The Business of Biotech - Interview with Jay Flatley, CEO of Illumina, Part Two - August 8, 2010 - Segment Three

The Business of Biotech - Interview with Jay Flatley, Chief Executive Officer, Illumina Inc.

Prior to his appointment in 1999 as president and chief executive officer of Illumina, Jay was the president and chief executive officer of Molecular Dynamics, later acquired by Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and now a part of GE Healthcare. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics he led the Company to its initial public offering in 1993. While there, he also helped Molecular Dynamics develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems, including the first capillary-based DNA sequencer.

Prior to joining Molecular Dynamics, Jay was vice president of engineering and strategic planning for Plexus Computers, a manufacturer of high-performance Unix super-microcomputers. Before his career at Plexus, Jay was executive vice president for Manning Technologies and held various manufacturing positions while working for the Autolab division of Spectra Physics. Currently, he is a member of the board of directors for both Illumina and GenVault Corporation and is a member of the Keck Graduate Institute board of trustees.

Jay received a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in industrial engineering from Stanford University.

2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.

Women Making A Difference - CEO Interview - Giselle Acevedo, CEO of Para Los Niños - June 6, 2010 - Segment Three

Interview with Giselle Acevedo, CEO of Para Los Niños and the Women Making A Difference Awards CEO of the Year

Betsy and Renee speak with Giselle about the philanthropic legacy of Para Los Niños and how the agency has evolved today into a powerful force for change. Para Los Niños was founded by Tanya Tull—a mentor of Giselle—in 1980, after reading about the plight of children on Skid Row in the Los Angeles Times. The organization was originally focused on child care for families in downtown Los Angeles, with Tanya pulling together some of her friends, $5,000, and a board of directors to open the first child care center right on 6th Street, an old warehouse that had been an eyelash factory but at the time catered to about 47 children. 30 years later, the agency has expanded to provide a range of what Giselle calls “fully integrated education and social services,” serving about 9,000 youth, children, and families each year. Currently, the agency operates 7 child development centers, a preschool, 3 charter schools, 12 elementary afterschool programs, a youth center for teens located on Skid Row, a mental health center, a work force investment program, a foster care program, and social services in the area of child abuse and prevention.

Giselle observes that people think of a non-profit almost pejoratively, and she very often reminds people that it’s really a business, but to be really successful, you have to be thinking about it as a business with a lot of heart leading to a mission. As a CEO, you have to always make sure that you’re aligning your intellectual beliefs with your actions, and you have to sleep every night knowing who you are and how you lead. In the nonprofit world, Giselle explains, there’s a greater amount of accountability, as your shareholders are your funders, your donors, the people in the community, and you have to make sure you’re not only managing with excellence, but that you understand the community you’re serving, who your population is, and that you’re measuring everything you’re doing. That’s why Para Los Niños has a program—Expectations To Outcomes—in which they measure when a child comes in, when they leave, what kind of services they’re getting, and what their success rates are across all their multidisciplinary approaches.

Giselle shares that the transition from running a for-profit business to directing a nonprofit was a humbling experience in many ways. She notes that, when you’re giving away the money, it’s very different than when you’re asking for it, mainly in that everyone responds to your phone calls. Nevertheless, Giselle has learned to ask for the money because she knows the children deserve it, and if she’s not doing that, then she’s not doing her job. This is a really hard time for nonprofits, Giselle notes, and many people have had to make tough business decisions, no matter what their heart said, because they knew it was the right business decision for the long term viability of the agency. To stand in the face of children and families and say “this program no longer exists” has been very painful, says Giselle, and her friends at other nonprofits have all experienced the 30% drop in giving the industry is currently suffering. For information on the work being done by Para Los Niños, visit the agency’s website at www.paralosninos.org.

2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.

How To Make Wealth From Health - CEO Interviews - Ron Fugate, CEO of Emergen-C, Lenny Krayzelburg, 4-Time Olympic Gold Medalist - April 18, 2010 - Segment Three

How To Make Wealth From Health – Caller Lenny Krayzelburg, 4-time Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer, shares his experiences with running a “learn to swim” academy called the Lenny Krayzelburg Swim Academy. Their demographic is kids ages 1-9 and the primary focus of the program is water safety.  Lenny promotes to parents that learning how to swim is more than just a three month summer activity; not only should kids be taught year round to build their confidence, but swimming is also a weekly activity that’s good for improving their health. Currently, they have a very large year-round program, including 1,300 kids at their Westside JCC location and 300 more at their West Hills JCC location. Visit their website at www.lennykswim.com for all the information about their locations, or call them at 323-525-0323.

Interview with Ron Fugate, CEO of Emergen-C

Betsey and Renee speak with Ron about the significant expansion Emergen-C has enjoyed over the years. In 2000, they sold 60 million vitamin C drink mix packets; in the last 12 months alone, they’ve sold 500 million packets. Ron came to the company in October 2005, initially drawn by the heritage of the brand, and wanted to be a part of growing the company into a more broad distribution operation. According to Ron, among the biggest reasons for their recent expansion is their growth in retail distribution, putting them into more places for consumers to find the brand; a lot of consumer market research to understand who the passionate current users of the brand are and then working to find more of those people via advertising and promotion; distributing about 10 million samples a year to drive awareness of the brand; and substantial changes to their social media work and website to push the brand identity to a place it had not been before.

Ron also mentions another major area that has contributed to their recent success is their involvement with cause-marketing opportunities, another example of “Doing Well By Doing Good.” The company was one of the first to step up and support a group called Operation Gratitude, who send care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. At this point, they’ve given 1.2 million drink mix packets in addition to donating money to the cause. Additionally, they have Emergen-C Pink, with 20 cents per box going to benefit Keep Abreast, a breast cancer awareness group that focuses primarily on younger women, who are among the core users of the brand; and since you can’t make Emergen-C without water, they also have Emergen-C Blue, with proceeds going towards working with the Surf Rider Foundation on clean water causes.

Ron explains the biggest difference between working for an over-the-counter (OTC) product versus a natural supplement is OTCs as a business category tend to be low-growth and the companies in the market are just trading market share as they fight each other on television ad spending. Supplements, conversely, are a rapidly growing business, marked by the discovery of new ingredients and new science. The key opportunity for improvement for Emergen-C, has been making it taste great. They have 10 different flavors and overall about 25 different versions of the product, including a new product coming out soon called Vitamin Z + Calcium, with 1,000 IUs (international units) of vitamin Z and 500 mg of calcium in a very tasty mixed berry flavor. The key for Emergen-C, Ron maintains, is to make sure the product tastes great, with a scoop of good science behind the great taste.

2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.

Rethink, Reinvent, Retrain - CEO Interview - Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape - April 4, 2010 - Segment Three

Interview with Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape

Rethink, Reinvent, Retrain – Betsy and Renee speak with Larry about his transition from well-known music industry veteran to starting his own company, Fanscape. In 1998, Larry found himself laid off after the record company he was working for was sold. From there, his main options were to find another job in the music business working for someone else or start his own company. Larry and his business partner decided to focus on a crucial element they felt was missing from the music industry: the connection between the artists themselves and the people who purchased their music. Additionally, Larry reveals, even though he was an economics major in college, he had no real business experience at the time, which was a major challenge in starting the company.

Another obstacle facing Larry in getting Fanscape off the ground was the inability to get money from venture capital firms, who continuously said that he didn’t have a “big enough idea.” As such, they had to figure out a way to make money really quickly, which led to Fanscape charging for its services when similar services at that time were free. While they didn’t make any money for two years, they had at least established a solid revenue model to move the company to the next level. Larry notes that a big reason for his company’s success was concentrating in an area where they found a need. Fanscape was the first company to provide databasing for bands on a large scale, while also allowing people to communicate with those bands. The key for Larry was creating a business that he knew there was a need for, but just as importantly, super-serving clients to the point that they came back for more and told others. Moreover, Larry mentions they were aware from the beginning that if they stuck with musical acts as their only source of revenue, they would be out of business quickly, given the steadily declining state of the music industry. So there were always intentions of expanding to film and television as well as corporate brands.

Based on his experiences, Larry tells people going for MBAs to focus particularly in one area, which in his case would have been managing people. Likewise, if you can’t go back and actually get your MBA, there are other ways to reinvent yourself. You can take classes, seminars, conferences, as well as seek out skills through coaches and counseling. Larry shares that he is always trying to strengthen his employees’ skills. Some of them have taken writing classes, some have enrolled in the Toastmasters program to improve their public speaking abilities, while others have attended classes at UCLA Extension.

2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.

Being Savvy About Finances - CEO Interview - Cameron Schmidt, VP of Intuit - March 27, 2010 - Segment Three

Interview with Cameron Schmidt, VP of Intuit

Betsy and Renee speak with Cameron about the wide variety of business products and solutions offered by Intuit, including everything from payroll management to their renowned QuickBooks accounting software. Cameron explains that in addition to their payroll services, Intuit has developed an ecosystem of services to help small businesses improve their bottom line and help them navigate through the compliance labyrinth that are federal and state regulations. For example, about 19 million people use TurboTax, a product that guides you methodically through the complexity of the tax code, by having you answer questions online and then feeding those answers through to the proper forms.

It is also essential to recognize that not every small business owner needs a bookkeeper, which is why the Intuit suite of software is designed to complement the flexibility each owner requires. At the end of the day, Cameron notes, the goal is to provide a service that allows owners to do payroll in “just a couple of clicks.” Something else the company has discovered recently with their expanded online presence is that they can give people confidence by harnessing the wisdom and experience of others like them. At www.intuit.com and www.payroll.com, there are entire series of tips, tricks, and guidance currently available, and there’s also a special website and blog for small business owners.

Cameron also discusses how one of Intuit’s specialties is taking the mystery out of terms like “Accounts Receivable” and “Accounts Payable.” In their software, it’s instead listed as “Money Coming In” and “Money Going Out.” As it relates to cash flow, their programs also provide business owners with a “Company Snapshot,” which not only tells owners everything they need to know about their cash flow situation, but also provides them with a series of creative and custom ways to have deep insight into the various dimensions of their business. Recently, the company partnered with a small business expert and are currently offering a free copy of the book Hire Your First Employee. To get a copy of the book, visit their website www.Intuit.com and request your free copy today.

2Minutes&More with Betsy Berkhemer and Renee Fraser airs every Sunday at 1pm on KFWB NEWS TALK 980. Tune in for a full hour of tips for business success.