Yearly Archives: 2017

What can top Dr. Alison Felix presentation on Denver, the West and the World in 2018?  Only some of the biggest and most complete dinosaur fossils ever found!  The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has some of the best exhibitions on dinosaurs, geology, mummies, and artifacts.  The skull, shown above, is a cast of the famous “Sue” T Rex fossil.  The fully intact dinosaur fossil shows how the animal looked in the nature environment.  The red dinosaur is from the Denver Art Museum and is part of their latest exhibition on animals in art.  We are looking forward to our next Denver outing at Wings Over the Rockies on November 9 from 8:00 AM-10:00 AM.  We will be flying in the simulators and talking about increasing financial performance in private equity companies.  To register…   http://bit.ly/2wCQZFz     We love to support Denver museums!

Terrific program last night at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Scott Kelly interviewed by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Scott, spent one year on the space station. The most interesting part, to me, was he was an indifferent student, destined for trade school, according to his father, until he was 18, struggling with ADHD. Reading, Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff”, changed his direction.

His most frightening moment came when NASA said it was critical his daughter speak with him on the secure link. For the 20 minutes it took to get connected he was very worried. When they were finally connected, she said she was just lonely. Drinking “recycled” water from the sewage processing device on board was an acquired taste. Working with people from other countries on which you depended, was the best part of the experience. Scott’s Russian colleague suggested instead of trying to grow tomatoes, they grow potatoes because you could live on potatoes and make them into vodka.

Highly recommend, “Endurance” by Scott Kelly, and “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” by Neil deGrasse Tyson!

Join the Denver based IERG global business leaders as we listen to Dr. Alison Felix, Chair, Denver Federal Reserve give her preliminary thoughts on Denver, the West, and the World in 2018.  Dr. Felix is one of the Federal Reserve systems top economic researchers and administrators.  Her 2017 presentation was a huge hit with the IERG members, and we welcome her back for 2018.  

This event is open to the public.

Date:  October 11@6:30-8:00 PM MDT

Location: Mountain States Employers Council, 1799 Pennsylvania Street Denver, CO 80203

To Register: http://bit.ly/2xqzE06

HRCI/SHRM SCP Certified for 1.0 Credits

On September 14, Executive HR leaders in Denver shared best practices and the future of global training at the IERG meeting. Daya Haddock, Host, and President of TIA, Inc mentioned her observations from the recent Oracle Worldwide Meeting and the emphasis on micro learning. All participants agreed with the micro learning concept.  Doug Nieb, EVP HR RES, pointed out the ability to create both short and long term strategy and the ability to modify that strategy in an ongoing basis was critical. Comfort with dealing in ambiguity in a fast paced environment is a growing skill need. Related to that is the ability to lead complex change in an organization and the ability to intentionally apply System 2 thinking and overcome System 1 errors. Comments from Shelie Gustafson CHRO CH2M, and Traci Kellner EVP Human Capital Beeline, noted the use of the 10/20/70 classroom/share/doing structure of training. The use of executive coaches was mentioned by several leaders as useful.  Janet Walsh, Chair, IERG mentioned using Coursera/EdX and MOOCS programs were useful when the experiences were curated, rather than randomly selected. She noted the need to focus on validation and predictive analytics when selecting educational content.  A merry time was had by all and we are looking forward to the next IERG meeting with Dr. Alison Felix, the Chair of the Denver Federal Reserve Branch, who will speak on October 11 on Denver, the world, and the west.

Global Workforce Risks and Challenges

Birchtree Global is pleased to present Dr. Walsh’s presentation and research on “Global Workforce Risks and Challenges”.  This presentation documents the information, personnel, and security risks faced by today’s globalizing businesses.  This research was presented as the keynote presentation at the 2017 Global RISC conference.  Dr. Walsh describes the specific risk issues and offers suggestions for both strategic and operations management to reducing these risks.  This program is also certified for 1.0 SHRM-CP and HRCI recertification credits for HR professionals.

The program is free to Birchtree Global clients and “not-yet-clients”.

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1306457692874121987

I’m just back from presenting to the leaders at the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE).  This is the preeminent group for studying the economic, financial, foreign direct investment, and investment infrastructure in Cuba.  Since Cuba has a unique economy, it provides multiple opportunities to study the affect of policy actions, business, market entry, and comparative economics.  Papers presented to this group must be peer reviewed to be eligible to present.  Presenters provide their papers and presentations in advance to an expert panel of “discussants” and the discussants review and comment on the research in front of the audience.  In my case, the discussants included senior executives from the World Bank and the US Department of Commerce.  “Success Characteristics of Foreign Direct Investment” was very well received with only one suggestions, which was to change the paper’s title from foreign direct investment to market entry, which I thought was a good suggestion.  By changing the title, I can also add multiple versions, talking about human capital, banking, taxation, and so forth.

For anyone interested in doing business in Cuba, this is a not-to-be-missed conference!  Check out the conference at their website: www.ascecuba.org.  I highly recommend it!

Having trouble recruiting talented and qualified engineers? Birchtree Global and Entelo have teamed up to show you how to find exceptional engineers using GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Hacker News. This self-paced, 1 hour program will update and expand your recruitment efforts.

1.0 HRCI/SHRM CP recertification credits for HR professionals.

http://resources.entelo.com/registration-webinar-how-to-recruit-engineers

Future Teamwork

Congratulations to the 2017 ACG Champions Award winners.  I was delighted to be asked to judge the presentations and was impressed at the scope and influence of the dealmakers.  The ACG New York is the largest association for middle-market deal making professionals in New York.  The 7th Annual ACG New York Champion’s Awards were held last Thursday at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. The annual tribute recognizes and honors the leading middle-market transactions, firms and dealmakers within the local ACG community responsible for supporting middle-market growth in New York.  A complete list of the winners can be found here: https://www.thestreet.com/story/14182468/1/winners-of-7th-annual-acg-new-york-champions-awards-revealed.html

As the chair of the Denver IERG, I’m pleased to report the first in a series of our research reports on global business.

IERG canvassed global business leaders, 90% with over ten years of international commercial transaction experience, across all major industries and company sizes. Industry sectors include: Technology, Consumer, Supply Chain, Healthcare, Finance, and Consulting. IERG experts identified the following macro trends:

International business growth expectations are overwhelmingly positive with 61% anticipating an increase in growth, and 32% projecting growth will remain the same. Only 7% expect international business transactions to decrease in the foreseeable future.

Anticipated risks are more diverse but political 30% and payment 20% concerns dominate, followed by cultural and legal concerns at 11% each. Considering the wide spectrum of geographies, surprisingly, legal 4% and security concerns at 2% are not at the forefront.

Regions of growth were dominated by Asia Pacific at 32% and EME at 27% were seen as areas with the most potential, with South American countries at 25%. The view on North America at 13%, may be based on inherent bias of international business leaders. It appears that Africa is not yet considered a major opportunity, coming in at 3%.

About IERG: IERG is a unique organization of global business executives who have the shared experience of living and doing business in an unfamiliar country. IERG is a thought leader on global leadership topics across a wide range of industries. We join together around the world to enrich our talents and knowledge, build our global contacts, expand our base of referrals, and grow our professional opportunities. For more information contact walsh@birchtreeglobal.com for additional information on reports or membership.

Birchtree Global’s research on “Success characteristics of foreign direct investment in Cuba” was a hit at the Institute for Business and Finance’s 2017 global conference in Costa Rica.  The research won the peer reviewed “Best in Session” and the “Outstanding Research Award” and will be published in the Global Journal of Business Research this summer.  This is a great conference to attend for those interested in global business, particularly global business in Latin America.  The IBFR has done a wonderful job building a rigorous, program for companies and academics focused on new ideas and research in finance and business.  Mercedes and Terrence are particularly helpful to individuals and companies, who are just starting to write and publish original research.  For more information see their website:  http://www.theibfr.com/