NewsBytes: Small Biz Tech Girl, Customer Insiders and Sustainable Biz (Just Do It)
1) Aliza Sherman-Risdahl, one of the pioneers of women in technology and author of several books (including her latest, The Everything Blogging Book), just launched the Small Biz Tech Girl podcast. Her years in the business, experience with her own entrepreneurship and ability to make technology accessible to even low-tech girls like me, makes this podcast well worth catching.
2) If you are curious about how larger brands handle building and managing a “customer advisory” board or panel, you may want to join the Banana Republic version (you’ve likely received an invite from them already, if you are a customer), BRInsider. I signed up last week and have been impressed. Joining it may well give you ideas for how to make “insiders” of your own customers.
3) Sustainable business operations is a passion for me, and one I brought up recently in a presentation to the retail development sector - an obviously very tough nut to crack on this issue. J. Mitchell McMahon’s recent article for MediaPost gives a thorough look at the sustainability landscape, and makes a good case for businesses, in any industry, to get up to speed. Here’s a clip:
If an environmentally driven business revolution seems far-fetched, consider how the money is flowing. Wall Street investors are sinking big money into renewable energy companies and into energy-efficiency leaders like GE. Venture capital firms including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers are pouring billions into renewable energy and energy-efficiency sectors. Boone Pickens, legendary oilman, vowed to invest $10 billion into the world’s largest wind farm in northeast Texas.
