Sharing Your Story

Recently I was asked to share my story as part of the Windsor Circle Speaker series.  Thanks for a very warm introduction by Lora Crestan.   Thanks to Joe Di Giorgio for the invitation to present.

Focused on three areas:  personal background, the AlphaKOR story and business networking.   Set the goal for the audience to take away at least one thing from each of these areas.

What would define a successful presentation?  If everyone learned something new about me, found out something AlphaKOR had to offer which they were not aware of and walk away with a tip they could try at a networking event.  Happy to report feedback after the presentation confirmed it was a successful presentation.

The approach was very personal and open.  Delivered passion, honesty and some emotions.   It is true when they say Entrepreneurs are vulnerable!  There was interactive conversation during the presentation and many good questions were asked.  Another indicator the audience was appreciative and engaged in the presentation.

Some highlights to share with you and hope you enjoy these stories.

Personal background.   Grew up on a farm in Leamington.  Shared how my sales career began by selling produce at our roadside stand at the age of six!  Learned from my first mentor, my Dad, by watching him take care of customers by always making them feel good, delivering more than they were expecting and being passionate about it.   Admitted to being the quietest and most shy person throughout elementary and grade school.

AlphaKOR story.  Shared how the AlphaKORians work so well together.   Many on the team have been part of the family for over ten and over fifteen years.   The team delivers exceptionally well all the time.   Thank you!

The audience learned about Ali, Mazen and Shawn who are also  business Partners of AlphaKOR.   When I joined AlphaKOR, the Partners made it easy for me to go out and sell the "sizzle" because they delivered the "steak" every time.   Thanks for embracing my role as President to lead our awesome team.

Eighteen years and still growing!   We are a young and dynamic company with continuous successful growth.   Thanks for the feedback from the audience on global strategies.

Shared some of our successes in marketing AlphaKOR.  Our marketing strategy was discussed and Brandy' role over the last year-and-half which has made a difference by increasing the awareness of the brand.  Talked about our core competencies including the sales/service, 24 hour support, website development, online marketing, custom software and mobi apps. 

Business Networking.  Talked about many great networking opportunities in the Region.   Shared my goal is to meet one to three new people for a networking event to be successful.   

When networking, taking the initial conversation to the next level includes connecting on LinkedIn, sending a "thanks for connecting" e-mail, inviting them to join your group on LinkedIn, such as AlphaKOR Innovative Brainstorming Group and sending an invitation to continue the discussion.


We talked about how many groups to belong to.   Some of us focus on a couple of groups while some of us are involved in a larger number. 

The question was asked:   How do you evaluate which group to join?   Replied with finding out who are the members and if you want to connect with them or with the people they are connected to.

It was a very enjoyable experience sharing stories.  At first I was concerned about filling 20 minutes and presented for just over an hour!  Thanks to everyone who attended to hear my story and we now know each other a little better.

Ended with a quote:   Are you the genius in the room or are you the genius maker?

  

Co-op the Opportunity!

This week we welcome Guest Blogger Matthew Renaud, Workforce Trends Analyst at Workforce WindsorEssex.

If you have the ability of offering co-op placements to high school, University, or College students, do it.  

Sure, you have to dedicate extra time to administration activities, but it opens up a whole new world of opportunities for the student that can only benefit their career path. Plus, there is a co-op tax credit available to the employer if it is paid co-op, and the employer is better able to connect with the local youth talent pool.

I was lucky enough to land my final co-op placement with a non-profit organization in downtown Windsor called Workforce WindsorEssex, the regional workforce development board. You can think of the work we do as this: making sure the local workforce gets the training and education to develop the skills that employers need for the available jobs, or visit www.WorkforceWindsorEssex.com for more information.

At WFWE (as we call it), I have been able to meet so many great people and organizations, including Frank and the awesome team at AlphaKOR. If you get the chance, do stop by their building, you won’t be disappointed.

As part of my placement at WFWE, I have been able to explore the Downtown Windsor Business Accelerator and interact with WEtech Alliance, take a tour of Radix (a manufacturing solutions provider), and view the stunning production studios at TVCocego, which, by the way, is always looking for volunteers.

Each day I get real-time feedback on my progression and abilities, what am I doing well and where can I improve. (I think the biggest progression has been the ability to write fluffier emails, that is, emails filled with more words that mean something.)

Co-op has given me the opportunity to work with experienced community leaders like Donna Marentette. I can tap into their wealth of knowledge and learn how they handle different situations. For example, if we are looking to collaborate on a project, Donna immediately starts writing all of our thoughts on the whiteboard, and it is amazing to see how she can bring different organizations to the table to form a partnership. 

This is one tool I plan to use in my working life. I would highly recommend the use of a whiteboard (or smartboard!) in your company – it is a perfect tool to see the whole idea in one place.

Guest Blog Post
Matthew Renaud

mrenaud@workforcewindsoressex.com

Top Five Etiquette Reminders for Twitter

Here are the Top Five Etiquette Reminders for Twitter:

1.  No spam
2.  Shout-outs done incorrectly
3.  Automation of almost any kind 
4.  Hashtag (#) abuse
5.  Stop broadcasting and start communicating

Most of us respect #1 and we don't spam our followers.  

Thanks to @BrandyBV our Marketing Director for teaching me how to do #2 correctly.   This is also an example of how to do this! 

Guilty on #3 for daily quotes and scheduled tweets in advance before a vacation.  

Use hashtags when appropriate especially for events such as #LCWE2013 for this year's LeaderCast event on May 10th.

Communication is always the key and timely communication is more effective.

So what are your Twitter etiquette rules?

For more information on this twitter list go to http://interwebs.top5.com/5-twitter-mistakes-people-are-still-making-in-2013!/  

 

     

Industry Educating Future Engineers

This week we welcome guest blogger Irek Kusmierczyk, PhD, Program Manager with WEtech Alliance.
  
What role can industry play in educating the next generation of engineers, IT professionals, skilled workers, innovators and entrepreneurs in Windsor and Essex?

That is a formidable question very few executives bother to ask themselves as they focus on the survival of their companies, perhaps unaware the long term survival of their industry depends on planting the seeds today for a workforce able to compete in a 21^st century knowledge economy.

This means STEM, as in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

According to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), almost 75 per cent of new jobs in the next decade will be in high skill occupations, the kind requiring a STEM education.

In the United States, while only 5 percent of the U.S. workforce works directly in STEM fields, together they account for more than 50 percent of America’s economic growth.

During most of the 20^th century, one could say Windsor and Essex were winning the “low-end manufacturing” game, as the Big Three and the Machine Tool Die and Mold (MTDM) located in this region, bringing jobs and investment.  That game is now over and we must find a way to compete in the new high technology, high productivity game.

The problem is our region—and Canada in general—is not graduating enough scientists and engineers to fuel Canada’s knowledge economy and there is a danger we will get buried by emerging economies eager to steal our lunch.

For example, in Canada, less than 10 percent of all university degrees granted are in engineering-related fields.  In China, almost 40 percent of graduates are in those fields.

The key to unlocking our potential rests in industry stepping off the sidelines and getting involved in education, which is what the Canadian Council of Chief Executives concluded in a report published this year titled Competing in the 21^st Century Skills Race.

President Barack Obama, in his most recent State of the Union address, emphasized that message to industry, stating emphatically:

Tonight, I'm announcing a new challenge, to redesign America's high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. And we'll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering and math, the skills today's employers are looking for to fill the jobs that are there right now and will be there in the future.

In Windsor and Essex, we have already taken the first bold steps in this direction, spearheaded by an organization called WEtech Alliance, which is not-for-profit that promotes the technology and innovation sector in Windsor Essex, one of fourteen so-called Regional Innovation Centres across Ontario.

WEtech is expanding the FIRST Robotics program into area high schools and grade schools.  FIRST stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology and it is a world-class, worldwide robotics competition that engages some 30,000 high school and 200,000 grade school students.  

High school teams of thirty students build man-sized robots that are tough enough to crash-and-bash in an arena against other robots, but nimble enough to shoot three-point shots, launch Frisbees into scoring chutes and climb ten-foot steel pyramids.  More than just robotics, each team is run like a company with sub-committees responsible for mechanical, electrical and programming but also marketing, public relations, communications, fundraising and animation.  Hence, the program is interdisciplinary, forcing techies to collaborate with non-techies which reflects real-world project management.

Students who participate in FIRST are twice as likely to go to college and university, twice as likely to study in STEM fields, and ten times as likely to participate in an internship or coop in their first year of college and university.

This is why longtime sponsors of FIRST include companies such as Boeing, Chrysler, Rockwell Automation, BAE Systems, Google, Xerox and other Fortune 500 companies in addition to organizations such as NASA.  They understand that this is about developing the human capital that will fuel their future.

In FIRST, these sponsors not only provide financial support but, most importantly, they commit their engineers, computer programmers, scientists and other professionals to serve directly as that work alongside students.

In Windsor and Essex, we have taken this program one step further by actually locating the design and build operations for one of our high school robotics teams inside a manufacturing plant belonging to Centerline—a local company with a global footprint. 
 

Imagine thirty high school students, a handful of mentors from Centerline, Rockwell, GM, Brave Controls and Valiant, and one or two teachers building a robot for the upcoming competition surrounded by a battalion of million-dollar industrial robots on the factory floor. 

With FIRST, the lines separating industry and education are erased.

We have now expanded FIRST to include four new high schools and we expect to have a total of 10 high schools in Windsor and Essex competing in FIRST next year.

We also expect to host a FIRST Robotics Regional Tournament at the University of Windsor in 2014 that will draw 1,000 high school students from Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and as far out as California, Mexico, and Germany.

For this to happen, we will require local industry to step up and play a leadership role in support of FIRST Robotics in our region by either sponsoring FIRST teams, committing some mentoring, or by sponsoring the Regional Robotics tournament.

Guest Blog Post

Irek Kusmierczyk, PhD, is a Program Manager with WEtech Alliance and is responsible for promoting S.T.E.M education in Windsor and Essex.  Those interested in FIRST should contact him at: ikusmierczyk@wetech-alliance.com