Category: Uncategorized

It's common knowledge that women in STEM fields are a minority, and women of color are especially rare birds.  Mechie Nkengla joins The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show to tell the story behind her data analytics consulting company, Data Products LLC.

She has a refreshing candor and no-nonsense approach to life and business.  And she shares very openly some of the challenges she's faced in building her company and raising money, including the unique challenges of being a woman of color in data analytics .

She also has some great, hard-earned advice for other entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs.

It's a great listen — click on the arrow to the left!  You'll be glad you did!

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Strategy can make or break most businesses.  And Steve Garchow is convinced (and has statistics to back it up) that most companies do a poor job setting their business strategy.

And a big part of that they have no real business strategy process.  He shares a simple business strategy process.  He calls it Lean Strategic Decision Making, and he even wrote a book sharing in detail how to apply it.

Take a listen — my interview with Steve is chock-full of eye-opening examples and statistics, as well as great tips to help companies of all sizes do a better job setting their business strategy.

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Effective leadership is critical for business growth.  But the term is often misunderstood and misused, according to John Casey, President of Shamrock Consultants.

John's been at the business of leadership assessment and coaching for 26 years.  He shares what leadership is and isn't.  He also talks about how his firm methodically assesses leadership capabilities, as well as how people can get better at being good leaders.

Click on the arrow to take a listen — it'll be well worth your time!

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Christina Fontenelle says she became an entrepreneur because she just didn't fit in and couldn't do what she wanted to do anywhere else.  She shares the story of how she founded Fontenelle Art to help people with trauma and other mental health issues through art and dance.

Click on the arrow to listen as she shares her story.

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Many people, even in Chicago, don't know about Rosalind Franklin University.  It's probably the least well-known of Chicagoland's 6 medical schools.  But nestled in the northern suburbs of Chicago, it sits close to Illinois huge cluster of biotech and pharmaceutical companies.  Abbott, Baxter, Astellas, and Abbvie are the largest.  But there are many smaller companies, as well as divisions of several other large healthcare companies. 

Hoping to spur university-industry collaboration on new concepts and products, Rosalind Franklin in just 4 short years built a new science park.  The park includes a new healthcare incubator, called Helix 51.

Michael Rosen, Managing Director of Research and Innovation at the University also heads up Helix 51.  He joined The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show recently to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities of building a new incubator.  He explains the difference between an accelerator and an incubator. He also talks about how the University is planning to expand shared services for incubator companies.

Click on the arrow to listen!

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