillion-dollar question would be, is anyone making these investments in private commercial space, and if so, what are their business models?

The short answer to the above question is yes. Internet billionaires who made their fortune in the tech sector (where innovations have driven our economy since the invention of the microprocessor by

the space industry) are the early adaptors to commercial space. Paul Allan, a co-founder of Microsoft, spent $30 million to win the $10 million Ansari X prize back in 2004 and last year announced a new venture–Stratolaunch, which promises to significantly reduce the cost of launching satellites.

Before you question the wisdom of investing $30 million to make $10 million, upon winning the X prize, he was met by Richard Branson of the Virgin Companies, who licensed his technology for $50 million and started Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic is primarily known for

markets, and adding supportive regulations to patient capital, you have a winning formula. To be sure, each of the examples above and others not mentioned also have advanced technology, but the technical innovations are not what gives promise to the enormous potential of this industry.

As soon as some of these New Space companies show acceptable returns on the risk capital that has been invested, larger forms of investment from traditional sources will pour into this new market looking for a technical advantage to gain a foothold. The innovations that follow will rival our greatest science fiction novels.

The largest market is point to point suborbital transportation, which could be a $100 billion market. pioneering the concept of space tourism, where wealthy individuals spend $200,000 for a ride to suborbital space. However, the larger vision behind the company is to become a worldwide transportation company utilizing suborbital flight. Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame is the resource behind Blue Origin, a quiet company developing a vertical takeoff vehicle that is targeting the research and educational market, among other things.

The most successful commercial space company to date may be SpaceX, the brainchild of Elon Musk, the 40-year-old co-founder of PayPal. Earlier this year, SpaceX made history by becoming the first private company to launch a craft that docked with the International Space Station, an accomplishment that had only been completed by a select number of nation-states.

When this event occurred, it was the highest tweeted activity for the day on Twitter; when was the last time this industry had captured the imagination of the younger generation, which has anointed Musk as the real-world embodiment of Tony Stark of Ironman fame?

The IT industry is comfortable with the concept of risk, and not all of these companies will be successful, but by combining proven business models with identified

PADT is a mechanical engineering company that specializes in numerical simulation, product development and additive manufacturing; we have been fortunate enough to have many clients that use our tools and services, both in the traditional aerospace industry and some in the New Space world.

The tagline for our company is “We make Innovation Work”; we are proud of our ability to work with great technical ideas and to help optimize them. Our desire is to help elevate the importance of great technology in all facets of the design process; we are firmly entrenched in the technical community in Arizona and are expanding our influence throughout the Southwest and Rocky Mountain area. We continue to be involved in Colorado’s initiative to become a spaceport state, and we are working with multiple companies in this private commercial space industry.

Though we would like to think that disruptive technology is the most important element required to reach the stars, our experience tells us this is not the case. Innovation for innovation’s sake may produce the “flux capacitor,” but without identified markets; solid business fundamentals; and most importantly, risk capital, the best ideas will not take off. volume 4 issue 4

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Vaisala

Out-of-the-Box Ideas Lead to Success Transforming Marketing and Sales Strategies in the Road Weather Industry B y M o l ly O s a d j a n a n d J o n Ta r l e t o n

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ho knew that imitating a rock band tour would elevate a company’s sales and marketing strategies to new heights?

Vaisala, a Finnish-based environmental and industrial measurement company, and MGA Communications, a Denver-based full-service public relations, marketing and research firm, teamed up in late 2011 to embark on a firstof-its-kind, cross-country product tour. In the end, the tour would prove to be truly revolutionary.

In November 2011, Vaisala’s roads segment, which focuses on providing road weather observation and monitoring solutions to public and private transportation agencies, was preparing to launch a revolutionary product called Condition Patrol. For the first time, these agencies will be able to monitor their entire networks of roads as opposed to a set fixed location.

The mobility that Condition Patrol offers allows agencies to be more accurate in how they maintain their roads in all weather conditions, thus reducing costs and improving driver safety.

Because of the landmark status of the product, Vaisala explored concepts for a product launch unlike any it had done before. Three goals were established: 1) build awareness of Vaisala among potential customers in North America, specifically related to its position as a leader in mobile roads technology; 2) foster excitement and collaboration among the national sales team members; and 3) meet product sales goals in the United States and globally.

The company took a common sales and marketing practice from the music industry–a traveling tour–and applied it to their product launch. It was kicked off with an invitation-only event; tour T-shirts with the tour stops listed on the back were distributed; multiple audiences were engaged; and throughout the program, communications vehicles allowed those audiences to track, follow and engage in the tour as it traveled across the country. They also actively participated in traditional media relations, trade shows and advertising as well as social media, video and other online communications.

At its core, the Vaisala Across America tour consisted of a branded vehicle (outfitted with Vaisala’s Condition Patrol technology) that visited current and potential customers around the country to provide a hands-on experience while actively promoting the tour across all media channels. This type of a product launch was a completely new strategy for Vaisala’s sales and marketing departments. In the past, Vaisala’s approach to media relations and customer relations has been more segmented by geographic market and has focused more on industry media rather than business publications and general media. This more traditional approach is in line with others in the roads industry. This tour was a true first for the company and the industry in many respects, and

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it succeeded on every level. And the effort ignited an enthusiastic following from Vaisala’s 1,400 employees worldwide.

Vaisala’s corporate communications team and MGA Communications were tapped to provide strategic counsel on how to maximize the reach of the tour to have the greatest impact. The two agreed that such an innovative product demanded a unique approach to marketing and promotion for Vais-

corporate messaging and helps to positively position the customer and product.

• Support the sales team in media interviews by recommending media training and close coordination throughout the tour.

• Obtain media coverage in all prioritized tour stops and in the top-ranked media markets in the snow-belt states.

• Educate and create awareness among the general media about

» Vaisala Across America vehicle

ala and the industry, and so it was agreed to focus on using general U.S. news media and social media to reach the target audiences of current and potential customers as well as those in the road weather industry.

After learning of Vaisala’s goals, MGA established the following objectives for its involvement in the tour: • Develop key messaging about the product, tour and Vaisala that aligns with the company’s

Vaisala, Condition Patrol and the impacts this industry and product have on the general public.

• Help Vaisala build a robust and engaging tour website by including relevant and interesting content and continually refreshing that content for all target audiences.

• Attract a targeted number of visitors each month to the tour website, with a specified average visit duration.

• Increase Vaisala’s activity and engagement in social media,

Seattle

Spokane

Portland Salem

Helena Bismarck Boise

Reno Sacramento

Pierre

Salt Lake City Louisville

Cheyenne

Fargo

Montpelier Manchester Boston Albany Minneapolis Providence Hartford APWA Milwaukee Detroit New York Chicago Harrisburg Des Moines Omaha Columbus Baltimore Lincoln Washington, D.C. Indianapolis Charleston Richmond Kansas City Springfield Topeka St. Louis Jefferson City Knoxville Asheville Raleigh Charlotte Nashville Memphis Little Rock Columbia

specifically by enhancing the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and use this opportunity to demonstrate to others in Vaisala how these tools can be helpful in sales and marketing.

• Supplement the social media opportunity by developing multimedia content.

All of the above objectives were either met or exceeded.

MGA worked with Vaisala to establish a project timeline that outlined the tasks related to the key tour components and who was responsible for those tasks. They consisted of key messaging, alignment of tour marketing and branding with company brand guidelines, internal communications, trade advertising, digital communications, customer tour stops and media relations.

The timeline ensured all parties were informed and working together.

Tour stops were selected and prioritized based on locations of current

“This product is awesome! It performs exactly as promised, and every demo we have had so far, the DOT guys are discussing how to buy one!”

- Mark Feldman, Vaisala territory sales manager

customers and high winter weather impact areas. These are areas that repeatedly receive snow, sleet, ice, wind and rain.

The project launch date of Feb. 1, 2012, was confirmed seven weeks in advance–not a lot of time to plan and prepare for the tour, get the product from Finland and install it on the truck, and launch the tour. The seven weeks also included three holiday breaks, which posed a challenge in regard to both planning and execution.

In the initial planning stages, the roads segment decided to leverage previously purchased advertising space in the top three industry trade publications. There was one ad placed in each publication: one each at the beginning; in the middle; and at the end of the tour, which helped reach industry professionals and coincided with trade show stops.

Starting a few weeks before the launch through its completion 16 weeks later, it was not uncommon for MGA and Vaisala to have multiple

conversations each day about the schedule, weather, media interviews and more. The success of this project required ongoing contact, and MGA was committed to helping its client navigate this new territory and make it as successful as possible. MGA’s trademark is delivering effective communications that make a difference by getting people involved in the issues that matter most to its clients and to their communities. Through the close working relationship with Vaisala, a true partnership was formed, and MGA was able to help the client successfully meet and exceed all of its goals.

In 16 weeks–February 1 through May 23–Vaisala Across America traveled 18,325 miles and reached 60 current and potential customer locations in 45 tour stops. The tour earned nearly 100 media placements in 25 U.S. media markets, reaching more than 3 million people. Vaisala saw an increase in its social media and online presence.

All of these components further established the company’s awareness and position in the marketplace and among the industry. To date, Vaisala has sold more Condition Patrol systems than expected in the United States and internationally.

Vaisala will meet its global sales target for 2012, with most sales coming from the U.S. market in which the tour was conducted.

The tour was a tremendous

success for the marketing and communications departments, the sales team, current and potential customers and Vaisala as a whole.

Without the strategic and innovative efforts put forth by everyone involved during the collaboration, this project would not have been as successful. A critical component in the tour’s success was the media relations and digital communications (social media, blog and website) elements. These successes and others have better positioned the company with its target audiences and online communities, as well as laid the foundation for other segments within Vaisala to incorporate elements of the tour in their own work.

All of the tour’s successes have proven that out-of-the-box thinking, solid planning, team work and determination can make a difference in sales and marketing efforts. As a result of the tour, Vaisala has now positioned itself as the mobile leader within the industry, setting the bar high for other companies to be as bold, creative and innovative.

Molly Osadjan is account manager at MGA Communications and managed the Vaisala Across America project. Jon Tarleton is the roads marketing manager for Vaisala, Inc., and works out of the company’s St. Louis office. For more information, visit www. mgacommunications.com or http://mobiletour. vaisala.com/across-america-tour/. volume 4 issue 4

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Strategic Programs, Inc.

Listen and Deliver Moving Business Beyond Surviving to Thriving with Strategic Programs

By Diane Irvin

H

ow can businesses move past survival to thriving and beyond–in this tough economy? Since 1988, Strategic Programs, Inc., has listened in-depth to clients’ problems, designed and implemented client-centric solutions, and monitored and measured the results to address previously unsolvable problems. New services, created in response to each client’s needs, have later been replicated with others and have created new revenue streams.

Strategic Programs was the first human capital research and consulting firm to offer computerized individual and organizational assessments. Individual 360 multi-rater instruments were in their infancy, and organizational assessments were few. As a start-up, we offered only two fully customizable assessments: 360-degree and employee satisfaction surveys. Our 360-degree design process was proven to work for any job description, and the equally adaptable employee satisfaction survey collected current employees’ opinions on how they experienced the workplace.

Innovation is at the heart of our longevity. In the mid-1990s, three of our clients were losing good employees. Conservatively, they estimated turnover costs at 1.5 times the average compensation for each exited employee. They could not get good information from internally conducted exit interviews, and there was no literature on how to improve their process. Human resource professionals in comparable corporations told our clients that exit interviews were a waste of time.

How could we help, when there was no model to follow? What research had we used effectively before that we could apply to this profit-eating business problem? Strategic Programs co-founder and CEO Rim Yurkus relied on research processes that had proven to be effective in employee satisfaction surveys: quantitative questions; third-party objective administration to avoid auspicious bias (a tendency for a respondent to react more favorable to their survey sponsor when they know who the sponsor is, as opposed to giving candid, honest feedback to a neutral or third party); and user-friendly reporting with accountability for action plans.

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Idea! Processes that were reliable for collecting high-quality, actionable data in the present from current employees could be written in the past tense to collect data from former employees. If we collected data over a longer period of time and then aggregated it, clients would see the “exited organization.”

Three organizations partnered with us in research and development. In 1998, Strategic Programs reported the first validated, reliable research with actionable data from exited employees. The data are absolutely reliable for making solid business decisions.

Today, we help organizations not just to reduce turnover, but to manage it by retaining high potentials and cycling out less competent employees–thus evolving to continually higher performance levels.

Recently, a client in a high-turnover industry was not concerned about 15 percent turnover until she learned that more than 20 percent of their exiting employees were top performers. In a tight economy, burdened by working lean, the first people to leave are those who have more skills than merely competent employees. They are valued not only for organizational intelligence and performance but for their tendency to attract good people and improve productivity.

Exit interviews and retention solutions comprise a majority of our business. Today, we conduct them globally in eight languages, and will add others as our clients’ needs expand. Our normative database far exceeds beyond that of our competitors, is unequalled in the marketplace, and has earned a 94 percent client retention rate during the recession.

Why would companies pay for exit interviews when money is tight and turnover is not an issue? Exit data are the best way to learn what is happening inside an organization, information that is too controversial for current employees to report and continue to work there.

Former employees report safety violations, integrity issues, illegal behavior and EEOC violations that can result in ultra-expensive lawsuits. Our skilled interviewers also re-recruit valued, exited talent and save clients enough in recruiting costs to cover their annual contract.

Regardless of industry, services companies tend to lose people the first three to six months of employment. This experience led us to create a proactive approach to turnover, the New Hire Check-in, which evaluates the quality and effectiveness of orientation and onboarding and soothes early disappointments and mistrust. Our best clients complement exit interviews with New Hire.

Another adaptation of proven research processes met the needs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). They wanted to know how some Native American nations perceived their services, as they could not get candid participation through their own efforts. Strategic Programs consultants saw this research design as similar to 360-degree, but on a grander scale, with the BIA treating it as if it were an individual whose performance was rated by various constituencies.

Respondent leaders from each nation were engaged in the process and instrument design to earn the level of trust needed to get candid, quality responses in sufficient quantity to produce a reliable report. Responses were divided and reported by eight nations–the Lakota Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Nez Perce and Navajo.

Results of the research were reported to tribal councils and to BIA leadership. The report showed strengths and opportunities for improvement that were communicated to the BIA by each nation, and an action plan was developed based on recommendations from our consultants, along with follow-up on implementation. We earned a new and highly satisfied client by implementing known elements of the 360-degree process in different ways, by using information, ideas, intelligence and innovation.

A 360-degree hybrid was created for a newly seated chair of the board, who wanted to know how directors perceived the effectiveness of the board as a whole, as well as that of individual directors. The problem was that allies and adversaries on the board would not be objective in rating their peers if the chair were to see their results.

Strategic Programs consultants designed the research as a 360-degree assessment of each director, with each report being delivered by a certified coach, who would assist in outlining a professional development plan.

Critical to accessing quality data was that the chair would see none of the directors’ reports. Data from each director’s report were aggregated into a composite board report for the chair, showing strengths and development opportunities for the board. Certified consultants worked with the board to develop their group action plan, which included a timeline for achieving their goals and accountability assigned to each director for participating in the action plan.

By working with a consultant on conflict resolution, adversarial relationships and political alliances were reduced to insignificance, and the board’s subsequent 360-degree report showed measurable improvement in their effectiveness.

An important factor in each director’s motivation for development was the comparison chart, which showed each director’s profile compared to that of the board.

This communicated the strengths that each director brought to the board, and where the collective board’s strengths were greater than his own.

By working with a consultant on conflict resolution, adversarial relationships and political alliances were reduced to insignificance, and the board’s subsequent 360-degree report showed measurable improvement in their effectiveness.

Strategic Programs’ growth through three challenging recessions has been driven by caring, intelligent, inquisitive business

development and client consultants, interviewers, and data analysts who have expanded our capabilities in intelligent, innovative ways.

A start-up with only two assessments in 1988, our company has earned loyal, long-term clients through listening and creating innovative solutions that met or exceeded our clients’ expectations. As our accountant has said during every recession, “You folks just keep re-inventing yourselves.” It’s simple. We listen, and deliver, to help companies maximize their human capital.

Diane Irvin is the senior vice president and co-founder of Strategic Programs, Inc. For more information, visit www.strategicprogramsinc. com, or call 1.800.800.5476.

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c ommunity | Freshwater Malawi

Freshwater Malawi A Fresh Focus on Water and Maternal/Child Health B y A m y H a r t a n d H e i d i R i ck e l s

I

magine giving birth, or watching a loved one give birth, in a mud-floored hut without clean water or a basic latrine. This is the reality for millions of women in Malawi, Africa, and other developing nations.

In Malawi, a small country in southeastern Africa, where approximately 30 percent of the people in rural areas lack access to clean water and more than 50 percent lack basic sanitation, efforts are underway to improve conditions for birthing mothers.

Prepartum waiting stations

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repartum waiting stations, designed to decrease maternal and infant mortality, has been launched by Joyce Banda, the new female president of Malawi. Waiting stations are areas adjacent to birthing centers or health clinics where expectant mothers may come a week or two prior to their delivery date, so that they are close to medical care. The initiative is aimed at reducing the risks of giving birth at home in remote villages with traditional birth attendants (TBAs), far from any medical facilities.

“Now that we have this political will, we believe that conditions for our expectant mothers will definitely improve,” says Charles Banda, the executive director of Freshwater Malawi, a local Malawian non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) to the rural communities of Malawi.

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Since Banda founded the organization in 1995, the results of Freshwater Malawi’s work in the Blantyre rural region have been dramatic for the communities served. School drop-out rates of girls have decreased from 46 percent to 2 percent and cholera outbreaks became so rare that the International Red Cross took down the cholera tent at the Blantyre Health Clinic.

Furthermore, sustainability of the comprehensive water projects is very high–at 93 percent–due to the unwavering commitment of Freshwater Malawi to take a community-driven approach on all projects, and use water as an entry point for community empowerment. As a testimony to its integrity, Freshwater Malawi was identified as the Best Water NGO in Malawi by UNICEF for the last three years.

Banda traveled to Denver, Colorado, in October 2012 to attend the launch of Freshwater Project International (FPI), a new U.S.-based sister organization devoted to supporting the efforts of Freshwater Malawi. Collectively, Freshwater is committed to helping the impoverished people of Malawi, where the current priority is the provision of WASH services at the new waiting stations.

“We’re excited about the response of potential partners from the Denver community and throughout the U.S. to support our projects at the waiting stations,” says Freshwater Project International co-founder Heidi Rickels, a Denver resident. “The improvement of maternal/child health strikes a chord in many people because of our shared human inclination to see that mothers and newborn babies are as protected as possible.”

More than 100 people gathered together for the launch of Freshwater Project International at the first annual Wine to Freshwater festivities at the Studios at Overland Crossing in Denver.

Many people who had first met Banda during his 2004 residency were happy to see the growth of the organization. “It is a joy to build connections with individuals and organizations who share our passion for these issues as we launch our new organization here in the U.S. to help the people of Malawi,” says New York-based filmmaker and FPI co-founder, Amy Hart.

"The improvement of maternal/child health strikes a chord in many people because of our shared human inclination to see that mothers and newborn babies are as protected as possible."

- Heidi Rickels

The Story of Freshwater

Malawi is one of most perilous places for a woman to give birth, with nearly 40 percent of rural women giving birth at home without professional care or medical facilities.

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he story of Freshwater is one of friendship that began, serendipitously, in 2004 on two different continents, between two American women and an amazing African man.

Banda, a humble, local Malawian fireman who grew up in villages without clean water, took it upon himself to become a waterman and provide clean water to the impoverished people of his country after seeing many villages struck by cholera and other waterborne diseases. Since he launched Freshwater Malawi, the organization has provided clean water and sanitation to approximately one million people.

In 2004, Banda traveled to Denver for a fourmonth educational fellowship. Heidi Rickels became his professional mentor at Project C.U.R.E., a nonprofit where she was director of communications at the time. Her loving family basically adopted him, and they stayed in close touch with him after his fellowship.

Later in 2004, Amy Hart, who didn’t know Rickels at the time, traveled to Africa to make a documentary film on global water issues. She was introduced to Charles Banda, who ended up becoming the central figure of her film, WATER FIRST: Reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

The short version of the film won an international jury prize at the World Water Forum in 2006, and she used the prize money to return to Malawi and develop the film. The final version of the film premiered in 2008 at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., on World Water Day. While in Malawi, Hart was inspired to pay for the repair of a broken well in a village where people were suffering without clean water–and the mission of supplying water to people of Malawi took root in her heart. “It feels good to do something that makes such a positive difference in the world,” she says. “I know firsthand that Freshwater Malawi uses every dime for water projects.

They live very humbly to do this work, and they think nothing of working 10 hours a day, six days a week. They pour everything they’ve got into it–so I’m happy to support them.”

» Location of Malawi in relation to continent

Maternal mortality rate: 460 out of 100,000 live births (global average: 210/100,000).

Infant mortality rate: 92 out of 1000 children under the age of five (global average: 57/1000). » Source: WHO, Malawi profile 2010.

In 2009, having been introduced via email by Branda, Rickels and Hart got online with each other and arranged a speaking tour for Charles with screenings of at the American Public Health Association conference and a series of other venues in Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Albany and Denver. Heidi and Amy, along with Charles, finally got to meet each other in person in Philadelphia–and the dream for clean water and sanitation for every person in Malawi began to take shape.

After hosting fundraisers that had provided clean water to more than 20,000 Malawians and helping to support a water project for a birthing center in Ndongo village that serves 18 villages, the two women decided to start their own nonprofit organization.

With the helpful support from Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton to guide them through the legal process, the organization was granted 501(c)3 nonprofit status in December 2011, and officially launched on January 1, 2012. In late October the three friends were reunited at the launch party in Denver. “It was wonderful to see so many people gather together to support Freshwater,” says Banda. “I see that Americans really care about Malawians, and that moves me deeply. I was so impressed by the enthusiasm of these people. I know it will make a big difference.”

Now that the launch party is behind them, the team is busy with the serious work at hand–to raise funds that will provide life-saving water and sanitation services to the people of Malawi, most urgently at waiting stations. “The mothers and children of Malawi will benefit tremendously from having safe, clean water and sanitation services at the facilities where they are about to give birth,” Banda says.

WASH programs for schools and communities

I

n addition to focusing on programs at waiting stations, Freshwater also provides WASH programs to schools and villages. To support this work, the American team hopes to provide a new drill rig that will empower the on-the-ground team to provide many more wells and comprehensive WASH programs.

“We have a vision,” says Hart, “and that is to see that all people in Malawi have access to clean water and basic sanitation. This won’t be accomplished by Freshwater alone, but we certainly intend to raise awareness and contribute as much as we can to that goal.”

Malawi is a peaceful country, but one of the poorest in the world with a GNP of just $860 annually (global average is $10,869), and its population of 15 million has great need for assistance and partnerships designed to improve health and strengthen development.

Freshwater is now striving to build more partnerships in the United States with individuals and groups, large and small–from junior high schools to large universities, rotary clubs to government agencies–no partnership or donation is too small. “Or too big,” adds Hart. “We have the capacity to build the organization and effectively channel all the support we can gather to water and sanitation programs in Malawi.”

With guidance from water engineers, nonprofit consultants, public health academics, market-based development experts, and leaders of other major international development organizations, the team is focused on building substantial relationships to further the progress in Malawi.

“The more partnerships we build, the sooner we can jointly achieve universal access to clean water and sanitation in Malawi,” says Rickels. “You’d think in this day in age, it would be a given, but this is something we’re going to have to work really hard for–so all the help we can get is appreciated.”

For more information, log on to www.FreshwaterIntl.org. volume 4 issue 4

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c ommunity | The Cleantech Fellows Institute

because it’s hard, investors, entrepreneurs, regulators and other industry players are still figuring out the most efficient manner in which to bring new technologies to market.

The facts, on the other hand, appear to reflect a far different story: • U.S. venture capital investment in cleantech companies reached $4.9 billion in 2011, according to an Ernst & Young LLP analysis based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource. This is flat in terms of deals compared to 2012 but represents a 29 percent increase from the $3.8 billion raised in 2009.

• Nationally, renewable electricity generation doubled from 2006 to 2011, and prices for wind, solar and other clean energy technologies decreased.

• Employment in cleantech industry sectors expanded by almost 12 percent from 2007 to 2010.

• Locally, the Denver, Colo., nine-county region ranked sixth out of the 50 largest metro areas in the United States in cleantech employment concentration in 2011, with around 1,500 cleantech companies operating in the ninecounty region.

• Colorado had investments of $363.3 million throughout 2011, a 28 percent increase from 2010, making it the state with the third highest level of investments.

Colorado Cleantech Industry Association The Cleantech Fellows Institute

Recognized as one of the most innovation-intensive states, Colorado derives this honor from the strength of the research, investor and entrepreneurship communities built around the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). Another data point, in the past five years, more than 450 provisional, nonprovisional and international clean technology patents have been filed by researchers at these schools.

Others have pointed out that Colorado has enormous local resources, and with NREL in our midst we have an incredibly strong link to the national cleantech ecosystem. NREL is the leader in research in solar, wind, biomass and other clean technologies. Indeed, known in the research and development community as “the Oscars of Innovation,” NREL has won 50 R&D 100 Awards in the last 30 years.

By Eric Drummond

The Cleantech situation

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any of us in the industry have seen the headlines in the print media and have watched the “experts” on the cable news shows discussing the early demise of cleantech– newspaper articles and TV documentaries recently claiming that cleantech is dead, that the cleantech bubble has burst. But if we look beyond the provocative headlines, we’ll see that the industry is not dead or dying; it’s growing, and in some sectors maturing, but doing so without effective and rational policy support and during a time of financial difficulty. And

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The institute offers more than 130 speakers and 30 site visits to support its nearly 150 curriculum hours.

In addition to NREL, Colorado is also home to a number of other federal labs, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). This feature set of national labs and research centers, as well as universities, and investor and innovator communities, all reflect on the rich diversity of the Colorado cleantech ecosystem.

A Cleantech solution

W

hat many of us have come to understand is that most venture capital firms are quick to acknowledge that they invest in teams and people, not just products and technologies. With that in mind, an enterprising and energetic group of people banded together to create a platform, the Cleantech Fellows Institute, to accelerate the development of cleantech in the region and across the nation.

Modeled after a successful program created by the New England Clean Energy Council, the Cleantech Fellows Institute is partially funded by support from the Advanced Energy Economy Institute (AEEI), NREL and the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA). AEE’s mission is to influence public policy and to provide a unified industry voice in support of a strong U.S. advanced energy industry, as the economic engine of the global transition to a smarter energy future.

The Cleantech Fellows Institute is an exclusive program designed to facilitate the creation of start-up clean technology companies. The institute educates a highly select set of proven executives from across the country and from a wide variety of industry sectors that are interested in making the transition to cleantech.

The national profile of the Cleantech Fellows Institute allows the organizers to leverage partnerships across the state of Colorado and the United States, to gain access to industry leaders and visionaries that are willing to share their expertise and insight into growing a cleantech business. This model of leveraging the expertise of subject matter experts from across the nation has proven to be very effective.

The institute’s tuition-based, 17-week intensive program provides an in-depth understanding of

the industry’s issues, technologies, research, support ecosystem and regulations. The institute offers more than 130 speakers and 30 site visits to support its nearly 150 curriculum hours. In addition to extensive investor and industry access, the Cleantech Fellows Institute will culminate in capstone projects designed to lead to a venture-backed start-up.

The 2012 Cleantech Fellows Institute curriculum includes, but is not limited to, the following sectors: • Clean Energy Generation–solar, wind, hydro, biochemicals, natural gas, biofuels • Storage Technologies–grid storage, ultracapacitors, fuel cells, batteries • Advanced Transportation Technologies–electric and hybrid technologies, advanced engines, materials, biofuels • Energy Efficiency and Building Technologies– lighting and HVAC, building automation, energy management systems, demand response, green buildings • Foundational Elements–tech transfer, commercialization, national infrastructure, cleantech financing, regulatory, public policy The sessions listed below are a sampling of the Clean Energy Generation curriculum: • Session 1–Clean Energy Technology 101 • Session 2–Creating a Path to Subsidy Independence • Session 3–Renewables Integration • Session 4–Balance of System and Component Plays • Session 5–Advanced Materials for Clean Energy Generation • Session 6–Clean Energy Generation Forecasting • Session 7–The Financial Bottom Line • Session 8–Project Development When CCIA was formed four years ago, formed four years ago, it was with the knowledge that Colorado had enormous clean technology development potential and an opportunity to harness those technologies to create jobs, tax base and state revenues. It was understood that a statewide organization supporting cleantech could be instrumental in the continued growth

of this important industry sector. None of this has changed in the intervening years.

What has changed, however, is that when CCIA led the development of the State’s “Cleantech Action Plan” in 2010, the action plan found the industry needed additional seasoned executive talent who understood the complexities–and opportunities–related to funding and growing a start-up enterprise. This realization was the impetus behind the creation of the Cleantech Fellows Institute. And because the nature of building the cleantech industry is national in scope, AEE and NREL, both with national presence, are the founding partners.

The Cleantech Fellows Institute will accelerate what we have come to understand is a fairly pervasive phenomenon, the desire of experienced innovators from other industries to move into and support cleantech. Many executives who have successfully built and exited technology companies have indicated that they want to do the same thing for cleantech. Rather than leaving their understanding of the industry to chance, and having to rely on anecdotal information without access to the network that makes these sorts of endeavors successful, the Cleantech Fellows Institute will surround these executives with resources, support and knowledge related to clean technological development, “go-to-market” strategies, an investment mindset and an ability to understand and possibly exploit regulatory hurdles. With the necessary tools and network in hand, these executives will be more prepared and more successful in their efforts to build funded cleantech companies.

Eric H. Drummond is a partner at the international law firm of Patton Boggs and has more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry. Mr. Drummond represents both public entities and private businesses, including having represented the Department of Energy both in the development of the largest, cutting-edge, high concentrating solar photovoltaic generation facility in the world (a $90.6 million financing pursuant to the U.S. Department of Treasury's Section 1705 Conditional Loan Guarantee Program) and the first of its kind two-stage catalytic conversion of municipal solid waste to fuel ethanol production plant. Along with legal, regulatory and public policy assistance, he works with larger global financial institutions and other financial entities, as well as with entrepreneurs and innovators. Drummond is the Founding Clean Energy Generation Department Head for the Cleantech Fellows Institute.

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c ommunity | Colorado Refugee Services Program

» Tesfay, a refugee from Eritrea operates a commercial trucking business

New Americans and Financial Integration B y S i s ay T e k l u , w i t h C a n d a c e R u i z

H

ow valuable is information to you? Americans are notorious as knowledge seekers … ones that can’t just wait for the information to arrive, but ones that want the agenda ahead of time, details of an event before it happens or to discover before the doctor’s diagnoses what ails them. But what if you were placed into a country where you don’t speak the language, where you are not familiar with the food or housing; all because you may have to live in misery if you don’t leave your homeland. If you were given the information and knowledge to promote economic self-sufficiency, would that be helpful?

Today, the Denver metro area is home to thousands of refugees and political asylees from Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. When they arrived, most did not even know where Colorado was located. Since the 1980s, Colorado has resettled more than 45,000 refugees. Consistent with national resettlement trends, the 1980s were dominated by arrivals from East Asia, the 1990s by arrivals from Europe and the former Soviet Union, and the early 2000s by arrivals from Africa. Recently, refugees from Asia (Burma, Bhutan, Nepal and Afghanistan), Africa (Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Eritrea), and the Middle East (Iraq) are the largest populations being settled.

Within Colorado, the counties most impacted by refugee resettlement and their approximate overall percentages of the resettled population are Denver (45%), Aurora (35%) and Adams (10%).

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However, since the end of 2007, Colorado has experienced unanticipated arrival of secondary migrants–refugees initially resettled in another state but who chose to move to Colorado–to its northern and rural counties of Weld and Morgan because of the employment opportunities offered by the meatpacking jobs in the respective cities of Greeley and Ft. Morgan.

The Colorado Refugee Services Program (CRSP) coordinates resettlement and services in the state. Colorado has designated refugee resettlement agencies and other service providers engaged in the provision of English language classes, job training, employment placement, legal services and health care.

In a regular economy, refugees in Colorado gain employment in hospitality, meatpacking, light manufacturing, warehousing, housekeeping and various jobs associated with the Denver International Airport (cleaning, car rental, parking, etc.). Have you passed them by, never giving much thought to what their life has been like? These jobs rarely provide an opportunity for a refugee to support his/her family, and therefore make it more likely that the refugee family will remain on the outskirts of mainstream society and continuously dependent on public assistance. Through these unsustainable employment opportunities, refugees do not make enough money to achieve self-sufficiency and are further isolated from the possibility of social and financial integration.

The state coordinator of CRSP, Paul Stein, identified this missing link in 2009 and partnered with Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning to incubate a culturally and linguistically appropriate financial services entity that promotes economic self-sufficiency. Sisay Teklu, an expert in the field of micro-finance and asset development and the executive director of Community Enterprise Development Services (CEDS) described the initial period as follows: “I was assigned and responsible to design strategies, develop the operations system, and initiate three interrelated financial services namely: micro-enterprise development, individual development account and financial education. An initial grant from CRSP helped to lease office space; hire additional staff; and provide micro-loans, matching fund and financial empowerment classes. In addition a grant from the Mile High United Way and Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) both boosted the provision of services to a significant number of newcomers to the USA.” The three financial service programs were transformed in 2011, and (CEDS) was incorporated as a nonprofit entity located at 1600 Downing Street, Denver, Colorado.

Traditional forms of capital are rarely available to those individuals as they don’t typically satisfy the standard financial institution’s criteria for a business loan. Mainstream financial institutions lend on the basis of a credit score and before collateral–usually real estate ownership, established business track record, 20-30 percent equity contribution, loan amounts more than

$100,000, personal and professional skills and the general capability to own and run a business. All are beyond the reach of a typical micro-enterprise owner. The target market’s options for accessing needed resources within the community are limited to deferred deposit lenders, check cashing outlets, informal lending and predatory lenders.

However, many refugees/immigrants came to the United States with entrepreneurial and business experience and qualification in their country of origin. With appropriate intervention, they are ready to start and operate a business and become contributing members of society. This information gave Abdela, an asylee from Ethiopia, a hand up. In addition to his individual development savings account (IDA); Abdela borrowed a total of $22,000 in three different installments from the CEDS micro-loan program. He has proved to be a successful business owner and is actively repaying his loan. At present, he is self-employed and has created employment opportunities for his wife and two other Denver residents.

Employment of the low-income population is often entry-level and low-wage, a position and earning amount far from meeting basic needs. A 2007 Colorado Center on Law and Policy (CCLP)

» Abdela owns APO Pets – Cuddly Animals Display Kiosk

“A grant from the Mile High United Way and Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) both boosted the provision of services to a significant number of newcomers to the USA.” - Sisay Teklu

report showed one in five Colorado households cannot afford to make ends meet. Due to the existing economic recession, this is, definitely exacerbated. To meet basic needs, a family with one adult, one preschooler and one school-age child living in Denver still requires nearly three times Colorado’s 2008 minimum wage of $7.02 per hour (The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Colorado 2008: A Family Needs Budget). Without any appropriate intervention such as the IDA, this lifestyle will only consist of poverty and constant dependence on public support without a better future.

Tesfay, a refugee from Eritrea and a high school teacher in his home country, began his employment in the United States as a cashier at K & G Stores. He used his first job to establish himself in his new home but dreamed of securing employment that provided more independence and opportunity. In October 2011, Tesfay met with Teklu, and discussed his ambition to own and operate a commercial trucking business. Teklu advised Tesfay to attend a series of financial education and business training classes, identify the necessary steps for attaining a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in Colorado, and to meet with a CEDS loan manager and learn how to get access to an appropriate business resource. He was also advised to mobilize additional funds to cover the initial investment and identify an experienced truck operator to serve as a mentor and adviser.

Tesfay actively participated in all the training sessions and saved properly into his IDA. He proved his entrepreneurial skills and was able to perform all necessary steps on his way to becoming a commercial truck owner. He used his IDA savings and matching funds to cover the costs of the CDL college and to acquire business license expenses. He bought a truck by combining his own savings and gifts from his community members and securing a business loan from CEDS. When asked about what contributed to his success, Tesfay said, “Not only the training and savings but, the IDA and loan manager’s intensive and continuous guidance and follow-up were uplifting my dream to own a business. Thank you, for helping me to help myself.”

From 2010 up to 2012 the IDA program assisted close to 150 new Americans to open their business, buy their first home and attend various classes or recertification programs. The micro-loan program provided a total of 14 business loans to taxi cab, shuttle and truck drivers; ethnic grocery store and restaurant owners; and other retail businesses. The program disbursed $120,000 in loan funds and helped to realize newcomers American dream, boosted business and other asset ownership in the Denver metro area and has maintained a 100 percent loan repayment track record. A total of $1 million in grant monies were secured in October 2012 to be disbursed over the coming four years to expand the provision of the loan program. Accordingly, 20 business loans will be provided each year to promote business and entrepreneurship even further.

The above two programs are supported by formal group-based financial education classes, one-to-one business loan or other asset development coaching, and pre- and post-loan technical assistant to business loan borrowers. Access to financial education is particularly important to new Americans who came from a totally different banking, saving, business and household income management and tax systems. Over the past three years the financial education program was instrumental to more than 300 clients to help them make informed financial decisions.

CEDS is one effective intervention to attain self-sufficiency and plays an exemplary role to reduce poverty and stabilize living conditions of newcomers to Colorado beyond just survival mode. However, the designing and implantation of the financial services requires due consideration to the cultural and linguistic realities of the niche market. The financial services are a truly effective means of adding new Americans as productive members and taxpayers of their society.

This in turn is a cost-effective means of social and economic integration to build a peaceful and harmonious neighborhood and society.

Authors: Sisay Teklu, MA in economics is the founder and executive director of CEDS, project and program designer and operator, effective leader and organizer, trainer and educator of small business, microfinance and entrepreneurship. He has managed large ongoing businesses and investment projects and counseled more than 100 micro-/small business owners in the areas of business start-ups, marketing, business plan development, financial management and financing. He has demonstrated his ability to add value to stakeholders and is a motivator. To learn more about CEDS, visit www.cedsfinance.org.

Candace Ruiz, MBA, is the co-founder and managing director, speaker, trainer and corporate social responsibility specialist at Business Service Corps, LLC (BSC). As a social enterprise, BSC assists companies with high-impact community engagement programs. The company has developed a unique experiential leadership training program focused on corporate, global and community citizenship. Candace is also a part-time professor of business in the Colorado Community College System. To learn more about Business Service Corps, visit www.

BusinessServiceCorps.com volume 4 issue 4

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c ommunity | Art as an Economic Driver

Bolstering the Economy Through Art and Culture

By Maria E. Luna

D

enver has a mission, according to the City and County of Denver, Mayor’s Proposed 2013 Budget, “to enhance Denver’s quality of life and economic vitality through premier public venues, artworks, cultural programming and entertainment opportunities.” The estimated budget for 2013 allotted to the convention and visitor’s bureau is $14,669,400. VISIT DENVER is the city’s contracted convention and visitor’s bureau.

VISIT DENVER also is the official and contracted marketing agency for the City and County of Denver. The bureau is a private nonprofit that markets metro Denver as a convention and leisure destination. It is funded publicly and privately.

Public sources include a voter-approved lodging tax. Specifically, the 2013 proposed budget states, “The 2013 lodgers’ tax forecast is projected to total $15,658,700, representing an increase of $456,100 or 3.0 percent over the 2012 revised estimate. This forecast incorporates Visit Denver’s 2013 projected lodgers’ tax growth rate.”

The success of VISIT DENVER is striking. “In the last seven years tourism in Denver has grown 40 percent, while the national average is 7 percent,” states Richard Scharf, president and CEO of VISIT DENVER. » Continued on page 74 - Richard Scharf

“In the last seven years tourism in Denver has grown 40 percent, while the national average is 7 percent.”

BECOMING VAN GOGH

CARY KENNEDY DEPUTY MAYOR, CITY OF DENVER The Denver Art Museum is a “key cultural asset for Denver.” Becoming Van Gogh brings continued visability, to the thriving art and cultural reputation of Denver. The exhibit is good for the museum and the arts, and even more importantly, being smart business for Denver. Kennedy quoted Magdalena Abakanowicz saying, “art does not solve proglems but makes us aware of their existance.” Additionally, art education and critical thinking, while participation in art improves motivation and teamwork.

1880 - 1885 The Becoming Van Gogh exhibit showcases Van Gogh as he emerges into an artist, starting in 1880. From the start Van Gogh made “intelligant artistic decisions.” He was a self-taught artist, and produced about 800 paintings and 100 drawings. His self-taught drawing process developed through copying some images, three times over.

Vincent van Gogh, Road in Etten. 1881. Chalk, pencil, pastel, watercolor. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.

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» Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfield with Sheaves (Le Champ de Blé), 1888. Oil on canvas. Honolulu Museum of Art, gift of Mrs. Richard A. Cooke and Family in memory of Richard A. Cooke.

1885 - 1887 Van Gogh discovers color, along with, and specifically in Paris, the thick emposto painting technique. In fact Van Gogh was in a painting class with Toulouse-Lautrec. The techniques he was exposed to in those classes were later abandoned, Van Gogh reverted back to his self-taught ways.

Vincent van Gogh, La Guinguette in Montmartre, 1886. Oil on canvas. Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France. Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY, Photo: Gérard Blot. volume 4 issue 4

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VISIT DENVER is a leader and collaborator in Colorado’s tourism success. Collaborators include: the city, transportation, hotels, recreation, voters and visitors. Tourism in Colorado also provides 136,900 jobs. Job growth is a serious issue for 2013. The tourism industry can help alleviate the issue.

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) and VISIT DENVER are collaborating to draw in tourism this winter. The much-anticipated Becoming Van Gogh exhibit will feature 70 paintings and drawings by Vincent Van Gogh as well as artists who inspired him. This exhibition is solely in Denver until Jan. 20, 2013. To paint Van Gogh’s formative story, Timothy J. Standring, Gates Foundation Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the DAM, and Louis van Tilborgh, Senior Researcher of Paintings at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, borrowed from » Continued on next page

DAM and VISIT DENVER’s collaborative effort serves and brings to Denver a world-class exhibit and economic growth.

BECOMING VAN GOGH

RICHARD SCHARF PRESIDENT & CEO, VISIT DENVER People in the 600 mile radius of Denver visit, as Denver offers things unavailable in their area. Vacations centered around arts and culture events,such as Becoming Van Gogh can be found at vangoghdenver.com, which works in partnership with the museum and milehighholidays.com.

TIMOTHY STRANDRING GATES FOUNDATION CURATOR OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE, DENVER ART MUSEUM, CURATOR OF BECOMING VAN GOGH Seven years ago Strandring decided he wanted to curate a year in the life of Van Gogh. In those seven years Strandring transformed the initial idea into the Becoming Van Gogh narrative.

Strandring packaged and cataloged the exhibit.

It’s the most ambitious show to date, he has curated. His first step was making the call to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, for not only their blessing, but for their ability to lend works, collaborate and share expertise. Obtaining loan agreements with 60 public and private lending institutions is not for the lighthearted curator, but takes a collaboration expert.

LOUIS van TILBORGH SENIOR RESEARCHER PAINTINGS, VAN GOGH MUSEUM, CURATOR OF BECOMING VAN GOGH Louis van Tilborgh joined Strandring in curating Becoming Van Gogh.The collaboration between the Van Gogh Museum and the Denver Art Museum made the exhibit what it is, and that is a key cultural exhibit in the region. » Vincent van Gogh, The Blute-fin Mill, 1886. Oil on canvas. Museum de Fundatie, The Netherlands

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1889 - 1890 Van Gogh creates his masterpieces. His artwork from this time becomes one of the greatest influences for American abstract impressionists.

Vincent van Gogh, Landscape under a stormy sky, 1889. Oil on canvas. Fondation Socindec, Courtesy Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny (Suisse).

more than 60 public and private collections. Now that’s collaboration! The highly priced fine art on loan, securing loans, ensuring the trust to properly handle Van Gogh’s work, and putting in place an exhibit of this caliber all adds up to a great accomplishment.

The website www.vangoghdenver.com is provided by the collaborative effort of DAM and VISIT DENVER, which connects people to exhibit information, ticketing, booking, hotel packages, promotional offers, images, group tours and resources. The VIP exhibit tickets and theme-inspired accommodations include offers at the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa; Comfort Inn Downtown Hotel; Grand Hyatt Denver; Hilton Garden Inn Denver; Hotel Monaco, a Kimpton Hotel in Denver; Hyatt Regency Denver; Sheraton Downtown Denver; the Curtis: a Doubletree Hotel; the Ritz-Carlton, Denver; and the Westin Denver Downtown.

DAM and VISIT DENVER’s collaborative effort serves and brings to Denver a worldclass exhibit and economic growth. As Governor John Hickenlooper said, “The story of tourism in Denver is also the history of our city and people.” Enjoy Denver this season; it benefits us all. volume 4 issue 4

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c ommunity | Energy Access & Security in Africa

Bringing Greater Energy Security to Africa The Role of Renewables B y K a t h l e e n H a n c o ck

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nergy security was one of several issues debated during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with both candidates advocating for increased domestic supplies of fossil fuels as a means of bringing greater energy security. Although renewable energy was given much less play, a number of scholars, political leaders, businesses and international and domestic organizations have concluded that renewables can play a critical role in improving a country’s energy security as well as reducing or constraining greenhouse gas emissions.

This is particularly important for poorer countries that do not have the fossil fuel endowments, or the wealth, to make increasing fossil fuel production and/or imports a realistic strategy.

This article focuses on what renewable energy can do–and is already doing–for the people of sub-Saharan Africa and the role that wealthier countries, companies and individuals can play in bringing greater energy security to the region. Although I focus here on Africa, many of the findings and arguments apply to other world regions.

Before discussing renewables, we need to define what we mean by energy security. Although the concept has been around since countries started trading with each other, and became fundamental to national security discussions with the rising demand of oil for industrialization as well as war-making, most current discussions move beyond traditional definitions of security to include four key concepts: availability, reliability, affordability and sustainability.

In developing countries, energy security is often focused on electricity for the general population. One in five people in the world (1.3 billion) lack access to electricity in their homes and businesses and live in “energy poverty.” Nearly 40 percent rely on coal, charcoal, wood or animal waste to cook their food–all sources of toxic smoke that causes lung disease, killing nearly two million people annually, most of them women and children. Modern energy sources and infrastructure would allow people in remote areas to participate in more advanced economic activity and to receive health, education and other services, as well as clean water and safer food. With electricity, farmers can store their products, allowing them to move from subsistence living to saving enough to make a profit and reinvest in agriculture, in turn increasing food supplies for the local population. These first small steps in development can become significant moves away from poverty.

Electricity access varies significantly between and within regions and between rural and urban areas within countries. As a region, sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest percentages of access to electricity, ranging from 24 to 32 percent; rural electricity access averages a dismal 8

In the last two decades, in low- and middle-income countries, investment in energy accounted for 30 percent of foreign direct investment in infrastructure.

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percent. This compares to Latin America, for example, with 91 percent access. Despite growth of 70 percent in electricity generation in the period 1998-2008, 85 percent of the region’s population still relies on traditional biomass, mostly wood, for its heating and cooking needs.

In the last two decades, in low- and middle-income countries, investment in energy accounted for 30 percent of foreign direct investment in infrastructure (which also includes telecommunications, transportation, and water and sewage).

In sub-Saharan Africa, only 10 percent of its infrastructure investments went toward energy. This compares to 44 percent in South Asia, 39 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, 35 percent in Latin America, and 22 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. Furthermore, sub-Saharan Africa received less than 4 percent of global private investment in total infrastructure. In its 2012 Global Power & Utilities Survey, Pricewaterhouse Coopers notes that Africa is expected to bear the greatest impact of the 2008 global financial crisis in terms of declining private

investment. Clearly, sub-Saharan Africa faces significant energy security challenges.

Renewable energy (RE) is one of the keys to solving these challenges in Africa. By definition, RE includes energy generated from sources that are naturally replenished in the short term, notably the wind, sun, water and biomass, including both centralized and decentralized (also called distributed or off-grid) options. Worldwide, renewables comprise 19 percent of power generation. Hydro is the dominant form, accounting for 84 percent of renewable energy power generation.

Depending on a country’s endowments, RE can affect all four of the components of energy security.

sources may help fill gaps in availability, thus increasing the reliability of energy.

• Affordability: Once considered too expensive even for wealthier countries, renewable energy is increasingly affordable around the world. For example, a number of studies have shown that solar energy is much cheaper than diesel, which is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the price of wind turbines has fallen significantly in the last few years.

• Sustainability: By definition, renewable energy sources are more sustainable than fossil fuels.

• Availability: In some countries, renewable energy sources–wind, sun, water and biomass–are far more plentiful than fossil fuels.

• Reliability: Abundant renewable sources may be more reliable than imports from neighboring states. Even in those states with their own significant fossil fuels, renewable

Decentralized energy (DE) and RE are often linked together. DE is a strategy used by many developing countries to get energy to the people, especially in rural areas, without having to invest in expensive grids and power plants. In addition to being less expensive to build, DE increases efficiency by reducing lost heat. According to the

World Alliance for De-centralized Energy, DE is “electricity production at or near the point of use, irrespective of size, technology or fuel used– both off-grid and on-grid.” Not all decentralized energy options use renewable energy, and not all renewables use decentralized systems. However, in many cases, the two are allied. Consider solar photovoltaic panels, roof-top or local wind turbines, small-scale hydropower, geothermal energy, solar-powered fuel cells, biomass-fired engines and micro-turbines. In addition, DE generation using renewables is less vulnerable to massive power outages and the ensuing use of expensive and unhealthy diesel, which can cost up to 5 percent of a country’s GDP, a problem affecting more than 60 percent of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

If you look only at overall statistics, you might be fooled into thinking sub-Saharan Africa is awash in RE. However, much of the RE is from traditional sources–wood and sometimes animal dung. The challenge is thus to move to modern volume 4 issue 4

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sources, such as solar and wind, and more advanced and/or sustainable forms of biomass, such as industrial waste, plentiful cassava and invasive thorn trees. Sugar-producing countries can use bagasse, the pulp byproduct from sugar cane, for power and heat. Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest bioenergy potential as a result of large areas of suitable cropland, unused pastureland and low productivity of land under agriculture.

Numerous modern RE projects are underway in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe all have grid-connected bagasse plants. Although progress has been slow, biomass power plants are now planned or under construction in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Sudan. Kenya plans to meet 50 percent of its electricity needs with geothermal energy by 2018.

The African Development Bank recently committed $145 million to one of Kenya’s projects, and the World Bank along with French and Japanese development agencies have given $500 million in loans and grants. Djibouti, Eritrea, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are also developing geothermal options. South Africa’s Department of Energy recently concluded the second round of bids for 19 RE independent power projects for 1,044 megawatts of power using a variety of technologies, including photovoltaic, wind, small hydro and concentrated solar power.

The World Bank’s International Financial Corporation and Norwegian developer Scatec Solar have plans to build utility-scale solar parks in west and central Africa. In South Africa, Scatec Solar is building a plant the size of 140 football fields that will be among the largest in Africa. Ghana, which has an admirably high percentage of access to electricity–72 percent of the population–passed

for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE). ECREEE has worked with its partners from the Global Bioenergy Partnership, which includes public and private entities in a number of countries from around the world, including the United States, and several UN-affiliated organizations, such as the UN Development Programme. In November 2012, ECREEE, IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), and ARE (Alliance for Rural Electrification) held the first International Off-Grid Renewable Energy Conference in Ghana.

and inefficiencies and instabilities in the system.

Third, large-scale biomass industry can create a number of economic, social and environmental problems. Using land to grow crops for fuel rather than food can alter domestic food prices and may displace small shareholders. Industry may negatively affect areas with significant biodiversity, undermining other environmental and sustainability goals. As shown from Brazil’s ethanol program, modern bioenergy can create significant waste products, which must be dealt with.

Fourth, citizens may question how many jobs

Feed-in tariffs–which set prices for renewable energy provided to the grid–are the most widely used policy instruments for promoting renewable energy.

Renewable energy projects are not risk-free.

They present a number of political and economic challenges that cannot be ignored. First, government-driven initiatives require significant research, policy-making and managerial capabilities, which many of the poorer states may not have. Even China, with its strong central government, has made significant errors in wind and solar power, resulting in more than 30 percent of the wind generation capacity lying idle while solar photovoltaic panels were overproduced.

Second, some of the renewable options are more expensive to develop and will require their own infrastructure. Government incentives are thus required to force producers to invest in renewables and to get consumers to use the renewable energy sources. Feed-in tariffs–which set prices for renewable energy provided to the grid– are the most widely used policy instruments for promoting renewable energy. Other policies include quota-based incentives, financial/tax-based incentives, and direct investment from the government. Although these can be effective, if not applied properly, they can result in cost overruns

RE will create. For example, in South Africa, the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions expressed concern that not enough of the jobs would go to South Africans. REN21–Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century–notes in its 2012 annual report that case studies have shown “significant potential for off-grid projects to create jobs and enhance local economic productivity, particularly in the sales, installations, and operations and maintenance stages of the value chain.” If this finding continues to be supported by research, RE advocates will need to educate the population about this benefit.

The problems are there but research, sound policy and education can ameliorate or overcome many of them. Renewable energy provides an excellent opportunity for companies, scholars in engineering and the social sciences (especially economics, political science and sociology), and national groups and individuals to work together to help solve energy security challenges in Africa, bringing electricity to hundreds of millions who currently live without the energy necessary to give them a better and longer life.

a renewable energy law in 2011. It plans to install 15,000 solar systems in rural areas by the end of 2013 to help it reach its goal of universal energy access by 2020.

Some of the regional economic groups have helped support renewable energy projects.

Most importantly, the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), one of the world’s most important regional trade groups, has its own ECOWAS Center

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c ommunity | Operation Respect

Creating and Sustaining a Don Quixote Effort Building “Don’t Laugh At Me” B y P e t e r Ya r r o w

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he story of the creating and sustaining of Operation Respect, an educational nonprofit known for its successful anti-bullying training in schools, began 14 years ago when I first heard the song, “Don’t Laugh at Me.” How we have evolved from that moment up till now to become a viable, thriving, nonprofit is a remarkable tale of determination and conviction that built its success despite many daunting challenges.

When I first heard “Don’t Laugh at Me,” I recognized right away that it was an anthem as powerful and meaningful in its own way as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “If I Had A Hammer,” two of Peter, Paul & Mary’s most important and moving songs. In this case, however, the focus of the song was not civil rights, but related to the need for children to grow up in a safe and caring environment, free of bullying, ridicule and disrespect. This need, I believe, is fundamental and centrally important to our society, our country and to the world.

In a welcoming environment, children and youth grow to be good citizens and whole human beings, who become both humane in their perspective on the world and successful in their professional endeavors. Conversely, if children do not grow up in an environment where they feel safe, they are liable to be prevented from growing up whole, balanced and healthy, and it can be hard to rescue them from the trauma of their tender years. Today, many children are afraid to go to school because of bullying and ridicule. It becomes difficult, if not impossible, for them to focus on their academic work, and the scars of peer cruelty can last their entire lives. All of us– adults and children–cannot think in a balanced or rationale way when we are living in fear. We cannot learn. We cannot grow. We need all our energy and wits simply to survive.

My belief is that it is a child’s right–not unlike his or her right to have food to eat–to grow up in a nurturing climate. The absence of a caring environment for children has precipitated the kinds of

Today, many children are afraid to go to school because of bullying and ridicule. It becomes difficult, if not impossible, for them to focus on their academic work, and the scars of peer cruelty can last their entire lives.

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violence that we now see reaching such a proportion that it can be labeled as an epidemic.

Every day we read of deaths where children and youth have attacked one another, and more frequently than was once imaginable, there are tragic, fatal outcomes. We read of children committing suicide because of the brutality they face from their peers–the teasing, bullying and humiliation that they experience occurs, for some, on a daily basis, and life becomes too painful to bear. Every day, we realize how dreadfully unprepared teachers are, as well as parents, to respond effectively and intelligently to this challenge, unthinkable in generations past.

When we began Operation Respect, we build a nonprofit organization focused on addressing this relatively new and painful challenge to our youth.

At the time, all I had was a song in my heart and a strong belief that given my history of grassroots organizing, I might find a way to create environments for children that were supportive, loving, kind and not destructive to their growth.

Initially the “Don’t Laugh At Me” song was brought to my attention by my daughter Bethany–also a singer. She heard it played around the campfires at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas, where we were performing together.

“Dad,” she said, “You have got to bring this to Peter, Paul & Mary. It is perfect for the trio. Everyone is in tears when they hear it.”

That night I went to the Threadgill Theatre with her to hear Steve Seskin sing the song, and, as predicted, I sat there with tears running down my cheeks, holding my daughter’s hand, knowing that something in my life had changed. I intuited that I had found what was to become the last “big” effort in my life to initiate and nurture what is, to me, more than a project–it’s a movement. It was very clear to me that if there was injustice in the world, it all stemmed from the inability of people to respect one another, and to act on that respect by walking in each other’s shoes and trying to resolve conflict peacefully rather than through power, domination and violence. Respect, I feel, determines whether or not we, as adults, create fair and just ways of living together and ultimately, whether nations resolve conflict through peaceful means, rather than going to war.

Additionally, on a personal level, I realized that children, at a very early age, need to learn skills that allow them to recognize their own value as individuals, not measure their value in terms of the money they have, or the things they own. They must learn to respect themselves and others in terms of their own qualities such as caring and being responsible, being committed to helping others and being friendly–all characteristics that children should strive to attain in our time. Alas, that is not the case, not just in our nation, but worldwide. The values of societies, everywhere, have shifted to emphasizing the acquisition of material things, power, and fame; fame simply for

In fact, I had already met with Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR), a highly regarded educational organization that had created a powerful program that creates respect, understanding and acceptance in classrooms and schools.

The educational perspective of ESR, now called “Whole Child Education,” means that educators are to view their educational charge, their task, as the nurturing and development of children, not just in terms of their academic growth and achievement, but in terms of the evolution of their social and emotional intelligence, and their creativity as well. For children to become “whole human beings,” educators (and parents) need to value and nurture their growth on all these levels. We now know that you cannot expect a child to grow in a healthy way unless intellectual, social and emotional growth are valued as equally important. Essentially, parents, teachers, everyone has to value humanity as much as skills in scientific advancement and technological advancement, and certainly as much as our wealth as a nation. We have to nurture the growth of children’s hearts, as well as the growth of our nation’s capacity to create a robust, competitive economy. If we function in such a way that » Peter Yarrow is the founder of Operation Respect

being famous, as with Paris Hilton who is famous not for making a contribution to society or creating something remarkable, but simply for being “famous.” This skewing of our value system has negatively affected the development of the next generation in severe and frightening ways.

The song “Don’t Laugh at Me” goes to the heart of my vision for society. This song serves to motivate me and those with whom I am working as we strive to create environments for children and youth that are nurturing and healthy. Our efforts, we believe, can also help heal a society that has, in many ways, lost its capacity to feel and express empathy, rather than being inclusive, caring and generous.

I share this because it is important to convey that in order for an effort of this sort to survive the many difficulties that are involved in creating a nonprofit that works and accomplishes such an ambitious purpose, there has to be a deep sense of urgency among those working toward their goal. Whether I am exaggerating the importance of this premise or not, I genuinely feel that for us to interrupt the cycle of mean-spiritedness, greed and cruelty that we see around us, we need to educate our children in their schools and in their homes whenever possible so that they break this cycle–so that they do not repeat our mistakes and failures. “We can do better” is a phrase that we often hear, but in this case, doing better means the survival of the things that I believe most of us hold most dear.

Building the Organization

C

onsidering all of that, the survival process of Operation Respect has been challenging, yet satisfying. It is a fascinating story and one that describes the rigors of creation, growth and the sustaining of a dream–a vision for a better tomorrow.

We started with a song, and soon after, Peter, Paul & Mary sang it, just as Bethany predicted. By coincidence, shortly after we had put “Don’t Laugh At Me” into our repertoire, the trio was invited to perform at a convention for the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP).

Six thousand school principals were in attendance, and when we sang this song, they rose to their feet and would not stop applauding for what seemed like forever. After the concert, literally dozens of elementary school principals came over to me and said, “We must have that our song in our schools.” I was ready with my reply. “We’re doing that, and more. Soon the song and a curriculum to go with it will be in your schools.”

If there was injustice in the world, it all stemmed from the inability of people to respect one another. we do not attend to the humanity of the next generation and we sacrifice qualities like caring and kindness to achieve great productivity and enviable commerce, we will, I believe, pursue a dangerous and destructive path. We won’t have a compassionate next generation, and ultimately we won’t have the commerce and economic success we seek, either.

Building the Curriculum

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fter the acclaim by the NAESP, I felt even more energized about pursuing my objectives. I worked hard with Educators for Social Responsibility, particularly with Linda Lantieri and Laura Parker Roerden, to adapt and shape ESR’s Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) to suit our needs. We found ways to integrate music into their curriculum–folk music that brings children together in friendship and trust. We called our new program DLAM, after the song “Don’t volume 4 issue 4

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Laugh At Me.” Performing in my children’s classes, I had seen how singing together can inform children, not only about the history of their country and the world, but how it created an intense bond that allowed acceptance of each other and sparked an opening of the heart. As I have said many times, “After you have sung with others, you are far less likely to say, ‘I do not like you. I don’t want to be your friend. You are the wrong color. You are the wrong religion.’ You have sung together, played together–you are already friends.”

We ended up with a curriculum that was unique. There were no other curricula for children that centrally included this kind of integration of social and emotional learning exercises with music. It took a year to complete the curriculum, print it, and then start finding out what experts in education thought of it. Fortunately, we found out that the response to it among educators was very strong, but then we encountered a daunting obstacle–we did not have the money to print the curricula and produce a video of “Don’t Laugh At Me” and a CD with our basic DLAM songs. That is often one of the big challenges that nonprofits encounter, and such chicken or egg dilemmas can sink an effort like ours.

At this point, we had organized a board of directors, and they felt that unless we charged teachers and schools for the DLAM program, we would not be able to finance our organization’s efforts. I, however, disagreed. I felt that if we charged for the curricula and the CD, we wouldn’t really be serving the people with a spirit that I felt was essential. I wanted to disassociate the use of the curriculum from the whole equation of money, and I also realized that schools were so in need of funds that charging for DLAM might make it impossible to bring our efforts forward fast enough to really create an impact–and a growing enthusiasm at the grassroots level of educators. Therefore, I insisted that we give the curriculum and CD away, free, even knowing that this decision could stop us in our tracks at this very early period of our development.

It’s All About the People

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e were very fortunate to find friends, among them Gloria and Loren Smith, who were generous enough to fund the production of our first DLAM kits. John Lee, a gifted developer in the world of children’s toys and learning tools, also dedicated himself to raising the initial monies that we needed to create enough kits containing the curricula and the CD to start our dissemination, which it turned out would be to summer camps, through the American Camping Association. They gave generously and pulled in a lot of favors to get those first 3,000 kits with curricula, a VHS video and a CD produced at no cost to us. God bless them all.

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Simultaneously, Dr. Charlotte K. Frank, who had previously been the director of curriculum and instruction at the New York City Board of Education, and was now the senior vice president of research and development at McGraw-Hill Education, made an important connection for us at the McGraw-Hill Companies. Although Frank and I had met in another context, I asked her if she would work together with me to achieve our very ambitious vision. She did so admirably, and much more, becoming my co-organizer of Operation Respect and later the chair of Operation Respect’s board of directors, which is a position she currently holds. Additionally, she was able to engage the McGraw-Hill Companies whereby they generously provided office space and telephones for us in their building at 2 Penn Plaza, but also agreed, as time went on, to donate the production of the DLAM materials, the curricula, the VHS and the CD, as well as our annual reports, on an ongoing basis. The sun had shone on us! We now had allies who helped us with the dissemination and implementation of the Don’t Laugh at Me Program, which was offered free of charge. God bless McGraw-Hill!

In the very beginning, the only staff that I had was my personal assistant, a young, aspiring filmmaker named Gigi Causey. She had been a production assistant on films, was highly organized, dedicated and was able to develop a timeline on such tasks as a design for our materials. Our renowned graphic artist and designer, Milton Glaser, offered his time gratis as another great favor to me.

I realized that children, at a very early age, need to learn skills that allow them to recognize their own value as individuals, not measure their value in terms of the money they have, or the things they own.

As we grew, we needed to have a staff and, once again, we became extremely lucky. Through a friend of mine, NYU Professor Tony Kovner, we discovered Elizabeth Kolodny, a young woman who was extremely devoted to our cause. She had already co-founded a program of her own that recruited college students to serve as mentors for youth on probation. She was working at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, and though Kovner was very reluctant to let her go, realizing the importance of our work, he said to me very earnestly, “She is an angel. You must take care of her. We love her.” Kolodny became the program director, and also the heart and soul of our efforts because everything she did was done in the spirit of what we were trying to achieve. I learned through my association with her how essential it was for the work of Operation Respect to mirror our objectives and goals in terms of what we wanted to teach the children. She did that and more. Every time she got on the phone to move us forward, she became an advocate for what we were trying to achieve, with the very people who were to become our new partners and allies.

Another person who has become a tried and true leader in our efforts was Mark Weiss, our education director, whose decades of experience as a high school principal and whose work creating new high schools that were judged to be extraordinarily successful with a school population of children who were thought to be incapable of learning, gave him, once again, the kind of heart and commitment that reflected my own, and that of Elizabeth Kolodny. Weiss, who is supremely gifted, not just in his ability to train teachers to implement the “Don’t Laugh at Me” Program, but also his ability to teach teachers the humanity of the exchanges that impart the wisdom of “Don’t Laugh at Me” to children, is as important as translating lessons into ideas and knowledge. The heart, as well as the intellect, have to be connected in the teaching of “Don’t Laugh at Me.” There were others who also worked with us on a temporary or informal, but very sincere, basis. One of those was the remarkable Chic Dambach, who was and is a renowned leader in the world of the Peace Corps, and also remains a great leader of efforts by organizations, internationally, to foster peace and peace-building. There were the trials and tribulations of making mistakes, many my own, in terms of hiring people to work with us and finding out that there was not a full match and having to come to grips with the need to move on, but in the most humane and caring of ways, again by walking the walk ourselves. Everyone in our position as a fledgling start-up meets those kinds of challenges, but in our case it was sometimes heartbreaking to come to terms with trying and failing to create a relationship that could truly work on a sustained basis.

Another issue that faced us was a continuing series of debates about what the best way was for us to achieve our objectives. The common business model said that we should create a series of concrete objectives and hang onto them no matter what. This was the form of a business plan, and it did relate to the efforts of many, perhaps most, entities in the business world. However, for us, we had to

realize that being a nonprofit with limited resources, there was another road we could take that would actually be more productive. We followed a route that was emulative of the social and political movements of which I had been a part. We functioned more like the civil rights movement, the peace movement, the women’s movement and environmental movement than we did a business. Many people thought that this model would fail, but in fact, the way that we premised our work was to rely on the quality of what we were doing to be the advertisement for and the marketing of our efforts. We felt that we needed to grow from the grassroots up and in order to achieve that we needed to build our organization through person-to-person, hands-on contact with the teachers and students and educational organizations we sought to serve.

It sounds a bit crazy now, but I committed myself to doing 500 appearances to an average of 1,000 educators, that brought the issue of the need for children to grow up in a caring, loving, nonhostile environment to the world of education. The educational organizations such as the NAESP, the American School Counselors Association (ASCA), the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the National Council of

Great City Schools (NCGCS), and many others were glad to have me come and make a presentation. To them, they knew they would get a bit of the Peter, Paul & Mary music, that I would surely sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” (and they were right), but I also sang our anthem, “Don’t Laugh at Me” with them, and inevitably, there were tears in their eyes, and great emotion in the hearts of the participants. Instead of my just moving them with this song, and reaching them with our message, I did something that I think is fundamental to our success.

Lessons Learned

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he most valuable lesson we learned was we had to give the people who were moved by our work something to do–a way to advance the vision that I had shared with them. That task had to be something that would allow them to achieve something concrete and confirm that in their own world and environment, they could move forward toward the large and ambitious goals that I had shared with them. The task I gave them, one that would “buy them into the effort,” was the opportunity to implement the “Don’t Laugh at Me” program–for free.

In the beginning we felt that simply handing out the program would be beneficial because any part of the program could be implemented by a teacher whose sense of his or her own task in terms of education resonated with the lessons and activities of the DLAM curricula. However, soon it became apparent that to really advance the program, and to spark an energy that would grow in a classroom and a school, and among teachers and administrators, we needed the program to be implemented in-depth. Only then could the real gifts and value of DLAM be reached.

Through the efforts of Linda Lantieri and Laura Parker Roerden, who wrote the teacher training curricula, and through the efforts of Mark Weiss, who created the on-the-ground methodologies for the instruction of teachers and new trainers-of-teachers, we began to broaden the base and the in-depth implementation of the program. To date, we have trained more than 40,000 teachers and disseminated more than 150,000 curricula. Each of these trainings becomes a source of energizing the future evolution of the effort, to create more classrooms and schools of respect. Each one of these implementations in one school or school district becomes its own advertisement, for other schools that seek to emulate the results of what has been achieved by others.

The stepping-stones to achieving the longevity of our efforts, if I were to exhaust you with words, could go on for many more pages. However, what I have tried to convey to you is how the Emersonian words, “Trust thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string,” had to be, for us, the mantra of our finding our way in frequently new, unexplored terrain. What I hope I have shared with you is that if your dedication is great, you need to find others who share that dedication, and make them your allies and dearest friends. If you want to be successful in an effort that emanates, not from the profit motive, but from your desire to make the world a more fair and just place, realize that the work starts with yourself. You will grow worthy of what you are teaching, but it will take some real introspection and evolution on your own part. Last, in functional terms, realize that you will achieve your objectives through inspiration and love, rather than through » Peter and Bethany & Rufus Roots Quartet with the student youth choir in red t-shirts. Photo taken at a dominance and business acumen. Ultimately, in a world such as ours, if benefit concert for Operation Respect Rock River Valley at the Coronado Theatre in Rockford, IL. we want to make it a better place, we must come to terms with the fact - Photo by Max Gersh, Rockford Register Star that great world-altering efforts such as the civil rights movement became a reality not because of clever business models, but because of the inspiration and love that was shared, that grew and grew until it affected an entire nation, and ultimately, the world.

Whatever your dreams, I wish you luck with your endeavors and I hope that these somewhat rambling thoughts will give you one more tool to achieve your objectives. Though my thoughts and methodologies may stand in stark contrast with other stories of those who have created successful projects or organizations, I believe we can listen and learn from one another. Perhaps all of these stories have their own powerful and meaningful narratives. I suspect so. Let’s hope so, and in the meantime, bless you, and go well on your path. Bless you in your efforts to achieve your mission, whatever that mission might be.

If you want to be successful in an effort that emanates, not from the profit motive, but from your desire to make the world a more fair and just place, realize that the work starts with yourself.

Peter Yarrow has charmed, inspired, delighted and just plain entertained generations of audiences since Peter, Paul & Mary first sang their way into the national consciousness in the early 1960s. As a member of that renowned musical trio for 49 years, he has earned five Grammys and an Emmy nomination, recorded eight gold and five platinum albums, and six Top 10 hits. During the last decade, Peter has devoted himself primarily to the work of heading Operation Respect (OR), an educational nonprofit he founded.

OR is dedicated to assuring children and youth a caring, safe and respectful climate of learning where students’ academic, social and emotional development can take place in a welcoming environment, conducive to learning. volume 4 issue 4

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c ommunity | Connie Duckworth & ARZU

Business Is a Pathway to Peace, Passion and Purpose An Interview with Connie Duckworth B y J a n M a z o tt i

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ack in 2010 ICOSA highlighted the work of ARZU Studio Hope, a “for benefit” organization that provides sustainable incomes to Afghani women by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave. The organization continues to prove its concept out and capture market share here in the United States. I had the distinct pleasure of talking one-on-one with Connie Duckworth, ARZU’s CEO, about her leadership style, how business plays a role in peace, and how pursuing your passion can change your life.

ICOSA: What are some of the foundations that you can share with readers whereby they can achieve their dreams and execute on their passions in business?

DUCKWORTH: The key is to link dreams with execution. All of us possess some sort of innate personal passion, and it can take any form–gardening, literature, children, entrepreneurship. Businesspeople understand the importance of moving beyond the idea to execution and getting the job done. But often, we focus on the “thinking part,” and yet hesitate when it comes to the “doing part.” Taking that first step really matters; be willing to leap toward your passion. Whether or not you earn your living from it, pursuing your passion makes you rich in psychic income. It challenges the intellect; it keeps you fresh, engaged and excited.

ICOSA: You’ve been part of the good old boys’ network, and now you are one of the leaders of the “old girls’ network.” How are you doing that? What advice do you have for leaders/entrepreneurs trying to engage in the “girls’ network?”

DUCKWORTH: No one should underestimate the power of networks. While networking has become somewhat of a standard phrase, what it really means is connecting with other people– building relationships at different levels with a broad array of different kinds of people. Younger people often say “I don’t know anybody.” But, I urge them to think about where they intersect with other people through their day-to-day activities–through school, an early job, a neighborhood. Having a genuine interest in other people is important because that’s the seed of developing relationships, and it’s how you find mentors. Mentorship is not a one-way street. It’s about the mentee and the mentor, each identifying and engaging around some element they find interesting in the other person. Often for the mentor, it’s the enjoyment of sharing wisdom learned through long experience, and helping a young person skip some of the mistakes that one might have made. But it is equally important for the mentee to offer benefit to the mentor, like expertise with technology or social media. I get so much help from younger people relative to technology; it’s a trump card that every young person can bring to the table.

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Networks are really built from individual relationships of different depths–whether close personal relationships, or more casual professional ones. The point is to identify and reach out to people who can become natural resources as you execute your business or pursue your passion. But, relationships require time. They require effort. It’s a two-way street.

ICOSA: What prompted you to start ARZU Studio Hope? Why Afghanistan?

DUCKWORTH: The Afghanistan part was serendipitous. I’ve always had a passion for women’s rights, particularly their economic empowerment. Shortly after I retired, a friend from the Committee of 200 (an international organization of the world’s most successful women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders) phoned to say that she had put my name in for something, and that I might get a call. The State Department was forming a bipartisan commission for Afghan women and was looking for a business representative.

She had told them, “Call Connie Duckworth–she just retired, has a lot of time, and is really into these women’s things.” So I joined the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council. We were initially a small group of people from different fields–business, education, health care, civil society and philanthropy. Since I see the world through a business lens, I naturally thought about what I could do to create jobs for women in Afghanistan.

At first I went down a couple of blind alleys– but then backed into rugs as just about the only culturally acceptable paid work for woman that needed relatively little infrastructure. Plus, weaving had been ongoing even throughout the Taliban reign. The big challenge of starting with rugs in 2003-2004 was reconstructing a supply chain that provided the highest quality of materials, the highest quality of labor, quality assurance,

"Pursuing your passion makes you rich in psychic income.

It challenges the intellect; it keeps you fresh, engaged and excited."

- Connie Duckworth

» Duckworth visiting an ARZU playground in Bamyan province.

all in a distributed manufacturing setting in individual homes–and linking this manufacturing process with the design tastes of the American public. A woman in rural Afghanistan, who cannot point to America on a map, really could not possibly know what will sell in the United States. So, the first steps were to connect with advisers in the design community, who could help inform about market preferences from a product perspective, and then iterating that to create internationally competitive products that would sell.

I was really trying to find the most labor-intensive industry that could employ women immediately. Since the rug industry employs nearly six million people in some way–from “sheep to shop”–we decided that producing fine carpets for export was the way to go.

The U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this year and is now

permanently housed at Georgetown University. It has been bipartisan since day one and has about 75 members. The council continues to grow with leaders from entrepreneurial enterprises and corporations who are lending their support to make sure that women have an improving role in Afghanistan. Everyone on the council is there because they want to improve the circumstances of Afghan women. So, the council has become yet another network of people, in this case with a shared passion about helping women in Afghanistan.

ICOSA: What were some of the barriers to getting ARZU off the ground with an exportable product?

DUCKWORTH: What you don’t know going in sometimes is a blessing in disguise. If I actually had a sense of all the barriers and how long this would take to do, I sometimes wonder if I would

really have taken the plunge. I laugh at myself now, realizing that it was good that I didn’t understand all of the challenges. One of the first major hurdles was how to create a real export product with talented artisans but no supply chain. The challenges we faced both on the “front-end” of developing trusted relationships in rural villages, as well as on the “back-end” logistics of getting a product to market, were daunting.

First, the cultural hurdles manifest themselves in a couple of ways. This is a very distinct culture, with a long and proud history, but women have a very subservient role in Afghanistan in this gender-segregated society. Recognizing roadblocks from the outset, then figuring out how to remove them, or how to go around, under or over an obstacle is key to working effectively within this societal framework. In Afghanistan, there are no quick fixes. Change will be generational. volume 4 issue 4

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We began by reaching out to the male head of household to co-opt men first into our approach– fair labor, child labor-free, requirements for education. With their approval, then we were able to reach the women. Identifying and respecting cultural protocols at the village level is critical to engaging and maintaining a happy workforce. We have overcome many cultural barriers because of an early decision to work through an all-local Afghan staff. These 52 people are really our interpreters–not just in language. Each of our team–supervisors, teachers, health workers and gardeners– helps us frame the way we roll out projects, and the way we interact, not only with the weavers and their families, but also with local village councils; provincial politicians; and the community at-large, which is very supportive of ARZU’s work. Hiring local people and having them “weave” us into the fabric of the community has, importantly, added a layer of security to the situation. ARZU has never had formal security–guys with guns–because of our conscious decision to culturally interact with local people with local staff. This approach has allowed us to continue to expand and execute both our most ambitious products and social programs at a time when most organizations–large and small–get locked down in the Green Zone. The decision to hire an all-local team has paid our most significant dividends.

On the back-end, it is extremely difficult to work commercially in a country with effectively no commercial shipping. It’s difficult to work in a country where the rule of law is still being developed. And, as in so many emerging markets, there is widespread corruption, often in low-level government offices. All of these challenges have to be gone over, under or around. The logistics are not unimportant–they are simply a whole set of different challenges.

ICOSA: Describe some of the collaborative efforts that have made ARZU so successful.

DUCKWORTH: With all the challenges I just described in Afghanistan, I had assumed that the hard part of creating a fully self-sustaining social business would be tackling and solving this whole conundrum on the ground in Afghanistan. Interestingly, we have figured out how to work effectively on the ground, and ARZU is often held up as a model organization. ARZU projects are often a stop on the VIP tours, and people are astonished

"Having a genuine interest in other people is important because that’s the seed of developing relationships."

- Connie Duckworth

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at how we are able to execute our model in these communities. For example, Bamyan Governor Sarabi–the country’s only woman governor–asked for ARZU’s assistance two years ago to build a “central park” in front of the new provincial buildings.

We first had to source project funding and applied to the Japanese government through its Embassy in Afghanistan. Japan has been very involved in the archaeology in the area, particularly the Bamyan Buddhas. Construction began early this summer, and it’s remarkable what’s been accomplished in one season–the entire perimeter is attractively fenced with stone and wrought iron; there are flowers, grass, walking paths and a band shell for performances and public discourse. Even with the park still under construction, it was the venue for Afghanistan’s vice president to publicly address a crowd of a thousand residents on his recent visit to the province. Previously, there was simply no place the event could have happened.

Our biggest challenge, and the last piece of the puzzle to creating a sustainable social business, has been raising brand awareness in order to co-opt the residential design and commercial design communities and the end client–conscious consumers and socially responsible corporations. We find great acceptance of our “product with purpose.”

The practical reality is that as a small nonprofit, we have no PR, marketing or advertising budget. We must build our brand organically, through word-ofmouth, and get the story out through a combination of social media and editorial press.

Ironically, despite all of the challenges on the ground in Afghanistan, the quirkiest part of the puzzle is how you get broad enough distribution and acceleration of sales to get ARZU’s economic model to cash flow. Collaboration with the design community is key, as exemplified by Steelcase, a global leader in the commercial furniture industry.

In 2009, Designtex, one of the Steelcase companies, commissioned some 50 modern pieces they had designed. This collection went on to win two awards– Editor’s Choice and Special Innovation at NeoCon, the world’s largest commercial furniture trade show.

Further, Interior Design magazine, the Bible of the commercial design world, named ARZU STUDIO HOPE + Designtex “Common Threads” collection “Best of 2009” in the rug category. This success really whet our appetite to go after this commercial market, and we repositioned our supply chain to enable this approach. Fast forward to 2012; the World

» A sample of some of the beautiful ARZU rug designs

Bank selected this ARZU/Steelcase collaboration as the subject of its first published case study about innovations and working with the poor. Collaborating with us again this fall, Steelcase held a series of competitions for architects and commercial designers in six markets–Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Toronto–to create original rug patterns that would be judged on design as well as global messaging inspired by ARZU’s mission. It is a wonderful example of the triangulation between Steelcase, who hosted the event; the professional design community, whose creativity flowed outside of normal client constraints; and ARZU. These competitions provided us an enormous platform to share the ARZU story with those who are both interested in and positioned to work with corporate clients. And winning submissions will form a new collection called the Designer’s Series. It was amazing, unfettered creativity, and a marvelous example of a win-win collaboration for everyone.

ICOSA: You’ve said, "The beauty of having a successful business is it gives you a wonderful economic platform from which to do good." What motivates you to be a conscious capitalist?

DUCKWORTH: I truly believe that it is the economy that drives peace among nations. I believe that good trading partners don’t kill each other. From a women’s rights perspective, women represent half of the world, and in too many places, human capital is not being unlocked. We know that when women are empowered economically, when they can have a job, human potential is unlocked.

Business is the pathway to peace. It’s a pathway to unlocking human capital. It’s a good thing.

Too often business is vilified as the root of all evil when, quite frankly, I think it is the exact opposite.

When you think about the Arab Spring, the young people weren’t initially surging into the streets demanding an education; they were surging into the streets because they had no chance for a job.

And that’s what they wanted.

It is this bigger picture that motivates me. I want ARZU to become profitable. If this social business model can work in Afghanistan, it can work anywhere. Thompson Reuters Foundation reported in their 2011 survey that Afghanistan is the world’s worst place to be a woman–that beats out Congo, and that beats out Darfur. Grassroots economic development is essential to job creation, whether it’s here, or in the middle of a war zone.

ICOSA: What has been the impact of ARZU– both here and abroad?

DUCKWORTH: ARZU has been transformational in the lives of these women! We’ve consolidated all of our efforts into Bamyan Province, allowing us economies of scale, which helps on the cost side. But because we’ve been the steady state in these villages, we see the impact of education and the impact of the economic empowerment for women and what it means for these families and the status of the women in the household. Because these women are typically the sole source of income, their status has risen in the household–they’re treated with greater respect, their voices are heard, they’re literate, they have more control over their children’s lives, and their children are in school. ARZU prioritizes jobs for vulnerable widows, who comprise about 20 percent of our weavers, and are viewed as just an extra mouth to feed. Fatima, an ARZU weaver since 2005, is a great example.

She returned to Bamyan with her seven children from a refugee camp, began working for another producer, but wasn’t making enough money to feed her children. Since coming to work for ARZU, not only has she attained literacy, she has built a three-room house with a kitchen, all of her children are in school–her oldest son is enrolled in Kabul University, and her 16-year-old daughter, Jamilla, likes to talk on her cell phone.

One of the great lessons I’ve learned through this whole process is that at their core, people are pretty much the same–everywhere. There is so much more that unites us than divides us. People want their children to be safe, healthy, educated and to have a better future. Having a job is what provides the means to accomplish these things.

This is as true in Afghanistan as it is on the South Side of Chicago.

The U.S. recession over the last four years has slowed our progress toward profitability. While last year the rug industry in Afghanistan was down roughly 75 percent, ARZU has been steadily growing at about 10 percent per year since 2009.

But we still must become profitable because it proves out the social business model: that a consumer, whether a socially responsible corporation or a socially conscious individual, will actively choose product with purpose over comparable product without these benefits associated with it.

That’s our premise; it’s pretty simple. It feels like we’re in a race against time to increase sales here.

From an impact perspective, ARZU is an excellent example of a start-up social business; I have been able to share the lessons I’ve learned in this process with others, including on my blog at The Huffington Post Social Impact section. I want to “open source” my learnings. If I can help others avoid pitfalls or be more informed going in than I was–that’s a good thing. From the consumer side, once people really do embrace this idea of product with purpose–they’re converts. The immense scale of intractable global problems, like

» ARZU weaver at the loom

poverty alleviation, makes it really hard for people to wrap their minds around them. Often people feel overwhelmed and think they can’t possibly do anything to help. But, actually they can! You can lead with your pocketbook. When people understand that the act of making a conscious choice can and does result in direct transformational change, it’s empowering. In fact, I think ARZU is almost as empowering for the consumer side as it for the women weavers in Afghanistan.

ICOSA: What’s next for you and ARZU? Duckworth: First, we have to increase sales and become profitable. To me, any socially responsible company building a new building or remodeling offices needs ARZU rugs. Their making this conscious choice will get us to profitability. Phase two of this ARZU experiment–this learning laboratory for social business innovation–is really about how we migrate to an ongoing enterprise, not dependent on me running the day-to-day operations. It’s the classic transition from founder to professional management.

It’s the natural progression of growth and succession planning that must occur. We are considering opportunities to create alternative revenue streams by partnering with for-profit businesses interested in potentially leveraging certain aspects of ARZU’s capabilities–like licensing our designs or utilizing our child labor-free production capacity.

ICOSA: What are the most important lessons you’ve learned?

Duckworth: Anyone thinking about becoming a social entrepreneur needs to understand that it is going to take just as much time and effort as starting any kind of business. You will think about this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Most importantly, to pursue your passion–you have to just start! Each of us has the ability to impact social change–not just by buying a product with purpose. It’s our responsibility as citizens of the world to activate this capability and to engage. If each one of us did what we are capable of doing in our own community–local, international, small, big, it doesn’t matter–there would be this tsunami of social change that would benefit everyone. volume 4 issue 4

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Developing Energy for Africa What Does Sustainability Look Like?

B y E m i l y H a gg s t r o m

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ccess to affordable energy has been the cornerstone of economic prosperity experienced by such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom and many others.

These countries have also procured the direct results of their energy development through water contamination and diminished air quality as well as sickness. With hindsight being 20/20, how can these developed nations help the continent of Africa seek clean and sustainable energy without imparting a sense of colonialism?

What does scalable energy development look like for Africa? How do you bring power and electricity to the masses? These questions and a thousand more have been posed of researchers, scientists, organizations and energy enthusiasts across the world as the continent’s population becomes increasingly vulnerable to the consequences of seeking and using basic indigenous sources of energy.

In its second year, the Global Commerce Forum’s Energy Africa Conference explored energy development across the diverse regions of Africa that are poised for variable energy markets while also accounting for the strengths, weaknesses and resources of each individual country. The conference hinged on creating a synergy between natural gas and renewables to assist the countries in Africa toward a cleaner, sustainable and more reliable energy future.

Even though the alignment of natural gas and renewables played out great on paper, it was evident from speakers across the spectrum that to power Africa, all aspects of energy development needed to be explored, especially as they related to the region and people that would be using that energy. “I think it is important to understand the needs of the people. Running long power lines to a village may not make sense or be economical where small lights and generators may be better,” said Likeleli Seitlheko, an energy policy studies and energy economics fellow at Rice University who grew up on the outskirts of Maseru, Lesotho.

The Kingdom of Lesotho, which is landlocked in the center of eastern South Africa, lies below the international poverty line where inhabitants earn on average $1.25 per day. In the urban centers, more expensive infrastructure development will take carefully formulated monetary structuring and planning, something that could take years and has the possibility of corruption or worse, the project going stale. The majority of these developments couldn’t leave the bigger cities either because of transmission costs, leaving rural dwellers without any feasible options.

“There is a real trend in rural to urban migration. Our youth are leaving our villages for the cities where there is more opportunity and more access to power,” said retired colonel Joseph Simbakalia, regional commissioner in Mtwara, Tanzania. “It is important to develop real energy options for our rural communities.” And problems like this are plentiful. Africa’s problems are primarily with access. With little to no infrastructure in place over vast geographic regions, access to power transmission, diesel and natural gas isn’t only unfeasible–it isn’t economical either. Even in the large cities, people can go without power for hours or days, and when it is on, it is intermittent and unreliable.

The most recent survey taken by the United States Geological Survey, released in April 2012, has shown vast undiscovered reserves of natural gas off the east coast of Africa. The most recent discoveries by Anadarko amounted to roughly 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and some of the largest discoveries in Africa, according to IHS Energy. However, because of demand, economics and infrastructure challenges, most of this will be exported to Asian markets. The midstream infrastructure currently in place is dismal even as it stands, and countries that use it have it allocated for various types of petroleum. It is also in these areas, close to the large cities, that large-capacity wind and solar can be accessed and applied to a current transmission system.

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Therefore, it is only pragmatic that in areas where there is no major transmission or midstream infrastructure and where a majority of the people are coming up with unique and sustainable solutions is crucial to the continent’s successful energy creation. With a diverse reach of study and experience, panelists of the conference explored different opportunities to maximize proper impact for various regions. In many areas solar and wind provide real options for power, whereas in other dense, forested areas, biofuel generators and battery recharging are more feasible.

It is important to understand what these challenges are and to explore what designs and business opportunities are working and what ones are not. The Energy Africa conference brought together some of the most engaged and thoughtful individuals in the energy sector working on projects for Africa and other emerging economies.

They brought product insight, economic foresight, but more importantly they brought stories about the communities of Africa: stories of people brought together through advanced cellular communication, mothers and their children who are forever changed by cook stoves, and a story of a single light bulb where people from a village could come to study and be together. They told of an Africa and of its communities slowly changing through access to energy.

The Kingdom of Lesotho, which is landlocked in the center of eastern South Africa, lies below the international poverty line where inhabitants earn on average $1.25 per day.

Changing the way Healthcare is Delivered The Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI), at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, is the state’s entity for health care innovation, technology and competitiveness. MeHI is working to accelerate the adoption of ehealth technologies that support the safety, quality and efficiency of health care in Massachusetts, including the deployment of electronic health record systems networked through a statewide health information exchange.

Massachusetts Health Information Highway (HIway) Adoption Stimulating the adoption and use of the Mass HIway to improve coordination of care and clinical outcomes.

Regional Extension Center Helping providers transition practices to those that use health IT technologies & achieve Meaningful Use.

Medicaid Incentive Payment Program Promoting the adoption and meaningful use of certified EHR technology and providing incentives to eligible hospitals and professionals.

Massachusetts eHealth Institute | at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative 2 Center Plaza, Suite 200 | Boston, MA 02108 617.371.3999 | info@maehi.org | www.maehi.org | @massehealth

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Water-Energy Nexus

By Keenan Brugh

W

ater and energy are fundamental to life on Earth. Water, which covers most of the planet, is essential to both basic biological processes and advanced economic systems.

Energy empowers living organisms and makes our modern life possible. Most people, however, don’t fully recognize the connection between water and energy. Water is used in the production of energy. Energy is used to process and distribute clean water. This interrelationship is known as the Water-Energy Nexus and is important to understand when considering critical systems infrastructure.

Water in Energy

W

ater is used in various fashions in the production of energy. On one far side of the nexus, energy is produced in the absence of water. Technologies such as wind turbines and photovoltaic cells don’t require water as they are generating power. However, a comprehensive lifecycle analysis would show that the manufacturing process of solar panels and the steel and concrete used in the construction of wind turbines do require water.

The next step along the nexus shows water use in conventional energy. It is used extensively in fossil fuel extraction as well as a coolant in thermoelectric power generation. Major considerations here include water quantity and quality. While evaporated water isn’t “wasted” from the point of view of the closed system of the planet, regional supply and demand are major factors. The middle of the nexus shows water as an energy source such as through the use of hydroelectric dams. Todd Loar and Robyn McGuckin with MWH Global, a leader in “wet infrastructure,” presented at the recent Energy Africa Conference held at the Colorado School of Mines. They raised the audience’s awareness of the Water-Energy Nexus through sharing experiences and perspectives from their company’s expertise in

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engineering, construction, and consulting for infrastructure projects involving both energy and water.

Energy for Water

Interrelated Systems

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he Water-Energy Nexus is a broadly encompassing concept that ranges from solar panels on one side, to a child dying every 20 seconds from lack of sanitation and the resulting dehydration on the other. The purpose of MWH Global’s presentation as well as this ICOSA article and accompanying online video is to raise awareness. Water and energy are critically interrelated and this relationship has implications for the environment, the economy, for business, and for human lives.

As humanity faces unprecedented challenges, comprehensive understanding is necessary for improving designs of our planet’s systems.

Learn more at www.MWHGlobal.com or www.UNwater.org.

P

urifying and transporting water requires energy. In nature, this is known as the hydrological cycle. Energy from the sun heats water into evaporation and it later precipitates once it cools. Cities are dense areas of water consumption.

This demand often exceeds the natural supply in the area. The physical and chemical processes used in municipal and industrial sized water treatment plants require significant amounts of energy. According to a 2007 state assembly committee report, “In California, water related energy use, which includes the conveyance, storage, treatment, distribution, wastewater collection, treatment, and discharge sectors of the water use cycle, consumes about 19 percent of the state’s electricity, 30 percent of its natural gas, and 88 billion U.S. gallons (330,000,000 m3) of diesel fuel every year–and this demand is growing.” Part of this energy demand stems from the fact that two-thirds of California’s precipitation falls in the north, while twothirds of the state’s population lives in the south. On the far side of the nexus, “water without energy” represents the billions of people who don’t have energy to clean and distribute their water for them. For many around the world, several hours a day must be spent carrying water. Though not exclusively a female problem, much of this responsibility falls to women and can limit their ability to gain an education or a job outside the home. According to the U.N., diarrhea is the leading cause of illness and death globally. Lack of access to pure drinking water and sanitation is responsible.

“In California, water related energy use, consumes about 19 percent of the state’s electricity, 30 percent of its natural gas, and 88 billion U.S. gallons (330,000,000 m3) of diesel fuel every year.”

- 2007 state assembly committee report

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If you need to address poverty and unemployment, then you have to focus on developing technology and industrialization.

Viable Energy Development Nigeria’s Journey to 80% Access

By Michael Connors

P

ursuing a viable energy development plan in Africa has many obstacles, and what I learned at the 2012 Energy Africa Conference is that many who work in the field have experienced similar challenges. There are complications, such as lack of regulatory and legal consistency to encourage investment, and difficulties addressing development of energy sources without infrastructure. Yet governments need the financial resources that come from energy development to build the infrastructure. Many here hope to find energy solutions that closely mimic Africa’s amazing leap forward in telecommunications, allowing them to bypass completely the infrastructure development path followed by western nations. But what is clear is that each nation must find the best fit for its people.

In Nigeria, there is a push to address the lack of regulatory structure with a plan to develop its abundant natural gas resources while advancing infrastructure development. The Gas Master - Governor Rotimi Amaechi

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“Reforms will encourage investors, and when you have investments, we can then deal with the challenges of delivering energy to the urban and rural areas.”

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Plan is a roadmap that will hopefully spur investment by creating a stable legal environment where investors can feel more confident about risking their capital. According to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), “The Master Plan is a guide for the commercial exploitation and management of Nigeria’s gas sector. It aims at growing the Nigerian economy with gas by pursuing three key strategies: 1. Stimulate the multiplier effect of gas in the domestic economy.

2. Position Nigeria competitively in high-value export markets. 3. Guarantee the long-term energy security of Nigeria.”

The current governor of the River State, Rotimi Amaechi, was kind enough to give ICOSA an exclusive interview at the 2012 Energy Africa event. Currently, it is estimated that 51 percent of Nigerians have access to energy. When asked how quickly they may be able to get that number to, say, 80 percent, Governor Amaechi told me, “It depends on how successful the reforms are. Reforms will encourage investors, and when you have investments, we can then deal with the challenges of delivering energy to the urban and rural areas. I think that with investment, we may be able to reach 80 percent by 2016, possibly 2018. Because what Nigeria needs now, without major industries, is about 8000mw.” Governor Amaechi also noted that the lack of infrastructure is a great challenge, but micro-grids and many renewable energy solutions don’t help them develop energy infrastructure in the urban and suburban areas of Nigeria.

Governor Amaechi illustrated Nigeria’s current situation in this way: “Currently, there is no infrastructure for gas. So what the Master Plan does is address the absence of infrastructure. So what it does is bring gas to areas that do not have access to it currently. I think the most important thing for government is not (to address the energy need) in the rural areas first. We are looking at urban and suburban areas and the importance of industrial development. You have to address poverty and employment and the role of industrialization. So if you need to address poverty and unemployment, then you have to focus on developing technology and industrialization. When you give power to industries, companies and technologies, you create employment. That would then extend to the rural areas.” While renewable energy solutions do work well in more remote areas of the country, bringing energy to the masses is the first priority.

c ommunity |

EcoPower Africa Exploring Emerging Technologies B y St e v e S h o pp m a n

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magine staying at the nicest hotel in a city and having the power go out multiple times during the day. Then think about leaving that city knowing that the power lines stop as soon as you reach the countryside. For those in Africa, even intermittent power is a luxury, but reliability isn’t the biggest concern among leaders surrounding energy in Africa. Instead, at this year’s Energy Africa Conference, many of the discussions surrounded micro-grids, renewables and other technologies designed to bring power to places that cannot realistically connect to a conventional power grid. In places such as Liberia, where the tropical climate brings cloudy summers with heavy rain, innovative new technologies are being developed to provide cost-effective power options at a reasonable price. These options also have to allow for that power to be produced sustainably in the most remote of environments where the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.

Pushing the limits of energy innovation to transform the landscape of micro-grids and remote power generation is especially important to Yoav Palatnik, a partner at EcoPower Africa. In just a few moments with Palatnik, it is easy to see his enthusiasm on the subject of electrifying the darkest regions on the planet. During one of the conference panels, Applications of Micro-Grids to

GEK allows those without access to affordable energy the ability to start a business with the energy they need to run industrial operations in remote areas.

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the African Environment, Palatnik spoke about his All Power Lab’s GEK Power Pallet being distributed to the Liberian people. Whereas the infrastructure in the country is poor, if not nonexistent, already, it is the damage from years of civil war that has left Liberia in a detriment unto itself and the perfect place for emerging distributed technologies.

In many regions such as Liberia, farmers, their families and their customers survive hand-tomouth, or in a best case scenario, three days due to the lack of refrigeration, transportation constraints and harvesting limitations. By allowing farmers to process raw foods into something marketable right on the spot, the GEK allows those without access to affordable energy the ability to start a business with the energy they need to run industrial operations in remote areas. The applications of the GEK are limitless in emerging cultures, and this is evident at the light that sparked in Palatnik as he spoke about the technology. In an interview after his panel, Palatnik spoke of the possibilities EcoPower’s biomass generator technology can provide in remote areas of Africa, referencing an example of using the application successfully in Indonesia.

In this example, Palatnik described how the generator runs on agricultural byproducts, processing raw plant material deep in the remote jungles of the island that are rapidly being deforested. In Palatnik’s approximation, these generators are spurring a new industry in Indonesia that was not possible before by providing vital power for the production of a new kind of low-glycemic sugar that can be only be derived from a fruit tree in the county’s rainforests. Without proper production after being harvested, the fruit byproduct rapidly ferments into a viscose-type liquid with similar properties to moonshine and is unusable. By using EcoPower’s generator, this small processing facility can now properly produce the sugar for transport and sale. The unintended benefit of producing this fruit from Borneo’s Indonesia region is that it has a high economic price tag. This rare low-glycemic fruit tree can only grow in Borneo’s rainforest ecosystem, which gives it a value to the locals that it didn’t have before. With access to power, parts of the rainforest are being saved so the trees can be grown and harvested.

Through various installations and product enhancements, EcoPower’s biomass generation technology is being rapidly developed to provide larger amounts of power with a very fast and easily deployable system. In a place that has been desperately waiting for a technology like this, Palatnik has strategically aligned EcoPower to capitalize on the African marketplace. His enthusiasm for the auxiliary benefits of this technology can only leave one optimistic for the future of energy in Africa. Perhaps the continent can move from no power to environmentally-friendly power with technologies such as this. With Liberia as the testing ground, the future of EcoPower Africa and the application of the GEK Power Pallet will be an interesting story to watch unfold.

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c ommunity |

Africa’s weakness– the lack of significant infrastructure–may even be its strength.

Simply put, Africa has the chance to do it right. serving as a model for the rest of the world.

Africa’s weakness–the lack of significant infrastructure–may even be its strength. Simply put, Africa has the chance to do it right.

Countries without basic infrastructure have the opportunity to take advantage of the tremendous human and financial capital that has been invested over centuries to create the extraction industries and power delivery systems that we have in place in developed countries.

Many industrialized cities are moving toward decentralized systems where electricity can be generated close to the point of use. Micro-grids provide a way to bring electricity to off-grid remote communities. New energy management systems can optimize and manage use of efficient technologies, energy capture technologies and different sources of energy generation to create a distribution system that can serve a remote community. Development of large-scale renewable energy and natural gas

Energy Africa B y K e l ly d e l a T o r r e

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t’s hard for many to imagine life without access to power. Yet this is reality in Africa, where power is unreliable, expensive, unhealthy and hard to come by. This lack of access is a barrier to economic development and prosperity. According to the World Bank, 25 African countries face an energy crisis even though the African continent is well-endowed with energy resources. The solution is to improve access to electricity on a large scale.

Solutions will depend on partnerships between private, public, nongovernment organizations and academics to develop reliable domestically produced and environmentally sound power to Africa. The Energy Africa Conference held at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo., provided a platform for discussion to frame the challenges and encourage solutions. By leveraging the experience of notable experts in natural gas, renewable energy, micro-grids, solar lighting, market structures and cultures, we can start to define pathways for development.

In urban population centers, natural gas–fired electric power generation in combination with larger-scale applications of renewable energy technologies such as wind, hydropower, solar and waste-to-energy could reliably supply industrial and urban energy requirements,

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25 African countries face an energy crisis even though the African continent is well-endowed with energy resources. plants also has the potential to provide reliable, cost-effective energy in Africa but comes with the challenge of infrastructure development.

Energy poverty is a barrier to economic prosperity. The good news in some respect is that Africa is a clean slate. A coordinated effort can enable development of Africa’s resources in the most economic and efficient way by using the experience of industry experts, as well as innovations in market structure and technology. It is conferences such as this that attract not only industry experts but also African officials to engage in conversation around solutions that will make a difference and improve the designs of our planet’s systems.

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c ommunity | Creating Shared Value in Emerging Ma rkets

Creating Shared Value in Emerging Markets How Focusing on Literacy and Transparency Profited Both the Local Community and the Bottom Line

By John Holm

“N

o social program can rival the business sector when it comes to creating jobs, wealth, and innovation that improve standards of living and social conditions over time. Any business that pursues its ends at the expense of society will find its success to be illusory and ultimately temporary.” – Michael Porter, Strategy & Society, Harvard Business Review, December 2006.

The idea that a company can profit on a platform of “doing good” is not new to the U.S. marketplace. Whether it is Patagonia’s ability to incorporate sustainability into their entire product line, Starbucks’s stance to support fair trade for coffee farmers, or Whole Foods’s strategy to offer a truly organic experience, select companies, these three in particular, have been extremely successful in positioning themselves as companies with a conscience. Although the U.S. market consists of many consumers who have the time, energy and resources to pay attention to a company’s social impact, can companies count on similar outcomes in emerging markets where resources are infinitely more limited?

Over the past decade, I have had the fortunate opportunity to work with several multinationals on their expansion into the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). A virtual learning laboratory consisting of several countries with vastly different cultures, histories and business practices, recent history has shown that more companies failed than succeeded in their market entry in the region for a multitude of reasons. Looking at the companies that truly prospered, the one common element in their approach was the innate ability to adapt their business to specifically cater to the needs of the local culture and community. Whether that was promoting a product abroad that was being ignored domestically or repositioning the company’s brand to attract new consumer segments, businesses that localized effectively and efficiently not only had the most chances for long-term success but also were able to re-define their strategies in other emerging markets as well.

To bring an internal transparency to the business model, Libri took the opposite mindset and gave the employees a voice if they truly became “passionate about books and passionate about people.”

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On a personal note, it was truly fascinating to be engaged in the respective market entries of Subway in Hungary, Starbucks in Romania, and IKEA in the former Yugoslavia; however, the most complex and enriching experience was leading the expansion of Hungary’s largest specialty book retailer, Libri, into Romania. Though not of the same magnitude as other specialty book retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Waterstones or W. H. Smith, at the time Libri was one of the largest specialty book retailers in the CEE region and had lofty global ambitions.

What made this market entry truly unique was that Libri’s expansion established a precedent for an international book retailer of successfully moving from one publishing language to another by expanding from the Hungarian to Romanian marketplace. In the past, other specialty book retailers have operated in different countries, but only distributed books primarily in their native language, never in the language of their destination country.

What made Libri’s market entry enriching was its overall complexity. In 2007, fresh off European Union accession, Romania was the new golden child of the CEE region. With a population of more than 20 million (including a large Hungarian minority population), strong growth projections and a passion for western brands, it seemed like the logical place to expand operations. However, there were many barriers that presented a huge challenge to Libri’s business model that made it extremely difficult to position itself effectively. Please consider: • Libri’s largest competitor had 71 stores and was completely engrained in the publishing community.

• Only 17 percent of the public bought at least one book in 2006 compared with 54 percent in the United States and 82 percent in Hungary.

• Hungary and Romania have a long history of border disputes in relation to Transylvania.

To overcome these challenging obstacles and truly differentiate itself in the Romanian marketplace, Libri had to develop an outside-the-box strategy that would truly engage all of its stakeholders, while convincing the Romanian majority and the Hungarian minority to be true brand ambassadors.

The unique outside-the-box approach: strategic corporate social responsibility.

Addressing the fact that in 2006 Romania ranked last of all EU countries in transparency, having serious corruption issues, a value platform of transparency was engrained throughout the entire organization to evoke trust among all of its stakeholders, and the business model was adapted to target social issues that had a direct link to the selling and distribution of books. Let’s take a detailed look at how operating on a value platform of transparency allowed Libri a defendable competitive advantage with its market entry via key stakeholders:

Companies that do not engage in building strategy around social issues that directly impact their business will soon be at a competitive disadvantage.

The D.E.A.R. Program (drop everything and read)

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Suppliers (publishers)

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s mentioned above, trust and transparency are not common values in Romanian business society. Also, there is a strong disconnect in the publishing community between retailers and publishers. A common occurrence among retailers (in many industries) is to purchase goods on terms and then find a way to sell them without receipt to avoid reporting it to the tax authorities. This common practice caused publishers to spend an enormous amount of time and resources taking inventory at the retailer’s store and warehouse, leading to a great deal of frustration.

To develop immediate trust and credibility with the Romanian publishing community, Libri highlighted their long-term relationships with Hungarian publishers as well as their transparent IT software (SAP), which offered the publishers a 24-7 platform to view their stock, becoming the first on the Romanian market to adopt such an open approach. These two important factors allowed Libri to obtain 100 percent consignment contracts, another first in the Romanian book market, as well as achieve the highest margins among all book retailers.

Employees

L

ack of transparency toward employees is another issue in Romania. For example, it

is common practice for companies to declare minimum wage for all their employees and then pay the outstanding balance “under the table” to avoid extra payroll taxes. Additionally, management structure in Romania is typically vertical, with the employees having a limited voice and role in shaping the company. To bring an internal transparency to the business model, Libri took the opposite mindset and gave the employees a voice if they truly became “passionate about books and passionate about people,” while having a clear and transparent wage policy. These two measures translated to only a 17 percent employee turnover rate per annum and gave the staff a company that they could be proud to work for.

Customers and Community

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he customer and community puzzle was the most difficult to solve. In general, Romanian consumers are extremely complex and do not trust easily, whereas in the West, many companies can operate on a platform of Public Relations Corporate Social Responsibility (PR CSR). To truly connect to the locals, Libri had to walk their talk and truly embed themselves in the community.

To deliver transparency and community-building to the local population in the most effective manner, two specific “Community-Transparent” programs were initiated with the D.E.A.R. program.

any companies encourage their employees to volunteer for a social cause that they are passionate about. Libri took volunteering a step further and embedded it into their core business strategy, compensating every Libri employee to “sponsor” a school two hours a week by reading to children. Why would Libri pay their employees to volunteer? While improving employee morale and building buzz in the community were wonderful byproducts of the program, the real benefit was a positive impact on the bottom line.

In 2007, Romania lacked the funds necessary to provide an ample stock of books in public schools.

To help, the Romanian government gave teachers a 100 Euro equivalent voucher to redeem for books and lesson plans. As teachers directly accounted for 33 percent of the entire value of the Romanian book market, Libri initiated and developed a Scholastic Loyalty Card, which was given to every teacher at the public schools where Libri employees volunteered. For every teacher who spent their 100 Euro voucher at Libri, they would then receive a 10 percent discount along with a complimentary lesson plan in English.

The program was very successful. In the span of one year, Libri had more than 3,300 teachers in their database and a 97,000 Euro equivalent revenue increase, creating a true win-win for community and business alike.

Libri’s transparency with stakeholders had a positive effect on the bottom line, and the company quickly developed a reputation as a company that could “walk the talk,” earning acceptance from both the Romanian majority and the Hungarian minority population. While Libri Romania was sold in 2009 to the largest competitor due to the economic crisis, their shared value approach of doing business is a popular trend that many companies and academic institutions are engaging in.

Today, the companies that do not engage in building strategy around social issues that directly impact their business will soon be at a competitive disadvantage, whereas the companies that strive to innovate on their social platforms might uncover an opportunity to truly create value for both profit and community. volume 4 issue 4

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Collaboration Close Up

Project C.U.R.E First Ladies Luncheon

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n October 12, 2012, Project C.U.R.E. hosted its largest First Ladies Luncheon in the history of the event. The keynote speaker was Mozambique’s first lady, Dr. Maria da Luz Guebuza. Since becoming first lady in 2005, Dr. Guebuza has been an ardent champion of health, wellness and literacy campaigns to improve the lives of the Mozambican people, particularly orphans and children. “Day and night, we are concerned to save the lives of those who are still in their mother’s wombs;” she added, “We are sure that if we guarantee a healthy life to each Mozambican, we will be on the right path to building and developing human capital.”

RMPEx Recognizes Companies That Are Helping Leaders Focus on What’s Important

T » The First Ladies of Project C.U.R.E. luncheon

Founded 25 years ago, C.U.R.E. provides hospital equipment for developing countries.

Founded 25 years ago, C.U.R.E. provides hospital equipment for developing countries. It holds a First Ladies Luncheon every year, and Guebuza was the guest of honor at this year’s event.

C.U.R.E says that the purpose of these events is to “learn about the first lady’s key healthcare issues and raise funding » Continued on page 104

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he 2012 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence (RMPEx) award recipients were recognized at the Quest for Excellence conference in Loveland, Colo., on October 26, 2012. The event began with a keynote address from Rulon Stacey, president of University of Colorado Health, the new mega–health care system that has become Colorado’s largest employer with more than 15,000 employees. Dr. Stacey discussed the myriad changes in today’s health care delivery systems and how the newly formed University of Colorado Health is positioned to navigate the environment and “Engage for the New Age” in health care.

A panel discussion was moderated by Jan Mazotti, president and editor-in-chief of ICOSA. Panelists represented the three Colorado Baldrige recipients: OMI (now a division of CH2MHill), Monfort College of Business, and Poudre Valley Health System. They engaged the audience with a discussion of the Baldrige journey and what they experienced before, during and after their Baldrige Award.

There were seven 2012 RMPEx award recipients recognized at varying levels. Governor John Hickenlooper gave a videotaped message of congratulations in recognition of their achievement.

Four organizations were award recipients at the Foothills level that demonstrate systematic approaches in many areas of their business.

• Colorado Army National Guard • Donor Alliance, the regional organ procurement organization providing the gift of life through organ transplantation • Littleton Adventist Hospital • Sky Ridge Medical Center

One organization was recognized at the Timberline level, RTD FasTracks Program, which demonstrates systematic approaches, effective deployment, learning and integration. The FasTracks Program is delivering the infrastructure for a multibillion-dollar comprehensive transit expansion plan.

Two organizations were top award winners at the Peak level, which is based upon the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the presidential award for performance excellence. Denver Health (DH) serves as Colorado’s primary “safety net” organization. DH has received numerous awards by providing “Level One Care for All.” Poudre Valley Health System (PVHS) is a three-time recipient of the Peak Award, achieving this honor in 2004, 2008 and now in 2012. PVHS is part of University of Colorado Health, created earlier this year when PVHS and University of Colorado Hospital formed the UC Health system. Both Denver Health and PVHS have received national attention by creating new and better ways to deliver health care.

Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence relies on a small army of volunteers who spend hundreds of hours in service to their communities. They are members of elite examination teams who use the Baldrige criteria to provide assessment and feedback to organizations.

This important work is led by volunteer team leaders who spend additional time and effort in coordinating the work of the team.

Congratulations to all involved in the RMPEx community. Your work is making a difference by helping leaders focus on what’s important, identify gaps in organizational process, and sustain improvement over time.

Collaboration Close Up

for youngsters. Many websites have simple math or letter games that children will find fun and entertaining. Take advantage of the early years, when children learn quickly, and consider finding some online resources to get them started learning other languages.

» Continued from page 102

to deliver life-saving medical supplies and equipment to the most deserving hospitals and clinics throughout her country.”

Middle School and High School

The equipment, which will improve health infrastructure in the country, will be delivered throughout the central provinces of Zambezia, Tete and Sofala, and in Maputo.

“When properly equipped,” da Luz Guebuza said, “Hospitals can respond to the needs of patients and reduce child and maternal mortality rates. This was a battle we intended to help win.”

The First Ladies Luncheon was attended by a near capacity crowd of more than 1,700 people who gave generously to help Project C.U.R.E and Dr. Guebuza deliver health and hope to Mozambique. Previous first ladies have included those from Ghana, Tanzania,

Hippocampus Technology, the Internet and Their Effect on Education B y B e t h P i ck e t t

E

very area of our lives is being affected by the constant evolution of technology. The field of education is no exception, and in some ways the influence may not be completely beneficial. Nonetheless, the infiltration of technology is becoming unavoidable. For those who are involved in education, it is important to learn about the tools that are becoming available.

Students can spend a large portion of their time on the computer and on the Internet. For this reason, educational professionals at all levels have chosen to move some aspects of learning to the computer world. The new popular term is e-learning, which encompasses a broad range of ways people can participate in online education. Let’s take a brief look at how the changes have affected education at various levels so far.

» Troop 4145 with Project C.U.R.E. founder James Jackson

Mongolia, Panama and Mexico and the luncheons have raised nearly $12 million.

The event was sponsored by mining giant Rio Tinto, was emceed by 7News’ Anne Trujillo, and was hosted by honorary co-chairs former Colorado first ladies Frances Owens and Jeannie Ritter.

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Young Children Today, videos have become a very popular means of entertainment among children of all ages. It isn’t uncommon for children to spend much of their free time watching their favorite movies or television shows. Now that most videos can be viewed online, it is important to find appropriate educational materials for young children.

Whether you are an elementary teacher or the parent of a child under 10, it should take only a little effort to ensure that everything your children watch is educational.

Also consider finding online educational games as well, to continue making learning fun

Technology has an increased role in education when students are in grades 6-12. This age group of students can use a computer with very little to no assistance. Often, educators expect their students to be able to complete and submit online assignments. Some even give online evaluations or set up class websites. A new trend for English teachers is the use of online essay submission to check for grammatical errors and plagiarism.

Another way technology has been integrated is the use of websites such as Hippocampus. org. This site provides homework help in a large variety of subjects. In addition, they have video tutorials that explain specific concepts within a subject. Currently they have dozens of videos in the areas of math, natural science, social science and humanities–each with various subcategories. The videos are beneficial for students after school or for teachers to show as a visual aid during a class period. And these videos are free of charge because of donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Teachers can also create their own accounts on Hippocampus to share specific related videos with their students. Account moderators can narrow content based on the specific textbook being used and can create categorized video playlists. They can even add their own annotation notes to videos that students are asked to watch. Once the account is completely set up, Hippocampus will provide a customized link to provide to students.

College Education Online Online college classes are by far the biggest change technology has brought to education. It has allowed people with busy schedules to finally work toward the degree they always wanted–enabling them to move up in their career, to better their future and potentially make more money.

Getting an adult online education simply starts by choosing your area of focus, and then finding colleges that offer those programs. If a college offers a specific area of focus, there will likely be an e-learning component.

Clearly, the increased accessibility of the Internet and technology is creating an entirely new way of approaching education. Knowing the available resources and taking full advantage of them is incredibly important for anyone involved in education, or interested in furthering their training and knowledge.

To learn more about the lessons available at Hippocampus, visit www.hippocampus.org.

Collaboration Close Up

• There are 346,000 women in Colorado living in poverty (Colorado Center for Law and Policy).

Twenty-Five Years Advocating for Women and Girls The Women’s Foundation of Colorado Anniversary Luncheon B y J ud i t h B . T a y l o r

I

nnovation is a term thrown around a lot in today’s business world. Companies want to innovate and change, to adapt to what consumers and customers need. Most companies miss one key element–in order to innovate, a company must have leaders who also believe in innovating themselves.

Since its establishment, the Women’s Foundation of Colorado has invested millions of dollars in nonprofit organizations throughout the state to dramatically change the lives of women and girls. Its mission is clear: to build resources and lead change so that every woman and girl in Colorado achieves her full potential.

The Women’s Foundation mission is met through research, education, advocacy and collaboration; the agenda is intended to lead systemic change, creating greater opportunities for success in the 21st-century economy. The scope of what the foundation faces and the efforts made over many years have been challenging at many levels.

“The issues have existed for years. The barriers are far more complex,” said Louise Atkinson, president and CEO of the Colorado’s Women’s Foundation.

High school dropout rates, the numbers and plight of single mothers, and the number of women in poverty in Colorado are the reality for the Women’s Foundation of Colorado.

The issues are mirrored by disturbing numbers. Last September at the twenty-fifth anniversary luncheon, former and current board chairs delivered the current statistics in a ceremonial fashion by pouring sand into a vase while delivering the numbers in a solemn manner.

• Each year, 32,000 girls are born in Colorado (Colorado Department of Education).

• Of those 32,000 girls born each year in Colorado, at the current dropout rate, 20 percent will not graduate from high school (Colorado Department of Education).

• Another 5,479 of those in the 20 percent will have babies of their own before they turn 20 years old.

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The Women’s Foundation of Colorado has invested millions of dollars to dramatically change the lives of women and girls. » Geena Davis and Women’s Foundation President & CEO, Louise Atkinson.

While the numbers are daunting, board members present and past spoke about a call-toaction for the Women’s Foundation work and a commitment to the following principles: • Boldly leading systemic change that will advance economic opportunities for all women and girls in Colorado; • Using exceptional research to build a knowledge base and guide the actions of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado; • Building up a community of philanthropy that supports and advocates for women and girls in Colorado; • Prompting inclusiveness and dedication to diversity in the people and causes the Women’s Foundation works for, including the partners the foundation works with and the ideas the foundation champions; • Creating strategic partners across the state in order to fulfill the foundation’s mission.

The foundation has worked tirelessly and successfully to affect state legislation and provides struggling women with a chance of self-sufficiency. One example is the long effort that resulted from the Cliff Effects Study. This study provided evidence that a full-time job at low wages is not enough to make ends meet.

The cause lies in the current structure of work support programs, including rapid “phaseout” rates, which lead to what is known as “cliff effects.”

Although federal and state work supports assist low-wage workers and their families with benefits such as earned income tax credits, child care subsidies, health care coverage and food stamps, the benefits are means-tested.

As earnings increase–particularly as they rise above the official poverty level–families begin to lose eligibility even though they are not yet self-sufficient. The result is that parents can work and earn more without their families achieving financial security.

In 2012, Senator Suzanne Williams (D-Aurora) and Representative Tom Massey (R-Poncha Springs) co-sponsored SB22, bipartisan legislation that creates an optional pilot program allowing county governments to extend the eligibility period for the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program within their county from six months to two years.

The pilot program allows children to remain in important early child care, gives parents the ability to work and advance their careers, provides employers with stable workers, and will hopefully mitigate the “cliff effect” and help struggling families.

The measure was signed by Governor Hickenlooper on Friday, April 13, 2012. » Continued on next page.

Collaboration Close Up

“In 1920, 57 percent of movies had women leads; in 2011, it is down to almost 15 percent. We need to add women on the screen and behind the camera.”

PBS Features Somaly Mam in the first night of Half the Sky

- Geena Davis

The Women’s Foundation of Colorado plans ongoing investment and management of collaborative efforts to bring these issues to fruition in the form of systemic reform legislation, building on the impact of SB22’s pilot project.

In September at the Colorado Convention Center, the founding group of the Colorado Women’s Foundation, and the many who have followed, were part of the 25th anniversary celebration luncheon. At the luncheon, Academy Award–winning actress Geena Davis complemented the advocacy for women theme. Davis shared the realities of the film industry today and women’s roles.

“Of the characters in movies, 17 percent are women,” Davis said. Her advocacy work including the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media has incorporated studies reflecting gender equality in the media and the portrayal of women.

“There is more TV, yet girls have less options,” Davis added. “In 1920, 57 percent of movies had women leads; in 2011, it is down to almost 15 percent. We need to add women on the screen and behind the camera.” Davis, who is raising one daughter and two sons, noted. “Young girls are being hyper-sexualized by the media, and women and girls often appear without value.

The work to reach some balance will take many years and an ongoing effort,” she said.

For someone who was cast in a television role as the first female president of the United States, Davis’s challenging message resonated with the audience of more than 2,000. It was fitting that she delivered that message at the 25th anniversary luncheon of the Colorado Women’s Foundation.

Indeed, the future is challenging, but already the Colorado Women’s Foundation is planning to unveil a 2013 advocacy agenda based on updated research from the Institute of Women’s Policy. The agency was hired by the foundation to conduct in-depth research throughout Colorado.

“The data that we get drive us,” Atkinson said.

“Economic security, education and women’s leadership are key top areas. We are very excited to help more women reach their full potential.”

I

» Somaly Mam on opening night

n June 2010, ICOSA featured a story on Cambodian-born human rights activist Somaly Mam. Born to a tribal minority in the Mondulkiri province of Cambodia, Mam grew up as an orphan, living in extreme poverty, and as a young girl she was sold into sexual slavery by a man who posed as her grandfather.

Forced to work in a brothel along with other children, Mam was brutally tortured and raped on a daily basis. One night, she was made to watch as her best friend was viciously murdered. Fearing she would meet that same fate, Mam heroically escaped her captors and set about to build a new life for herself. She vowed never to forget those left behind and has since dedicated her life to saving victims and empowering survivors.

In 1996, Somaly established a Cambodian

nongovernmental organization called AFESIP (Agir Pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire), and in 2007 launched the Somaly Mam Foundation. Her shelters provide an education and job skills to girls as young as four years old, all the while applying public and international pressure to push police to crack down on the worst brothels and to undermine the sex-trafficking business model. Mam has been instrumental in shedding much-needed light on the plight of thousands of vulnerable young women and girls. She says, “If you want to buy a virgin, it’s not easy now.”

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide includes a four-hour television series for PBS and international broadcast, shot in 10 countries: Cambodia, Kenya, India, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Liberia and the United States. Traveling with intrepid reporter Nicholas Kristof and A-list celebrity advocates, the series introduces women and girls who are living under some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable–and fighting bravely to change them.

The series, along with its complimentary tools, raises awareness to the plight of women worldwide and provides suggestions and concrete steps to tackle the problems. The series premiered in the United States Oct. 1 and 2, 2012. Look to your cable provider to find viewing times or visit online, at www.pbs.org/ independentlens/half-the-sky/.

Camp To Belong Colorado

This staggering statistic, combined with her own personal experience, turned out to be the spark that ignited the development of Camp To Belong.

Camp To Belong and its founder, Lynn Price, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, will be featured on BYUtv’s Turning Point.

Camp To Belong is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to reuniting siblings placed in separate foster homes and other out-of-home care for events of fun, emotional empowerment and sibling connection. The main events are week-long summer camps along with camper reunion events throughout the year.

Turning Point is a collection of inspiring stories about people whose lives have changed irrevocably due to one pivotal decision. In 1995, Price became a court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care and a volunteer at a children’s shelter.

While spending time with these children, she discovered that of the almost 500,000 youth in the American foster care system, 75 percent are separated from at least one sibling.

Camp To Belong Colorado is led by sisters and longtime Camp To Belong volunteer counselors Charlie and Sam Lippolis. Next summer brothers and sisters from around Colorado will spend five nights and

six days participating in activities together, such as horseback riding, rafting, swimming, wall climbing, fishing and ropes courses. Signature programs such as a sibling birthday party for all campers, sibling pillow creations, lifetime scrapbook making, life seminars and more intentional programming will bring inspiration to each individual camper and memories between siblings.

Camp To Belong has successfully brought together more than 4,500 brothers and sisters ages 8 to 18 since 1995. With 10 current member camps, Camp To Belong has been recognized by the White House and Oprah.

To watch a live stream, go to byutv. org, or to learn more about Camp To Belong, go to www.camptobelong.org.

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thank you

Would Like To Thank The Following Friends For Their Inspiration

Bader Al Zarei

Emily Haggstrom

Chris Pelley

ARZU

Katherine Hammack

Beth Pickett

Louise Atkinson

Kathleen Hancock

Lynn Price

Charles Banda

Jack Harris

Project C.U.R.E.

Brian Bartony

Amy Hart

Heidi Rickels

Blue Star Recyclers

Hippocampus

Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence

John Boner

John Holm

Rotary International

Jeannie Brown

Chris Holmes

Candace Ruiz

Keenan Brugh

Polina Hryn

Graham Russell

Martha Butwin

Iowa Business Council

Rebecca Saltman

Camp to Belong

Iowa Innovation Corporation

Steve Shoppman

JD Chesloff

Diane Irvin

Elliott Smith

Tiffany Coleman

John Kelley

SOBcon

Colorado Cleantech Fellows Institute

Melanie Kenderdine

Steve Sorensen

Colorado Refugee Services Program

Elizabeth Kolodny

Spirae

Colorado State University-Global Campus

Vladimir Kush

Mittpheap Steele

Michael Connors

Masdar Institute

Norman Stucker

Anna Conrad

Massachusetts Business Roundtable

Cristin Tarr

Geena Davis

Massachusetts HIway

Jon Tarleton

Kelly de la Torre

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Judith Taylor

Denver Art Museum

Tatianna Massaro

Sisay Teklu

Andrew Dixon

Mona McConnell

Douglas County School District

Scott McNeeley

U.S. Agency for International Development

Eric Drummond

MeHI Last Mile Direct Assistance Program

Connie Duckworth

Karen Merrick

Energy Africa Conference

MGA Communications

Brian Vogt

Freshwater Malawi

MIT Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Symposium

Cinamon Watson Wayin

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Maeghan Welford

Operation Respect

Steve Werner

Molly Osadjan

Women’s Foundation of Colorado

Peace Corps

Peter Yarrow

Freshwater Project International Gail Frances Pamela Goldberg Kim Griffiths Stephanie Guthrie Boilini

4-I’s

Vaisala Lisa Ventriss

Information, Intelligence, Ideas, and Innovation Volume 4 Number 4

4120 Jackson Street | Denver Colorado 80216 | www.icosamag.com

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