March 2015 Issue of In Business Magazine

MAR. 2015

By the Numbers: How does Phoenix rank among America's tech hubs?

Incubating Business Are Startups Accelerating Our Economy?

New Trends in

Entrepreneurship Meetings that

Mean Business Strength of Public-Private Partnerships

THIS ISSUE Tempe Chamber of Commerce Arizona Technology Council

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Stepping up

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MARCH 2015

COVER STORY

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Incubating Business: Are Startups Accelerating Our Economy?

City economic development leaders and executives of some of the leading private and public accelerators and incubators discuss with RaeAnne Marsh the difference those development hubs have on startup activity and, ultimately, on the overall economy.

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

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Venturing in Today’s Age of the Entrepreneur

Jenny Q. Ta describes significant trends that are reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape.

PLUS: Neal Thornberry, Ph.D., provides tips on “Cracking the Code to Innovation.”

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Meetings: Make Them Time Well-Spent

TEMPE CHAMBER

ADVANTAGE Workshops and Training Deliver Results We’re here to solve common business problems. The Tempe Chamber is hosting new workshops to respond to the needs of business. Each is geared to a different topic and skill set.

Come to these workshops and return to your company as a more valuable and educated employee.

MARCH 5 Developing Social Media Skills and Effective Internet Marketing Presented by Meegan Adams

MARCH 26

March – June 2O15 • tempechamber.org

Guest Editor

Presented by Tracy Bullock

In its thirtieth year, Tempe Leadership introduces all aspects of our community

We work with all levels of government on issues of interest to business,

Presented by Ginny McMinn

ensuring that regulations and taxes are reasonable and easy to comply with, creating a community where our youths graduate on time and are ready for successful careers, and where infrastructure is sound and transportation options exist. We develop an environment where business can thrive.

Yes, we certainly enjoy our “Chamber of Commerce Weather,” but we are most proud of our “Chamber of Commerce Climate.”

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T E M P E C H A M B E R A D VA N TA G E

Te m p e C h a m b e r. o r g

45 Tempe Chamber of Commerce

Arizona Technology Report March – June 2O15 aztechcouncil.org

Arizona Technology Council: The Voice of the Technology Industry

In This Issue Common Ground…Pg. 2 Annual festival’s growth reflects boost in STEM interest

ROI Worth Raves…Pg. 3 New push for legislative expansion of tax credit programs

Business Essentials …Pg. 4 Programs offers discounted products, services for members

Management and Staff Steven G. Zylstra President + CEO

Leigh Goldstein Vice President, Operations + Events

Anne Rody Director, Finance + Administration

Merry Lake Merrell Director, Marketing + Communication

Deborah Zack Senior Director, Membership Services

President’s Message As president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, I often am asked to help shape public policy affecting the state’s tech industry. (If you want to know more about two measures that are part of our focus in this legislative session, see Page 3 in this section.) But it’s my work as chairman of Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) that takes me to Capitol Hill to partner with Congress on matters that shape the nation’s entire tech community.

It’s been an honor to chair TECNA, which represents more than 50 IT and technology trade organizations that, in turn, represent more than 22,000 technology-related companies in North America. As my two-year term ends this summer, it feels good to know our group is even more committed to making technology a driving force in the nation’s economy.

One of the highlights is the annual TechAmerica DC Fly-In. I recently returned from Washington, D.C., with members of the Arizona delegation who were among business leaders from small and mediumsized tech companies nationwide that gathered to advocate for public policies that are tech-friendly and will create jobs. To deliver their messages directly were some of the best and brightest from Arizona’s technology community. They included:

Brian Krupski Director of Membership Services

Melissa Craven Executive Assistant to President + CEO

Alex Rodriguez Vice President, Southern Arizona Regional Office, Tucson

Kitty Bogy Director, Talent Solutions TechFetch

Don Rodriguez Editor

Ron Schott Executive Emeritus, Phoenix Office

Don Ruedy Executive Emeritus, Tucson Office

Justin Williams Executive Emeritus, Tucson Office

Jeremy Babendure, Ph.D. Executive Director, Arizona SciTech Festival

Noted business and community leaders Francisco Aguirre, Gabe Gasca and Jenny Poon respond to IBM’s burning business question of the month.

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for business growth. to a cross section of business and community leaders. Tempe Youth Leadership prepares high school sophomores and juniors for future leadership positions.

Recruiting and Hiring the Right People

Feedback

We’re not in charge of the weather, but we do impact the climate

We offer educational programs on topics ranging from accounting practices to personal development. Our Coffee Connections provides regular opportunities to share leads. Our Women in Business Mentoring Program teaches the skills to move up in one’s profession. The Business Owners Forum promotes the spread of best practices

Improving Sales Effectiveness

APRIL 23

Steven G. Zylstra, President and CEO, Arizona Technology Council

• Greg Garcia, a member of the board of management of Invoy Technologies • Doug Guilbeau, president and CEO of Levementum • Bill Hewitt, vice president of strategic partnerships R&D at Tri-Merit • Sheila Kloefkorn, CEO and president of KEO Marketing Inc. • Russ Yelton, CEO of Pinnacle Transplant Technologies, a regenerative medical company that operates a human tissue bank While there, we met with members of and staff for Arizona’s congressional delegation. They included Sen. Jeff Flake and Reps. Ruben Gallego, Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema. Our meetings also featured Stephanie Hall, Sen. John McCain’s telecomm assistant, and Amy Emerick, Rep. Raul Grijalva’s chief of staff.

Our discussions focused on policies to develop skills for the 21st century workforce, advance tax and regulatory policies that spur innovation, lead in secure Internet-based platform technologies, support new and emerging technology platforms through policies, address availability and delivery of broadband communications, expand markets and advocate for sensible rules of global trade, and advance common sense reforms in government procurement and acquisition.

While my role with TECNA may be winding down, my commitment to continue working with Arizona’s congressional delegation is not. I invite you to join us for next year’s Fly-In — my eighth time leading Council members from our state. If you want a change for the better, sometimes it needs to start with you.

Who We Are

The Arizona Technology Council is Arizona’s premier trade association for science and technology companies.

Phoenix Office

2800 N. Central Ave., Suite 1920 Phoenix, AZ 85004 Phone: 602-343-8324 Fax: 602-343-8330 info@aztechcouncil.org

Tucson Office

The University of Arizona Science and Technology Park 9040 S. Rita Road, Suite 1150 (near I-10 and Rita Road) Tucson, AZ 85747 Phone: 520-382-3281 Fax: 520-382-3299 tucson@aztechcouncil.org

ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

aztechcouncil.org

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53 Arizona

Technology Council

Briefs

“Eliminate Virus,” “Luxury Sweet,” “Alert to Contract Terms,” “Walmart Tests Grocery Pickup,” “Save on Energy Costs,” “Park in Style,” “New Interest in Old Town,” “Value-Add Asset in Phoenix,” “Chicagoans Launch Beer Distribution in Phoenix” and “Innovation for Travel Gifting”

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Books

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Nonprofit

Corporate executives sitting on nonprofit boards might consider a new tool to sustain their organizations and local communities: the public-private partnership.

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Assets

2015 Audi S3 Plus: Top trusted small-business tax software programs

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Power Lunch

Barrio Queen Scottsdale Plus: Where to enjoy a St. Paddy’s Day celebration

66

Roundtable

Income and outcomes rebut the latest fad of underestimating the value of an MBA.

Technology

“New Platform for CRE Marketing,” “Auction Alert,” “Parking Meters Go App,” “Blink Once to Guard Against Fraud” and “Paper-to-Digital Software for Law”

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Legal

New releases give fresh insights on business thinking.

By Mary Ann Miller, President/CEO While we’ll all enjoy the “Chamber of Commerce Weather” during Spring Training this month, we can’t take any credit for it.

What we will take some credit for is having a community that people want to visit, a welcoming place for living and working, and a healthy economic climate for starting and growing a business.

For more than a century, the Tempe Chamber has worked to create a strong local economy to help businesses succeed.

Mary Ann Miller We offer programs and services to business of all sizes, whether you are a one-person operation working out of your home or have thousands of employees across multiple campuses.

From the Top

View from the top looks at how Trish McCarty brought thought leaders together to innovate education solutions.

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MaryAnn Guerra, CEO of BioAccel, introduces the “Business Incubators and Accelerators” issue.

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23

Attorneys discuss the contractual issues entrepreneurs should consider when getting started in co-working spaces, business incubators or accelerators.

DEPARTMENTS

SPECIAL SECTION

By the Numbers

A comparison of patents per capita in the nation’s major cities gives a snapshot of how Phoenix rates in innovation.

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Joel D. Levitt offers solutions to the collisions, faux pas, cancellations, delays and other problems that often impede meetings’ effective outcomes.

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22

Healthcare

“Wheelchairing in Style,” “PCH Advances Genomic-based Care,” “Leveraging Company Healthcare,” “When Patients May Misremember” and “Accolade Explodes Healthcare Employment”

ON THE AGENDA

41

Spotlight

‘Internships that Work: A Win-Win’ — Gilbert Chamber Phoenix Investor Roundtable — Arizona Commerce Authority

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Calendar

Business events throughout the Valley

MAR. 20 1 5

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I N B U S I N E S S M AG . CO M

It’s Spring Training — and the Scottsdale CVB is intent on bringing the full complement of baseball fans to our local businesses, marketing especially to Denver and San Francisco. See a sample of its campaign at bit.ly/scottsdale-spring-training

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We apologize for, but will not be bound by or responsible for, any errors in our advertisements. Valid in the US only. © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2015

March 2015 In Business Magazine is a collaboration of many business organizations and entities throughout the metropolitan Phoenix area and Arizona. Our mission is to inform and energize business in this community by communicating content that will build business and enrich the economic picture for all of us vested in commerce.

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS Rick Murray, CEO Arizona Small Business Association Central Office (602) 306-4000 Southern Arizona (520) 327-0222 www.asba.com Steven G. Zylstra, President & CEO Arizona Technology Council One Renaissance Square (602) 343-8324 www.aztechcouncil.org Doug Bruhnke, Founder & President Global Chamber® (480) 595-5000 www.globalchamber.org Dorothy Wolden, President NAWBO Phoenix Metro Chapter (480) 289-5768 www.nawbophx.org Rick Kidder, President & CEO Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce (480) 355-2700 www.scottsdalechamber.com Mary Ann Miller, President & CEO Tempe Chamber of Commerce (480) 967-7891 www.tempechamber.org Our Partner Organizations are vested business organizations focused on building and improving business in the Valley or throughout Arizona. As Partners, each will receive three insert publications each year to showcase all that they are doing for business and businesspeople within our community. We encourage you to join these and other organizations to better your business opportunities.

The members of these and other Associate Partner Organizations receive a subscription to In Business Magazine each month. For more information on becoming an Associate Partner, please contact our publisher at info@inbusinessmag.com.

ASSOCIATE PARTNERS Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce ahwatukeechamber.com Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry azchamber.com

Conquest Training Systems is Giving Away $ 1 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 in Sales Training to Veterans

100 selected veterans will each receive $10,000 in sales training through Conquest’s “Selling System” that will give veterans opportunities to acquire six-figure sales positions in a variety of industries. The development platform will consist of Training, Coaching, and Real World Experience. Conquest will even assist in placement of a sales position!

Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce azhcc.com The Black Chamber of Arizona phoenixblackchamber.com Chandler Chamber of Commerce chandlerchamber.com Economic Club of Phoenix econclubphx.org Glendale Chamber of Commerce glendaleazchamber.org Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce phoenixchamber.com Greater Phoenix Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce gpglcc.org Mesa Chamber of Commerce mesachamber.org North Phoenix Chamber of Commerce northphoenixchamber.com Peoria Chamber of Commerce peoriachamber.com WESTMARC westmarc.org

Applications are now being accepted. For more information please email i n f o @ c onqu e s t t r a i n i ng . c om Untitled-3 1

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M A R . 20 1 5

3/20/14 9:00 AM I N B U S I N E S S M AG . CO M

CopperPoint Mutual is committed to providing workers compensation insurance expertise along with great customer service. Financially strong and service oriented, CopperPoint delivers Peace of Mind.

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March 2015

VOL. 6, NO. 3

Publisher Rick McCartney

Editor RaeAnne Marsh

Art Director Benjamin Little

Contributing Writers

Mike Hunter Cassandra Larsen Joel D. Levitt Anthony Liuzzo, J.D., Ph.D. Alexandra Lyon Mike Saucier Alison Stanton Jenny Q. Ta Neal Thornberry, Ph.D.

ADVERTISING

Operations Louise Ferrari

Business Development

Louise Ferrari Alex Goff Craig Jeffries Steve Kulick Maria Mabek Sara May Kelly Richards Cami Shore

Events Amy Corben More: Visit your one-stop resource for everything business at www.inbusinessmag.com. For a full monthly calendar of business-related events, please visit our website.

Inform Us: Send press releases and your editorial ideas to editor@inbusinessmag.com.

Post Your Local Jobs at inbusinessmag.com Read by those vested in business here, In Business Magazine and inbusinessmag.com have become the resource for business owners and executives in the Valley and beyond.

Now, business owners can post their open positions in a place where they are guaranteed to be seen by top candidates.

Visit inbusinessmag.com now to post your open positions!

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M A R . 20 1 5

President & CEO Rick McCartney

Editorial Director RaeAnne Marsh

Senior Art Director Benjamin Little

Financial Manager Donna C. Mitchell, CPA

Office Manager Savanah Holmgren

Communications Coordinator Tanner Gray-Spencer

Accounting Todd Juhl

Corporate Offices 4455 E. Camelback Road Building C, Suite 135 Phoenix, AZ 85018 T: (480) 588-9505 F: (480) 584-3751 info@inmediacompany.com

www.inmediacompany.com Vol. 6, No. 3. In Business Magazine is published 12 times per year by InMedia Company. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to InMedia Company, 4455 E. Camelback Road, Building C, Suite 135, Phoenix, AZ 85018. To subscribe to In Business Magazine, please send check or money order for one-year subscription of $24.95 to InMedia Company, 4455 E. Camelback Road, Building C, Suite 135, Phoenix, AZ 85018 or visit inbusinessmag.com. We appreciate your editorial submissions, news and photos for review by our editorial staff. You may send to editor@inbusinessmag.com or mail to the address above. All letters sent to In Business Magazine will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication, copyright purposes and use in any publication, website or brochure. InMedia accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or other artwork. Submissions will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

InMedia Company, LLC reserves the right to refuse certain advertising and is not liable for advertisers’ claims and/or errors. The opinions expressed herein are exclusively those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of InMedia. InMedia Company considers its sources reliable and verifies as much data as possible, although reporting inaccuracies can occur; consequently, readers using this information do so at their own risk. Each business opportunity and/or investment inherently contains certain risks, and it is suggested that the prospective investors consult their attorney and/ or financial professional. Š 2015 InMedia Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission by the publisher.

I N B U S I N E S S M AG . CO M

MARYANN GUERRA, BIOACCEL

Powering Startups

MaryAnn Guerra is chairman of the board, CEO and co-founder of BioAccel. She is known for creating novel programs to accelerate the transfer of technology from the lab into new business opportunities, and has spent much of her career operating successful health, science and technology businesses. Since the launch of BioAccel in April 2009, 12 companies have been successfully launched with products close to commercial availability. Additionally, BioAccel partnered with the City of Peoria to create BioInspire, the first medical device accelerator in Arizona.

Arizona has been recognized by Fast Company as the top state for entrepreneurial activity. And small business is a significant economic driver for our state, as it is for the country as a whole, powered in large part by technology.

Technology development is moving at great speed, emanating from many diverse sources and a variety of fields of study. The problem is not in innovation. We’re great at that. The problem is in translation, and having a local ecosystem to support a vibrant startup community. The Kaufman Foundation and The Center for Advancing Innovation surveyed 145 research institutions across the U.S. and determined that the ability to commercialize only 6 percent more federally funded research discoveries could have a $1.4 trillion to $3 trillion impact on the national GDP. The ability to identify, cultivate and commercialize the right concept, at the right time and in the most efficient manner is becoming increasing more important to both our local and national economy. Entrepreneurs need to partner with industry and customers to marry market needs with novel technology solutions.

The more efficiently this integration of market need, innovation and investment occurs, the betterpositioned industry becomes to accelerate the time it takes for new products to reach the market.

Incubators and accelerators play an important role in working with entrepreneurs to help cultivate and accelerate the launch of new ideas and companies. Startup companies generate jobs for our community.

Since the recession, from mid-2009 to 2011, small business accounted for 67 percent (up from 64 percent) of net new jobs. As we say at BioAccel, helping entrepreneurs reach their potential helps Arizona reach its potential. With major changes facing us in the healthcare industry, a drive for wellness, coupled with opportunities for innovation, provides a solid platform to create positive economic impact.

The cover story delves further into the questions: Who is helping the startups, and why? What difference does that startup activity have, ultimately, on the overall economy? And what is the return to that accelerator or incubator enterprise for its investment? To explore this — as well as the difference between the two types of startup hubs — In Business Magazine editor RaeAnne Marsh spoke with founders and executives of some of the leading private and public accelerators and incubators.

Trends in entrepreneurship and tips for success, from thought leaders Jenny Q. Ta and Neal Thornberry, Ph.D., respectively, comprise the Enterprise feature. And Joel D. Levitt shares insights on common obstructions that interfere with the best-laid plans for making meetings a productive use of time — and offers a simple solution for the executive in charge.

Technology, healthcare and new business are among other subjects that fill these pages with articles focused on helping build business here in the Valley of the Sun. I hope you find the information of value. It’s my pleasure to help bring you this March issue of In Business Magazine. Enjoy!

Starting them early: The Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program at Arizona State University is a national award-winning social entrepreneurship program in which students design, build and deploy projects that solve problems for nonprofits. Local high schools participating are Cesar Chavez High School, Chandler High School, Metro Tech High School, Rancho Solano Preparatory Academy, Western School of Science and Technology and Xavier College Preparatory High School. epics.engineering.asu.edu

Sincerely,

CONNECT WITH US: Story Ideas/PR: editor@ inbusinessmag.com

MaryAnn Guerra Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder BioAccel

Business Events/ Connections: businessevents@ inbusinessmag.com

Ambition on the Rise Support for the various incentives, programs and technologies

in raising the level of the innovation that Arizona is becoming

that can assist great and innovative ideas get off the ground and

known for, and building recognition for the state. Biosciences have

actually accelerate the growth of those businesses is gaining

set the tone for true innovation and eminence that is attracting

traction. It is one thing to be touting all of these programs and how

international attention for all business here in the Valley. We

they can empower business, but it is quite another to see actual

strongly support these efforts and look forward to working with

data that show these efforts are making a sustainable difference

BioAccel and the many other economic development organizations

for the business communities where they operate.

to ensure Arizona’s place at the forefront of innovation and

We thank MaryAnn Guerra, who continues to be a leading force

Let us know what you think of this issue of In Business Magazine. Email our publisher at feedback@inbusinessmag.com.

economic success.

Marketing/Exposure: advertise@ inbusinessmag.com Visit us online at www.inbusinessmag.com

—Rick McCartney, Publisher

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MAR. 20 1 5

I N B U S I N E S S M AG . CO M

VALLEY LEADERS SOUND OFF does your co-working space fit in the ecosystem for economic development of startup Q: How businesses and what was the attraction of the Greater Phoenix area?

FEEDBACK QUESTION: Let us know what you want to know from the Valley’s top business leaders. editor@inbusinessmag.com

For all past Feedbacks go online to inbusinessmag.com and see what Valley executives think on various business topics.

MAR. 20 1 5

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I N B U S I N E S S M AG . CO M

FRANCISCO AGUIRRE

GABE GASCA

JENNY POON

Founder The Office Pile Sector: Economic Development

Community Curator DeskHub Scottsdale Sector: Economic Development

Founder CO+HOOTS Sector: Economic Development

The Office Pile is the first culturally diverse co-working space in the nation.

Along with its not-for-profit arm, The TOP Foundation, TOP cultivates and educates by assisting with funding, capital, office resources and services during the critical Stage I early life of members’ business development and, with a landing platform for Stage II businesses, by offering its members co-working space.

The Greater Phoenix area is a rich and diverse environment for advancement of equal opportunity entrepreneurialism, which is why TOP opened its doors in Phoenix.

Jorge is a client who showed up one day at The Office Pile to sell ad space in his fledgling magazine. I asked if he had an office; he said no. I asked if he had a sample of his magazine; he did not.

He only had a promise to sell. After he toured our office, he immediately fell in love. That day, Jorge became a member and Nosotros Magazine was born. Since then, Jorge has launched a real estate magazine and a social media services company whose primary emphasis is the Hispanic market.

DeskHub is committed to helping grow the Arizona startup ecosystem by creating an entrepreneurial hub of innovation, collaboration and synergy normally found in a larger city. We chose Scottsdale to open the first DeskHub because the time was right for a space of this magnitude in this location.

With more than 17,000 square feet, DeskHub features multiple meeting rooms and collaborative spaces, as well as desks and offices that can accommodate 150 people. We make it easy for entrepreneurs to go about growing their businesses. Our member agreement is month-to-month and we have an all-inclusive pricing model.

By hosting Lunch & Learn seminars and networking events, we offer the community a location to mingle and make real connections.

While DeskHub has been officially open only since early January, we have multiple companies succeeding in our space here. These include SalesTalk, Allbound, Landscapely, Pledger, Adora, Local Lawyer Guide, Postmates and Gainsight (these last two are Bay Area companies).

CO+HOOTS, the first and largest co-working community in downtown Phoenix, has worked hard at being a collaborative leader in driving the Phoenix ecosystem for innovation.

CO+HOOTS allows startup businesses access to a professional yet creative space that inspires innovation and to resources and knowledge that can be learned by collaborating with fellow members. The CO+HOOTS Foundation, our nonprofit arm, is extending our impact by providing pro bono service, youth programs and the first global coworker/entrepreneur exchange program in the world that is rooted in service.

We believe Phoenix is a great place to live, work and play, and the downtown community is building something really special. One of our greatest success stories is Heckler Design, which started in our space with just one member and now employs more than 10 in two downtown Phoenix warehouses. Heckler Design has experienced consistent growth each year. It means a lot to us that even when companies grow out of our space, they still maintain a membership to remain a part of our community.

The Office Pile theofficepile.com

DeskHub deskhub.com

Francisco Aguirre is the founder of The Office Pile and also serves as the chairman of the TOP Foundation. He has a BA in Marketing & Business Management and a MBA in Finance from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He is a recipient of the Wall Street Journal Award in Economics.

Passionate about the startup ecosystem, Gabe Gasca enjoys helping people improve personal and business growth through making the right connections. As Community Curator of DeskHub, Scottsdale’s new co-working space, he utilizes his 20-plus years of business development, marketing and sales expertise in helping companies succeed. His specialties include co-working, entrepreneur, startup, business development, digital strategy, mobile, software development and video.

CO+HOOTS and CO+HOOTS Foundation. cohoots.com Serial entrepreneur Jenny Poon is the founder of CO+HOOTS, downtown Phoenix’s first and largest co-working community, and Eeko Studio, a graphic design and marketing strategy firm. Poon is also co-founder of the CO+HOOTS Foundation, CO+HOOTS’ nonprofit arm, and the Phoenix Coworking Alliance. She built CO+HOOTS so she could connect with like-minded folks who believe business growth comes from collaboration.

Sign up for the monthly In Business Magazine eNewsletter at www.inbusinessmag.com. Look for survey questions and other research on our business community.

QUICK AND TO THE POINT

BYTES

Eliminate Virus VirusTotal, a subsidiary of Google, is a free online service that analyzes files and URLs, enabling the identification of viruses, worms, trojans and other kinds of malicious content detected by antivirus engines and website scanners. At the same time, it may be used as a means to detect false positives, such as innocuous resources detected as malicious by one or more scanners. virustotal.com/en

Luxury Sweet SuiteHop is an online booking platform that provides an easy way for fans to enjoy a luxury suite experience at sports and entertainment venues across the United States. SuiteHop’s streamlined platform allows users to directly book entire suites or individual seats in suites with real-time availability and pricing. With hundreds of venues hosting thousands of events across the nation, SuiteHop makes it possible to obtain highly selective luxury suites. suitehop.com

Alert to Contract Terms Most contracts extend without notice. Cloudtract is a free application that sends an alert when contracts are about to expire. It is a simple online contract management platform for small and medium-sized companies, where they can store contracts, such as ongoing utility and IT contracts, and set alerts to be able to tell when they need to be renewed or when they want to cancel them.

Businesses often waste a lot of money because they forget to cancel contracts they no longer want. cloudtract.com

Walmart Tests Grocery Pickup Walmart is testing a new initiative in three East Valley locations that allows customers to order groceries online and pick up their order for free at the store. The Valley locations (in Mesa and Chandler) are the first in the Southwest to offer the new service and Metro Phoenix is only the fourth market nationally in which the retail giant is testing its Walmart Grocery Pickup initiative.

To use the service, customers visit walmart.com/grocery and enter their zip code. If eligible, they are prompted to sign in or create their Walmart Grocery account. They select items and a four-hour pickup window. Walmart associates fill the order and call customers when it’s ready. On arrival at the store, the customer calls a designated number that alerts a store associate who then retrieves the order — which has to be at least $30 — and loads it into the vehicle. The customer does not need to leave the vehicle.

It’s all part of Walmart’s search for new ways customers can shop, this time combining digital and physical assets.

A spokesman for Walmart, Bao Nguyen, says the company chose Phoenix to test the initiative because “we have great customers and associates in that market and we have a strong store presence there.” According to Nguyen, Walmart has 62 stores in the Metro Phoenix area with about 14,000 associates, and 107 stores throughout the state with about 32,000 associates.

“We’re currently tapping into our existing base of associates, and may hire additional associates to ensure a seamless pickup experience.”

Nguyen says Walmart is still assessing demographics as the company gets the word out on the new initiative. “We’re seeing a lot of promise with this service,” he says. “Customers are seeing value in it. We’re expanding it to test in other places around the country.” —Mike Saucier

Walmart walmart.com

VISUALIZE

Save on Energy Costs Companies can save energy and money. SRP Business Solutions rebates cut upgrade costs, reduce energy use and can slash bills. If a project’s energy savings can be measured, it probably qualifies. Check out the process. Even if the business is not ready for upgrades, SRP Business Solutions has options that will help any business learn more about its energy use and get advice — customizable for the business. savewithsrpbiz.com

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Walmart spokesperson Bao Nguyen says that in other markets, such as Denver, Walmart is finding that “customers are returning and that’s a key indicator for how useful this is.” In Denver, 80 percent of the orders are repeat customers.

Photos courtesy of Walmart (upper right)

rebate options and see how to get started. Or contact an SRP Alliance Participant for help through the

Dan Cracchiolo

Ed Bull

Martha Patrick

Personal Injury

Land Use & Zoning

Tax Controversy

Andy Abraham Selected 2015 Best Lawyers Real Estate Litigation and Real Estate Law

“Lawyer of the Year”

Clare Abel

Mike Dulberg

Ian Neale

Real Estate

Construction Law

Personal Injury

Steve Serrano

Todd Julian

Ed Fleming

Family Law

Personal Injury

Commercial Litigation

Congratulations to Burch & Cracchiolo attorneys who have been selected by their peers for inclusion in 2015 US News Best Lawyers in America. bcattorneys.com

Burch & Cracchiolo, P.A. 702 E. Osborn Rd., Suite 200 Phoenix, AZ 85014 602.274.7611

Arizona • California • Nevada

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GET REAL

Park in Style Portland on the Park, sister property to Downtown’s awardwinning Portland Place, will consist of four-, 12- and 14-story towers with a five-story parking garage for resident and guest use. With some floor plans recently redesigned larger in answer to buyer interest, home sizes range from 745 to 2,490 square feet. In the Central Arts District, it is situated between Portland Park and Margaret T. Hance Park along Central Avenue. Construction will begin this spring and is slated for completion in the summer of 2016.portlandparkcondos.com

Innovation for Travel Gifting

Valley resident Marianne Kunkin built TravelHugg as a gift card specifically for travel and travel-related expenses so that the giver could know its recipient would use the gift card for travel rather than general use. An avid gift-card user, she saw this as a void that personal need inspired her to fill. When she relocated to Phoenix, she says it was with the expectation that her close-knit family would follow. That didn’t happen, and when her daughter was born, she says, “I wanted to give a gift card to my mother that would guarantee she’d come visit me and my daughter.” No such card existed, so she put her years of experience in software development in the financial credit card space toward developing what she likens to an “iTunes for travel gifting,” and launched TravelHugg’s beta site last October.

An all-in-one card for travel, services and more — with online booking among upcoming additions — TravelHugg is a software-based, non-financial solution that is not merchant reliant and therefore offers users greater flexibility. “The system is as fraud-deterrent as the merchant solutions,” she says. Additionally, she explains, there are none of the interchanges or transaction fees traditionally part of merchant solutions. So, “From a travel provider perspective, we’ve got a software solution that lowers their cost of operation through removal of that transaction model.”

The name was created around the goal of “helping you give the getaway,” but it also evokes Kunkin’s desire — in a world increasingly dominated by virtual, social media interaction — to bring family and friends together physically for the “hug” possible only in a face-to-face relationship. —RaeAnne Marsh TravelHugg travelhugg.com

Camelback Square, a three-story Class-A office project in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale, was recently purchased for $42.3 million. “The Old Town Scottsdale office market is an extremely popular area that is experiencing steadily rising rents and values,” says Paul Smith, principal of new owner Velocis.

“Camelback Square is our first acquisition in the Phoenix market, and one we hope to build on as we pursue additional assets in the Southwest region.” Seller Lincoln Property Company will continue to manage the property. lpcphx.com

Value-Add Asset in Phoenix Madison Square was recently purchased, through Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, by Madison Square Property, LLC, which plans to reposition the value-add asset through a multi-million-dollar upgrade and is working with Phoenix Design One to redesign and remodel the project, taking into account the complex’s fundamental qualities and outstanding location. Built in two phases in 1986 and 1990, the 177,312-square-foot complex located at 5343-5353 N. 16th St. in Phoenix, which includes underground parking, was 65 percent occupied at the time of sale. ngkf.com

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Chicagoans Launch Beer Distribution in Phoenix

Tapping Phoenix as an up-and-coming beer market, brothers Jason and Jim Ebel — founders of Two Brothers Brewing Co. and Windy City Distributing in Chicago — recently launched Arizona Beer & Cider Company. “We see Arizona like Chicago was five or seven years ago, in terms of being a burgeoning beer market that is poised to do really well,” Jason says. He shares that personal reasons figured in as well. “We have a lot of family here and we come out here all of the time.”

The brothers are not content to focus just on Arizona Beer & Cider Company; in late January of this year they also opened Two Brothers Taphouse and Brewery in Scottsdale.

With more than 3,200 square feet of refrigerated space, Arizona Beer & Cider Company has a fully temperature-controlled warehouse and uses only refrigerated delivery vehicles. For now, it will distribute Two Brothers Brewing Company and Smuttynose Brewing Company product, but Jason says they expect to add additional brands in the future. In addition to beer, cider will be an important part of their company’s portfolio and they will represent highquality, smaller cider mills and craft beer brands. —Alison Stanton Arizona Beer & Cider Company azbeercider.com

Demand for townhomes and condos is strengthening, and the median sales price for those types of homes went up a whopping 15 percent in 2014, according to a recent report from the W. P. Carey School of Business. wpcarey.asu.edu

Photos courtesy of Portland-on-the-Park, Lincoln Property Company and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (left, top to bottom); TravelHugg (top right), Arizona Beer & Cider Company (bottom right)

New Interest in Old Town

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GLENDALE , AZ CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU Showcasing the West Valley

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Urban ExcitEmEnt

Shopping & Dining

SportS

rElaxation aDvEntUrE

INNOVATIONS FOR BUSINESS

BY RAEANNE MARSH

New Platform for CRE Marketing RealMassive, an open-data commercial real estate platform recently launched in Phoenix, will serve commercial real estate land owners, property managers and leasing agents who want to get marketing information “out to the rest of the world” but have up to now been stymied by existing data systems that have not allowed the information out to the public, explains Joshua McClure, co-founder of RealMassive. With the technologic innovations that enable vast online networks such as Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, McClure and co-founder Craig Hancock are building a marketplace for CRE that will be similar to Wall Street in that “you can find large capital investments to invest in” and similar to banking in that “you can find information on underwriting for tenants, etc.,” McClure says. realmassive.com

Auction Alert between eBay and Invaluable.com that united the global leader in commerce and technology with the market leader in online live auctions for fine art and collectibles, Invaluable member J. Levine Auction & Appraisal recently experienced an unexpected bidding frenzy over a bronze statue that was originally estimated to be worth between $100 and $300, but ultimately sold for $96,000. “It proves the power of the Internet, because bidders from Asia recognized the markings inscribed at the bottom of the piece to be that of the Ch’ing dynasty,” says J. Levine owner Josh Levine. jlevines.com

Parking Meters Go App Using its PaNGoTM platform, Pango Mobile Parking, Ltd., allows drivers to “feed” the meter through the ease of a mobile phone app, to pay for parking at parking meters, add more time from a remote location, track where they parked and also receive discounts from local participating businesses. The service recently

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As millions of Americans fall victim to identity fraud each year, USAA is unveiling its solution to offer its 10.1 million members safety against such theft: biometric recognition. A new USAA app has to recognize a user’s face before allowing access to the individual’s accounts. USAA, which offers banking, investing and insurance services to people and families who serve or have served in the U.S. military, is the first U.S. financial institution to offer the technology.

Users simply look at the screen and blink their eyes when prompted. If they have chosen voice recognition, they must read a short phrase. Arizona is one of several states where members can use this process. About 2.8 percent of the total membership enrolled in biometrics is from Arizona, according to USAA spokeswoman Dana Martinez.

Most people use an easy-to-remember number combination — the familiar PIN — across several platforms, according to Rick Swenson, USAA’s executive for Fraud Operational Excellence and Strategic Initiatives. “Unfortunately, most people recycle their PINs,” Swenson says. Once the bad guys figure out the PIN, it’s that much easier to steal an identity. So it only made sense to remove that from the equation.

Once users download the application and enroll in the new program, USAA takes three pictures of the user, during which they must blink, and records their voice. Once USAA has created the algorithm that defines the attributes of the user’s face and voice, the app is ready to go. Says Swenson, “It is convenient …

It takes less than two seconds” to take what he calls a security selfie. “You blink and you’re in.”

USAA, which Swenson says was the first financial institution to offer quick logon (a two-factor identification process), next plans to test the use of fingerprint identification for logging in. —Mike Saucier

Paper-to-Digital Software for Law

Thanks to a partnership

debuted in Phoenix. pango-parking.com

Blink Once to Guard Against Fraud

Addressing the particular needs of the stillpaper-intensive legal industry, DocSolid is a software and services company that creates paper-to-digital solutions. President Steve Irons, creator of the company’s intellectual property, explains, “The technology is a patented way to get paper scanned and integrated with existing software solutions and infrastructure like copiers, multifunction printers, networks and storage systems.” His latest patent, granted last July, he describes as enabling the technology to move to the cloud “in a protected fashion.”

DocSolid is focused especially on the large law firms and corporate legal departments than span multiple cities, regions and even countries. “We deploy technology to leverage networks, storage systems and security already in place,” Irons says. The company also provides the consulting to facilitate the transition from paper-centric to digital-centric activities.

Founded in 2009, DocSolid is a spin-out of one of Irons’ previous companies, ImageTag, from which he recently acquired full rights to his KwikTag

technology that fuels technology he employs for the DocSolid solutions.

While most of his customers are in the eastern United States, the U.K. and Asia, Irons says Phoenix is “a terrific place to operate from.” The Valley resident cites infrastructure — notably Sky Harbor Airport — as well as a location that is attractive for recruiting talent and being able to “operate regionally even when we outsource development” such as to Phoenix-based software development company Tiempo, which operates some of its software development centers in convenient proximity in Mexico. —RaeAnne Marsh DocSolid docsolid.com

Headlines about fraud and identity theft abound as millions of U.S. consumers become victims each year. Mere weeks ago, Anthem Inc., the country’s second-largest health provider, was the target of a cyber security breach. Up to 80 million people potentially were affected. The information that was stolen can be used to raid bank and retirement accounts.

Photo courtesy of RealMassive (far left, top), USAA (top right), DocSolid (bottom right)

TECH NOTES

Arizona’s Education and Training Partner

Rufus Glasper, Ph.D. Chancellor, Maricopa Community Colleges

The Maricopa Community Colleges are leaders in helping students fulfill their educational dreams, whether through university transfer or preparation for a fulfilling career.

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Offering programs at 10 colleges, 2 skill centers, a Corporate College, and multiple satellite locations in the greater Phoenix area

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Approximately 213,000 credit students and about 27,000 special interest students attended a Maricopa Community College in 2013 - 2014

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YOUR BENEFIT IN BUSINESS

Wheelchairing in Style For the 3.3 million people in the United States who currently use a wheelchair, Wheelchair Solutions has introduced a patented product line that will help make them more comfortable, protect their valuables and, founder Kathy Mondotte hopes, put a smile on their faces.

Designed by the Scottsdale resident to address shortcomings she experienced when an injury confined her to a wheelchair for more than a year, Wheelchair Solutions’ Wheelies “Wardrobe for Your Chair” allows those confined to wheelchairs to fashionize their chair with reversible seat covers, armrest covers and accessories, including security pouches, in colorful, hand-dyed, handmade and washable fabric choices. wheelchair-solutions.com

PCH Advances Genomic-based Care Partnering with healthcare technology visionary Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Phoenix Children’s Hospital will serve as the exclusive national hub for pediatric genomic research and translational precision medicine through its new Chan SoonShiong Children’s Precision Medicine Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Housing one of the few dedicated supercomputers in the country, able to deliver genomic sequencing and analysis more quickly than ever before, the institute will transform the pediatric healthcare landscape by applying state-ofthe-art genomic and proteomic technology that will enable physicians to develop specific and targeted therapeutic remedies based on the individual’s unique genetic makeup. phoenixchildrens.org

Leveraging Company Healthcare In Business Magazine will present the fourth annual “The New Healthcare: The Net Effect of Coverage, Premiums and Benefits” event and expo at The Phoenician Resort on April 17. Three panels of local healthcare experts will speak on: Coverage — what businesses need to succeed; Premiums — leveraging costs and the bottom line; and Benefits — the power of prevention and wellness. The event will include an expo of local healthcare companies.

When Patients May Misremember

Dr. Randall Porter’s frustration that patients were not correctly recalling what he said to them during appointments sparked an idea. That spark was further fueled by his dealings with his own father’s cancer diagnosis. The idea: Record exam room visits so nothing is left to chance.

The spark came in 2008 and Dr. Porter, a neurosurgeon who moved to the Valley from Chicago in 1993, has been pursuing it ever since. He started recording his exam room visits and officially launched The Medical Memory in the fall of 2014.

Since then, responses from the more than 1,700 patients who have used The Medical Memory have been overwhelmingly positive, according to the company spokesperson. She reports The Medical Memory has reduced the number of phone calls Dr. Porter’s office receives from patients by 25 percent (out of 10,000 annually) and lowered the amount of redundant office visits, all while allowing patients to make more rapid and better informed medical treatment decisions.

Armed with his own personal experiences, other physicians’ same frustrations, and statistics on memory, Dr. Porter merged his instinct to help others with an entrepreneurial streak.

Now, Dr. Porter and other users press a button on a tablet, the visit is recorded and the patient is sent a recording of the session within five minutes of the visit. The recording can be shared with concerned loved ones, wherever they may be. Dr. Porter says he can see through analytics that the videos are being viewed in more than 30 states, where families, friends or trusted loved ones are shown the visit so they can see what is going on and assess the concerns. He finds that about 70 percent of patients want the videos.

Overall, 95 percent of the patients are satisfied with the service. —Mike Saucier The Medical Memory themedicalmemory.com

Accolade Explodes Healthcare Employment

Accolade, a national company that streamlines the fragmented array of member services, nurse lines, disease management and care management programs typically deployed in healthcare coverage into one integrated service its members access through their own Accolade Health Assistant, recently opened an office in Scottsdale.

Umair Khan, customer operations lead for Accolade’s Scottsdale office, says the company — which opened its first office in Plymouth Meeting, Penn., in 2007 and whose services are offered as a benefit by some of the country’s largest self-insured employers and payers — wanted to expand into the western part of the country. After looking at various options and researching the Phoenix metropolitan area, Khan says Scottsdale “came out on top.”

“The work force here is great, and we can get greater business continuity by being in two time

zones,” he says. He credits the City of Scottsdale with helping Accolade get settled into the area and offering tips on how to recruit from the great local work force. The company, which plans to hire a total of 250 new positions to Scottsdale over the next three years to keep up with growing customer demand and to offer extended hours of operation, is actively hiring RNs and Health Assistants.

“We are a new and different type of healthcare company that is good for people who may want a career in healthcare but not work in a hospital.

Working for Accolade allows people to use their skills but in a very authentic and humane manner,” —Alison Stanton Khan says.

Accolade accolade.com

Tickets are $65. inbuisnessmag.com

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Studies show that immediately after a doctor’s office visit, patients recall about 25 percent of what is said to them; after a month, that figure drops to 10 percent.

Photo courtesy of Wheelchair Solutions (far left), The Medical Memory (top)

WELL WELL WELL

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Brown & Brown Insurance of Arizona, Inc. is your hometown, full-service insurance broker. With specialists in all lines of coverage, we protect the investments of individuals and multi-million-dollar businesses alike. As a national, publicly traded insurance brokerage, we can access virtually any market, allowing us the competitive versatility and leverage not found with smaller brokers. The decentralized culture of Brown & Brown Insurance gives us the local controls necessary to remain nimble and decisive, bringing you the coverage and service you deserve. We will identify and measure all risk exposures before recommending and providing the most advantageous solutions. At Brown & Brown Insurance of Arizona, we represent you, the client, first.

If you would like more information about Brown & Brown Insurance of Arizona, visit us at www.bbphoenix.com

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METRICS & MEASUREMENTS

Where are America’s Most Innovative Technology Hubs?

Recent study determines who’s on top and where we stand

by Mike Hunter

In a story written in March of last year, Scientific American looked at the “magic” that is Silicon Valley, and in its article, “Why Silicon Valley’s Success is So Hard to Replicate,” writer Barry Jaruzelski analyzes local resources, proximity to metro San Francisco and other attributes that are not necessarily unique to other key tech areas around the United States.

It seems to be much more than variety and corporate culture. bitly.com/replicate-success

An important question to ask, of late, is, “Who is on top in innovation technology?” because the answer truly can make a difference in local markets that are all vying for the top position — or very close to the top. The good news is, many of the top communities are on top because they are making a concerted effort to compete. The bad news is some, like Phoenix — although they are working hard to compete — are way down on the list.

NerdWallet, a website offering accessible online tools to better inform consumers on credit cards, insurance, loans and other consumer expenses, conducts research to help consumers take control over personal finance. Using its strengths to gather data, NerdWallet recently conducted a study to find America’s most innovative technology hubs.

Not a huge surprise was the top region selected because of the high number of patents per capita and venture capital funding figures that no other place comes close to. That is the metro area that includes the cities of San Jose, Sunnyvale and Universities and their interest in startups were key Santa Clara (Silicon Valley), which leads all in tech innovation. factors, as every metro area in the Top 10 is located near Only two East Coast places made the Top 10 list: Burlington, a major university. This suggests that higher education Vt., and Boston. and innovation are closely linked, according to the findings NerdWallet determined that Phoenix is the 30th-most of the study and a correlation noted by researchers at innovative tech hub in the nation. Between 2009 and 2013, NerdWallet. there were 1.56 technology-class patents issued for every 1,000 residents. Phoenix also has a high startup density, with NerdWallet nerdwallet.com 1.5 times more new startups for its population size than the national average. Phoenix still has a ways to Cities Where the Action Is go in terms of the venture capital environment. The America’s most innovative tech hubs city has $55.26 in venture capital funding per capita.

San Jose, the No. 1 city in the report, has $3,585.68 in Rank Metro area Patents per 1,000 2014 venture Tech Overall and state residents from capital funding startup score VC funding per capita, according to NerdWallet.

2009 to 2013 per capita density The methodology for the study looked at the 1 San Jose, Calif.

27.39 $3,585.68 2.60 80.11 number of utility patents that have a primary classification in classes of technology as defined by 2 Boulder, Colo.

10.20 $963.75 6.30 54.60 the U.S. Patent Classification System which were 3 San Francisco, Calif.

7.44 $3,485.31 2.40 53.70 granted in the metro area from 2009 to 2013. This 4 Corvallis, Ore. 12.28 $131.08 2.00 26.28 is 33.3 percent of the total score. It also looked at 5 Seattle, Wash.

5.40 $333.74 2.40 21.91 venture capital funding per capita in 2014 from the 6 Fort Collins, Colo.

4.91 $42.03 3.00 21.83 National Venture Capital Association, which is 33.3 percent of the total score. Finally, it looked at the 7 Provo, Utah 2.89 $833.52 1.90 20.80 Kauffman Foundation’s information on tech startup 8 Austin, Texas 6.58 $329.56 1.70 19.55 density in each metro area. The density is a ratio that 9 Burlington, Vt. 10.23 $65.74 1.30 19.41 compares new companies in a region to the number of 10 Boston, Mass 4.83 $948.58 1.00 19.40 new companies in the U.S., controlling for population.

For example, if an area’s density is more than one, the 28 Rochester, N.Y. 6.05 $21.21 0.70 10.66 area has higher-than-average number of new tech companies. This determines the final 33.3 percent of 29 Phoenix, Ariz.

1.56 $55.26 1.50 9.78 the total score.

30 Champaign, Ill. 2.94 $11.62 1.20 9.46 Source: nerdwallet.com/blog/cities/americas-most-innovative-tech-hubs

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Profiting on innovation requires commercialization. Randall Stross shares the story of one of the most successful programs for entrepreneurs to go from concept to profitability in record time in his book The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Most Exclusive School for Startups.

MINDING THEIR BUSINESS

Trish McCarty: Innovating Education Founder of StarShine Academy values children as customers

Photo courtesy of StarShine Academy

by Alison Stanton

As founder and CEO of StarShine Academy, a K-12 charter school in Phoenix, Trish McCarty feels strongly that her most important customers are the students, some of whom are just 5 years old. “Our main customers are our children, and the second-most important customers are our teachers,” she says.

McCarty was inspired to open StarShine Academy in 2002 because she was deeply concerned about the status of K-12 education. In addition, in her former career as a leader in the banking industry, McCarty says she saw too many examples of people who were not raised to have critical thinking skills. “As a concerned mother, I was also concerned about the quality of education that was available to my kids.”

However, in order to give each and every student the best possible educational experience at StarShine Academy that includes individualized learning plans and a rich and varied curriculum, McCarty knew that she had to have more than a passion for her school and a desire to improve the educational system. She also had to meet with as many people as possible from a variety of different realms and industries to get their input on what would make the school successful.

“I didn’t know much about it at first; my ability is to strategically solve big problems. Getting community people together and discussing problems and solutions is part of my ethos, so I conducted numerous think tanks with scientists, local leaders, highly recommended educators, moms and many others, and implemented the results,” McCarty says, adding that to this day she still schedules regular think tanks to determine ways that StarShine Academy can constantly and continuously improve.

“I just try to do what the great companies do, and look at what the problems are and bring in amazing consultants to try to determine what we can make better,” McCarty says.

Researching companies that she feels have an excellent handle on customer service has also been immensely helpful to McCarty. She names Discount Tire in particular as a company she admires and strives to emulate for its commitment to customers. “I study them all the time because they just have phenomenal customer service, and I feel like since so many of our students are little and can’t tell us what they need, it’s up to us to figure it out.”

Another key to StarShine Academy’s success, McCarty says, is making sure the teachers receive the best possible training on an on-going basis — specifically, focusing on teaching her staff to be effective leaders to their young charges. At least once a week, the teachers go through some type of empowerment training. “In corporations, the leaders will need to go to leadership and empowerment training; that’s just status quo for a corporation. Yet most teachers in other schools just need to take classes on curriculum and testing, which will not show them how to effectively teach a child and how to have a harmonious class.”

Although McCarty believes strongly in StarShine Academy and its mission to provide the ultimate educational experience for each and every student, she has met with her share of criticism along the way. “Anytime you are trying to create an exponential change or a paradigm shift you will meet with resistance. Ten times a day I’m told how great we are and two times a day I hear how awful we are.”

In order to not let the Doubting Thomases get to her, McCarty says she remembers the advice a race car driver once told her: When you are in the fast lane, don’t look in the rearview mirror and don’t look next to you. Just focus on the finish line. “My tactic when dealing with criticism is to just keep going forward and know that we are doing important work.”

STARSHINE ACADEMY: ENCOURAGING CHILDREN TO SHINE • In 2013, StarShine Academy built a new, state-of-the-art, $14-million campus in Phoenix.

• Among the special programs the students take part in is nationally recognized Career Tech Ed Culinary Arts Program through CCAP, which pairs celebrity chefs as mentors with potential chefs in high schools.

• To open the doors to the business and education leaders she hoped would help her bring her idea to reality, “it helps to be married to a Rock star,” says McCarty, who is married to singer/ songwriter Steve McCarty, former member of the Steve Miller Band.

StarShine Academy starshineacademy.org

StarShine Academy is participating in the $15-million XPRIZE for Global Learning contest, one of the largest-ever STEM (+A arts) projects. Students will be part of a team developing a free mobile app to eliminate global illiteracy by helping people teach themselves how to read, write and do simple math.

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LAW MATTERS TO BUSINESS

Working Out Equity and Ownership Issues Startups’ focus on developing a new idea may put long-term planning in their blind spot

by RaeAnne Marsh

Steven Reed is an associate with Jennings, Strouss & Salmon’s Corporate, Securities and Finance group. He focuses on advising businesses and investors in a broad range of transactions and relationships, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, real estate and general corporate matters.

Peter Wand, a partner with Lewis Roca Rothgerber, serves as co-chair of the firm’s Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits practice. He counsels employers on the design and management of qualified and nonqualified retirement plans and executive compensation programs, including equity-based incentive compensation programs such as stock options, stock appreciation rights, phantom stock and restricted stock.

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“One of the most important things for startups to know is how precious their equity is; the ownership in their company is,” says Peter Wand, a partner with the law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber, noting that in some incubators and almost all accelerators there is an aspect of investment in exchange for a share in the company.

All incubators and accelerators operate differently, and their terms may vary, points out Steven Reed, an attorney with the law firm Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, observing, “If it’s a young company or brand new idea, [the entrepreneur] probably hasn’t given thought to how the business is structured or what kind of future shares to give in it.”

Because there are different ways somebody could own a piece of the company, the parties need to understand what the incubator or accelerator is going to be receiving and try to tie down the details. Reed cites Tallwave as an example of an accelerator that has “been doing this a while and has a good idea of what they need to be telling companies and how this should be structured to provide the clarity that’s necessary.”

Others may not be so clear, asking simply for a certain percentage of the company — but the question arises as to what that means five years down the road when the company wants to raise money and value may be diluted by additional equity. Says Wand, “Be very certain the agreement you’re entering into is right for you and provides the appropriate valuation of your company.”

Most startups will pay employees and consultants in the form of equity because current cash is not available, Wand observes. Therefore, an entrepreneur needs to be very careful about the amount of equity he or she sells to an incubator, accelerator or investor. The different types of equity need to be considered as well to be sure the agreement with the incubator investor or accelerator investor doesn’t tie the entrepreneur’s hands with respect to issuing equity to future employees and consultants. “We don’t often see it, but it’s important for startups to be able to run the company as they see fit and not have to look to investors for permission,” Wand says.

The equity options to weigh are restricted stock, stock options and restricted stock units. Restricted stock are shares of a company that are not fully vested, and will vest over time in their ability to be sold over the open market. There is generally no income tax effect, but the possible downside is it makes the recipients shareholders with access to all company information and also cedes some control away from the founder(s). Stock options are the right to purchase stock for a given price at some point in the future. The employee or consultant does not have to purchase the stock at the time but

can exercise the option if the company becomes successful.

This option allows the entrepreneur to restrict access to the company’s books and records. Restricted stock options are similar to restricted stock but upon the stock’s vesting, the company could give the holder stock or cash. This enables the entrepreneur to control how many shareholders the company has. “If the entrepreneurs are not sure they want that employee or consultant to be with the company for the long term, this allows them to maintain the flexibility to cash that person out at any time,” Wand explains.

Intellectual property is another concern about which startups — and companies in general — need to be careful.

While acknowledging that he is unaware of any incubator or accelerator making any claim separately from an equity stake, Reed says, “If patents, trademarks or copyright is appropriate, steps should be taken to protect it.” If something is jointly created, such as in a co-working space, parties that helped create it might assert a claim, so Reed suggests parties have a standard agreement making clear where ownership of the intellectual property resides. From a practical standpoint, Reed says doesn’t see that issue coming up and also rarely sees litigation between an incubator or accelerator and the business founder. “Where the real action is, more frequently, is between founders.” Too often, they get together and get going on an idea but don’t formalize what the agreement is between parties — such as percentage and what role each plays.

“Companies always fall apart and are in litigation because no formal arrangements were agreed upon,” he says, referring to Facebook as a prominent example. To avoid having to spend time, energy and money down the road, Reed suggests the business arrangements be formalized through an operating agreement. “Hash out the details through the organizational documents of the entities.”

Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP lrrlaw.com Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, PLC jsslaw.com

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This issue’s cover story (page 26) takes an in-depth look at business incubators and accelerators and their different ways of working with startups.

Incubating Business

Are Startups Accelerating Our Economy?

A growing trend in economic development is giving startups a boost through business incubators and accelerators

by RaeAnne Marsh

Apple and Intel may capture the headlines, but entrepreneurs are the drivers of the economy. A focused effort to foster an entrepreneurial culture in Arizona, which has generated a tremendous number of business incubators and accelerators, has been building in just the past several years.

The Client’s Viewpoint – Traklight

Traklight is software-as-aservice (SaaS) platform to help entrepreneurs and inventors identify, manage, monetize and protect their intangible assets, including intellectual property.

CEI provided more than just an office space for Traklight. I started there over two years ago without any contractors or employees and little knowledge about marketing or sales. The connections and expertise provided by CEI and its mentors were instrumental to our success.

Over the past two years, we have hired over 10 contractors for various projects and have had up to six employees working full-time. We raised $435,000 in angel funding in early 2014. — Mary Juetten, Founder and CEO.

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“State development folks realized we were overly dependent on defense, construction and service industries,” says Thomas Rainey, president of the Arizona Business Incubator Association, which was created in 2011 under the auspices of the Arizona Commerce Authority. The recent economic downturn created an environment where a lot of people were laid off by traditional employers and had to think about alternatives — and many, out of necessity, started their own business. And that, observes Rainey, is the silver lining because “it creates incentives for people to start their own business, and we become more diversified.”

Phil Bradstock, program manager with the City of Phoenix, oversees its Entrepreneur and Innovation Strategy, which he says became a focus in February 2014. “We want them [entrepreneurs] to stay in Phoenix, create jobs, rent bigger space and create a product that will sell,” he says. A business incubator can help those who come up with an idea but “aren’t sure what to do with it” by helping train them and introducing them to resources — equipment, mentors and, ultimately, investors. “It’s also a place to go to let an idea fail in a safe environment, and not pour your life savings into something that’s not going to work,” he adds.

Rainey dates the inception of the movement to the 1980s, relating it was more about cheap space and real estate than training and connections. “In the early days, economic development organizations that had space available offered great rent to startups.” The National Business Incubator Association — which is now international — was founded at that time, to enable incubators to learn from one another. Now, he says, there’s more attention paid to selecting the right companies.

In the continuum of the startup ecosystem, co-working spaces have emerged to offer entrepreneurs and small-businesses an opportunity to rent

space in a professional work setting. They often foster collaboration among members. Business incubators provide more high-touch, hands-on assistance after accepting clients through an application process.

Typically, an incubator supports first-level startup companies, with a technical assistance program tailored to each company in the program — putting a strategy in place to help the companies quickly develop, grow, establish all the best practices to everything from bookkeeping to marketing to following a business plan, and providing accountability to move them forward. Accelerators are generally the next step, helping companies raise funding and recruit the right kind of talent. Hank Marshall, economic development executive office with the City of Phoenix, says of accelerators, “It’s like strapping on a booster rocket to take the company to the next level.” A fourth kind of operation that startups may avail themselves of is maker space, which offers specialized tools and work space so the entrepreneur can prototype his product to show investors and potentially do a small-scale build of the product for sale, to show there’s a common use for it.

INCUBATORS AND ACCELERATORS AS ECONOMIC BOOST

Co-working spaces and maker spaces offer more selfguided opportunity for the businessperson; our focus here is on incubators and accelerators that provide directed assistance to those companies accepted into their program.

Incubators and accelerators are a relatively new phenomenon, so there is no track record. “We have several years to go before we can gauge how well they succeed,” Marshall observes. At the same time, he gives an “unequivocal yes; they are creating economic value and prosperity” when asked if they are benefiting the economy.

Among the earliest is ASU’s SkySong, which has been ranked as one of the top 20 university incubators in the world. Created in 2003, it reports it has launched and assisted 65 ASU spin-off companies and raised more than $350 million in venture capital and private funding. Another early entry is Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET), which Rainey developed in 2007 after conducting a feasibility study at the behest of the City of Flagstaff; NACET and its earlier incarnation,

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Northern Arizona Technology Business Incubator, have spun off 32 programs since 2004, helped raise $150 million in private investments, and created more than 150 jobs in the community at an average salary of $65,000.

Says Rainey, “Incubators and accelerators help grow your economy organically, so you don’t have to constantly try to recruit someone from somewhere else, creating a fertile ecosystem for startups from within.” MaryAnn Guerra, CEO of accelerator BioAccel, notes also, “It’s important to employ the graduates coming out of [engineering] programs. We’re helping to create the pipeline of new, innovative companies in growth industries that will help diversify our economy and will be the high-paying jobs of the future that will bring all of Arizona to a higher level from an economic development perspective.”

WebPT, Infusionsoft and Appointments Plus are frequently cited as great examples of what can be built right here. In fact, Bradstock notes that seeing WebPT grow from one person to more than 260 employees made him and his colleagues in economic development realize “we were focusing on the larger companies.” The need, he emphasizes, is to focus on the small companies that have the ability to become the larger companies.

And that will likely also result in the companies’ headquarters being here. “Versus trying to attract companies from elsewhere with a lot of incentives, and possibly disrupt the existing ecosystem,” observes Henry Dauphin, whose company, The Refinery — which includes co-working space as well as incubator and accelerator platforms — is expanding to Phoenix from its successful operations in Montreal and Toronto.

After a year-long process of analyzing U.S. cities, Dauphin says, “Phoenix won handily over the other markets we’d analyzed.” Critical elements included our much-vaunted quality of life, but also a market that is ripe for innovation, with the right kind of ideas and entrepreneurs and a high potential for collaboration and connectivity between all participants. Naming the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Arizona Commerce Authority, Arizona Technology Council, CO+HOOTS, SEED SPOT and BioAccel, among others, Dauphin says, “We were blown away by all these participants.”

“It starts with, ‘Where is the deal flow?” Rainey says, explaining the term refers to potential

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for talent and spinning off new businesses. Graduates from education institutions are one part of this, but evidence of entrepreneurial culture also includes people being laid off and needing to create their own job or wanting to leave a large company to do something on their own. “It’s a fertile ecosystem attracting a lot of attention,” he says, expressing optimism regarding Phoenix as a national center for incubators and accelerators. “There’s a tremendous amount of activity for a city of our size.”

DIFFERENT PROFIT MOTIVES

Incubators and accelerators, themselves, come in a variety of business models. There are for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises; some concentrate on a particular type of business; and there is wide variation on the fees charged to participants.

“We’re the purest sense of incubator; we take no equity in our clients’ companies,” says Jeff Saville, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation, relating CEI exists solely to create jobs for the region. Explaining, “It takes eight to 12 months to get an incubator program up and running to experience good efficiencies and output,” Saville says the program — three years old this month — has graduated three companies, which have created 114 jobs at an average salary of $56,000.

The facility, which is located on the campus of Gateway Community College, was funded by a grant from the federal Economic Development Administration matched by the community college district CEI sits under, with some additional funding by the City of Phoenix. “It’s a wonderful fit to have CEI integrated into the community college district,” Saville says, observing that the community colleges “do a great job of training people to enter the work force.”

Opened in March 2012, the 18,000-square-foot facility includes eight wet labs and six manufacturing labs. CEI is mostly focused on technology, medical devices, biotech, software development and clean energy. Eighty-five to 90 percent of its clients are prerevenue, and Saville says the intention of the program is to allow them to enter into the first revenue stage.

“Then they can hire employees and create jobs.”

Regarding the potential that new businesses may

The Client’s Viewpoint – KEASY

KEASY is a keyless, digital lock designed to provide real estate professionals safe and efficient access to properties they want to show.

When I came to SEED SPOT, we were more than an idea because we had a working prototype, but I didn’t feel like KEASY was a company yet. Fourteen weeks later, I had identified our target customer, was confident in our value proposition, had three property management companies on board for beta testing and committed to our first 300 locks. We also had a team of advisors/mentors/fans rooting for KEASY and going out of their way to open doors and help us succeed. It was absolutely the best use of my time and resources.

We just opened our seed round and have had an incredible response. Currently in development for our first beta test locks/app, we are still pre-revenue but have purchase commitments from our beta test clients and are accepting pre-orders on our website. We want to create a community with our early adopters and build what they need, not what we think that they need. —Meghan Martinez, Founder

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The Client’s Viewpoint – Pinnacle Transplant Technologies

Pinnacle Transplant Technologies is a regenerative medical company that operates a human tissue bank.

CEI has contributed to our business success in a number of ways. First and foremost is introductions to key businesspeople to help advise our business. We utilized this group to help build our advisory board, which we established last fall. CEI also provides “Lunch and Learn” sessions covering relevant business topics, monthly group client networking sessions and assistance with everything from developing our first SBIR to assisting with hiring.

We have created 63 jobs in the last 3½ years, with over 30 created in the last 14 months, and project another 40 by the end of this year to put us over 100 associates.

We have attracted $3 million in investment and generated $11 million in revenues in 2014, a 47-percent increase over 2013.

Additionally, although we have our own 25,000-square-foot facility, we are currently maxed out. We have a research lab at CEI and are planning on utilizing the bio 3-D printers CEI recently installed. — Russ Yelton, CEO.

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compete with existing businesses, Saville says CEI looks for differentiators so both can exist in the ecosystem. “We’re the 6th-largest city in America; chances are good that we can have multiple companies exist.”

AZ TechCelerator, another incubator, was created by the City of Surprise in 2010 to help jump start companies that can create high-quality jobs for community members. Noting that a huge portion of the city’s residents leave the city every day to go to work, TechCelerator manager Julie Neal says, “We want to create those jobs here that are head-offamily income.”

Its focus is on technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and Neal says, “We urge anybody with a great idea or one they think is innovative to apply.” With its community orientation, its evaluation of potential clients also includes looking at whether the new company would compete with other businesses in the local commercial market as well as whether it could service businesses that are thriving in the community. The program graduated its first company this past November — MD24 House Call, founded by Linh C. Nguyen, M.D., M.M.M., which has taken 10,000 square feet of space in the city and hired more than 100 people.

Cash-neutral and self-sustaining thanks to owning the real estate it occupies, TechCelerator “puts no undue pressure on the city budget,” Neal says. With facility maintenance the only ongoing investment, Neal says TechCelerator only charges rent to its clients while providing mentors, business coaches, and panels and education workshops created for particular needs. If a client will be pitching to investors, for instance, the incubator will create a pitching panel to help him prepare. Mentors and business coaches come from throughout the Valley, and Neal says, “It’s amazing, the support system for entrepreneurs — people wanting to really help businesses.” It’s also a relationship-building opportunity for the mentoring business, and Neal notes that business professionals today understand that creating a trust and a relationship is vital. “The way they are able to do that is to really get in there and work with some of these companies. In the long run, if the company is successful, who are they going to go to?”

Citing collaboration as one of TechCelerator’s most important resources, Neal says its clients learn from other companies what has worked and what hasn’t. Not all are successful, of course. “Some ideas are great but are not ready for the next step, or the entrepreneur is not ready.” And, she adds, “Entrepreneurs learn from mistakes; they have to fall down sometimes before they make it right.”

SEED SPOT, opened in 2012 and now recognized as the No. 1 incubator in the state, also takes no equity in its members’ company. Offering two different types of opportunity — full-time (14 weeks, for $3,500, requiring the entrepreneur to give 40 hours a week to his or her venture) and evening (12 weeks, for $750, requiring just a few hours a week) — it serves entrepreneurs at different stages of development, but all must meet the requirement of being social entrepreneurs who care about improving human lives or the community at large as well as making a profit. Co-founder Courtney Klein reports that, of the graduates, 88 percent are still operating and 93 percent of those are still in Arizona — and this has resulted in 160 jobs and $2 million in capital raised.

An accelerator, BioAccel provides a five-year program of investment funding, discounted rent, and business and technical services at no cost. Developed with the purpose of driving economic development, the nonprofit focuses on companies in the bio area, with an emphasis on medical devices. Observing that health, high-tech and bio are the growth industries around the world, CEO MaryAnn Guerra notes that medical devices is second only to IT in attracting venture funding.

BioAccel’s application process is simple, Guerra says, because “we want to have a low barrier to folks coming in and asking for help.” But the diligence process to evaluate the company or technology is rigorous. Even those not accepted gain from the experience. “They leave with good information on how to better build a business or get funding. And we may invite them to come back,” Guerra says.

With its external advisors that include social ventures, angels, device manufacturers and industry leaders, BioAccel first looks at the technology — has it been validated, does it have intellectual property surrounding it, is there competing intellectual property elsewhere in the world that could bump its intellectual property? Other factors include evaluating market

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potential. Noting the importance of talking to the customer and finding out if he or she will buy the product, Guerra says, “Many times, we find out that who they think the customer is, is not the customer.

And they’ve never even talked to who they thought the customer was, let alone who the real customer is.”

Another factor is the manufacturing potential, Guerra says, “to bring manufacturing here.”

Companies have the opportunity to get the usually hard-to-get early-stage investment funding.

And along with extensive business and technical expertise, BioAccel will not only help companies write SBIR, Flinn Foundation and other grants, it will stand in as management to back up the company’s application.

A public company founded in Canada in 2013, The Refinery expects to open a 14,000-squarefoot facility in Downtown Phoenix in early fall this year. Its program starts with its co-working space.

Accepting as many as 60, it strives for a diverse set of entrepreneurs and companies that represent a microcosm of the region. The intent, explains Dauphin, The Refinery’s business development engineer, is to create a community, centered on innovation, that fosters a lot of interaction and knowledge transfer among its members. From this pool, The Refinery identifies the 10 companies it is interested in for its incubator and accelerator platforms that starts with four to six weeks of analysis and assessment for a roadmap and the involvement of The Refinery in implementing that strategy. This includes determining milestones that would trigger an equity plan.

Another economic development company is Tallwave, which founder and CEO Jeff Pruitt describes as “accelerator-ish.” “We provide great products and services through the continuum, to help change early-venture outcome to get more startups to actual buildups,” he says. The impetus for its founding in 2009, he says, was his belief that “Arizona had as good of ideas as Silicon Valley but not the ecosystem to move companies from idea to validation to finding the product/market fit and actually commercialize the business.” In addition to being a consulting firm — working with such established enterprises as PayPal and Microsoft to help build software and serve as the production shop and help deploy the new product to market — Tallwave has a $13-million seed fund for software as a service (SaaS).

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SandCastle is one of its programs, which enables a company to build a prototype through an app on a phone to validate its concept and use as an asset to sell to investors, employees and customers. Its other product, Springboard, is a concentrated sales training program. The accelerator aspect usually lasts three to nine months; on the funding side, Pruitt says, “It’s usually three to eight years before it has exit value — to be acquired or for private equity or IPO.” Raising the profile of innovation in Arizona, one of Pruitt’s goals, he sees as important in attracting attention from investors outside the state. He cites ShelfSpace as one client that now has venture funding from Santa Monica, California. “Fifty percent of Tallwave business is out of state,” he says, noting his focus on “how well-connected we are as an innovative community” and relating he is seeing the effort paying off “in the calls we’re getting from outside the community.”

The broad interest in incubating businesses and accelerating startup development is evidenced in the range of member organizations in the Arizona Business Incubator Association: economic development organizations and community colleges as well as co-working spaces, incubators and accelerators. Incubators and accelerators become a filter for the investment community, and businesses are more likely to succeed and grow because of access to capital, Rainey observes. But, ultimately, it’s the entrepreneur who deserves the credit for successes.

As CEI’s Saville expresses it, “They are the ones taking all the risk and creating all the jobs.”

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Arizona Business Incubator Association bitly.com/az-incubator AZ TechCelerator aztechcelerator.com BioAccel bioaccel.org Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation ceigateway.com Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology nacet.org City of Phoenix phoenix.gov The Refinery the-refinery.ca SEED SPOT seedspot.org SkySong skysongcenter.com Tallwave tallwave.com

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RISKS & REWARDS

Venturing in Today’s Age of the Entrepreneur Significant trends are reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape

by Jenny Q. Ta

Jenny Q. Ta is the founder and CEO of Sqeeqee, the first-ofits-kind Social Networthing™ site that gives individuals, businesses, celebrities, politicians and nonprofit organizations the ability to monetize their profiles in unprecedented ways. A seasoned entrepreneur with two successful investment enterprises to her credit and a self-made millionaire by age 27, she is the author of Wall Street Cinderella, which details her escape from Vietnam during the war and her path to success from welfare to Wall Street. sqeeqee.com

Now is the age of the entrepreneur, and today’s entrepreneur operates in a sphere where changes follow each other in rapid succession. In the coming years, the interests of the consumer will once again become a focal point in business. Entrepreneurs are advised to seek a personal relationship with their clients by taking account of their individual needs and desires. Social media and new technologies will play an important role in this process as it becomes easier to learn about people by what they post.

There are five trends shaping the life of entrepreneurs:

STALK YOUR PRAY Forming a relationship with one’s client is paramount, and it is easier than ever with the prevalence of blogs and social media. Look up clients on Google or Facebook and find out their likes and dislikes. Check LinkedIn and see where they interned after college, and even view their Instagram to see photos from where they last vacationed. No businessperson hits the mark every time, but having a personal relationship will help get past the rocky times to the happily ever after.

GROWTH OF PERSONAL AND LOCAL There is an increasing awareness and interest among consumers about the origin of the products they buy. Local entrepreneurs can play into this concern of consumers,

whereas multinational corporations often fall short in allaying consumer concerns. Their impersonal, rigid and sometimes arrogant treatment of consumers is no longer acceptable now that entrepreneurs offer a valid alternative. Today’s consumers have no problem switching providers of products or services.

They like to shop around to find a flexible provider who is willing to offer them that little extra.

IMPORTANCE OF CLOUD COMPUTING Cloud computing is going to become the entrepreneur’s best friend. It enables entrepreneurs to access data and software at any time and from any location. They no longer have to invest in servers and server storage, nor do they have to worry

Cracking the Code to Innovation Neal Thornberry, Ph.D., author of Innovation Judo: Disarming Roadblocks & Blockheads on the Path to Creativity, holds a doctorate in organizational psychology and specializes in innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, leadership and organizational transformation. Founder and CEO of IMSTRAT, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in helping private-and public-sector organizations develop innovation strategies, Dr. Thornberry also serves as the faculty director for innovation initiatives at the Center for Executive Education at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. imstrat.net

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Everyone says they want innovation in their organization, but when

culture in order to foster innovation throughout, but this takes

an ambitious employee offers it to a CEO, for example, the idea

too long. Other companies create units specifically focused

is often shot down. Senior leaders often miss the value-creating

on innovation.

potential of a new concept because they either don’t take the time to really listen and delve into it, or the innovating employee presents it in the wrong way. Innovation should be presented as opportunities, not ideas. Opportunities have gravitas while ideas do not!

The following is a template for innovation that works: Intention: Once the “why” is answered, leaders have the

Investigation: What does the company know about the problem it is addressing? IDEO may be the world’s premier organization for investigating innovative solutions, and it’s instructive to note that the organization doesn’t skimp on collecting and analyzing data. At this point, data collection is crucial, whereas brainstorming often proves to be a waste of time

beginnings of a legitimate roadmap to innovation’s fruition. This is

if the participants come in with the same ideas, knowledge and

no small task and requires some soul searching.

opinions that they had the previous week, with no new learning in

I once worked with an executive committee, and I got six different ideas for what “innovation” meant. One executive wanted new products, another focused on creative cost-cutting, and the president wanted a more innovative culture. The group needed to agree on their intent before anything else.

Infrastructure: This is where the employer or executive

their pockets.

Ideation: The fourth step is the most fun and, unfortunately, is the part many companies leap to. This is dangerous because a company may uncover many exciting and good ideas, but if the right context and focus aren’t provided up front, and team members cannot get on the same page, then the company is

designates who is responsible for what. It’s tough, because the

wasting its time. That is why intent must be the first step for any

average employee will not risk new responsibility and potential risk

company seeking to increase innovation. Innovation should be

without incentive. Some companies try to change the company

viewed as a set of tools or processes, and not a destination.

A Whole New Engineer, by David E. Goldberg and Mark Somerville, is fomenting change in engineering curricula toward preparing these professionals to focus on the compelling needs of people and society and develop an entrepreneurial mindset to take risks and get things done. …

BUSINESS THINKING Changing Your Company from the Inside Out

about software licenses and management. In cloud computing, one pays only for what one uses, so there isn’t any wastage of funds. Moreover, entrepreneurs can tailor the service to the needs of the business.

You’re ambitious. You’re not afraid to take risks. You want to bring about positive social change. And while your peers have left a trail of failed startups in their wake,

SURVIVING IN A DIFFICULT ECONOMY The economic crisis has driven growth among entrepreneurs. Businesses need a high degree of flexibility to be able to survive a difficult economic climate. Entrepreneurs have the advantage as long as they aren’t afraid to innovate. Success comes from seeing new opportunities to work together with colleagues as well as competitors.

Future growth will not be found in turnover alone. Attention to personal growth and becoming a better employer is gaining influence in areas such as sustainable development. The personal circumstance of employees will become an important focal point. This is another area where the entrepreneur can outshine big business. Employees prefer a varied job that enables them to meet the occasional challenge. Personal contact with the employer is also high on the list. This approach is valuable for entrepreneurs because valued employees take fewer sick days and perform better.

CROWDFUNDING Banks have been hesitant to provide small businesses and entrepreneurs with the funds they need to grow their business. That is why new forms of financing have been developed. Crowdfunding is a popular new form of financing in which multiple investors come together, each providing a small contribution. This way of financing decreases the risk of large financial losses for investors. Anyone can be an investor in crowdfunding. Family members, friends, customers and suppliers can all contribute to the success of a business they believe in. Crowdfunding contributions can be returned to the investors with interest, just like regular lending, but it can also take the shape of financial donations, or the supplying or exchanging of products or services.

These are the most important current and future trends for entrepreneurs as traditional business structures become irrelevant.

you want to initiate change from within an established company, where you can have a more far-reaching, even global impact. Welcome to the club — you’re a social intrapreneur. But how do you get started and maintain your momentum? Drawing on lessons from social movements as well as on the work of successful intrapreneurs, Gerald Davis and Christopher White provide you with a guide for creating positive social change from within your own organization.

Title: Changing Your Company from the Inside Out: A Guide for Social Intrapreneurs Authors: Gerald F. Davis and Christopher J. White

Price: $28

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Pages: 224

Available: 3/17/2015

The High-Speed Company Bestselling author Jason Jennings believes that urgency and speed are keys to the growth of any business.

Jennings draws on years of research and 11,000+ in-depth interviews with executives, business owners and CEOs across the country to uncover how successful leaders build a culture that supports constant innovation and growth.

Writing in his trademark down-to-earth style, and featuring true stories from companies such as Google, Charles Schwab and Johnson & Johnson, he offers prescriptions for creating teams that consistently grow revenues and profits through a strong purpose, guiding principles to make fast decisions, a laser focus on exceeding customer expectations, and practices that support transparency and accountability.

Title: The High-Speed Company: Creating Urgency and Growth in a Nanosecond Culture

Identification: Here’s where the rubber meets the road on innovation.

Authors: Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton

Price: $27.95

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Pages: 240

Available: 3/17/2015

Whereas the previous step was creative, now logic and subtraction must be applied to focus on a result. Again, ideas are great, but they must be grounded in reality. An entrepreneurial attitude is required here, one that enables the winnowing of ideas, leaving only those with real value-creating potential.

Innovation without the entrepreneurial mindset is fun but folly.

Infection: Does anyone care about ideas that have been generated? Will excitement spread during this infection phase? Now is the time to find out.

Pilot testing, experimentation and speaking directly with potential customers begin to give an idea of how innovative and valuable an idea is. This phase is part selling, part research and part science. If people can’t feel, touch or experience the new idea in part or whole, they probably won’t get it. This is where the innovator has a chance to reshape the idea into an opportunity, mitigate risk, assess resistance and build allies for his or her endeavor.

Implementation/Integration: While many talk about this final phase, they often fail to address the integration part. Implementation refers to tactics that are employed in order to put an idea into practice. This is actually a perilous phase because, in order for implementation to be successful, the idea must first be successfully integrated with other activities in the business and aligned

Data-ism New York Times reporter Steve Lohr explores revolutionary changes being ushered in by big-data technology as vast Internet-scale data sets are used for discovery and prediction in virtually every field. Focusing on young entrepreneurs at the forefront of data science as well as on giant companies such as IBM that are making big bets on data science for the future of their businesses, Data-ism explains how individuals and institutions will need to exploit, protect and manage data to stay competitive in the coming years. With rich examples of how the rise of big data is affecting everyday life, Data-ism also raises provocative questions about policy and practice that have wide implications for everyone.

Title: Data-ism: The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else Authors: Steve Lohr Price: $29.99 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Available: 3/10/2015 Pages: 256

with strategy. An innovation, despite its support from the top, can still fail if a department cannot work with it. —Neal Thornberry, Ph.D.

… Goldberg, emeritus professor of engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Somerville, associate dean at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, have effectively implemented their education reform at their schools — a research powerhouse that had every reason to resist change, and an award-winning upstart college, respectively.

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OUR SUBJECT IN-DEPTH

Meetings: Make Them Time Well-Spent

by Joel D. Levitt

Joel D. Levitt, whose books include 10 Minutes a Week to Great Meetings, has more than 30 years of management experience in the maintenance and engineering fields and is a leading trainer of manufacturing, operational and maintenance professionals. Since 1980, Levitt has been the president of Springfield Resources, a management consulting firm servicing clients of all sizes on a wide range of maintenance issues, and is currently the Director of International Projects at Life Cycle Engineering.

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Typical executives spend more than 20 percent of their time in meetings with five or more people. At the same time, surveys indicate that a majority of them are dissatisfied with the value and outcome of their meetings. There is a simple technique that takes only minutes (no pun intended) that can effortlessly eliminate some of the collisions, faux pas, cancellations, delays and other problems.

When asked, “What has disrupted your meetings in the past year?” executives report a number of culprits. These range from a previous meeting still running in the scheduled conference room to people not being prepared or the room itself not being prepared: The conference room is messy; there are not enough chairs or electric plugs; no paper in the easel and either no marking pens or the ones that are there are dried out; the lights, air conditioning and/or audio visual equipment don’t work; an old version of the presentation has been keyed up or the new one is supplied but won’t load; handouts were not prepared, were wrong or not enough were supplied; the agenda was not provided; time or location of the meeting was not clear; attendees were not prepared; or people critical to the meeting were not available. Noise from construction going on in a nearby space is another problem sometimes encountered.

Some of these items are extremely difficult to impact.

But for many, there are preventive actions that could be taken. The problem is (and this is a problem common to all procedures) finding an effective way to remind the staff to go through all the steps. The solution is well-known in many settings: the checklist.

We all know that checklists are widely used in settings where the outcome is critical (aviation, power plants, medicine or military operations). What we might not know is that the use of checklists has been proven useful in widely different situations. In environments as diverse as production floors,

day-care centers and even political campaigns, checklists play a prominent role.

The idea is simple: Design a meeting checklist and then distribute, post and use it. Here are a few tried and true simple rules to make the checklist work best: ■■ The list should be on a single side of paper. Use a large font that is easy to read.

■■ The most effective checklists are short and quickly completed. Many can be run through in less than a minute.

■■ They typically contain seven to ten items.

■■ Post them (some firms have the meeting checklist in every conference room). And use them!

A checklist is simply a reminder system. It typically consists of things that participants already know but might forget for a particular event. The checklist keeps the practices that make a successful event, such as a meeting, right there up front. That way, even if the responsible staff person is tired, has a headache or is preoccupied, no one will miss anything important.

Executives can also use the checklist to remind themselves of new ideas, techniques or practices they would like to try out.

The power of the checklist is in the execution. It has a positive effect only if it is used!

The items may be divided into sub-checklists in relation to timing of the meeting, such as checklists for the days before or after the meeting or immediately before, during or immediately after. In aviation, for example, each step in flying (preflight, landing, etc.) has a different checklist.

Whether for meetings or other purposes, it is important to keep the checklists as simple as possible. It is also important to remember that checklists are living documents. Let the checklists evolve and grow smarter over time by continually incorporating new issues and removing old issues that no longer occur.

Springfield Resources maintenancetraining.com

Good meeting practice says that a specific agenda will almost always reduce the time wasted in a meeting. Joel Levitt reports a poll of 471 management leaders noted that 90 percent of those polled attributed the failure of most meetings to a lack of advance planning and organization.

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INVESTING IN COMMUNITY

P3s: Partnering for the Future

Corporate executives sitting on nonprofit boards might consider a new tool to sustain their organizations and local communities: the public-private partnership

by Cassandra Larsen UP NEXT MONTH: Social Impact Investing: What Is It? Why Does It Work?

DON’T STIFLE P3 CREATIVITY Experience has shown that the most successful P3s are created through a competitive process typically initiated by the public sector. The City of Phoenix for instance, when it issues a Request for Proposal (RFP) to address a project, program or desired outcome, has found it is best to specify less to potential privatesector partners. “The private sector is positioned to gauge current market conditions and pursue innovative strategies that push the envelope,” says Phoenix’s Deputy Economic Development Director Scott Sumners. “The most successful partnerships acknowledge this strength and give only broad guidance as to how to achieve the goals set forth in the RFP, allowing for and encouraging creativity and market-based solutions.”

A $600-million convention center expansion. Scientific, medical, research and educational collaborations in the heart of the city. A state-of-the-art automated Sky Train … Indeed, today’s downtown Phoenix is markedly different from what it was even a decade earlier.

So how did this transformation take place in such a short span of time? It was due, in part, to public-private partnerships, known also as P3s. These contractual agreements are drafted between private-sector entities and public or government agencies (federal, state or local). And the city has engaged in them for years.

“These relationships allow for innovative collaborations to leverage public, private and nonprofit resources in ways that maximize the benefits to our city as a whole,” says Scott Sumners, Phoenix’s deputy economic development director.

P3s are proving fruitful for additional Valley and statewide players, each agreeing to combine resources and expertise — and to share risk — in the pursuit of greater efficiency and extended reach.

“From a fiscal perspective, we are able to accomplish much more through collaboration than we ever could with only our own budget,” says John Scola, CEO of Educare Arizona, one of several national early childhood education centers designed to serve underprivileged children, their families and neighbors within focused communities. Social services and language/ literacy counseling are provided, as well as clinical services.

Scola’s organization partnered with an Early Head Start provider, the Balsz School District, Scottsdale Healthcare and local anchor funders and foundations. Because Educare Arizona also serves as a professional training ground for early childhood educators, Arizona State University is a collaborator, providing undergraduate students with hands-on experience, master teachers and mentors.

Ensuring P3 Success What does it take to orchestrate an effective P3 collaboration?

The first step is to pick your partners wisely. “You must engage key stakeholders in a way that advances their missions, as well as your own,” says Nicola Winkel of the Arizona Coalition for Military Families.

“Leaders who embrace the idea of collaboration, and organizations

The Author: Cassandra Larsen is Of Counsel with The Phoenix Philanthropy Group, an Arizona-based international consulting firm serving nonprofit organizations as well as institutional and individual philanthropists.

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that can get beyond barriers like territorialism to focus on common ground, are all helpful elements to achieving success.”

The public-private partnerships that often achieve greater

Scola’s financial concern is echoed by many nonprofit organizations that aim to solve societal problems with limited budgets. “Nonprofit leaders can find themselves spending most of their energy chasing dollars to keep their doors open instead of focusing on their bottom line — their mission,” says Nancy Payne, a consulting director for the Dallas-based Center for Nonprofit Management. By partnering with corporations and government entities that share similar interests and philosophies, nonprofits can operate with greater financial efficiency and focus on what’s important: serving their constituents.

“We benefit from private-public partnerships in so many ways,” says Scola, “including the generation of new and fresh ideas from our partners. Those in the private sector often offer perspectives that are helpful to nonprofits, and vice versa.”

“So often these partnerships are about aligning efforts to advance a cause in a way that would not happen otherwise,” says Nicola Winkel, program consultant and community liaison for the Arizona Coalition for Military Families. Working with government agencies, community organizations, and medical, mental health and first-responder personnel, the Coalition aims to make critical resources more accessible to the military and veteran population. It also provides training and technical assistance to organizations and fosters cross-sector collaboration among military, government and community organizations.

“By bridging those two worlds — public and private — you can often accomplish much more than each organization or

■■ Develop an understanding of, and support for, each other’s broader mission and image.

■■ Focus on the ways in which collaboration will positively impact the lives of those served.

■■ Develop a plan and ensure the right people are in place to advance the effort.

■■ Identify a detailed revenue stream, as well as an outlay of expenses.

success also adhere to P3 best practices. They:

■■ Create mutual trust between their public-private partners.

■■ Prioritize the issues facing the partnership.

■■ Resolve any conflicts of interest, including the organization’s

The most successful P3s also act with purpose. “Early on, we determined we would not meet for the sake of meeting,” says Winkel. “The partnership and related activities must add

separate structures, stakeholder support or lack thereof, and/

value to the partner organizations or the effort most likely

or other external challenges.

won’t be sustainable.”

What does a P3 process driven mostly by the public sector mean to the nonprofit? 1) Do the research. See what entities in your community are issuing RFPs. 2) Apply to these requests if they align with the organization’s vision. 3) Don’t shy away from initiating your own partnerships, and 4) Network, network, network.

sector working alone,” says Winkel. One initiative of the Coalition, focused on supporting military/ veteran families with young children, draws collaboration from the Arizona Departments of Education, Health, and Economic Security, as well as First Things First, Child Crisis Center and Southwest Human Development, a true multifaceted collaboration working toward shared goals.

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THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CONSIDERING P3s For nonprofit board members who see promise in future P3 collaborations but aren’t sure where to begin, Sumner suggests reaching out. “There is no harm in beginning discussions with your strategic partners. Reach out to other board members, government entities you interact with through grants and other public processes, and private businesses that you interact with on a regular basis. Building relationships and trust is key.”

Another key is selecting the best and brightest staff to nurture and sustain the P3’s collaborative efforts. Building strong relationships, maintaining continual communication and understanding where interests may or may not align are all crucial to the success of the P3. “The right staff can address these concerns in advance and can significantly improve the chances of success,” says Sumner.

According to Winkel, financial and operational sustainability should also be top of mind when launching a P3. “You must know how your partnership will weather changes in leadership and finances, and with stakeholders and other factors within the systems you are engaging,” she says. “It’s very important that when public- and private-sector partners invest in these efforts, there is an eye toward the future and not just a focus on what’s happening today.”

P3s — THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE It’s no secret that the public, private and nonprofit sectors have limited reach when acting independently. “They each specialize in accomplishing very specific and unique goals, and have difficulty stepping outside of these boundaries,” says Sumner. “Through collaboration, however, each sector can leverage its resources and capitalize on each other’s strengths to successfully address some of our state’s most pressing needs.”

Scola predicts that these types of collaborations will be the norm in the future. “And you don’t want to be left behind,” he says.

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On the Agenda CELEBRATE THE BEST

Arizona Commerce Authority

Gilbert Chamber of Commerce

Small Business Workshop Series Phoenix Investor Internships that Work: A Win-Win Roundtable

Photo courtesy of Gilbert Chamber of Commerce (left), Arizona Commerce Authority (right)

Fri., March 13 — 10:00a – 11:30a

Internships can greatly assist business and are a great way for students to learn a particular field of interest. The Gilbert Chamber of Commerce presents, as part of its Small Business Workshop series, a panel of career and internship development staff from area colleges to speak about the best ways for businesses to attract young talent for their organization and provide tips to truly benefit the candidates.

The workshop is for businesspeople who want to grow their companies through an internship program. Attendees will benefit from a step-by-step process for offering an internship at their place of business, and tips for structuring an internship program to create positive results. Jill Schiefelbein of Impromptu Guru will also virtually share her experiences with interns and research assistants — a program she’s run successfully for three years.

Attendees will receive a one-page checklist and a plan to offer an internship that can be implemented immediately.

This program is part of the Business Academy that connects ideas with a plan for action. Each workshop focuses on a topic or opportunity that will challenge thinking, help to evaluate goals, set priorities and take small business to the next level. Topics and initiatives are determined by the Chamber’s Small Business Council. Events such as the Mastermind Workshops (Fri., March 27th at 10 a.m.) are the tactical follow-up sessions to the Business Academy Workshops. Each Mastermind Workshop session is a collaborative review of the lessons learned and reflection of the experiences when putting these lessons into practice. Industry experts will be in attendance to provide additional feedback and knowledge at these various workshop events for small businesses. —Mike Hunter Members: $15; non-members: $40 Cooper Crossing Executive Suites

Thurs., March 19 — 11:00a – 4:30p The Arizona Commerce Authority will host the FundingPost Investor RoundTable, sponsored by GrowSouthwest, on March 19. Having hosted more than 270 sold-out events in 23 cities nationally, FundingPost has designed the event to give Phoenix entrepreneurs an edge over the competition in pitching ideas and seeking potential investors. The event will feature a panel of local and non-local investors who will discuss what investors are looking for in the Phoenix market, the best ways to catch the attention of investors and the dos and don’ts an entrepreneur should look for during his or her pitch.

“This event provides the unique opportunity for local entrepreneurs and startups to pitch and network with angel investors and venture capitalists from Silicon Valley and New York that have invested in some of America’s most successful companies,” says event host Steve Kelly. “Not only will they get great advice, but they just might find the investor they were looking for.”

Event speakers include Dan Creed, GrowSouthwest business coach; John Ason, angel investor from New York City; Rick Gibson, managing director of HOTventures; and Scott Kelly, manager of Phoenix FundingPost. The first 25 entrepreneurs to sign up for the event will have the opportunity to pitch their business idea in front of attendees and the investor panel. The panel will offer feedback on each pitch and offer insight into what it takes to get potential investors to write a check. All attendees will have the opportunity to market themselves and network with other entrepreneurs, investors and panelists.

—Alexandra Lyon

1820 E. Ray Rd., Chandler Entrepreneur: $49; service provider: $59

gilbertaz.com

Microsoft Meeting Room azcommerce.com

60 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe

fundingpost.com

Deal of the Year Award Dinner Tues., Mar. 10 5:00p – 9:00p Association for Corporate Growth – Arizona’s signature event recognizes significant business (M&A) transactions involving established businesses with between $10 and $750 million of revenue, helping drive economic growth.

Members: $135-$155; non-members: $155-$175 Arizona Biltmore Resort – Casa Grand Ballroom 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix acg.org/arizona 2015 Annual Awards Banquet Fri., Mar. 13 7:00p – 9:00p The Black Chamber of Arizona event includes presentation of Corporate Business Partners and Small Business Partners of the Year. Celebrity emcee is Jacque Reid, co-host of “New York Live” for NBC 4.

Members: $150; non-members: $200 Phoenix Convention Center 100 N. 3rd St., Phoenix blackchamberaz.com ADDY Awards Sat. Mar. 21 6:00p – 9:30p Ad 2 Phoenix event is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting 40,000+ entries in local AAF Club (Ad Club) competitions; culminates on the national stage of the ADDY Awards.

Members: $85; nonmembers: $170 The Duce 525 S. Central Ave., Phoenix phxadclub.com

MARCH 2015

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March 8 – Daylight Savings Time Begins March 17 – Saint Patrick’s Day March 20 – Vernal Equinox

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On The Agenda Thurs., March 5

MARCH 2015 Thurs., March 12

11:30a – 1:30p

7:45a – 9:45a

Speaker Series

Enterprise University

Economic Club of Phoenix

Enterprise Bank & Trust

This month’s speaker is Elizabeth Crain, managing director and chief operating officer of Moelis & Company. The Economic Club of Phoenix speaker series — hosted by the W. P. Carey School of Business — is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The club is now the preeminent Arizona forum for the exchange of ideas about business and the economy.

“A Brand is More than a Logo.” What do Apple, Nike, Starbucks and Google have in common? The best brands go beyond tangible attributes to make emotional connections with consumers, becoming part of their lifestyle and part of our cultural landscape. This class will help you define “brand” and explore why it’s so valuable, and share real-world examples of how local companies are elevating their brands to make emotional connections. And finally, you’ll learn the six qualities that can put your brand on the road to greatness.

Members: free; non-members: $75 (includes lunch) The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa

6902 E. Greenway Pkwy., Scottsdale

econclubphx.org Mon., March 9

11:30a – 1:00p

Free; registration required

Ambassador Fujisaki on Japan

Phoenix Country Club

Global Chamber

Thurs., March 12

Former Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Ichiro Fujisaki speaks on the “Walk in U.S., Talk on Japan” program, and is joined by a half dozen others in a special program at SkySong on Japan and Japan opportunities.

Phoenix is among a handful of cities chose, and the Global Chamber Phoenix is honored to host the event. Participants from Japan who have volunteered to join the program come from a diverse range of backgrounds, but all have some connection to the U.S.

11:30a – 1:00p

Tempe Chamber of Commerce “How to Meet More People, Do More Business and Make More Money

by Embracing the Art of the Schmooze” is an engaging, educational and entertaining program, and attendees will learn the tips, tools and techniques necessary to become a comfortable, confident and successful schmoozing professional. Lunch is included, and format includes an ice breaker and introductions of all attendees. Presented by Dave Sherman.

1475 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale

globalchamber.org

Members: $25; non-members: $35 5

7

Sat., March 7

9

6:00p – 10:00p

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Sa t., March 14

Location tbd

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5:00p – 8:00p

3rd Annual Scholarship Benefit Dinner

Family Promise

Greater Phoenix Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

Shanghai Night of Splendor is an exotic evening benefiting Family Promise of Greater Phoenix, raising funds for homeless children, their families and pets. Family Promise is funded through private donations. Your support changes the lives of children in a time of crisis. Enjoy a delightful evening for a wonderful cause, with silent and live auctions, performing artists, live music, hosted cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, wine and dessert.

Centered on the celebration of community and supporting our Sun Devils, the event is designed not only to fulfill LGBT-DPC’s mission of raising scholarships funds for LGBT ASU students, but also to support LGBT local artists who will be giving of their time and talent at the event. Keynote speaker will be ASU alumnus, award-winning author, and sports writer Bill Konigsberg. His most recent novel, Openly Straight, won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, was an Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and Lambda Literary Award finalist, and made more than 15 major “Best of” lists.

WestWorld Polo Field

16601 N. Pima Rd., Scottsdale

tempechamber.org

14

Shanghai Night of Splendor Gala

$150

enterprisebank.com/eu

‘How to Meet More People …’

Members: free; non-members: $25 (includes lunch) SkySong

2901 N. 7th St., Phoenix

Tues., March 17

7:30a – 9:00a

Monthly Meeting East Valley Women

$55-$70

The meeting sponsor Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare.

Arizona State University – Carson Ballroom, Student Services Bldg.

$25; reservations required

1151 S. Forest Ave., Tempe

Embassy Suites Tempe

phoenixgaychamber.com

familypromiseaz.org

4400 S. Rural Rd., Tempe

eastvalleywomen.org Wed., March 11

10:45a – 2:00p

Phoenix Civic Engagement Day NAWBO The exciting Civic Engagement Day begins with a luncheon held at the Phoenix Country Club with keynote speaker Secretary of State Michele Reagan and participatory discussion on various community needs. Everyone is encouraged to bring toiletry items to be donated to the Valley of the Sun United Way. Attendees also are invited to join the group at the State Capitol in the afternoon to learn more from policy makers about issues facing Arizonans.

Members: $38; non-members: $48

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Phoenix Country Club

Please confirm, as dates and times are subject to change.

2901 N. 7th St., Phoenix

nawbophx.org

For more events, visit “Business Events” at www.inbusinessmag.com

Thurs., March 19

Thurs., March 26

7:00a – 8:00a

8:00a – 9:00a

FH Connect Breakfast Meeting

Coffee Time

Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce

Mesa Chamber of Commerce

FH Connect is the opportunity for Fountain Hills business professionals to establish new and strengthen existing business relationships. A rotating program includes guest speakers, 20-second intros, open networking and dialog about important issues impacting attendees’ business!

Members: $10; future members: $15

There is no cost and no registration required. Don’t forget your business cards! Attendees to the Chamber’s Coffee Time will join local business owners and fellow chamber members in an informal networking opportunity. Coffee Time is held at sponsored business locations and reservations are not required.

This is a great way to meet, greet, and exchange business cards.

Eagle Mountain Golf Club

Free

14915 Eagle Mountain Pkwy., Fountain Hills

Inside The Bungalow

fountainhillschamber.com

mesachamberofcommerce.org Fri., March 20

48 N. Robson St., Mesa

Tues., March 31

2nd Annual Symposium Greater Phoenix SCORE

8:30a – 10:00a

SCORE is a national nonprofit resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. In the Phoenix area, 70 certified mentors advise both existing businesses and startups on how to profitably grow their businesses and/or get the right start through effective planning. A big draw at this year’s symposium is the educational theme, “Growing your Business through internet marketing and social media.”

‘Beyond Penny-Pinching’ Arizona Technology Council, Women in the Workforce “Beyond Penny-Pinching – Not-for-Profit Practices for all Business Leaders.”

Besides learning the art of penny-pinching, there are five business practices that the for-profit leader can learn from our not-for-profit peers. Presenter is Jennifer Spencer of NETtime Solutions, a cloud-based, best-of-breed time and attendance software company that helps organizations make informed business and workforce decisions with real-time time and labor management data.

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Grand Canyon University

20 Lounge

Margaret Randle, (602) 745-7250

7001 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale

International Business China Organization of Women in International Trade – Phoenix “Expert Tips & Strategies to ensure your success in the Chinese Market” is a special international trade event on how to do business in China. As a special bonus, does your company have any international business issues, problems and challenges that you’re currently facing? Be sure to come with all of your questions for an open international business Q&A session. Special Guest Speaker: Karen Dickinson, shareholder of Polsinelli Law Firm and chair of the Arizona District Export Council.

Members: free; non-members: $35 Maricopa Association of Governments 302 N. 1st Ave., Phoenix owitphoenix.org

3300 W. Camelback Rd., Phoenix

aztechcouncil.org

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Wed., March 25

8:30a – 10:30a

Free

Members: $15; non-members: $35; include a basic manicure or pedicure: add $20 (early registration required)

25

Thurs., March 19

8:00a – 4:00p

Tues., March 31

7:30a – 9:00a

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5:00p – 7:00p

Expert Human Resource Series

After 5 Mixer

Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce

Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce

“Top 10 Termination Tips” will highlight tips and techniques to help business owners navigate the maze of potential pitfalls and traps when ending the employment relationship.

Mountain States Employers Council

Rewind! Throw back to the days of old-fashioned soda fountains and foosball at this After 5 Mixer at the Duce! The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and Visit Phoenix are partnering to bring you a retro networking event where you will enjoy classic cocktails, complimentary appetizers and old-school recreational games. Join in at the Duce, where pretty meets gritty and produce meets prohibition.

7975 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale

Free

Nikki Hoffman, nhoffman@scottsdalechamber.com

The Duce

$20; advance registration required

Wed., March 25

525 S. Central Ave., Phoenix

phoenixchamber.com

3:00p – 5:00p

Competitive Edge Workshop Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce During the business workshop, attendees will take a look at business systems, policies and procedures. Attendees will discuss what makes a good policy or procedure and why they are important. The session will cover the different types of policies and procedures, and what to avoid when writing them, and will end with a few business systems that will get business off and running in 2015!

Members: $20; non-members: $30 Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce – Conference Room 4435 E. Chandler Blvd., Phoenix

If your event is directed to helping build business in Metro Phoenix, please send us information to include it in the In Business Magazine events calendar. Full calendar online. Events@inbusinessmag.com

ahwatukeechamber.com

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WE VALUE WHAT WE OWN

BY MIKE HUNTER

2015 Audi S3

2015 AUDI S3 City: 16 Hwy: 22

Sporty and agile, this smallest of the Audi sedans is powerful and accomplishes the Euro-centric needs that many Americans admire in an Audi. As the sporty version, the Audi S3 is the Audi A3 supercharged. This little car is worth every dollar spent and will engage drivers, meet the latest economic needs in this class, and intrigue those who may be looking at larger sedans from the carmaker.

This four-cylinder Turbocharged TFSI® machine boasts 282 horsepower with 280 lb. ft. of torque and gets the driver off the line at 4.7 seconds from 0 to 60 mph, with a top speed of 155 mph. The speed and agility of this small sedan impresses and keeps enthusiasts happy as the sporty nature gives off a feeling of much more than a compact car. The 6-speed S tronic® dual-clutch transmission is most reliable and allows for quick gear changes and assist when climbing speeds are

Trans: 6-speed 0-60: 4.7 mph MSRP: $41,100

necessary. The engine sounds tough and, despite its size, truly performs better than one may expect.

The interior is somewhat basic with hints of older, less technologically savvy instruments and gauges. However, it is an Audi, so all of the necessary equipment is there and each piece will impress regardless of the class. Rumblings about it being a strong contender to the C-class Mercedes-Benz are no surprise as the look and quality is first class. The styling is sporty, with a flat-bottomed steering wheel, and the seats have optional red lapels and leather surfaces, giving a very “expensive” appeal in this price range. The first-of-its-kind touch-sensitive scroll wheel allows drivers to control all systems with mouselike ease. The panoramic sunroof only adds to the already spacious interior and gives a very open appeal to the cabin.

The BLUETOOTH® streaming audio and wireless technology preparation for compatible mobile phones allow audio and communication technologies that are comparable to what is found in the most luxurious of cars today.

The outside appearance is a strong stance with a mean look.

A bit basic, the S3 includes the Xenon plus headlights with LED daytime running lights and LED taillights. Quad exhaust and the silver shiny mirrors add to the rich appeal of this small sedan.

The next size up from the A3 is the A4. This “older brother” is no match to the price and sporty quality that the S3 package includes; the S3 is seen as the better option to the A4.

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In 1938, crash tests were first carried out by Audi. These tests gave the company an idea about how the car would behave in case an accident occurred. Without realizing it, the company had set a precedent for all other car manufacturers.

Photos courtesy of Audi USA (top and far left)

Audi USA audiusa.com

A4 IS NOT AN OPTION

AWEE Works!

Changing Lives Through the Dignity of Work AWEE’s focus – our only focus – is workforce development. We help women and men, young adults and mature workers find jobs, keep their families together, become financially stable, and contribute to the community.

AWEE provides the tools for change, economic independence, self-reliance and community revitalization to advance Arizona’s workforce.

Our success depends on the investment of our corporate and community partners.

To learn more about AWEE’s programs and how to impact their success, visit awee.org or call Jamie Craig Dove at 602-223-4333.

We Teach. We Coach. We Connect. AWEE Works!

640 North First Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85003-1515 t 602-223-4333 f 602-223-4338 awee.org

MEALS THAT MATTER

BY MIKE HUNTER

In the Barrio Queen Scottsdale

Layers of Romaine lettuce, red peppers, avocado, corn, black beans, pomegranate seeds and roasted creamy chili dressing. $10

Barrio Queen

SUIZAS ENCHILADAS Hand-pressed corn tortillas filled with spice-rubbed chicken. Topped with a gratinada of quesillo cheese, diced onion, cilantro, crema fresca and a spicy serrano tomatillo sauce. $14

7114 E. Stetson Dr. Scottsdale (480) 656-4197 barrioqueen.com

St. Paddy’s Month March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day and includes some very serious lore — although most Americans know St. Patrick’s Day as the day of the year to drink at an Irish Pub. Here are our picks for eats, drinks and a St. Paddy’s Day celebration.

MAR. 20 1 5

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I N B U S I N E S S M AG . CO M

but incredibly inventive. They are all about Mexican ingredients, with a twist in some cases. There are more than twenty iterations to choose from. The Al Pastor is made with chile-andspice-marinated pork topped with diced onion, cilantro, fresh pineapple and red salsa. The Suadero Azteca includes delicately slow-cooked brisket topped with diced onions and cilantro. A fan favorite is the Barrio Pollo, which is spice-rubbed chicken, caramelized onions and roasted poblano peppers in a spicy piñon cream sauce, and then topped with queso fresco. The more unique (and delicious) is the Nopalitos made with tender cactus, serrano pepper, onion and tomato sautée topped with queso fresco. Include a fried egg if so desired. The burritos, tortas and enchiladas are all utterly delicious, with some unique twists and incredible flavors all inspired by the original restaurant.

The décor is eclectic Mexican with a comfortable dining room and bar area. The patio is a favorite and, when cool, is a great place to people watch. The service is fast and guests can be assured they will get an opinion if they ask what is good.

The drinks are plentiful for non-alcoholic lunches. Juices, teas and virgin drinks are favored as a mixologist is always behind the bar.

Rosie McCaffrey’s Irish Pub & Restaurant

Seamus McCaffrey’s This Irish pub is been known

Tim Finnegan’s Irish Restaurant & Pub

The local classic, hands down.

as a Valley favorite for more

This is a modern take on

Rosie’s is the place to go for

than 20 years and has the

the old Irish pubs while

anything authentically Irish in

state’s largest selection

still a classic from the

the Valley. Packed and always

of whiskeys and specialty

word “Aye.” All of the

a party, it serves classic

Irish beers. The food is

standards are served for

grub — and every libation

authentic and the vibe is

lunch and drinks are the

known to man is available for

Irish. Lunch is a priority at

order of the day.

consumption.

this downtown location.

9201 N. 29th Ave.,

906 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix

18 W. Monroe St., Phoenix

Phoenix

(602) 241-1916

(602) 253-6081

(602) 997-2323

rosiemccaffreys.com

seamusmccaffreys.com

timfinnegans.com

How does “St. Patrick’s Day” become “St. Paddy’s Day” in common parlance? It’s because “St. Paddy” is derived from the Irish “Pádraig.”

“Barrio” is Spanish for “neighborhood.” The original restaurant that launched the Barrio craze in Phoenix was Barrio Café, which is still open on 16th Street in Phoenix.

Photos courtesy of Barrio Queen (top and far left)

CHOPPED SALAD

With restaurants popping up everywhere, it is easy to forget about some of the local classics. Barrio Queen in Scottsdale (and soon in Gilbert) is one of those great local legends that cannot be missed for lunch. Although no longer under the direction of Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, who founded the original concept, Barrio Café, its menu still reflects the creativity of the chef whose dishes have been touted as the best Mexican food in Phoenix.

This adventurous and exciting location near the Scottsdale Waterfront has a large patio and is a fun spot for lunch with clients, colleagues or for meetings that are open to some excitement.

The menu is newly changed and includes many classics. The Barrio Guacamole is made tableside and includes the usual ingredients plus pomegranate seeds for a juicy and somewhat tart element. It is made to order, so customization is appropriate — if you dare stray from the original. The street tacos are small

TEMPE CHAMBER

ADVANTAGE Workshops and Training Deliver Results We’re here to solve common business problems. The Tempe Chamber is hosting new workshops to respond to the needs of business. Each is geared to a different topic and skill set.

Come to these workshops and return to your company as a more valuable and educated employee.

MARCH 5 Developing Social Media Skills and Effective Internet Marketing Presented by Meegan Adams

MARCH 26 Improving Sales Effectiveness Presented by Tracy Bullock

APRIL 23 Recruiting and Hiring the Right People Presented by Ginny McMinn

Te m p e C h a m b e r. o r g

March – June 2O15 • tempechamber.org

We’re not in charge of the weather, but we do impact the climate

By Mary Ann Miller, President/CEO While we’ll all enjoy the “Chamber of Commerce Weather” during Spring Training this month, we can’t take any credit for it.

What we will take some credit for is having a community that people want to visit, a welcoming place for living and working, and a healthy economic climate for starting and growing a business.

For more than a century, the Tempe Chamber has worked to create a strong local economy to help businesses succeed.

Mary Ann Miller We offer programs and services to business of all sizes, whether you are a one-person operation working out of your home or have thousands of employees across multiple campuses.

We offer educational programs on topics ranging from accounting practices to personal development. Our Coffee Connections provides regular opportunities to share leads. Our Women in Business Mentoring Program teaches the skills to move up in one’s profession. The Business Owners Forum promotes the spread of best practices for business growth.

In its thirtieth year, Tempe Leadership introduces all aspects of our community to a cross section of business and community leaders. Tempe Youth Leadership prepares high school sophomores and juniors for future leadership positions.

We work with all levels of government on issues of interest to business, ensuring that regulations and taxes are reasonable and easy to comply with, creating a community where our youths graduate on time and are ready for successful careers, and where infrastructure is sound and transportation options exist. We develop an environment where business can thrive.

Yes, we certainly enjoy our “Chamber of Commerce Weather,” but we are most proud of our “Chamber of Commerce Climate.”

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2015 Business Woman of the Year Nominations Needed

By Meghan Dorn, Communications Director The Tempe Chamber of Commerce is now seeking nominations for the Business Woman of the Year Award. This award was established to recognize an outstanding businesswoman who has positively affected the Tempe community and the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

Nominees should demonstrate achieved excellence in their chosen field; have demonstrated leadership in the community; serve as a positive role model;

and be active in programs and activities in the community and the Tempe Chamber.

Nominations are due by Friday, March 6, and the award will be presented at the 20th Annual Women in Business Conference and Trade Show on May 20, 2015. E-mail your nominee’s contact information to meghandorn@ tempechamber.org. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Christine Wilkinson of Arizona State University.

Pictured: 2013 Recipient Kristine Kassel, 2014 Recipient Dr. Christine Wilkinson, President/CEO Mary Ann Miller

20th Annual Women In Business Conference May 20, 2015 The PERA Club 1 East Continental Dr. | Tempe, AZ

Ken Blanchard College of Business | College of Education | College of Nursing | College of Arts & Sciences | College of Fine Arts & Production

Campus • Evening • Online

A R I Z O N A’ S P R I VAT E U N I V E R S I T Y S I N C E 1 9 4 9 Get started today! 855.287.0174 | www.gcu.edu/inbusiness Grand Canyon University is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. (800-621-7440; http://www.ncahlc.org/ ).

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T E M P E C H A M B E R A D V A N TA G E

Restaurant Rush Week

Kickstarting Your Business

By Courtney McIntyre, Membership Engagement The Tempe Chamber has implemented a program for new members known as the Chamber Kickstart. Understanding why a member joined the Chamber and what their expectations are is key to helping them utilize all the benefits the Chamber has to offer. Sitting down with new members and fully understanding their business model and their vision helps our team steer them in the right direction. If needed, we will team them up with one of our existing longtime members, most likely a member of the Ambassador Committee. This will give the new member a different insight and perspective on how to utilize the Chamber to grow and expand their outreach.

During the fourth week of each month, one of our restaurant members will participate in Tempe Chamber Restaurant Rush Week. We all need to eat, so why not support your fellow members and have a chance to win a trip back to the participating restaurant?

The name and location of the restaurant will be released during the second week of each month. Anytime during the fourth week of that month (Monday – Sunday), stop in the restaurant to eat and enter the raffle! You can earn up to two entries each day you stop in and dine with the participating restaurant and: • Drop your business card in the designated box for one entry….pretty easy!

• You can also take a picture of you, your meal or the restaurant staff, post it AND TAG the restaurant on any of the Chamber social media platforms for a second entry using #tempechamber so we know you are entered. FYI – your settings for these posts need to be set to public to get this entry!

The week after the Rush, we will draw for two members to win gift certificates to return to the Rush Restaurant!

For more information on Restaurant Rush week, visit www.tempechamber.org/blog.

Program Format: • Matching: New or Prospective member is partnered with an Ambassador who has the ability to become a strong referral partner.

• On-Site Visit: Ambassador coordinates with Director of Member Relations and new/ prospective member, scheduling an on-site visit of the business or in the Tempe Chamber conference room (if the business is not brick and mortar).

• Goals/Opportunities Assessment: During the on-site meeting, the goals, needs and opportunities are assessed and addressed, including available time to participate, marketing opportunities, on-line profile login, and committee involvement.

• Phase 1 Scheduling: Ambassador and new/perospective member attend the following Chamber events to begin engagement: • Ribbon cutting • Committee meeting • Networking mixer • Leads group • Signature event (only available for new members/FREE entry for one)

TEMPE CHAMBER

RESTAURANT RUSH WEEK March 23 - 29 Culvers Tempe 630 E. Southern Ave. Tempe, AZ 85282

Get Social: #TempeChamber

• Phase 2 Scheduling: Ambassador and new member will meet a second time to assess and schedule a ribbon cutting to welcome the new member to the Chamber and if there is an opportunity for the new member to host an upcoming Chamber event.

For more information about getting involved with the Ambassador Committee, please visit www.tempechamber.org or call 480.967.7891.

Te m p e C h a m b e r. o r g

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Business is BOOMING!

Yvonne’s Café 1725 W. University Rd., Suite 108, Tempe, AZ 85281

Each month we celebrate Chamber members! Some are new, some have moved, and some are re-opening.

If you are interested in hosting a ribbon cutting for your business, please contact Melody at 480.736.4284 or melody@tempechamber.org.

Blasted Barley Beer Co. 404 S. Mill Ave., Suite 101, Tempe, AZ 85281

Earl of Sandwich 505 S. Mill Ave., Tempe, AZ 85281

Honeyville, Inc. 7360 S. Kyrene Rd., Suite 108, Tempe, AZ 85283

The Yard—Culinary Dropout 149 S. Farmer Ave., Tempe, AZ 85281

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Ribbons Cuttings with the Tempe Chamber are sponsored by ManageStaff Nicole Spracale Consulting

Graduate Hotel Tempe 225 E. Apache Blvd., Tempe, AZ 85281

Bumper Doc 1900 N. McClintock Dr., Suite 1, Tempe, AZ 85281

WHY Mediate 4500 S. Lakeshore Dr., Ste 300, Tempe, AZ 85282

Allstate Insurance—Office of Julie Jakubek 4650 E. Thomas Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85018

Preferred Rehab 1855 E. Guadalupe Rd., Suite 112, Tempe, AZ 85283

Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant 1706 E. Warner Rd., Tempe, Az 85284

Te m p e C h a m b e r. o r g

T E M P E C H A M B E R A D VA N TA G E

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Building Connections

COFFEE

By Melody Elkin, Vice President, Membership Development Looking for a great way to get new leads? Check out the Coffee Connection leads groups. They were specially designed by the Tempe Chamber and its Business Development Council to develop groups that will advocate and promote the businesses of members by passing qualified business leads to other members.

Some of the ‘perks’ include: 1. Accountability—You have to be willing to put in the work in order to see rewards. Each group has a dedicated meeting schedule so that members can establish and build relationships with one another.

2. Exclusivity—Each group is limited to one representative per industry. That means you get to be THE GO-TO-GUY/GAL for your service.

3. Pitch Practice—Each meeting allows you an opportunity to present your 30- to 60-second commercial so that you can become a true master of networking. Additionally, members take turns presenting to allow others to learn more about a business or relevant topic.

“I joined Coffee Connections because I wanted to get more value out of my chamber membership,” said Michael Kosse, Liberty Mutual Insurance. “Coffee Connections has enabled me to establish a relationship with other chamber members that I otherwise would not have been able to meet.”

Membership in Coffee Connections is limited to members of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce for an additional annual fee. Guests

connections LEADS GROUPS

Group #1: 2nd & 4th Wednesday Group #2: 2nd & 4th Tuesday Group #3: 1st & 3rd Thursday WWW.TEMPECHAMBER.ORG

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC

MEMBERS ONLY

are welcome to visit groups with industry availability. For more information on this program, please visit www.tempechamber.org or call 480.967.7891.

2015 Business Boot Camp Workshops The Tempe Chamber's Business Development Council presents educational training workshops based on feedback from YOU! We have lined up independent educational workshops designed to focus on the topics that matter most to you and your business.

These morning sessions are a great opportunity for any member of your team.

March 26

Improving Sales Effectiveness Presented by Tracy Bullock

Recruiting and Hiring the Right People Presented by Ginny McMinn

Building the most effective sales force possible will make the difference between success and failure for any organization.

Learn the top tips and tricks of the trade from Tracy Bullock, owner of Bullock Training and Development.

Many owners and managers struggle to attract good candidates and to hire excellent employees.

This session provides training for achieving great hiring results repeatedly. Attendees receive tools that can be used when hiring and lists of sample questions to use and not to use.

April 23

Registration, networking, and breakfast will take place from 7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. and the formal program will run from 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. each session. Cost per session is $25 for members and $35 for the general public. For full details and to register, please visit www.tempechamber.org or call 480.967.7891.

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Government Relations

By Nigel A.L. Brooks, TechKnowPartners, LLC The mission of the Government Relations and Transportation Committee is to make a bottom-line impact for members by advocating for a favorable business climate through interactive public policy engagement, and providing ongoing representation at, and information about, government at the city, county, state and federal levels.

The greatest value that the Government Relations and Transportation Committee provides is to ensure that the interests of members are heard at the seats of government, and the members are fully aware of proposed and enacted legislation.

The Government Relations and Transportation Committee is actively reviewing the following issues: • City of Tempe Adaptive Reuse and Fast Track Permit Program

Regular participants include Public Policy representatives of the members. Any member can bring a topic for discussion to the Committee. The Committee makes recommendations to the Chamber’s Executive Committee, who in turn, make recommendations to the Board of Directors on the positions that the Chamber takes on policy

issues. Thus, every issue is fully vetted before the Chamber comes out with a final position.

The Committee meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. For more information on the Committee, please contact Mary Ann Miller at 480.736.4280 or at maryann@tempechamber.org.

• C ity of Tempe Transportation Master Plan • Central Arizona Project “4 cent tax” extension • City of Tempe Streetcar project • Craft Brewing Industry legislation • SRP rate plans update • Valley Metro contract There are three primary subcommittees that address statewide, city, and transportation issues. Major deliverables from the Committee include the federal, statewide, and city policy agendas, and recommendations for the East Valley Chambers of Commerce Alliance agenda. The Committee also receives regular updates from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on federal matters.

The Committee is open to any member of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

Te m p e C h a m b e r. o r g

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Board of Directors Chairman of the Board: Kristine Kassel Chair-Elect: Tim Ronan Treasurer: Misty Howell Mary Ann Miller, President and CEO maryann@tempechamber.org Sean Donovan, Vice President, Media and Program Development sean@tempechamber.org Meghan Dorn, Communications Director meghandorn@tempechamber.org

Vice-Chairs: Randy Schultz, Liz White, Brian Wood Immediate Past Chair: Jeff Mirasola Directors: Kjell Andreassen, Leslie Barrett, Nigel Brooks, Dawn Hocking, Joe Hughes, Dave Long, Kelly Lorenzen, Paul Mittman, Mary Palomino, Aqeel Shahid, Steve Skirvin

Melody Elkin, Vice President, Membership Development melody@tempechamber.org

Ex-Officios: Andrew Ching, Angela Creedon, Stephanie Nowack, Janeen Rohovit

Julie Flanigan, Director of Finance julieflanigan@tempechamber.org

Committee Chairs: Nigel Brooks, Tracy Bullock, Hollie Costello, David Gourley, Jeff Heisner, Nancy Kinnard, Jeff Mirasola, Brad Taylor, Tom Waldron, Frank Woertz

Shari Hodziewich, Membership Retention shari@tempechamber.org Courtney McIntyre, Director of Operations & Membership Engagement courtneymcintyre@tempechamber.org

Tempe Chamber of Commerce 909 E. Apache Blvd., Tempe, AZ 85281 480.967.7891 www.tempechamber.org

GiveToPCHF.org

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T E M P E C H A M B E R A D V A N TA G E

Arizona Technology Report March – June 2O15 aztechcouncil.org

Arizona Technology Council: The Voice of the Technology Industry

In This Issue Common Ground…Pg. 2 Annual festival’s growth reflects boost in STEM interest

ROI Worth Raves…Pg. 3 New push for legislative expansion of tax credit programs

Business Essentials …Pg. 4 Programs offers discounted products, services for members

Management and Staff Steven G. Zylstra President + CEO

Leigh Goldstein Vice President, Operations + Events

Anne Rody Director, Finance + Administration

Merry Lake Merrell Director, Marketing + Communication

Deborah Zack Senior Director, Membership Services

President’s Message As president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, I often am asked to help shape public policy affecting the state’s tech industry. (If you want to know more about two measures that are part of our focus in this legislative session, see Page 3 in this section.) But it’s my work as chairman of Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) that takes me to Capitol Hill to partner with Congress on matters that shape the nation’s entire tech community.

It’s been an honor to chair TECNA, which represents more than 50 IT and technology trade organizations that, in turn, represent more than 22,000 technology-related companies in North America. As my two-year term ends this summer, it feels good to know our group is even more committed to making technology a driving force in the nation’s economy.

One of the highlights is the annual TechAmerica DC Fly-In. I recently returned from Washington, D.C., with members of the Arizona delegation who were among business leaders from small and mediumsized tech companies nationwide that gathered to advocate for public policies that are tech-friendly and will create jobs. To deliver their messages directly were some of the best and brightest from Arizona’s technology community. They included:

Brian Krupski Director of Membership Services

Melissa Craven Executive Assistant to President + CEO

Alex Rodriguez Vice President, Southern Arizona Regional Office, Tucson

Kitty Bogy Director, Talent Solutions TechFetch

Don Rodriguez Editor

Ron Schott Executive Emeritus, Phoenix Office

Don Ruedy Executive Emeritus, Tucson Office

Justin Williams Executive Emeritus, Tucson Office

Jeremy Babendure, Ph.D. Executive Director, Arizona SciTech Festival

aztechcouncil.org

Steven G. Zylstra, President and CEO, Arizona Technology Council

• G reg Garcia, a member of the board of management of Invoy Technologies • Doug Guilbeau, president and CEO of Levementum • Bill Hewitt, vice president of strategic partnerships R&D at Tri-Merit • Sheila Kloefkorn, CEO and president of KEO Marketing Inc. • Russ Yelton, CEO of Pinnacle Transplant Technologies, a regenerative medical company that operates a human tissue bank While there, we met with members of and staff for Arizona’s congressional delegation. They included Sen. Jeff Flake and Reps. Ruben Gallego, Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema. Our meetings also featured Stephanie Hall, Sen. John McCain’s telecomm assistant, and Amy Emerick, Rep. Raul Grijalva’s chief of staff.

Our discussions focused on policies to develop skills for the 21st century workforce, advance tax and regulatory policies that spur innovation, lead in secure Internet-based platform technologies, support new and emerging technology platforms through policies, address availability and delivery of broadband communications, expand markets and advocate for sensible rules of global trade, and advance common sense reforms in government procurement and acquisition.

While my role with TECNA may be winding down, my commitment to continue working with Arizona’s congressional delegation is not. I invite you to join us for next year’s Fly-In — my eighth time leading Council members from our state. If you want a change for the better, sometimes it needs to start with you.

Who We Are

The Arizona Technology Council is Arizona’s premier trade association for science and technology companies.

Phoenix Office

2800 N. Central Ave., Suite 1920 Phoenix, AZ 85004 Phone: 602-343-8324 Fax: 602-343-8330 info@aztechcouncil.org

Tucson Office

The University of Arizona Science and Technology Park 9040 S. Rita Road, Suite 1150 (near I-10 and Rita Road) Tucson, AZ 85747 Phone: 520-382-3281 Fax: 520-382-3299 tucson@aztechcouncil.org

ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

1

Common Ground Annual festival’s growth reflects boost in STEM interest

Arizona universities have experienced an increase in the number of degrees granted in high-demand fields, including those requiring emphases in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). According to the Arizona Board of Regents, credentials in the fields grew from 4 percent in the 2009-2010 academic year to 47 percent in 2013-2014 school year.

An interest in STEM also has been a key driver in the growing popularity of the annual Arizona SciTech Festival, a statewide celebration of science and technology that runs through the end of March. What began with 200 events in 2011 will hit a total of 940 events in 45 cities and towns this year. At least that was the count at press time by Executive Director Jeremy Babendure. With more children engaged in STEM and, in turn, libraries getting involved, “part of (the growth) is being aware,” he says.

More than 500 organizations throughout the state will participate. While Babendure’s team spearheads the effort, they have foundational support from the Arizona Technology Council Foundation, Arizona Board of Regents, Arizona Commerce Authority, Arizona Science Center, Arizona State University and The University of Arizona.

In addition to the SciTech Festival’s growth, an extra this year was the first event actually coincided with the kickoff of Super Bowl Week.

Still, there are plenty of opportunities to attend an event this year — close to home or during a day trip to such places as the Verde Valley. At right are some options comprised of first-time events. Additional details can be found at azscitech.com.

March 18-21 Mesa Arts Center 1 E. Main St., Mesa Spark! Mesa’s Festival of Creativity: Engage the childlike wonder in all of us with featured performances and art installations, media and digital interactives, music and participatory art projects.

March 21 Dead Horse State Park 675 Dead Horse Ranch Road, Cottonwood Verde River Valley Nature Organization Outdoor Science Festival: Experience outdoor activities in geology, archaeology, water, soil testing, aeronautics, compass mapping, GPS, alternative energies and more!

March 26 Verde Valley Montessori 215 S. Main St., Cottonwood Reaction Adventure: Students will demonstrate the role of reactions in various scientific disciplines.

March 27 Yavapai College, Verde Campus, Bldg. M 601 Black Hills Drive, Clarkdale Verde Valley SciTech Expo: Student projects, and businesses and organizations’ demonstrations, including many hands-on activities.

March 27 Xavier College Preparatory 4710 N. Fifth St., Phoenix Girls Have IT Day!: 700 middle school girls are mentored by more than 300 high school girls in interactive STEAM activities.

March 28 Camp Verde Community Center 395 S. Main St., Camp Verde The Lindberghs’ 1929 Southwest Aerial Survey: Aviator Charles Lindbergh and wife Anne teamed with noted archaeologist Alfred Kidder for an unprecedented aerial photographic survey of Southwest prehistoric sites and geologic features, including Chaco Canyon, the Grand Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. Featuring Lindbergh’s photographs, this presentation describes this adventurous pioneering collaboration of aviation and archaeology.

March 28 Copper Sky Regional Park 44345 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Maricopa Science City at Maricopa’s Annual Salsa Festival: Interactive booths and science activities.

The University of Arizona Medical School in downtown Phoenix opened its doors to launch the SciTech Festival with demonstrations just before the Super Bowl.

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ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

ROI Worth Raves

New push for legislative expansion of tax credit programs As the Arizona Technology Council tries to get the Arizona Legislature in the 2015 session to recapitalize one tax credit program and expand another, two reports authored by the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) show substantial return on both so far that make proposed changes worth pursuing.

Included in the Council’s legislative priorities are recapitalization of the Angel Investment Tax Credit program. In its 2014 session, the Legislature extended the sunset date of the credit from 2016 to 2021.

However, there were no additional funds allocated to the program. The Council would like to see it recapitalized at the $5 million level.

The Council also wants the Refundable Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit to be continued and expanded as a further inducement for raising early-stage capital by Arizona companies responsible for high-paying, knowledge-economy jobs. At its current cap of $5 million per year, technology companies with operations in Arizona that have used the credit have reinvested the funds through additional R&D and hiring talent in Arizona. The Council supports expanding the credit by $2.5 million for four years.

One of ACA’s reports shows 120 small businesses have received approximately $58 million in certified investments since the Angel Investment Tax Credit program’s inception in 2006. Additionally, there have been 213 unique companies that have taken the initiative to become certified. These 213 small businesses on average employed 4.5 employees each at the time of certification and paid an average $61,900 per employee per year. These positions are quality jobs, generating an average job multiplier effect of approximately 2.3 on Arizona’s economy.

aztechcouncil.org

Outcomes from the $18.7 million in tax credits approved to date include more than $340 million in seed capital, venture capital and other sources of financing raised by 94 of the 120 certified businesses in addition to the original investments received under the Program. Also, the certified businesses to date have had a combined economic impact of an estimated $1.3 billion on Arizona’s economy. For 2015 alone, the economic impact is expected to be $332.7 million.

State and local tax revenues generated by the 94 small businesses are estimated to be $44 million to date. The expected annual state and local revenue generated from 2015 going forward is $9.9 million. Tax revenues generated represent a return on investment of more than 2:1 ($25 million in excess of monies contributed).

Companies gained the ability to receive a partial refund of the R&D tax credit in place since 1992 when Senate Bill 1254 was passed during the 2010 legislative session. A qualifying company became eligible to claim a partial refund of its current year excess R&D credit under the program administered by ACA. The companies can apply to the ACA for a partial refund of up to 75 percent of the excess credit amount.

According to the second ACA report, the average refundable credit given per applicant was $125,000.

In the first four years, the program has flourished, with more than 120 applicants receiving a credit. These applicants generally employed 31 employees each, spent $263 million on R&D in Arizona, invested nearly $100 million in capital investment and paid an average $77,000 per employee per year. In addition, the total economic impact from 2011 through 2013 has been more than $2.26 billion, with an average return on investment of 13.1 to 1.

ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

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Business Essentials

Programs offers discounted products, services for members

Finding cost-effective ways to get the products and services needed to keep a business operating is a challenge for any company. When they also are essential to help retain quality employees, they can become mission critical. But when the competition is made up of goliaths with deep pockets, the challenge can seem even larger to small businesses, especially tech firms trying to make it past the startup phase. Business Essentials is a solution for members of the Arizona Technology Council.

The Business Essentials Program was launched to provide significant discounts on the products and services technology businesses need most. Partner companies participating in the program are active Council members committed to providing what others must have at highly reduced prices solely for Council members.

Each year the Council chooses up to 12 partners to participate in the Program. For 2015, those companies include:

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ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

401k Multiple Employer Plan (MEP) presented by Scottsdale Wealth Management Group. AZTC 401(k) MEP can help reduce a company’s responsibilities as a plan sponsor and allow the owner more time to concentrate on business. By utilizing the Council’s 401(k) MEP, companies have all the advantages and flexibility of a stand-alone retirement plan sponsor but avoid the expenses and administrative burden associated with sponsoring such a plan.

Cloud Services presented by Trans-West Network Solutions. The plan provides discounts on monthly IT managed services that include desktop support, help desk, on-site services and virtual desktop support. The all-inclusive IT services program assumes up to three devices per user.

Employee Benefits Program gives the purchasing power of the Council as well as pricing that reflects the actual cost of healthcare used by a group. Instead of paying increases even though a group’s claims are low,

costs are based on employees’ actual medical claims pooled with those of other technology companies. The insurance package for groups with 10 to 150 employees includes medical, dental, vision, life and disability. A full range of supplemental products and administrative resources is also available.

Employment Law and HR Services is presented by Mountain States Employers Council, a trusted advisor that provides HR and employment law support for companies in today’s challenges. MSEC’s team of attorneys, HR experts, trainers and survey analysts work on employment law, HR, training and workplace survey needs. As a nonprofit association, MSEC has been supporting employers with their workplace matters since 1939.

Inbound Marketing Services presented

by Prism Global Marketing Solutions. Inbound marketing software solutions include inbound marketing training/HubSpot training, website development, lead generation, search engine optimization, blogging, social media, email

marketing, marketing automation and on-demand analytics. Also provided are CRM solutions.

LegalShield has been providing legal service plans to North American families for more than 40 years. Provided in Arizona by MapGo Enterprises, customers can access legal counsel and advice from qualified lawyers simply by calling a toll-free number. Access a variety of legal services, including advice on unlimited issues, attorney letters or calls made on your behalf, contract and document review (up to 15 pages each), and more. Lawyers also will review a plan contract for complete terms, coverage, amounts, conditions and exclusions. onTop Technology. By creating an affordable means to get core services that run a business into the cloud, companies gain the keys to free themselves from fighting the traditional IT “forest fires” and moving into leveraging a world-class, state-of-the-art infrastructure with exceptional support. The products offered are: • Hosted Lync in two flavors: Lync Basic and Lync Enterprise. Lync picks up where phone and email leave off. By leveraging Lync, companies can close the gap on company communications

and effectiveness. Integrating instant messaging, presence, audio bridging, Web meetings and video conferencing enables workers to collaborate in ways typically only afforded by large corporations.

• Hosted exchange: All plans include Outlook Anywhere, ActiveSync, Outlook Web, and spam and virus protection with 1 gigabyte of online backups per user.

• Virtual servers: For Amazon AWS customers, onTop can take you as a customer and instantly provide savings on your bill as well as renew subscriptions and start-up fees. As a bonus, it will even throw in three hours of Tier 1 support.

Website Design and Development presented

by Tempo Creative. Deliver memorable, innovative and creative website design and inbound marketing campaigns built for measurable results and maximum ROI. Business Essentials Program participants get a 20-percent discount on all services, including Web design and development, search engine optimization, website hosting and maintenance, and branding and print design.

Wilkes University. Undergraduate and graduate degree programs are offered with

scholarships. Undergraduate degrees are available to individuals who possess an associate degree or equivalent and are seeking to complete the final two years of a bachelor’s program in one of six majors in the business field. The majors are accounting, entrepreneurship, sport and event management, management, finance, and business administration. Wilkes also offers graduate programming for individuals who have a bachelor’s degree and are interested in pursuing master’s degrees in business, engineering management, creative writing and education.

Partner companies of the Business Essentials Program must fulfill several requirements.

To start, the discount to members must be substantive. When appropriate, partners must be willing to promote the program to current clients and customers through email marketing, company newsletters and the company website. There should also be a revenue sharing component with the Council. Email marketing@ aztechcouncil.org for more information or to see if your organization would qualify.

To learn more details about the Business Essentials Program, go to www.aztechcouncil.org/bep.

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ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

5

At the Top

New chair named for Phoenix CEO Network Ron Thompson Jr. has been named the new chair of the Arizona Technology Council’s Phoenix CEO Network. In his regular career, Thompson is Senior Vice President – Western US at DataBank IMX, one of the largest enterprise document management solution companies in North America.

“Ron is a genuine, down-to-earth business leader with a passion for helping organizations, employees and customers succeed,” says Steven G. Zylstra, president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council. “We’re privileged to have him accept the reigns of this exclusive group of technology leaders that is so highly regarded by our members.”

The CEO Network assembles business leaders to address current issues facing their company using a peer-to-peer board of advisors model. The group provides a confidential, non-

competitive environment for sharing experience-based knowledge to solve business problems faced by every CEO. Thompson will leverage his considerable business acumen to meet the Council’s mission of creating a forum where business leaders can discuss current challenges and receive trusted advice from their peers.

“As a longtime member of this and similar associations, peer advisory has become a huge passion of mine,” says Thompson. “At some point, CEOs have all been faced with difficult decisions and have turned to our close network for support. I believe it is a great opportunity to not only receive and share advice, but network at a higher level while growing professionally.”

Thompson, former CEO of OSAM Document Solutions, specializes in leadership effectiveness and process improvement. As a trusted advisor for many organizations within the business and government community, he often speaks of OSAM’s core foundation, Three Pillars of Success: Accountability, Process and Culture.

The Phoenix CEO Network 2015 sessions occur the second week of each month on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, based on the number of networks. For more information, please email Leigh Goldstein at lgoldstein@aztechcouncil.org.

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ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Welcome Aboard

Meet two of the newest Council board members Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy is senior vice president for research at The University of Arizona. As the university’s chief research officer and a member of the president’s senior executive team, Espy is charged with advancing transformative excellence in research across the campus toward achievement of the goals articulated in Never Settle, the university’s academic strategic plan. She is responsible for university interdisciplinary research centers and institutes that span from basic to applied and from the sciences to the humanities disciplines as well as the three museums and central core facilities. Espy also represents the university in national organizations such as the American Association of Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and Council on Research Policy and Graduate Education, plus serves as a member of several public boards.

Prior to accepting the post at the UA, she was the vice president for research and innovation at the University of Oregon, and dean of its Graduate School. During her tenure, many university research core facilities were established, the university facilities & administration negotiated rate and effective recovery rate were increased, and research support programs were augmented or developed that resulted in new federally funded interdisciplinary projects.

Espy earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Houston and her bachelor’s degree from Rice University. She completed a clinical/pediatric psychology internship at University of Louisville School of Medicine/Bingham Child Guidance Center and a post-doctoral fellowship at The University of Arizona College Of Medicine. She is a licensed clinical psychologist.

Marc Chesley Attorney Marc Chesley is the chief technology officer at Infusionsoft, where he oversees all product development and technology. His goal is to build leaders, and he serves as a mentor and coach at the company, which he joined as employee No. 15 at the early stage of startup growth. Prior to Infusionsoft, Chesley founded, grew and successfully sold a computer and networking services company. He has held executive positions for WinForce Technologies and IT Partners. Chesley is also a cloud computing and agile development leader, with multiple certifications in Pragmatic Marketing and SCRUM. He has a knack for translating vision and design into tangible products that help small businesses succeed.

As an attorney, Chesley has focused on venture capital financing, and mergers and acquisitions. He led the $54-million Series C funding transaction between Infusionsoft and Goldman Sachs, and the $55-million Series D funding transaction between Infusionsoft and Bain Capital.

He was named the 2013 Arizona CIO of The Year by the Arizona Technology Council and the Phoenix Business Journal. He also was named the 2012 Arizona IT Leader of the Year by the Society of Information Management.

He has a juris doctor from Brigham Young University and a bachelor’s in philosophy from Arizona State University. He is a member of The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management advisory board; and Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business Department of Information Systems executive advisory board.

Giving Back

Council members come together to help others STEM Drive

Camp Soaring Eagle

In partnership with the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Arizona Technology Council’s Phoenix Ambassador Committee launched and promoted a STEM Drive leading up to the Jobing.com-presented After5 Networking Event/Tech the Hall Holiday Party. Council member companies were encouraged to donate STEM-related items for use in 1 Darn Cool School, the school for patients at the hospital, resulting in nearly $1,000 in items collected. Additionally, more than $600 was raised through a raffle at the event to support the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation.

The year 2014 marked the sixth that the Arizona Technology Council donated the proceeds from the CEO Retreat Golf Tournament raffle ticket and mulligan sales to Camp Soaring Eagle. A check of $2,000 was presented to Max James, founder of Camp Soaring Eagle, at the event’s Welcome Reception. Camp Soaring Eagle provides the healing power of laughter to thousands of seriously ill children by giving them the opportunity to go to a medically supervised camp at no cost to the campers and families.

aztechcouncil.org

Tucson Annual Holiday Food Drive The Tucson Annual Holiday Food Drive competition was an initiative of the Tucson Ambassador Committee and resulted in six companies submitting a total of 5,352 specific food items that were donated to the Tucson Interfaith Community Services Food Bank. Infrared Laboratories won the competition for the fourth year in a row and was presented with the Annual Holiday Food Drive trophy at the December After5 Holiday Tech Mixer held at Connect Coworking and co-sponsored by the Tucson Manufacturing Group.

ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY REPORT

7

FEBRUARY 2015

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Aguirre, Francisco, 12 Ason, John, 39 Babendure, Jeremy, 54 Bradstock, Phil, 26 Brooks, Nigel A.L., 51 Chesley, Marc, 59 Creed, Dan, 39 Dauphin, Henry, 26 Davis, Gerald F., 33 Ebel, Jason, 16 Ebel, Jim, 16 Esparza, Silvana Salcido, 44 Espy, Kimberly Andrews, Ph.D., 59 Garcia, Greg, 53 Gasca, Gabe, 12 Gibson, Rick, 39

Accolade, 20 Ad 2 Phoenix, 39 Affinity Technology, 64 Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce, 41 Alliance Bank of Arizona, 3 Arizona Beer & Cider Company, 16 Arizona Board of Regents, 54 Arizona Business Incubator Association, 26 Arizona Coalition for Military Families, 36 Arizona Commerce Authority, 39, 54 Arizona Department of Economic Security, 36 Arizona Department of Education, 36 Arizona Department of Health, 36 Arizona Science Center, 54 Arizona SciTech Festival, 54 Arizona State University, 36, 54, 66 Arizona Technology Council Foundation, 54 Arizona Technology Council, 41, 53 Arizona Women’s Education & Employment, Inc., 43 Association for Corporate Growth – Arizona, 39 Audi USA, 42 AZ TechCelerator, 26 Balsz School District, 36 Banner Health, 68 Barrio Queen, 44 BioAccel, 11, 26 Black Chamber of Commerce, The, 39 Brown & Brown Insurance of Arizona, Inc., 21 Burch & Cracchiolo, P.A., 15 Camelback Square, 16 Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation, 26 Center for Nonprofit Management, 36 Chan Soon-Shiong Children’s Precision Medicine Institute, 20 Child Crisis Center, 36 Cloudtract, 14 CO+HOOTS, 12 Colangelo College of Business, 66

Guerra, MaryAnn, 11, 26 Guildbeau, Doug, 53 Hancock, Craig, 18 Haughton, Laurence, 33 Hewitt, Bill, 53 Irons, Steve, 18 Jaruzelski, Barry, 22 Jennings, Jason, 33 Juetten, Mary, 28 Kelly, Steve, 39 Khan, Umair, 20 Klein, Courtney, 26 Kloefkorn, Sheila, 53 Kosse, Michael, 50 Kunkin, Marianne, 16 Larsen, Cassandra, 36 Levine, Josh, 18

Levitt, Joel D., 34 Liuzzo, Anthony L., J.D., Ph.D., 66 Lohr, Steve, 33 Marshall, Hank, 26 Martinez, Meghan, 29 McCarty, Trish, 23 McClure, Joshua, 18 Miller, Mary Ann, 45 Mondotte, Kathy, 20 Neal, Julie, 26 Nguyen, Bao, 14 Payne, Nancy, 36 Poon, Jenny, 12 Porter, Randall, M.D., 20 Pruitt, Jeff, 26 Rainey, Thomas, 26 Reed, Steven, 24

Saville, Jeff, 26 Schiefelbein, Jill, 39 Scola, John, 36 Soon-Shiong, Chan, M.D., 20 Sumners, Scott, 36 Swenson, Rick, 18 Ta, Jenny Q., 32 Thompson, Ron, Jr., 58 Thornberry, Neal, Ph.D., 32 Wand, Peter, 24 White, Christopher J., 33 Wilkinson, Christine, 46 Winkel, Nicola, 36 Yelton, Russ, 30, 53 Zylstra, Steven, 53

Conquest Training Systems, 8 CopperPoint, 9 Desert Schools Federal Credit Union, 35 DeskHub Scottsdale, 12 DocSolid, 18 Downtown Phoenix Inc., 62 Driver Provider, The, 38 DTZ, 2 Early Head Start, 36 East Valley Women, 40 Economic Club of Phoenix, 40 Educare Arizona, 36 Eller College of Management, 66 Enterprise Bank & Trust, 40 Family Promise, 40 First Things First, 36 Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce, 41 FSW Funding, 61 Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, 39 Glendale Convention & Visitors Bureau, 17 Global Chamber, 40 Google, 14 Graduate Management Admissions Council, 66 Grand Canyon University, 66, 46 Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, 41 Greater Phoenix Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, 40 Greater Phoenix SCORE, 41 GrowSouthwest, 39 H&R Block, 42 Harvard Business Review, 66 HOTventures, 39 IKEA, 7 Impromptu Guru, 39 IMSTRATT, LLC, 32 Infusionsoft, 59, 62 Invoy Technologies, 53 J. Levine Auction & Appraisal, 18 Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, PLC, 24 K1 Speed, 17 KEASY, 29

Kenan-Flagler Business School, 66 KEO Marketing Inc., 53 KTAR News-Talk 92.3, 13 Levementum, 53 Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP, 24 Liberty Mutual Insurance, 50 Life Cycle Engineering, 34 Lincoln Property Company, 16 LocalWork.com, 38 Madison Square Property, LLC, 16 Madison Square, 16 MapGo Enterprises, 57 Maricopa Community Colleges, 19 Medical Memory, The, 20 Mesa Chamber of Commerce, 41 Mountain States Employment Council, 56 NAWBO, 40 NerdWallet, 22 Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, 16 Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, 26 Nussbaum Gillis & Dinner, P.C., 25 Office Pile, The, 12 Organization of Women in International Trade – Phoenix, 41 Pango Mobile Parking, Ltd., 18 Phoenix Children’s Hospital, 20 Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation, 52 Phoenix Convention Center, 9 Phoenix Philanthropy Group, The, 35, 36 Phoenix, City of, 26, 36 Pinnacle Transplant Technologies, 30, 53 Portland on the Park, 16 Prism Global Marketing Solutions, 56 Rawhide, 64 RealMassive, 18 Refinery, The, 26 Reliable Background Screening, 63 Rosie McCaffrey’s Irish Pub & Restaurant, 44 Scientific American, 22 Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce, 41 Scottsdale Healthcare, 36 Scottsdale Wealth Management Group, 56

Seamus McCaffrey’s, 44 SEED SPOT, 26 SkySong, 26 Southwest Human Development, 36 Springfield Resources, 34 Sqeegee, 32 SRP, 14 Stanford University, 66 StarShine Academy, 23 SuiteHop, 14 Tallwave, 26 Target Commercial Interiors, 67 TaxAct, 42 TechKnowPartners, LLC, 51 Technology Councils of North America, 53 Tempe Chamber of Commerce, 40, 45 Tempo Creative, 57 ThinkSmallBiz, 63 Thunderbird Executive Inn & Conference Center, 62 Thunderbird School of Global Management, 66 Tim Finnegan’s Irish Restaurant & Pub, 44 Traklight, 28 Trans-West Network Solutions, 56 TravelHugg, 16 Tri-Merit, 53 TurboTax, 42 Two Brothers Taphouse and Brewery, 16 UnitedHealthcare, 4 University of Arizona, The, 54, 59, 66 University of North Carolina, 66 USAA, 18 Velocis, 16 Vermillion Photo, 61 VirusTotal, 14 W. P. Carey School of Business, 66 Walmart, 14 Wells Fargo, 5, 58 Wharton, 66 Wheelchair Solutions, 20 Wilkes University, 57, 66 Women in the Workforce, 41

In each issue of In Business Magazine, we list both companies and indivuduals for quick reference. See the stories for links to more.

Bold listings are advertisers supporting this issue of In Business Magazine.

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FEBRUARY 2015

A CANDID FORUM

Underestimating the Value of an MBA: The Latest Fad Entrepreneurship is only one part of an MBA’s ROI Anthony L. Liuzzo, J.D., Ph.D.

Top Local MBA Programs We are home to some of the best in the world. Here are the tops based on rankings: Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business wpcarey.asu.edu Grand Canyon University Colangelo College of Business gcu.edu/Colangelo-Collegeof-Business Thunderbird School of Global Management thunderbird.edu The University of Arizona Eller College of Management ellermba.arizona.edu Wilkes University MBA wilkes.edu/mesa Wilkes

Anthony L. Liuzzo, J.D., Ph.D., serves as director of Arizona Business Programs and professor of Business and Economics at Wilkes University in Mesa, Arizona, and WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania.

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Why go back to a university after all these years just to incur mounds of student debt? Why learn finance, marketing and leadership skills when there are numerous examples of successful entrepreneurs who founded businesses without getting advanced degrees? Why try to learn business content in a world where ever-changing technology creates dinosaurs faster than Steven Spielberg?

Because it’s the smart move!!!

All one needs to do is to ask the experts — the individuals who have actually put in the time, energy, financial resources and personal commitment to earn an MBA. A 2014 Alumni Perspective’s Survey, conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council, found that more than 90 percent of MBA graduates rated their degrees in business as good to outstanding. This was not just some pollster telephoning a small number of people at dinnertime asking a few questions — more than 21,000 business school graduates responded to this survey.

Ninety-five percent of these respondents believed their MBA experience was personally rewarding, and 90 percent believed it was professionally rewarding. Given what they know now, 96 percent of the business school alumni surveyed said they would still pursue their degree. Interestingly, the survey found little to no distinction between responses of MBA graduates who completed their degree in a period of economic downturn versus those who graduated when the economy was thriving.

It is certainly true that, in an economy still suffering from the effects of recession, the concern for student debt fueled by the rising cost of education may raise a degree of skepticism in those considering furthering their business education.

However, the value of an MBA from an accredited institution that fits individual students’ needs can help to stimulate entrepreneurial thinking skills, and further advance these students’ careers.

Even in times of economic downturn, many MBA graduates have reported they still value the investment they made into earning an MBA. In a recent article published by Harvard Business Review, with respect to the financial rewards attributable to an MBA degree, those graduating in periods of downturn were actually slightly more likely to rate their MBA as being a vital contributor to their employment and financial compensation. Eighty-four percent of respondents maintained that their degree was essential to their employment.

Hiring of MBAs is also predicted to increase more than 16 percent this year, indicating that the MBA degree continues to gain value in determining career placement. Furthermore, a recent study published by the College Board depicts median annual salaries for individuals holding master’s

degrees as $90,000, while those holding bachelor’s degrees earn only $56,500.

Some skeptics of the MBA cite the out-datedness of business school curricula. Recently, however, great numbers of schools have begun infusing new ways of stimulating creativity into their programs, which can help spur innovative and entrepreneurial thought processes in the minds of MBA candidates. Themes of entrepreneurship, venture capital, product innovation and contagion — that is, how ideas go viral — have made their way into the curriculum and inculcate value to many business school programs.

Aspiring entrepreneurs are also considering the networking values an MBA program presents. The graduate business school experience allows future business leaders to meet and collaborate. Entrepreneurs can, in turn, find those with like mindsets and passion for success, and after completion of their degree they may choose to start a business together. This environment that MBA students experience is unique to business schools, because there are many talented individuals from whom to seek knowledge, and there is little risk associated with failure — if the startup does not work, the students can simply commence a job search. This gives time for young entrepreneurs to fine-tune their startup planning and vision, and to seek advice from their professors on how to correct mistakes.

The Graduate School of Business at Stanford University has seen a record 18 percent of 2013’s graduating class elect to start a business. Compared with the class of 2007, five times as many 2013 Wharton business school graduates have started their own business immediately after completion of their degree. At the University of North Carolina’s KenanFlagler Business School, 40 percent of the class of 2015 is studying entrepreneurship. This movement toward entrepreneurship reflects the mindset of modern business students, who tend to be less interested in Wall Street and more interested in what they can learn to grow their own businesses and emulate the likes of those in Silicon Valley.

Wilkes University was actively recruited by the City of Mesa as part of its HEAT (Healthcare, Education, Aerospace, Tourism and Technology) Initiative aimed at growing its knowledge-worker work force to sustain strong economic development.

The cost curve of health care can only bend when value is delivered to consumers.

Health care in America is undergoing a fundamental transformation leading to better care and improved consumer experience at lower costs. That’s a formula for value that’s attractive to any business. Banner Health is proud to help lead in this critical effort. Headquartered in Phoenix with more than 39,000 employees in seven states, Banner Health is at the leading edge of this transformation. We’re forging new affiliations with government and insurance organizations that have demonstrated impressive success in the delivery of value-based care through the emerging approach that manages the health of populations – one member or patient at a time.

Ba nnerH ealt h. c om

Antelope Canyon Arizona