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Chilean business incubators in the house…

Monday, May 24th, 2010

The complementary nature of non-profit business incubators and for-profit incubators became quite apparent during our meeting with 5 Chilean government sponsored business incubators.

On May 16-19, 2010 the National Business Incubator Association, NBIA, celebrated its first 25 years by organizing the International Conference on Business Incubation in Orlando, Florida.   Amongst the more than 500 business incubators from all over the globe were 5 Chilean business incubators who all decided to visit Kompani Group to explore synergies between their non-profit incubator outfits and a for-profit business and strategy incubator like Kompani Group. The explorations trip for the 5 Chilean business incubators was funded by the Chilean Development Minister, and included Mr. Eduardo Aranda M from Gerente Incubadora de Negocios in Santiago, Mr. Etienne Choupay Magna from Pontificia Universidad Catolica De Valparaiso, Mr. Diego Gonza’lez Carvallo from Austral Incuba – Universidad Austral de Chile, Mr. Enrique Roma’n Gonza’lez from Penanova Incubadora De Negocios and finally Alvaro Bustos Torrebalance of SantiagoInnova.

For more information about the NBIA and this year’s International Conference on Business Incubation please visit http://www.nbia.org/events/conf2010/index.php , this year’s conference host University of Central Florida’s business incubation program at www.incubator.ucf.edu , or visit this year’s title sponsor Florida high tech Corridor Council www.floridahightech.com

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Happy Earth Day – Saving Money and Being Greener by Switching Fonts

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

To reduce ink use and save money, the University of Wisconsin Green Bay‘s IT department has changed the default font for Outlook to Century Gothic, which it says requires 30% less ink in printouts than Arial, the most commonly used default font. Ink accounts for about 60% of the cost of a printed page, the IT unit says.

With shrinking budgets and increasing environmental concerns, CIT has been exploring ways to reduce campus printing costs and consumption of supplies. One suggestion that has been made on several occasions is to use a font that consumes less ink and toner. To that end, we have selected the Century Gothic font for the campus choice award! The Century Gothic font looks good onscreen and on the printed page (at least for general purposes), and it uses 30% less ink than the most commonly used default font – Arial. This is a big deal because ink accounts for about 60% of the cost of the printed page, and it is not cheap — about $10,000 a gallon – with toner cartridges and drums not far behind.

As a result, and after consultation with the Technology Council, we have decided to change the default font for Outlook across campus to Century Gothic. Of course, you may change back to a different default font if you wish, but we hope you will “think green” as you make your choice. This change will occur the next time you reboot your PC.

In addition, we encourage everyone to switch to Century Gothic as their default font in Entourage for Macintosh, Word, and Excel. We did not do this automatically because it would mean wiping out all your other customized application settings. Be aware that changing the default font would only affect new documents and messages. In addition, you can always change the default font for any single document.

Please refer to our eHelp instructions for information on How to change your default font in Outlook, Word, and Excel and How to change your default font in Entourage, Word, and Excel on a Macintosh.

We have had numerous inquiries about how we implemented this change and our resources. Please see the links below for more information:

http://blog.printer.com/2009/04/printing-costs-does-font-choice-make-a-difference/

http://ca.tech.yahoo.com/blogs/the_gadget_hound/rss/article/3751

http://www.printgreener.com/pdfs/GreenPrint%20White%20Paper%20September%2008.pdf

http://pcworld.about.com/news/Aug282003id112199.htm

Source: University of Wisconsin – Green Bay


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The truth about Search Engine Optimization

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Clearing the Fog

Anyone with half a decent website gets bombarded with phone calls and e-mails everyday from people claiming that they can get you to the top of Google.  The notion that someone can make that claim without understanding your business thoroughly, your target clients, and the competition you face to reach those clients is completely baseless.  Choosing the right partner for Search Engine Optimization work can be very tricky.  Regardless of who you decide to work with, do your homework before making a decision.

Discovery and what you should expect

The first step to creating a successful search engine optimization strategy is to understand the business that wants to be found in the search engines.  Through discussions with you or your marketing team, the chosen agency can develop a thorough list of keywords and phrases which describe the products and services offered by your company.  From this list, the agency will then expand it to include keywords and phrases which will ensure that your business is found when customers are searching for your competitors.  The next logical step is then fine tune the list by reducing the amount of keywords and phrases, by eliminating those that are too competitive for the search engine optimization budget which has been allocated to the project.  It is also important to include keywords and phrases which your customers will search for, and not necessarily the ones you might use to describe your own business.

Setting the Budget

Most businesses that are shopping for a search engine optimization partner get easily frustrated when trying to determine the expected cost of the project.  This is mostly because you cannot pinpoint an exact cost for an exact result as you normally can with paid online advertising.  As explained above, the agency should work closely with you to determine a list of keywords and phrases for which you can achieve measurable results given the budget allocated.  In other words, it does not make sense to promise you a top spot in Google for a very competitive keyword if your budget does not allow your company to achieve those results.  If you have a set budget in mind, you should be given a realistic expectations level about the results you can expect with that budget.  If you have a certain goal in mind in terms of search engine rankings, your agency can tell you what budget will be required to achieve those goals.

A tried and proven Process

There are many facets to search engine optimization and it is too cumbersome to get into all of them here, but the essential elements are to ensure that your website is built in a way that is friendly to the search engines, modifying your website content to attract the consumers that you are interested in attracting, and building links from other websites to yours. Achieving higher organic rankings will have a tremendous impact on your business as a whole, and should be measured accordingly.

Timeline

If anybody has told you that search engine optimization can take months to show results, they were right.  Unfortunately this has allowed many scam artists to make false promises and charge their clients for months without doing anything until the client realizes that there are no results.  This is another reason why it is important to choose your search engine optimization partner carefully, and work with an established reputable firm rather than someone who calls you randomly.  It is also important to understand that Search Engine Optimization is not something that you purchase… it is an ongoing process.  While you usually can expect to see results within 3 to 4 months, it is also common to see companies drop off the search engines because they decided that they were no longer interested in investing into SEO since they had already achieved the high rankings they had hoped for.

Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools

With the implementation of specialty SEO plug-ins for the websites we build, you will have access to a comprehensive set of reports from Google Analytics. These analytics will give you insight on how your website is performing, and where people are looking when visiting your site.

Ongoing Support

Don’t have the time to update your site? Busy doing the things that company owners have to do to be successful in managing and building a small business? Some agencies will update your site and keep your blog, news and/or press sections full of current and relevant information about your company. Finding the right agency to facilitate your search engine optimization and related interactive needs, will allow you to concentrate on your clients.

Ask for their Unconditional Guarantee

Make sure that your chosen agency can assure you that they only use the most current technology and that you always will be managed on the most cost efficient, most user- friendly, and effective technology platform for your company.

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Podium finish for Primetime and the Braille Battery racing machine

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Strong Debut For Primetime In The Sunshine State

Hollywood, Florida March 23nd 2010 – Primetime Race Group delivers a podium finish in the American Le Mans Series debut of the Oreca FLM09 Le Mans Challenge car at the 58th annual 12 Hours of Sebring in the newly sponsored and liveried Braille Battery racing machine.

After a long anticipated move to the LMP category of the American Le Mans, Primetime is already writing new chapters in the record books. The team arrived to Sebring Florida 6 days prior to race day in preparation for the start of the 2010 season. Testing began on Tuesday for team drivers Joel Feinberg, Kyle Marcelli, and gentleman driver Tom Weickardt who would join the team as the third driver for the 12 hours. As expected at the start of every new season, glitches needed addressing across the paddock, teams needed to shake off the dust from the winter, and it would be some time before the days would start to flow with consistency.

As usual, Primetime would do what they do best and fight through adversity; in this case it would be the task of running a brand new car that had never turned a race lap on US soil. The Oreca built FLM09 had been adopted by the American Le Mans Series after a successful season of sprint racing in conjunction with the European Le Mans Series and would now be put to the test of endurance racing in American Le Mans.

Five teams would step up and attempt to saddle the new stallion, a highly unforgiving task of determining whether the car could actually handle a 12 hour race would lie ahead. Sebring is historically known for being the most abusive road circuit in the world and would either make or break the addition of the new FLM09. Throughout the pre race practice sessions Primetime along with every team on the grid would battle with limited track time due to repeated closed course conditions for on track incidents that would cut practices by nearly half making it more than difficult to hone in on a race setup.

Leading up to qualifying, Primetime would suffer a substantial setback after an incident where the car needed to be towed off track and in the process severe damage was caused to the chassis resulting in a 14 hour repair to the carbon fiber monocoque which would keep the team from making it out for the qualifying session. None the less, with a twelve hour race ahead of them the team would keep their eyes looking ahead on the big picture and get the car back in order just prior to the race.

Team owner and multiple 2009 drivers champion Joel Feinberg would take the honours of the green flag start and pilot the #11 car until the first scheduled pit stop. At 53 minutes into the race, just one lap prior to a fuel stop, an electrical glitch had forced the cars computer to apply 70% throttle sending Feinberg as a passenger into a tire wall barrier in turn three causing severe damage that would require nearly 3 hours of repair at the teams trailer. The dedicated Primetime crew would once again rally to get the car back on track.

Once repaired and back on track, co-driver Kyle Marcelli would take the reins and begin what would be a double stint behind the wheel in hopes of turning fast laps and keeping the car out of the pits. Marcelli had set a consistent pace for himself during his 1 hour and 57 minute stint while running times as quick as or quicker than the class leaders before handing it over to Tom Weickardt who would then also pilot the car for a double stint of 2 hours and 20 minutes.

The Primetime crew continued running flawlessly for the remainder of the race with Feinberg in for another stint of 2 hours and 24 minutes and Marcelli running the final 1 hour and 57 minutes to the finish and taking the checkered in P3 of the Challenge class for the teams first of many 2010 ALMS podium finishes.

Joel Feinberg, Team Owner - I am tremendously pleased with the way our team worked this week, as always, Primetime is never done. We work to the end and never give up, in endurance racing anything can happen and you always need to be thinking ahead. Having Kyle in the car with us has been a great addition to the team and I foresee lots of great results for us throughout the season. The addition of Braille Battery as our title team partner has been a great experience. Braille owner Blake Fuller, his staff, and his product are truly success in the making. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship together.

Kyle Marcelli, Co-Driver - This was a very emotional weekend for me. So much hard work has been put in to get to this point. Joel and the entire Primetime Race Group has made me feel right at home taking me under their wing and I cant thank them enough. We all have the same goals, passion and work ethic which I know is going to lead us to many more podium finishes and race wins. Overall Sebring was a successful weekend and I’m confident that we are only going to continue to grow and achieve more success as the season progresses.

Brent O’Neill, Team Manager – Having run this race under the Primetime banner for the past three years, I can honestly say that this has been the most exciting one yet. Being a racer myself, I have seen everything from all sides and have experienced the highs and lows of endurance racing. We had a winning car this time and just got caught out with something that would have never been a thought. I have to take my hat off to my crew for their commitment to getting the job done, not one person under our awning wasn’t giving it 110% when we needed them. Great job guys!

Blake Fuller, Braille Battery - History of the Sebring 12hr race shows that great drivers need a great team to not only finish, but to be a true contender. The inaugural 12 hr race for the LMPC class shows that the Braille Battery/ Primetime racing team are going to be a real threat in this season championship. The determination of the team to win is evidence in how they recovered from a catastrophic first hour (a flat and contact with the wall) and climbed back to a podium position all within 12 hours!

Multiple professional teams are currently using Braille Batteries in the American Le Mans series. The Braille Battery Primetime LMPC vehicle’s design is a proud testament to the response of racing teams and fans that green technology produces the needed products for the World we live in today.

We look forward to Primetime Race Group promoting Braille’s GreenStart Lithium and AAGM Dry Cell Technology throughout the entire American Le Mans 2010 series. The next round is fast approaching in Long Beach, California which will coincide with the “Race Has Gone Green Conference” that is being held to promote Green Racing within the Long Beach Race Course. This event will bring together industry leaders which are racing toward a change and I will personally be there as part of this event.
The team is now back in South Florida preparing for the west coast swing and round two of the American Le Mans Series in the streets of Long Beach for the Tequila Patron Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 17th with tape delayed coverage on SPEED TV at 8pm EST.

The Primetime duo of Feinberg and Marcelli will pilot the #11 LMPC car for what will be the shortest race of the season consisting of 1 hour and 40 minutes in the downtown streets of Long Beach, one of the most exciting and fan filled venues on the circuit.

Stayed tuned for further Primetime updates!!!!

For more information visit:
www.primetimeracegroup.com
 www.kylemarcelli.com
 www.americanlemans.com
 www.braillebattery.com

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What provides an unrivaled return on investment, and is safer than investing in Gold?

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

We have always thought that most companies are missing the boat in terms of how much their brands are really worth, because they don’t understand how much a small investment in their brand quickly multiplies the perceived value when going public or when attracting growth capital. In most cases a small investment in their brands immediately translates into a competitive edge for products sold off/on the shelf or on the web.

Since all businesses have a number of case studies that are relevant to their target audience, we suggest that you establish a CSS style web site, with a blog and content management backend where posting a new page or new blog is as easy as writing a word document or an e-mail. If you take a closer look at your competition, you will also realize that they aren’t effectively using the social media and other means of SEO friendly web sites, which in turn will send you scores of inquiries from new prospects.

Building a well designed and professional site, writing content and educating you on how to maintain or update the site is fairly inexpensive, and can be done for about $7,500 – $10,000.

Even though our own site www.KompaniGroup.com and www.ActiveServe.com are more complex than what you may need, they represent the web 2.0 CSS type of web site we are talking about. Both of these sites are receiving new hits and leads every week, mainly because they both are optimized for SEO and because we are active in posting blogs.

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Launching an endorsed sub-brand 2/4

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

This is the second of 4 posts about how to combat manufactures and distributors of inferior products that are being reverse engineered and produced in China and sold at much lower prices to your existing clients. You are losing market share fast, and it is time to do something about it.

The economic strains are causing your end-users to trade down, resulting in that the mid-tier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals. You face a classic strategic conundrum: Do you tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term? Or do you hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in the meantime lose customers who might never come back? Given how unpalatable both of those alternatives are, you now must make a decision of how to combat manufacturers and distributors of lower priced and inferior products, to avoid losing additional market share and eroding margins.

There are four ways to battle your competition. 1) Launching a true fighter brand, 2) Launching an endorsed sub-brand, 3) Launching a co-driver sub-brand or, 4) Launching a driver sub-brand

Option Two – Endorsed Sub-Brand

Definition:

  • A sub-brand is a brand with its own name that uses the name of its parent brand in some capacity to bolster equity.
  • In the case of downscale offerings, the role of sub-brands is to help managers differentiate new offerings from the parent brand while using the parent’s equity to influence consumers.
  • The idea is both to maintain the parent’s credibility and prestige regardless of how the sub-brand performs and to protect the original brand from cannibalization.

Endorser

  • Definition: The parent brand acts as the endorser of the sub-brand. In this case, the sub-brand is the more dominant of the two, and drives end-users’ decisions to purchase the product as well as their perceptions of the experience of using the product.
  • When a company offers an endorsed sub-brand, there are three brands at work. The parent brand itself is split into two: a product brand and an organizational brand. The product brand remains as it was, a premium brand delivering a certain image and associated benefits.
  • The endorser strategy provides an excellent chance to minimize damage and reduce the threat of cannibalization to the parent brand. Keep in mind that all three brands need to be managed actively.

Examples:

Sabre B to C (John Deere)

  • John Deere’s foray into value lawn tractors provides a good illustration of an endorser relationship. John Deere was well known for making a lawn tractor that sold for approximately $2,000 through full-service specialty dealers.
  • Although the manufacturer was still able to command that price in the specialty market, volume retailers such as Sears and Home Depot had begun to serve a growing portion (around 30%) of that market, selling products at half John Deere’s prices.
  • So the company introduced an endorsed sub-brand for the value retailers: a low-cost tractor, Sabre from John Deere, that featured an inexpensive design and a different color and feel that John Deere’s other products

Medalist B to B (Hobart)

  • The Hobart Company, which makes an industrial-grade mixer for use in bakeries and restaurants.
  • Managers decided to create an inexpensive mixer for us in commercial and industrial kitchens to compete with offshore entries without damaging its flagship “gold standard” Hobart mixer line.
  • In 1996 the company introduced Medalist from the Hobart Company. Medalist mixers were lighter than Hobart mixers.
  • In addition, they were made with less costly materials and construction processes; and they had a color and logo distinct from those of the flagship Hobart.
  • In this example, The Hobart Company, has become an organizational brand that endorses the sub-brand, Medalist. Medalist itself is a new product brand. Thus the parent brand, Hobart, is separated from the sub-brand, Medalist, by the organizational brand, The Hobart Company.

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Launching a pure Fighter Brand, 1/4

Friday, January 1st, 2010

We are losing market share to our new competition. What can we do to reverse the trend?

This is the first of 4 posts about how to combat manufactures and distributors of inferior products that are being reverse engineered and produced in China and sold at much lower prices to your existing clients. You are losing market share fast, and it is time to do something about it.

The economic strains are causing your end-users to trade down, resulting in that the mid-tier and premium brands are losing share to low-price rivals. You face a classic strategic conundrum: Do you tackle the threat head-on by reducing prices, knowing that will destroy profits in the short term and brand equity in the long term? Or do you hold the line, hope for better times to return, and in the meantime lose customers who might never come back? Given how unpalatable both of those alternatives are, you now must make a decision of how to combat manufacturers and distributors of lower priced and inferior products, to avoid losing additional market share and eroding margins.

There are four ways to battle your competition. 1) Launching a true fighter brand, 2) Launching an endorse sub-brand, 3) Launching a co-driver sub-brand or, 4) Launching a driver sub-brand

1) Definition of a fighter brand

  • A fighter brand is designed to combat, and ideally eliminate, low-price competitors while protecting an organization’s premium-price offerings.
  • A fighter brand, however, is not easy to introduce. First creating a new brand-building awareness, establishing perceptions of identity and quality, developing distributions channels is expensive, often prohibitively so.
  • Concerns about launching fighter brands
    • Will it cannibalize our premium offering?
    • Will it fail to bury the competition?
    • Will it lose money?
    • Will it miss the mark with end-users?
    • Will it consume too much management attention?
  • Other strategic questions to consider before launching at fighter brand
    • Determine whether another brand is truly necessary
    • Run the numbers, including what it will cost to build and sustain a new brand
    • Listen to your clients and customers, early and often
    • Reinvest in your core business and consistently calibrate between the two brands.
    • Is the market you are entering still growing

Examples of fighter brands

Saturn – B to C (General Motors) 1982

  • To combat the growing threat from fuel-efficient and affordable cars being launched into America from Japan, GM decided to launch of an “a different kind of car company” dubbed Saturn.
  • Despite the fact that Saturn won accolades for being one of the strongest brands in the U.S, Saturn proved to be a financial disaster with losses in excess of 10 billion dollars. With no budgetary discipline and so much focus on differentiating Saturn from the other GM brands, completely defeated the purpose of launching the brand in the first place.

Jetstar – (Quantas) 2004

  • To combat low-fare entrant Virgin Blue, Quantas decided to launch their own low-fare airline in 2003.
  • Since Quantas only had one single brand, it did not want to create a new brand unless it had to.
  • Exhaustive strategic sessions confirmed, however, that the Quantas brand was simply not in a position to combat Virgin Blue’s explosive growth. A fighter brand was the only option.
  • Quantas’ detailed projections showed that by offering no frills, its new airline could achieve a 20% cost advantage over its rival; thus allowing it to undercut Virgin Blue’s prices while sustaining a profit.
  • Quantum spent considerable time on focus groups across Australia and listening to their customers to validate the planned initiatives.
  • In 2004 Jetstar was launched with 14 planes flying to 14 destinations. The speed at which Jetstar attacked took Virgin Blue by surprise and knocked it off balance.
  • Jetstar took over the tourist routes that Quantas had lost money on. Because Jetstar proved profitable on those routes, it cannibalized only revenues, not profits.
  • Thanks to Jetstar, Quantas was able to refocus on its more profitable business routes and increase the frequency of its flights on those legs.
  • The subsequent boost in profits, along with Jetstar’s growing contribution, were reinvested in overhauls of Quantas’s business lounges and business class cabins – strengthening the Quantas brand and the distinction between it and Jetstar.
  • Jetstar has stopped the growth of Virgin Blue, and Quantas is now using the brand to fight other competitors in Asia and New Zealand.

Ambra – B to professional (IBM) 1992

  • To combat the growing threat from direct marketers of personal computers like Dell and Gateway and other IBM models.
  • The Ambra was sourced in Asia and marketed between 1992 and 1994 by mail order in Europe and the United States.
  • Due to lack of brand equity and distribution barriers the Ambra was cancelled 2 years after its birth.

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Social Media ROI

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

In a great article about Social Media ROI, author Erik Qualman provides some concrete examples that show how powerful this medium for communication is. Consider however a brand cannot only rely on only one vehicle approach to get in the mind of its prospects, it requires a multi-pronged to be effective. An integrated effort that hits on multiple levels strengthens any one avenue. Here are some noteworthy examples that Erik uses

Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media.  Gary’s eccentric personality and offbeat oenophile knowledge have proven a natural path to success with his Wine TV Library. Vaynerchuk found first hand that $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers, $7,500 Billboard = 300 new customers, $0 Twitter = 1,800 new customers.

Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter

eBay found participants in online communities spend 54% more

These are some startling and inspiring facts. If you are currently utilizing social media, what has been your measure of success?

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Work in a poultry or meat procurement department for a supermarket chain?

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Ever watched the movie Food Inc? When you watch it you will never again purchase poultry or meat for your customers, unless it originates from farm raised chicken, turkey or cattle.

And, when there is an opening in the seafood procurement department at your company, take the job, and consider teaming up with our friends from Portunus Group. Their CEO Palmi Palmason is one of these steadfast honest Vikings from Iceland, who will source the most nutritious and healthiest seafood from anywhere on the face of the planet and land it fresh in your seafood aisle. Enjoy. www.PortunusGroup.com

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The Mahi-Mahi is a canivorous fish

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

PC370mahimahiDid you know that the Mahi-mahi is among the fastest-growing fish? They spawn in warm ocean currents throughout much of the year, and their young are commonly found in seaweed. The Mahi-mahi is also a carnivorous fish, feeding on flying fish, crabs, squid, mackerel, and other forage fish.

Almost done writing 25 pages of content for the new Portunus web site. Long live Wikipedia.

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