Examining the State of Women-Owned Business in Western Pennsylvania, Plus One Silicon Valley Icon With Pittsburgh Roots Remembers Another
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As entrepreneurship continues to lead the way in revivifying the American economy, one significant subgroup driving this rise in entrepreneurship is that of the women-owned business.  In the past nine years, women-owned businesses have seen their ranks rise by 45% throughout the country, according to the State of Women-Owned Businesses Report from American Express OPEN.

That same number is vastly different in Western Pennsylvania, and not necessarily for the better, as women-owned businesses in the region have increased about half as fast, at just under 24%, according to the same report.

While some may see the fact that Western Pennsylvania’s growth is a good sign…..it COULD be a decline, after all…..others are wondering why the rate of local growth pales in comparison to the national numbers.

We’ll answer some of these questions on this edition of “The Raja Show”, as Raja talks with Rebecca Harris, director of the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University.  Rebecca breaks down what the numbers mean for the region, and assesses what the region’s business, economic, and political leaders can do to foster even further growth for women-owned businesses in Western Pennsylvania.

-Plus,regular listeners of “The Raja Show” have enjoyed the frequent contributions of Regis McKenna since our debut, and for good reason.   As a born-and-bred Pittsburgh native who embarked on a storied career en route to the Silicon Valley, Regis has evolved into a Silicon Valley icon whose innovation and eye for “outside the box” tech marketing strategy have been critical to the growth and development of such tech titans as Apple, Macintosh, HP, Electronic Arts, and many more.  His pedigree is second to none.

Well…maybe…second to ONE.  (And don’t worry, Regis will be the first one to agree!)

With Monday’s passing of Bill Campbell, Silicon Valley lost a giant, and, stop if you heard this before: a born-and-bred Pittsburgh native who embarked on a storied career en route to the Silicon Valley.   And while Regis made his made his mark on marketing strategy, Campbell’s bread-and-butter was leadership and mentorship.

He was, after all, “The Coach”.

Yes, the Homestead native literally WAS a head coach of Columbia University’s football team from 1974 to 1979.  And while his on-field record (12-41-1) wasn’t exactly a threat to Bear Bryant, it was his subsequent coaching record that was far more important.  Nicknamed “The Coach of Silicon Valley”, he had a knack for shaping entrepreneurs into leaders, by taking people who started with an idea and little else, and conveying the importance of connecting with your employees in a way that will enable them to follow you through thick and thin.

Some of “The Coach”‘s players in THIS game?  Apple founder Steve Jobs.  Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.  Just to name a few.

His impact has been felt far and wide along Silicon Valley, and the way that many of its companies are run can be traced directly to Campbell’s influence.  On this show, Regis talks with Raja about impact that Bill Campbell had not only on Silicon Valley’s tech giants, but also on Regis himself.

The Future Is Now:  An Inside Look At the Award Winning Young Business Minds of Propel Schools
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So what were YOU doing for fun in middle school?

Maybe you were spending every waking moment outdoors, playing whatever activity you could find, regardless of season.   Or, if you are of a more recent vintage, you spent your days inside, playing video games on the console du jour.  Or firmly entrenched knee deep in one of many other hobbies geared to keep you out of trouble (or at least, not further IN it).

But what about starting a business?

At first blush, the notion may seem kind of ridiculous.  You may think, “What 13- or 14-year old has the wherewithal to come up with an idea, research and plan it out, fund it,  build it, and actually act on that idea?”

But it’s that second or third blush that gets you to rethink things.  How many times have you driven by a couple of kids manning (“kid-ding”?) a makeshift lemonade stand, assessed a friend or relative for his or her qualifications to babysit your children for a night, or witnessed an intrepid young worker shoveling a neighbor’s walk, raking leaves, or mowing a lawn for a few extra bucks?

Even at a relatively young age, the entrepreneurial spirit (or, at least, the desire to make some pocket change) is there.  But how can this desire be harnessed in a way that shapes these young minds to emerge as the future business leaders of tomorrow.

Enter Propel Schools.

No….literally…..ENTER one of the 10 Propel School locations around Western Pennsylvania, and you’ll see a tight-knit marriage of students who are driven to succeed and a dedicated faculty and staff who are determined to help the students achieve their dreams.

One of the highlights of the Propel academic year, and one to which we pay particular attention here at “The Raja Show”, is the annual Student Business Plan Competition.  With the guidance of faculty advisers and mentors, dozens of Propel students form self-directed work teams to devise business plans in hopes of winning capital to actually START their enterprise.

The 2016 presentation of these awards took place on April 7, and on this edition of “The Raja Show”, Raja welcomes these winning students into the studio.  We will feature the “Logical Landscapers”, a landscaping service comprised of five students from Propel McKeesport, 8th Graders Dominic Brown, Dorian Garcia, and Anthony Thompson, and 7th Graders Jonathan Lust and Terrick Wright.

In addition to the great students, we’ll have some “grown-ups”, too, in the form of  entrepreneur Josh Cotherman of The Cotherman Group, who has worked tirelessly in support of the mission of Propel Schools, as the driving force behind the creation of this annual contest, in order to foster the next generation of Western Pennsylvania entrepreneurs.  Plus, we’ll feature Brendan Surma, a rising star in the Western Pennsylvania business scene who also serves on the board of Propel Schools.

If you have ever thought “Well, I could NEVER start a business!”, then hearing the stories of these enterprising young students on Sunday just may change your tune.   These are some truly remarkable students whose stories MUST be told, and we have the honor of doing so on this show.

More Capital Is Being Invested Into Pittsburgh Business Than Ever Before!  Who’s Getting It…..Who’s Giving It….and Why?
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We here at “The Raja Show” aren’t really big into breaking news about business and the economy.  Rather, our bread and butter lies in taking the headlines that we see in print, in broadcast, and online, and taking a deep-dive look behind the scenes, through the perspective of one of the most successful, seasoned, innovative leaders in Western Pennsylvania’s business community.

But in this case, we’ll make an exception to bring you some breaking news:  there is still turmoil rampant in both the U.S. and global economies.

And while there is clearly nothing “new” about this news, it seems that by and large, Pittsburgh’s business community did NOT receive this message as clearly as other markets.

According to the latest groundbreaking report from the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, purveyors of an annual business scorecard that details how the region’s business climate holds up to benchmark cities from around the country, as well as its OWN past, $2.9 billion in capital was invested in Pittsburgh businesses in 2015, a jump of almost 30 percent from the year before, and the ninth consecutive year the number hit the elusive “three comma” mark.

While this growth relative to its past is remarkable in its own right, these numbers, relative to their benchmarks around the country, are truly staggering, opening the eyes of many that the Western Pennsylvania region is fast becoming a true hub for economic growth.

On this edition of “The Raja Show, Raja goes inside the numbers of this report, including how they came to be, and what they mean for the present and the future of the region’s business identity, as he goes one-on-one with Jim Futrell, the Vice-President of Market Research for the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.   Not only can Jim “walk the walk” when it comes to crunching the numbers that drive this scorecard, but he can also “talk the talk”, breaking down the results in ways that make sense to anybody who wants to keep his or her finger on the pulse of the economic drivers pushing Western Pennsylvania business forward.

-Also, we take a look at the current state of another significant driver of Western Pennsylvania business, Marcellus Shale.

While it’s kind of odd to say that something that has been lying underneath our feet for centuries (if not longer) has “burst on the scene”, that’s pretty much what happened over the course of the past decade in Western Pennsylvania. As the global cost of energy sources such as oil and gas rose dramatically, the push to “drill, baby, drill” to find domestic sources of these resources escalated in the U.S.,

Enter Marcellus Shale, one of the top targets noted by energy experts as a potent source for these resources.  Once the target was in the sights, business opportunities soon followed, encompassing every step of the process from harnessing the energy to hashing out the legal ramifications for landowners sitting atop Marcellus territory to training for Marcellus workers, among many additional avenues.  The Marcellus boom was on.

Now, in 2016, with energy costs lower than they’ve been in years, where does that boom stand?  Is there still room for growth in the region’s Marcellus economy?   To help us answer these (and other) questions, Raja talks with Dave Spigelmyer, the President of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, Western Pennsylvania’s foremost advocacy group for all things Marcellus in the region.  Dave joins Raja to talk about how the Marcellus boom came to be, and the challenges that the Marcellus economy continues to face, thanks to regulatory and industry-related struggles.

For those in the Pittsburgh area who want to keep tabs on the local economy, this discussion of what’s fueling (no pun intended) the region is a MUST for you.  And even if you’re NOT in the region, Sunday’s show will provide a crash course in “Economic Growth Management 101″.

Innovate Or Die!:  Dartmouth Professor Richard D’Aveni Gives His Ultimatum To The Country….and Your Business!
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For years, Richard D’Aveni, the Bakala Professor of Strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, had mastered the practice of long-term strategic planning for corporations.  Taking current metrics and industry trends into account, he could take any company in any industry and lay out a five-year plan for sustainable growth and success.

But it took one of the most devastating storms in American history to wake Richard up the fact that his theory was just that:  theory.

When Hurricane Bob ravaged the coast of New England in 1991, Richard D’Aveni was vacationing with his family on Cape Cod.  The storm knocked out power for four days.  When power finally came back on, and he was able to turn on a TV, what he saw that day floored him:  the Soviet Union had collapsed.

One of the most powerful global political and economic entities was no more, and Richard missed it.  And not just because power went out; for all of his reliance on theory and ideas about how economics SHOULD work, he didn’t see the reality of this collapse coming.

It was then that Richard decided to take the knowledge he had already accrued about strategic planning, and mix it up with some chaotic disruption, for good measure.  And he widened the scope of his knowledge beyond the boardroom, to include domestic and global economies, and the role that the global competition plays in shaping how these countries react to their own “Hurricane Bob”‘s, drastic changes that can happen overnight and, without warning, destroy an unsuspecting economy (much like the Soviet Union.)

It was this line of thought that brought Richard his greatest acclaim, from best-selling books like “Hypercompetition” and “Strategic Capitalism”  to his perennial status as one of the top business thinkers in the world, according to the world-renowned Thinkers50 list, a biannual review of the top 50 business and leadership minds in the world.  (Richard was #11 in 2015).

On this edition of “The Raja Show” , Richard D’Aveni joins Raja to discuss the nature of competition in an ever-changing marketplace, and the role that innovation trends such as 3-D printing play in the ability of countries like the United States to remain, not only competitive, but economically superior to its international counterparts throughout the globe.

For those who want to root for the United States to defeat its global competition in ways that DON’T involve athletics, look no further than this show for the insights you need from one of the world’s most attuned economic minds.