Four Colorado Entrepreneurs stand out at Denver Startup Week!
IBM is doing so many things with startups, it's hard to keep up! I've blogged a lot about SmartCamps, so you probably think SmartCamps are the only things we have going for entrepreneurs. But nothing could be farther from the truth!
Case in point, IBM was recently a sponsor of the Denver Startup Week. There were 5,500+ startup community members and over 650 companies engaged in over 125 community-driven events celebrating everything entrepreneurial in the Mile High City!
And I'm thrilled to say that the event marked the first time IBM Global Entrepreneur was involved at an entrepreneurial event in Colorado. Something tells me, it won't be the last!
The four winning startups were B&C Electronic Engineering, SPF Solutions, S'ync, and Enterprise Sentinel.
B&C Electronic Engineering has a solution that shares responding emergency vehicles locations with other emergency agencies (fire, police, ambulance). This is critical for first responders. We all know about the chaotic nature at the scene of an accident, add to that the multiple emergency vehicles that are arriving at the scene. B&C Electronic Engineering's solution can reduce the chaos for the emergency vehicles by giving them critical information about the location of other emergency vehicles.
SPF Solutions' mobile app is going to make your "take-out" experience better! SPF Solutions has created an app for customers that enables them to place their food order and then be notified when it is ready for pickup. With this kind of automation, fewer mistakes are made and it frees up the restaurant staff to do other tasks. Sounds like greater efficiency and better service to me!
S'ync is tackling a huge issue in the realm of smarter transportation. Their solution uses GPS location data to map traffic flow, rates, and conditions to synch traffic lights. Think of it! Improving the flow of traffic is a benefit to everyone!
Enterprise Sentinel monitors enterprise data from any source, providing transactional analytics as well as executing pre-emptive actions to prevent issues from occurring. This predictive analytics capability plays very well in health monitoring as well as other industry use-cases.
Congratulations to these four startups! I know I look forward to hearing more about them in future SmartCamp events!
For more information:
B&C Electronic Engineering -> http://www.911eta.com/
SPF Solutions -> http://www.spfsolutions.biz/
Enterprise Sentinel-> http://enterprisesentinel.com/
Cherrio! The Social Business Circle of Trust!
This morning my daughter had her favorite cereal -- Cheerios! And I was looking at the bowl, I noticed the circles swirling and thought of the social business circle of trust that is required in Social.
The "circle" of trust? Yes!
The Circle of Trust
Every Social Business has to generate trust in its brand, employees, and products. I still remember the movie Meet the Parents, in which the father explained the concept of the “circle of trust” to his future son-in-law where trust in his family revolves from person to person. While we can laugh at the situations of this funny movie, the context of the message is one that is very real and very important.
Trust, while often overlooked, is crucial in the Social Business world. People want to do business with someone they trust, and with the social tools, all relationships depend on this concept. Our common sense tells us that trust is earned and not easily given. How do we survive in today’s business world in relation to trust? “Who do we trust” and “Who trusts our company” become critical questions to answer.
Trust Guards Your Social Business Digital Reputation
Trust guards your Social Business digital reputation. That digital reputation is how people view your company from the online content available in the blogosphere. This trust varies with the relationship, whether for employees, customers and partners. For example:
- Employees build social capital through interactions that can happen naturally through work. The social environment can be provided by the company and built into work processes (hence the power of social enablement of business processes).
- Building trust and a reputation with customers and prospects requires a different kind of thought and focus. There is no shared “platform” (although LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, and so forth, are shared by all) that guarantees interaction. Targeting, use of analytics, and engaging with honesty and value are key. It’s not enough to simply focus on the customer’s interests, but trust is built by understanding where they spend time and their motivations. Trust and a digital reputation are built by making the customer successful.
- Partners and channels have aspects of customers and employees. A business partner who has more than 50% of their business with your company might be deeply integrated into your core processes and have a social interaction pattern somewhat like a customer. Other partners, however, can also be hybrids[md]a bit of a competitor and customer. Their business relationship is not integrated into your business processes as deeply, so it takes on a different type of relationship.
Below is an example of trust at the highest level where every night my client is processing all the feedback from clients and making changes -- trusting their clients with their innovation!
SmartCamp Raleigh Showcases Entrepreneurs With "Change the World" solutions!
Two startups offer charity and educational solutions, win SmartCamp Raleigh!
Another week means another round of SmartCamp winners! Congratulations to Livitae and LikeCharity for winning SmartCamp Raleigh!
Livitae, a woman-owned startup (go girl power!), has developed a mobile and cloud-based solution that offers academic institutions a single platform to centralize academic progress, performance, and planning by aggregating student information in a clear and secure manner. The system provides a customized academic roadmap for each student, simplifying degree and career planning by auditing and managing all aspects of the processes.
That means no more confusion for students about what classes to take or their grades! Think of it, even parents could be better informed about their kids' academic performance!
LikeCharity enables you to donate to your favorite charities by simply sending a text message from your mobile phone. Donating via LikeCharity is a quick and easy way for you to help the charities that you really care about!
The power of this solution has the potential to increase donations by automating the entire process via their platform. I'd love to see that used for the Humane Society, one of my favorite charities!
Great ideas coming from Raleigh, North Carolina!
Entrepreneur Country in Europe - Start-up Fever in London! Infographic
entrepreneurcountryglobal.com/toolbox/item/ibm
Customer-Centric Leadership - One of my Picks for HBS Learnings!
At the end of this week I will be heading to Boston for my HBS Reunion! I am so excited about seeing my friends and their families.
The other thing I love about our reunions are the case studies that drive new learnings. One of the case studies I cannot wait for is on the Taj -- in particular, the bravery and resourcefulness shown by the rank-and-file employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower luxury hotel during the terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 26 2008.
It will be a lesson in customer-centric leadership including the hotel’s history, its approach to training, and the “guest is God” philosophy inherent in Indian culture. It is interesting that the Taj employees stayed at their posts, jeopardizing their safety to save hotel guests.
Can this level of loyalty and dedication be replicated and scaled elsewhere? I will learn their secrets!
View the case at http://courseware.hbs.edu/cases/taj
Geek Girls are Chic! Selected by SXSW for a Session in 2015!
We are doing a session at SXSW -- YEA! http://ht.ly/BvqyI ) entitled "Geek Girls are Chic - 5 Career Hacks!".
So excited to share a sneak peek and we hope you join us at Southby!!!!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/6f5dMnvjMnw]
Don't go it alone: Create partnerships to prepare for the future A Chat with Ray Wang!
Ray Wang is one of the most visionary guys I've spoken to. So I caught up with him on the Business Tech Trend report. And his advice: Don't go it alone: Create partnerships to prepare for the future
Ray Wang, founder and chairman of Constellation Analytics, talked about this partnership idea during our launch of the Business Tech Trends webcast. He commented that what clients are looking for today are "system integrators, partners, and value-added resellers to co-innovate, co-create. They are looking for new ideas and the ability to transform."
Ray is absolutely right! Furthermore, we're on the horizon of a digital business disruption. This disruption is more than just technology and networks talking to each other, it means a fundamental shift in business models. Ray went on to list seven elements of the digital disruption, which you can listen to on the webcast!
I suggest getting started on these three things:
1. Pursue creative partnerships. Build partnerships that will help you create the next level of solutions.
2. Increase analytics into your decision-making. Ray suggested that if 20% of your business isn't built on insight patterns by 2020, your enterprise won't survive. To start, register for the Watson Analytics Beta! Watson Analytics Beta -> http://www.watsonanalytics.com
3.Re-imagine the hiring process. Your ideal candidate shouldn't be one that already fits the mold of your business. You need candidates that are considered outside of the box that will help re-imagine your business model.
Learn more here! http://ibm.biz/biztechhuddle
9 Spokes and Tapit win at SmartCamp Down Under with Cloud and Analytics!
A huge congratulations to 9 Spokes and Tapit for being named the winner and people's choice winner, respectively, of the SmartCamp Sydney competition!
9 Spokes was the judges' choice with its integrated software dashboard. They select apps through a rigorous accreditation program and then make them available to the user through a dashboard environment. No more sifting through thousands of apps trying to find the best match for your industry. They've already located them for you, and made it easy to access!
Also, they use the power of the cloud! You can access 9 Spokes and all your apps from any Internet connected device. Everything is at your finger tips!
Tapit's solution deploys, manages and analyses contactless technology, such as Near Field Communications tags, Beacons and QR codes. Using powerful Tapit visualization reporting, clients can easily make sense of how people are interacting with their Tapit-enabled infrastructure in real-time. Their solution provides an easy to use platform that instantly tells you how and where people are engaging with your content, as well as channel format and device.
With Tapit, it's easy to see how people are interacting with your Tapit-enabled infrastructure in real-time.
Great job to our winners and good show to the Sydney team!