"Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity." — Reed Markham

Chester Arthur, who served as President of the United States from 1881 to 1885, will never be regarded as one our great leaders. In fact, many Americans would be hard pressed to identify him as one of our presidents. Arthur, who served after President Garfield was assassinated, may well have possessed the basic qualities of a great leader. But the time of his presidency was fairly stable, so he was never called upon to step up.

Tough times, on the other hand, are when great leaders show their stuff. If you look at many of the famous leaders throughout history, you'll notice they became famous because they navigated through seemingly impossible times. They held the flashlight at the end of the tunnel. Legendary leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and, more recently, Rudy Giuliani come to mind. All were faced with incredibly complex or catastrophic situations. Instead of cowering in indecision, they reacted boldly and aggressively. They threw conventional wisdom out the window and developed their own playbooks on the spot.

So what does this have to do with entrepreneurs? In short, it's time to step up as leaders of your enterprises. Extremely difficult economic times are here and may be here to stay. You're time to shine is here. So what is a business leader to do? The reflexive action is to take a hatchet to the budget, impose layoffs and halt all plans for growth. These steps are relatively easy to take, so leadership skills rarely come into play. And often, they are exactly the wrong things to do.

But great leaders know that only dead fish swim with the current. So they work harder to get through trying times, searching for more creative solutions and inspiring their coworkers to stay engaged. They also take some time to pause and think because they know they shouldn't react impusively. Only then do they act.

So how am I trying to live up to this leadership ideal? After pausing to think, I'm taking the following steps:

1. I asked my coworkers to help me look at our expenses and figure out where we can cut. Engaging the staff in this process is crucial. They need to understand that it's a time for sacrifice, and they'll be happy to be part of the process if you let them.
2. I'm looking for new opportunities that arise from the economic problems we're facing—new trends or market needs that will rise up because of the hard times.
3. I'm enhancing customer service to make sure the people who already love what we do don't slip away. It might be hard to find a lot of new business during a recession, so we need to work even harder to convince our current customers to sit tight?
4. I'm doing more marketing, not less. Many companies reflexively shut off their advertising efforts during tough times. I'd rather shut off the water supply than my marketing. With fewer customers in the market, we need to fight even harder for those that remain! Plus, if my competitors stop advertising, I'll get more bang for my buck in the ad market. And if the market is less cluttered, our marketing efforts stand a better chance of getting noticed.

Bottom line: Don't be depressed about the tough times ahead. Get excited and view it as an opportunity to test your skills as a great leader! Chester Arthur would have relished the opportunity.

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Lavin Venture Start Fellows Meet Successful Entrepreneur

The Lavin Venture Start Program will provide a select group of talented undergraduate students with an unforgettable experience designed to prepare them for an entrepreneurial career. Leonard H. Lavin, founder and chairman emeritus of the Alberto-Culver Co., provided a generous gift to San Diego State University's Entrepreneurial Management Center in order to create this very unique program.

Recently, the inaugural 10 Fellows of the Lavin Venture Start program had the opportunity for a private meeting with Ron Fowler. Ron Fowler is the CEO and Chairman of Liquid Investments. Liquid Investments owns one of the top beverage distributors in the country. "Under promise, over deliver"? is his entrepreneurial testimony to creating a distribution company with over $285 million in revenue. He sat down with the Lavin Fellows in an intimate one-on-one setting and really touched the minds and hearts of the Fellows as he recounted his triumphs and key mistakes. All in all, a very powerful meeting as a humble CEO shared his private thoughts with hopeful entrepreneurs.

"I learned more about business in an hour listening to Mr. Fowler than I have in any business course at SDSU. Listening to his stories about his failures made all his success seem worth it in the end. Mr. Fowler is an inspiration to me, his involvement in the community and his success in business has made me appreciate the fact that one must work hard. I found the informality of the meeting to be quite valuable as he shared personal experiences that have made me consider value of life…in business and personal. I hope we can meet with him again."

Zachary Cohen, Lavin Fellow, International Business Major, 2009

"I learned how important balance is in your life. It moved me deeply to see how much he regretted not having balance in his life at an early age. His brashness as a young man also taught me to look more closely at the people around me and not see the world as he did at my age, "as winners and losers." People are much more of a gray area and have different methods and ideas that they can contribute, even though I may not necessarily agree with them all. Diplomacy and talent will get you farther than talent alone."

Gabrielle Paciorak, Lavin Fellow, Film and Graphic Design Major, 2009

"Here is what I took away from my meeting with Mr. Fowler. First, you can expect what you inspect. As an entrepreneur you need to be very involved in your business constantly analyzing what is happening with your company. Next, is 90% solutions can work. Most of the time problems are time sensitive and need to be addressed right away. It is important as an entrepreneur and a leader to use your experience and knowledge and take the information you are given and correct the problem as best as is possible now. Finally, I really appreciated the integrity topic. You cannot lawyer deals. Once you agree upon something it is essential to stay true to your word because in the end that is what you will always have and what you will be judged upon."

Michael Gamboa, Lavin Fellow, Business Marketing Major, 2009

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MBA's Get Results -- Qualcomm Social Entrepreneurship

What do Fathers Joes Villages, American Red Cross, The Children’s Museum, Hostelling International San Diego, National City Public Library, United Way San Diego, Voices for Children, Habitat for Humanity and other non-profits in San Diego have in common with San Diego State University? The Entrepreneur Management Center (EMC) and very driven MBA interns.

Over the past eight years, more than 250 MBA/MS students have worked with local non-profit organizations to complete strategic projects ranging from operations, finance, and management to business development, research and marketing. The QUALCOMM EMC Social Entrepreneur Internship Program at San Diego State University matches talented graduate business students with nonprofit organizations. Interns work with the organization's senior management to improve performance and achieve their goals through entrepreneurial initiatives.

In a comprehensive audit of 125 internships spanning the past seven years, which was completed this past August, the impact of these MBA students as measured through ROI measurements was astounding. From creating new product lines/ideas to drive new revenues, to streamlining expenses to reduce costs, to assisting in funding and development efforts resulting in the gain of millions of dollars, the results of these MBA’s are impressive. It is clear that this program, started by the Kaufmann Foundation and supported by Qualcomm, has had a very positive impact on the San Diego community and on the lives of the MBA interns.

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Products for Peace Initiative Gains Global Recognition

Can "Products for Peace" bring peace to areas of the world? What started with a simple effort between two farmers in the Middle East has now grown into an initiative that may fuel peace in different regions of the world. The purpose of this program is to establish economic partnerships among Arab and Israeli farmers and agri-business experts to produce and market "Products for Peace."? Peace crops include almonds, dates, grapes, olives, pomegranates, strawberries and tomatoes. The common interest is to produce high quality crops and to introduce a line of innovative food products to be brought to the marketplace in the European community and the United States. This new "brand"? would be marketed and positioned similar to Newman's Own, a very successful non-profit organization.

This effort to date is built on years of relationship building. The Hansen Institute and the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University are pooling their knowledge of product development and marketing with the agricultural expertise of the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv and the experts in the region. The program builds on more than a decade of successful work by the Hansen Institute and the Peres Center.

Activities supported include training in best production practices, research and development of new crop products for potential market entry, fostering Arab/Israeli business partnerships through a competitive bid process for new product innovations, mentoring and execution the business plans, fellowship support for the involvement of graduate students in conducting market research and assisting in the development of business plans.

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New "Digital Agency"? Internship Unites Campus Colleges

The Entrepreneurial Management Center's WebCompass is a unique undergraduate paid internship that involves three colleges on the campus of San Diego State University. The goal of the semester long internship is to team students from business, graphic/web design and computer science and have them complete a website based project for a local non-profit. Included in the internship program are the College of Business Administration, the College of Professional Studies & Fine Arts and the College of Sciences. Not only is the internship rewarding for the students and the organizations involved, but the whole has proven to exceed the sum of its parts—benefits of the program reach across the SDSU campus and into the local community for non-profit organizations.

Launched in a pilot phase in late September of 2008 with support from Qualcomm, the two initial WebCompass student teams recently completed the websites for two San Diego non-profit organizations: La Cuna, a Latino foster care agency and Innovations Academy, a new charter school in La Mesa. The teams not only re-designed the websites from a branding and messaging point of view but also added additional Google tools like search, map and calendar as well as ensuring the new websites were completely search engine optimized. This unique undergraduate senior internship program is now being integrated into a stand-alone program within the Entrepreneurial Management Center and will be offered each semester.