Leaderfest
Leaderfest is the 2nd annual young professionals forum being held at UW Fond du Lac on March 20, 2008. This 1/2 day professional development seminar will feature 3 breakout sessions packed with useful information for you and your employer. Afterwards, enjoy a social with your peers from other young professional networks including Appleton, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Kewaunee and Marinette. The evening will culminate with a keynote address by Dick Leinenkugel of Jacob Leinenkugal Brewing Company. Click on the banner below to learn more and to register for this regional event. Current will reserve a charter bus if there is enough interest or we can arrange for carpooling. Please notify Brian Johnson, Current Program Manager, if interested.

2009 Regional Event
Green Bay will be hosting the young professionals regional event in spring of 2009. We are currently looking for volunteers to assist with the planning of this event. Our four subcommittees include Marketing & Public Relations, Sponsor Relations, Speakers & Sessions and Event Planning. This is an ad hoc appointment that will last for one year. If you're interested in serving on one of the four subcommittees or would like to learn more, contact Brian Johnson, Current Program Manager at 593-3408.

Read to Lead: Good to Great
Monday, March 24, 2008, 5:30-7:00
The Daily Buzz, 130 E Walnut Street, Green Bay

Good to Great by Jim Collins
Discussion Facilitated by Thom Cody, Partner, Pathmakers & Jeff Kirchner, CEO, Streu's Pharmacy

From the Publisher
The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:

• Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
• The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
• A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
• The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”

Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Meal Mingle at Jimmy Seas
Join us on Wednesday, April 2nd from 12:00-1:00 for another Meal Mingle at Jimmy Seas. Meal Mingle is a casual lunch event intended to allow participants to network and meet other peers. Just lunch with friends. There is no planned activity and lunch expense is on your own. Please RSVP your attendance to Melinda Pollen via email or at 593-3407.

Live First, Work Second Book Order
Our April Read to Lead session will be the book Live First, Work Second. This book can be ordered directly from the author's web site at www.nextgenerationconsulting.com or you can reserve a copy by notifying Brian Johnson, Current Program Manager. Current will be doing a bulk order for those interested in purchasing the book. Rebecca Ryan, author of Live First, Work Second has been at the forefront of the young professional movement and consults on a variety to topics including how to create attractive communities, how to attract young professionals and how employers can create work environments that young professionals want to be part of.

Discovery Tour Guides
Partners in Education of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce is currently looking for a few volunteers to lead a 4th grade bus tour of Greater Green Bay. The Great Green Bay Discovery Tour typically lasts for 1/2 day. Tour guide responsibilities include reading the script to 4th grade students while on the bus tour, coordinating visits of the Environmental Center, WBAY and the Brown County Courthouse and helping distribute a snack to all students. Training is provided prior to the tour and all supplies are provided including the script for the tour. If interested, contact Brian Johnson, Career Education & Current Program Manager.