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Edward Gordon: Winning The Global Talent Showdown - Blog Business Success Radio

President of Imperial Consulting Corporation, and author of the important and visionary book Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, Edward E. Gordon, describes how even in a recession, the USA, Canada, and the rest of the world face a talent shortage in many fields. He discusses how communities can partner with business to enhance employment opportunities. He shares his ideas for solving the talent crisis through education, workplace experience, internships, apprenticeships and leadership programs.

Edward E. Gordon is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, April 30, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

President of Imperial Consulting Corporation, and author of the important and visionary book Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, Edward E. Gordon, describes how even in a recession, the USA and the rest of the world face a talent shortage in many fields. You will learn:

* Why there is a growing skilled worker shortage even in a down economy

* Why immigration and offshoring are not real solutions to the problem

* How the economy is changing to what the author calls a Cyber-Mental Age

* How your business and community can solve the growing skills shortage

Edward E. Gordon (photo left) is a leader with vision. As President of Imperial Consulting Corporation in Chicago and Palm Desert, California, he is a talent availability expert who applies a multidisciplinary approach to today's complex workforce and economic development issues.

Ed Gordon is a recognized international expert on training, careers, and education related to business and economic development. During his over thirty years of consulting, Ed has assisted many varied clients including: Microsoft, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Sonnenschein, Nath, and Rosenthal, Motorola, Metra Rail, the Jacksonville Community Council, the American Institute for Research, the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor, state agencies of California, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, as well as universities, school systems, non-profit organizations, and trade or professional associations.

Ed Gordon is the author or co-author of 17 books including Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, The 2010 Meltdown, Skill Wars, FutureWork, Closing the Literacy Gap in American Business, Opportunities in Training and Development Careers, Literacy in America, The Tutoring Revolution, Peer Tutoring: A Teacher's Resource Guide and Tutor Quest.

Wdward Gordon has been quoted in or written over 200 articles in major newspapers, popular magazines, business publications, and education journals. His media experience includes the CBS Network's, "The Early Show," CNN, NBC, Bloomberg TV, WGN, NPR, USA Radio, and Yahoo. As a professional speaker, he has been heard by over 300,000 people and millions on television and radio.

Ed Gordon has taught courses in business, education, and history for 20 years at three Chicago-area universities: DePaul, Loyola, and Northwestern. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois and is chairman of the board for their Better Business Bureau Foundation. Ed also is a member of the Quality Workforce Committee of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Youth Policy Committee of the Chicago Workforce Board and is on the Advisory Board of Trend Letter. Edward Gordon previously served on the Board of Trustees of Moraine Valley Community College and the Board of Directors of the Illinois Literacy Resource Development Center.

My book review of Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline by Edward E. Gordon.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with President of Imperial Consulting Corporation, and author of the important and visionary book Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, Edward E. Gordon, as he describes how even in a recession, the USA, Canada, and the rest of the world face a talent shortage in many fields. He discusses how communities can partner with business to enhance employment opportunities. He shares his ideas for solving the talent crisis through education, workplace experience, internships, apprenticeships and leadership programs on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, Edward E. Gordon, global economy, globalization, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Winning The Global Talent Showdown by Edward E. Gordon - Book review

Winning the Global Talent Showdown

How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline

By: Edward E. Gordon

Published: April 1, 2009
ISBN: 9781576756164
Format: Hardcover, 280pp
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

"Universal demand for more talented people in the workforce is developing a major shortage of appropriately skilled people is taking hold around the world", writes Imperial Consulting Corporation President Edward E. Gordon in his important and visionary book Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline. The author explodes myths about globalization, and describes the underlying causes of current and future labor shortages, while presenting practical and effective solutions.

Edward Gordon understands how economies change over time, and how current economic models give way to entirely new economic orders. Just as the Agricultural Age transformed into the Industrial Age, the current Computer Age is on the cusp of what the author terms the Cyber-Mental Age. In that new economic paradigm, science and technology skills backed by a strong liberal arts education, will be essential for employees. The outdated Twentieth Century educational model, combined with the effects of aging population demographics, and globalized markets for skilled workers, have contributed to the growing global talent shortage.

Edward Gordon (photo left) not only recognizes the problems facing every country on Earth, as skilled workers become ever more scarce, but he also outlines some practical and highly effective solutions. Starting with a fundamental change in how education is provided, in both the developed and developing world, the author considers higher educational achievement levels fundamental to the creation of the essential highly skilled labor pool. Along with more educational attainment, the book discusses ideas for adding formerly unskilled and bypassed workers to the employment rolls. Business, non-profit organizations, and community groups can also do their part in boosting technical skills training, apprenticeships, and support for current and future employees.

For me, the power of the book is the Edward Gordon's clear eyed evaluation of the growing skilled labor shortage problem. He recognizes the paradox of high unemployment levels, while jobs in science and technology jobs are unable to fill employment vacancies. He moves beyond the quick fix concepts of offshoring and immigration. He understands that those alleged solutions no longer work, as all countries face similar skilled worker shortages. The author's practical ideas of home grown solutions, not only address existing worker voids, but also build and enhance the skills base of the entire population, creating a stronger future economy.

I highly recommend the prophetic, yet highly practical Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline by Edward E. Gordon, to anyone seeking to understand the real underlying causes of the global talent shortage. Cutting through myths, half baked populist slogans, and misinformation, the author not only describes the problems, but also offers cooperative, workable, and effective solutions.

Read the essential Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline by Edward E. Gordon, and learn why there is a global talent shortage, and how you can help solve the problem within your own business or community. The book gives you the tools, it's up to you to put them to use to build a stronger economic future for everyone.

Tags: Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, Edward E. Gordon, global economy, globalization, business book reviews.

Joan Thomas - Reading By Lightning: A Novel - Author interview

Joan Thomas, author of the powerful tour de force Reading by Lightning: A Novel, took the time to answer a few questions about her fine novel, its characters, and some of the powerful literary themes uncovered in the story.

Thanks to Joan Thomas for taking the time to answer the questions, and for providing such illuminating and insightful answers. Thanks as well to Goose Lane Editions for helping arrange this wonderful interview.

What was the background for telling the story of Lily Piper and her family?

Joan Thomas: I created this family as a means of exploring the experiences of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations. The arc of the story is somewhat based on their lives. My grandfather immigrated from England with the Barr colonists, and one of my aunts was sent back to England at 16 to look after her grandmother. But Reading by Lightning did not rise out of family stories as much as out of the absence of them. I never knew my grandfather, and I found my parents and my aunts and uncles extremely reticent and matter-of-fact about all the challenging things they experienced through the depression and the war. My novel was an attempt to write an emotionally intimate story about these events that were so rarely talked about.

The title of the novel is intriguing, and I see the story as a series of lightning flashes of insight by Lily. Is that how you planned the book and what you wanted the title to convey?

Joan Thomas: That is exactly what I intended to imply by the title, although in fact this title was not chosen until the very last minute. When Goose Lane acquired the manuscript, the novel was named Problematica, a term drawn from George’s comments about fossils that have no existing analogous life form. We eventually decided that this notion was too peripheral to the book. Then we settled on This Breathing World, a phrase from Shakespeare’s Richard the III (Lily alludes to it at one point).

But a week before the book went to the printer’s, we discovered the existence of a book with the same title. At that point about 30 different titles were floated in an exchange of e-mails between myself and my editor Bethany Gibson, as well as other Goose Lane staff. Many of the suggested title played with the term “lightning”, as this image is key to the last scene. When I suggested Reading by Lightning, there was unanimous enthusiasm. So I didn’t plan the book around those flashes of insight, just tried to make it a true psychological profile; I think it’s a good metaphor for how we do learn about ourselves.

The parallels to John Bunyon's The Pilgrim's Progress are quite obvious in the novel. Were Lily's life and that of her father intended as echoes of that allegory?

Joan Thomas: Well, funnily, again the references to The Pilgrim’s Progress were only added in the last draft. I had a curious burst of creativity at the last moment and added a couple of thousand words of text, those passages among them. It was a bit like adding that dab of white paint to the eye of a portrait to bring the whole face to life.

I am intrigued that you know The Pilgrim’s Progress as well as you do! My mom was a great reader, and there was a dearth of books around (this was in Carberry, Manitoba, where there was no library at the time) so she just read everything to us that she could put her hands on, and somehow there was a copy of PP in the house. Hearing it as a child was very powerful, and I guess it never left me.

Award winning author Joan Thomas (photo left)

It's intriguing how you chose the ill fated Barr Colony as part of the story. What attracted you to that lesser known part of Canadian Prairie history?

Joan Thomas: I mentioned that my grandfather came with the Barr colonists. This is what I believed growing up, and what drew me to the story. But in fact, I never was able to find his name on the ship’s passenger list, so I’m not sure whether this fact is accurate. In any case, by then I was very drawn to this bit of history—Isaac Barr’s perfidy and narcissism, the nationalist ideology that made the colonists so blind to what really lay ahead for them.

As you may know, Reading by Lightning has just won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean) and I’m off on May 8 to a festival in New Zealand with the regional winners from around the world. I suspect that it was partly this aspect of the novel, this exploration of colonialism, that attracted the Commonwealth judges to the book.

The growth of Lily in mind, body and spirit is central to the novel. How much of her life is autobiographical?

Joan Thomas: Well, none of these experiences are mine, but of course in writing about how a young woman develops a sense of self, I reached within.

The character of George is interesting as the voice of science, and of ideas unknown to Lily. Indeed, he seems like Mr. Worldly in Bunyon's tale. Was that part of George's role in the book, beyond a romantic interest and a mirror version of Russell?

Joan Thomas: Yes, I think you’ve nailed it. In his artless and undiscriminating passion for the world and knowledge of every kind, he’s kind of the antithesis of the narrow, life-denying world Lily came from. I loved writing George. He’s emotionally not quite there yet, but he would have been a brilliant human being in time.

What is next for Joan Thomas?

Joan Thomas: I’m just doing the last revisions on my next book, which is historic fiction. It’s based on the life of a working class girl named Mary Anning, who was born in 1799 in Dorset, England. As a 12 year old, she unearthed the fossil skeleton of a huge marine reptile, an Ichthyosaur—the first recorded find of this species in England. This was 50 years before Origin of the Species, and Mary Anning’s find was perplexing—a dragon? a relic of Noah’s flood?

Anning went on to become an amazingly adept paleontologist, although her reputation was obscured by her sex and social class; all of her finds are credited to the collectors or academics who bought them from her. My novel is based on her life as a young woman, and her relationship with one of the gentlemen she did business with. It is tentatively titled Curiosity, and will be published by McClelland and Stewart in the spring of 2010.

Thanks very much, Wayne. It was a pleasure to hear the response of a reader who approached this book with so much thought and insight.

********

Joan Thomas (photo left) has been a regular book reviewer for the Globe and Mail for more than a decade. Her essays, stories, and articles have been published in numerous journals and magazines including Prairie Fire, Books in Canada, and the Winnipeg Free Press. She has won a National Magazine Award, co-edited Turn of the Story: Canadian Short Fiction on the Eve of the Millennium, and has served on the editorial boards of Turnstone Press and Prairie Fire Magazine. She lives in Winnipeg.

*********

My book review of Reading by Lightning: A Novel by Joan Thomas.

Tags: Reading by Lightning: A Novel, Joan Thomas, Canadian Prairie Literature, Goose Lane Editions, author interviews.

Pamela Slim: Escape From Cubicle Nation - Blog Business Success Radio

Management consultant, business coach, business blogger, and author of the practical and insightful book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim, shares secrets of transitioning from the corporate world to owning your own business. With humor and flair, she describes how to capitalize on your experience to find entrepreneurial opportunities, find the money to make the dream work, and how to make the successful leap into self employment.

Pamela Slim is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, April 28, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Management consultant, business coach, business blogger, and author of the practical and insightful book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim, shares secrets of transitioning from the corporate world to owning your own business. You will Learn:

* Why so many corporate employees are dissatisfied with their current jobs

* What holds people back from transitioning from employee to entrepreneur

* How to plan your escape successfully from the corporate world

* How to become a successful entrepreneur with your new found freedom

Pamela Slim (photo left) is a coach and writer who helps frustrated employees in corporate jobs break out and start their own business. She has been self-employed for 12 years and has enjoyed every bit of it.

Her book, Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur will be released on April 30, 2009.

Pamela's journey as an entrepreneur began in 1996, when she quit her job as manager of training and development at Barclay's Global Investors, a $300 billiom investment management firm in San Francisco. She enjoyed her work very much, but was looking for something new, exciting and challenging for the next phase of her career. After about four months in the market with no interesting job leads, she called up her friend and former manager to see if she had any project work. As fate would have it, she needed an outside contractor to work on developing the global management development curriculum for Hewlett Packard.

As soon as Pam started working for herself, she knew that something was RIGHT! Having her own business was totally liberating and intoxicating. She named her company Ganas (a Spanish word that means the intense desire to do something, inner motivation, exuberance, drive) since that was what she felt every day she went to work, and was how she wanted her clients to feel as a result of working with her.

Pam even went through a phase of self-employment evangelism, encouraging everyone she knew, or didn't know, to work for themselves, until she learned that not only was it unrealistic since some people like working as an employee, it was downright obnoxious. So although she has toned it down over the years, Pamela's zeal for entrepreneurship and her love of working for herself has never waned.

My book review of Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with management consultant, business coach, business blogger, and author of the practical and insightful book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim, as she shares secrets of transitioning from the corporate world to owning your own business. With humor and flair, she describes how to capitalize on your experience to find entrepreneurial opportunities, find the money to make the dream work, and how to make the successful leap into self employment on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim, entrepreneurship, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim - Book review

Escape from Cubicle Nation

From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur

By: Pamela Slim

Published: April 30, 2009
ISBN: 9781591842576
Format: Hardcover, 352pp
Publisher: Portfolio

"I am sure that if you worked in the corporate world for any length of time, you had your own moment when you realized that your job would never be secure", writes blogger and entrepreneur Pamela Slim in her practical and insightful book Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. The author shares her own experiences, both within and outside the corporate world, for leaving her job and in establishing her own company.

Pamela Slim understands the real world frustration that exists for many employees in a corporate setting. She experienced many of those same problems, where existing corporate practice shared no connection with the real world, or with real people. She outlines the disconnection between words and actions, and how corporate employees often endure lives bordering on desperation. Despite the lack of job satisfaction, writes Pamela Slim, many workers are reluctant to leave the perceived security of job, title, status, and a regular pay day. He book describes how employees seeking to start their own businesses experience roadblocks to their plans, stemming from both inner and outer imposed causes.

Pamela Slim (photo left) demonstrates how to take the step from corporate employee to entrepreneur, through careful preparation and understanding of personal goals, values, and aspirations. Drawing from her corporate experience, and from the responses of thousands of visitors to her very successful business blog, the author uncovers common themes leading to employee discontent. She turns these frustrations into motivations for leaving the corporate world and venturing forth into the journey of self employment.

For Pamela Slim, the very internal culture of many modern corporations, and their emphasis on what prove to be counterproductive values, leads directly to employee dissatisfaction. Very often, the stated goals and mission of the company, are in complete opposition to the actual corporate practices. Instead of satisfied and happy employees, the company creates frustrated, unhappy literal corporate prisoners.

For me, the power of the book is how author Pamela Slim recognizes that starting one's own business is hard work, but at the same time, is very liberating and empowering for the individual. She outlines how to take those crucial first steps toward planning what she terms an escape from the corporate world. The author provides a step by step approach to starting and building a new business, while balancing the practical instruction with personal encouragement and inspiration. Pamela Slim guides the would be corporate refugee to a new life as an entrepreneur, through the application of the values, that she and her fellow escapees hold most highly.

I highly recommend the motivational guidebook Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim, to anyone who has ever felt the frustration of working in an unsatisfying corporate job, and who longs to take the entrepreneurial leap. In these times of economic downturn, corporate layoffs, and job insecurity, there is no better time than the present to start your own business.

Read Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim, and leave that company cubicle far behind. You have nothing to lose but your job dissatisfaction. In its place, you have your personal freedom to gain.

Tags: Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim, entrepreneurship, business book reviews.

Reading By Lightning: A Novel by Joan Thomas - Book review

Reading by Lightning: A Novel

By: Joan Thomas

Published: September 11, 2008
ISBN-13: 9780864925121
ISBN-10: 0864925123
Format: Paperback 388 pages
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions

Lily Piper grew up in the Depression ravaged Canadian Prairies, surrounded by hard times, drought, and harder religion. Her journey from Manitoba to England, in the tumultuous years before the Second World War, is a story of personal growth and triumph over the forces of man and of nature. In lyrical prose, that floats from the pages, author Joan Thomas delivers a masterpiece in her powerful tour de force Reading by Lightning: A Novel, The stories in the book are told, as if illuminated by the brilliant flashes of lightning, where every detail stands out in total clarity, if only for a fleeting moment.

Like the Pilgrim Christian, in John Bunyon's The Pilgrim's Progress, the story is an allegory of the pilgrimage from the world of the here and now, toward a Celestial City. The journey for Lily begins on her Manitoba farm home, and she travels to England to care for her sick grandmother. For Lily, England represents the heavenly afterlife, and she feels as if God has removed her from one world and transported her across a symbolic ocean to another plane. Along the way, she meets and falls in love with her version of Mr. Worldly in the form of her adopted cousin George. He introduces her to love, and to other ways of seeing the world beyond her youthful religious upbringing.

Award winning author Joan Thomas (photo left) brings an allegorical tone to the story, as she weaves into the life of Lily Piper, the great themes of love, war, and the journey of self discovery, and the competing ideologies of religion, evolution, Empire, and politics. Standing in the lightning flash glare of these momentous events, Lily and her family are transformed in ways they had never imagined possible. The events of this world turn like pages in the the unbound remains of A Pilgrim's Progress, read by Lily's mother as if they were cards in a Tarot deck. The singular pages of that ramshackle volume are echoed in the very lives of Lily and her family.

As care laden Lily Piper searches for her Celestial Home in England, it's the opposite journey taken by her father, many years earlier. His unexpected removal from his English life took the form of following the ill fated Barr colonial expedition, on that tragic quest to recreate an English Eden on the Canadian Prairie. Like Lily, his load is heavy with personal demons, and he creates his own version of the afterlife on a drought ravaged farm in Manitoba. The farm is home to fundamentalist services, where the promises of an afterlife for the faithful, sound more like veiled threats than a reward. For Lily, her childhood Prairie world melted away, as the forces of the wider world reached their fingers all the way to her home.

I highly recommend the monumental Reading by Lightning: A Novel by Joan Thomas. The book is destined to be classic of Canadian Prairie Literature, and deservedly so as well. With writing as fresh and as beautiful as a Prairie landscape, Joan Thomas weaves a tale of mythical proportions. The characters live and love, and stay with the reader, long after the book is completed. Indeed, it's a novel that can be read on several levels, from that of a personal character study, to the conflict of ideas that shape their lives, to an allegory of the Christian Lily and her world of back breaking cares seeking her heaven.

Read the wonderful, and intensely personal Reading by Lightning: A Novel by Joan Thomas, and be swept away to another time and place, with characters as real and well drawn as any in contemporary literature. The story of Lily and her family is a moving experience not to be missed.

Tags: Reading by Lightning: A Novel, Joan Thomas, Canadian Prairie Literature, Goose Lane Editions, fiction book reviews.

Sramana Mitra: Entrepreneur Journeys - Blog Business Success Radio

Forbes magazine columnist, entrepreneur, and author of the inspirational book Entrepreneur Journeys, Sramana Mitra shares entrepreneurial advice and tips gleaned from conversations with leading successful entrepreneurs and CEOs. Ideas discussed include business success in a recession, marketing, internet traffic building, finding good mentors and advisers. She also provides some thoughts on the industries with the most profit potential in the next decade.

Sramana Mitra is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, April 23, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Forbes magazine columnist, entrepreneur, and author of the inspirational book Entrepreneur Journeys, Sramana Mitra shares entrepreneurial advice and tips gleaned from conversations with leading successful entrepreneurs and CEOs. You will learn:

* How entrepreneurs are important to solving global problems

* How to bootstrap a business and avoid debt and mot require venture capitalists

* How the internet and technology are leveling the global playing field

* Why even a bad recession is still a good time to start a business

Sramana Mitra (photo left) has been an entrepreneur and a strategy consultant in Silicon Valley since 1994. Her fields of experience span from hard core technology disciplines like semiconductors to sophisticated consumer marketing industries including fashion and education.

As an entrepreneur CEO, Sramana founded 3 companies: Dais (Off-shore Software Services), Intarka (Sales Lead Generation and Qualification Software; VC: NEA) and Uuma (Online Personalized Store for selling clothes using Expert Systems software; VC: Redwood). Two of these were acquired, while the third received an acquisition offer from Ralph Lauren which the company did not accept.

As strategy consultant, Sramana has consulted with over 80 companies, including public companies like SAP, Cadence Design Systems, Webex, KLA-Tencor, Best Buy, MercadoLibre and Tessera among others. Her work has also included numerous startups and VCs, and she played Interim VP Marketing roles for 7 such ventures. Sramana has a proven track-record in turnarounds, both small private companies (Example: think3, with Joe Costello) and divisions of larger companies (Example: a $100 Million Business Unit of Cadence, with Lavi Lev). She has also created major growth strategies through new market penetration, M&A, Industry Roll-ups, etc.

Sramana has developed a well-regarded methodology for Positioning which she has used repeatedly in different situations and across a variety of market segments.

Sramana writes a weekly column for Forbes and is currently authoring Entrepreneur Journeys, a series of books focused on demystifying entrepreneurship. Entrepreneur Journeys and Bootstrapping, Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction (EJ Volume Two) are now available from Amazon.com.

Sramana has a Masters degree in EECS from MIT and a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Economics from Smith College.

My book review of Entrepreneur Journeys: Bootstrapping, Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction by Sramana Mitra.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Forbes magazine columnist, entrepreneur, and author of the inspirational book Entrepreneur Journeys, Sramana Mitra shares entrepreneurial advice and tips gleaned from conversations with leading successful entrepreneurs and CEOs. Ideas discussed include business success in a recession, marketing, internet traffic building, finding good mentors and advisers. She also provides some thoughts on the industries with the most profit potential in the next decade on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Entrepreneur Journeys, Sramana Mitra, global business, technology, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra - Book review

Entrepreneur Journeys

By: Sramana Mitra

Published: Sept 15, 2008
ISBN: 9781439206874
Format: Paperback, 250pp
Publisher: Booksurge LLC

"For in entrepreneurship, I believe, lie solutions to many of the problems facing our modern world", writes Silicon Valley based technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant Sramana Mitra, in her inspirational book Entrepreneur Journeys. Through a series of interviews, that read like a powerful collection of short stories, the author conveys the power of entrepreneurship and technology to provide solutions to real human needs and problems on local, national and global scales.

Sramana Mitra presents stories of business successes and challenges as the entrepreneurs follow their dreams and achieved their visions. Through the power of technology, and the internet in particular, entrepreneurs are changing the way business success is found and measured, both now and in the future. Each story is complete in itself, but also part of the larger story of how business and technology, in the hands of dedicated entrepreneurs, can improve the world for everyone.

Sramana Mitra (photo left) understands the power of globalization and its impact on people. She also recognizes that globalization can be a powerful force for solving real world problems and meeting the needs of everyday people. Not only can a person make a positive impact on life in one region of the world, but through entrepreneurship and the evolving power of the internet, benefits can be shared around the world. For the author, entrepreneurs harnessing the advances in technology can improve quality of life for all concerned.

For me, the power of the book is writer Sramana Mitra's message that entrepreneurship is the true key to improving life at home and across the globe. Because the internet, and other personalized technology have leveled the competitive playing field, small business people can compete successfully with the giant corporations in their industry. By moving quickly to embrace advances in technology, and employing the personalization potential of Web 3.0, entrepreneurs can build and enhance their customer relationships far beyond what was available in the past.

I highly recommend the visionary book Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra, to anyone seeking the inspiration to take the entrepreneurial leap. The narratives and interviews within the book demonstrate clearly that entrepreneurship is a powerful force for positive global change. Indeed, the author makes the important case for independent business as the key to a brighter future for all people.

Read the fascinating Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra, and start on the journey to entrepreneurial success. The world your new business will change might be much more than your own.

Tags: Entrepreneur Journeys, Sramana Mitra, global business, technology, business book reviews.

Geoff Colvin: Talent Is Overrated - Blog Business Success Radio

Fortune Magazine Senior Editor At Large and best selling author of the myth shattering book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, Geoff Colvin describes what really separates world class performer from everybody else. The guest shares stories of remarkable achievers from all walks of life and discusses whether it was hard work or inborn talent that resulted in greatness. Geoff Colvin takes the view that both the hard work and the talent myths are wrong and he explains why.

Geoff Colvin is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, April 21, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Fortune Magazine Senior Editor At Large and best selling author of the myth shattering book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, Geoff Colvin describes what really separates world class performer from everybody else. You will learn:

* Why the belief in inborn talent is just a myth

* Why hard work and experience alone don't explain greatness either

* How deliberate practice differs from inborn talent and from basic hard work

* How to apply deliberate practice concepts to your career and to your company

Geoff Colvin (photo left) is a leading thinker, writer, broadcaster, and speaker on today's most significant trends in business. His groundbreaking new book, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, wwas published in October 2008. Donald Trump calls it “inspiring” and “enlightening” and says it’s “a terrific read all the way through.” Herb Kelleher says, “I rejoice!” Daniel H. Pink calls it “profoundly important.” Ram Charan calls it “exciting” and says “read it!”

As a popular speaker, Geoff has engaged hundreds of audiences on six continents. He is represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau.

As a longtime editor and columnist for Fortune Magazine, he has become one of America's sharpest and most respected commentators on leadership and management, globalization, shareholder value creation, the environmental imperative, and related issues.

Geoff is heard daily across America on the CBS Radio Network, where he reaches 7 million listeners a week and has made more than 10,000 broadcasts. As anchor of Wall Street Week with Fortune on PBS for three years, he spoke each week to the largest audience reached by any business television program in America.

Geoff is an honors graduate of Harvard with a degree in economics, and he holds an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.

My book review of Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Fortune Magazine Senior Editor At Large and best selling author of the myth shattering book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, Geoff Colvin as he describes what really separates world class performer from everybody else. The guest shares stories of remarkable achievers from all walks of life and discusses whether it was hard work or inborn talent that resulted in greatness. Geoff Colvin takes the view that both the hard work and the talent myths are wrong and he explains why on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, Geoff Colvin, deliberate practice, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin - Book review

Talent Is Overrated

What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

By: Geoff Colvin

Published: Oct 16, 2008
ISBN: 9781591842248
Format: Hardcover, 224pp
Publisher: Portfolio

"Great performance is in our hands far more than most of us ever expected", writes Fortune Senior Editor At Large Geoff Colvin in his myth shattering book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. In the well researched book, and drawing on landmark studies of how successful people achieve greatness in their respective fields, the author turns popular concepts of inborn talent and of plain hard work upside down. In their place, Geoff Colvin proposes the revolutionary principle of deliberate practice, as the true key to achieving greatness in all endeavors.

Geoff Colvin recognizes that greatness exists in every aspect of life, far beyond the fields of sports, games, music, and the arts where inborn talent is most often credited with extraordinary performance. At the same time, another school of thought credits hard work and experience as the fundamental causes of success. The author's research tells a much different story, however. The book describes how long periods of carefully designed study and practice, combined with a superior teacher to provide feedback, is more important than either inborn ability or of long tenure. This concept, that the author calls deliberate practice, is neither easy nor enjoyable, rendering it underutilized by almost everyone in any walk of life.

Geoff Colvin (photo left) recognizes the seeming contradiction in his theory of deliberate practice providing the edge that develops individual greatness. Very often, people are credited with success due to hard work and experience. According to Geoff Colvin, that myth breaks down under closer scrutiny. Recent studies, cited in the book, demonstrate clearly that many long serving employees, or experienced musicians fail to get better over time. They reach a performance plateau, and never advance beyond that point. The author provides strong evidence that less experienced people will perform even more effectively than longer tenured individuals, rendering the hard work and experience reasoning incorrect as well.

For me, the power of the book is how Geoff Colvin provides additional references that deliberate practice, when properly designed into a good program by a skilled teacher, can move anyone beyond that supposed performance barrier. As a result, talent ceilings are recognized as being nonexistent. Instead, what is lacking is proper practice at the core principles and weaknesses of the individual. Because deliberate practice is so effective, the second half of the book proposes that well designed practice programs, along with skilled mentors and instruction, can boost a company's productivity and effectiveness to a significant degree. The competitive edge for a business, using a deliberate practice training regimen, can even create a dominant position within an industry.

I highly recommend the must read and paradigm challenging book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin, to anyone seeking to understand what really contributes to greatness and to extraordinary performance in any field. The author works through the commonly held myths and misconceptions about how outstanding individuals achieve their superior results. In their place, the concept of deliberate practice is presented as the means for both individuals and for organizations of all types to vastly outperform any competition. The practical application of deliberate practice, described in the second half of the book, is essential reading for anyone involved in training, coaching, or mentoring people.

Read the important book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin, and never look at superior and elite level performances in the same way again. Geoff Colvin takes a deeper look into extraordinary achievement, and in so doing, unlocks the secret code to success. The power of deliberate practice, while not easy or much fun, is available to anyone who seeks to achieve greatness in any endeavor.

Tags: Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, Geoff Colvin, deliberate practice, business book reviews.

Bob Regnerus: Big Ticket eCommerce - Blog Business Success Radio

President and CEO of RJR Computing Solutions, Inc., and author of the practical and profit boosting book Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet, Bob Regnerus describes how the internet can boost sales even in a recession. He discusses the importance of focusing marketing efforts online, and share five secrets to low cost, highly effective internet marketing. In fact, Bob Regnerus considers the economic down turn a greater opportunity than ever to increase sales online.

Bob Regnerus is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, April 16, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

President and CEO of RJR Computing Solutions, Inc., and author of the practical and profit boosting book Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet, Bob Regnerus describes how the internet can boost sales even in a recession. You will learn:

* Why value products and services can sell well using the internet

* How to get more visitor traffic to your business website

* How to use pay per click more effectively to get qualified leads

* How adding an online component can boost sales even in a recession

Bob Regnerus (photo left) is the creator of the Big Ticket eCommerce System. He has used this system to create thousands of websites, attract more than 35 million website visitors, and generate 2.2 million leads for his clients. Bob has used the Internet to increase sales of surgery procedures, enterprise software, dentistry, rooftops, graduate programs, chiropractic treatments, and 29 other types of big-ticket products and services.

Bob's client roster includes prestigious institutions like the Dartmouth School of Business, Miracle-Ear®, Dental Professionals, Chiropractors, Information Marketers, Real Estate Investors, CPAs, Chiropractors, Restaurant Owners, Authors, Consultants, Coaches, Speakers, Cosmetic Surgeons, Martial Arts Schools, Online Retailers, Construction Companies, Business Colleges, E-book Publishers, Entertainers, E-Tailers, Clothing Stores, Supply Companies, Weight Loss Solutions, Golf Schools, Voice Talents, Business Opportunity Seekers, Financial Experts, and many more.

My book review of Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet by Bob Regnerus.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with President and CEO of RJR Computing Solutions, Inc., and author of the practical and profit boosting book Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet, Bob Regnerus as he describes how the internet can boost sales even in a recession. He discusses the importance of focusing marketing efforts online, and share five secrets to low cost, highly effective internet marketing. In fact, Bob Regnerus considers the economic down turn a greater opportunity than ever to increase sales online on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet, Bob Regnerus, internet marketing and ecommerce, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Stealing MySpace by Julia Angwin - Book review

Stealing MySpace:

The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America

By: Julia Angwin

Published: Mar 17, 2009
ISBN: 9781400066940
Format: Hardcover, 371pp
Publisher: Random House Inc.

"The story of MySpace is a story of the first Hollywood Internet company, a company that is a breed apart from its Silicon Valley Brethren", writes Wall Street Journal Senior Technology Editot Julia Angwin in her important and highly entertaining new book Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. In this first indepth study of the internet powerhouse MySpace, the author takes the reader on a rollercoaster thrill ride through Hollywood, the corporate boardrooms of media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone, and into the the deepest reaches of internet business itself.

With writing more like a novel than a business book, Julia Angwin describes the meteoric rise of MySpace from humble beginnings to an internet sensation. Whether by design, or from programming mistakes that turned into into gold, the story of MySpace is a success story by any standard. At the same time as MySpace was on the way to becoming the most popular internet website, the clouds were already gathering on the web horizon. In a battle of egos as large as the world wide web itself, MySpace was in the corporate crosshairs as a takeover target. The author describes that high stakes boardroom swashbuckling in vivid detail.

Julia Angwin (photo left) recognizes that MySpace is a website like no other major location on the world wide web. Instead of sharing the technology and programming based roots of its competitors, MySpace evolved from the worlds of spyware, and the voyeurism of internet pornography. Not only does the book put the corporate egos and financial battles on display, but the author also delves into how the very culture of the internet was a root cause of the MySpace phenomenon. The MySpace story is not yet complete, as Julia Angwin points out. Competition is fierce, and online attention spans are notoriously short, often rendering today's success story into yesterday's news. The fate of future obscurity may still await MySpace.

For me, the power of the book is the brilliant writing and research that bring out the deeper stories in the MySpace saga. The book doesn't focus only on the MySpace company culture and its rise to prominence or the boardroom takeover battle. Julia Angwin also describes the very culture of the internet and of the MySpace users themselves, that led to the ascension of the company to prominence. That background information on the milieu, that gave MySpace its impetus, is crucial to understanding the explosion of MySpace onto the internet scene.

I highly recommend the ground breaking and absorbing Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin, to anyone seeking to understand the power of the internet and the importance of financial and creative control over key websites. Anyone interested in backroom business wheeling and dealing, involving some of the biggest names in media ownership, will discover how and why takeovers really happen.

Read the page turning Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin, and you will never look at internet business in the same way again. The book is an object lesson in how a site can rise to dominance, be acquired through intense bidding competition, and then find that very value in jeopardy. It's am internet business story not to be missed.

Tags: Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America, Julia Angwin, MySpace, business book reviews.

Stealing MySpace by Julia Angwin - Author Interview

Wall Street Journal Senior Technology Editor Julia Angwin, author of the informative and important new bestseller Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America, was kind enough to answer a series of questions about the ideas presented in her book, the popular website MySpace in general, and on the internet company's future.

Your book is titled Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. What was the background to choosing this topic and title?

Julia Angwin: Stealing MySpace refers to several aspects of MySpace's history.

First, the founders of MySpace stole the idea for their site from Friendster, which was the popular site of its time.

Second, one of the defining dramas of the book is the covert sale of MySpace to Rupert Murdoch by MySpace's parent company, an Internet company called Intermix. The MySpace founders were completely cut out of the secret deal with Murdoch until the last minute.

Finally, the MySpace founders struggled to gain control of their site once they were owned by Murdoch's News Corp.

The story of MySpace is one of extraordinary business growth. What do you consider the most important factors in the popularity of MySpace?

Julia Angwin: One of the most important factors in MySpace's success was a mistake they made in the early days. The programmers who built MySpace forgot to block users from entering HTML in their profile information. Soon, users discovered they could customize their pages with their own graphics.

At first, MySpace considered blocking HTML. But they quickly realized that the users loved it, so they kept it. Customizable profile pages are now a hallmark of MySpace and still one of its key competitive advantages over other social networks.

MySpace also embraced freedom of expression in other ways. Unlike other sites like Facebook, and Friendster before it, MySpace allows users to create any identity they like online. Today, MySpace is home to thousands of people pretending to be everything from Coca Cola to Britney Spears.

Julia Angwin (photo left)

The unlikely success of founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson resulted in a high stakes bidding war for ownership of MySpace. Were the founders prepared for the bidding competition between media heavyweights Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone?

Julia Angwin: The founders of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, did not foresee how popular their Web site would become. When they launched MySpace as a division of parent company called Intermix, they agreed to a complex ownership arrangement with Intermix that contemplated a maximum value of $125 million for MySpace.

When it became clear that MySpace's value far exceeded $125 million, this agreement gave MySpace a powerful incentive to sell itself or file for an initial public offering. MySpace chose the latter route, but failed to foresee that Intermix would also have a strong incentive to capture the full value of MySpace by selling itself first.

MySpace has long been just one step ahead of the pornographers, sexual predators and identityspoofers. How has MySpace combated these problems and have they been successful?

Julia Angwin: MySpace has had a difficult time balancing the sometimes competing demands of safety and anonymity. Unfortunately, stories crop up every day of people using the shield of anonymity on MySpace to ill-effect, often through cyber-bullying or sexual solicitation.

However, on the other side of the coin, law enforcement officers have used MySpace very effectively to prevent crimes such as school-shootings and to lure sexual predators. MySpace also employs teams of people who search out and delete pornography on the site.

MySpace faces fierce competition from Facebook and from other social media including Twitter. Can MySpace retain its market share or is the company declining in popularity among its core users?

Julia Angwin: MySpace is in a difficult space right now. It is still dominant in the U.S., but its domestic audience has been stagnant for six months. Meanwhile, Facebook has been growing like a weed and has already surpassed MySpace overseas.

MySpace's biggest problem is lack of innovation. MySpace has focused on creating celebrity and music content at the expense of adding new features. MySpace has not kept pace with Facebook in terms of features like the News Feed, and personalized privacy settings. MySpace was also slow to embrace its status as a “platform” for other software developers – allowing it to lose ground to Facebook.

MySpace Logo (photo left)

How is MySpace changing to meet its many challenges, both in content management and from competitors?

Julia Angwin: News Corp. has just hired Jon Miller, former CEO of AOL, to oversee digital initiatives across the company with a special emphasis on MySpace. He has a tough task ahead of him.

Is MySpace's future as a company bright or cloudy?

Julia Angwin: MySpace's future is cloudy. The Google deal that guaranteed MySpace $900 in advertising revenue over three years is set to expire next year. It's not clear if MySpace will be profitable without the Google revenues.

At the same time, MySpace is facing management turmoil. Its Chief Operating Officer Amit Kapur just left, along with two top engineers. The contracts for MySpace founders' Chris and Tom are set to expire in the fall.

What does the MySpace story teach us about Web 2.0 business models and valuations of internet based companies?

Julia Angwin:MySpace is the first truly successful Hollywood Internet company. Most Internet startups have been founded by techie engineer types. MySpace was founded by cool Hollywood kids; before founding MySpace, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson dabbled in spam, spyware and pornography. Their success proved that the Internet industry is not just for geeks.

What is next for Julia Angwin?

Julia Angwin: I'm back at the Wall Street Journal working as a technology editor and writing columns. I hope to write another book soon, I really enjoyed writing this one!

My book review of Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin.

Tags: Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America, Julia Angwin, MySpace, author interviews.

Big Ticket eCommerce by Bob Regnerus - Book review

Big Ticket eCommerce

How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet

By: Bob Regnerus

Published July 1, 2008
ISBN-10: 0976462494
ISBN-13: 978-0976462491
Format: Paperback 206 pp
Publisher: Innovation Press

"If you sell products and services that are expensive and complex, it's time to use the Big Ticket eCommerce approach", writes internet marketing expert Bob Regnerus in his practical and profit boosting book Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet. The author provides an easy to understand guide to selling high priced goods and services, by adding an internet marketing component to an existing bricks and mortar business.

Bob Regnerus moves far beyond the standard shopping cart model of internet business, and describes how to market any product or service online. While many business people consider their goods and services unsuited to ecommerce, due to complexity or a long marketing cycle, the book demonstrates clearly how to change that perception. Because any product or service can be explained through a website, it's essential for the site to be much more than the standard brochure site. The author explains how to make a successful transition to a site that markets big ticket items successfully.

Bob Regnerus (photo left) understands that many business people may want to market their higher priced goods and services on the internet, but lack the knowledge of how to make the venture work profitably. The author devotes much of the book to building traffic to the website, and how to market the products and services, when the visitors arrive at the appropriate web page. The author guides the reader on how to create a site that will drive qualified leads to the brick and mortar business, enhancing any existing lead generation techniques. For really complex sales, the website created prospects can contact the company or any listed sales representatives, shortening the sales cycle time effectively.

For me, the power of the book is its practical approach to what has long been considered a difficult internet marketing problem. The process required to market long cycle and complex products and services is not well suited to the standard shopping cart based ecommerce model. The prospect for complex sales usually requires more information from the company sales department. The problems requiring solutions are not likely solved in one visit to the website, rendering the one step shopping cart sales system ineffective. For complex sales, the value of an enhanced brochure site is in the generation of qualified leads. Bob Regnerus explains, in simple language, how to find those prospects and help them to take appropriate action toward completing a sale.

I highly recommend Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet by Bob Regnerus, to any existing company owners or managers who consider their complex, high value products or services unsuited for internet marketing. The author takes the mystery out of ecommerce, and explains how to generate high traffic flow to the site, and sending qualified leads to the sales force.

Read Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet by Bob Regnerus, and take your big ticket product or services marketing to the next level through your company website. Instead of employing frustrating trial and error tactics, or avoiding the internet entirely, put the power of the world wide web to work, and build your sales of big ticket items to new and ever higher levels of success.

Tags: Big Ticket eCommerce: How to Sell High-Priced Products and Services Using the Internet, Bob Regnerus, internet marketing and ecommerce, business book reviews.