Come to a dinner forum of the UMass Family Business Center
Call Ira Bryck, center director at (413) 545-4545 to get more information, discuss your situation, and commit to an evening that will expand your thinking (and your waistline)!
SEPTEMBER 24 , 2013 •TUESDAY 5:00-8:30 PM
LOG CABIN BANQUET AND MEETING HOUSE, HOLYOKE, MASS
AHEAD OF THEIR TIME FOR FIVE GENERATIONS
If you’re a true child of the 60’s or 70’s, you should remember a major icon of that era: Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap. With unmistakable scents of mint, lavender or almond, it was (and is) the soap that cleans your body, teeth, car, or everything else. The product was/is instantly recognizable: with Dr. Emanuel Bronner’s urgent message to realize our transcendent unity across religious and ethnic divides, in tiny type, on every inch of the bottle. The soaps are synonymous with Old-World quality and time-honored simplicity, which can be traced back to the family’s German-Jewish soapmaking tradition. Born in 1908 to a Jewish family that had been making soap since 1858, Emanuel Bronner was the third generation certified as a master-soapmaker under the guild system of the time. In 1929, he brought his formulas for high-quality liquid and bar soaps to America, starting Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps in its current form in 1948. The 4th and 5th generations of the Bronner family who run the company today continue to make to these unsurpassed soaps with care and integrity.
We are pleased to present Dr. Bronner’s grandson, MICHAEL BRONNER, who is VP of the company, running it with his brother, David, and mother, Trudy. Come hear Michael discuss the family and company history, including his grandfather’s departure from pre-Nazi Germany, navigating the brand’s cult status, their ongoing struggle to make the industry and government regulatory agencies raise the bar on standards for organic, Fair Trade, progressive and sustainable practices, and genetically modified organisms (GMO); and leading the way with improving life for their growers and suppliers, and their support of many meaningful charitable causes. You will enjoy learning how this renowned company continues to develop and thrive – it is still the top selling natural soap in the US (1000% growth over the last 12 years), long after the Age of Aquarius has ended.
EXPERT ADVICE AND PERSPECTIVE that will help you in your business, presented by BULKLEY RICHARDSON a corporate partner of the UMass Family Business Center. Topic to be determined, but it will be relevant to you and your company.
OCTOBER 24, 2013 • THURSDAY, 5:00-8:30 PM
DELANEY HOUSE, HOLYOKE, MASS
IS THIS ANY WAY TO RUN A COMPANY? (IF IT CURES WHAT AILS YOU, THE ANSWER MIGHT BE YES.)
It's so true it's a cliché, that what got you into the business you run was probably not the fascination with running a company. It was more likely your powers and abilities to build the product or deliver the service you're involved with – not the day to day governance, filled with people problems, wasted energies, group think, mission creep, and all the slings and arrows while trying to make your outrageous fortune.
Enter Holacracy, a new way of governing an organization. At this dinner forum, you will hear from Brian Robertson, the founder of this method, as he clearly shows how Holacracy can make your organization more agile and purposeful in how power is distributed and decisions are made; how tactical meetings always focus on the next concrete actions to achieve your company’s purpose; how bottlenecks are eliminated through clarifying roles and accountabilities in governance meetings; how people's tensions and perceptions of what is "off" are used as sensors, as on an instrument panel, to stay on course. The net effect is that your company will be more competitive and healthy, and able to grow and adapt in response to shifting external pressures and opportunities.
BRIAN ROBERTSON is a seasoned entrepreneur and organization builder, and a recovering CEO - a job he now helps free others from with Holacracy. Generally regarded as the primary developer of the system, Brian’s work allows leaders to release the reins of personal power and persuasion into a trustworthy and explicit governance process. Brian also serves as the drafter and steward of the Holacracy Constitution, which captures the system's unique "rules of the game" in concrete form. Beyond joyfully crafting legal documents, Brian's creative expression takes many forms – he co-founded HolacracyOne to support Holacracy’s growth, and he fills and loves a broad variety of the company’s roles. He's particularly grateful to hold no fancy titles and wield no special powers, so he can show up as just another partner doing his part to support something he cares about. His work developing Holacracy began as founder and CEO of a leading provider of agile software to emerging technology companies. He’s been interested in programming since he was six years old, and launched his first software-related business when he was twelve.
EXPERT ADVICE AND PERSPECTIVE that will help you in your business, presented by EPSTEIN FINANCIAL GROUP, a corporate partner of the UMass Family Business Center.
DECEMBER 10, 2013 • TUESDAY, 5:00-8:30 PM
CLARION HOTEL AND CONFERENCE CENTER, NORTHAMPTON, MASS
MOST PEOPLE WHO NEED A TURNAROUND SPECIALIST DON'T REALIZE IT TILL IT'S TOO LATE As a stereotype, entrepreneurial types are optimistic, big picture people. They prefer to not wallow in financials, and live in hope more than despair, except maybe at 3 am, every so often. And the business was built, piece by piece, from the ground up, more concerned with getting the order out than cash flow; and making this week's payroll than building sustainability for ten years hence. Enter David and Jeff Sands (father and son), who claim they can walk into a company, close their eyes, and hear whether your business is humming along or clunking towards a terrible breakdown. By the time they are called in, it's often almost too late: the business is in the "zone of insolvency." They wish they''d been summoned earlier, when they could help that company restructure and live another hundred years. Tonight's talk will summon them to tell you what you need to do, to turn around when it's not a hairpin turn near a steep cliff. They have war stories galore, answers to your questions, methods to assess where you're at, other methods to get you to where you need to be. They are charming, but truth tellers. They've been there, and will help you not end up there. If you think you and your company could not benefit mightily from what they want to tell you, good luck!
Hear David Sands interviewed by Ira Bryck at http://www.umass.edu/fambiz/resources/podcasts.html
EXPERT ADVICE AND PERSPECTIVE that will help you in your business, presented by HEALTH NEW ENGLAND, a corporate partner of the UMass Family Business Center. Topic to be determined, but it will be relevant to you and your company.
MARCH AND APRIL, 2013 EVENTS TO BE ANNOUNCED -Stay tuned!
JUNE 17, 2013 • TUESDAY, 5:00-8:30 PM
LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED
HOW TO BUILD AN IDEA-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION How does your business get its best ideas? If you're relying on the brainstorms of the owners while showering, or lying awake at 3am, you could be in trouble. And if you're hoping that managers will deliver grand slams, so you can ignore the singles and doubles of your front line employees, watch out. And the suggestion box? Oy vey! And even pricey consultants? Their best ideas are often no match for the properly gathered feedback from people who actually see where the problems live- in other words, YOUR people! Those of you who've had the pleasure of hearing UMass Professor Alan Robinson discussing his ground breaking work Ideas Are Free will be in even more delirium when you hear it here first- as Alan delivers you gems based on the sequel, The Idea- Driven Organization- to be published in May, 2014. Alan's new book (again, co-authored by Dean Shroeder) describes exactly how to build and execute an idea gathering system in your company that avoids all the misconceptions and misinterpretations he has witnessed in consulting to hundreds of companies trying to build the perfect idea driven system.
DR ALAN G ROBINSON has advised more than 100 companies in 12 countries on how to improve their creative performance, and is an award-winning author and educator. He has served on the Board of Examiners of the United States' Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. His book Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen (co-authored with Sam Stern) was a finalist in the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Best Business Book Awards, was named "Book of the Year" by the Academy of Human Resource Management, and has been translated into thirteen languages. His book Ideas Are Free, co-authored with Dean Schroeder, was published in 2004. Based on their research and consulting in more than 300 organizations in 17 countries, the book describes how the best companies go about getting large numbers of ideas from their front-line employees. The book was named Reader’s Choice by Fast Company magazine in June 2004 and one of the 30 best business books of 2004 by Soundview Executive Books, and was featured on ABC World News, CNN Headline News and several NPR programs. A syndicated small business columnist for Scripps-Howard, Paul Tulenko, wrote about Ideas Are Free, “I rate this book 5 1/2 stars, a first in this category. It's that powerful. (Only the Bible and the Constitution receive 6 stars.)”. Dr. Robinson is currently on the faculty of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A./M.A. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in Great Britain.
Archive of past UMass Amherst Family Business Center dinner forum
TRY IT- YOU'LL LIKE IT !!
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or come as the guest of a member company or corporate partner
For more information, or to register, call Ira Bryck at (413) 545-4545 or email Ira Bryck
