Dr. Earl R. Smith II

It only happens every once in a great while but, when it does, I am always amazed. Today was one of those days when all the stars seemed to be lined up in a conspiracy to make it a waste of time. A new contact turned out to be unreliable and insensitive to the impact of being that way. Three of the four meetings that were scheduled were canceled - all be it all for good reasons. So after the one meeting I stopped at one of my favorite watering holes - ordered a martini made just right and lit up a good cigar. After a few minutes the world went away and I decided to let it finish the day on its own. How do you deal with ‘one of those days’? Read the rest of this entry »

One of my clients is in the process of orchestrating a turnaround. They are well on the path but want to avoid the necessity of a Chapter 11 filing. What strategies have you found that are good alternatives to a bankruptcy filing? Read the rest of this entry »

There are lots of stories out there describing how much scarcer venture capital and angle funding are becoming. The credit crunch seems to be affecting both the decisions of investors and potential clients of new companies - making it harder to arrange adequate financing. I was wondering if any of you had directly experienced a slowdown and how it is going to effect you’re planning for financing new ventures?

Dr. Smith is a proven senior executive, successful entrepreneur, published author and public speaker. He serves on boards of directors and advisory boards or as a strategic advisor to CEOs. Dr. Smith specializes in leadership development and advising management on leadership styles which make them more effective leaders. He also works as an executive and/or life coach in the areas of personal growth and spirituality.

I’ve just gone through my contact list in Linked In and marveled at the diversity in it. The review was driven by a piece that I am working on - the changing nature of global innovation. My thesis is that innovation in this post-modernist, globalized world has moved beyond nationalism and is now centered on creativity, knowledge and a willingness to collaborate. I am interested in your thoughts. Do you think that innovation moved into a new paradigm?

Dr. Smith is a proven senior executive, successful entrepreneur, published author and public speaker. He serves on boards of directors and advisory boards or as a strategic advisor to CEOs. Dr. Smith specializes in leadership development and advising management on leadership styles which make them more effective leaders. He also works as an executive and/or life coach in the areas of personal growth and spirituality.

About a year ago I asked a version of my next question. At the time I was rather taken back by the ‘non-real-world’ nature of some of the responses. The original question was “How do you deal with people who need to be reminded that you took the time and made the effort to help them?” Click here to read the responses. I was so puzzled by the responses that I asked the question a second way. “I was wondering how your past experiences with a person determine your willingness to help them.” Click here to read those responses. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s one that I could use your help on. Recently I solicited a response from a fairly wide range of individuals – people from many geographic and professional areas. I was gratified by the response rate – over 75% - but some of the responses brought up an old question. Every man and his dog knows how easy it is to spell check text – most computers do it on the fly and let you know about misspellings. But about 10% of the replies were peppered with misspelled words. So my question is ‘would you correct the spelling before you sent it out or transmit it as it came in’?

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By Dr. Earl R. Smith II

A couple of days ago a friend offered that old question, “if you were marooned on a desert island what one book would you want to have with you?” Well, I won’t bother you with that conversation but it triggered another question that I will bother you with.

There are lots of stories out there describing how much scarcer venture capital and angle funding are becoming. I was wondering if any of you had directly experienced a slowdown and how it is going to effect you’re planning for starting new ventures.

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I recently received a recommendation that I should look into ‘social marketing’. It was described as ‘SEO on steroids’. So off I go to a bunch of sites to post new material. Better than a week after posting I go back to the documents to see if they have been discovered by those creepy crawlers only to see the following:

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By Dr. Earl R. Smith II

A friend recently made a comment about ‘professional networkers’ – “They seem to be addicted to shallow water relationships”, was the way she put it. That got me to thinking – and then to asking around. What I found floored me. Lots of people were apparently very comfortable having no idea if their effort and approach to networking was cost effective – in other words, if it was worth doing at all. Over and over again I encountered the equivalent of “It’s just something that you have to do”. And some of these people were mega-networkers! Could networking be like breathing or passing gas to most people – as natural as either and as irrelevant to the definition of you as a person? Or does mindless networking brand you negatively. So I am left with a question that I will pass on to you. Other than making you feel involved or giving you something to do, (the PC responses) what do you get out of ‘networking’? How do you measure if all those brief encounters are worth the effort? Has it been worth the effort in real ROI terms or is it just mind-candy?

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