Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, November 9, 2016

The ad starts off with “We’re making changes to make things right.”  This is the latest television ad campaign for Wells Fargo.  You may remember, or have been a victim of, their practice of creating millions of new bank accounts for their customers in order to meet sales quotas and win internal sales contests.  The only problem was the individual customers did not know of or approve the creation of these new accounts in their names.

The ad continues by listing the three changes being made to make things right.  (Insert the background video of running horses pulling a Wells Fargo stagecoach through the Western country-side for dramatic effect.)

• Fully refunding those impacted
• Proactive new account confirmations
• Elimination of product sales goals (putting your interests first)

Really?  Accounts shouldn’t even be created unless initiated by the customer.    Goals should always have been to put first the interests of the customers, not to see how many accounts could be opened.

The Wells Fargo story serves as a perfect example of what has given capitalism a bad name over the last one-hundred fifty years or so since the advent of the industrial revolution.  For this entire period, profit was made the primary goal.  Customer service and the rest of it all took a back seat.  The results have led to unwise and inefficient use of natural resources and inequitable exploitation of labor that resulted in an unhealthy completion between business and labor unions.  We created an education system in support of this profit-priority capitalism that we’re just now starting to convert to a system that will produce the best innovators in the world instead of laborers willing to work in repetitive, non-creative environments.  Traditional business and entrepreneurship curriculum supports this idea that profit is the primary goal.  This is the reason I don’t like or use traditional business or entrepreneurship curriculum

Here’s our message to today’s entrepreneurs and business owners.  The primary goal of business should always be to provide the best solutions and services always putting the customers’ needs first.  If you do that in the right way, people will gladly pay you for these solutions and thus, provide the profits you need.   All the successful businesses I know concentrate on providing excellent services while charging enough to be profitable.  That’s a big difference in philosophy; one that leads to great customer loyalty and plenty of profitability.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, November 2, 2016

A coworker, about my age, once said to me “When we grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s, we wanted to change the world.  We don’t challenge these students today to change the world.”  It’s time we challenge today’s students to change the world.  They’re up for the challenge.  This is the text of an introduction to Fab Lab ICC for many of the 250 area high school students who came to town for the ICC College Planning Conference.  At last count, 180 registered for the Innovation lunch at ICC West today.  I was privileged to be asked to provide the welcome on behalf of ICC and speak a bit about Fab Lab ICC.   I challenged these young students to change the world.

“The future is scary.  I’m sure many of you have wondered just what the world will be like when you finish school and go about the business of making a life for yourself.  You are not alone.  Nearly every generation has faced a scary future.  Those living during the Civil War, then World War I, then the stock market crash of 1928 and the Great Depression of the 1930’s; all of them wondered what the future would hold.  At to that list World War II and the Korean War.  I assure you I wasn’t alive during any of those times, but I do remember the Viet Nam war.  I barely missed being drafted but I remember the tragedy and anxiety it caused at home.  Then, there was the Cold War for nearly three decades until the late 1980’s, a situation where, all through school, we worried about two super-powers blowing up the whole world with nuclear weapons.  Today we have terrorism and conflict around the globe and increasingly at home.

“Yes, the future has always been scary, but there’s one difference between all those previous generations and you young people right now.  Everyone in this room has the opportunity to change the world and solve the problems that are sure to plague our future.  In the past, the individual didn’t have much opportunity to really change the world so we have relied on governments to solve the problems of our social condition.   You may not have noticed, but governments are not very good at solving problems.  The real solutions are going to come from people like you.  Technology and the Internet have leveled the playing field so that anyone anywhere can change the world.

“So, what does it take change the world?  It takes a mindset.  At ICC, we call it Entrepreneurial Mindset.  Entrepreneurs have a special way of looking at problems as challenges that need to be solved.  They are very good at coming up with creative solutions.  Whether you go into business for yourself or choose a career working for others, you’ll need an Entrepreneurial Mindset in order to be the best problem solver.  Easton LaChappelle has an Entrepreneurial Mindset.  Easton grew up in tiny Mancos, Colorado and In about 2010 when Easton was just fifteen years old, he decided there should be a better, less expensive prosthetic hand.  With no experience and starting in his bedroom, over the next five years Easton developed a robotic hand that can be controlled by thought emanating from a $100 head band available at Amazon.com.  In January 2015, he released his design to “open source” so others could build on it.  That changes the world.

“No matter what you do with your life, it should be about solving problems for others.  With the right mindset, you can build a life of helping others while doing something you really like and are really good at.  This is true whether you have been labeled a gifted student or a troublemaker.  The world needs you to solve problems.

“We built Fab Lab ICC to help develop Entrepreneurial Mindset and what David Kelley at Stanford University calls Creative Confidence.  If you spend a couple of years with us at ICC before you continue your journey into the world, we’ll help you develop the type of thinking and confidence you will need to be successful no matter what your interest; business, the arts, science, medicine, public service, or even the ministry.  You study the disciplines you like while we also help you develop the mindset and confidence you need to change the world.

“You won’t find anywhere else in the world where you can attend a school like ICC with small classes and personal attention and yet have access to a world-class Fab Lab.  It’s available to all of our students regardless of their area of study.

“Like Easton LaChappelle, you don’t have to wait until you get out of school to think about ways you can change the world.  Come to ICC and we’ll help you start to change the world before you’ve even finished your two years with us.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, October 26, 2016

“I Love A Parade” is a song recorded by Victor Arden and Phil Ohman and their orchestra 1931.  Although I wasn’t around in 1931, I remember this march.  People still love a parade, especially a Grand Parade such as we’ll experience this Saturday in Independence.  Retailers I’ve known along a parade route, however, have not always been thrilled to host a parade.  A group of Independence business owners have figured out the secret to making “parade time”; i.e. “Neeowollah week” valuable as a way to boost sales and/or build customer loyalty for the future.

In a previous life, early 1980’s, I was president of a group named “Downtown Garden City”.  This was before the creation of the Kansas Main Street (KMS) program in the mid-1980’s.  (Although the state of Kansas unwisely scuttled KMS as a state-sponsored program a few years ago, the Independence Main Street program continues as a strong and vital organization working for the prosperity of downtown Independence.)  The widely held belief among the merchant members of Downtown Garden City was that “nothing kills business like a parade.”

A few years ago, Brian Hight and Ryan McDiarmid of Magnolia Scents by Design (formerly Magnolia Health and Home) decided to buck the trend of looking at Neewollah as a nuisance and instead decided to use the event as a way to meet new customers.  Instead of restricting hours and posting a large “No Public Restroom” sign during the week, the two extended their hours and actually put up a sign that welcomed festival goers to come inside and use their restroom facility.  Imagine, on the way back to the restroom, strangers noticed the great store with great, friendly people.  They began to buy and they bought—and still buy–big.  A couple of years ago, Brian told me that Neewollah week was second only to the busiest week of the Christmas holiday season in sales volume.

When Tom Schwarz, One-Stop Pack-N-Ship and Terry Trout, Ane Mae’s and Ane Mae’s Gifts and Goodies took ownership of the ground floor of the iMall building at 325 N Penn, they made it a point to continue the tradition of making the restrooms available to the public.  Their doors say “Public Restrooms” and their exterior banner (printed at Fab Lab ICC) leads off with “Clean Restrooms”.

Lance and Judy Stanislaus, former owners of Uncle Jack’s at Penn and Main, used to actually invite people to bring their “Neewollah vendor” food into the restaurant and enjoy it with an Uncle Jack’s beverage.

I once saw a glowing Facebook post on the Magnolia page espousing the great store, great products and friendly service.  The one thing the poster remembered and appreciated above all else was the way in which Magnolia welcomed them to come in and use their restroom facilities during Neewollah.

The secret to retail commercial success is the same during Neewollah week as it is at any other time.  Welcome people into the business and make them comfortable while they are there.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, October 19, 2016

I can hardly believe we’ve just had our second birthday.  It was October 1, 2014 after just seven months of “serious” planning that we opened the doors for the first time.  Since our grand opening celebration, things have happened and they have happened quickly with the speed accelerating each day as we move forward.  Tim Haynes and I have often used the analogy that we feel like we’re on this rocket, holding on for life, as it takes on a path will twists and turns.  There’s no way to summarize everything that’s happened in this column, but we thought it would be fun to take a look back at the first two years from a high level.

• 7,000 visits during this first two years.
• 9/30/14 3D printed Cyborg Beast prosthetic hand for 13-year old Kara Marr
• 2/7/15 Hand Up weekend to fit Cyborg Beast hands for 3-year old Brinley Papish and 4-year old Preston Bundy from Overland Park and Manhattan.
• 2/10/15 Media coverage resulted in news story on TV in 25 states and Venezuela.
• 2/14/15 Received thank-you email from Dr. Jorge Zuniga, developer of the Cyborg Beast hand.
• 4/17/15 First meeting with Mark Werthman, Federal Economic Development Agency (EDA) about grant to expand Fab Lab ICC.
• 6/16/15 Ribbon cutting for the 10,000kw Westar solar array making us the world’s first solar powered Fab Lab
• 6/25/15 Tim Voegeli makes 3D printed prototypes of what would become known as “Bead Biters” for bicycle enthusiasts, becoming the first entrepreneur we helped to market
• 7/27/15 First Fab Lab Boot Camp for 8 – 14 year olds.
• 10/11/15 Tim and Jim present about Fab Lab ICC to National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) in Houston, Texas
• 11/11/15 First class visit by Greenbush Gifted program students.
• 3/22/2016 Tim and Jim present about Fab Lab ICC to USA Fab Lab Network Symposium in Bentonville, Arkansas.
• 6/7/2016 Hosted “Maker Girl” 3D design and printing session for 7 – 10 year old girls.
• 6/21/16 Mitsubishi Truck and Mini-Trade Show event.
• 8/19/16 Met with SAVE board of directors about incorporating maker space into their Veteran Farm project
• 9/12/16 Work with former Fab Lab Boot Campers to print Childhood Leukemia awareness stickers

In addition, we’ve hosted countless classes, seminars and tours and we are always working with a handful of entrepreneurs toward launching their products or businesses.  We’ve discovered a surprising and amazing boost in self-efficacy to nearly everyone involved with the Fab Lab ICC experience; gifted, challenged, old, young, male female, everyone.

Do we have challenges? To be sure.  To keep memberships affordable, staffing will always be a challenge.  We continue to take advantage of student work-studies, but when an individual student’s work-study hours are depleted, we have to find new ones.  Training to bring all of us up to speed on using our machines to make the creations come to life will likewise also always be a challenge.  Sustainable funding will always be on our mind.  We’ll keep working to meet the challenges.

While we don’t yet know where else Fab Lab ICC will take us, the ride promises to be a wild one and we look forward to sharing it with our students and community members.

 

  Depicted here are Fab Lab ICC manager, Tim Haynes, (left) and director, Jim Correll.  While we don’t yet know where else Fab Lab ICC will take us, the ride promises to be a wild one and we look forward to sharing it with our students and community members.  Our thanks to Independence Daily Reporter and Fab Lab ICC friend Steve McBride for the cartoon.