Business Connection; 239

Business connection is made by MDC to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. Business connection starts now. Hello I'm Jeff Salk and welcome to business connection on tonight's program new ideas for making your home more appealing to buyers in this buyer's market and how businesses can improve customer service. But we begin with a new role at Johns Hopkins from Maryland's former economic development chief in the studio now heiress Melissa Ross special advisor to the president at Johns Hopkins University. Sir thanks for being with us. I'm delighted Jeff on what are you advising the president of Johns Hopkins University. Well officially it's an enterprise development. But the content that involves technology transfer where we have a substantial opportunity

to improve what our track record has been. As you've read because it's publicly known we are the number one university in receiving research grants from the U.S. government at about one point six billion dollars a year. Yet we're not as known for transforming and transferring that technology into useful products with commercial value. And I'm delighted to be at Hopkins because it's almost a natural progression from my previous job. Hopkins happens to be the largest private economic engine in the state. We employ 46000 people. And we mentioned earlier the multiplier effect that 46000 apart from payroll and that 1.6 billion dollars worth of research dollars spent. If we could convert more of our research to products we would create more companies and those companies would create more employees and it would be a bigger economic engine that it already is. What are the nuts and bolts of technology transfer so in a lab somewhere at

Hopkins whether it's a government contractor or some other research. There's a eureka moment we have we have an invention does it. And it's not necessarily that they were looking for something commercial right. No. The research that we do is generally funded by the NIH National Health to push the global knowledge and the basic knowledge of how the body works and how diseases manifest themselves and what it takes to fix them. We're making giant strides at that but the emphasis is on learning a basic science and discovering the truth in our engineering areas not the waiting School of Engineering at the School of Arts and Sciences and in the Applied Physics Lab. It's a lot more applied research. But across the board we have the potential to do more translational research. That's where the emphasis is the NIH doesn't pay for translation research. So we have to find sponsors to push this or V VCs who are willing to fund that in order to accelerate commercialization.

The people doing the research. When you talk about VCs or venture capital people does that scare them off is there is there resist generally it does if you're in a lab you know you want to be there with your microscopes and your test tubes not necessarily you're there because that's what you're interested in. Predominantly our researchers our researchers for the sake of research they are true scientists and they are world renowned. This is an incredible institution a few. And a lot more than we give Hopkins credit for have been serial entrepreneurs many practicing physicians at Hopkins have formed a lot of companies. I did a little research. All my people did in technology transfer since the year 2000 going to spawn at 31 different companies. What stands out what companies come to. There's not one that stands out. There are three that are publicly traded on Nasdaq. There are six that are traded on the Toronto exchanges and European exchanges. The fact that 31 are still active through acquisition

and growth and so forth is a real tribute to us. We need to get some of these to become home runs. And I see opportunities in a lot of companies. The latest one I was funded by a company called employee mune. Founded by six oncology researchers at Hopkins and then they ended up with a huge amount of money out of a box 20 million dollars. Ten million dollars from intra West partners in Silicon Valley and 10 million dollars from the Welcome Trust in Great Britain. So the difficulty is not in finding venture capital money. Nor is it in finding ideas it's putting the two together as I actually do of that is that is the point. You gotta you know know Research's got the whole answer by itself. One of the issues that opportunities we got is the sense of size different technologies and the pieces that could put a company together to put money and business management with a scientific idea. And where establishing at Hopkins the new Carey School of Business which would be a graduate business

school but it helped spawn more entrepreneurial. Making the whole changing the culture at the top in our culture is what we're about. Because it's important that we maintain the research emphasis and continue the excellence in research and augment that with an awesome top and Ariel ism to double or triple our tech transfer output and you have a certain credibility on both sides of the equation as Hopkins engineering graduate and somebody who was hired by the president. How did the job come about. Well after I resigned I had about five or six offers to work for different companies in the area. And then Dr Brody called and he said don't take a job until I come back from Europe. And I kind of knew what he may have wanted. So I was delighted that the alma mater called and there's been a perfect fit I thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides the tech transfer wall as you know we're getting into the community building business in East Baltimore clearing 80 acres of community to rebuild

a full range of a brand new community that may include a couple million square feet of biotech space. And we have the challenge of finding the right corporate tenants to fill these two million square feet of space. But the primary objective is to create a new community around this world renowned medical institution and School of Public Health and a school of nursing. I mean these schools and the whole hospital complex are the best of the best. They're the best of the best. They're deep in PAL and it's such a joy to work with smart people and the approach is a we're going to create some companies want to fill up these new buildings and really put Hopkins on the map. Now with the economic impact that it can continue to make the state of Maryland in the world. Let me ask you this if you were an undergrad engineering student today at Johns Hopkins as opposed to a couple of decades ago what would you focus on what's the most exciting area out there from from your standpoint. You know the most exciting

areas today are interdisciplinary. They're not pure engineering mechanical or electrical. We have the Institute of Computational Medicine. You know on the engineering school campus working on medicine breakthroughs by using the power of high speed computing. The Institute of nano biotechnology. You know futuristic stuff where you're you're manipulating atoms and cells. Just great breakthroughs I think the breakthroughs in the future will come at the boundaries of disciplines. So I would advise if I were a young student I would be looking for interdisciplinary things and that means extra time in school generally right I mean does it mean well it may raise may mean a five year engineering and MBA program. It may mean a combination of engineering and biology. You see biology is getting a whole lot more emphasis across the nation of the world and Hopkins has the potential across the spectrum to excel across all these fields.

We have to leave it there Iris Melissa rattus great to see you again keep us posted on your on your progress. Thank you Jeff. I'm delighted that this is a great great opportunity at Hopkins. Thanks very much. Thank you. The concept of home staging has been around for decades but in today's slower real estate market it is getting a closer look. Are you a lot of Oscars has more. Well it is certainly a buyer's market and homeowners are doing everything they can to make their place a standout including home staging homes that are staged have an immediate advantage in most markets. Joining us now to talk a little bit more about this unique way to sell your home is Anita Carrington from the DOE Vienne group so I need to briefly describe for me what exactly it is that you do when you're staging a home. OK. You come in and you talk to the seller about depersonalizing their space making it conducive to the buyers. And it's more than just decorating. Correct. We add things like our work but we make sure it's not representational art work. So you're very particular about what you add. In fact we have an example here in this

living room briefly describe for me some of the touches that you've added as part of home staging. OK. The assessor the lighting the lamp the window treatments. The flower here and the whole idea behind that is just to make it inviting. But with it being neutral very neutral. OK. And then we have also the fireplace here tell us what you did here. The picture and the vase and the items that are on the hearth. OK. And so we're going to walk over here into the morning room and talk a little bit more about some of the decorations that you've done here. Describe for me who are the people. An ideal candidate for home staging is it someone who has a big house like this or could you have a condo something small or any any space from condo to million dollar over million dollar homes. OK briefly tell me what you did in this area. OK we added a new lighting fixture to create a better traffic flow where it was placed in the initially was really blocking the flow. We added the here and then we totally saw

niceties with that little peaches and exactly in the espresso cups. And over here we added the furnishings the rug and that sort of thing for the morning room over in the morning room you added the rug and the furnishings you also had the table set. Yes yes. That's just a nice touch. Makes people feel welcome. What did this room look like before it was totally vacant. You know nothing. Nothing. Just just the window no window treatments nothing. So if someone's interested in staging their home how much does something like this typically cost to have you come in and take a look around and do what you do. If it's a vacant home it starts at 3000. If it's a condo it's usually around 800. What do they think that they can do that some things on their own but they just need a little help would you just have a flat consulting. We do. We come in for $250 and we give them a plan and they can execute OK. Well thank you so much Anita we're going to go over here and speak with Doris Brandt. She's part of the group as well. Doris briefly talk to me a little bit about the people who are home staging now used to think it was real estate professionals but actually it's a wide variety of people.

It is it's a wide variety of people and actually it could be anybody from any walk of life who likes to decorate has a flair for it and likes to shop. What are the advantages to home staging Have you seen a difference in terms of houses being sold quicker than not if their home state. Yes definitely. Statistics show that homes sell I think two times faster when they're staged and you see for 10 percent more. And one last question is how do you go about finding a good qualified home staging professional do a search on the Internet and they have quite a few sites where you can find a person in your region. Thank you so much Doris we appreciate that. And if you'd like to find out more information about home staging Just log on to our website at NPT dot org and click on business connection. That will wrap it up from Upper Marlboro Now back to you in the studio. I want to thank you and just ahead a local university with global business plans. Plus the latest customer service techniques and business close up. Stay with us you're watching business connection. PBS celebrates the legends of classic country

with Saturday night at 6:00. Music legend to look at all the bands that made. Saturday night at 10:00 on PBS music

a spec concert recorded world famous for the song Don't miss us Sunday night at 6:00 on picturing. It's an artistic journey through history. The image of the mother the perfect. Women in every medium. On a scale from gigantic mistakes to tiny classroom each of us from Europe to Africa to South America the legendary has become a wild night like Sunday morning at 11:00 on AM Peetie Telson university has opened its first international business incubator Joining us now is Clay Hickson the director of Telson global.

Clay thanks for being with us. How how far along is this project. Thompson University first did a feasibility study about two years ago and we opened our doors on April 1st of this year. So this is not only a business incubator it's an international incubator. What what's that mean exactly. And incubate or is designed to help entrepreneurial businesses grow and develop their their business activities. Our focus is on helping local companies succeed in the global economy and also helping international companies as they try to penetrate the U.S. market. Are there companies you can tell us about at this point. Yes we actually have our first two companies that moved in just a few weeks ago. Both are local locally owned companies. One is Linda Sydell cosmetics and the second is Axis interactive Linda Seidel cosmetics is a specialty cosmetics firm that produces an array of

cosmetics that can be used on virtually any skin tone. And so that's the global application. It also has a significant. Health care medical applications so scarring skin discolorations or disfigurement of any kind can be masked by this cosmetic axis interactive is a video gaming company so they produce standard types of video games but also serious games such as those that are used by IBM. The State Department Defense Department if for simulations. Well what's the advantage to these companies or others to to being located physically in this incubator environment as opposed to having some generic office space generic office space is an option for an entrepreneurial venture. But oftentimes that increases the overhead that they have to have because they then need to set up their own telephone internet fax copy all of those type of

business services they need to provide for themselves at an incubator such as to house and global. We provide them with those basic services as part of the package. But in an addition to that we provide them with a business plan review with mentoring on their business concept on marketing activities also help them develop a network to help them with venture capital other financing activities. We provide really a. Nurturing environment for a young entrepreneurial enterprise to become successful more resources than they could establish on their own. What are the economics of this how much money if funding was needed and where did it come from. Thompson University and Baltimore County Economic Development are the two primary funding sources for the house and global and

they support this for several reasons. It's very easy to see why the county department of economic development would support it because as a business grows it creates sales revenue tax revenue. It also creates new jobs and that is a tremendous economic development benefit for the community at large. And Thompson University as part of its mission to be a Metropolitan University involved in the broader community tries to get involved in activities that support support the community that builds economic development and the incubator falls under the division of economic and community outreach. You also mentioned your desire to have some some foreign companies involved how do you go about seeking out those opportunities. We use a variety of networks and we work very closely with state and local government as well as the county government. For instance the Maryland Department of

Business and Economic Development has 12 international trade offices around the world from China to India to Paris and Latin America. And so we work with. Organizations such as the state of Maryland and the Maryland the Baltimore County Economic Development and get involved in their networks to help attract international companies. And then we are involved in a variety of business associations from the Maryland China Business Council to the Maryland Israel development center. All of these types of organizations tie us into international networks like Clay Hicks and director of the house and global Clay thanks for being with us. Thank you and our Smith business close up with the University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business. Tonight we discuss customer service with Professor Janet Wagner and what businesses can do to keep their clients happy.

Dr. Wagner thanks very much for being with us when you look at the customer service landscape these days. What companies really stand out. Some of the real winners include Southwest Airlines. Disney an entertainment sector and Ritz-Carlton and hotel business. Now is this stuff constant or or did these sort of rankings change over time because certainly those are names that we could have talked about five years ago. But those companies have been consistent performers and that's certainly not true of everybody. Here's the one surprise in the list of companies that they have recently had a change in their in their ranking as was the postal service which apparently has has really increased its customer satisfaction scores What do you think is going on there. Well the Postal Service was basically decoupled from government support quite a while ago which meant that they had to start competing with other delivery

services such as U.P.S. and fed acts. And there's nothing like competition to ratchet up the quality customer service. What do you think goes into these rankings and when consumers come up with a judgment about whether they're getting good customer service what really goes into that. Well customers have sets of expectations about how how companies should perform with respect to their customer service. And when companies don't meet those expectations people are dissatisfied. And that's reflected in satisfaction scores. Chuck a little about technology it and certainly it makes it easier for companies to provide certain services but then there's these little things and I think of the the classic 800 number telephone voice menu that can be so frustrating for people so how does how does technology really play into this equation.

Well technology he makes companies more productive by what customers really want to see from this I think is customer service that is faster and easier. And certainly in that example you just gave me. That's not happening. Absolutely let's talk about the web a little bit. And customers who are buying online that's generally unless something goes wrong a pretty favorable experience. Yes it is I think that on line retailing is really meeting customer expectations with respect to the speed and ease of transactions. All right and lastly when when a company has to deal with a case where a customer maybe has has been a little bit upset about what they perceive as poor customer service that's really an important opportunity for the for the company to do something it's going to have a permanent impact on how that consumer feels about the business.

That's that is so true. There are two excellent examples one good and one bad from the airline industry and this time the negative side. In 1909. I'm Northwest had a major customer service failure. There was a snowstorm in Detroit and some of its planes were stuck on the tarmac for up to 11 hours. And of course they ran out of food the toilets overflowed it was a very unpleasant experience for passengers and. Northwest executives apologized which was a good thing. But at the same time they denied the severity of the experience. Because of that they were stuck with a 7 million dollar lawsuit and a loss of customer loyalty. Now this past winter we had a similar problem experienced by JetBlue by their response was much more positive. The CEO acknowledged that there was a problem right up front. He apologized both publicly

and individually to the people affected. He compensated everyone who was affected they get travel vouchers for future for future travel that were free. Also revised the air process their operations process for stair storms and I'd made public what steps he had taken to solve the problem. And as a result he's been very successful and reestablish A-MEI his customers. All right Professor Jenna Wagner joining us from the Smith School of Business. Thanks very much for your time. You're welcome. Sexual orientation causing controversy tomorrow. By community

members. Thank you.