Posts Tagged ‘New York Entrrepreneur Week’

The situation: You’ve lost your job. And the market to get another one as you well know is dismal. With this as a backdrop, you may be thinking that now is the time to invest in yourself. Perhaps by going to business school and getting an MBA? Or perhaps it is time to start that business you’ve had in the back of your mind for some time?

There are plenty of people advising that now is the perfect time to start a business. But if debating between business school or starting your own business, how should one think about this decision?

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Lately I have been teaching a uniquely green focused FastTrac Tech Venture program run by ITAC – New York City’s Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation.

Our class is full of small start-up and early-stage businesses with state-of-the-art green technology business concepts. Super cool ideas ranging from solar panel manufacturers to internet-based companies that measure energy usage of your home and commercial buildings.

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Green is a hot topic. The September 28 issue of Newsweek published a list of the 500 greenest companies in America with Hewlett-Packet listed as number one. Last April, former President Bill Clinton, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Chief Scientist Amory Lovins, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Empire State Building owner Tony Malkin, declared a very bold plan to reduce the energy use of the Empire State Building by 38 percent, and save $4.4 million annually in the process.

When it comes to conversations regarding green buildings, there are a couple of concerns that are in the foreground for most business owners: do green buildings really increase employee productivity and what is the cost of building (or retrofitting) within green guidelines?

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Our world is more hypercompetitive then ever before, and at an ever increasing rate of speed. As a result, entrepreneurs who stake their company’s long-term viability on just one competitive advantage (or even two) will not have a high likelihood of survival. Why?

The future of competitive advantage is aggregation. Having one or two competitive advantages has become the commoditized standard on a local, regional, national and global scale. Thus, survival and scalability means incorporating four, five, or even six disparate products/services synergistically and effectively to gain meaningful and sustainable marketshare. Furthermore, in addition to aggregation, businesses must continue a strong R&D Program, seeking new innovations that leapfrog the competition. Read the rest of this entry »