Utah Business Blog

By Clark Roundy, Luxul Wireless VP of Marketing

In the late 90’s I joined a small, struggling engineering firm of about 15 employees. Over the next several years, this company evolved into Linux Networx and at its height achieved more than $60 million in revenue. It was a great ride! When I joined, the company was virtually unknown outside of its niche market, but was loaded with talented individuals and a creative culture that simply needed to be properly channeled. During a fortuitous customer meeting, we identified an emerging and large market opportunity. While we had some expertise in this new arena, we also had a number of holes to fill. We refocused the organization’s creative energy and set out to change the world through a combination of product development and strategic alliances – developing a disruptive technology and breaking many industry barriers and milestones. This was achieved because we had a focused plan and excellent team execution. Linux Networx became a recognized market leader with annual revenues doubling year-over-year during a time span of several years. For various reasons, that level of success didn’t last — but that’s a story for another day.  

With Linux Networx, while innovation was critical to growth and success, equally important was developing the right strategic partnerships (financial, technology, channel, supplier, etc.).  Having the right partner can elevate your company’s stature and add prestige. On the other hand, having the wrong partner can have the exact opposite effect and be worse than having no partner at all. So, how to chose wisely? Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years:

1)    Have a plan: Know what you’re looking for in a partner. Begin by conducting a strategic analysis of the market sectors and target audiences that make the most sense for your business. What are your organization’s limitations that could be strengthened by a partner? Be sure to understand clearly where you are so that you can identify complementary partners.

2)    Do your homework: Once you know what you’re looking for, learn everything you can about each potential partner. Get references from people that have worked with them before. Be sure to ask the hard questions: How are they as a partner? What challenges have you experienced in working with them? Are its people the best at what they do? Is there someone better that should be considered?

3)    Validate mutual interest and commitment: This is important! I’ve seen a ton of wasted energy and resource by organizations so eager to partner that they don’t properly validate interest or commitment levels by the other party. Do they have a solid understanding of and share your objectives? Are they genuinely excited about joining forces for an alliance? Most importantly, are they willing to put “skin in the game?” A partnership that doesn’t include clear objectives and commitments by both parties will fail 100% of the time.

4)    Set the ground rules: Both parties need to know and agree to the expectations. Work together to identify specific tasks and programs to drive your mutual business. Set time frames and make assignments. When negotiating the terms, be careful not to sell yourself short. If you do, you’re going to spend a lot of time and energy holding up your end of the relationship, while being disappointed with the performance of your partner.

5)    Get it in writing: Putting your observations and desires in writing helps crystallize your thinking about the relationship. A strategic partnership is a calculated gamble and an investment by both parties. Outlining the responsibilities (either through a formal agreement or a MOU) of each party will keep you both on task.

More recently, at Luxul Wireless, we followed these points and identified new opportunities within various market sectors. We did our homework and carefully selected technology partners that could complement and add value to our offerings. Just last week we unveiled a new product solution with two of our partners that uses Luxul Shock-WAV and X-WAV products as key technologies. The product, called LastLink, is unique and highly valuable to the U.S. Department of Defense and Homeland Security. The integrated solution would not have been possible without the right partnerships.

Throughout this process, keep in mind that a successful strategic alliance is a long-term partnership. It must be win-win in order to be sustainable and mutually beneficial. If you “look before you leap” you can be sure to find strategic partners that really partner.

About Clark Roundy, Luxul Wireless VP of Marketing

Clark Roundy is VP of Marketing at Luxul Wireless. Throughout his 20 year career, Mr. Roundy has worked extensively with early stage and emerging companies to identify core competencies and implement key growth strategies. In his role at Luxul Wireless, Mr. Roundy is responsible for marketing strategy and oversees all outbound marketing programs as well as product and brand management.

Prior to joining Luxul Wireless, Mr. Roundy has held key executive positions at Linux Networx, Penguin Computing, Parvus Corporation, Alta Technology, and the Eyring Research Institute. Because of his diversity, his roles have included sales and marketing leadership, strategic planning, business and partner development, product management, and professional services program development. He also has an affinity and aptitude for international business, having managed and built sales, service, and supply chain organizations within Asia, Europe, and South America.

Mr. Roundy is well recognized as a key contributor to the development of the Linux cluster marketplace—a technology that has revolutionized the traditional supercomputing industry. He holds multiple patents related to Linux clustering. Mr. Roundy is a graduate of Brigham Young University.

The above post reflects the views and opinions of Clark Roundy and does not necessarily reflect those of Utah Business.

By Steve Earl, CEO of Real Estate Investors Club

Recently I was explaining our theory on compassionate investing to a reporter when she responded, “There should be no compassion in investing!” She was only half kidding.  By definition, investing is the act of committing money in order to gain financial return.  The truth is, smart investing can also help others – which is what I call compassionate investing.

It’s no secret the real estate market has been volatile over the past 18 months.  A record number of foreclosures, short sales, bank bailouts, and a weak economy have left the industry temporarily battered.  As these trends formed I began to wonder – where will all of the people who are foreclosed on go? Will they ever own homes again?

Thus a business idea expanded and REIC was born.  First and foremost, we help investors make money and increase their personal wealth.  But along the way, we give foreclosed individuals a place to live and help them work towards owning a home again in a few short years.  We offer them financial counseling to make sure that goal comes to fruition.  In the end, we have strengthened communities in Utah with improved properties and tenants who actually care about their home.

I suspect compassionate investing could be effective in many other industries if we tried.  What do you think – can your business participate in compassionate investing?  Can you find a way to make money AND help others?  Here are a few other examples here in Utah:

• US Synthetic’s relationship with Yehu Microfinance, a microfinance organization in the rural coastal region of Kenya for the poor, run by the poor.
• Huntsman Cancer Institute is a legacy of Jon Huntsman Sr. and Huntsman Chemical.
• Certiport has provided thousands of individuals a boost in their job outlook through Skilled 2 Succeed and other philanthropic endeavors.

Steve Earl is the CEO of Real Estate Investors Club.  With more than $30 million in real estate moved in the past year, REIC is a force for innovation in the real estate landscape.  For more information, visit www.reicutah.com.

The above blog post reflects the opinions of Steve Earl and not necessarily those of Utah Business. 

By Nathan White, Chief Investment Officer at Paragon Wealth Management

I have always been amazed at how fast markets can move.

If your pieces are not in place before a move occurs you often miss out on the best part of the move.
The hard part about getting your pieces in place before a move is that you must act early and you must pay the price of being wrong for a while. This is the trade-off, and there is no way around it.
Look at the way so many are now scrambling to get in the market now that the sun has appeared through the clouds and the world has not ended. The opposite is just as true after as people clamor to get out of the market after it drops.

If the clouds have parted, how should your investments be positioned?
At Paragon Wealth Management, we favor sectors and asset classes that perform the best after market bottoms. These include areas such as emerging markets, which can benefit from a snap back in demand not only from the U.S. but from domestic demand as well.
In prior periods, many of these markets were wholly dependant upon the U.S. However, with emerging middle-classes in countries such as Brazil and China the potential for growth is amplified. Sectors that get beat up the most in sell-offs often have the most “snap back” potential.
The Material and Financial sectors really took it on the chin during the last six months and have been roaring back with a vengeance after being severely over-sold. Other areas that perform well during recovery periods are Technology and Small-Cap.

It can be very difficult from a psychological standpoint to get back into the market after a low has been established.
People are so shell-shocked by the bear market that no one believes the rally when it first starts. Many (professional and individuals) wait for a re-test or pull-back to get back in only to have the market steadily clime away from them.
Does this sound familiar?

This post reflects the views of Nathan White and not necessarily those of Utah Business.

By Ryan Bingham, Partner, Spectra Management

According to Wall Street Journal blogger Laura Meckler, a collection of healthcare groups referred to as the “Health Reform Dialogue” issued a set of recommendations aimed at governing the debate over restructuring healthcare. While this could give a boost to the health revamp effort underway on Capitol Hill, the group dodged issues such as whether individuals or employers should be required to buy or offer coverage (mandated insurance), and whether a government-run health plan should be available to compete with private companies.

As a Utah business that may or may not provide employees with health insurance, it would be a good idea to keep a close eye on these thorny health issues as they could come back to haunt your business if not proactively managed.

For instance, if health insurance is supposed to be available to everyone, but you don’t require everyone to buy insurance, what is the incentive for healthy people to get covered? Why shouldn’t these people just go without, and buy insurance only if they get sick or injured?

These are just a few of the arguments behind including a health-insurance mandate as part of any big health-reform plan aiming to bring health coverage to more people. The health insurance industry strongly backs a mandate…no big surprise. However, a few unanswered questions are how does this healthcare reform lower the cost of health insurance and, if the mandate is enacted who will be responsible and how will we as a country pay for it?

With this said, if this mandate argument should prevail on Capitol Hill by the end of July, it would be wise to spend some quality time discussing the possible implications of this mandate with your healthcare provider or advisor in advance.

On the heated topic of a government-run health plan, a key question looms: Should the effort to cover the uninsured include a government-run health plan to compete against private insurers? Democrats like the idea, Republicans don’t—another non-shocker.

However, it appears that Congressional Democrats may be willing to give up on the idea to get a compromise bill through the Senate, which would hopefully bring a refreshing change and the smartest ideas into healthcare policy-making, which up until now has been very partisan.

Currently, one of the largest obstacles to a government-run plan for Republicans is the unfair cost-shifting that the current Medicare system imposes on the private sector, not to mention the projected increased cost and choice burden a government-run plan would have on the private health insurance sector.

Whether or not a new, government-run health plan is established, the health-reform bill being pushed by the Obama Administration is likely to create a health-insurance exchange, where individuals and small businesses can shop for coverage. If a hybrid healthcare exchange is created, it could very well bring the positive reform required to truly help Utahns and the Utah business community thrive over the next decade.

Spectra Management is redefining employee benefits in Utah. Originally established in 1986, the company has a track record of providing local businesses with innovative health insurance, savings and retirement plans that make sense today—and for years to come.

This post reflects the views of Ryan Bingham and Spectra Managmement and does not necessarily reflect those of Utah Business magazine.

Earlier this year I predicted that once we got to a point that President Obama could speak on television and the market would go sideways or up, that would be a sign that the market might have hit bottom. Once you hit a certain point you run out of sellers and there is nothing left to bring the market further down. After watching a politically perpetuated 25% drop in the Dow Industrials this year alone, it appears we may have hit the low point in the market on March 9.

The market was so low at that point, down 54% from its peak that it appeared as though everything negative had been factored in, maybe several times over. At that point, confidence was completely destroyed, such that high yield bond default rates were projected at double the level they were during the great depression. Another metric showed consumer spending at the same level it would be if unemployment were 30%. (It’s actually 8.5%)

Imagine you were asleep the past 18 months and just woke up. Looking forward, not backward, things actually look pretty good.

· Six of our eight “bull watch” indicators support the case for a new bull market.

· Most of the economic indicators we watch have stopped declining and are now moving sideways or up

· Housing is more affordable and mortgage rates are lower than they have been for some time.

· Energy is more affordable for consumers and businesses.

· Credit has loosened and Interest rates are extremely low.

· Massive global government stimulus is occurring.

· Abundant amounts of investor cash is on the sidelines.

· This has been called the sale of the century. In inflation adjusted terms the March 9th low point put the Dow Industrials at the same level it was 43 years ago. In 1966 there were no PCs, no internet and our work force was half the size of what it is today.

· Four-fifths of top economists in the latest WSJ survey said now is a good time to buy stocks.

· Investor sentiment has reached the negative extremes and started to reverse.

Going Forward

Both our conservative and growth portfolios were down during the first quarter.  By the end of April both portfolios had reversed strongly and turned positive for the year.  Both portfolios continue to be invested in the areas of the market that have historically performed the best after a bear market. After the 2000-2002 bear market we were able to almost double the return of the market averages by positioning our portfolios in the best places.

This is the 34^th bear market in the past 100 years. The future always looks bleak when the bear market is the worst. People become irrationally pessimistic. That is when the naysayers have their day of fame. They get all the press and the media loves them. They always expect things to get worse and they always attract a lot of followers. And they have always been wrong. Not wrong once or twice, but the past 34 times.

Our economic system is very resilient. Our markets and our economy have always recovered from these difficult times in the past. We’ve made it through recessions, world wars, a civil war and a depression. I believe in the free market system.   Our market and economy will recover again.  I believe we are living through an investment opportunity that only happens once or twice in a lifetime.  Don’t let it pass you by…

About the Author
Dave Young, President and founder of Paragon Wealth Management, started Paragon in 1986. Today he continues to invest and research ways he can improve his business to serve his clients better. His methods have attracted national and local attention. He has been interviewed by BusinessWeek, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Deseret Morning News and other national and local media. He also writes for Paragon’s blog called Money Manager’s Live and other publications.

This post reflects the opinions of Dave Young, and not necessarily those of Utah Business.

By John Pilmer, President of PilmerPR

The triple bottom line, CSR and social responsibility are all buzz words gracing headlines and the agendas of corporate meetings both large and small. But what do they all mean? And why is everyone talking about them?

Corporate social responsibility or CSR is a relatively new and increasingly large concern for corporations and small businesses alike. CSR is also known as corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, sustainable responsible business (SRB) and corporate social performance. Simply put, corporate social responsibility is self-regulation built into a company’s business plan.

In a perfect world, a company’s CSR policies would self-monitor in accordance to their obedience to laws, ethical standards and governmental regulations. In other words, the company would force itself to comply with standards before the government gets involved.

Although observance of government regulations is certainly a part of CSR, there are many other pieces of the puzzle. One major part of the CSR puzzle is commonly referred to as corporate citizenship. This refers to how a company acts like citizen in their country, city, town and community. A company’s citizenship role is vital for not only the company, but also the community in which it resides. A socially responsible company will proactively encourage community growth and development, as well as take significant and meaningful strides to eliminate their negative effects on the community and world due to business practices.

Initiatives including recycling, telecommuting, low-income housing projects, green awards and many others, have all been part of one or another company’s pledge to act responsibly. In March of 2008, T-Mobile ran a campaign that pledged a new tree to be planted for every customer who switched to paperless billing. Companies like, McDonalds, Starbucks, Sony and many others have dedicated Web sites with information regarding their corporate social responsibility actions.

By acting responsibly with employees, communities, and consumers a company can make deposits to their piggy banks of “blue sky” (positive brand sentiment). Community projects, volunteering and helping hands go a long way when negative issues regarding a corporation arise. However, care must also be taken to ensure that your socially responsible actions are not seen as merely an easy way to buy public opinion.  

To avoid negative reactions to your proactive involvement in corporate responsibility a long-term approach is vital. Donating a truck load of books to an elementary school, in order to try and build a sky rise development on that same school’s playground the next year will not work and is not socially responsible.

By using people, planet and profits as your standard of your triple bottom line, your company will have the vision to operate responsibly and the ability to act proactively.

For part II click here.

About the Author
John Pilmer, APR is founder and president of PilmerPR, LLC. In its 6th year, the award-winning PilmerPR team provides enterprise-level expertise at a small business price. The company is a 2008 recipient of the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce Arthur V Watkins award for excellence. PilmerPR was recently recognized at the National Press Club in Washington, DC for its work in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Also, see KSL Channel 5 interview of the author regarding crisis communications. 

The above post contains views and opinions of John Pilmer and do not necessarily reflect those of Utah Business.

By Ryan Bingham, Partner, Spectra Management

By Clark Roundy, Luxul Wireless VP of Marketing

Marketing programs can be one of the first casualties in a down economy. Such budgetary decisions are usually made with short-term objectives in mind, but can often lead to long-term negative results if not properly managed. Even with limited budgets, there are a number of smart, creative, and low cost methods for continuing to build market awareness, while weathering the economic storm:

1.    Build Your Web Presence: If you only have budget to develop one medium for presenting your company story, your best use of time and resources (depending on your target audience) may very well be spent online.  While building your online brand does typically require a significant investment, getting started with a basic website is a relatively inexpensive and painless proposition. If you’re not online already, a good way to get started is by using tools like Squarespace, which offers templates for easily building your site, as well as hosting services for as little as $8/month. When you compare the costs of creating similar printed materials—as well as the costs of changing or maintaining content—building and hosting a website is a bargain.

2.    Social Networking: Never underestimate the power of a trend that becomes a lifestyle. Blogging and social networking are here to stay and are important tools that can keep you and your organization in the middle of the action. Starting a blog is relatively simple and free with sites like Wordpress and Blogger. Social networking tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are all free—but beware that these tools can also be time consuming and non-productive if you don’t stay focused on your marketing objectives.

3.    Webinars and Online Meetings: While there’s never a good substitute for building relationships through face-to-face contact, webinars and online meetings can be an acceptable alternative. In terms of webinar tools, there are a number of options available. One of my personal favorites is GoToWebinar. It’s easy to use, is reasonably priced, and has a lot of great features. For less than $100/month you can host an unlimited number of online events and meetings with up to 1000 people at each event. Although not as fully featured, there’s also a free, open source web meeting option called Dimdim that is worth considering.    

4.    Public Relations: There’s nothing quite like free publicity for building your company’s credibility and awareness. And, while PR is more than just sending out press releases—and good PR isn’t necessarily cheap—targeted PR efforts that get your message into the right hands can be a valuable component of a low cost marketing program. 

For many companies, the initial reaction to a slowdown in the economy is to cut back their marketing investment. However, successful companies will see it as an opportunity to surpass the competition with smart & high ROI marketing activities. The four points outlined above—if executed correctly—are relatively low-cost strategies that have the potential to deliver high-return. When the clouds clear, you don’t want to be caught in a rebuilding mode—or worse. With the right strategy and execution, you can be looking at the competition in the rear view mirror and shifting into the next gear.

About Clark Roundy, Luxul Wireless VP of Marketing

Clark Roundy is VP of Marketing at Luxul Wireless. Throughout his 20 year career, Mr. Roundy has worked extensively with early stage and emerging companies to identify core competencies and implement key growth strategies. In his role at Luxul Wireless, Mr. Roundy is responsible for marketing strategy and oversees all outbound marketing programs as well as product and brand management.

Prior to joining Luxul Wireless, Mr. Roundy has held key executive positions at Linux Networx, Penguin Computing, Parvus Corporation, Alta Technology, and the Eyring Research Institute. Because of his diversity, his roles have included sales and marketing leadership, strategic planning, business and partner development, product management, and professional services program development. He also has an affinity and aptitude for international business, having managed and built sales, service, and supply chain organizations within Asia, Europe, and South America.

Mr. Roundy is well recognized as a key contributor to the development of the Linux cluster marketplace—a technology that has revolutionized the traditional supercomputing industry. He holds multiple patents related to Linux clustering. Mr. Roundy is a graduate of Brigham Young University.

The opinions presented in this blog post are solely those of Clark Roundy of Luxul Wireless and do not necessarily reflect those of Utah Business.

Written by Dave Young, President Paragon Wealth Management

(Read Part I here)

So are we happier? No!!

This spectacular increase in wealth has had almost no positive effective on our society’s happiness. In fact, from 1957 to 1996 the proportion of people telling the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center that they are “very happy” declined slightly (from 35% to 30%.) Over the same time period; divorce doubled, the prison population quintupled and major depression rose tenfold, turning it into the fourth most common debilitating disease. America’s not alone; Europe and Japan have experienced the same basic trends.

One of the happiness researchers’ more noteworthy findings came from a survey of Forbe’s 400 wealthiest Americans. These cent millionaires and billionaires were asked to rate their life satisfaction from “extremely dissatisfied” (1) to “extremely satisfied” (7). Surprisingly, the respondents’ average rating was 5.7, only slightly above the average rating.

But here’s the really interesting part. Masai tribesmen from Kenya in East Africa also participated in the life satisfaction survey. Although they live in huts made out of dirt and cow dung, herd cattle for a living, have no electricity or running water, and don’t have any money, they also rated themselves a 5.7 in the life satisfaction scale.

Quite a few studies now show that believing that money is more important than other values—like relationships with loved ones, spirituality, a feeling that your life is contributing to the greater good—is actually detrimental to happiness. Clearly there’s more to happiness than wealth, luxury and material comforts.

So, how much is the right amount of money to maximize our happiness? Here’s the bottom line from the scientific research on happiness—once we have enough money to pay for life’s basics like food, clothing and housing, more money has very little impact on our happiness.

More money does buy more happiness and well-being if you are poor, and increases fairly quickly until you achieve a solid middle class income. But research shows once your household income reaches the middle class range, increased income has a diminishing positive impact on your happiness and well-being.

The point is, above a certain income level, which isn’t by any means “wealthy”, additional income alone has almost no impact on our happiness. And depending on the price you pay to earn it, more income could even reduce your quality of life.

In fact, a large and growing number of studies support happiness researcher Ed Diener’s comment that, “Materialism is toxic for happiness.” But most Americans don’t seem to believe this.

Why, if we tell researchers that more money doesn’t make us happier, do we chase it so hard? We could blame it on advertisers and the media, two giant institutions that have a vested interest in having us consume more and more stuff each year. But there is another, more subtle villain; the subconscious workings of our brain.

Psychologists have developed a term “hedonic treadmill” to describe humans adaptation to more wealth and material goods. So if you get a new car, you will be happier for a while, but then you will adapt, and so think it’s normal. In order to maintain the same level of happiness through consumption, you must continually buy new things. This is what the concept of “retail therapy” is all about. Adaptation is great for the economy, but bad for you and your financial security.

As an investment advisor, I often work with people who believe that more money will buy them more happiness. As evidenced by this article, in reality, I should help clients determine what will really make them happy and then determine how much income their ideal life will require. It may be a lot less than they originally thought.

About the Author
Dave Young, President and founder of Paragon Wealth Management, started Paragon in 1986. Today he continues to invest and research ways he can improve his business to serve his clients better. His methods have attracted national and local attention. He has been interviewed by BusinessWeek, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Deseret Morning News and other national and local media. He also writes for Paragon’s blog called Money Manager’s Live and other publications.

The opinions reflected in this blog post are solely those of Dave Young and do not necessarily reflect those of Utah Business.

Written by Dave Young, President

A friend of mine, Steve Moeller, did research on the science of happiness. He gathered information to write a book about what really makes people happy. He gave me permission to share some excerpts with you from an article he wrote for Investment Advisor magazine. I found his thoughts very interesting, and hope you will too.

The assumption that more money will make us happier is etched into our consciousness. Happiness is something we all want; it’s the holy grail of Western civilization. Biologists have recently proven that all higher species from lizards up to humans are biologically programmed to pursue pleasure and positive emotions. It’s a basic subconscious drive that all creatures have. Everything we do, we do because we consciously or unconsciously believe that it will make us happy.

That more money will lead directly to more happiness is such a basic assumption that most people never stop to question it. When researchers at the University of Michigan asked research subjects what would improve the quality of their lives, the majority of the respondents said “more money.”

The assumption that more money will bring us more happiness is, championed by our culture, promoted with billions of dollars of advertising each year, and institutionalized in our public policy. And it is still the primary promise of benefits that many investment advisors focus on. But is it true?

“Happiness” researchers have conducted more than 150 surveys all over the world with more than a 1 million participants. Let’s take a look at what they have learned.

Since the end of WWII the purchasing power of American households has tripled. New homes are now twice as big as they were after the war, we have twice as many cars per person, and we eat out more often. The average American now lives much better than most of the kings and queens throughout history.

So are we happier?
Stay tuned for Part II, and I’ll tell you what research shows.

About the Author
Dave Young, President and founder of Paragon Wealth Management, started Paragon in 1986. Today he continues to invest and research ways he can improve his business to serve his clients better. His methods have attracted national and local attention. He has been interviewed by BusinessWeek, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Deseret Morning News and other national and local media. He also writes for Paragon’s blog called Money Manager’s Live and other publications.

The opinions reflected in this blog post are solely those of Dave Young and do not necessarily reflect those of Utah Business.