How To Run Your Company More Like Facebook

By: Bram Schumer

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has big dreams, and even bigger expectations to meet. The social media company’s public offering earlier this year was given nearly as much coverage and excitement as the London Olympics, only to disappoint investors when its share price plummeted over the summer. But however cheap it is to buy Facebook stock these days, it’s official: the new guard of American industry lies at the fingertips of those in Silicon Valley.

Microsoft’s New Tool Helps Nonprofits & Corporations Tell Stories of Social Impact

By: Gene Zlotnikov

Microsoft’s new mapping tool is helping nonprofits and corporations utilize technology to effectively communicate stories of their impact on society. The Microsoft Local Impact Map is a customized map showcasing an organization’s work in local communities around the world. This new tool is unique as it incorporates text, pictures, videos and social media tools. It enables stories to be easily shared and promoted. Marnie Webb, co-CEO of Microsoft nonprofit partner TechSoup, states, “Before implementing the Local Impact Map, we had case studies in different formats, such as PDF files, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, scattered all across the organization. It made me nuts. The Local Impact Map gave us the ability to put all these case studies into one place.” Corporations are able to use the tool as well. UnitedHealthcare has been using the map internally for their 80,000 employees to contribute stories of their volunteer work. The tool is intended to transform the way nonprofits and corporations use technology to promote their social impact within local and international communities.

To read more about how Microsoft is helping organizations communicate their stories, you can click here or here.

How To Get Senior Leaders to Transform

By: Gene Zlotnikov

Senior business leaders are hard-working, intelligent and believe they are doing the right thing at work. However, people may have a superfluous optimism about their own behavior and might think they are better than they are – a psychological phenomenon known as  “self-serving bias.” If senior leaders are to embrace the fact that they must change some form of their behavior, a good strategy for change is a concrete 360-degree feedback technique, which measures the desired changes that will drive business performance. A strong example of this includes Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer’s approach of asking his top 75 staff what he could do differently and sharing his development needs publicly with his team. This circle of feedback can not only transform leaders, but could also create sustainable growth for the organization.

To learn about how to break “self-serving biases,” you can read the Harvard Business Review story here.

“Human Hotspots” Create a Stir

By: Stephen Delaney

In mid-March, South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive hosted its five day conference on emerging technology. The event convenes top thought leaders in the industry to touch on “creative solutions for a better tomorrow.” Yet, the “solution” that grabbed all of the headlines didn’t spring from a keynote speech, a panel presentation or an interactive workshop. The big story this year came from the homeless individuals strolling throughout the event, selling Wi-Fi access. The backlash to news of these “human hotspots” was quick and widespread.

Three Simple Steps to Staying on Mission

By: Gene Zlotnikov

True leadership requires the willingness to recognize the need for change, as well as the ability to lead and manage change. Companies that consistently choose to pursue change are typically growing, dynamic organizations that stick to their mission. On the other hand, companies that fear change are likely to find it more challenging to remain relevant and continue to meet their customers’ needs. Forbes contributor Mike Myatt, describes three easy steps to help leaders and organizations stay on mission by leading change:

•    Identify the Need for Change
If your organization is not willing to innovate to meet society’s changing demands, it is more likely to struggle and fail. To stay relevant and successful, companies should focus on changes that will help them more effectively serve their customers (and potential customers) and shift their corporate culture to foster an efficient and positive workforce.
•    Lead Change
When faced with change, people typically respond by taking on one of four roles, becoming the Victim, the Neutral Bystander, the Critic or the Advocate. To successfully lead change, these four roles must be communicated to using appropriate messaging and properly involved in the process.
•    Manage Change
Successful change leaders will ensure that their company is aligned with the same mission and vision for change, provide their employees with responsibility and accountability for innovation and maintain authority over change to ensure things happen.

To learn more about how to stick to mission and lead change in your organization, read the original article in Forbes.

For more information about how you can take your leadership to the next level, check out this upcoming event on Transformational Leadership, April 27th and 28th, 2012 in Chicago: Transformational Leadership Awards Dinner & Symposium

Panera: The Nonprofit

By: Stephen Delaney

Imagine a restaurant where food prices are only a mere suggestion. The man in front of you pays an extra dollar for his smokehouse turkey panini. You round up to the nearest dollar for your Asian sesame chicken salad. The woman behind you pays what she can, a dollar and some loose change for her broccoli cheddar soup.

Is this a utopian ideal of a concept, unrealistic and bound to fail? No. It is Panera Cares, a community café launched in St. Louis in May 2010. The concept is simple: customers pay what they can, offering more than the suggested price if they’d like or enjoying a free meal if finances are tight. Cashiers don’t take any money, they only make change. The customers themselves deposit their donation into a locked glass box.

Ron Shaich, the president of the Panera Bread Foundation, said, "Twenty percent of customers pay more than the suggested donation. Sixty percent leave the suggested donation and 20 percent leave less, typically significantly less."¹

The cafés are an inventive approach to feeding the hungry. The idea was based off of the SAME Café, which opened in Denver in 2006, but putting the power of Panera behind it offers grander possibilities of impact and influence.

Since the pilot restaurant, Panera has opened two more locations in Dearborn, MI and Portland, OR. On February 23, 2012, Panera announced they would be finalizing the locations for at least two more of the cafés by spring.²

Sources
 ¹ ABC News       ² MSN Money

Soccer + Portable Energy = sOccket

By: Stephen Delaney

Get ready to be impressed.

Two Harvard graduates, who are only 23 years old, are already the heads of their own business. Not only is their product doing well in the world, but it has also received top praise from a former president.

The two women you may be in awe of are Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman, the founders of Uncharted Play. Matthews and Silverman created the sOccket, a soccer ball that harnesses the kinetic energy of a game and turns it into post-game electricity. Donated balls have already been distributed in Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Haiti and Nigeria.

Uncharted Play has one goal: convince the masses to reTHINK FUNction. By combining innovation with a dedication to fun, Matthews and Silverman have created a genius (and simple!) product to provide portable energy to resource-poor communities.

After just 30 minutes of play, the sOccket can power 3 hours of LED light. This allows resource-poor families to save money they would normally spend on kerosene, fumes of which can be fatal. The sOccket can also provide electricity for water purifiers, mini-fridges and emergency cell phone chargers.

Silverman is already looking forward to what lies next on the horizon for Uncharted Play. Silverman explained that Uncharted Play’s mission is “about dreaming and thinking about your community and how you can better it through innovation.”

To read more about how the sOccket is helping families have fun while saving money, read the CNN article about powerful women entrepreneurs here or visit the official website.