Guest Profiles (August 2009)

August 4th Segment (A Woman’s View: Achieving Harmony in Your Personal and Business Life)

Joining me today to both define the meaning of balance, as well as how one would go about achieving it within the framework of a collective interest are a panel of women whose views, insights and experiences will shed some much needed light on a subject that is increasing in importance in what is becoming a very complex and demanding world. My guests include coach and author Susie Heath whose book “The Essence of Womanhood” shows that while masculinised in both business and personal relationships women can still re-awaken their authentic feminine qualities. Susie is based out of the United Kingdom. Also joining us is the CEO of Spice For Life, an organization whose mission is “connecting women with purpose,” Michelle Korevaar. Michelle is based out of Cape Town, South Africa. Rounding out this global perspective is speaker and motivator Denai Vaughn, who is also known as the Networking Queen. Based out of the United States, Denai helps men & women around the world who seek to grow their business and minimize their bottom line.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Susie’s book, The Essence of Womanhood

Link to Spice4Life

Link to Denai Vaughn

August 6th Segment (When Giants Are Really Giants: Learning From Those Who Managed The Possibilities And Succeeded!)

Imagine having dinner with over 100 of the world’s top entrepreneurs and tap into the way they think and act, find out about the strategies they have used and continue to use to achieve the success they enjoy and extract that wisdom and knowledge into your own One Page Giant’s Masterplan.”

“There is” the Meet The Giants contend, “nowhere else on earth that you can stand on the shoulders of giants every week of the year without paying huge sums of money.”  Meet The Giants has created such a venue, making knowledge and insight accessible to all.

In the spirit of our “Knowledge Is Power” interview series, I am pleased to welcome Giant facilitator Hilde Makkinje to discuss the “vision” behind her own organization.

With a background in sport, a serious interest in spirituality, a long lasting love for marketing & communication, a talent for networking and building amazing relationships with people from all over the world and born with a natural flair for public speaking and performing, a business owner and single mother of four kids, Hilde Makkinje was drawn to the Giants Project to become the Meet The Giants V.I.G. Invitations Master – inviting Very Important Giants to take part in the project.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Hilde

August 11th Segment (Intersecting Ideals: Why GM’s Supply Chain is in a State of Ruin)

Joining me today to discuss the GM situation as well as its broader implications in terms of emerging supply chain practices is Bill Michels. Michels, a three time honoree as a Supply and Demand Chain Executive’s “Pros To Know,” is also co-author of the book “Transform Your Supply Chain.”

Bill Michels is Chief Executive Officer of ADR North America LLC, a specialty consulting firm that focuses on purchasing.  Bill is also a partner of ADR International Purchasing Consultants, Ltd.

Well known in the purchasing and operations management community and the food and pharmaceutical industries, Bill is a sought-after speaker and writer with many publications, including co-authorship of the book Transform Your Supply Chain.  He was recently honored for the third time in the Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s group of “Pros to Know.”

Bill earned a BS in Business Administration with honors from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from Baldwin Wallace College.  He holds a lifetime C.P.M. from the Institute for Supply Management.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Bill

August 12th Segment (Is Smarter Spending in Government an Oxymoronic Illusion?)

Coupa’s decision to offer all government agencies free use of their innovative technology as a means of improving spend may conjure up images of Eddie the Eagle whose heroic feats on the ski jump at the 1988 Winter Olympics while not earning him medals did inspire empathetic fan support.  So why do it?

Joining me to review the program in greater detail, including the reasoning behind its creation as well as what Coupa hopes to achieve by its introduction, is the company’s CEO Rob Bernshtyn.

Rob brings 15 years of experience in enterprise software to his position as CEO at Coupa.  Prior to joining Coupa, Rob spent four years with SuccessFactors, the global leader in Performance and Talent Management delivered via the software-as-a-service model.  As a member of the SuccessFactors executive management team he served as their global vice president of product marketing and management.

Rob also directed product management at Siebel Systems, where he contributed to building their Employee Relationship Management suite of applications into Siebel’s fastest-growing product two years after launch.  Before that, Rob was an associate at McKinsey & Company and a global project manager at Accenture where he managed numerous successful global SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) software implementations.

Rob holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Systems from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Rob

August 13th Segment (Access to Knowledge: The Evan Carmichael Story)

A primary focus of EvanCarmichael.com is learning from and leveraging the experiences and expertise of famous entrepreneurs from the past (Henry Ford, Coco Chanel, Andrew Carnegie) as well as the present (Calvin Klein, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Dell).

Joining me today to talk about his own road to success is Evan Carmichael who’s vision demonstrates that the “who you know” axiom from the old saying “it is not what know, but who you know” is no longer limited to a select few.

Evan is an entrepreneur and international speaker.  At the age of 19, he became an owner and Chief Operating Officer in Redasoft, a biotechnology software company.  The company quickly grew to over 300 organizations as clients including NASA and Johnson & Johnson, in 30 countries.

Use the following link to access Evan’s complete Bio.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Evan

August 18th Segment (Intersecting Ideals: Why GM’s Supply Chain is in a State of Ruin)

An entertainment industry veteran, Libby Gill spent fifteen years heading public relations and corporate communications at Universal Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting. She was also the branding brain behind the launch of the Dr. Phil Show.

Libby is now an internationally respected executive coach, speaker and bestselling author. She has shared her success strategies on the Today Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CNN, NPR, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, Fox News, CBS Early Show, and in Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, O Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Self and many more.

Guest Bio(s):

August 19th Segment (Today’s Care. Tomorrow’s Cure: The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation)

I can recall reading about Christopher Reeve’s unfortunate accident shortly after it happened, and no longer thinking of him as an actor or a celebrity but instead as someone’s son, husband and father.

It made me think of when my own father had passed away, and friends and relatives came from far and wide to comfort our family in its time of sorrow. The flurry of activity leading up to and including the day of the funeral barely gave us enough time to reflect on our loss.  And then the day after the funeral, when everyone inevitably returned to their everyday lives, I remember the void of loneliness that echoed through what was now a home with one of its most important members no longer there.  I think that perhaps this was one of the loneliest times of my life.

How much greater is that same loneliness for a celebrity or public figure whose heartbreak is followed by a vast world of strangers who themselves must also return to everyday living, and the next biggest headlines that capture the collective consciousness.  It is precisely at that moment that a tremendous level of courage, determination and faith is required to move beyond the circumstances to ascend the stairs of misfortune to a greater life.

To me personally, this is what the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation represents . . . the ascension to a greater life of possibilities and hope.

In today’s program we welcome Kelly Heneghan, Sandra Kumorowski from the Chicago Chapter of the Foundation, and Jon O’Connor who is the Founder and Director of NextSteps Chicago to talk about the services and the near horizon breakthroughs that the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is championing through its many programs and events.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (Chicago Chapter)

August 20th Segment (Managing the Process of Automation: Leveraging Capabilities Without Forfeiting Accountability)

Matthew Morgan is the Chief Marketing Officer at Blueprint, where he leads the world wide product and marketing efforts at Blueprint.  In his role, Matthew is working the Blueprint development organization that is changing how the IT industry defines requirements through simulation and visualization.  Matthew’s legacy includes a decade at Mercury/HP Software where he led teams that launched HP Functional Testing, HP Quality Center, and he was responsible for the invention of HP Business Process Testing.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Matthew at Blueprint

August 21st Segment (Beyond Business Intelligence Technology)

Bill has built strong management teams throughout his career. He is recognized as a leader in the areas of business process management and supply chain management.

Previously, Bill was Group Chief Executive for Global Business Consulting at Accenture, responsible for the consulting practices in the areas of Financial Performance Management and Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Human Capital Development and Human Resources consulting, and Business Strategy.

In his career Bill also served as the Chief Administrative Officer of C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion food distributor and the eighth largest privately held company in the U.S., as well as Vice President and Managing Director of Arthur D Little and positions at General Electric.

Bill received a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering and operations research from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School.

Guest Bio(s)

Link to Bill at Oco

August 25th Segment (Linking Opportunities With Results: Getting LinkedIn in 10 Minutes)

Patrice-Anne Rutledge is a bestselling author, consultant,trainer, and business technology expert who has been interviewed by CNN, Inc., Fox News, MSN, AOL, and other media outlets around the world. Her specialties include social media, online collaboration, presentation technologies, and emerging technologies, which are the focus of her books, training courses, and popular blog, Business + Technology.

She has authored 26 nonfiction books for leading publishers including Pearson, Macmillan, Prentice Hall, and Ziff-Davis Press. Her books have received strong reviews and endorsements, several awards, and have been translated into 11 languages.

Patrice’s most recent books include The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking, The Web-Savvy Writer: Book Promotion with a High-Tech Twist, and Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. She is currently working on several new books for release in late 2009 and 2010.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Patrice-Anne

August 26th Segment (I Believe This Will Interest You Also . . .)

Michael is 20+ year veteran of sales and sales management for technology solutions. After earning his BS and MS in Engineering from Boston University, Michael moved from software development to pre-sales engineering to full-time sales. He’s worked at small companies like Phar Lap Software, Verdasys and Asurity Solutions and big companies including Sybase and SolidWorks. His roles have included bag-carrying sales rep and sales manager for up to 17 sales reps. He founded a boutique consulting company, PeakSales Consulting, to assist early-stage companies with defining their sales process, developing the value proposition, building a sales team and closing those first critical accounts. But no matter the company or role, his primary focus is selling to new customers and building a repeatable, scalable sales process for himself and his team.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Michael

August 27th Segment (Social Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence: Not an Either “OR” Proposition)

Bob Nicoll has a passion for linguistics and empowering word choice.  Since completing his Bachelors Degree in Psychology in 1972, and Masters in Counseling in 1974 he has focused his energies on studying the power of word choice: The Psychophysiology of Words.

He refined his skills working with leading personal growth and development leaders over the next 20 years while earning certifications in Rational Behavior Therapy and Neuro-Associative Conditioning Systems.

The area of “customer service” is one that he is passionately focusing on. There needs to be a shift in understanding what is entailed in providing great customer service.  Bob shares, “In helping to shift the paradigm, I would suggest that the focus be on: ‘Providing exceptional service to your valued customers.’  When the focus is on the exceptional service, you will have more valued customers.”

His new book: Remember the Ice and Other Paradigm Shifts is becoming an international phenomenon with copies in more than 15 countries since its release in October 2008.

Guest Bio(s):

Link to Bob

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