The Board of Directors of the Fresno Business Council (FBC) and the San Joaquin Valley Manufacturing Alliance (SJVMA), are pleased to jointly announce Genelle Taylor Kumpe as the FBC’s first Chief Operating Officer and the SJVMA’s first Executive Director effective September 1, 2018. Please join us in welcoming Genelle. Genelle Taylor Kumpe Press Release Contact […]
Dancing in the Hurricane – Surviving the Age of Acceleration
Are You Ready for the Next Economy? If you haven’t yet read Thomas Friedman’s latest book Thank You For Waiting, you’ve probably heard about it. Friedman expertly takes us on the journey of society-altering technology that launched in 2007, forever changing the world we knew…and in many cases the course of our professional lives. Insecurity about […]
Changemakers – The Social Enterprise Movement
There was a time, not so long ago, when even the idea of mission-based for-profit companies was completely foreign. Social change was reserved for nonprofits and government work. In 1994, John Elkington coined the term “triple bottom line,” and the result was as if we began to give ourselves permission, on a wider scale, to […]
Mind the (Skills) Gap
The White House announced this week that Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant, Foxconn, plans to invest $10 billion in a new manufacturing facility in Wisconsin – a big win, the White House says, for revitalizing the “Made in America” mantra and manufacturing jobs in the midwest. The 3,000 expected jobs from this development, though, won’t replace […]
The Case for Conscious Capitalism
Decades of drive toward a single bottom line seems to have caused a violent swing in the other direction, one that sought swift correction to complex social and environmental problems created by runaway capitalism. In their article “Runaway Capitalism” published in Harvard Business Review in 2012, Christopher Meyer and Julia Kirby note, “Certainly we humans have the […]
Dissolving Shame Culture by Redefining Failure
As human emotions go, shame is one of the most crippling. The fear of exclusion or being exposed is deeply embedded in the human psyche. This can keep us from actions that may harm or cause discomfort to others. Despite its strong self-regulatory impact, we have managed to weaponize it—use it as a tool for […]
Apprenticeships: Human Capital Investment Best Practice
Many regional manufacturing companies are faced with tough attrition issues right now. With high turnover, an aging workforce or any of the other myriad challenges causing a skills gap, the need for employees with advanced skills is tremendous. Regionally, we have many programs focused on bringing in the next generation of the manufacturing workforce, but […]