Perspectives in the Year - 2006

The December 15 Connections event was on The Year in Perspective, The Good, The Bad, The Huhs? and our panelists and facilitator were:

• Ysabel Duron, "KRON 4 Weekend Morning News"
• Martin Kan, Silicon Valley Bank
• Jay Phillips, Senior VP, Cornish & Carey
• Keith Virnoche, Virnoche-Frigon Group at Merrill Lynch

Below are notes from the session.

Thoughts about Silicon Valley

• It's been a tough year for the low income. The middle income is also feeling the pinched, the upper income are becoming more strategic about how they spend their money.
• The economy is slowing down for some
• Our political leaders received a strong message encouraging change, as their perspectives are straying from that of their constituency.
• There's an undercurrent of unease. It's difficult to trust our leaders.
• On a positive note, values-driven business leaders are making strides to change our views on leaders, particularly in Silicon Valley where hope springs eternal. These business leaders striving to make money, have fun, and do good.

Thoughts about Real Estate Trends

• Due to increased corporate earnings, venture financings, and other factors, the real estate market is very strong, at all-time high prcies in some cases. We haven't seen such numbers since 1999-2000.
• Sales activity extremely strong, residential conversion subsides. Total vacancy rates continue to fall
• The rapid commercial expansion of companies like Google (and indirect residential expansion for employees) are directly affecting housing prices much more quickly and with much greater impact than anticipated
• Green energy companies are starting to impact the real estate market
• M&A activities are more strongly impacting the real estate market than anticipated

Thoughts about Venture Financing Trends (statistics from PriceWaterhouseCoopers Q3 2006 Shaking the MoneyTree Report)

• Steady Pace in Number of Deals: 2004: 3,024; 2005: 3,092; 2006: 2,533 (thru Q3)
• Increase in Total Dollars Invested: 2004: $22.1 billion; 2005: $22.7 billion; 2006: $19.2 billion
• Silicon Valley Continues to be the Leading Region for US Investments: 250 Deal in Q3 2006; 87 Deal in Q3 2006 for the New England Region.
• Software and Biotechnology Continue to Attract Strong Investor Interest
• Software - Number of Deals and Total Dollars in Q3: 2005: 205 $1.14 billion; 2006: 186 $1.10 billion
• Biotechnology - Number of Deals and Total Dollars in Q3: 2005: 101 $1.03 billion; 2006: 95 $1.14 billion

More thoughts on venture financing:

• VCs are raising their expectations/standards/requirements for funding
• Natives from India (software companies) and China (hardware companies) are returning to their countries
• Migration of European companies from UK, France, Finland establishing headquarters in Silicon Valley
• China is interested in moving from hardware manufacturing into design and India is looking at moving from software test to design

Thoughts about Investment Trends

• The economy is stronger than many people think - double-digit earnings growth ends after 15 quarters in a row
• Investments in 500 S&P may be a good opportunity now

What can we as leaders do?

• Foster innovation in your companies and partners as innovation offers countries and companies a competitive advantage
• Build a collective social conscience while meeting and exceeding business/revenue objectives
• Get involved - in your company, in your family, in your community!
• Support our local educational system

Thoughts on Executive Recruiting

FountainBlue's December 14 Transitions event featured a recruiter panel:

• Roy Fiebiger, Sanford Rose Associates-Silicon Valley, representing the life science management market
• Jim McFadzean, DHR International, representing senior-level positions in advanced technology companies
• Sue Salvesen, STRe Solutions, representing senior-level finance positions
• Gretchen Sand, Skyline Recruiting Corporation, representing engineering, product management and marketing for early stage companies
• Max Shapiro, PeopleConnect, representing the early stage company market
  

Through their comments and that of an engaged audience, we have a much better understanding of what to look for when working with a recruiter and a better understanding of what needs to happen to ensure a successful job search. Below are notes from this afternoon's session for your reference.

Characteristics of a Great Recruiter are that they are relationship-based rather than transaction-based

• Treat you with respect
• Transparent and clear with you
• High ethical standards

They partner with you and with the hiring manager

• to ensure a good fit of skills and culture
• to assess your interest and abilities and identify the skills, experience, personality needs of organization

They partner with candidate

• to help them understand value-add and to communicate it clearly
• to expedite the hiring process, where appropriate

Advice for Job-Seekers:

• Leverage technology
• Use resources like LinkedIn and LinkSV and Craigslist. Recruiters use them too.
• Be persistent
• Be strategic
• Understand your own strengths and weaknesses. You may want to interview former bosses, colleagues etc., to help you better understand this. You can use this information during the interview (representing what you know someone thinks about you instead of giving a 'vanilla response') and also line up references through this process.
  Practice selling to your strengths
• Research and understand the needs of the hiring company
• Understand and communicate how your strengths can help the hiring company
• Take responsibility for your search success, don't rely on someone else to close the deal or move it along
• Be particular with the people you are working with to find a job.
• Be particular about the organization you're willing to work for. 'How you do one thing is how you do everything,' so if you're not treated well during the interview process, it may reflect on how you would be treated after you sign on.
• If you're working with a recruiter, involve him in your search, even if you're considering applying for a job not covered by the recruiter.
  

Thoughts on Job Trends into 2007:

• Biotech is producing more jobs, more hiring
• There are never enough 'A players' to go around
• The market is looking better this year than last, and last year was better than any year since 2000
• There's an advantage to living in the area. Relocation costs are now seldom provided by companies

Creating a Work-Life Balance

FountainBlue's December 8, 2006 event was on the topic of Creating a Work-Life Balance

Silicon Valley women leaders are challenged by the corporate and business pressures of high-stress, high-impact positions, while still juggling the personal demands of life and family. This month's When She Speaks event focuses on how successful women are juggling these often-competing goals and what we can do to adjust our own and others' expectations on us, in order to ease the load. Our speakers will share their stories, commiserate with us, and challenge us to re-evaluate how roles, our priorities, and our own expectations for ourselves.

• Facilitator Michele Bolton, a founding partner of ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley, LLC, http://www.executivedge.com, an executive development and management consulting firm. Michele is a former professor of management, having recently retired from nearly twenty years on the faculty of the College of Business at San Jose State University, having taught MBA courses in visionary leadership, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and team building. She is the author of The Third Shift: Managing Hard Choices in our Careers, Homes and Lives as Women.
• Panelist Jan Schlossberg manages the Hardware Product Standards team at Cisco System, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco employs more than 47,000 employees worldwide, 24% of whom are women, and frequently appears on Working Mother magazine's "100 Best Companies" list. Jan will share the joys and challenges of standardizing hardware innovations across 80 product families while raising young children in a dual-income family
• Panelist Jennifer Gill Roberts is currently a partner at Maven Ventures. Having served as a serial VC for high technology companies across the valley and beyond, Jennifer has helped a wide range of early- and later- stage start-ups with access to funding and consultation on their business strategies. Jennifer will share how she juggles the intense business demands while raising three children alongside her husband.
• Panelist Nivisha Mehta is currently the development director for South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/. Nivisha will share how she has successfully juggled her work interests in support of nonprofits across the region and her growing young family.
• Panelist Kristi Royse is currently President of KLR Consulting, http://www.klrconsulting.com a successful consulting practice focusing on team and organizational challenges for executives in the valley. Kristi will share how she successfully balances her business interests with that of her family.

Below is a Summary of Notes and Advice for your Creating a Work-Life Balance, drawn on the wisdom of our facilitators and participants. We also invite your comments on these notes.

Set realistic goals about what you can accomplish, based on your resources and strengths and support networks and manage your activities based on those goals.

• Visualize success. Look forward, not backwards.
• Embrace the positives about yourself, don't focus on the negatives.
• If it's a goal worth achieving, focus on achieving that goal, even is it's harder than you thought it would be, and if it takes longer than you thought it would take.
• Be realistic and strategic about your standard for balance

Define what you mean for balance in which areas (work, life, family, friends, etc.,) over what period of time (day, week, month)

• Define success for you
• Manage your activities and self-talk based on your defined standards
• Accept that you can't always keep all the balls in the air. One of them is going to drop. That's OK. Just pick it up once in a while and keep juggling.
• Being balanced is about being happy.

Advice for professional women who chose to have a family

• If you have made a career choice, don't second-guess yourself if/when your children, for example, ask for more time from you.
• If you have young children and need to spend more time with them, considering finding a situation a work with the flexibility to do it.
• If you have chosen a high-pressure career which doesn't support raising a family, and you decide to do it, don't think too much about when a good time will be. Just do it and find a way to make it work afterwards.
• As business professionals, consider your opporutnities to volunteer and make sure that you can make a good impact which best utilizes your skills, acknowledges the needs of your children, and supports the organization.
• Tell your children why you are doing what they are doing. Share your work with them.
• Get your children invested in the success of your chosen career.
  

Create an inspirational vision for your life and work, and strive toward achieving that

• Know yourself - your strengths, your passions. Focus on your strengths and build on them.
• Follow your passion. Enjoy what you do.
• Model your values in your work, in your life
• Live autentically, with curiousity, with passsion and with fun.
• Manage your energy so that you're happy, living the life you want.

Delegate tasks, leverage resources for tasks that do not provide core value for people closest to you

• Leverage resources around you - family, hired help from gardener to babysitter to cook to handyman
• Build a support network to support yourself personally
• Continue the conversations with others
• Make time for your family and friends
• Work with your support network so that you can get personal time
• Enjoy each other. Take the time to communicate.
• Seek mentors. Learn from others.
• Dedicate time for your personal and physical health. Exercise can be a great stress-reducer for example.

Do what you have to do to be successful at your chosen task. Enjoy doing it. It doesn't get any better than that!

For more information:

• Michele's book is available at The Third Shift: Managing Hard Choices in Our Careers, Homes, and Lives as Women is available on Amazon.com
• For more information about Nivisha's organization, visit the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/. The mission of center is to dramatically reduce the high incidence of coronary artery disease among South Asians, and save lives, through a comprehensive, culturally-appropriate program incorporating education, advanced screening, lifestyle changes, and case management. Join us in supporting this great cause by visiting http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/support/donatenow.html.