The Goizueta Business School of Emory University hosted a Spring 2008 Entrepreneurial Leadership Event on Wednesday night, April 23, 2008 that featured:

• David Duncan, CEO of Paddywax, Inc. and President of The Atlanta Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
• S. Dee Davis, CEO of Digital Visual Display Technologies, Inc.
• Mike Landman, Founder and CEO of Ripple, Inc.
• Jeff Hilimire, Co-Founder and President of Engauge Digital (formerly Spunlogic)

The event drew a large (100+) and diverse crowd of mostly students and entrepreneurs.  When one panelist asked how many in the room were business owners, about half of the hands were raised.  The dialogue was frank and provided insights into the reasoning and drive that helped each entrepreneur endure the challenges that business owners face.

The best way to disseminate the information that the seasoned entrepreneurs shared is to list out some of my favorite highlights from the panel (paraphrased by me).  David Duncan did a great job of moderating, so most of the answers did not come from him.

What is your best entrepreneurial advice?
Dee Davis: You have to lead by example and take the pulse of the business frequently.
Mike Landman: It is easy to take on more risk when you are young because you have less to risk.
Jeff Hilimire: You have to be “all in” to start a business.  There is no pressure for you to give the business a 100% chance when it is only a hobby.

How do you recommend building a team?
Dee Davis: You need a relatively flat structure when the company is young.
Mike Landman: We use a lot of pre-hire testing and multiple interviews.
Jeff Hilimire: Promoting from within is the best practice. 

What is the best advice you have been given?
Dee Davis: “Energy and persistence conquer all things” – Ben Franklin
“Get out of your comfort zone!” – Bob Parsons
Mike Landman: “Fight through the brick walls that are everywhere.” - Randy Pausch (Carnegie Mellon Professor)
Jeff Hilimire: “Lead by example” and “Passion, Intelligence, and Hard Work are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur.”

What is the one thing that you wish you knew when you started your business?
Dee Davis: I am not the smartest guy in the room, so try to fill the room with smart guys.
Mike Landman: Marketing and managing cash flow.
Jeff Hilimire: How to hire the right person.

What is your best marketing advice?
Dee Davis: Think in different ways from your competitors.  Get out there and meet people.
Mike Landman: Pick a small enough niche to become an expert in that space.
Jeff Hilimire: Become a thought leader and host private events that show off this leadership.

How do you go about finding the best sales person for your team?
Dee Davis: Incent your sales people REALLY well.  Some may make more than the CEO.
Mike Landman: Be your company’s best salesperson.
Jeff Hilimire: Find someone with skills, but who you are also really comfortable with, as they will be representing you! 

Jeff also gave a plug to yours truly, which was an unexpected bonus…

Everyone who attended the event was highly engaged, and they seemed very appreciative of the wisdom that the panel imparted.

(Panelists: S. Dee Davis, Mike Landman, and Jeff Hilimire)

(Emory Entrepreneurship Event Audience)

Being old enough to remember when Apples (aka Macs) had a built in 9″ monochrome screen and were coined “Classics“, I have been lucky enough to be taught in both traditional methods and with the tools we use every day to create, communicate and reboot. Skip forward to 1994 and when Mindspring changed the landscape by offering great service with a slow, but reliable internet connection to my home and many offices in and around Atlanta. So what has happened in these 13 years since we would start the day by the lovely sound of the modem? We all know that a lot has happened and changed, but my question is less related to what has happened but to how it has affected our media and communication landscape.

Recently, I polled my students and recent graduates at The Creative Circus with some questions around “Traditional” and “Digital” advertising, design, media and strategy. Figuring that this generation of marketers, advertisers and designers will most likely experience an even greater shift in how we relate to media.

The Question:
How do you see “Traditional” advertising and media changing in the next 10 years?

Some of their Answers:

1.) “Consumers will have more control over the choice and content than they do now and brands that engage consumers as active participants will be successful.”

2.) “I don’t think there is ‘Traditional’ advertising anymore.”

3.) “More media channels, more ways to reach people, more interactive experiences and more brand interaction. Hopefully less User Generated crap.”

4.) “I don’t think anyone can answer that question. The only thing you need to be certain of is that your ideas communicate with an audience in an interesting way. Don’t let the media do the work.”

5.) “More out of home, experiential and true interaction between the audience and the advertising itself.”

6.) “Traditional will be a support role. It will only exist because it has always been there.”

7.) “I think it can go two ways… either it could go back to more traditional forms, as the interactive market becomes saturated, or it could go the other way where traditional becomes a program on the history channel.”

8.) “More interactive/online experience focused.”

9.) “A drastic overhaul of TV and more of a move towards viral.”

10.) “Media will become even more scattered.”

With these answers and our own insights, we all know “Digital” will become a driver within the next 10 years. The real question that excites me is what will “Digital” become.

Not only is UPS one of the largest and most influential companies in the world (and one of our favorite clients), they are also very focused on helping save the environment in a variety of ways. I had a chance recently to ask Lynnette McIntire, the manager over their Corporate Reputation Management group, about their green efforts. She pointed me to the UPS Community website and the UPS Sustainability website, and was also kind enough to answer some of my questions.

Please explain the UPS green efforts from a high level.

We tackle environmental issues on a variety of fronts: our investments in alternative fuels for example. But probably the biggest area is the way we run our business - for example, drivers are taught not to leave the engine running at their stops; we aim to eliminate left turns because you are often stuck idle at intersections; our dispatch technology minimizes miles driven by optimizing the routes. At our airline, we have a fuel conservation manager who continually monitors fuel use and finds ways to reduce fuel and emissions. Last year, we reduced emissions by 6 percent through operational improvement.

We are very aware of the packaging we use and the recycling of electronics which are a big part of our business.

How/when did the initiative(s) begin?

Since fuel has always been a big part of our costs, we have always been conscious about fuel conservation. In fact, our first all-electric cars were in the 1930s!

UPS obviously has the ability to affect the world at large due to its overall size. How is the company measuring this impact, both internally and externally?

UPS’s modus operandi is to measure everything. And many of those measurements are reported in our annual sustainability report. That includes carbon footprint…we were one of the pioneers in this area when we started our report five years ago.

Our environmental key performance indicators (KPIS) include measurements of water consumption, energy footprint, ground network fuel efficiency, global aircraft emissions, noise standards requirements, and CO2 footprint.

What type of incentives or encouragement does UPS give to employees to contribute to the cause? And what efforts are they able to contribute towards (recycling, telecommuting, etc.)?

In our offices, we have motion-detecting lighting to shut of lights when rooms are unoccupied. Our computers are shut off automatically. There are incentives for carpooling. We also have very active volunteers in the community who work on parks restoration, tree plantings, and nature conservancy. Drivers right now are receiving communications to remind them of the importance of minimizing air conditioning and engine idling. We are now encouraging our customers to switch from paper bills to electronic bills as a way to reduce paper waste.

It’s the everyday things that can really add up.

Are there any opportunities UPS has found to partner with other companies or vendors?

Our alternative fuel fleet research is done with both the EPA and manufacturers. We have a “rolling laboratory” in that the alternative fleet is on the road and being tested in a demanding driving environment. This means that the manufacturers can tweak the vehicles to be more commercially-viable, which helps them and the transportation industry going forward. All that knowledge and experience gets introduced in the next generations of vehicles.

Art Hall is currently a management consultant at Alvarez & Marsal, President of the Atlanta Chapter of the CRM Association and was recognized as a 2007 Customer Champion by 1tot1 Magazine where he was the VP of Sales & Customer Care at NetBank in Alpharetta, GA. He’s also someone that each fantasy football season attempts to compete against me and each season fails miserably at that I recently had the opportunity to ask Art a few questions about his thoughts on CRM.

Art, CRM seems to have many meanings depending on who you ask. How do you define it?

I define CRM as an organization’s responsibility to “proactively” manage a customer relationship on a one-to-one basis. I use the word “proactively” because the three customer value levers are for an organization to “know them”, “hear them” and to “help them.” While the basis of the relationship may start off reactive (i.e. collecting the initial understanding of the customer) over time an organization should have the customer intelligence, visibility, insight and agility to predict customer behavior over the course of a customer lifecycle. Conspicuously absent from my definition is any reference to technology though technology is an enabler for organizations to achieve such agility.

I like that you kept technology out of the definition of CRM. Obviously technology has had some impact on CRM initiatives, in your opinion what has been the biggest change that technology has made in CRM?

This is a tough question Jeff because I think there are several “big” changes that technology has made in CRM. For one, we are seeing off-premise and “hybrid” CRM models come into play as an alternative for organizations that do not want to invest in an “on-premise” model. We are also seeing the rise of on-demand CRM which Salesforce.com is recognized as a market leader. Now, we are seeing Open Source CRM models which allow the CRM software and its source code under an open source license to study, change and improve its design. SugarCRM, for example, is a CRM solution provider that is making huge waves in the CRM space and providing a flexible alternative for many organizations looking to deploy a CRM application. So, I guess the biggest change that technology has made in CRM is flexibility.

Many people say that email is the web’s killer app. Would you say it’s the killer app of CRM or is there something else in your mind that fits that moniker better?

I don’t know if I would say email is the web’s killer app. It is only the killer app if an organization is taking the results of email campaigns and feeding it back to a central data warehouse and the organization is taking the results to learn and improve regarding which email campaigns work with each customer segment or personas. Email is certainly cheaper, but with SPAM control nowadays I wonder how effective the marketing reach is on an aggregate basis.

Which companies seem to do the best job overall with customer relations?

In my experience, I love the Ritz-Carlton. I was blown away how they knew my name and I never stayed at the hotel before until this past February. Wachovia has done a nice job in customer relations over the years; it will be interesting to see how their customer satisfaction holds up on the heels of their announcement of off shoring a lot of their customer facing components to India. Wachovia seems pretty confident they can deliver.

Now I get to put you on the spot, which companies seem to do a very poor job with customer relations?

Ok Jeff, you are really pushing it. I HATE DELTA’S SPEECH ENABLED IVR!!!!! I don’t like the BP Gas station on the corner of I-77 East & Gateway Corporate Boulevard in Columbia, SC. I was going to drop kick an employee there last year for bad service. I have mixed feelings towards Apple. I used to hold them in high regard for customer relations but encountered an experience recently where I felt like they were trying to get me to move to a new version of an iPod instead of fixing the one that I had.

Ken Bernhardt is the Regents’ Professor of Marketing and Assistant Dean for Corporate Relations for Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. Ken is a personal friend, sits on our advisory board and is overall one of the smartest people I know. He is also a frequent contributer to the Atlanta Business Chronicle and you can find some of his most recent articles here. I spent some time with him recently and asked him to share his thoughts on a few subjects.

What role do you see interactive marketing playing in the overall marketing mix over the next few years?

As the traditional marketing media continue to slowly lose impact, interactive media will become much more important. A number of major consumer marketing companies are already reallocating their media budgets away from traditional media, and many others are exploring alternatives to the way they have been advertising. Interactive marketing should be the big winner in this reallocation due to its many advantages over current mass media vehicles.

What do you make of the recent acquisitions by Microsoft and Google to get deeper into the online media/advertising space?

These are two companies that everyone pays attention to as industry leaders. They have both been positioning themselves to take advantage of the trend away from traditional media vehicles and toward interactive media. As my old track coach used to say, “the speed of the leader is the speed of the pack.” Thus their activity should accelerate the trends already happening.

What are your thoughts on the ability of large corporations to embrace social media?

Large companies are often the least able to respond to trends in the market place. They tend to be conservative, with many layers of approval for major shifts in strategy. Thus, I expect them to be followers rather than leaders in responding to the increase in usage of social media. There are always exceptions to this observation, and companies who have target markets that are younger and more innovative will be the early adopters of this new medium.

Let’s talk about the “green” movement that many companies are embracing. Why do you think this is such a hot topic for corporations?

Companies tend to respond to those things their target market customers are interested in, and there is no doubt that consumers are more interested in being seen as green. The surprise hit of the Al Gore movie is just one example illustrating consumers’ interest in environmental issues. The increase in availability of hybrid cars has enabled consumers to make a statement about their concern for the environment. We have seen an increase in environmental concern, not only attitudinally, but behaviorally as well. The key is to make the products without negatives for the consumer. For example, many consumers are concerned with healthy eating, but they are not willing to trade off taste. The same is true for environmentally favorable products - - they can’t have disadvantages vs. less environmentally friendly alternatives. that’s the biggest reason why people didn’t buy phosphate free detergent a few years ago - - it didn’t get the clothes as clean as the brands they had been using. The hybrid car market has demonstrated that consumers will pay a little more to help the environment but won’t give up comfort, style, etc. I think a lot of research is being conducted today by companies trying to determine how to appeal to environmentally concerned consumers.

Have you seen any companies that are doing a really good job of marketing their green efforts?

UPS has invested big dollars in making their fleet more environmentally friendly. Home Depot has added many products to the offerings that are green and have put up signage informing consumers of these alternatives. Some of the fast food companies are reevaluating their packaging, especially with respect to things like foam cups. And certainly Toyota has been on top of this trend, recently stating that they plan to produce 1 million hybrid cars a year in the very near future.