THE APPLE PUSHERS, narrated by actor Edward Norton and underwritten by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, is the latest film from writer/director and Kaizen interviewee Mary Mazzio. The film follows immigrant street cart vendors who are rolling fresh fruits and vegetables into the inner cities of New York (where finding a fresh ripe red apple can be a serious challenge.) These pushcart vendors (who all have immigrated here from all parts of the world for different reasons and who have sacrificed so much to come to this country (near death crossing the Mexican border, as an example) — are now part of a new experiment in New York to help solve the obesity crisis in the inner city. COMING SOON

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship is sponsoring two essay contests for Rockford College students this semester.

Introduction to Philosophy students were given the topic (Due April 14): What is independence, and is it a good thing? [Contest flyer pdf]

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Business and Economic Ethics students were given the topic (Due April 18): What essential character traits and business skills lead individuals and organizations to succeed? [Contest flyer pdf]

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The winners will receive cash prizes and be featured in upcoming issues of Kaizen.

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Jack Stack, Founder and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation, author of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, and “Father of Open-book Management” (Inc. Magazine).

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Sarah Boykin, Shelly Wenzel, and Bethany Borgmann, and guest speakers Michael Strong and Magatte Wade.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Stack.

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.

Eduardo Marty is the Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina, an educational outreach program. Students in JA are taught how to prepare a business plan and raise funds. Approximately 50,000 students per year across Argentina participate. Marty has also held academic posts as professor at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, and the University of Buenos Aires. He was the host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics. We met with Mr. Marty in Buenos Aires to talk about his business education programs for young people and the state of entrepreneurship in South America.

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Kaizen: Where did you grow up in Argentina?

Marty: In Buenos Aires. I went to elementary and high school here and the University too.

Kaizen: Before university, what was your education like?

Marty: Well, I went to school called National Buenos Aires. That’s the oldest high school in Buenos Aires, created in 1770. It’s a public school, but it’s a very prestigious one. It was the first school in Buenos Aires. To enter, you need to pass a very tough test once you finish elementary school. From five students submitting and applying—they accept just one. Our education is divided into elementary school and then secondary school. When I was in sixth grade I tried to pass the exam and I did it, so I was one year younger than the rest.

The Jewish community attends that school a lot. It is a very intellectual community here in Buenos Aires. By the way, you know that after New York Buenos Aires has the second largest Jewish community in the hemisphere.

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Norm Augustine believes that America is falling behind other countries like China and India in technological innovation. This is because our culture portrays engineers and scientists as nerds rather than venerating them, because our educational system deemphasizes science and math, and because we don’t invest enough in long-term basic research. “Despite what many Americans believe,” he writes, “our nation does not possess an innate knack for greatness.  Greatness must be worked for and won by each new generation.”

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Read our Kaizen interview with Judy Estrin, in which she covers similar themes.

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Eduardo Marty, Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina and former host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics.

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Kathleen Simmert, Nathaniel Branch, and Amelia Franceso, and guest speaker Nimish Adhia.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Marty.

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.

Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation recently launched its first Women in Science and Engineering Business Idea Competition. “We know that more women than ever are leading U.S. businesses and hold a nearly three-to-one majority in undergraduate and graduate education, but too few pursue the path of high-growth entrepreneurship,” said Lesa Mitchell, vice president, Kauffman Foundation. “The Women in Science and Engineering Business Idea Competition is designed to illuminate world-changing concepts that have significant commercialization potential, and to escalate their visibility so that more female scientists and engineers are encouraged to pursue their entrepreneurial ideas.”

Learn more about the competition at the Kauffman Foundation’s website.

Also, be sure to read our fascinating Kaizen interviews with two highly-educated female entrepreneurs, Reena Kapoor and Judy Estrin. Both women share their thoughts on the effect of culture on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Kaizen interviewee Reena Kapoor wrote a chapter for the recently-published book 42 Rules of Product Management: Learn the Rules of Product Management from Leading Experts from Around the World. She also posted the chapter, entitled “Be All You Can Be – Think like a General Manager!”, on her website. The article urges product managers to think more like general managers, but the methodology applies to anyone who wants to run a business. Ms. Kapoor’s theme is that one needs to learn to ask the right questions about the overall context of a product, and the process of researching and answering those questions will result in a better strategy.

Mary Mazzio is an award-winning independent filmmaker, Olympic rower, and former law firm partner with Brown Rudnick. She received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, a law degree from Georgetown University, and studied film production at Boston University. Her company, 50 Eggs, LLC, has produced five independent films shown across the United States on television, in classrooms, and in theatres. We met with Ms. Mazzio outside of Boston, Massachusetts, to explore her thoughts on entrepreneurship and the challenges and excitement of making documentaries.

Kaizen: You’ve been a lawyer, an Olympic rower, and now a documentary filmmaker. When you were young, did you have any idea your adult life would be so varied?

Mazzio: Not at all. Although as a kid I remember always having a sort of boundless enthusiasm for whatever it was that I was doing. So I always thought that good things would happen in the end but I had no idea.

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In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Mary Mazzio, award-winning documentary filmmaker, Olympic rower, and former law firm partner with Brown Rudnick.

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Rebecca Logan, Jaime Binning, and Joshua Branch, and guest speaker Douglas B. Rasmussen.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Ms. Mazzio.

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.