Importing and Exporting - CEO Interview: Jeff Coppersmith, President of Coppersmith Global Logistics - October 24, 2010 - Segment Three

Betsy and Renee chat with Jeff Coppersmith, President of Coppersmith Global Logistics and President of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, about what exactly a freight forwarding company does and his thoughts about the overall state of imports/exports in the United States this day and age. Coppersmith Global Logistics was started by Jeff’s grandmother in 1948, who was the sixth female licensed broker in the history of the United States. When she passed away, Jeff’s father took over and ran things for about 50 years, until he retired about 6-7 years ago and Jeff took over. As Jeff explains it, there are two sides to what Coppersmith does, with the first side being the outbound side, or the “freight forwarder” side. For goods being shipped out of the United States, you use a freight forwarder, who takes care of all the documentation, arranges the truck to pick up and pack the goods if necessary, puts it on the ship or the plane, and makes sure it arrives overseas. The inbound side is called the “customs broker,” which is focused on getting the goods inside the United States that go to not only US Customs, but also the FDA, USDA, and all other government agencies involved in international trade.
The level of governmental involvement is no coincidence, as Jeff explains the various ways the United States government is seeking to improve overall exporting activity in the country. In addition to President Obama’s national export initiative—which is expected to double exports in five years—there is also the website www.export.gov, a resource sponsored by the US Department of Commerce that will help people who want to get into the export market find new markets for their products. As Jeff elaborates, one of the main jobs of the US Department of Commerce is to find buyers for your product. You can even physically go to one of their local offices and say “This is the product I make, and I would like to be able to sell that product to Germany or France” and they will contact their office at the embassy in the requested country, and find companies that want to buy your product. Even more advantageous is the fact that the US Department of Commerce works with the Census Bureau to keep track of what goods are going to and from every country. This resource exists because freight forwarders file documentation such as one form called AES, or Automated Export System. They enter the information into their computer, which subsequently feeds it to government computers, where they can tell not only what the product is by classification code, but where it’s going, what the value of it is, who it’s going to, and a plethora of other statistical information.
Jeff shares an example from many years ago to illustrate just how effective and profitable exploiting these resources can be. He had a customer many years ago who was just selling pipes domestically, who came to a seminar and heard him speak about the Department of Commerce. After the seminar, the gentleman went to the Department of Commerce and they gave him a list of about 100 companies who used pipes in Saudi Arabia, which is the market he wanted to break into. The gentleman sent out a one page letter to those companies, and from that, got about twenty enquiries back that said “This is interesting. We would like your product. How much does it cost?” With the help of Jeff, he put together some quotes outlining the various costs for selling 100 units of pipe, and was able to go back to those interested businesses and say “If you want to buy my product, this is what it’s going to cost, and I will send it to you in the port of Saudi Arabia.” As Jeff explains, out of those twenty inquires, he got about nine full-time customers, and about two years after that process started, his domestic market dried up, while the handling on the export side kept his company going. Now, Jeff says, the export side is much larger than the import side and the company has almost doubled in size, demonstrating the advantages of having foresight and being proactive in your business assessments. For those interested in contacting Jeff for more information, he can be reached at his e-mail address, jeff@coppersmith.com.

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.

Gender Matters - CEO Interview: Barbara Annis, CEO of Barbara Annis & Associates - October 10, 2010 - Segment Three

Betsy and Renee chat with Barbara Annis—CEO of Barbara Annis & Associates and author of the book Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science To Create Success In Business— about her work in the field of “gender intelligence.” Barbara explains that gender science started about 18 years ago, as they looked at neuroscientists who were studying the functioning of the brain and found that there were some fundamental differences in the hard-wiring of the brains in men and women, which can be used as a competitive advantage. For example, the corpus collusm—where the dendrites that interconnect the left and right hemisphere are located—is wider in women, which is why they often have a more web-like, or multitask, thinking style. Women tend to digress a bit, whereas men are more linearly focused on the getting to the end of their agendas. Barbara says she sees this in leadership teams all the time, where men are more careful with logic, and women bring more meaning and more relational aspects to the discussion, which is really important to take into the equation as well. For this reason, Barbara believes that there needs to be more of a concentrated focus on “Gender Intelligence 101,” and cites a recent speaking engagement as the perfect example of the problem.

Barbara was speaking to the top Danish CEOS in Copenhagen recently, and there were 30 CEOs—29 men and 1 woman. After they spent an hour on gender intelligence, one of the men said “Why did I have to wait until I’m 48 years old to understand these differences? Now that I have some insight into it, I can see that I would have made a lot of different choices. Not only at work, but in my last two marriages!” As Barbara notes, her work “really is all about trying to create those A-HA moments.” To influence organizations to become more sensitive to these issues, you first have to meet them where they are, which Barbara calls either “enlightened denial” or “stuck in a failed business case.” What she means by that is often, organizations will focus on filling the pipeline with women, typically thinking, “If we just get enough women in here, they’ll move up to the top.” Instead, Barbara argues, faulty assumptions such as those need to be vigorously challenged, since there’s enough evidence out there to really demonstrate “when you have greater gender balance, the type of decisions that get made are so innovative and so results-oriented.”

Elaborating on the idea of faulty assumptions, Barbara notes that the #1 reason why women leave a company is because they don’t feel valued. It’s doesn’t mean that work life isn’t a challenge for them, but rather, they don’t see a future for themselves in the hierarchy at the top level, especially at law and accounting firms. While men derive a sense of achievement through results—“let’s just get to the destination”— it’s much more of a relational experience for women, as the journey is just as important as the destination. Lastly, Barbara addresses the idea of mentoring, saying that a greater emphasis needs to be placed on cross-gender mentoring. One of the findings they uncovered in their research is that for women who have made it to the top, it seems to be organizationally more effective if they have multiple sponsors (both men and women) and multiple mentors (both men and women). Moreover, organizations fall into a trap on mentoring where they think they have to match women with women, which creates parallel tracks and ends with the men not knowing the women. So when you’re in the board room doing succession planning or talent management and you don’t know the women, you can’t really vouch for them, which just keeps the cycle perpetuating infinitely, Barbara explains.

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.

Launch an Online Business - CEO Interview, Gail Goodman, Constant Contact - September 26, 2010 - Segment Three

CEO Interview with Gail Goodman of Constant Contact.

Gail is a small business expert and visionary, Gail has revolutionized the way that small businesses and organizations can effectively and affordably communicate with their customers, clients, and members. Since taking leadership of Constant Contact in April 1999, she has led the company to more than 350,000 customers worldwide and its initial public offering in October 2007, when common shares of Constant Contact began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “CTCT.” Gail was named “Executive of the Year” at the 2009 American Business Awards, and was the 2008 New England Regional winner of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Constant Contact was named “Best Overall Company” at the 2009 American Business Awards and ranked 153 on Deloitte’s 2009 Technology Fast 500.

Gail is a big believer that because of the Internet, small businesses can compete with larger businesses. She cites the visual from a favorite advertisement of hers where a dog is in front of a computer and the tagline says, “No one knows you’re a dog.” It is a great way to communicate that the Internet and the marketing tools now available through Constant Contact can make your small business look great.

Gail discusses the many ways you can incorporate all of the social media networks you use. A great tool to use for free is NutshellMail (www.nutshellmail.com) offered to you from Constant Contact which allows you to monitor the conversations happening in the social sphere so you can jump in and join in.

Constant Contact offers many free education tools to learn about online marketing including seminars, webinars and a very large online library to help you succeed with online marketing.

Check out their websites www.constantcontact.com and www.nutshellmail.com.

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 Get Published - CEO Interview with Paddy Calistro - September 19, 2010 - Segment Three

How to Get Published - Renee and Betsy interview Southern California Publisher Paddy Calistro of Angel City Press.
She profiles popular titles from their company including Blanket of Stars, Homeless Women in Santa Monica, by Frances Noble, photography by Ian Noble and Knott’s Preserved, From Boysenberry to Theme Park, The History of Knott’s Berry Farm, by Christopher Merritt and J. Eric Lynxwiler.

Paddy reviews steps and strategies all authors should abide by when submitting to a potential publisher. Paddy says her team stays very engaged throughout the editing and design process for any of the books they publish.  You can check out their catalogue of books as well as their submission guidelines at their website at www.angelcitypress.com  

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.

Advertising 101 - CEO Interview Mike Sheldon, Deutsch LA - August 22, 2010 - Segment Three

Advertising 101 - Interview with Mike Sheldon, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsch LA

Betsy and Renee ask Mike about the beginnings of Deutsch LA and its meteoric growth over the last few years. Mike talks about how important it is for an advertising agency to really be a client’s marketing partner and get involved not only with advertising, but more with the overall strategy of the company and how advertising can be used to drive that strategy. Mike also talks about the toughest part of the business, as well as what he looks for in his employees.

Under Mike’s leadership, Deutsch LA has grown from a 10-person boutique into one of the largest, most respected agencies on the West Coast. Mike ensures that clients’ business objectives are met through strategic leadership and an integrated approach, which includes interactive, direct marketing, media and design. Mike has held several industry leadership roles, including Chairman of the California Chapter of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and President of thinkLA, a consortium of the creative and marketing businesses in Los Angeles. He was acknowledged as Western States Advertising Agencies Association (WSAAA) Leader of the Year in 2000 and again in 2006. He is one of a handful of people to win this honor twice.

Prior to Deutsch, Mike spent the majority of his career at Chiat/Day as Management Supervisor/Partner, where he lead such accounts as Nissan, Home Savings of America and Infiniti.

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.