Chris Varley on design-oriented MBAs:

With the Cleveland Institute of Art right next door, the possibilities are extremely exciting–CIA students have long turned to Case for their “non-design” courses. If Weatherhead is serious about make design a central tenent of how they teach management, then the school may well be able to carve out an exciting and necessary niche for itself in a degree program that has been showing signs of weakness and age at all schools that offer the traditional MBA degree….

Tech Futures » Blog Archive » Designing the Future

A study called, “Family business performance: The effects of gender and management” is in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Family Business and included OSU Associate Professor Kathryn Stafford. You can read the Newsire release here and the Journal’s abstract here.

Snippit:

This project used data from the National Family Business Survey, which studied family businesses in 1997 and the same businesses again in 2000. A total of 301 family businesses were included in this study. The survey asked a variety of questions designed to identify the primary business owner. If the interviewer was told that both spouses owned the business equally, it was determined which spouse was most involved in day-to-day business management.

The results of this study, like many others, show that family businesses owned or managed by women earn less revenue than those owned by men. But part of the reason may be that women have goals other than maximizing profit, Stafford said.

I’m not quite sure how that squares with the lede:

Family-owned businesses run by women thrive when family members donate their time to help the company.

But when men run the family business, donated family time is linked to lower revenue.

I’m hoping all the good business brains of BFD will help explain it, but here’s something from the abstract:

Personnel management has a much larger effect (nine times greater) on gross revenue for female than male owners. Gender moderates responses to disruptions (sleeping less, hiring temporary help during busy times, family members donating time to business, and using family income for the business), and those effects are so large that the effects of responses to disruptions on gross revenue are the opposite for females and males. The gender main effect remains significant after responses to disruptions are controlled and after interactions with innovations, management practices and responses to disruptions are included in the analyses.

Hattip Capital Blog.

From an email:

The Midwest Conference on Labor in the New Energy Economy will provide local and international union leaders with tools and knowledge to support the emergence of a clean, job-producing economy. The North Shore Federation of Labor, the Ohio Apollo Alliance, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, and Policy Matters Ohio will sponsor this first-of-its-kind event, to take place at the Cleveland City Centre Crowne Plaza on October 22nd and 23rd.

“Investing in a clean energy economy will reduce global warming and fossil fuel dependence, improve our environment, strengthen our economy and lead to job growth,” says Harriet Applegate, Executive Director of the North Shore Federation of Labor. “As we change the way we generate, regulate, and use energy, it is crucial that unions are at the forefront…”

See the link below for more info.
COWS- Center on Wisconsin Strategy: Publications

Real stories about struggling to grow a business here in Cleveland:

During this past graduating season we had found two very talented individuals that were originally from Ohio. Both had not given Cleveland much thought for their job searches. We got them to come up to our offices and also gave our pitch on the region. Both progressed to the point that they were going to get offer letters. They then let us know that they were picking up and heading to Chicago. This has become a trend with graduates that we are interviewing. One of the individuals didn’t have a job yet but was going and the other only had a couple month internship. They were going because their friends were going….

Recruiting to Cleveland: Steering the herd

Email from the moderator:

An increasing number of companies are adopting sustainable business practices. Whether they call this “going green in the workplace”, “being environmentally and/or socially aware” or a “triple bottom line approach” companies are aggressively addressing the sustainability issue.

THE BIG QUESTION is how can your company adopt sustainable business practices to achieve competitive advantage and impact bottom line performance?

Featured panelists include:

* Margie Flynn, BrownFlynn BrownFlynn is a consulting firm specializing in the integration of strategic agendas with responsible practices and targeted communications that yield positive results.

* Tom Morley, LubeStop. Lube Stop is the oldest privately-owned quick oil change company in Northeast Ohio. Lube Stop is headquartered in Berea and has 37 convenient locations in the Cleveland and Akron-Canton areas to serve you.

* Dave Nash, McMahon Degulis, LLP. The Largest environmental boutique in Ohio

*Jim D’Orazio, Moderator, Term Instructor at Cleveland State University and President of Practical Web Strategies

The free discussion and networking event is part of the College’s successful “NOON@NANCE” series. Now in its’ third year the Noon@Nance series has brought together local businesses, Cleveland State students and the faculty for lively discussions on current trends and best practices in today’s challenging business environment. The event will be Thursday September 27, 2007 from 11:30 p.m.-1:00 p.m. This is the first in a four part series on sustainable business practices.

Noon@Nance