Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Kaizen 13 — The Robert Bradley interview

The latest issue of Kaizen [pdf] features my interview with Robert L. Bradley, founder of the Institute for Energy Research. Dr. Bradley was a speechwriter and researcher for Ken Lay, the late CEO of the late Enron. The theme of the interview is Enron and Political Entrepreneurship: we explore Dr. Bradley’s insider perspective on the distinction between market and political entrepreneurship, Enron’s political business strategy, and the key decisions and events that led to Enron’s downfall.

Also featured in Kaizen are the spring semester’s student essay contest winners — Brandon McNames and Matthew Weber — a report on guest speaker Jeffrey Orduno, and other news from the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

My full interview with Dr. Bradley will be posted at the CEE site next month.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford [dot] edu.

More Kaizen interviews with leading entrepreneurs are at my site here or CEE’s site here.

FindTheBest.com — Kevin O’Connor’s latest

Check out FindTheBest.com, which allows you to compare all sorts of things. The Internet gives you access to indefinite amounts of information, but how does one sort the relevant from the irrelevant?

The site is co-founded by Internet entrepreneur Kevin O’Connor, who was co-founder of the very successful DoubleClick.com. O’Connor describes the thinking that led to the development of FindTheBest.com:

“I could find endless amounts of information on any subject but when I had a complicated decision to make, I found myself wasting hours, or even days, compiling information I could compare. Or, I found sites offering their ‘top 10′ recommendations, only to discover they were secretly getting ‘kickbacks’ from the sites they were recommending.”

Last year I interviewed O’Connor for Kaizen on the theme of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital. Well worth reading.

Update: A short interview here with O’Connor about his new comparison engine (not search engine).

Kirzner to speak at Beloit

Israel Kirzner will be in residence at Beloit College, just up the road from Rockford College, this coming semester in October. He will be there as part of Beloit’s Upton Scholars Series.

Kirzner is one of the pioneers in the study of entrepreneurship. His key works are Competition and Entrepreneurship (1973), Perception, Opportunity and Profit (1979), and The Meaning of the Market Process (1992).

Side note: Historically, Beloit is the brother college to Rockford, both having been founded in the 1840s by the same group of individuals.

Recent work by Newberry

A colorful list is here.

Michael Newberry finished Venus (pictured here) in 2008, the same year that my extended interview with him on the theme of Art and Entrepreneurship was published in Kaizen.

Interview with John Chisholm

My full interview with software entrepreneur John Chisholm is now online at CEE’s site. An abridged version of the interview was published in the April issue of Kaizen [pdf].

The interview’s theme is Entrepreneurship and Customer Satisfaction. Two sample excerpts, the first on what’s best about being an entrepreneur:

“Creating something of value out of nothing, and the camaraderie of fellow team members. Two milestones in a start-up’s life are particularly exciting: 1) when you realize that even if you disappeared today, the company has enough momentum and people committed to it that it will continue without you; and 2) when you realize that it has genuine value and others want to acquire it.”

And the second on the CEO’s role in fostering healthy corporate culture:

“I don’t think a CEO can control culture directly, but he or she hugely influences it. Culture emerges from how people treat each other and how decisions are made. The CEO’s behavior is critical, because people look to that example and copy it. Genuinely believing that people are important is necessary for any organization’s success. If you do, people will recognize, appreciate and respond to it; if you don’t, they will recognize and resent it. You cannot fake it.”

More Kaizen interviews with leading entrepreneurs are at my site here or at CEE’s site here.

Kaizen 12 — The John Chisholm interview

The latest issue of Kaizen [pdf] features my interview with entrepreneur John Chisholm, founder of Decisive Technology, a pioneer in online survey software (and now part of Google), and CustomerSat, a leading provider of enterprise feedback management systems (now part of MarketTools).

Also featured in Kaizen are this semester’s student essay contest winners — Bronson Garcia, Mona Khalifeh, and Erica Price — a report on guest speaker Professor William Kline, and other Center news.

My full interview with Mr. Chisholm will be posted at the CEE site next month.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford [dot] edu.

More Kaizen interviews with leading entrepreneurs are at my site here or CEE’s site here.

APEE talk on the mixed economy

At the APEE conference next month in Las Vegas, I will be presenting “The Evolution of the Mixed Economy - A Schematic Approach.”

My talk integrates themes from several major thinkers from whom I have learned a great deal: Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock.

The talk’s outline is based on this flow chart posted earlier under the title “Pathologies of the mixed economy (or, How we got into this frackin’ mess).”

For the conference I’ve also organized two other sessions: Ethics and the Financial Crisis and Reason in Hayek and Rand.

Here is the full conference schedule.

Kaizen 11 — The Judy Estrin interview

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has published the eleventh issue of Kaizen [pdf], featuring my interview with Judith Estrin. The interview’s theme is Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Judy Estrin, CEO of JLabs, is the co-founder of seven technology companies. She was the Chief Technology Officer of Cisco Systems from 1998 to 2000 and has served on the boards of Rockwell and Sun Microsystems. Currently, she is on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company and FedEx. Most recently, she is the author of Closing the Innovation Gap (McGraw-Hill, 2008). I met with Ms. Estrin in Menlo Park, California to explore her thoughts on educating and managing for entrepreneurship and innovation.

The issue also features two recent guest speakers to Rockford College — Joshua Hall and Jerry Kirkpatrick — and congratulates three student prize winners: Erin Filak, Kristy Luck, and Elliott Welsh.

More Kaizen interviews with leading entrepreneurs are at my site here or at CEE’s site here.