By Stuart Cross
November 12th, 2008
There is a Japanese saying that translates as “you can’t chase two hares”. If a hunting dog chases after a hare it has a 10 per cent chance of catching it. But if the dog hedges its bets and tries to chase two at once, its success rate is reduced to nil. The dog quickly learns that 10 per cent is the way to go.
Yet executives and managers continue to find it difficult to chase one hare and can become obsessed with the amount of work they have and the length of their “to do” lists. “Are you busy?” is a typical opening question at the coffee machine.
The problem is that effectiveness is not related to ‘busyness’ in any way. In fact busy people can be detrimental to an organization. By trying to achieve many things simultaneously they run the big risk of achieving precisely nothing and, in the process, create needless work for others.
The pressure for you to be busy rather than effective comes from three main sources:
• Organizational requirements. At work your time does not always belong to you. As long as the organization pursues a busy, two-hare approach to work you are likely to be caught up in it to some extent.
• Peer pressure. If others in an organization are rewarded, even informally, for their ability to work long hours it is easy to be seduced into following a similar route to the top.
• Your own work ethic. Many of us carry around a strong work ethic and gain satisfaction from how having many things to do.
So what can you do? Here are five practical actions you can take to help you focus on one hare rather:
1. Know your Number 1 priority. If you achieved nothing else in the next 12 months, what single achievement would most contribute to the success of your organization?
2. Plan for success. Break down the priority into bite-sized chunks or milestones so that you can track and celebrate your achievements as you go.
3. Critically review your diary. Review your diary regularly to ensure that enough time is spent on the things that matter, and not just on stuff that you have difficulty recalling even one day later.
4. Block out chunks of time for your priority. Find a day or half a day a week to work solely on your top objective. As Peter Drucker wrote, “Even one quarter of the working day, if consolidated in large time units, is usually enough to get the important things done. But even three-quarters of the working day are useless if it is only available as 15 minutes here or half an hour there.”
5. Don’t expect perfection. You can’t control everything. But, for many of us, there is a great deal we can do by re-focusing our time on the few things that matter, rather than being busy on the many things that don’t.
 

NorTech, the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition

On November 5, 2008 The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released an update to their 2006 report entitled, The Energy Imperative: Technology and the Role of Emerging Companies. The original report highlighted entrepreneurial and private-sector innovation in clean energy technologies and also outlined policy recommendations to reduce our Nation's dependence on foreign oil. The updated report discusses recent developments in energy trends and energy policy as well as progress made on implementing recommendations from the 2006 report.

The update points out that in order to maintain the progress made since 2006, major improvements are needed in technologies such as second-generation biofuels, energy storage for vehicles, and advanced nuclear reactors. Large-scale commercial viability of these technologies will require fundamental breakthroughs and technology innovation. Ultimately, the report issues a call for more Federal funding for energy research and development to bring these technologies and ideas to fruition and ensure long-term sustainability and prosperity.

Interesting facts found in the report:
• In the US venture capital sector, clean energy technologies have garnered as much as 20 percent of all venture investments in recent quarters.
• In the first three quarters of 2008, over $5 billion worth of investments were made in clean energy technologies, a 50 percent increase over all of 2007.
• The Department of Energy projects that in the period of 2005-2030 world energy consumption will grow by 50 percent.
• From 1991-2005, oil imports in the US have increased from 40 to 60 percent of overall consumption.
• While the use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind is growing at a very rapid rate, they will likely not exceed 20 percent of overall grid generation by 2030. Therefore, most new based load power generation will still need to come from coal, natural gas, or nuclear energy.
 

Published: November 12, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton

The oft-used term "work/life balance" can mean different things to different people -- and different things to the same person at various points in her career, according to a panel of Wall Street executives at the recent Wharton Women in Business Conference.
The five women on the panel -- which was titled, "For the Long Haul: Wall Street Women on Balancing Life and Work after VP" -- all acknowledged that striking a perfect balance between work and personal life is rarely possible for a first-year associate on Wall Street, but they also agreed that balance is possible with time.
"It's very hard coming right out of business school to achieve work/life balance," said Carol A. Schafer, a managing director in Wachovia Securities' Equity Capital Markets group who also spent 17 years at JP Morgan. "You want to be able to work for an organization that sets you up for work/life balance in the future, one that respects personal life, personal time, has a good mentoring organization -- a good women's organization." A first-year associate can't tell an employer, "Here I am. I'm great. I'm smart, and I demand work/life balance," Schafer noted, but "it's pretty achievable over time."
She added that work performance is critical, especially at a career's start, and will pay off with greater lifestyle flexibility. "If you really want to be there for the long haul, have good opportunities presented to you, be able to achieve work/life balance over time and move around to get a broad experience, you've got to be a consistently good performer. That's what gives you leverage.... Become indispensable and everybody [will] want you to be a part of their network. It's what opens all the doors."
Now, Schafer said, "bankers would rather work around my schedule than not have me at a meeting. The trick of being able to manage your schedule is critical to work/life balance: being flexible when you can be, putting a barrier around things you need to protect."
Set Priorities
In the hurly burly of Wall Street, the panelists stressed, it is important for a person to know what his or her priorities are. "What really is work/life balance?" asked Surina Shukri, a vice president in JP Morgan's Natural Resources Investment Banking group, who recalled spending many late nights at the office as a first-year analyst. "It doesn't necessarily mean you work x hours and play y hours. It's really a matter of knowing what's important to you. Your priorities are going to change over the course of your career."
If a new associate's priority is to get recognition at work, she can and should be realistic about what that will require, Shukri advised. "However, if you start something, and you don't really know what's important to you, that's what makes work/life balance challenging. You're kind of aimless."
Umber Ahmad, who co-founded the private investment firm Goldenridge Capital with fellow Wharton graduate Michael Boyden, said that owning a company has given her some scheduling flexibility. "But the challenge is you never leave it. You never actually go home. It's 24/7. So balance is something you find in a different way." For her, balance comes from pursuing personal interests. "I fly as much as I can," said Ahmad, a licensed pilot, adding that her work on the boards of several non-profits pulls her out of her normal routine and makes her realize how lucky she is to be on Wall Street.
The panelists also stressed the importance of networking, not only as a career success strategy, but also for the sake of work/life balance. Too often, junior women on Wall Street tend to be their own island, never looking up from their work, noted Shukri, one of three married panelists. "Seek out a support network early. In the office and outside the office, it's pretty important to have somebody you can go to and feel comfortable with to talk about issues or problems.... This is a tough job. Doing it alone makes it a lot tougher."
 

The County Chamber is pleased to announce and welcome the following new members that have joined recently.  Please be sure to introduce yourself and make them feel welcome at one of our upcoming events.

Ed Costa and JR Lucarelli from Minute Men Staffing

Best Technology Systems
Carroll Manufacturing & Sales
CGI Group Benefits
Elek & Noss LLC
Janet’s Cookie Jar
Lorain County Community College Foundation
Military Products Group, Inc.
Minute Men Staffing
Multilink, Inc.
National City Bank – Downtown Elyria Branch
NorthCoast Knights
NuERA Cleaning
Send Out Cards
Sooy + Co.
Triton Title Services, Inc.
Wasabi Steakhouse – Midway Mall

The Lorain County Chamber of Commerce is glad to be a partner with The Lorain County Growth Partnership, Lorain County Community College, Lorain County Joint Vocational School and Team Lorain County on the Take Five Free Breakfast Series. Take Five began in September and will continue through June 2009. The seminars focus on HR and Personnel Topics as well as Financial Resources Topics. The HR/Personnel programs are presented by Attorneys from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP and the Financial Resource programs are presented by First Place Bank. We invite small and medium-sized business leaders to attend the next free breakfast.

Upcoming topics include:

January 13- Workplace Investigations
February 10 – Financing your Small Business
March 10 – Best Practices to Deter FMLA Abuse
April 14 – Business Succession Planning
May 12 – I-9’s and Other Immigration Issues
June 16 – Realizing Business Tax Benefits

The seminars are held on the campus of LCCC in the Entrepreneurship Innovation Center. Register now at www.lorainccc.edu/takefive