Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Inner City 100 Awards
The Inner City 100 Awards were created as a way of recognizing thriving businesses who create jobs in low-income urban areas. For several years, Tech Networks has been one of the thousands of businesses applying for this national award. This year, I was thrilled to learn that we were selected as an award recipient.
During the two days of activities that preceded the awards ceremony, I met fellow urban business owners. Some of them were born in the areas where they started their businesses. But many others were like me. They came from outside the community to start their businesses. Conventional wisdom would suggest that it is unwise to start a business in a low-income, high-crime neighborhood. Yet the organization that created the award, the Institute for a Competitive Inner City , had conducted research to show that there are three good reasons to locate your business in the inner city:
- Proximity to Downtown
- Convenience to major transportation hubs
- Highly available workforce
Certainly convenience to major transportation hubs was foremost in our minds when Yves Dehnel and I hopped on the Red Line almost 15 years ago to find a location for our retail store. We had reached the upper limit of how many used PCs we could sell out of my livingroom in Somerville. We wanted to be on the Red Line because we were currently shuttling potential customers back and forth to the Sullivan T station and we preferred the Red Line to the Orange Line.
When Yves and I disembarked at the Andrew Station, we immediately noticed a For Rent sign on the building across the street. The 1,000 foot retail space, formerly the location of “Pick-a-Pasta,” had been vacant for over a year before we arrived on the scene. Our new landlord was extremely generous. Our first year’s rent was pegged at just one-half of the full rent, while the second year was pegged at three-quarters. We signed the lease, purchased some used store fixtures, and had our grand opening on January 2nd, 1996.
Fast-forward to last week. The two days of festivities that were part of the Inner City Awards were wonderful. We had a mentoring breakfast with participants in another ICIC program, “Growing Up CEO.” These kids, the oldest of whom was 20, had tremendous savvy. Some of my mentees were giving me advice, instead of vice versa.
Other activities included case studies and lectures at Harvard Business School, including a piece on strategy from Michael Porter that emphasized the importance of segmenting the market and emphasizing uniqueness instead of trying to compete head-to-head.
But the most spectacular moment of the conference was the awards dinner held in the Grand Ballroom of the Boston Convention Center. The hall was filled with tables decked out in black velvet and huge dogwood branches illuminated by candlelight. What a lovely backdrop for an awards dinner. It was only at the dinner that we learned our ranking on the list. I was extremely gratified to be named 83rd. Thank you, everyone, who helped make this moment possible. Next year, if I’m nominated, I’m going to buy a few tables and invite my entire staff .�
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If you like this then please subscribe to the Sustainable Business Leaders Program Launch Event with Mayor Menino
As a board member of the Sustainable Business Network, and the originator of the concept for the Sustainable Business Leader Program, I represented SBN at the launch event for the Sustainable Business Leaders Program (SBLP) today.
Here’s my speech:
I must be dreaming
No, seriously. That’s how I was feeling last Thursday when I attended the SBN Annual Conference at the Hampshire House. What a beautiful venue! It was set up like a Victorian library with antique books lining the built-in bookshelves and squat little vases filled with roses scattered artfully around the room. But, I digress.
As I mentioned, it was a dreamlike atmosphere for me. So many of my ideas for SBN had come to fruition. From changing our name, to the Boston Green Business Awards, to the Sustainable Business Leaders Program… It had all happened in just 18 months.
And we’ve gone from a sleepy little non-profit with a $10,000 annual budget to a staff of 4! As Laury Hammel would say: “Rock on!”
The stars are watching you
St. Peter’s Church is not the kind of place you would expect to see people from Rwanda. But every year at this time, this Catholic church across from the Harvard Astronomy Observatory holds a Mass to commemorate the Rwandan genocide. This year was the fourteenth anniversary of the killings. It’s my fourth year at the memorial Mass, which is a record for me in Catholic church attendance, since I am not a Catholic.Sister Ann Fox from the Paraclete Center was there. Her project to build a middle school for girls in Rwanda was recently featured on the front page of the Boston Globe. The Maranyundo School for girls opened its doors in February 2008.Sister Augusta was also there. She came to the Paraclete Center on sabbatical from her convent in Rwanda. Her entire family was wiped out in the genocide, along with 77% of the entire Rwandan Tutsi population.Father Romaine officiated the Mass. He received his call to the priesthood when he was hiding in the forest during the genocide. His homily included a story about the stars, which I want to relate to you.When I was a little boy, my grandmother would sit us children down under a clear night sky and say: “The stars are not just stars. They are the eyes of angels in heaven. When you are good, the angels are happy. When you are bad, the angels are sad.”He paused. “During the genocide, my parents were killed, my brothers and aunts and uncles and cousins were killed. My friends were killed. And my neighbors were killed. But you have to go on. You must figure out a way to gain the courage to keep living. So I looked up at those same stars. The angel eyes now had names. They were my parents, my uncles, my cousins and my friends and neighbors. And I have a responsibility to them to keep going and to make some good in my life.