by Kellyanne Dignan, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications

Last week I was asked to participate in a panel for a group of European companies looking to do business in Boston. I followed the lawyers, accountants, and bankers with a short presentation on what organizations need to know about communications and media before they move into the American market. Almost all the questions I got were about mistakes I’ve seen other companies or individuals make, all of which fall into three categories.

Flying below the radar: As I learned from the above mentioned lawyers, accountants, and bankers when you’re expanding your business into a new market there is a lot to do and it can be very tempting to put the media strategy on the back burner. Resist temptation! If there is only one piece of advice I could give everyone it’s this: you want to initiate contact with the media on your terms. It goes without saying; you never want to be introducing yourself for the first time in the middle of a crisis. The American media is a giant, highly segmented industry. Chances are very good that there is some publication somewhere that covers some part of your value chain and they will become aware of your entry into the market. You not only want to be prepared for contact with these reporters, but actually to be proactive in developing a strategy to reach out to them that aligns with the overall marketing goals of your organizations.

Initiating a media strategy is not necessarily about the coverage you will get. It is about discovering and introducing yourself to the journalists who can provide a conduit to your new stakeholders be it potential customers, employees, or regulators either now or in the future.

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By Nathan Rothstein and Dan Rothstein

In the fall of 2002, Mark Zuckerberg entered Harvard. Less than ten years later, he has become one of the wealthiest people in the world. Over the years, he has grown as a leader, but there’s one thing that has remained constant throughout his rise from awkward Harvard freshman to CEO of Facebook: He is constantly asking questions.

In a recent New York Times article, Evelyn Rusli quotes one of his friends and early Facebook employees talking about Mark, saying: “He has a higher ask-to-talk ratio than anyone I know.” There’s a key lesson here: to be great, to be a visionary, and, perhaps, even to become very wealthy, it helps to be curious and to ask the right questions.

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By Lex Schroeder, Writer and Research Fellow, The Lean Enterprise Institute

Most of us think we know what the word collaboration means, but we don’t. I usually oversimplify it and think of two or more people joining efforts to get something done.

Let’s collaborate on this deeply interesting thing over here! Or let’s join forces on this other thing that demands our attention!

Sure, people bring their own skills and talents into the mix, but the emphasis is on productivity, not the interplay and synergy that happens or doesn’t happen—or has no chance of happening—in the group.

I’m working on two different projects dedicated to exploring what effective collaboration looks like in practice and how to create the conditions for it to occur more often. The idea is that if we can work together better, maybe we can focus more energy on the creative potential of the work at hand, advancing the real possibilities that exist there rather than the interpersonal or process dynamics that so often get in the way.

I still have plenty of questions, but this is clear: collaboration is much more than two or more people working together; it’s about communicating and learning with others in order to create something you couldn’t possibly have created alone. It’s about finding a shared groove, yes, but a purposeful, synergistic, fantastically unique one.

How often do we set out with this goal in mind rather than simply think: "Let’s go work together to complete this very important task?"

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By David Chevalier, SalesBlend

Twitter can help to forge powerful relationships if you put yourself in your audience’s shoes by listening before you tweet. So, get close to your target market before broadcasting any sales messages. Start socializing and networking and then, after you build strong relationships based on trust and understanding, deliver targeted communications that will help your audience meet their informational needs.

Follow Your Market

Listening before commenting is a great approach to attracting the ‘right’ visitors to your website. Begin by clicking the Follow button next to people who are writing about topics that are relevant to your business. For better or worse, they are currently influencing your target market. You can also consider clicking the Follow button when Twitter suggests a user for you to follow in the Who to follow suggestions. In either case, make sure you start following people who you think will have a reason to pay attention to you once you start tweeting.

Find Relevant People

Next, use Twitter’s search engine to approach prospective customers. Below, you’ll find a simple 5-step process to help you listen to what your community values:

1. Go to Twitter Search
2. Enter a relevant query in the search field. For example, if you are a pizza restaurant in Boston you might search for “pizza in Boston” to discover what people are commenting about.
3. Determine if the results are useful.
4. Save the search.
5. Repeat the process with variations or new terms.

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

Three months ago I got up on my high horse to preach about the advantages and disadvantages of getting a PhD. In the meantime, I have had the pleasure of talking to Ben Nelson about what to look for when applying for an undergraduate degree.

Ben has thought deeply about the demand for elite higher education (see his TED talk), and he recently raised $25 million to launch a university called The Minerva Project. It will cater to the tens of thousands of people that meet all the academic requirements of other elite universities. Below, I will list the five most important things that Ben thinks should matter to applicants. To help explain, I will compare and contrast Minerva with existing universities.

Most challenges to existing higher education these days focus on technology. Minerva uses online technology, but the main point of the project is not technology – it is catering to the demand.

What do students need, and what should universities aim to supply?

1. Status
2. Chance of getting in
3. Pedagogy
4. Student life
5. Student-university relationship after graduation

A degree from an Ivy League University is so attractive that the number of applicants far exceeds those accepted. That its status will rub off on alumni is one important reason – perhaps more important even than the education you receive. As non-elite universities are quick to point out, you can also learn stuff at other universities - possibly more and better. But whether or not you get a superior education at Ivies or not: their status is undoubted.

The problem for most of us is that we will not get in. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford etc. simply cannot expand to accept the many, many applicants who desire an association with their brand. Unlike the Ivies, Minerva can scale. Its campuses will be rented and they can move if need be. So students satisfying Ivy League schools' entrance requirements, while still unlikely to be accepted by an Ivy League school, will be accepted by Minerva. (I forgot to ask Ben, but he might have to worry about Groucho Marx's dictum: I don't want to be a member of a club that wants me as a member.)

Ben thinks students really ought to consider the prevailing pedagogy of different universities before applying. For example, Brown has a very open-ended program where a student can gather the requisite credits however he or she wants. This will suit some students and not others. Columbia, by contrast, is more structured and perhaps rigid in its organization of progress towards a bachelor's degree. Penn is very interdisciplinary and excels in mixing degrees, such as business and technology. Harvard Business School is the home of the case study. Students should aim to understand a university's pedagogy and choose according to their own personalities.

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

Dougan Sherwood started his own company and burned through $20K of friends and family's investment. He got burnt. He now works at Cambridge Innovation Center, located at Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

He sees many startups in different stages and he ponders the impact that location has. His advice for startup companies is a mixture of the conventional and the more existential.

Go where you can:

1. Recruit the talent you need
2. Minimize hassle and free up head space
3. Figure out who you are!

Everyone in the startup world knows that recruiting people is of prime importance and also excruciatingly hard. A startup needs a team of people whose skills complement each other. We tend to know people like us, not people with complementary skills. A startup needs people with drive and enthusiasm, an understanding of product development and the many iterations it has to go through with feedback from potential consumers, people skills, market savvy, fundraising, legal and accounting, technology and so on.

The list is very long, which is why only a very few places on the planet have produced successful startup companies. Putting it starkly, only Silicon Valley and Boston have the critical mass of people with different skills to routinely put together successful teams. But even within those cities, you want to be where you can meet people, preferably on a daily basis. In Boston, for example, you may want to be on the Red Line, because many of the young people you want to recruit do not want to drive cars and sit in traffic.

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By Ellen Keiley

Why are we still having this conversation? That was the theme of the Bentley University Center for Women and Business Inaugural forum that took place on April 27, 2012. The Center is working on initiatives relating to advancing women in the workplace and moving from conversation to action. Energetic as always, Bentley University President Gloria Larson kicked off the forum that over 700 people had signed up to attend. Bentley University’s Toni Wolfman said “the Center provides a framework to develop effective solutions to challenges faced by women in the workplace.”

Betsy Myers was appointed as the Center’s Founding Director. Myers is an authority on leadership and author of the book Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You. She has deep experience in the corporate, political and higher education arenas and served as Chief Operating Officer of Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign. Myers also served in the Clinton Administration as an adviser on women’s issues.

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By Dave McLaughlin, Vsnap

Recently The Capital Network presented its Venture Fast Track program, a one-day “boot camp” to prepare startups for success with venture capitalists and angel investors. So often I find that people with great ideas might be a little bit unsure whether they’re a good fit to plug into all the resources offered by organizations like The Capital Network, Mass Challenge, Boston World Partnerships, Venture Café, and so many more. It’s important that people understand just how open this community is. If you have a hunger to start and grow something, just show up! You’ll be welcome.

At the Venture Fast Track, people commented on two big buckets of value: the info and the people.

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By Rita B. Allen

Thriving in today’s marketplace is as much about continuous learning and proactive planning as it is about talent. Most people take great care in methodically planning out many aspects of their lives yet in many cases, their career decisions and/or paths happen based on circumstances vs. intentions. Creating a plan that allows for both is not only ideal in this competitive, highly specialized market but necessary!

What is the mission and vision for your career? What are your short term goals for the next 1-3 years as well as your long term goals 5 years and beyond? Are you taking the steps now to ensure success in achieving your short and long term goals? Do you have a personal and professional development plan for managing your career? When is the last time you assessed and explored your skills, abilities, competencies, interests, priorities and values to assure they are aligned appropriately with your professional and personal goals and objectives as well as the requirements for success within your field?

The economy is on the rise as is the demand for accomplished, results-driven professionals with a proven track record who can add value. Only you can manage your career so having a solid development plan for yourself with specific goals and objectives is the best way to start that process. Organizations are looking for leadership capabilities at all levels – they desire individuals with potential to grow and initiative to own their career development.

So, how do you create a personal and professional development plan?

1. Know your competencies, skills, strengths, weaknesses, interests and values; assess and evaluate regularly; be true to yourself; leverage strengths and uncover potential to be further developed.
2. Do your homework and stay current in your field; investigate sought after skills that are in demand; identify areas you may fall short; determine skills to be refined and enhanced as well as steps to execute.
3. Be goal-oriented; establish short and long term goals; keep a running list of your accomplishments; establish where the gaps are preventing you from reaching these goals.
4. Prepare an action plan that will allow you to fill these gaps – both personally and professionally; reach out to your network of peers, colleagues, managers, contacts and other resources to assist you.
5. Follow up and evaluate; be disciplined and make yourself accountable to a specific timetable; revisit regularly and stay on track; evaluate frequently and make necessary adjustments and follow through.

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By Debi Kleiman, President, MITX

Last Tuesday night about 70 local marketing professionals got together for a “marketing hackathon” to think through how we could better promote and communicate what’s special about our region’s Innovation Economy.

Our Innovation Economy is diverse – our tech, life sciences, education, clean energy, gaming, financial services, robotics, and design sectors are thriving and innovating on some really hard problems. And, as Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki reminded us during the hack, they’re not just building innovative products but they’re also creating new-to-the-world business models that are disrupting traditional approaches.

The challenge was to find a way to communicate our unique culture and make it meaningful to students, entrepreneurs and businesses who want to move/grow here and future employees who want to stay here. Not an easy task to be sure, especially when we are prone to comparing ourselves or trying to emulate Silicon Valley, Austin or New York City.

As we shared some of the best ideas from the hack, a theme started to gel for me – Boston, we need to embrace our inner nerd.

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Kellyanne Dignan, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications

When I was getting my MBA at Trinity College in Dublin I was famous for putting my foot in my mouth. Despite my fairly decent command of the American English language, I could always be counted on to accidentally say something on a Tuesday afternoon that was completely inappropriate.

One of my most famous incidents involved me getting up in front of an entire class and one of Ireland’s most beloved economics professors with a goal of clarifying the dress code for a social event. Instead of telling all the women it was a dressy occasion I accidentally told them not to wear underwear. Turns out “pants” does not mean the same thing on the other side of the Atlantic. While my language malfunction still makes for a good laugh among my friends, the same mistake in a business setting could have permanently damaged my reputation with potential clients in a new market.

I recently learned that just one percent of US firms export and of that one percent only half export outside North America. With the economy still lagging we’d all like to see that number go up. As the world gets wealthier the demand for the skills and services of our highly educated workforce will grow; Washington is hard at work encouraging American firms to look overseas for new customers.

Whether you’re looking to bring Boston to the world or your part of the world to Boston, doing business outside your home country is always a challenge. Technological advances in transportation and communication may make logistics easier but the age old problem of cross cultural communication remains. So before you explore the opportunities outside your home market here are five basic tips that I want to pass along.

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By Manya Chylinski, President, Alley 424 Communications

If you grew up speaking English, chances are you’re not fluent in a second language, especially if you grew up in the United States. To experience more of the world—for business or pleasure—a second language really comes in handy. The best way to learn a language is to start speaking it right away, no matter how little of it you know.

The world around us does not all speak English. There are over 170 languages in the world with more than 3 million first-language speakers. If you like to travel or want to conduct business in the non-English speaking world (even right here in Boston), now is the time to get started.

It isn’t as hard to become fluent as memories of high school French or Spanish homework would have you believe. There are many people (including Benny the Irish Polyglot whose philosophy I am following) who believe that the best way to become fluent is to immerse yourself in and start speaking the language immediately. That’s how I’m learning Polish. (Full disclosure: I’ve been studying Polish about two months and am not yet fluent.)

Fluency
For my purposes, fluency is the ability to give a presentation or hold a conversation about a topic that interests you in your target language, and understand the other participants when they speak to you or ask questions. This is not fluency designed to help pass an exam or meet other specific requirements, though it could lead to that.

Immersion
Immersion is the key to learning a language rapidly. Think about it. If you did not know a single word of Chinese, but suddenly found yourself spending several months in a small city in China with no English speakers, you would learn to speak Chinese.

Immersion is how children learn their first language. But adults have an advantage over children: experience in the world, which puts words and their meaning in context. So, shopping for food in that city in China isn’t all that different from shopping for food here.

How do you immerse yourself in another language if you can’t move to or travel to the country right now?

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By Lennox Chase, Founder, MyBarPrep

The clichéd idiom “elevator pitch” has survived the tech bubble because uniqueness is usually trumped by utility. The need for effective solutions is a crucial part of life and the cornerstone for commerce. Companies seek the most effective ways to attract more customers, while consumers are always on the hunt for an efficient solution for their needs. Consequently, an effective elevator pitch is crucial for companies in search of funding, job applicants seeking employment, and small businesses in search of new customers.

Commerce at its highest level is a collective process that requires matching needs with attractive solutions. Accordingly, the need for effective communication is paramount to transitioning from merely surviving to thriving.

People are busy and your elevator pitch must be well-rehearsed and as easy to say as your name. Working with others involves understanding their needs. Accordingly, a brief summary of the solution you are offering is attractive to a busy executive or consumer.

"A well crafted elevator pitch will open many doors while a poorly delivered one will keep the doors shut. Create a short, to the point statement that not only explains what you do, but what makes you different." - Lauren Zirilli Founder, JILLIES Medical Treatment Wear for Women.

A successful elevator pitch must:

1. Grab the attention
2. Lay out a solution
3. Adjust to the audience
4. Demand Action

Grab the attention

Mastering influence is the ultimate goal of entrepreneurs, companies, customers, and job applicants. You must grab your listener’s attention by capturing their imagination. A tagline is a terrific means to arousing interest. An example is, “We are the XYZ of the widget industry.” Your tagline should be comprised of your core purpose and grab your audience’s attention. A short way of communicating the benefits you are revealing to your audience is essential to captivating your listeners. A straightforward description of your services, products or skills delivered in 30 seconds or less is the ideal length of your message.

“To me, elevator pitches are like really good movie trailers. They leave you wondering, wait, what else? I need to see that, be a part of it. Whomever you are talking to is roped into your project. Funny thing for me is that my most successful pitches have been during unexpected encounters and not formal presentations.” - Jeanne Dasaro, North End Stories

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

How does one make a successful product such as an iPad, an app, a drug, or a widget?

You might think that companies start with an idea about a product, something that seems cool or somehow promising. They then build a prototype to prove the concept – that the product can indeed be built or made. And then they make more products and sell them.

If only it were that easy!

Unfortunately, products need a lot of work before they actually sell. The expected demand may turn out to not be there; the price might be too high; the product might be clunky; or there might be regulatory hurdles Much of that work is done in product development. Because product development is underestimated, most people think that the most important part of innovation is invention – the glamorous moment where a genius thinks of something new in a flash. But in reality ideas are a dime a dozen whereas product development is the hard slog that really makes a difference.

Regina Au is a consultant helping life science companies with product development. She has spent many years with pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as Genzyme Biosurgery, so she has seen product development up close for many years. She details the following 5 main issues to pay attention to. FULL ENTRY

By David Chevalier, SalesBlend

Do you wish your network provided you with new ideas, greater intelligence and more money? Are you searching for a job without realizing that it's a permanent campaign rather than a job search? Or, are you just trying to find the people who are willing and able to refer business to you? It’s crucial that your network help you encounter new ideas, learn new skills and regain your sense of purpose.The problem is that relatively isolated, homogeneous networks - consisting of people like yourself who live nearby - are unlikely to produce positive outcomes.

I’ve been there - after reading Harvard Business Review’s How to Build Your Network, in 2006, and taking the article’s diagnostic test, my network was revealed to be full of connections made in school and the workplace. It was even bold enough to suggest my network of 90 people was inbred.

Frankly, I liked my network just the way it was because there were very few dissenting views, everyone lived within an hour of me, and I didn’t have to put in any ‘leg-work’ to build the connections. It was comfortable and fun. I wouldn’t have changed anything about it except my network was not producing much business. In fact, it mainly produced beer, wine, food and redundant information. Yet in a fast-changing world, I perceived a credible threat that I could get left behind. I felt compelled to change.

Homogenous groups are very comfortable. They tend to share your interests, opinions and profession and they rarely challenge you or your thinking. But your network should cut across geographies, functions and specialties because that’s where the magic happens! It’s time to let new people into your “circle of trust” and explore ideas that differ from your own.

Start networking outside your comfort zone!

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By John Henry Silva, Co-Founder and Chief Culture Officer, FairSetup

Networking in Boston may seem daunting, especially for a new arrival. When I moved to Boston, I was transitioning from active duty military service and I had zero time to prepare for my transition from Southern California. I did not know where to begin my professional and social networking.

Eight years later, I have learned through trial and error what worked for me.

Five Sectors to Take Seriously

Embrace these five key sectors in order to maximize your success for networking in the Boston area: Academia, Business, Culture, Government, and Nonprofit Organizations.

Whatever your goals are when networking, these five sectors can add great value to your career. Simply making contacts in these areas is not sufficient; you need to cross-pollinate your network to reap the benefits of all they have to offer, so you can be a valuable node for your colleagues and trusted friends.

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By Ellen Keiley

The first time I heard the term “working a room,” I thought there must be more to attending events than just showing up and simply interacting with others. Perhaps there is an actual science to “working a room.” The fact is some people are more comfortable than others in social settings, and some people are so good at networking that they actually do have it down to a science. One such person is the man who got me started networking – retired financial services industry executive Richard J. DeAgazio and now Principal of consulting firm Ironsides Associates.

I saw Richard speak on “How to Work a Room” at a Northeastern University Alumni event years ago, and immediately knew Richard was a networking pro. Not only did he have excellent networking tips, but I was also impressed with his major power presence, contacts, and ability to motivate others. Given his impressive skills, I thought I would interview him to share some of his advice.

Why is Networking Important?

In any business, no matter what the profession is, social skills and networking are necessary to move forward. One way to network is to attend social events, because they bring together like-minded individuals, whether it is a church event, a charity event, or a professional association event.

What Can Someone Who Isn’t a Natural Networker Do To Make the Most Out of Attending an Event?

1. Be prepared and determine the networking goal beforehand, such as who do you want to meet. This maximizes the time spent at the event to get the most out of it.
2. Before attending the event, obtain the guest list if possible. This can be accomplished by asking the event coordinator if the guest list is available.

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By Peter Cahill, Principal, Cahill Law Group

Given what we have been seeing lately in the Boston-area commercial leasing market, I'd like to share some recommendations to consider before entering into your next lease:

1. Use a reputable commercial leasing broker

   I am always surprised whenever a CEO or CFO asks whether it’s worth having a broker on the team. The answer is yes! The best brokers know the market and your industry. They can save you time by guiding you away from locations that are poor matches for your needs. They can save you money by providing intelligence on key market prices, terms, and trends.

   Perhaps past experience of using a headhunter to hire employees has unduly influenced these decision-makers. In the HR scenario, a company almost always pays an additional premium when it hires a candidate found by a headhunter. This is not the case with commercial leases. The landlord does not charge more for your lease if a broker is involved; there is no discount on rent if a broker is not involved.

2. Let your lawyer help you before you sign the letter of intent

   I know this sounds self-serving coming from lawyers, but a company often will want to try to sign the Letter of Intent (LOI) before starting the meter on a lawyer. The real risk, however, is that you may be forfeiting leverage that you have prior to signing the LOI. After signing an LOI, landlords often respond to a lawyer’s request for a material provision with a comment such as “This request should have been made as part of the LOI because the rental rate was priced without that provision.” The proverbial ship has sailed.

   Remember, in most cases, the most affection you will ever receive from a landlord is as a prospective tenant when your company is the “buyer” and can choose from among many locations.

   If there is concern over the cost of the lawyer at the LOI stage, have your lawyer agree to a fixed fee or a cap on the project that includes both the LOI and the lease.

3. Fix the Assignment language!

   For venture-backed companies in particular (or those with aspirations towards VC or private equity funding), insist on acceptable Assignment language within the LOI. Many leases will have language such as “a change of control of more than 50% of the equity ownership of the Tenant constitutes an Assignment and requires the prior written approval of the Landlord.” This is not acceptable for a company that may have one or more rounds of equity financing. Nor is it acceptable for a science-based company with valuable, customized laboratory space, who would risk losing that space based on a change of control triggered by substantial VC funding.

4. Do not prematurely make operational decisions on moving into a location if the lease is not finalized

   Your company has been looking at space for a long time. When you signed the LOI, it had a move-in date that was two months away. Now, because of delays/lack of responsiveness/holidays/whatever, you are two weeks away from the original move-in date, tired and frustrated, and the lease is still not signed. Your company is still trying to negotiate important terms while facing a fast-approaching occupancy date. At the same time, your operations people have been coordinating logistics with the landlord’s representatives, and you have been losing negotiating leverage daily. Try to avoid creating a scenario where it is economically impossible or not feasible for your company to go any place else.

5. Learn the prior use of the space

   If any portion of the space that your company is taking was previously used as laboratory space, make sure that you have received and reviewed carefully the evidence that the space has been remediated and that it has been appropriately certified as clean.

All businesses need to worry about finances, but entrepreneurs and start-up firms especially need to worry about the cost of everything. The expenses associated with leasing office or lab space can represent some of the highest fixed costs borne by a small company. Do your firm a favor and proactively obtain value for each leasing dollar spent. Focusing on the tips mentioned above will at least put you on the right path.

Peter Cahill of Cahill Law Group is a corporate lawyer with significant transactional and general corporate experience representing start-ups and small and mid-sized companies. His experience encompasses debt and equity offerings, drafting a variety of corporate contracts, and negotiating commercial real estate transactions.

By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

New drugs and medical devices cannot be sold to US customers before being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This hurdle makes it harder and more expensive for companies to bring new products to market, but the point is obviously to safeguard the public.

Innovative and higher risk products have to be proven safe through clinical trials, the cost of which can run into tens of millions of dollars - because the need for reliable (statistically significant) data requires experiments with sufficiently large patient populations. In medical devices, the most important concept in connection with an FDA application is substantial equivalence, a comparison of moderate risk devices. If the FDA deems a device product substantially equivalent to one or more already cleared devices, then it will not require a clinical trial before putting it on the market.

The FDA is always under pressure to process applications swiftly while also protecting the public. With changing politics and differing interpretations of rules, the FDA has to adapt to the times. Currently, some want to do away with the concept of substantial equivalence, arguing that it provides loopholes for unsafe products to slip through and endanger the public. Others want to reduce the onerous burden that the FDA application process puts on innovative companies. Regulatory affairs is a topic so complex that it is now an independent academic discipline, with several universities offering online M.S. programs. Richard Tharin is a regulatory affairs specialist consulting to pharmaceutical and medical device companies in need of regulatory approval. He works with companies large and small, and also advises investors on new projects' potential regulatory path. FULL ENTRY

By Kellyanne Dignan, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications

My friend John is the best public speaker I’ve ever seen. He can stand up in front of any crowd, talk about any subject and have the audience eating out of his hands. When I first met him, I was jealous. I wanted to elicit that same response from an audience. To my everlasting disappointment mimicking John was never a feasible strategy for one simple reason: I’m Kellyanne.

While it is tempting to try to replicate another's techniques, what I’ve discovered after years of presenting all types of information to all kinds of audiences in every format possible is that it’s not about being funny or quick, it’s about being authentic.

Authenticity is giving your audience a window into who you really are while working to establish and maintain a connection with them. Connecting with your audience is a process, not an event, so you must continuously adjust your presentation style to meet their needs in real time. Adapting to your audience may seem like the very antithesis of authenticity but it’s not. Using questions, anecdotes, and humor you can find a balance between the presentation you want to give and the presentation your audience wants to hear.

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By Bruce Magid, Dean, Brandeis International Business School

In the coming days the media spotlight will shine brightly upon the March 29 BRICS summit in New Delhi, where business leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will meet to discuss issues in global trade. Given such international attention, it’s worthwhile to reflect on the progress made by these emerging countries, and look to the future for new ways Massachusetts can partner with these fast-growing economic powerhouses.

Take Brazil, for example. For much of the last forty years, the country was described as a nação de amanhã – “the nation of tomorrow.” It was known for coffee, soccer, and samba, and its exporting strengths were primarily in commodities like sugar and iron. I lived there in the late ’70s and early ’80s while working for Bank of America, and saw first-hand how political uncertainty and hyperinflation inhibited investment in the country’s resources, both natural and human.

Today is a completely different story, as the country has evolved to become an increasingly important player in the world. In the face of a global recession, Brazil’s GDP achieved its strongest growth in 25 years in 2010. After slowing last year, GDP is expected to rise another 3.5 percent in 2012, twice the rate of countries in Europe. In December it surpassed Britain as the sixth-biggest economy in the world; the IMF predicts that it will overtake France by 2015 to join the ranks of the top five alongside the United States, China, Japan and Germany.

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By Lex Schroeder, Writer, Editor and Program Associate, The Berkana Institute

In my last blog I suggested that in order to adapt to a “new creative economy,” and set ourselves up for success in a changing world of work, one of the things we must do is take smart risks. Just the word risk makes some folks uncomfortable, but taking small, smart risks fairly regularly is important because it it creates new opportunities where there previously were none, and it helps us prove to ourselves that we are capable of taking lead on our work lives. Taking risks keeps things interesting and reminds us that ultimately, we have tremendous agency over our projects. FULL ENTRY

By David Chevalier, SalesBlend

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, Paul Revere is the ultimate connector, a man with the requisite respect, intelligence and social network to efficiently spread ideas about the oncoming British. The historical legend says he rode quickly but more importantly, he talked to other connectors who considered him a credible source of information. Since then, small business owners have studied Paul Revere in an effort to replicate his success as a connector and influencer.

Not everyone realizes it, but it’s much easier to spread messages now. When someone clicks a sharing button - a “like”, “retweet”, “+”, “share” or “repin” - they endorse and broadcast the message to their followers, friends, connections and other constituents. When the information continues to get shared repeatedly, the message spreads throughout social networks in a self-replicating process that mimics a virus.

Effectively spreading ideas among prospects and customers is so much easier now than it was in 1775 because of communication technology and word-of-mouth marketing.

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By Allison Shapira, Harvard Kennedy School

A few months ago, I interviewed a number of venture capitalists about public speaking as it relates to the hundreds of startup pitches they hear.

I asked, “What’s important to you in a pitch?”

There was one answer I’ll never forget. It came from David Wells of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers.

He replied, “Within the first 8 words, I’ve decided whether or not to keep listening.”

8 words.

I frowned for a second, unsure if I had heard right. Then I asked, “What are you looking for in those first 8 words?”

He replied (and I’m paraphrasing), “The core innovation. If it’s not in the first 8 words, it’s probably not there. That’s when I either stop listening or interrupt the speaker to ask.”

8 words.

In a nutshell, it’s about having a strong opening line. It’s about grabbing your audience’s attention so that they put down their iPhones and listen. Entrepreneurs need to get to the point and distinguish themselves from dozens of others promising the next game-changing idea. But the rest of us can use it every time we speak in public.

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By Ellen Keiley, K&L Gates

Just a few years ago, the South Boston Waterfront didn’t have much to it. Fast forward to 2012 and the area is exploding with activity in what’s now known as Boston’s Innovation District – one of Boston’s hottest neighborhoods.

It’s never been a better time for the development, as there’s a new generation of workers, and Boston wants to keep them. They walk and ride bikes to work, and they can do it all without leaving the city. Much of the development started after a 2010 mandate from Boston Mayor Tom Menino to develop 1000 acres of waterfront property as a platform of entrepreneurship focused on 3 initiatives – jobs, housing, and infrastructure.

The district was created to attract innovative people and companies and fuel economic engines for Boston. It’s a way to win the war to obtain and retain talent. The Innovation District has created 3000 new jobs and 100 companies.

MassChallenge moved to the area in 2010 and has brought a lot of excitement and innovation to the area with its mission to “Catalyze a startup renaissance.” MassChallenge is the largest start-up accelerator and competition in the world and offers 125 finalist start-up companies access to world-class mentorship and training, free office space, access to funding and media, and other perks, such as free business flights provided by American Airlines. The winners of the challenge receive $1M in cash awards and over $4 Million worth of in-kind support collectively.

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Boston Denmark Partnerships

Many university scientists and start-up companies develop new drugs. But getting a drug through the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval process and to market is a long, expensive and risky process. Many companies seek to share this risk by partnering or out-licensing to a larger biotechnology or pharmaceutical company.

Antony Newton worked for Genzyme from 1992 to 2011, eventually becoming Vice President of Portfolio Management in the Oncology Division, He facilitated the in-licensing process there and describes here what you have to think about in order to successfully out-license your drug to a pharmaceutical company:

1. Have a clear value proposition
2. Understand the culture of the company
3. Understand the structure of decision making
4. Develop relationships on the inside
5. Plan for follow through

While the example of Genzyme helps us flesh out these five points, the lessons are general and apply to any pharmaceutical company.

1. What is the value proposition?

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly using in-licensing and partnering to build and de-risk their development pipelines. For the out-licensing group it is important to understand the needs of the pharmaceutical company. Are they interested in particular technologies or approaches, are they looking for products at a certain stage of development? By asking these questions up front, you avoid fruitless discussions. And by knowing more, you can tailor the information presented to meet their needs.

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By Ellen Keiley, K&L Gates

Whether you are continuing your education in your 20s or 50s, it can be a worthwhile endeavor. Most agree that that it takes an incredible amount of time and effort. In fact, you may suddenly find yourself frequently writing papers all hours of the night and no longer being able to take leisurely vacations. However, that’s just temporary, and the benefits outweigh the negatives. In the end, continuing education is rewarding and game changing in a positive way.

According to Dorothy Whalen, Board President of the National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) Boston Chapter, although she was already at the CFO level, it was definitely worth going back to school for her MBA. Whalen said “No one can take away my education.” Attending Northeastern University’s Executive MBA program allowed her to learn among other leaders with diverse experiences and perspectives and enabled her to keep current on new technologies, trends, and best practices.

Evelyn Tate, Director of Graduate Recruitment & Admissions at Northeastern University stated continuing education helps you remain competitive in the workplace, and additional education can set you apart from other candidates, whether you are applying for a position or looking to be promoted within a company. Tate also said although there’s financial expenses involved with attending school, there’s also financial benefits going forward. A Bureau of Labor & Statistics study shows that the financial benefits of continuing one’s education can be significant.

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By Jos Scheffelaar, Founder, Launch in US Alliance

Most American small and medium companies know India as a country for off-shoring software development or call center services, and largely ignore other opportunities to do business in India or partner with Indian companies.

I am a Boston-based entrepreneur who co-founded a company that helps overseas companies expand their business into the United States. Some of the companies we help are from India.

Last year I had the opportunity to visit India and meet with their local entrepreneurs. I attended the IndiaSoft software conference in the city of Pune in the state of Maharashtra, an urban agglomeration with 5.5 million people that most Americans have never heard of (I admit that I had to look it up too …). Being in the neighborhood, I also took the opportunity to set up several meetings with entrepreneurs in Mumbai.

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Rita B. Allen, Rita B. Allen Associates

Identifying and marketing your personal brand is an essential core competency for managing and sustaining a successful career. Empower yourself by knowing what you have to offer, what you want and how to ask for it.

Your ability to market your talents, accomplishments and value inside your organization and within your profession, industry and community are a key part of enhancing your brand. The demands we face today include an unpredictable economy, very competitive and specialized marketplace, globalization, changing demographics, and strong leadership skills by all levels.

In order to be successful, it is critical to set yourself apart.

Think about the following questions:

• Do you know your value adds – your unique differentiators?
• Can you define your personal brand?
• How easily can you articulate that brand?
• Do you actively work on enhancing your brand?

Are you comfortable talking about yourself in this way? More importantly, are you prepared to talk about yourself in this way – packaging your talents and accomplishments – showcasing them and presenting your value internally within your organization and externally within your chosen field and community?

How can you develop this ease, confidence and comfort that is considered very difficult by many people?

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By Manya Chylinski, Principal, Alley424 Communications

Think back to your last big purchase—a car, a television set, a kitchen appliance. If you are like a lot of people, in addition to talking to your friends about their preferences and experiences, you searched the Internet for reviews and product specifications. Then you narrowed down the brands to the one or two you preferred and looked for the best deal. Have you ever considered doing something like that the next time you or a loved one get sick or needs surgery?

In the past, hospitals didn’t need to advertise much. Your primary care doctor referred you to a hospital or a doctor: You went there and probably didn’t think much about it. If you knew someone in the healthcare field you may have asked a few questions, but otherwise you probably felt you didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

The healthcare landscape has changed dramatically in the last several years. For patients, the change is the realization that we are consumers of healthcare services and that we can and should make choices when purchasing our healthcare, the same way we do for other consumer products and services.

For hospitals, the change is the need to create a brand and better understand the competitive landscape and the changing business model. Today, hospitals direct their messages to consumers. But given that hospitals have neither the budget nor the marketing experience of your average consumer products behemoth, the reality of hospital advertising is more complicated than simply talking to consumers.

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By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University

As the Chatham Forum continued, the second panel of the day (See last week's intro post) – Greg Selkoe, Vicky Wu Davis, Travis McCready, Helena Fruscio and Frederick Kramer – convened later that morning to discuss strengthening Greater Boston’s global presence. A key theme the panel kept coming back to was changing the way we think about barriers geographically. One dysfunctional example that gained many nodding heads of support was discussion of taxi pickup regulations that prevent Boston cabs from picking up in Cambridge and vice versa. Not only is it frustrating to people who live in the Boston area, but it is frustrating and bewildering to out-of–towners who will remember such anecdotal encounters.

The taxi example seemed to represent the desire of the panel to see more cooperation between the region’s cities, minimizing regulation and bureaucracy that stifles business and detracts from a positive experience in Greater Boston. Heather Fruscio neatly summarized the problem by noting that “A brand is only as good as it functions” – harkening back to the earlier panel’s praise of Barcelonactiva for integrating processes that help business permitting go smoothly. Healthy competition between cities, emphasizing real differences, is okay; unhealthy competition with a winner take all mentality will not help Greater Boston as a whole. One panelist even noted that districts within a city, sometimes blocks apart, can get into unhealthy competition that loses sight of the bigger benefit.

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By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University

Super Bowl weekend kicked off with a star-studded retreat focusing on Boston’s future. World Class Cities Partnership (WCCP), in collaboration with City to City Boston and Boston World Partnerships, planned the 2012 Chatham Forum for engaged Greater Boston citizens to learn, discuss, renew friendships and expand networks. To quote from WCCP Executive Director Mike Lake’s invitation, the Forum sought to update everyone about “opportunities for the Boston region in relation to innovation, entrepreneurship and adapting best practices from around the world to strengthen economic development in our region.” In addition, attendees participated in Massachusetts’ first Urban Excellence unConference with “Solution Sessions” to share ideas and projects on economic development, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Insightful content and action opportunities were in abundance. A Friday night cocktail reception and dinner with opening keynote from Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson set the tone for an ambitious agenda. Jackson stressed the importance of getting the youth of Greater Boston civically engaged, something that starts with a strong public education system.

On Saturday morning everyone reconvened with a heart-felt montage tribute to the recently deceased former Boston Mayor Kevin White. [As a sad epilogue, Lowell Richards of Massport, a former deputy mayor to White, who was at the Chatham Forum unexpectedly died on Sunday. Condolences go out to his family and friends. He spent the better portion of his last weekend with us doing what he did best: working behind the scenes on making Greater Boston better.]

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By Ted Chan, Founder, Upward Mobility and Noyo

Over the past couple years, I have successfully launched two companies and there’s another one coming in a few months. One of our key partners is WorkBar, a Boston co-working space. In general, I feel very bullish about the co-working models and the value they bring to a young firm like ours. WorkBar saves us money on office space while providing everything we could ask for in terms of a productive environment.

Different co-working spaces in Boston have a different feel and tailor to different types of companies. Given we are young and have a fairly informal culture, WorkBar’s laid back environment works really well for us. Many of my friends from MIT have had success working out of the Cambridge Innovation Center. Having spent much time hanging out there as well, it has a great tech/start-up vibe.

Why has co-working been the right move for us?

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Founder, Boston Denmark Partnerships

What are the 5 top factors to weigh before getting a PhD?

1. What doors does a PhD open for you?
The fact of the matter is, it opens mostly doors within academia. In order to get a job as a professor, you need a PhD. For most others, you don't. There are a few exceptions, such as chemistry and fields related to drug development. So if you know for certain that you want to work in academia or in, say, pharmaceuticals, then a targeted PhD is the right thing.

Also, if you are interested in an expanding field, which at the moment could be something like big data analysis or brain and cognitive sciences, then you can be reasonably certain that there will be enough openings in academia by the time you have your PhD. Of course, if you want to be in the humanities or atrophying science fields, such as space research or nuclear science, then you will end up looking at lots of closed doors.

The problem is that universities do not give you any guidance in this. They are not geared to open doors for you, except if you want to become a professor, and they do not get measured by enabling you.

2. Which skill sets will you learn?
Obviously, you will learn a lot about something esoteric. For example, if you do a PhD in the history of accounting techniques among public house owners in Boston in the 1830s, you will end up knowing more than any other person on the planet about your narrow field. But because this knowledge is unlikely to help you with anything, the question really is, what else will you learn in the process? You might for example learn how to find information that is hard to find. You might also learn how to combine different kinds of information to arrive at insights that no one had seen before.

You might further learn to summarize complex issues and to present the issues to academics, both orally and in texts. It has to be said that you are unlikely to learn how to present to the general public, and so while the training is specifically to learn how to behave within the ivory tower, it may just be useful outside too.

You will definitely learn how to juggle complex issues and how to synthesize them for a particular audience. And you will learn a form of self-discipline where the motivation has to come from within. There is no instant gratification: it can take years before you reap the fruits of your labor.

The universities can also give you no guidance on these issues before you start your degree. Neither professors nor university administrators think much about the value the students get, because they are measured by other standards, such as the number of publications they produce. They are geared towards producing knowledge that matters to professors who talk mostly to each other. Of course, even though the system is not set up to assist you in building up a skill set, you can focus on this yourself and use university resources for that purpose.

3. How will it make you feel about yourself?
Getting a PhD will likely give you a sense of achievement and make you feel proud. This is no small matter. You can put your title next to your name and most likely it will earn you respect.

In general, you will be considered smart, and that is mostly an advantage.

Feeling good about yourself and confident has many benefits, in addition to being an end in itself. You will go into future challenges with confidence and for that reason you will also be more likely to succeed. But there is an attendant danger also: you may feel a sense of entitlement over people without PhDs, and so you might be unpleasantly surprised when others get chosen over you and you learn to use the word overqualified in order to soothe the pain. So here is something you should be prepared to juggle: be proud of a PhD while at the same time acknowledging that it may not open doors.

4. Will you have fun?
This was certainly the first thing that came to my mind when I weighed the option of a PhD. And it is of course of major importance.

You absolutely have to find the object of your studies interesting, because the gratification is very delayed. Life in the lab can be tedious and boring, unless you endow your activities with meaning. You have to feel that it matters, that you play with cool tools, that you contribute to the betterment of humanity in some way, or that you discover some measure of Truth, however small. If you want to become a professor you have to enjoy the kind of life that professors lead. And if you end up needing a job outside academia that your PhD doesn't necessarily prepare you well for, then you will at least want to have had fun!

5. What is the cost?
Ultimately, you will want to try some kind of cost-benefit analysis. A PhD takes a long time, and it costs fees and living expenses.

Unless you get grants to assist with this, it will add up. In addition, you will spend many years not making a living and not learning other important skills. I think most people wing it: they go into an academic field because they are enamoured with it, and maybe also because it continues the life they led as an undergrad - it avoids having to go out and find a job. They think about the fun and maybe also about the status.

Of course, there is much to be said for simply following your passions. But since so many PhDs nowadays lead to a perceived dead end, it is a good idea to consider the above five issues before it is too late.

Arne Hessenbruch is a Danish expat and the founder of Boston Denmark Partnerships, where he connects Danish companies with an interest in doing business in Boston.

By Dave McLaughlin, Founder, Vsnap

I am a fan of the web service Survey Monkey. But for about a half-hour last week I was a hater. Now I am a fan again. And in the fluctuations of my fandom lies a key lesson for all of us in business.

In short, the lesson is this: the customer drives your offense. In fact, at my company we’ve actually given our customer a name.

We call him Tom Brady.

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Soren Harrison, Founder, SolSolution

I went to graduate school because a college professor told me I needed to. Of course, there was more to my decision than that, but his advice played an important role in my choice to move across the country from sunny San Diego to wintry Wisconsin.

At the time, I wanted to get into nuclear fusion research and this leader in the field said that in order to have a career in nuclear fusion it was best to have a PhD. He was absolutely right, too. Almost 100% of the jobs in nuclear fusion are academic research positions that are looking for PhDs, and the field is sufficiently complicated that it just takes a big chunk of time to pick up on the variety of disciplines involved.

So, the BEST thing for me to do was go to grad school. I still believe that, too, even though a large part of my life is dedicated to building a solar deployment company that draws absolutely nothing on the subject area knowledge that I gained while getting my master's and PhD. (And yes, I am also still working in nuclear fusion, too.)

Now, should you go to grad school? Should you invest the next 2-5+ years in more school? That's an entirely different question. My answer to you would be:

Yes. If...

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By Donna Dodson, Artist

To be an artist in the current economic slump is not unlike a swan, gliding across the water. Its movements appear to be graceful and elegant yet beneath the water, out of sight, its feet are paddling like crazy. Indeed, survival is an art form in itself. In this article I will outline and discuss some local and global trends I have noticed in my day to day life as a Boston based artist who is trying to get to the next level in my career. I will use the example of my experiences as a starting point for a conversation about best practices in the art world, i.e. how it’s possible to be global while being local, how to build networks using electronic tools, how to create community and harness expertise without recreating the wheel.

Global reach of New England art Galleries creates meaningful dialogue and collaboration across cultures

Gallery Ehva in Provincetown is owned and operated by a visionary artist, Ewa Nogiec. She threatens to leave the USA and go back to her home in Poland if the gallery business doesn’t work out for her. Art is her whole life. In preparation for my recent show, Birds of a Feather, she made an unusual request. She asked me to make a stork, because they are very special to her. They breed in Poland and remind her of home. They are born with black legs and beaks, but when they reach sexual maturity, their beaks and legs turn bright red. Their bodies are white except for the brush of black that remains on the wingtips. As I developed a wood sculpture, White Stork, this bird took flight in my mind.

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By Nick Downing, Program Manager, Future Boston Alliance

Leaving a secure job that has potential for upward mobility to incur tens of thousands of dollars more of student loan debt doesn't seem like the best decision to make in the current economic climate.

So why would one decide to re-enter the world of academia?

My decision to go back was grounded in the fact that I wasn't working in a career that I wanted to pursue in the long term. This isn't a knock on the job, the office, or the people I worked with; it's just a simple fact. I graduated from Connecticut College in 2009, and there wasn't exactly a plethora of options available to me. My first few jobs out of school were of the, "any port in a storm" variety.

Also, I wasn't sure what it was I wanted to do with my life. Working for a couple of years after college gave me the time to figure that out, and I highly recommend it to everyone considering any type of education after college.

It gets you real world experience and might even direct you to a career you wouldn't have considered but which you really enjoy. It also shows future employers that you've taken time to weigh your options, and you aren't just diving headlong into grad school because you don't know what else to do after undergrad.

My lack of qualifications also helped nudge me back to school. For a little while, I entertained the notion I could get into the field I wanted to pursue (urban planning) without any more school. I had a good resume and transcript and thought those plus my work experience would equal a new job. I quickly realized that I just didn't have the right skills, and I could really only acquire those skills if I went back to school.

Another factor I had to keep in mind was whether or not the investment in graduate school would be worthwhile.

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By Ted Chan, CEO, Upward Mobility and Noyo

I looked at business schools all over the country when thinking about where to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA). In the end, I decided to go to the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Several years later, I couldn't be happier with my decision. Sloan offers the best possible experience for what I want to do as a technology entrepreneur and a management consultant.

While an MBA is expensive, it paid off for me quickly. I started a successful company my second year at Sloan, mainly from ideas generated in two classes -- Pricing and Industrial Economics -- that I took back to back. The analytical and strategic skills have benefited me both in running my businesses, and my parallel life as management consulting. It's not just about the financial bump though; it's also how rewarding it is to be able to accurately analyze and understand opportunities in technology that makes me feel great about the time I spent at Sloan.

Everyone's needs in an advanced degree are different, so choosing what to pursue and the right program for it can be difficult. It helps to have a few things in mind as you make your decision.

Why was Sloan the right choice for me?

As someone who is passionate about technology and entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial ecosystem and experience at Sloan is just fantastic. A school like Stanford GSB is well situated in Silicon Valley, but MIT makes up for it by trying harder and really opening up and collaborating intra-university, and with companies in Cambridge, Boston, and globally.

Relationship building is key - where can you build the best ones for your career?

The Sloan School?s Entrepreneurship & Innovation (E&I) program and Trust Center for Entrepreneurship (aka the MIT E-Center), along with general entrepreneurial resources, are world class in terms of teaching the ins and outs of starting and building your own company. Ed Roberts and Ken Morse did a great job structuring the programs there, and now the team there with Bill Aulet and Justin Adelson is so energetic and does such a great job connecting people. I met an incredible number of the most successful global founders and, on many occasions, was taught by them. These sessions often extended into dinners, one-on-ones, and meaningful personal relationships.

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By Ellen Keiley, K&L Gates

What makes a person a successful networker?

Is it an outgoing, charismatic personality or maybe it's experience or practicing proper networking etiquette. While those aspects are all helpful, the key to being a successful networker is understanding that networking is mutual and not a one-way exchange.

According to Rita B. Allen, Career Management Consultant and President of Rita B. Allen Associates, networking is all about building meaningful and long lasting relationships and what you do with those business cards. Fewer and deep is better than a database of contacts you don't keep up with. Allen describes networking like planting seeds in the garden, nurturing it, and seeing it blossom. Many see networking as insincere, so the focus should be on building a mutually beneficial relationship and not just collecting as many business cards as possible. Allen suggests "be real and do what works for you."

Linda Moraski, President/CEO of PeopleSERVE, Inc., stated there?s numerous benefits to networking, whether it is for business, finding a vendor or service provider, or finding a job. As Allen mentioned, it's not about who you know but who knows you. Having a good network is critical in business.

Being active in social media is important but getting out there and meeting people face-to-face is equally important. Writing, speaking, and teaching are other ways to broaden one's network. Going to an event and networking can be intimidating for some, but the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get with working a room.

For those that are new to networking, practice your message about who you are and what you have to offer.

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By Allison Shapira, Harvard Kennedy School

A few weeks ago, I was walking down the street in Buenos Aires when I saw someone wearing a T-shirt that read, “The internet was closed so I came outside today.” It was funny because there was so much truth to it.

Every year, we develop new ways to communicate with one another. These tools give us more and more ways to build community with friends, family, and colleagues around the world. For example, a few hours after I saw the T-shirt in Buenos Aires, I sat down at the café across from my apartment in San Telmo, tweeted a picture of my perfect coffee and croissant, and used the restaurant’s Wifi to Skype with my family in the United States.

But sometimes these new ways of communicating can dull our interpersonal, in-the-moment responsiveness. Why challenge someone at a staff meeting when I can simply email the whole team and carefully choose my words? Why answer a phone call when I can wait for the other person to leave a message and think carefully about my response?

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By Lex Schroeder, Co-Founder & Managing Editor, New Prosperity Initiative

Over on the New Prosperity blog in December, I had the privilege of posting a piece by fellow Bostonian Nathan Rothstein on what he hopes for the future of education. Nathan reflects on the importance of financial literacy, civics education, and service for recent grads. Too many young people come out of high school and college knowing next to nothing about finance or how elections work, he says, and too many could care less about politics. This at a time when the promises of an expensive college education no longer hold true, and when the world needs young people more than ever.

With so many of our major cultural institutions changing at what feels like the speed of light, Nathan thinks our educational institutions could change quicker. I couldn’t agree more, but of course change takes time. We have to talk about things first and gather collective support around new possibilities. We have to admit when things aren’t working and take some risks.

While many of my friends and colleagues are spending time in organizations/startups working toward creating new futures in education (The 100K ArtScience Prize, Boxxout Enterprises, University of Venus)—or challenging/re-imagining the entire concept of education (Kaos Pilots, Swaraj University), I find myself wondering about the future of work. Erica Dhawan and I are thinking a lot about the attitude and skills Gen Y-ers and millennials (especially young women) need to create meaningful, rewarding careers in a changing world of work and money, as people seek to live as much as in the real world as they do behind their computer screens, and as social responsibility becomes more of a given rather than a side consideration.

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By Nancy Reiner, Managing Director, Major, Lindsey & Africa

Massachusetts added 50,000 jobs during 2011 and unemployment fell to 7 percent, its lowest level since the end of 2008. In fact, according to The Boston Globe, the state added jobs at more than double the pace of the nation this past year. Employment in the state’s information services sector grew by 5 percent; professional services (which includes law firms) expanded by 4 percent; hospitality and health care grew by 3.6 and 3 percent, respectively; and manufacturing (led by technical equipment companies) expanded by 2 percent.

In November, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index turned positive – reaching 50.1 – for the first time since July. In mid-December, Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute predicted that the state’s economy will grow by 2.8% and 65,000 jobs in 2012.

We at Major, Lindsey & Africa have experienced this first-hand: We made 37 percent more global law firm placements in 2011 than in 2010.

There are some potential clouds on the horizon that could slow the state’s growth, though. One is the global economy. Since many of the Commonwealth’s businesses sell their products and services overseas, Europe’s financial problems could have a negative ripple effect. There is also uncertainty concerning decisions being made in Washington, D.C. that could affect the state’s health care and defense industries. However, these are passing clouds. Massachusetts’ economy is grounded by strong industries, research-oriented universities and hospitals, and cutting-edge technologies, all of which bodes well for legal hiring as we head into the new year.

Hot Sectors Create Demand

Massachusetts, like the rest of the world, is seeing an uptick in demand for attorneys in the following areas: intellectual property, patent litigation, venture capital, private equity, health care, labor and employment, and corporate governance.

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By Philip Guarino, Elementi Consulting

Poised above São Paulo is the uber-trendy Hotel Unique. Its signature Skye Bar offers a spectacular view of the industrial city and teems with well-heeled paulistanos. An English and Swiss colleague and I gaze over the skyline as we await our table on a warm November evening. As hotel guests our ‘priority’ table is ready at 12 midnight. Absolutely normal, one might think, in this part of the world. Except it’s a Tuesday. It’s just one sign of Brazil’s thriving economy.

It’s no secret that Brazil’s economy has boomed in recent years. Strong demand for its commodities, primarily from China, has contributed to an average growth rate of 5% and a rush of inbound foreign investment. A growing economy and access to credit has boosted the fortunes of the Brazilian middle class and spurred an explosion of consumption. The price of housing, office and retail space has increased dramatically as construction firms have scrambled to meet demand. And the Brazilian real has strengthened dramatically, unleashing a wave of international tourist spending and property buying.

The Brazilian luxury market is currently valued at $2.6 billion, with another $5 billion consumed outside of Brazil. According to Global Blue, a private company that refunds the VAT of foreign shoppers, Brazilian spending in Europe has increased over 50% since 2009. In Paris, both Printemps and Galeries Lafayette each now have a Brazilian Portuguese-speaking customer service representative to assist with shopping. And Brazilians are the darlings of Miami, spending over $1 billion per year and buying nearly half of all downtown condos valued over $500,000.

Against this backdrop, and with over 155,000 millionaire households (about 40% of the Latin American total) and an ever-expanding aspirational class, it’s hard to imagine that Brazil wouldn’t be at the top of most firms’ international expansion plans. Yet Brazil has attracted relatively less attention by luxury corporations than its other BRIC counterparts, specifically China and India.

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Allison Shapira, Harvard Kennedy School

There’s a lot of pressure on you when you’re an opera singer. Every note must be sung perfectly in tune, every syllable pronounced perfectly as if you were fluent in the language, every facial expression carefully crafted to match the words. Even though you are human, your audience expects a super-human performance every single time you sing.

While my operatic training gave me great preparation for being a public speaker, I have realized that there’s a major difference between opera and public speaking. OK, as you can imagine there are many differences between opera and public speaking, but I’d like to focus on just one.

In public speaking, you don’t have to be perfect.

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By Yoon Lee, Executive Director, Boston World Partnerships

Last week, Boston World Partnerships invited John Della Volpe, Co-founder and Managing Director of SocialSphere, an insight-based strategy company, to present to a group of Greater Boston’s civic and business leaders about how the world perceives Boston.

This project was a direct result of feeling frustrated in countless conversations with other business and civic leaders about how we can promote Boston’s assets better to the world and generate economic growth. In order to better promote the city, we needed hard data on the global perception of Boston’s talent and resources.

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By Sean Butze and Ross Beyeler, Spark Launch

These days there seems to be a million-and-one blogs out there pitching the latest tips, tricks, and techniques for how to optimize your business website to make more money. Harder to find, however, is conversation around the simplest, most basic principles of website design that many small businesses continue to get wrong over and over again. Principals that, when ignored, can render a business website ineffective at best and totally useless at worst.

That's why we've decided to highlight 5 of the most fatal mistakes that small businesses make when building a new website. We've also included practical advice on how to avoid them, so that you can ensure your business's new website will be well-equipped to provide the value you intend.

1) Not providing a clear call to action

One of the most common mistakes that businesses make with their websites is not accounting for how short people's attention spans are on the web. In many cases, companies provide too much non-essential information on their homepage, overwhelming the user with too much text and providing little to no direction for what to do next.

THE PROBLEM: Consumers who search for products and services online want to find what they need FAST, which means you have a very small window of opportunity to get your message across to a first-time visitor of your website.

WHAT TO DO: When designing your company's website, think about the most important action you want people to take when they visit. Maybe it's to buy a product, subscribe to a newsletter, or request more information. Whatever that action may be, make sure you provide a clear and obvious path to it on your website such as a button, form or link. If getting to the desired next step requires digging through endless paragraphs of text or a cluttered navigation menu, most of your visitors will immediately move on. After all, your competition is just a click away.

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Interview by Manya Chylinski, President, Alley 424 Communications

For those who love the startup life, one of the best parts about working in that environment is the fact that there are no silos. All the business groups interact and collaborate. Everyone wears a lot of hats. With customers to serve and limited resources, that’s the only way to make sure the company is nimble and can respond as needed to market conditions.

David Hood is Director of Marketing at Kyruus Inc., a Boston-based big data company offering analytics driven solutions for health care delivery and life sciences companies. Over the past several years, he has worked at a number of startups in Boston and San Francisco. He made the move to Kyruus earlier this year because of the exceptional team at the company and the opportunity to significantly disrupt the healthcare industry. David shares his thoughts with Manya Chylinski about marketing, working at a startup, and Boston’s healthcare landscape.

What is the competition like in your space?

There are a lot of consulting and legal companies offering solutions, particularly in the space we’re in right now, looking at interactions between healthcare providers and the industry but not a lot of software solutions. I think that speaks to the fact that data has traditionally been hard to access and that these firms typically take a whole bunch of smart people, have them do their own research and come back with a report. What we’re seeing is that with the data we’ve brought together on our platform, it’s possible to do that in a far more systematic way than what has traditionally been done.

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By Lennox Chase, Founder, MyBar Prep

Due to Boston's employment and educational machines, Boston appears to have reserved a spot in the upper tier of the nation's real estate market. The high tech companies, the universities, hospitals, and bio med corporations are magnets for the nation's best and brightest minds. Considering the future peaks and valleys that residential and commercial real estate will face, Boston is situated well to attract talented workers during the next few years.

There appears to be a voracious need for apartments in Boston. A 50,000-square-foot property located at Downtown Crossing is being converted into apartments by The Hamilton Co., an Allston real estate company. "New hires need a place to stay. So the rental market price is up 19% from the last twelve-month period in a recent report I did for one customer..." states Stephen Marcus of Stephen Marcus Realty in Quincy.

City planners have created an evolving economic environment that supports businesses, which hire workers attracted to the Greater Boston area's many resources. In addition, Boston has over 20 diverse neighborhoods that provide a multitude of choices for recreation and professional development. The result has been a relatively healthy housing market compared to other cities in the U.S. Real estate is micro-local and the new construction that is occurring in South Boston, Dudley Square, the Fenway, and Downtown Crossing are emblematic of an exciting new era in the City of Boston.

Lennox Chase is an attorney that sits on the board of directors for Needham Bank. Attorney Chase is also the founder of MyBarPrep, a tutoring company for lawyers and law school students.

By Rachael Weiker, Bryan Solar and Alex Russell, Main Street Partners

So far we’ve covered the importance of establishing a web presence and setting up basic optimization. Now that you have your site up and posted, how do you know if anyone is seeing it? You track it!

When walking the owner of Mehak through the chart below, he was immediately blown away by how we “knew how many people were checking him out.” The secret? We didn’t. That’s Google Analytics. Its extremely easy to use, and most importantly free. Once you have your website set up just go to www.google.com/analytics and from there Google will do an excellent job of walking you through the process. Once you have it set up you will not only be able to see how many people come to your webpage, what pages were the ones they stayed on the longest, but also HOW are they finding you.

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By Rachael Weiker, Bryan Solar and Alex Russell, Main Street Partners

This summer Main Street Partners worked with a small business whose story seems to be all too common for today’s small business.

The situation: the owner of a small Pakistani and Indian restaurant in East Boston was starting to become very concerned that the business wasn’t growing as fast as he would like and he couldn’t pinpoint why. The restaurant (Mehak) makes exceptional food (the Chicken Tikka Masala is as good as it gets) and their customers spoke very highly of the restaurant to their peers and online. Nevertheless, business seemed to have plateaued and without more revenue the business wouldn’t be able to survive.

Sound familiar? Having spoken with dozens of small business owners this story seems to be a reoccurring theme. The good news is there are some very easy ways to break out of this pattern. The key is to understand that even if you have THE BEST product or service available, you cannot count on your potential customers to do all of your marketing for you. They will not embark on an hour-long search to find you – on foot or online. You have to go to them and make their search easy.

This process can have many components but if you are a restaurant, grocery store, or service provider, the following posts include three steps to optimizing low cost, high impact tools that we have found to be great engines for driving new business.

1. Your Website Is Where It All Starts

The first and most important piece of helping customers find you is developing a website. For those who think this is a “nice to have” but not a “must have”, consider the following: if I were a customer who really wanted to buy your product, how would I find you? Would it be the Yellow Book? I’d first have to go out of my way to even find one. SuperMedia Inc., the company that makes Super Pages, saw a 61% decrease in revenues from 2009 to 2010. The reason isn’t that people are searching for businesses anymore, it’s that they are doing so elsewhere.

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By David Cutler Founder, Creative Business Development

Summary: A Mobile Sales and Marketing plan is inevitable because your prospects are as addicted to their phones as you are.

Here is some inspiration and direction to take advantage of the unique opportunities of making Mobile an extension of your existing programs and a new way to attract more customers and provide ongoing, automated value. Also find a free and easy mobile project you can do today.

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Interview by Manya Chylinski, President, Alley 424 Communications

The role of the CFO is changing. Not too long ago, he or she was simply the best accountant in the company, the person who knew the numbers best. Today, the CFO (chief financial officer) is truly a difference maker and innovator who is responsible for many aspects of the business such as growing revenue and leading global expansion. To survive in the office today, a CFO must be more strategic and focused on operations than ever before.

Jack McCullough is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the MIT Sloan CFO Summit, an annual one-day event (on November 17th this year) that brings together financial executives from around the world to discuss the changing role of the CFO and “Where Finance Meets Innovation.” It will explore how businesses are looking to expand revenue and market share in today’s environment, and how the CFO's responsibility are at the forefront of this innovation.

Nine years ago Jack and his Co-Chair Jeremy Seidman hosted the first summit to address what they identified as a need for education specific to CFOs. Jack can be reached at jack@thecforoundtable.com]. He shares his thoughts with Manya Chylinski about the CFO summit, the nature of innovation in finance, and what he sees in the future for CFOs.

What are the objectives for this year’s summit?

This year the theme of the conference is “where finance meets innovation.” It’s a reflection of how the role of the CFO is changing. This is not your father’s CFO anymore. The role has become a lot more strategic, a lot more operational, and we are trying to reflect that in the conference.

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By Allison Shapira, Harvard Kennedy School

When you give a speech, what language do you speak? I’m not talking about speaking English versus Spanish, Hebrew, or Arabic. I’m talking about the way you use language in your speech.

Do you speak the language of business, or engineering, or law? Would someone without a degree in those fields be able to understand you?

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Interview by Manya Chylinski, President, Alley 424 Communications

Not all business-to-business (B2B) technology marketers have to contend with an 800-pound gorilla in their market. In segments with a number of smaller, nimbler companies, there can be quite an interesting competitive dynamic as they each fight to get their message heard. To lead the way, companies have to work to keep up with the technology and innovate. In this kind of rapidly changing environment, one of the most important things a marketer can do is focus on the basics—segmenting the market and finding their position and message.

Mike Braatz is Senior Vice President and General Manager at Memento, Inc., a Burlington-based company that provides fraud prevention solutions to the financial industry. This is the fourth early-stage B2B technology company he has worked with in the Boston area in the past eleven years. Even with his experience in business development and product management, Mike is a marketer at heart. He shares his thoughts with Manya Chylinski about industry trends, what technology marketers struggle with, and his vision of the future of marketing.

What works for marketing in the technology space today?

Two things are working really well for us. One is that we have effectively become our own content publishers. Because of consolidation of media and analyst outlets across the B2B and technology landscape, there are fewer opportunities for us to get our message in front of customers. Rather than bemoan this change, we take it upon ourselves to hire subject matter experts to create interesting and compelling thought leadership.

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By Arne Hessenbruch, Boston Denmark Partnerships

In 2003, Biogen Idec were faced with a difficult decision for their Kendall Square campus in Cambridge – lying between Broadway, Galileo Galilei Way, Binney Street, and the pedestrian walkway in extension of Sixth Street. They needed a reliable supply of steam for their batch production, and their supplier, Cambridge Steam System, was using boilers in excess of 40 years old at the Kendall Plant, is visible from the Red Line crossing the Bridge, next to Broad Canal. What's more, they didn't have the capital to modernize - . Having lost a batch due to unreliable steam supply, and having negotiated unsatisfactorily for 18 months, Biogen Idec decided to look into other avenues, including running their own supply.

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By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Faculty in Communication Studies at Northeastern University

Since Building A Better Commonwealth most recently has been dealing with the pressing issue of talent retention in Massachusetts, I have found myself asking what more can those of us in academia do to encourage the young engines of the economy to stay here beyond their college years? While those of us in the know can tout the merits of Massachusetts's, and especially Greater Boston's, economic diversity and relative health compared to other parts of the nation, the message does not seem to resonate as we think it should.

My good friend and colleague at Northeastern University's World Class Cities Partnership, Mike Lake, did a great job of highlighting some of this problem in a previous piece for this blog, but I want to focus more squarely on academia's role.

As a communication professional I diagnose the lack of resonance as a failure to bring emotion into the argument; to rely solely on logic in making the case to stay in Massachusetts will not achieve the same success as more emotional tactics can. But how can the universities and colleges help in this case?

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By Mike Lake, World Class Cities Partnership

Massachusetts, with more than one hundred colleges and universities, has the privilege and responsibility of welcoming students from all over the country and the world to our community. As the intellectual hub of America, the Commonwealth excels in attracting incredible talent.

The question remains, though, of how can we integrate students into our community more effectively so that, upon graduation, they are equipped with the network and skills to secure high-quality jobs right here in Massachusetts.

In order for Massachusetts to remain a powerful talent-based economy, it is essential that we be more creative in how we engage our students during their college years. Students now entering college are part of the most socially conscious generation that America has seen in decades. They measure their success by the impact they have in their community now and will ultimately have throughout their careers. Tapping into this widespread social consciousness is the key to bettering our Commonwealth by providing these graduates with job opportunities that acknowledge and cultivate their drive for social impact.

Each of the speakers at the Building a Better Commonwealth: New Rules for Leading Talent forum on September 29th offered solutions as to how those tasked with managing young, capable workers could best leverage the skills they possess.

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By David Friedman, President & Founder, Boston Logic

I play on a summer Ultimate Frisbee team. Mostly, it’s made up of Tufts Alumni who played Ultimate as undergrads. Each year, we get some young blood joining the team from the graduating class. This year, I noticed that we had no new recruits. When I asked our team captain why, he told me that the seniors this year had such a hard time finding jobs in Boston, that they either moved wherever they could find work or, mostly, they moved back home to live for free, due to a lack of employment.

Little known secret: There are lots of great jobs in Boston that need filling.

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By Allison Shapira

When you envision speaking in public, what do you see? Usually, we think about standing on a stage and addressing a large audience. This is certainly one example of public speaking. Yet the skills that help us speak well in front of 200+ people also help us in front of just one or two people.

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By Heather Sears, President of Mobile Synergies

An older man, near the end of his life, once shared with me that, if given the chance, the only thing he would have done differently would be to have “had more sex and more bacon.”

Hmmm. His wisdom struck a deep chord. And guess, what? My friends strongly agree.

Let us have a brief moment of silence for all the times we have passed up the “bacon” for various reasons (fat/calories/headache) and realized later that we would have been happier if we had chosen differently.

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