Preview by Thumbshots.com Thumbnail Screenshots by Thumbshots

Darden’s E-Conference Features Pioneers in Design and Effectuation, Explores the Toolset of Successful Entrepreneurs

November 4, 2011 By

Published in the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dardens-e-conference-features-pioneers-in-design-and-effectuation-explores-the-toolset-of-successful-entrepreneurs-2011-10-12

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct 12, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Darden School of Business and its Batten Institute for entrepreneurship and innovation today provided further details of Darden’s upcoming Entrepreneurship Conference to be held 3 — 4 November in Charlottesville. This year’s conference theme: “Innovate. Effectuate.” will unravel the mysteries behind successful entrepreneurs and innovators and will provide the framework for applying their strategies to build a viable business.

Featuring some of the best and brightest in the worlds of entrepreneurship and innovation, panelists include top executives from leading and emerging companies gaining new ground in clean tech, RFID software, alternative energy, travel services, athletic wear and specialty finance. Sharing the stage are founders/CEOs of MKThink, Husk Power Systems, ODIN, hotelicopter, HelioSage, Resurgent Capital Services and TRUE linkswear, who will discuss lessons learned, mistakes to avoid and key trends in high-growth markets.

Trip Davis, president of the Darden School Foundation and lifelong entrepreneur, will give the keynote address: “From Darden Incubator to Exit: hotelicopter Flies.” The following academic and industry luminaries join Davis on the program:

– Darden Professor Jeanne Liedtka, former chief learning officer at United Technologies Corporation and author of critically acclaimed Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers, will lead a session on the principles of design applied to new venture and product creation.

– Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy, leading scholar on the cognitive basis for high-performance entrepreneurship known as effectuation, will explore the mindset of successful entrepreneurs. Effectuation is globally recognized as a rigorous framework for understanding the creation and growth of new organizations and markets.

– Frank Genovese, president and owner of The Rothbury Corporation and Darden visiting lecturer, will lead a workshop on how to buy a business. Since 1980, Genovese has been the chairman, president, chief operating officer, majority owner and co-owner of nine corporations (four of which were turnarounds) ranging in size from start-ups to a multi-national corporation.

– Philippe Sommer, Darden’s director for the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, will lead a session on start-up financing. Prior to joining Darden, Sommer was a founding partner of WestMed Venture Funds, publicly registered, life sciences venture-capital funds affiliated with CIBC/Oppenheimer.

– Other panelists and featured speakers include: — Patrick Sweeney, founder and CEO of ODIN, a highly innovative leader in the RFID industry that provides software solutions to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.

– Mark Miller, co-founder and CEO of award-winning, San Francisco-based architecture firm MKThink. Prior to MKThink, Miller was founder and CEO of successful clean tech start-up firm Project FROG.

– Manoj Sinha, co-founder of Husk Power Systems, a globally lauded business that was launched in Darden’s business incubator. Husk uses discarded risk husks to provide power to approximately 150,000 people in rural India.

– Matthew Hantzmon, co-founder and chief operating officer of HelioSage, a solar energy development company. Hantzmon is also a founder of Columbia Power Technologies and previously was managing director of Greenlight Energy, a wind energy power producer sold to BP Alternative Energy.

– Adam Healey, hotelicopter co-founder & CEO, and Charles Seilheimer, hotelicopter co-founder, president and CFO. Hotelicopter is an online hotel search platform that connects 160,000 hotels to millions of travelers actively engaged in booking a hotel room online. Hotelicopter was launched in Darden’s business incubator.

– Tim Grant, founder of Resurgent Capital Services, a specialty finance enterprise — since Resurgent’s founding in 1998, Grant has overseen the firm’s rapid and profitable growth and has managed portfolios of over $110 billion.

– Sean Eidson, CEO and Co-Founder of TRUE linkswear, a Golf footwear and apparel company whose flagship golf shoe is built on a “barefoot” platform. TRUE linkswear has been nationally and internationally recognized and its key customers include Golfsmith and PGA Tour Superstores.

Darden’s Entrepreneurship Conference kicks off Thursday, 3 November at 4 p.m. with the school’s annual Concept Competition for Darden MBA students. Thursday evening activities will be followed by a full-day program on Friday, 4 November. Registration is required ( http://conference.darden.virginia.edu/e-conference/ ). Admittance is free for current Darden/UVA students, faculty, and staff, as well as students at other universities. The fee for all other attendees is $50 (includes meals and refreshments). Late registration after 28 October is $100. Contact Joyce Smaragdis at smaragdisg@darden.virginia.edu for more information.

About the Batten Institute

The Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business creates value and transforms society through entrepreneurship and innovation. The Institute’s academic research center advances knowledge that addresses real-world challenges and shapes Darden’s curriculum, and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership offers one of the world’s top entrepreneurship programs. The Batten Institute was established with gifts now totaling over $100 million from UVA alumnus Frank Batten Sr., a media pioneer, visionary, and founder of The Weather Channel. www.batteninstitute.org

About the Darden School of Business

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business is one of the world’s leading business schools, offering MBA, Ph.D. and Executive Education programs. The unique Darden experience combines the case study method, the highest-ranked faculty whose research advances global managerial practice and business education, and a tight-knit learning environment to develop principled and complete leaders who are ready to make an impact. For questions or information, contact communication@darden.virginia.edu.

SOURCE: Batten Institute

Filed Under: News

Kayak Hut Wins AIASF award

November 3, 2011 By

MKThink Architecture has done it again, scooping up another design award, this time from the AIASF, on Tuesday night. MKThink was recognized for the Mission Creek Park Kayak Hut, receiving the highest award level in the small projects category, the Honor Award.

The Kayak Hut has been recognized on several other occasions for contributing to the architectural fabric of the city, including picking up a California Council AIA award, and earning SF Chronicle writer John King’s praise for being the best new building in SF in the past decade.

Filed Under: News

MKTHINK Wins 2011 California Preservation Foundation Award for “d.School”

November 3, 2011 By

MKThink made news this week (July 19), capturing a 2011 California Preservation Foundation Award. The firm’s recently completed project at Stanford University, the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka d.school) was recognized by the Foundation this July. The award was bestowed upon the project by a renowned jury of peers and other industry professionals for its sensitive and clever contextual in-fill of a late-1800′s/early 1900′s classic Stanford historic building type. The project aimed to create a state-of-the-art design and engineering facility, while recapturing the original highly-valued spatial and light qualities this historic structure once provided, but which had been lost from numerous renovations over the decades. The award is jointly presented to architect: Cody Anderson Wasney (http://www.cawarchitects.com/home.html) and MKThink: Interior Architect.

Filed Under: News

Look Who’s Talking – Energy Conservation Edition

November 1, 2011 By





by Mark R Miller, AIA

CEO, MKThink

Lets start with a test of your GREEN I.Q.: What institution has this institutional priority?:

“…More strategic use of energy resource…lowering risk…saving money…and allowing the department to shift more resources to other…priorities. Such efforts are critical if we are to meet our mission to prevail, today and in the future.”

A. State of California: Board of Regents

B. US Department of Energy

C. US Green Building Council

D. University of California – San Francisco (UCSF)


E. US Department of Defense

The answer is in the full quote:


DoD’s Operational Energy Strategy will guide the Defense Department to a more strategic use of energy resources in the fight today and in plans for the future by lowering risks to our warfighters, saving money for American taxpayers, and allowing the department to shift more resources to other warfighting priorities. Such efforts are critical if we are to meet our mission to prevail, today and in the future. – US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

For more go right to the Department of Defense website: http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2011/0611_energy/

Yes, energy management and more specifically significant reduction of fossil fuels, is a non-political, mission crucial objective promoted by the rather senior Secretary of the United States Navy Ray Mabus. (refer to an NPR interview with Secretary Mabus here:

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131785448/Military-Goes-Green-For-An-Edge-On-The-Battlefield )

Why? Well it is more than a public relations initiative. According to the Department of Defense it is rather straight-forward assessment: reduced reliance on fossil fuels will increase mission effectiveness, save lives and save money – not a bad trifecta. This assessment is the basis behind high level strategic planning that is reshaping the military’s approach to everything from advanced research to forward-operating bases operations. The US Department of Defense provides more more detail on the strategy role of energy in this report:

http://energy.defense.gov/OES_report_to_congress.pdf

This recognition by the DoD is important in many ways. Some are obvious: such a large and influential institution as the DoD supporting clean technologies will be a big morale boost to emerging clean technologies and ongoing research. The military offers a large market for commercially viable (and domestic!) clean technologies. It also provides mission-critical venues to explore emerging technologies, accelerating their testing and potential for commercial viability.

There are deeper benefits: This decision come from deep and data-driven analysis of the impact of fossil-fuel energy patterns of military operational effectiveness. This is not a political decision. Rather the assessment findings have had to overwhelmingly indicate the cost of the prior direction to overcome a red-leaning culture that has dismissed, and would have been expected to continue to dismiss, energy as a relevant issue.

Nothing like a bit of solid data-driven analysis presented by a respectable institution to fundamentally change the debate.

For more on the Department of Defense strategic assessment of energy reference the following article links:

http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2011/0611_energy/

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131785448/Military-Goes-Green-For-An-Edge-On-The-Battlefield

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/06/dod-20110614.html

http://science.dodlive.mil/2011/06/14/energy-for-the-war-fighter-the-dods-operational-energy-strategy/

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/opinion/cuttino-militarygreen/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=17763


http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/23039

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/will-the-military-be-the-bridge-to-the-u.s.-renewable-energy-future/

http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/dod-position-incubate-clean-energy-says-pew-report/2011-09-27

Filed Under: Featured, Think, think Innovation

Universal Design

October 21, 2011 By

Protect the Architectural Fabric and Your Wallet



by Matt Pietras, AIA
Director of Architecture


Almost without disagreement, I can state that from a bottom-line perspective, good design is a wise investment for building owners and for architects. As an example, many studies conclude that a building that smartly and efficiently incorporates Sustainable Design is a wise investment—one with a good ROI, with benefits to human health and the building owner’s pocketbook through energy savings. I argue that the same case can be made for “Universal Design”—a design approach that recognizes and strives to accommodate the broadest possible spectrum of human ability in the design of all products, environments and information systems. While other industries have caught on, architecture—perhaps not surprisingly—is slow to adapt.

Some perspective: According to census statistics, 1 in 5 people nationwide have a disability that can be classified under the ADA. That’s 54 million people. Since 1990, the Fed has been protecting the differently-abled under no less than five Americans with Disabilities Act Titles, covering non-discrimination in employment, in public places, in commercial properties, and communications. Those laws, particularly Titles II & III, are the government’s minimum requirements. But, arguably, because of how they are written—exceedingly prescriptive and absolute—they falsely give designers and building owners the impression that there is only one way to provide accessibility. And, consequently, the prescriptions are followed in a vacuum lacking good design thinking that yield the lowest common denominator, and are a poor financial investment.
Case in point: The ubiquitous “handicap” ramp to the side of the grand staircase leading to the front entrance of a building. Or worse, the horrendous carbuncle of an “HC lift”. Let alone marginalizing and stigmatizing the differently-abled, such design—if you can call it that—not only reduces the overall quality of the built environment, it is a poor use of financial resources from a building owner perspective. Building owners are making one investment for the able-bodied public, and a secondary investment—sometimes more expensive—for the differently-abled. (And, don’t forget that architects must double the effort to design and draw both features.) Building owners and architects must do more, much more and stop the rote behavior of following the ADA. I am not calling for a repeal of the ADA—it provides value in a court of law. Rather, I suggest taking the more economically sensible approach and employ the strategies of Universal Design. Unlike the federal law, Universal Design is a non-prescriptive set of guidelines that:


• Eliminates the need for special features and spaces
• Avoids stigmatization of looking different or more expensive
• Virtually invisible
• Often called “more inclusive user-based design”
• “Good Design”: meeting the needs of as many users as possible

The emergent practice of Universal Design is a useful in tool the architect’s toolbox and is finding its way into building owners’ lexicons. At MKThink, along with our commitment to sustainable design, it is another building block in our approach to “good” design. We encourage designers and building owners to understand principles of Universal Design and engage each other in discussion of how we can improve upon the status quo and be making more sound investments in the built environment.

To learn more about the principles of Universal Design, visit the Center for Universal Design website at NC State University: http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/udi/center-for-universal-design/the-principles-of-universal-design/

Filed Under: Featured, Think