In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Judy Estrin, CEO of JLabs, co-founder of seven technology companies, and author of Closing the Innovation Gap.
Ray Stata is co-founder of Analog Devices, Inc., based in Norwood, Massachusetts. As of 2009, ADI serves over 60,000 customers, has 9,000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion. Mr. Stata received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from MIT. He served as ADI’s CEO from 1971 to 1996 and is currently chairman of the board. We met with Mr. Stata in Norwood to explore his thoughts on bootstrapping a start-up, leadership in innovative companies, and the challenges and opportunities of globalization.
Kaizen: You were injured playing basketball in high school in Pennsylvania, and that led to your going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
Stata: Right. It was quite fortuitous that I jammed myself in a wall and injured my neck. So I ended up in a hospital for several days—in traction. Next to me there was an elderly gentleman who had spent his career as an engineer. By that time, as a sophomore in high school, I already was thinking about engineering as a career. I didn’t know much about engineering or anything about engineering schools. So I used this opportunity to quiz this guy. He told me a lot about what engineers do and about the best engineering schools.
What came out loud and clear was, “If you want to become an engineer and get an engineering education, there’s really only one place to consider, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” He said, “Just focus on MIT and go there; it’s the best.” I had never heard of MIT, but when I returned home, I started reading up on MIT and set my sights on going there. (more…)
From the press release: “Don’t miss this compelling documentary from award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, which chronicles the inspirational stories of several teens from low-income communities as they compete in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s [founded by Kaizen interviewee Steve Mariotti] national business plan competition. What they learn along the way profoundly changes their lives and destinies.”
The film will be shown this Sunday, February 7 at 11 am Central.
Thomas L. Friedman writes in a recent New York Times article that President Obama should be focusing on inspiring America’s youth to become entrepreneurial rather than playing the blame game with bankers. By contrast, Friedman praises Kaizen interviewee Steve Mariotti’sNFTE as an example of an organization doing excellent work with young entrepreneurs.
In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Ray Stata, co-founder and chairman of the board of Analog Devices, Inc., which serves over 60,000 customers, has 9,000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion.
In this issue we also feature our 2009 Templeton Freedom Award, our recent High School Career Day, and congratulate five student prize winners: Hannah Mueller, Jennifer LaSarre, Jake Maliszewski, Lisa Voss, and Kelly King.
A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Stata.
If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.
TEN9EIGHT, an inspiring documentary that follows several young entrepreneurs (a few are graduates ofKaizen interviewee Steve Mariotti’s NFTE program), opens in several major U.S. cities this Friday, November 13th.
Quoted from the New York Times article about the film: “I hope millions of kids see it,” said Steve Mariotti. For some youngster out there, he said. “it will be life-changing.”
See the TEN9EIGHT website for more information, including clips and showtimes. Watch the trailer below.
“Though Kaizen is a tool used by corporations to achieve greater innovation, productivity, and general excellence, it’s also an approach, an approach that we can learn from and apply to our own lives as we strive for continuous improvement on a more personal level. We can call this ‘Personal Kaizen.’” Read more at Presentation Zen.
Steve Mariotti is the founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Before NFTE, Mr. Mariotti was a successful entrepreneur and a teacher in some of New York’s most challenging schools. Because of his innovative methods for teaching business concepts Mariotti was named Teacher of the Year for New York State in 1988. We met with Mr. Mariotti in New York to explore his thoughts on his passion for teaching and entrepreneurship education as an exit strategy from poverty for at-risk youth.
Kaizen: You were mugged in 1981 by three teenagers in New York’s Lower East Side, and that led you to a major career change?
Mariotti: It did. The mugging caught me emotionally off guard, and I had a lot of flashbacks afterward. It got me interested in the question of why some kids would humiliate me over a small amount of money. And I started to think: Had they been able to sell me something or ask me to invest in a business deal, they could have gotten a lot more money and it would have been a win/win situation for everyone. And that really got me interested in a new career path in education, which turned out great. (more…)
The latest issue of Kaizen features our interview with Steve Mariotti, founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an organization dedicated to providing entrepreneurshipeducation to low-income youths.
Also featured in Kaizen are CEE guest speakers David Mayer and C. Bradley Thompson, an interview with Steve Kadamian on his entrepreneurship course, and a report on the 2009 High School Entrepreneur Day.
A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Mariotti.
If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.
Congratulations to Khetsiwe Dlamini, who was the subject of an article the Rockford Register Star this week for her leadership in the Rockford College Student Government. Khetsiwe also made her mark in Dr. Stephen Hicks’s Entrepreneurship and Ethics course, in which she gave an excellent presentation of her case study on the entrepreneur Richard Branson. Watch a short video clip from her presentation here. Additionally, Khetsiwe was featured in the April 2009 issue of Kaizen. 
The latest issue of Kaizen features our interview with Steve Mariotti, founder of the 
