BCN News

In this segment  extract Don Springer talks about the purpose of a board.

You have got a board and you are doing a good job, but how do you raise our professionalism as board directors?

• How do we improve board composition?
• How do we focus on strategic vs. operational issues?
• How do we refine our board succession plans? 
• How should we use technology for our boards and our business?
• How do we improve our M&A capability?
• How do we extend our network?
• How do we improve our risk orientation?

We’ve got a board and we’re doing a good job, but how do we raise our professionalism as board directors?

• How do we improve board composition?
• How do we focus on strategic vs. operational issues?
• How do we refine our board succession plans? 
• How should we use technology for our boards and our business?
• How do we improve our M&A capability?
• How do we extend our network?
• How do we improve our risk orientation?

In this segment of Link'd AM we focus on philanthropy and how non-profits can really benefit from having a team working with them to realize the potential.

The SMU Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club, founded in 2000, is a student-led organization dedicated to promoting innovation within the SMU community. The Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship club fosters opportunities for student club members to achieve their goals of starting and launching a viable business, exploring venture capital interest, supporting a startup, or inspiring entrepreneurial thinking. The Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship club provides members with resources, hands-on support from the SMU entrepreneurship community, mentorship, and support from the Dallas startup community.

Karl talks to Seun Suberu, founder of College Plus and Full time student, and they talk about the balance between college life and being an entrepreneur.  A lesson we all learn as we advance though our careers.

Karl speaks with David Vincent, VP Product Strategy and Customer Engagement at Appsian, a Global ERP Security platform that monitors various levels of threat detection, controls and ensures that its customers are audit ready to be compliant in this very important part of a business - data protection.

David talks about how businesses need to think not only of the protection of their customers data but also prepare themselves to align with the ever increasing Corporate Governance pressures for the Boards of Directors.

ABOUT APPSIAN

Appsian Provides ERP Security Below The Network Layer

Unlike most security companies that focus on perimeter protection, Appsian is focused on protecting the asset below those layers – your data and financial transactions.

Our unique approach that combines data security with controls for identity and access management, along with governance, risk, and compliance has earned us recognition across the ERP landscape. Including two awards by Cyber Defense Magazine.

Be Visionary: Strategic Leadership in the Age of Optimization is a self-help, business leadership book that demonstrates to existing and aspiring leaders the positive impact of applying flexibility, creativity and decisiveness to achieve results - even in uncertain times. More importantly, this book helps leaders to understand that while business operations optimization may have value in certain circumstances, it can also adversely affect a leader's management style, his or her message and replace strategic thought with short-term focus and gratification. For example, even the most efficient wagon-wheel manufacturer in the early 1900s was put out of business by the invention of the automobile - think and lead strategically!

Pre-Order: https://www.amazon.com/Be-Visionary-Strategic-Leadership-Optimization/dp/1785354329/ref=sr_1_1?crid=30AS0SCMUETSR&keywords=be+visionary+marty+strong&qid=1649362134&sprefix=be+visionary+marty+strong%2Caps%2C95&sr=8-1

The White House recently urged private companies to bolster their cyber defenses, citing evolving intelligence suggesting the Russian government is exploring “options for potential cyberattacks” targeting U.S. critical infrastructure.

Karl talks to Puranda Das,  the CEO and Co-founder of Sotero (www.soterosoft.com) and they discuss the challenges that CTO's and Security teams face when migrating from a physical location of data to a cloud infrastructure. 

Purandar discus's  organizations' security teams have not been able to achieve a consistent, reliable level of security across their cloud ecosystem and how organizations can have a framework that helps them obtain the industry's best-of-breed security capabilities through a revolutionary data security fabric. 

Purandar is an experienced executive with a demonstrated history of success in the information technology and services space. He is skilled in Technology & Business Development as well as Enterprise Software, Enterprise Architecture, Agile Methodologies, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Karl talks with Valecia Harris, the current President of the Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club, and they talk about the SMU Business Accelerator Program.

Both Business Class News and kNEXTis are proud to be media sponsors of the program.

The previous SMU Business Plan Competition will now be replaced by the new Cox Graduate Entrepreneurship Club (CGEC) Business Accelerator Program. This program will provide SMU students (both undergraduate and graduate students from across all departments) and recently graduate SMU alumni entrepreneurs the opportunity to take a business venture from idea to product launch. This intense and enriching 6-month program offers a unique combination of immersive workshops, mentorship, as well as access to a wealth of entrepreneurial and investor networks. The program is designed to accelerate ideas, technologies, products, or existing businesses into a thriving market by providing support and hands-on mentorship. This program features two competitions; (1) a Semi-Finalist Elevator Pitch Competition that awards non-dilutive pre-seed funding and in-kind donations up to $10,000 and (2) a Finalist SMU Startup Launch competition that awards over $50,000 in cash and in-kind donations. 

Karl spoke with Finch Fulton, the VP of Policy and Strategy  at Locomation, and they had a fascinating conversation around their business model, and how it fits with the topics Business Class News has been showcasing - The Future of Our Workforce.

 Finch Fulton joined Locomation in February 2021. He previously served at the US Department of Transportation under Secretary Elaine Chao from 2017-2021, was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy and was the nominee to be Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy. There, he led the USDOT’s efforts around the safe integration of transportation technologies into the US transportation system. This included the development of key policies and initiatives around automated vehicles, commercial space operations, data, machine learning and artificial intelligence efforts, hyperloop systems, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and more. He helped develop the President’s UAS Integration Pilot Program and Automated Driving System Demonstration Grants, managed the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council and served on key transportation-related White House working groups.

He also served in the House of Representatives under Congressman Jim McCrery and Congressman John Fleming, M.D., in the Senate for Senator Jeff Sessions and in the private sector focused on the State and local integration of technology. He is a native of Mobile, Alabama, a graduate of the University of Alabama, received his MBA from Johns Hopkins University, and has been involved in trucking and logistics through his family’s business his entire life.

ABOUT LOCOMATION

Locomation was founded in 2018 by a team of the world’s foremost experts on autonomous vehicles, robotics, and artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center and trucking industry leaders with deep knowledge and experience in every aspect of the trucking business.

The name Locomation is the convergence of locomotion and automation. It isn’t fixated on one single transport mode, but rather describes our grand vision: automation for anything that moves. We began our journey with middle mile freight automation, the most critical link in the supply chain and the one best suited to integrate human-guided autonomous technology. We’re creating capacity in a world that’s demanding more, faster every day. And from here, we plan to go everywhere autonomous transportation is needed.

We are motivated by the challenge of solving problems that have hindered the trucking industry for decades. Trucks transport more than 70% of the nation’s freight. E-commerce has sharply increased the need for freight trucking services. Demand is expected to grow 36% between 2020 and 2031.1 At a time when demand has never been stronger, persistent driver shortages create capacity constraints that force carriers to turn down orders.