Another Take At Zero-Energy Buildings: Optimum Energy’s Nathan Rothman (Part 7)

SM: Is there a way your company could grow faster? Your product is ready, your channel is ramping well. Is capital an issue for growth?

NR: It is the lengthy sales cycle. When we go into a building, we get in at the building operator level or the CFO level. >>>

Deal Radar 2010: Knewton

Founded in the spring of 2008 by Jose Ferreira, Knewton is an online educational platform provider and test preparation service. Ferreira, who previously worked as an executive with Kaplan, was frustrated by what he saw as traditional, outmoded approaches to test preparation. He saw what he believed to be an opportunity in the market for a customized approach that would improve the quality of instruction to a wider audience and ultimately prove to be more effective for students than other methods. He saw many unproven instructors teaching at local test centers and wanted to be able to target students’ weaknesses at a more granular level. >>>

Another Take At Zero-Energy Buildings: Optimum Energy’s Nathan Rothman (Part 6)

SM: Let’s look at this from a strategic business perspective. You have 110,000 buildings in the United States to which your technology applies. If the average selling price is $100,000, then you have a very big market opportunity.

NR: It is enormous. >>>

Another Take At Zero-Energy Buildings: Optimum Energy’s Nathan Rothman (Part 5)

SM: Based on your technology, what is your estimate of an overall energy impact? What percentage of energy reduction could you provide?

NR: If our technology were to be implemented in half of the buildings in the United States which it is capable of working on, we would take the equivalent of 145 million cars off the road. If our technology were employed in all of the buildings in Manhattan, we would save enough electricity to light four of the boroughs [of New York City]. >>>

CIO Priorities: Procter & Gamble

By Guest Author Narayanan Raman

In this post I speak with Filippo Passerini, CIO of Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the most reputed global consumer goods firms. Filippo discussed two salient aspects of his approach. First, he said that ideally, any IT endeavor should start from the IT strategy layer of the IT stack, as this is the layer that maximizes business value. If you do not have an IT strategy that is in alignment with the overall business strategy, then the lower layers of the IT stack, such as like applications and infrastructure, do not even matter. Second, Filippo said that deciding what is core and non-core to an organization and innovating on the core, value generating initiatives are key to formulating a good IT strategy. >>>

Another Take At Zero-Energy Buildings: Optimum Energy’s Nathan Rothman (Part 4)

SM: Are all of the disjointed HVAC systems even designed to interface with your technology?

NR: Yes. The chillers, pumps, and cooling towers all feed back to the building automation systems. Those systems turn everything on and off. The thermostats give feedback to the system during the day if the system itself is on. >>>

CIO Priorities: Xerox Corporation

By Guest Author Narayanan Raman

In today’s post, I speak with John McDermott, CIO of Xerox Corporation, the global document management company.

Like most CIOs, John’s foremost priority is to manage the IT costs of his organization. Although Xerox’s IT costs have been declining by an average 8% per year for the past six years, this year*, for obvious reasons, the company’s revenue drop will push IT costs as a percentage of revenues to a level that is considered inappropriate by the senior management. There is thus an even stronger emphasis on reducing IT costs at Xerox. John has various levers that he is pulling to accomplish this, one of which I will describe in detail in this article. >>>

Next Strategy Roundtable for Entrepreneurs on January 14

This free online session begins at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/9:30 p.m. IST.  Find more details and register here.

Everyone is welcome!