Must Reads

The Good, a 2-year-old creative agency located in NW Portland, recently released two services that could have implications for how marketers and promoters use Twitter.

In today’s business world, the old time management techniques are no longer enough. With the increasing pace of change, the pressures of downsizing and the growing expectation of instant communication and fast responsiveness, the tools and practices you used to manage your time are outdated.

Intel is building a $2.5 billion factory in Hillsboro. Facebook is pouring millions into Prineville and Google is investing $100 million in Eastern Oregon wind power. Crop and beef prices are up – as are crab and salmon prices. Bank of the Cascades, MBank and others have avoided the wrath of the FDIC. Trucking is up 26 percent year over year, online job ads are up 23 percent, and business and personal bankruptcies are down 3.4 and 8 percent respectively. To me, this adds up to a preponderance of evidence.

Intel VP Renee James used the podium at today’s Portland Business Alliance annual meeting to advocate for investment in education in order to compete globally for the need for skilled workers. Oregon is 49th among states for college enrollment.

Entrepreneurs young and old gathered at Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s April 2011 PubTalk. The OEN gatherings allow entrepreneurs to gain feedback on their pitches from a group of peers. Two emerging entrepreneurs present a 5-minute pitch, and then one featured entrepreneur gives a longer overview, fielding questions from the audience. Yesterday, the entrepreneurs ranged from a “mompreneur” to a snowboarder.

Portland-based Night and Day Studios has in the past two years transitioned from building media installations for museums into a mobile app company. Founder Nat Sims managed to steer the company through an economic recession by shifting industry, radically restructuring, and following a fortuitous idea after reading a children’s book to his daughter.

Every business leader should understand the role that cities play in economic, and corporate, growth. A good way to get that understanding is Ed Glaeser’s new book, The Triumph of Cities.
Glaeser makes the critical point that cities are where people communicate the most.

The event was the 49th annual Northwest Foodservice Show.

Portland-based Uncorked Studios has been getting a lot of press lately — CBS news, the BBC, Time and Fast Company, among others. But what’s drawing the attention isn’t another project for Nike or Wieden+Kennedy; it’s something the team put together in their free time — a website to monitor radiation levels in Japan after the tsunami disaster.

As CEO you are the last line of defense in stopping a problem project from spinning out-of-control. How can you ensure that projects stay on track — and when they do not, how do you identify them, and save them or cut them off? According to Todd Williams, long time project rescue professional and author of the new book Rescue the Problem Project, the first sign of trouble is … silence.