BSG Team Ventures is pleased to have assisted in the recent search for Telkonet’s new Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing.
Subscribing to the renewable energy industry mantra, “Efficiency is the first fuel,” Telkonet provides energy efficiency systems for residency intensive buildings.
BSG Team Ventures completed the search in 90 calendar days. Key success attributes for the executive sought included deep experience and credibility with the ESCo (energy services company) industry, power purchase agreements, and energy performance contract creation within the commercial sector, including hotels, government, and education.
Telkonet, Inc. (www.telkonet.com) develops, manufactures, and sells energy efficiency and smart grid networking technology products and platforms in the United States and Canada. Its powerline communications technology (PLC) utilizes a building’s internal electrical wiring as a data communications network, turning power outlets into data ports while leaving the electrical functionality unaffected. The company offers Telkonet SmartEnergy products, including thermostats, sensors, controllers, and wireless networking products, as well as Networked Telkonet SmartEnergy platforms that incorporate Recovery Time technology for the monitoring of climate conditions and automatically adjust a room’s temperature accounting for the presence or absence of an occupant. It also provides smart grid networking technology products comprising Telkonet iWire System and Telkonet Series 5 PLC products, which include gateways, extenders, couplers, and ibridges to transform a site’s existing internal electrical infrastructure into an Internet protocol. In addition, the company offers high-speed wireless Internet access solutions and technology to the hospitality industry. It serves the hospitality, education, healthcare, and government/military markets.
September in New England is all about Fall, football, and at least for the last 4 years, philanthropy. On September 23rd, 2010, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and professional services providers celebrated the 4th consecutive year putting this tournament on.
The goals?
1) Sweat doing one of my favorite sports on one of its most challenging surfaces–
chasing a white ball around a grass lawn where the verb “to bounce” is used only in a relative sense. Imagine a super-high gravity environment where what goes down, stays down. A bit more like dropping a plate, versus bouncing a ball.
2) Compete in teams, with venture capitalists comprising one team, pitted against entrepreneurs, the other team. This brings together the two key stakeholders in the business ecosystem in which our firm operates. OK, so the entrepreneurs always get a bit feisty because they often feel the perceived chafe of the unspoken universal order, “those who have the gold make the rules.” But in this format, spicy works. Feisty is good. For further flavor, see video mash-up of the tournament highlights below.
3) Give to charity, and create a collaborative giving engine that may at some point outstrip at least this author’s individual efforts.
The supplemental benefits of combining these three above?
1) Sweating couldn’t be in a lovelier setting. The Longwood Cricket Club is just a spectacular venue, and again this year we were graced with perfect early Fall weather–blue sky highlighted by brilliant reds of the autumn maple trees ringing the club house and the courts. Sweating somehow is also a whole lot more fun on a tennis court if you play barefoot. Don’t try this on hard courts or clay folks. But at Longwood, all 40+ players doffed their togs and got back to nature (photos and video for up close and personals).
2) Competing with VC and entrepreneur teams brings out… well… a prime opportunity for trash talking in the safety of numbers let us say. It’s great to get both sides out in a friendly face off, united at the end for a good cause.
3) Giving to charity is something that seems easier the more perceived value is generated (for the altruist), or we receive (for those solipsists). This year’s charity was again the Tenacity program, founded by Ned Eames. We heard from some of the at-risk urban middle school children who have found Tenacity a backbone for discipline and achievement in an often keelless school environment. Hearing some of their stories made us all reflect on our paths to relative success, and how those challenges compared to what these children face. The goal was to raise $5,000 or more, and although the P&L is still being cyphered, we either met or came close to the target.
Who won this year? Technically, the Entrepreneurs won when toting up the total games score. However, the VCs took it in a hotly contested 10-game pro set finals match [see score card below]
The VC team was represented by Michael Balmuth of Edison Ventures and Michael Quinn of sponsor Silicon Valley Bank. This fearsome duo faced off against entrepreneurs Bill Stone, co-founder of OutsideGC and Dean Bogdanovic of CounterPath .
No doubt however that all players won in the larger sense what with the weather, the setting, and the collegiality.
Attributions:
To Sung Parkwho– as the poster-child for entrepreneurial ideation– decided years ago to innovate the fundraising process for his son’s school. To do this, he cooked up the first VC vs. Entrepreneurs golf tournament we took part in some 6 or more years ago. I asked him if he had the IP locked up on the idea or could I port the concept to the tennis court, and being the philanthropist that he is, he said heck no, it was “open source.” Thanks Sung.
To Longwood Cricket Club, who has been a supporter of the event from the beginning, and Larry, the head tennis pro, who makes it a pleasure to orchestrate.
Tenacity’s Ned Eames, who’s vision and personal tenacity has grown a philanthropic organization that touches thousands of inner-city youth with a caring and purpose driven mission. See www.tenacity.org for more.
To the captains of each team, who were elected in a rigorous vetting process operating under the game principle of “tag, your it!”
And of course, our guests/the players. Getting ~40 or so players to set prioritize their time and money during a weekday afternoon is definitely worthy of acknowledge and appreciation.
And Cristina, no doubt all of us thank you for all you did in helping to pull the event together yet another year!
Photo Gallery
Pre-tournament chalk talk
For the last pro set of the tourney, barefooting experiment for all
Boston Lobsters mascot, offering support for which team?
Grass court form can be quickly compromised by a bad bounce
Dynamic Xconomy sponsored team with ringer Lyn Calkins
Perfect serve form demonstrated by none other than Tenacity's Ned Eames himself
Doug Denny-Brown in serve-return combat pose
VC vs. Entrepreneurs 2010 Longwood Team
Entrepreneur Doug Denny-Brown, tennis gladiator at the ready
Scott Kirsner recently penned an article in the Boston Globe on interviewing tips, what not to do. Great compendium (our contributions excepted perhaps but for you to judge in the article sidebar on page 2) of what some might think intuitively as “faux pas”, but many simply may not think of at all, and are at risk of committing.
Dedham, MA- Tobii ATIis pleased to announce that John Stamatopoulos has joined the company as Vice President, Sales.
“We’re very excited to have John on board. Tobii is poised for significant growth in 2010, and John will be instrumental in our success in the coming year,” said Tara Rudnicki, Tobii-ATI’s U.S. President.
“I’m extremely excited about joining the team, and feel a real missionary passion to help bring Tobii’s assistive technologies product line deeper into the markets we serve,” stated Mr. Stamatopoulos.
John’s background prior to joining Tobii included Global Director of Sales, Medical Device, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Capital Equipment, & medical Instrumentation for Fiberoptic Components, a contract manufacturer serving the medical devices and industrial manufacturing industries. While there, John was focused on developing an international medical marketplace for custom Fiberoptic applications including hand instruments, sensors, and analytical instrumentation. Partner with OEM’s and contract manufacturers. Before this role, John was responsible for sales leadership at IDEX Health & Science where he was recruited to direct sales for newly launched medical arm of $135M Health and Science division. Other sales roles John played previously included Account Sales Manager at Hill-Rom, a fortune 1000 global provider of healthcare solutions and sales executive at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals where he was #1 in district for total Rx market share and recipient of “Best in ‘03″ and “Best of the Best” for professionalism 2004, including national contest winner for market share growth. John started his career in the medical industry at Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, and has received industry-focused certificates at Loyola University of Chicago and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. John received his BSBA from Northeastern University in Marketing and Management Information Systems.
Tobii-ATI (http://www.tobiiati.com ) is the founding pioneer in the field of assistive technology. Tobii ATI has released a range of new alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) solutions that help individuals with speech impairments communicate. Tobii-ATI develops both communication hardware and software solutions for people with physical, cognitive, and speech disabilities. Tobii Assistive Technology, Inc. was formerly known as Assistive Technology, Inc. Tobii Assistive Technology, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of its venture-backed Swedish parent, Tobii Technology AB.
Also on the panel were Andrew Stalbow from Fox, Betty St.Peter from local NPR radio station, Frank Chindamo from FunLittleMovies, David Kruis from Metrnome, and Amir Hosseinpour from JuiceWireless.
INmobile.org released their first collective intelligence research paper today, titled “Harnessing Collective Wisdom to Forecast the Near Future of Mobility.”
A problem presents an opportunity: Periods of economic slowdown such as the one we are currently operating within offers us the unique and incredibly valuable opportunity to reflect upon past periods of expansion and prepare strategically about the upcoming period of recovery and growth.�This practice should be universal but often is not and too often the methodologies used are flawed, outdated, or both. The remarkable opportunity for assessment and planning may in part be unintentionally squandered when companies continue to rely upon the same perspectives and methodologies that have disappointed in the past regardless of where they are in the economic cycle.Previous techniques to forecast vary historically based upon cost and theory.Some rely upon internal perspectives, outside or analyst input, and market data.Often they range greatly in their level of sophistication, objectivity, and conjecture.While many remain valuable, they are perhaps too often relied upon.Here we begin to offer a more innovate and arguably more accurate means to acquire that knowledge.It is the tool of collective intelligence.
The idea of collective intelligence: Collective intelligence can perhaps be best understood as the intelligence which results�from the competitive collaboration of a group of individuals. Published in 2004, The Wisdom of Crowds � Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki argues that the aggregations of information in groups results in decisions that are better than those which could have been made by any single member of the group. In Surowiecki�s book, he argues that under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent and often smarter than the smartest individuals within them. When faced with a cognition problem such as, Who will win?, the idea of posing it to 100 experts was suggested as a collective �wisdom of the smart crowds exercise.As we currently seek to gain more informative and credible insights into the next five years of mobile technology, we should begin to take hold of this incredibly useful and adept tool called collective intelligence and apply it to the task.
The power of INmobile.org: INmobile.org is a private, global community of senior executives focused on mobility and convergence.This vital community of global wireless industry leaders enjoys both on-line and in-person events. Its private forum is fueled by a genuine and generous exchange of ideas, informed observations, timely information, empirical knowledge, and analysis.
The opportunity taken:In order to harness the collective intelligence and predictive abilities of INmobile.org, we interviewed one hundred senior executives from within this on-line community.We independently asked these executives the identical question during a one on one conversation and under similar circumstances.No previous conversations or predictions were referred to during these interviews in order to avoid the potential problem of group think.Based upon this methodology, it is our expectation that the whole of the INmobile.org community represented by these one hundred executives will show itself to be significantly more than the sum of its many parts.
The question:We posed the question, What industries will be most affected by the growth of wireless technology over the next five years? This question was suggested during the INmobile.org member reception held on March 31st at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.�Over 200 senior executives attended the private reception where the concept of �capturing the collective intelligence� of INmobile.org was initially discussed.
The executives who answered:�The identification and selection of the 100 interviewees was done in two stages.The initial selection targeted fifty senior executives to represent the vital components of the mobile ecosystem with the broadest and most relevant perspectives for this specific question.These included mobile carriers, handset OEMs, OS vendors, and mobility focused venture capital and private equity.A call to action was then sent out to the INmobile.org membership requesting additional participants in this research project. Those additional participants provided increased geographical reach and diverse areas of mobility.Telephone interviews were conducted from April to June of 2009 and were conducted by either Matthew Corbett or Mark Newhall.
The results:Consensus predicts industries most likely affected by mobility because the predictive likelihood is heightened if and when a majority of experts independently think the same industry will be affected. These findings have been aggregated and documented in the report.
For more imformation, contact Matthew Corbett at mcorbett@bsgtv.com or at 1-617-266-4333 x241.
Executive Recruiters Boston Search Group and IdealWave Solutions Merge to Form BSG Team Ventures
Bringing Unparalleled Mobility and Social Media Expertise IdealWave Deepens Firm’s Commitment to Building Trusted Advisor Relationships with Clients
Boston – August 1, 2009 - BSG Team Ventures, formerly Boston Search Group, an international retained executive firm serving emerging and high-growth companies, today announced a merger with IdealWave Solutions, a nationally recognized executive recruitment leader in the mobility and convergence sector. IdealWave couples deep expertise in the enterprise mobility and social media industries with a unique team-based approach that yields quick results with highly personalized service. The combined company, BSG Team Ventures, will be headquartered in Boston, with offices in Silicon Valley, New York and London.
As many other retained search firms are shrinking or closing down, BSG Team Ventures is taking advantage of the opportunity to grow stronger. The merged entity will be uniquely positioned to identify and recruit top Board Director, C-level and VP-level talent for both emerging and established companies across its now seven practice specialties – mobility and convergence, cleantech, technology and media, medical devices, biotech, education, and not-for-profit. While the executive search industry has been slow to harness advanced technology to optimize domain expertise, market involvement, and the candidate development process, BSG Team Ventures has turned to innovative social networking technologies to cultivate a large and growing community of mobile industry executives working for some of the most high-profile companies in the world.
“Combining forces to create BSG Team Ventures marks the beginning of an exciting adventure and a natural evolution for our business. With BSG we have found a partner whose commitment to innovation, client service, and results mirrors our own,” said Mathew Corbett, founder and managing director, IdealWave Solutions. “I look forward to drawing on our combined 17 years experience in retained search and mobile industry expertise to grow the firm, provide increased capabilities to our clients, and expand into new markets.”
INmobile.org: Engaging the Global Mobile Community
The brainchild of Corbett, a longtime social media evangelist, INmobile.org is one of the largest industry-specific social networks on the Web, comprising more than 2,500 mobile industry executives who gather in one place to learn, share ideas, and network with peers. Combining online networking with offline executive receptions at top mobile industry conferences, INmobile.org is both a key facilitator in helping BSG Team Ventures’ clients stay abreast of market and technology trends, and an invaluable tool in keeping BSG Team Ventures fully engaged with top leaders and decision makers globally.
The mobile industry is especially well poised for continued growth. “Even more exciting than the internet phenomenon is this mobile phone phenomenon,” according to Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, in a speech given to the Economic Club in 2008.
“Our merger with IdealWave comes at a pivotal time for our firm as we look to expand to new markets and set the highest bar for innovation in the executive search process,” said Clark Waterfall, founder and managing director, BSG Team Ventures. “With decades of combined executive search and strategic organizational development experience, we’re confident that together with IdealWave we can continue to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction in the industry. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the addition of Matthew Corbett and Mark Newhall as partners to the firm.”
About BSG Team Ventures
BSG Team Ventures is an international leader in retained executive search and human capital consulting for emerging and high-growth companies. Its mission is to build deep, trusted-advisor relationships with its clients, and to do so with a keen appreciation for the unique requirements of entrepreneurial ventures. Via its presence in Boston, New York, Silicon Valley and London, BSG Team Ventures has completed hundreds of leadership searches on behalf of its clients in its practice specialties that include technology, media, cleantech, biotech, medical devices, education and non-profit.
About IdealWave
IdealWave is the leading executive search partner for companies involved in or effected by mobility and convergence. Established in 2001 and headquartered in MA, IdealWave has worked with many of the most exciting companies innovating within mobility and convergence. The company was launched by Matthew Corbett and Mark Newhall. For more information please visit www.idealwave.com.
