In my interview with Dr. Ritch Sorenson says that family businesses make the some of the most most important contributions to the American economy. He also is a true believer in the success of family businesses.Dr. Sorenson holds the Opus Chair in Family Enterprise at the University of St. Thomas- Opus College of Business’ /Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. In that role, he integrates family business concepts into the broader business school vision, serves as a family enterprise ambassador to the larger business community and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses.
Sorenson’s work has been published in many journals including Family Business Review, Journal of Business Venturing Group and Organizational Studies, The Leadership Quarterly and Academy of Management Executive.

Our guest on this segment of the Smallbiz Brain has owned retail businesses, restaurants and consulting practices. Today Mary Pat Kavanagh’s specialty is teaching her clients to create strategic, profitable, long-lasting relationships using social networking.

Our guest on this segment of the Smallbiz Brain has 30 years of managerial experience in line and staff positions in Fortune 500, entrepreneurial, and educational contexts. Since 1989, Bill Monson has been in leadership roles in executive education at the University of St. Thomas first as Director of the Executive MBA program and now as Director of the Center for Family Enterprise. Prior to these positions he managed a start-up venture, was the Manager of Corporate Management Development at Medtronic, and was Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in Management at the College of St. Thomas.

Jennifer Bays joins me on the Brain to discuss “Womens’ Online Magazine”. Find out more about this fast growing social platform for women entrepreneurs.

Our guest on this segment is a dynamic leader, successful entrepreneur. Ken Wolf is the President, CEO and co-founder of Revelwood .The company provides performance management solutions to Fortune 1000 and mid-market companies, and is a top growth company on the Entrex Private Company index. Revelwood’s performance management solutions bring ease, speed and flexibility to enterprise planning, reporting and analytics.

About Steve Olson

Steve Olson is a leading authority on franchising. He is Publisher of Franchise Update Media Group, an industry resource for over 2000 franchise organizations. He has recently authored the book, “Grow to Greatness: how to build a world-class franchise system faster.”

With nearly 30 years in franchise consulting, sales and executive management, Steve specializes in accelerating expansion for emerging and established franchise brands. He has served on franchise boards and is a frequent columnist and speaker on the subject of franchising.

Our guest on this segment of the Smallbiz Brain is a master on the subject of leadership. Kevin Cashman is a senior partner at Los Angeles based Korn/Ferry International —a premier global provider of leadership and talent consulting services. Mr. Cashman is also the author of Leadership from the Inside Out.

Our guest on this segment of the brain formed his company following a simple, yet powerful observation—-Mark Schiavone discovered that small and mid sized companies buy many of the same products & services in their daily operations but usually have little purchasing & negotiation leverage with suppliers.

Following his 23 year management career in the Cable and Satellite Television Industry, Mark Schiavone founded The Member Savings Program, Inc. His company is focused on assisting small and mid sized companies maximize their purchasing power and collective cost savings on everyday operational expenses with a unique, turnkey Membership-based solution.

In this segment I visited with Dave Scammell, he’s the CEO of Sohonet—-the company provides connectivity for the feature film industry and has an international presence.

Our guest on this segment of The Smallbiz Brain left the corporate world to pursue her dream of coaching fellow-entrepreneurs toward redefining their visions so they too can make a “big splash” in their lives and businesses.

Lorin Beller Blake is the founder of Big Fish Nation, a year-long business development program that leads entrepreneurs toward maximizing their lives and business goals. She’s also the author of the book, From Entrepreneur to Big Fish: 7 Principles to Wild Success.

Since 2004 she’s has been fulfilling her own dream—to share her Big Fish principals with thousands of entrepreneurs nationwide through her innovative program which as been promoted nationally as ‘a Zen approach to business.’ Big Fish Nation and Lorin Beller have been nationally recognized by Investor’s Business Daily —She was named one of the Top 30 Female Executives of 2004 by Female Entrepreneur Magazine.