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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Aug 7, 2007 |
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"The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes." -- Tony Blair
We wanted to highlight some excellent articles on the Western Montana Business Climate and an event that you should plan on attending: "Progress 2007 - "A look at Montana's small-scale, high-tech boom"" http://matr.net/articl ... .html --- "Western Montanans are happily at work "Western Montana InBusiness"" http://matr.net/articl ... .html ---"Verne Harnish's Famous Rockefeller Habit Seminar , "Build A More Effective Management Team", 11/8, Bozeman, MT" http://matr.net/events ... =1952
Boomtown Institute
Come Home Montana
- The Agurban from Boomtown Institute. Summer Entrepreneurship Camp
Last week, about 40 high school students from 14 Indiana counties arrived at Purdue University to begin a week long summer academy to learn more about the world of entrepreneurship.
Come Home Wyoming
- City Lights: On livability, better ranked than just rank. Red Lodge, Montana
In case you missed it, Red Lodge was named one of the best 30 towns in the United States in the August edition of Outside magazine.
- Montana is a state of mind
The simple life. As good as the Montana peaks.
PrintingForLess
- Grand Teton offers phone-guided tours
"We wanted to stay relevant to park visitors," said Julena Campbell, public affairs specialist for Grand Teton. "Parks are experiencing a decline in visitation. This is a way to stay relevant, on the cutting edge, and involve kids. We thought this would be a cool way to kind of reel people in."
Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities
- PrintingForLess.com (PFL), America’s Print Shop, introduces their new online Help Center
“We always go one step further to provide customers with a remarkable experience they will want to tell their friends about,” says Field.
Funding and Building your Business
- Confronting the Talent Crunch: 2007
Talent shortages exist in many areas of the global labor force today, a situation that will grow more acute and more widespread across more jobs over the next 10 years – and could threaten the engines of world economic growth and prosperity.
Education
- Montana health insurance: Popular program makes small dent in uninsured
“As it turns out, we are serving low-income people,” Morrison says. “These are the working poor who have the hardest time affording health insurance.”
- IBM sets guidelines for virtual workers
IBM appears to be the first corporation to create rules governing virtual worlds.
- Charting the future of ads and marketing
Rumors of the impending demise or serious wounding of the advertising industry by warp-speed advances in communications technology are greatly exaggerated.
- Building a Board From Square One
What was your biggest lesson from building a board of directors?
- Wooing Angel Investors: Some Do's and Don'ts
With millions of small businesses and only a few hundred organized angel groups, where do you begin?
- Recommended Reading For Inspiring Leadership
"Sometimes entrepreneurs have to take a leap of faith. Without inspiration, that's very hard to do."
- Five Steps for Creating A Business-Exit Strategy
Business owners often feel that they -- and the business -- will always be around. But without some thoughtful planning about succession, it's common that businesses wither when the owner passes away or leaves.
- Information on Federal Programs and Interagency Efforts That Support Small Businesses Engaged in Manufacturing
The ability of U.S. manufacturers to successfully compete in the global economy is essential to the nation’s continued economic growth and standard of living.
University TechTransfer
- What Policymakers Need to Know About the Cost of Implementing High School Lab-Based Science Course Requirements
An increasing number of states have required that some science coursework for high school graduates be in lab sciences.
- School-Based Mentoring Impact Study
Serving almost 870,000 youth nationwide, school-based mentoring is one of the fastest growing forms of mentoring in the US today.
- Idaho Education department has a new Web site
The new site was designed to be user-friendly so anyone interested in the department iof education could find information fast and efficiently, according to a department release.
- Legislators Sound Alarm on ‘Crisis’ in Higher Ed
"Over the years, American higher ed has been considered the best in the world, without equal," said former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt, who now heads an educational policy center at UNC. "But folks, most of that excellence and world leadership was in the last century."
Connectivity & Communications
- University spinoff machines rev up
"Business is the way I'm going to be making a difference," Johnson said. "I thought it was going to be engineering, but it turned out to be business."
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- IP address shortage to limit Internet access
The evaporating supply of new addresses – which some estimates say could dry up in about three years – could drive up the price of Internet access as well as disrupt the growth and performance of the network, warn some experts.
The Creative and Cultural Economy
- 'No Cooling Necessary' Data Centers Coming?
Somewhat surprisingly, the answer—across the board—was "yes."
- Nanotech out of science fiction into rural reality
"Society's views must be clearly understood and taken into account before new technologies are used in agriculture and forestry." Possible uses included:
- `Electronic wallet' era moves closer to reality
"What I define as the tipping point is not only when consumers are aware but also when they are using it and it becomes part of everyday life," Khan said. "I do believe that will happen by the middle of next year."
Montana Business
- Can the Red Carpet Reach the Flathead? Huntley Ritter's Next Montana Move
“If anybody can come to Montana and produce (movies) he’s the guy to do it.”
- Guide, storyteller and caricaturist from Belgium seeks to tell his stories in the Yellowstone Region in 2008.
I am searching for audiences with a substantial interest in history and talks wishing to acquire knowledge on the subject of : The December 1944 attack on the First American Army by the German Army : « The Battle of the Bulge » ………
Regional Economic Development
- The Half Program - Reducing Your Carbon Footprint. - "Build It Solar" of Bozeman, MT
The Half Program has proven to be a very good investment – we spent a total of $7,525 for all the energy reduction projects, and we are saving $4,007 per year in energy costs!
- Is Bill Mercer Investigating Conrad Burns, Gage, INSA, and Leo Giacometto?
The Inland Northwest Space Alliance was created by the University of Montana in 2003 with $3.1 million in NASA earmarks directed to the Missoula campus by then-Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns. Burns, who lost a close election in November, now is employed by Gage.
- New Ideas will Forge a Promising Future for Crown Parts & Machine of Lockwood, Montana
A home-grown, family-owned business that exports 99 percent of its approximately $16 million in gross sales, Crown Parts & Machine is the kind of value-added business (and then some) – the kind that is often touted as a prize to vibrant economies.
- Strong Montana economy challenges employers to find help
"Employers are continually telling us their difficulty in finding skilled and well-trained employees," Polzin said. "Unless this changes, workforce challenges will only get worse."
- At Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield, where does the money go?
Last year, more than $500 million of Montanans’ money flowed through the hands of Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield — and nearly one-fifth went to what could be called “overhead.”
- Montana PBS Programs Feature State Businesses. "Business: Made in Montana"
"Business: Made in Montana" has featured more than 120 businesses during the 14 years the program has been produced.
- Progress 2007 - "A look at Montana's small-scale, high-tech boom"
Western Montana's small but powerful high-tech sector is rapidly gaining ground. Encouraged by the region's relatively low costs, high quality of life and ready access to resources, high-tech businesses representing every field from biotechnology to telecommunications are either setting up shop or making plans to expand.
- Invizeon Corp. of Missoula, Montana raises $3MM in Corporate Funding after turning down $10MM in Venture Capital.
"We have the best solution on the market today, but there's a lot more that can be done with the solution as the market evolves," Todd said. "Because of that, some of the partners want to take it global but we're not ready to make that move just yet."
- The Great Falls Explorers give interns a look into world of sports business
There are many jobs out there in sports management, said Ryan Acra, general manager of the Great Falls Explorers, but it's a competitive field. An internship can make all the difference in landing a job.
- Western Montanans are happily at work "Western Montana InBusiness"
"The challenge in Missoula is, for us to grow in the future and have economic prosperity, we need to retain as much of the work force here, and we need to attract as many new workers as we can," said Dick King, president of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp.
Utah Business
- Sounding off about Rural Entrepreneurship in the West
Fifty-six million people live and work in rural America. Over 25 million proprietor-owned businesses operate in rural America, with one fourth of all part-time and full-time jobs in rural America linked to rural proprietors. Current data clearly show that small businesses generate the majority of new jobs in rural America.
- Computers may displace humans in occupations accounting for 60 percent of the current workforce by 2030
The paper concludes by arguing that this general approach should be used to mount a serious and sustained effort to project and help prepare for the extensive changes in work that are likely to occur as computer abilities increase over the coming decades.
- Denver's new economic development chief a 'private-sector guy'
The city's eco-devo chief need not spend a lot of time fashioning tax incentives or recruiting new employers. True to that, Pettigrew plans to focus on encouraging entrepreneurship. "The vitality of a community is really linked to the vitality of its entrepreneur community."
- Western Rural Development Center launches new website!
Discover how the WRDC can serve you: Community Leader, Researcher, Extension Professional, Local Government, Non-Profit, or Graduate Student.
- The Large Stake of U.S. Small Business in an Expanding Global Economy
“The more we prosper, the more we trade; the more we trade, the more we prosper.”
Idaho Business
- Neat trick: Used needles won't prick. Specialized Health Products International Inc.
The Bountiful, Utah-based company develops, manufactures and markets disposable medical safety needles, allowing health-care providers to avoid both the pain of accidental needlesticks and their potential life-threatening ramifications.
Washington State Business
- N.Y. firm to lend $3.5 billion for Idaho N-plant
A small New York lender that says it will lend $3.5 billion to a nuclear power plant project in Idaho specializes in loans to bed and breakfasts, miniwarehouses, bars and gas stations, making it an unconventional candidate to help pay for a new commercial reactor.
- Examining exemptions: Idaho sales and income tax breaks studied
More than 100 exemptions for sales and income taxes keep millions of potential tax revenue out of state coffers, state officials say.
Wyoming Business
- One thing missing in jobs boom: high pay
Of 240,000 new jobs created in Washington between 2002-2006, 69.5 percent pay less than a living wage.
Government
- Priced out of paradise. The challenge of affordable housing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
More and more people are moving to outlying areas of Jackson Hole -- especially Alpine and Teton County, Idaho -- as Jackson home prices soar. A real estate analyst published a report last month saying the median sale price of a home in Jackson as of July 1 was nearly $1.18 million.
Careers
- Governor Schweitzer orders agencies to pony up $75K for intern fo promote math and science initiative
The Schweitzer administration did not seek authorization for the new job, formally known as an education policy assistant, from the 2007 Legislature, or ask for money to fund it.
Non-Profit News
- On the Job: LinkedIn isn't a site for name collecting
It offers users a chance to connect with other professionals online to get work done.
Energy
- The Federation of Fly Fishers ponders moving headquarters from Livingston, Montana
At its board of directors meeting Tuesday, the Federation of Fly Fishers discussed moving its world headquarters from Livingston, but took no action.
Montana Education Excellence
- To Prevent Global Warming, New Zealand Proposes 'Fart Tax'
In New Zealand, its not so much people, but methane-producing livestock that's the problem. A revived government proposal would tax farmers for their animal's gas emissions.
Community
- Middle Eastern students learn nuances of leadership at MSU
"I admire very much that you are all here learning about leadership and how to make the world a better place for my kids and my grandkids," said panelist Steve Sparks, a Bozeman entrepreneur. "You have the ability to change the world and after meeting you here, I'm sure you will."
VIRUS ALERTS
- A Community's Pedestrian Friendliness Rating Engine Draws Attention On Web. Cool New Thing: What’s Your Walk Score?
How walkable is your house?
- Malware Maelstrom Coming from Russia with Love
"Looking at these massive samples of malware, we can't help [but] think that there's something brewing in Russia."
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