Departments
Roll of the dice
How you overcome risk reveals a lot about you
By Dustin S. Klein
Smart Business Cleveland | July 2008
How do you measure success?
Depending on whom you ask, the answer can vary widely.
For entrepreneurs, the answer
might just be a bit simpler —
overcoming risk.
Risk-taking is one of the most
common traits entrepreneurs
share. The mere fact that they
put it on the line every day
reveals their iron-clad stomachs;
albeit sometimes those stomachs are marred by a few ulcers
here and there.
This is a trait you just have to
admire, especially since many
of the rest of us, including highly successful professional managers, see nothing but terror
when it comes to personally
guaranteeing everything we’ve
ever worked for in order to build a business that
provides not just for
our family but for the
families of every single person we
employ.
That’s why this
issue of Smart
Business is so significant. We’re proud to
share the stories of
the 2008 Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur Of The Year final-ists and honorees in a special
cover story report. This is the
12th year that Smart Business
has been the media sponsor of
this event, and when you’re finished reading these amazing
entrepreneurs’ stories and the
risks they’ve overcome, you’ll
understand why we’re so honored to work with Ernst & Young each year to present
such a prestigious
program.
Additionally, in this
month’s Smart
Leaders feature
you’ll read about
Stahls’ Transfer
Express CEO Ted
Stahl and his
thoughts on how to
drive complacency out of the
workplace. Associate Editor
Mike Cottrill explores Stahl’s
own risk-taking, which involves
encouraging the presence of
rebels among his 100-employee
team. Stahl says these rebels’
contrarian personalities allows
the manufacturing firm to constantly self-challenge its relevance in the marketplace and
remain innovative in the face of growing competition.
Finally, we sent Associate
Editor Matt McClellan out to
speak with Richard Bowen, who
runs a 90-person architecture
and engineering firm. Bowen
has managed to keep the firm’s
culture open-ended as it has
grown because he treats everyone as equals. It’s an interesting
perspective that has proved successful because of Bowen’s
development of regular employee performance reviews and
constant communication.
So how do you measure success in your own organizations?
Drop me a line and let me
know.
Contact Editor Dustin Klein at
dsklein@sbnonline.com
