Organizations with healthy cultures live long and prosper. If you and the majority of your employees can answer yes to all of the following questions, then there's a good chance you work for an organization that works well for everyone.
We at Mainebiz recently honored our 2016 NEXT winners, 10 people who are changing the economy for the better. They were all deserving, innovating in interesting ways. Three of them could not be there, actually demonstrating how they are changing the Maine economy — Tom Adams was on a trade trip to Asia, Drew Lyman was preparing for a trade show, and Lucas St. Clair was on what could be considered a cross-country research trip.
Consider this: Some 35% of Fortune 500 companies are family controlled, according to Conway Center for Family Business. Family businesses account for 64% of U.S. gross domestic product and generate 62% of the country's employment. They account for 78% of all new job creation.
Five years ago, a doctor traveled from his home country to Maine because his life was in danger. His government wanted him dead because he had treated some patients who opposed the government. In Maine, he found himself homeless. His visitor's visa expired after six months and, in any case, didn't allow him to work. He didn't know how to apply for asylum and couldn't afford a lawyer.
After spending a day on Isle au Haut last month reporting my Oct. 14 story, “An island community confronts its economic challenges,” I returned to the mainland with uneasy feelings about the future of the year-round island community.
You won't see its name on any of the medical devices it makes, nor on its specialty LED lighting, unmanned military vehicle controls or solar-use measurement systems, but Enercon Technologies is quietly making its mark on many high-tech products sold throughout the world.
Eliot Cutler, CEO of the Maine Center for Professional Graduate Studies, says the ambitious $150 million proposal to create a new graduate center for business, law and public policy is based on two related premises. Many Maine employers can't find workers with the high-level skills that are needed to compete in an increasingly global economy, he says, and the University of Maine System's graduate programs are uniquely positioned to help solve that problem.
Maine Public Utilities Commission Chairman Mark Vannoy and fellow Commissioners Carlisle McLean and Bruce Williamson have their work cut out for them as they wade through reams of spoken and written testimony received since the Oct. 17 public hearing on a proposed rule to gradually phase out financial incentives designed to encourage consumers to install solar panels on their homes or small businesses.
The recently-appointed head of both the Maine Restaurant Association and Maine Innkeepers Association went public in early November with his aspirations to bring a convention center to Portland.
Working with clients over the years has made me appreciate marketing as a key to success. The ability to create a great product isn't going to assure success. There are many great products and services that fail. You can't take the “build it and they will come” approach.
