Midtown renaissance

Stopped in to visit a colleague at Digiknow this past week. What a great setup they have--cool offices carved out of a warehouse, suffused with light filtered through modern interpretations of the traditional Shoji screen, and furnished sparsely but elegantly. The place even includes a workout center with a view of some of the old buildings not yet touched by the Midtown rebirth.

This time of year is a bad time to look at a city and make a decision about what kind of place it is. The dirty snow, the sooted-up buildings, and the streets that haven't been able to be cleaned all winter, can give a poor impression of even a very lively city. Let's hope the vaunted Euclid Corridor development will bring additional incentives to potential Midtown developers, businesses and residents. Because there's some very cool stuff going on there. Now we just have to play catch-up with the rest of the area.

Meet the media and discuss the state of the world

Some of us are too busy worrying about the state of our own businesses to think too much about what's going on in the larger world and especially to worry about how the media handles the news.

But that's part of the work of the Communications Department at John Carroll University. And they're giving you a chance to listen in on the discussions between them and local media folks about this stuff. Here's the announcement:

David Marash, Washington bureau chief of Al-Jazeera, will analyze the current state of world media and the U.S. response to the new information universe at a free, public media roundtable discussion sponsored by the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. Area professional journalists will join Marash in exploring issues of accuracy and access to current news and news organizations. Student representatives from local universities and local news
media organizations will participate.

Where: John Carroll University, Donahue Auditorium at JCU’s Dolan Center for Science and Technology
When: Tuesday, Jan. 22 - 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Contact: Linda Clark, Director of Global Programming, Cleveland Council on World Affairs (812 Huron Road, Suite 620, Cleveland, Ohio 44115)
call 216-781-3730 x125

Unique networking group for prospective business buyers/sellers

Like to say thanks to a guy down in the Akron area who has created a unique, warm and welcoming business networking group. Ken Thompson is the center of the group he calls the Pancake Pacers.

Ken masterminds a group of runners and/or folks in the area who are looking to buy a business. Each month he invites people to take a run on the trails in Peninsula and then meet for breakfast at Bob's Big Boy in Stow. Running is optional, so if you're interested in finding a business--or just meeting some fellow business travelers, join the group for breakfast at 8:15 a.m. this December 18 (running starts at Peninsula trailhead at 7 am).

Ken sends a chatty email each month to remind everyone of the date and share news about everyone's progress in their search to buy or progress in their business after they buy. It's a personal and genuine group. Wish I could make it more often.





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Sad passing

Got this today from Dan Hanson, Inside Business writer and ace operator of Computers Assisting People. Prayers for Ed's family.

Assistant County Prosecutor Ed Corrigan was killed this morning in a car accident.

For those of you who didn't know, Ed was instrumental in the original incorporation and then the 501c3 status for Computers Assisting People (CAP) Inc.

He volunteered his time and expertise and was with CAP from the beginning. Though extremely busy as prosecutor in the major case group - prosecuting homicides and sexual assaults - he never turned down a request for help from CAP.

He served on the CAP Board of Directors from day one.

Ed was only 48 years old. Please keep Ed and his family in your thoughts and prayers. He will be missed greatly.

Local software company goes international

Here comes another Cleveland entrepreneur, Dr. Steve Belovich, leading his latest venture IQWare to victory overseas landing a sweet deal with Australia's HealthPoint Techologies Ltd. His company is licensing its Medication Therapy Management software to them to let pharmacists log on to a system for tracking patient medications--to help prevent unwanted drug interactions, etc. The system will begin testing locally at two Cleveland Clinic pharmacies.

The secure advantage is that the IQWare system sends images of the data instead of the data itself, so hackers can't break in.

You go, Steve. For more, read the Crain's report in September 10-16 issue. And check out IQWare's cool, musical 2001:ASpaceOdyssey-like website at http://www.iqware.us/.

1st ever franchise blog launched targeting war veterans

Local expert Joel Libava, the self-styled Franchise King, has just introduced a blog targeted at a very specific audience--franchise information for war veterans. Given the number of young former soldiers returning from overseas these days, this is a timely offering.

These young men had discipline trained into them in their military experience--certainly all the discipline they'd need to be business owners. And we can only hope that they come home with sizable cash bonuses for their service to our country--enough that they can invest in one of Joel's excellent franchise opportunities.

Read more about the Franchise King on his blog.

SOAR takes Ohio companies higher

Hey, just heard about a Cleveland-based company that has been recently recognized in the national media. The press release says:

SOAR to Strategic Excellence™ is a unique business process improvement program that evaluates a company’s health and helps to identify areas of potential growth. Traditionally, this type of evaluation process takes 4 to 6 weeks, however, SOAR accomplishes the task in a 1-day workshop. The program was invented by Larry Goddard, President of The Parkland Group.

Industry Week.com recently covered the results that SOAR brought to Chardon Rubber Company; most notably that it helped them to increase margins by $1 million in one year. This is good news not only for Northeast Ohio’s economy but for manufacturing, distribution and construction companies nation-wide that are strained by global competition.

Larry, congratulations. As one transplant (I'm from Chicago) to another (you're from South Africa), it's nice to hear you've come to make a difference for Cleveland companies.