Topic: Moving Beyond Invisible & Unknown Barriers!

Join us for an interactive session with Teresa Spangler, serial entrepreneur,
growth consultant and a savvy barrier detective.
> Learn to negotiate your way to the vision you’ve set out to achieve,
> Become self-aware of your impacts on others
> How you can develop your strong sound decision making
> How you can have what you want but you must know what that is!
> What decisions are even priorities and how do you identify the priority decisions better?
> How to motivate, lead, innovate and build a lasting company while still making it home for dinner with the kids.

Leave with a road map to ignite your path to growth

Teresa’s Speech: Re-Everything! How Can the U.S. Regain Leadership in Innovation? abstract

More information on the Series:

Created and hosted by the NC State Department of Computer Science, the Fidelity Investments “Leadership in Technology” Executive Speakers Series was created to provide students of all disciplines, as well as the extended university and business community, exposure to the unique world of leadership in technology.

The series, launched as a part of the computer science department’s 40th Year Celebrations in 2007, features accomplished and highly recognizable entrepreneurs, leaders and executives to speak on a variety of technology-focused leadership topics. The variety and quality of the speakers has resulted in the series quickly becoming known as one of the premiere speakers series on campus.

All talks are scheduled to take place at 6 pm in Room 1231 at EBII (unless noted otherwise), the department’s state-of-the-art research and teaching home on NC State’s award-winning Centennial Campus.

Each talk will be free and open to the public. Free parking (after 5 pm) is available in the deck on Partners Way. (directions & map).

Note to CSC Graduate Students – these lectures have been approved by the CSC Graduate Oversight Committee to count toward the required lectures for graduate students. Download seminar attendance form.

Fall 2010 Line-up

Alexander Macris [abstract & bio]
Co-founder, President & CEO, The Themis Group
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Teresa Spangler [abstract & bio]
Founder & CEO, The PlazaBridge Group
Thursday, October 14, 2010

Stephen Wiehe [abstract & bio]
President & CEO, SciQuest
Thursday, November 4, 2010

Teresa Spangler writes: I have so many fond memories of my work at Red Hat during those early days as we were preparing for an IPO and so many close friends were made during my years at there.  Red Hat provided me some of the most challenging yet rewarding work of  my career! Matthew Szulik will be missed I am sure.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting General Shelton…. Red Hat is in wonderful hands.

Red Hat names General H. Hugh Shelton chair

August 30th, 2010

RALEIGH, NC – Red Hat is ready to salute a new chair of its board. The open source software provider has elected General H. Hugh Shelton, (U.S. Army, retired) chair. Shelton was the 14th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the United States armed forces and the principal military adviser to the President of the United States beginning in 1997. He served two terms.

A member of Red Hat’s board since April 2003, General Shelton previously held the position of lead director and currently serves on the Audit and Compensation Committees. He succeeds Mathhew Szulik, former Red Hat CEO.

From January 2002 until April 2006, General Shelton served as president, International Sales, for M.I.C. Industries, an international manufacturing company. He has served on the boards of several public companies including Protective Products of America Inc., Anheuser-Busch Companies, CACI International Inc. and Anteon International Corp.

General Shelton received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award conferred by the United States Congress. Among his other numerous military awards are four Defense Distinguished Service Medals, two Army Distinguished Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor and the Purple Heart. He has been decorated by 16 foreign governments. Civilian awards include the state of North Carolina’s highest award for public service, and the Eisenhower Award from the Business Executives for National Security.

What Causes The Biggest Bad Decisions

Edward Conlon, 08.02.10, 03:36 PM EDT

They happen when too many different parties have their interests aligned and complexity is too great.

The Challenger disaster has become standard at business schools for showing how big and important decisions in organizations can go terribly wrong. The major lesson from it is that even when decision processes are carefully planned and mapped out, a combination of business interests and uncertainty can conspire against making the right choice.

The Challenger launch probably wouldn’t have taken place had NASA followed the prescribed decision process it had used for every other manned space flight. On the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, the temperature at the launch site was in the low 30s, much colder than for previous launches. The cold threatened the effectiveness of critical seals designed to prevent the main rocket engines from igniting and exploding the attached fuel tank.

However there were special and compelling interests present. And along with a high degree of uncertainty, those interests conspired to push key decision makers to accept risks they would have otherwise avoided. Specifically, the engineering team at Morton Thiokol, the company that had designed and manufactured the rocket engine, recommended against launching at such a low temperature. They felt there was a significant chance the rubber seals would be too hard and therefore not function properly. Usually this no-go recommendation would have stopped the launch sequence.

But then business and political forces exerted themselves. For Morton Thiokol, there was the prospect of damaging its relationship with NASA if it called off the launch. For NASA there was congressional pressure to perform. And the White House had plans to showcase Christa McAuliffe, about to become the first teacher in space, during the upcoming State of the Union address. Although science supported the engineers’ recommendation not to launch, there wasn’t enough data about low-temperature launches to prove that the seals would fail. Consequently the no-go recommendation was reversed, and the countdown continued. Challenger spectacularly disintegrated 73 seconds after launch.

We are currently witnessing the consequences of two other decision failures that are eerily similar to the Challenger one. Both the subprime mortgage crisis and the Deepwater Horizon tragedy share the common elements of having compelling and aligned interests among their decision makers and the uncertainty that is inherent in novel circumstances. In both cases, those elements combined to lead to disaster.

In the case of the subprime mortgage crisis, the interests involved were threefold: a well-intentioned national policy of increasing the number of Americans owning homes; the opportunity created for investors to earn attractive returns by funding residential mortgages for those new homeowners; and the opportunity for financial businesses to create and market the mortgages to prospective homeowners and to package and sell the cash flow they created as investments.

Altogether these interests created a surge of activity selling new kinds of mortgages to new kinds of homeowners and packaging the mortgages as new kinds of investment vehicles. They also created a regulatory environment that wanted to support national policy as far as seemed reasonable.

Uncertainly and ambiguity arose with the creation of new more relaxed qualification standards for residential mortgage loans, new kinds of complex investment instruments (including collateralized debt obligations) designed to raise the capital needed to support the residential mortgage loans, new kinds of insurance policies on investments (credit default swaps) designed to mitigate the risks for investors, challenging levels of complexity for the agencies that rated the investment vehicles and an assumption that the collateral value of residential real estate in America would remain strong enough to limit potential losses.

For a time it all worked. The new financial engine succeeded in creating a whole new class of American homeowners, happy mortgage brokers, happy investors and happy bankers. Home ownership reached nearly 70% in 2004. Home prices jumped nationally at nearly 9% a year from 2000 to 2006. A home worth $150,000 in 2000 was worth $251,565 in 2006. READ MORE>

The Log House is located in The Netherlands, Hilversum, and it was built in order to house a music-study environment for music-entertainer Hans Liberg. Design by Piet Hein Eek, the construction strikes through its originality in exterior design. Perhaps this was the wish of the singer, a quiet retreat were he could practice his peaceful music and not be disturbed by the hustle of the urban life. The interior is simple, but very personalized, as all the music instruments are there, creating an intimate atmosphere with their owner. This is a beautiful building, not only in matters of architecture, but also when you think of it a a deeper level. We hope we’ve somehow released your inner passion for music and we will not let you enjoy the photos. -via

Externalizing Applications via Cloud Computing

Richard Spangler, Managing Partner, PlazaBridge Group

These times call for expanded thinking and creative approaches to growing companies.  The traditional approaches to finding new revenue sources are not yielding the kinds of returns seen in the previous generation of business models. Innovative companies are taking advantage of the seismic shift in technology occurring with the rise of Cloud Computing and Software as a Service application delivery models. What was once a sunk IT cost may, under certain circumstances, become a new source of revenue and a new phase in company strategies.  But what are the key indicators that propel this opportunity and what actions must be taken to capture revenue?

Cloud computing refers, in various forms, to the collection of technologies that make up the internet and the plethora of service providers that will host and manage an enterprise’s applications and databases. The economics of placing computing resources in large provider installations can cut hardware costs in half. With the increase in installation, system management and communication services, the placement of an application in the cloud, and making it available to anyone with access to the internet, has become easier and more reliable.  The projections speak for themselves.

Read More (PDF):   Plazabridge_Group_Rethinking_Revenue



For Immediate Release

July 29, 2010

PlazaBridge Group Launches New Cloud Computing Commercialization Services

Firm delivers innovative commercialization services for companies seeking to add new revenue sources by leveraging advances in Cloud Computing

(Durham, N.C.) – PlazaBridge Group, LLC a leading services and commercialization firm, today announced the availability of SkyWrite™, a set of services and technologies designed to assist enterprises in commercializing internally built applications via Cloud Computing.  Services include best practices in marketing and selling Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings to businesses and consumers. Technologies designed to re-engineer internal applications as Cloud Computing applications, including usage monitors, merchant payment utilities, data and communication security, identity management, database management and mobile application extensions, are also offered.

“Companies have invested enormous resources to build world class internal applications,” says Richard Spangler, Managing Partner, PlazaBridge Group. “When appropriate, these companies can leverage this investment to create new revenue opportunities. The emergence of low cost, ubiquitous Cloud Computing technologies makes it possible to resell this asset without interruption to existing operations”

Cloud Computing is growing and offers significant cost advantages. Companies are investigating the opportunity to externalize once internal IT applications to the Web.  PlazaBridge Group is responding to market conditions and frequent client requests for this new service.

About PlazaBridge Group

PlazaBridge Group offers creative programs, services and products that expand the possibilities of success for our clients. The firm delivers real change and impact to organizations seeking revenue growth and organizational realignment.  Our people act as change agents, with intimate knowledge of how to apply entrepreneurial action to meet strategic objectives. Practice areas focus on sales growth, operational best practices and commercialization strategies.  Plazabridge Group’s reputation has been built on driving the financial and market growth of our clients. Started in 2007, the firm impacts companies in the Healthcare, Technology, Medical Services, Government, Consumer and Web-enabled markets.  PlazaBridge Group is a Microsoft BizSpark™ partner.  Additional information can be found at www.PlazaBridge.com



Contact:           Richard Spangler

Cell:  919-522-0657

Office:  919-627-7970

Richard@plazabridgegroup.com

Cloud Computing Is No Fad

Steve Hilton, 07.12.10, 12:30 PM EDT

The global market for these services is expected to triple by 2015.

The global market for enterprise cloud-based services will grow from $12.1 billion in 2010 to $35.6 billion in 2015 (see Figure 1). The year-on-year growth rate will be 43% in 2011, but will decrease to 13% over the next five years. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) will account for 70% of revenue in 2010, while 30% will be related to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). This revenue split will change over the next five years, as IaaS’s share increases to 40%.

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