podcast – Business Matters

This week on Business Matters we explore the matter of trust. What does it mean to be a trustworthy company? A trustworthy leader? A trustworthy individual? Our first guest, David Horsager, explains the Trust Edge, how businesses can be hugely impacted by the trust customers have in them, as well as the trust that runs […]

A few weeks ago, the Business Matters team had the incredible opportunity to meet the speakers of this year’s TedxTeen conference, which was held in New York City. Twelve outstanding youth shared their inspiring stories of hardships, ingenuity, and ultimately, success. This week is the last part of our three week series on the TedxTeen speakers. Our final […]

A few weeks ago, the Business Matters team had the incredible opportunity to meet the speakers of this year’s TedxTeen conference, which was held in New York City. Twelve outstanding youth shared their inspiring stories of hardships, ingenuity, and ultimately, success. This week is the second part of our three week series on the TedxTeen speakers. All of […]

A few weeks ago, the Business Matters team had the incredible opportunity to meet the speakers of this year’s TedxTeen conference, which was held in New York City. Twelve outstanding youth shared their inspiring stories of hardships, ingenuity, and ultimately, success. This week is the first part of our three week series on the TedxTeen speakers. […]

As we prepare for the interviews from our visit to the TEDx – Teen event in New York, we bring you this encore edition of the program. Next week we begin the first of a three part series of these compelling conversations with these very inspirational young people.   Most of us go to the […]

This week we talk about a movement that’s growing across the globe in response to the impact of how we humans are trashing the planet. Whether it’s our use of petrochemicals or the consequence of some of our food production practices or our insatiable appetite for stuff, we are consuming more resources than earth can […]

“The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. I mean, you don’t know them, it wasn’t your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family. But probably all you have in common is the fact that you walk around on the […]

Welcome to our first edition of Business Matters 2.0! We appreciate your continued support and now we’re so excited to share our new and improved vision with you! This week, we speak with three incredible leaders of worthy causes that bring the power of film, family, and wine to people across the globe. Listen to […]

This is our final week of encore productions of Business Matters. Next week, we lift off with Business Matters 2.0. Join us then for a new on-air team, great conversations and some surprises. One of the hangovers from our current national election process is that we are not inspired. We feel that our political systems […]

We are renovating Business Matters so that we soon can bring you Business Matters 2.0. During this time of transition, we are airing some of our favorite archived programs. Today’s program comes from June 29, 2011. This program was broadcast as From the Inside Out. We hope you enjoy this program. To create positive change […]

This week on Business Matters, we talk about what it means for businesses to go beyond profits.  What can happen when businesses decide to give back to the community?  What benefits do companies perceive may arise from philanthropic work?   How can "doing good" affect employee retention rates?  In what ways do philanthropies themselves benefit from corporate involvement?  What are the preferred ways for companies to be involved in community organizations? We discover some surprising statistics about the amount of money, investment in volunteerism, and the number of corporations involved in giving back to their communities, and the reasons “giving back” is important to business.  We hear the interesting story of a philanthropic project offered by Hewlett Packard to economically depressed areas, noting the many benefits and some pitfalls of this corporate-community collaborative project.  Then we discuss the benefits to communities and businesses when corporations offer support to local not-for-profit organizations, including employee retention,  community resiliency, and long-term interactions with consumers.  We also hear suggestions for business leaders who are interested in offering such support. Listen to this program;| Download MP3 Guests Margaret Coady Margaret Coady is Director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.  Since joining the organization in early 2005, Margaret's close work with member companies, oversight of the Committee's proprietary Corporate Giving Standard online benchmarking system, and her authorship of four editions of the annual "Giving in Numbers" report have established her as a leading authority on emerging trends in the field of corporate giving.  She lectures for national and international audiences and has appeared on television and radio programs including BBC World Report, CNBC Morning Call, and CNBC Street Signs.  To learn more about Margaret, visit the CECP website. Download MP3 David Fetterman, Ph.D. David M. Fetterman is President and CEO of Fetterman & Associates, an international evaluation consulting firm. He is Professor of Education at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the Director of the Arkansas Evaluation Center. Over 25 years of service, he held positions in Stanford University's administration, School of Education, and School of Medicine. He is the author of many books, including Empowerment Evaluation Principles in Practice, Ethnography: Step by Step, 3rd Edition, and most recently, Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages: Hewlett Packard's $15 Million Race Towards Social Justice. Download MP3 Nancy Wackstein Nancy Wackstein has been Executive Director of United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH) since 2002.  UNH is the federation of the City’s 38 settlement houses and community centers.   Prior to her UNH appointment, she was the Executive Director of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, a settlement house on Manhattan’s East Side, for eleven years. Ms. Wackstein served as Director of the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness and SRO Housing from 1990-1991 under Mayor David N. Dinkins.  She was Senior Policy Advisor for Human Services in Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins’ Office from 1986-1989, where she was also Staff Director for the Task Force on Housing for Homeless Families. Ms. Wackstein currently serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations, including the United Way of New York City and is Immediate Past Board Chair of the Human Services Council of New York.  Ms. Wackstein was appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to the New York City Youth Board, the Citywide Coordinating Committee to End Chronic Homelessness, the New York City Commission for Economic Opportunity, and the NYC Commission on LGBTQ Runaway and Homeless Youth. Download MP3

  (The flu still has us in its clutches. So we bring you another of our favorite episodes. We are on the mend and will have a new program for you next week!) We know that small businesses are the job engine of our economy. Yet time and time again, we choke off entrepreneurs and small business owners from the capital they need to start and grow their businesses. To make matters worse, commercial banks, for the most part, have decided they are not interested in the small business market. Don’t despair there is a way to get these businesses the support they need that doesn’t require government subsidies or loans. Building upon social networks and the Internet, people like you and I are making donations or loans and providing equity to help worthy business ideas get off the ground. Today, on Business Matters we explore crowdsourcing and its implications for crowdfunding. We talk with experts on the evolution of this phenomena and entrepreneurs who are providing funding portals and programs that help connect donors and investors with those who need funding. We also look at the potential impact of the Jobs Act of 2012, which was recently signed by the President. For the first time, it opens the potential to provide funding to small businesses from people who are not “accredited investors”. We may be seeing the dawning of a new financial system that can truly democratize business financing. Listen to the Program;| Download MP3 Today's Guests Carl Esposti Carl is the founder of crowdsourcing.org and CEO of massolution. crowdsourcing.org has become the “go-to” resource for the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding markets. Carl and the team are recognized for their intellectual capital, practical expertise and unbiased thought leadership. You can tap into their wealth of knowledge at crowdsourcing.org. As CEO of massevoluation, Carl helps this advisory and implementation firm in createing crowdsourcing solutions for private, public and social enterprises. Listen to this interview;| Download MP3 Slava Rubin Slavais CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest global funding platform. Indiegogo.com provides anyone with an idea — from entrepreneurial new business to creative projects to socially conscious causes -- the online tools they need to raise money. Since Indiegogo launched in 2008, millions of dollars have been distributed to more than 55,000 campaigns around the world. Prior to co-founding Indiegogo, Slava was a strategy consultant responsible for leading growth initiatives on behalf of clients such as MasterCard, Goldman Sachs, and FedEx. Slava is also the founder of "Music Against Myeloma," an annual charity event that raises funds and awareness for cancer research. Listen to this interview;| Download MP3 Candace Klein Candace is the founder and CEO of two successful startup companies: Bad Girl Ventures and SoMoLend . Bad Girl Venture is a micro-lending program where individuals can donate money that is used to fuel women owned startups. Bad Girl Venture has linked these loans with a training program that equips participants with the tools for success. SoMoLend is new technology platform that connects business borrowers seeking loans with lenders looking to make a return on investment. Candace also practice as an attorney with Ulmer & Berne LLP with a focus on corporate matters, business advocacy and government relations for startup companies and small business clients. Listen to this interview;| Download MP3 David Marlett David is the Executive Director of the National Crowdfunding Association, which is the association of almost all crowdfunding portals in the United States along with a growing number of venture capitalists, investment banks, attorneys, accountants, software companies and other interested parties. David has 25 years experience as an attorney and CPA putting together financing an array of industries,

(As we join many of you in experiencing on of the worst flu seasons in memory, we bring you this encore presentation of one of our favorite episodes) Each day we make many decisions about how we spend money. Each decision is an unspoken agreement in support of the company that provides the products or services we buy. This week, we look at the impact of our unconscious tendencies of consumption and the value of deliberately choosing the use of our money. This deliberateness is a catalyst that can transform business and the world. Listen to this program;| Download MP3 Guests Santikaro For many years, Santikaro lived as a Buddhist monk in southern Thailand, as a student and translator of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. Now he and his wife, Jo Marie, nurture Liberation Park, a Buddhist Dhamma Refuge in rural Wisconsin. From this base, he teaches Early Buddhism and meditation around the Midwest and internationally. In recent years, his practice has incorporated treatment for and recovery from an aggressive lymphoma. He is committed to exploring new forms of healthy community life that practice letting go of patriarchy, consumerism, alienation from nature, and other forms of egoism. He is learning to ride horses. To read more, go to http://www.liberationpark.org/about/lp_brochure.pdf Listen to this interview;| Download MP3 Raj Patel Raj Patel is an award-winning writer, activist and academic. He has degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cornell University, has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and protested against them around the world. He’s currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First. He is currently an IATP Food and Community Fellow. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, he regularly writes for The Guardian, and has contributed to the LA Times, NYTimes.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Mail on Sunday, and The Observer. His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller. Listen to this interview;| Download MP3

This week on Business Matters, we get a wake-up call about what business and social trends really portend.  It’s a different world, and no matter how much we want to be blind to what’s happening, knowledge offers the power of preparation.  Where are the primary trends shifting?  How can you align yourself and your business with the trends, so that you and your community can find success and stability in this time? First, we hear about the effects of centralization and discuss suggestions for both broad policy changes and wise alterations of behavior for businesses and individuals.  Our economy is in a “slow burn.”  People are terrified because of a lack of transparency, privacy has declined extraordinarily, and everything is politicized.  The pie has shrunk and the world is dangerous, and people are feeling it, despite their desire for things to be going well.  As a result, the role of investment has changed.  There is opportunity in decentralization, but it takes local organization and forethought, as well as discernment, to implement it.  What are the most prudent choices for each of us in the year ahead?  Who can we trust? Next, we take a look at the United States in comparison to Russia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  While many predicted complete failure in the beginning, Russia’s solid social services protected the people’s basic needs during the rough transition.  The country is now progressing on every level, embracing change as necessary to progress.  The United States, on the other hand, appears to be attached to the idea of maintaining the status quo.  Entrenched interests are fighting tooth and claw to maintain their positions in American society, and the political system is supporting their tenacity.  There is an appearance of political will for obust social services, but crises reveal its thin veneer.  There has been a great deal of disinvestment in the country in general; the economic sector having been hollowed out and class divides increasingly sharply.  This situation could become startlingly life-changing for many Americans in a short amount of time.  Awareness is a crucial first step.  How are we aiding and abetting a future we do not intend? Listen to this program;| Download MP3  Guests Catherine Austin Fitts Catherine Austin Fitts' understanding of the global financial system and the inner workings of the Wall Street-Washington axis is unparalleled. As the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner, Catherine was one of the first to warn of an approaching housing bubble. Her prediction that a 'strong dollar policy' would ultimately lead to a weakened federal credit is currently being proven correct. Catherine is the founder and managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC.; and President of Solari, Inc. an online media company focused on ethical investment. Earlier in her career, she was a Managing Director and member of the board of Wall Street investment banking firm Dillon Read & Co. Inc. (She writes about her experience there in Dillon Read and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits.) Download MP3 Dmitry Orlov Emigrating from the Soviet Union at 12, Dmitry Orlov became an eye witness to the collapse of the Soviet Union. These lessons have informed his observations and writing about the collapse of the U.S economy and our preparedness to handle the fallout.In 2005, Dmitry wrote Closing the Collapse Gap, about how Russia was much better prepared for the collapse after the fall of communism that America is after the fall of consumerism.  He has also written other articles on culture change include The New Age of Sail , The Despotism of the Image, That Bastion of American Socialism and Thriving in an Age of Collapse. Orlov's book Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects has received numerous awards including the 2009 independentPublisher Silver Medal. Visit Dmitry Orlov at his website. Download MP3

We welcome in the new year by asking three experts about the biggest ideas for 2013. First, we examine the cultural zeitgeist, discovering the hottest new job title, learning how social media is further changing the business world, examining popular entertainment and what the themes reflect about our society, and accepting, finally, the integration of digital technology into all sectors of society. Next, we turn to the economy and hear the good news that, for the upcoming year at least, we are escaping the grip of the financial crisis.  We learn what we need to do to take advantage of this upturn to prepare for what may be an uncertain future. Our last segment focuses on the biggest change to health care in over 50 years: the implementation of Affordable Care Act, or "Omamacare."  Though the ACA was passed in 2010, it is only this year moving into full implementation, and we are going to see the effects of this change.  We learn the details of the developing state- and federally-run "shopping exchanges" of health insurance plans for those who do not have  access to health insurance.  We speculate about the effects of these exchanges and the consequences for businesses, Medicaid, and individuals. Listen to this program;| Download MP3  Guests Brad Grossman Brad Grossman is a creative and cultural advisor, producer and entrepreneur. His bi-coastal Grossman& Partners is a “think-tank/ do-tank” for progressive-minded individuals and organizations from a wide swath of fields—media/entertainment, science/ technology, finance, policy, fashion/art/design, and lifestyle. Clients include C-Suite executives, entrepreneurs and heads of non- profits, as well as creative and thought leaders.  His current work evolved out of the four years he spent as a full- time cultural attaché for Brian Grazer.  Brad’s experience in the field includes 15 years in independent and studio film production at Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Pictures. He co-founded Out in Television & Film, a networking and educational organization for LGBT filmmakers and executives, and Insta-Tutor, an academic coaching company for high-school students. To find out more about Brad, click here.  To read 2013 Zeitguide, click here (free until January 14th!). Listen to this interview;| Download MP3  Michael Mandel Michael is a regular with us on Business Matters and always brings a clear and discerning eye to what’s going on in the economy. For many years, Michael was a economics writer and then chief economist at Business Week. Today, he is the chief economics strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute, CEO of Visible Economy and a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation. Listen to this interview;| Download MP3  Trudy Lieberman Trudy Lieberman, a journalist for 40 years, is a fellow at the Center for Advancing Health. She was recently director of the health and medical reporting program at the Graduate School of Journalism, City University of New York and had a long career at Consumer Reports specializing in insurance, health care and health care financing. She was also the director of the Center for Consumer Health Choices at Consumers Union. She is a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, a contributor toThe Nation, and has written a column about health and the marketplace for theLos Angeles Times. She blogs on health care and income security issues at cjr.org for the Columbia Journalism Review. She began her career as a consumer writer for the Detroit Free Press where her reporting became a model for consumer writers across the country. Listen to this interview;| Download MP3