Black MBA - Summer 2008 - (Page 14)

UP FRONT SMALL BUSINESS CONTEST ENCOURAGES BRAND MARKETING WINNERS OF THIS year’s “What do you Have to Say?” Small Business Contest, a nationwide competition giving small business owners the chance to improve their brand, were announced April 15. The contest, sponsored by Hewlett Packard (HP), asked entrants to submit essays and images about their product, along with explaining how outside brand building and marketing efforts could help them. The contest ran from Jan. 15 to Feb. 28. Jan Thomas from Mission Viejo, Calif., won grand prize for her “I am enough bracelets” company. The company, which offers bracelets with inspirational messages such as “I am enough” and “Unconditionally Loved,” aims to boost the self-esteem of young girls. For her win, Jan was awarded a Logoworks by HP “Start Up Package,” worth $1,499, as well as a laser printer and media package. Other contest winners included first-prize winner Ebony Martin, president of Desoto, TX-based Ride N Zone, a company that organizes private indoor parties for children, featuring kid-powered rides that teach safety awareness in cars; and second-prize winner Nicholas Curry, cofounder of Denton, TX-based My Little One Inc., a retailer of new children’s clothing at discounted prices. Judges of the contest were Paul Brockbank, vice president and general manager of SMB Services at HP; Anita Campbell, founder and editor-in-chief of Small Business Trends; and Lauren Simonds, managing editor of www. smallbusinesscomputing.com. – www.hp.com AFRICAN AMERICAN-SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINE LAUNCHES RUSHMOREDRIVE.COM, A SEARCH engine specifically tailored to African Americans, was launched April 10 by InterActive Corp. (IAC), the parent company of Black Web Enterprises. The Web site, named after the street in Charlotte, N.C., where its correspond i ng of f ices a re located, provides news, i m a g e s, v i d e o s a n d blogs that are focused on Af r ica n-A mer ica n Internet activities. The site also offers networking tools for churches and jobs. The site is not the first of its kind – w w w.blackwebportal. com, w w w.black f i nd. com and www.blackseek.com have existed for awhile – but it is the bestfinanced, as IAC is also the owner of Google rival Ask.com. IAC’s decision to create RushmoreDrive.com was influenced by statistics about African Americans’ Internet usage; 24 million African Americans currently have access to the Internet, and the number is climbing 13 to 14 percent per year. – www.usatoday.com BETA BLOCKER-LIKE GENE FOUND IN SOME AFRICAN AMERICANS A S T U D Y I N Apr i l f r om t he Wash i ngton Un iversit y School of Medicine in St. Louis showed good news for African Americans with heart problems; approximately 40 percent of African Americans carry a beta blockerlike genetic variant that protects them against heart failure. The study also explains why many African Americans with heart problems are not affected by prescribed beta blockers; because 40 percent of African Americans have built-in beta blockers, they gain no additional benefit from beta blockers that help white and African-American heart failure patients. Each year, approximately 5 million Americans suffer from heart failure, resulting in about 300,000 deaths. Heart failure patients commonly take beta blockers to slow down their heart rate and lower their blood pressure. The genetic variant in African Americans, an enzyme called GRK5, works like a beta blocker by minimizing the heart’s response to adrenaline and other hormonal substances that put pressure on the heart. Like beta blockers that stop adrenaline in the heart and blood vessels, GRK5 enzymes are “speed governors,” said the senior author of the study, Gerald W. Dorn II, that stop adrenaline from overexerting the heart. The study showed that the heart failure survival rate of African Americans with GRK5 who do not take beta blockers is equal to the survival rate of whites and African Americans without GRK5 who do take beta blockers. According to the study, there is little danger in doctors prescribing beta blockers to African-American heart failure patients with the genetic variant, as beta blockers are low-risk. The study is based on tests of 375 African-American heart failure patients. – www.sciencedaily.com 14 BlackMBA • Summer 2008 • www.nbmbaa.org http://smallbusinesscomputing.com http://www.hp.com http://www.blackwebportal.com http://www.blackfind.com http://www.blackwebportal.com http://www.blackseek.com http://www.blackfind.com http://Ask.com http://RushmoreDrive.com http://www.sciencedaily.com http://www.usatoday.com http://www.nbmbaa.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Black MBA - Summer 2008

Black MBA- Summer 2008 Contents Mailbag Up Front From the President & CEO Politics of Change Catalyst for Change: Results of our 2008 Political Poll Know Whose Shoulders You Stand On: The Legacy of H. Naylor Fitzhugh Howard University: Changing With the Times Straight Talk: CEO to CEO Creating Your Own Sandbox Dual Threats Avoiding the Faux Pa Invest in Your MBA Everything You Need to Know About...Estate Planning On Campus Plan Ahead The Big Show What's in a Name? On the Move Market Forecast Jeff Friday Keith Wyche Life Lessons On the Ground Real Biz A Golden Opportunity Entrepreneurial Institute Tech Tools Read for Success Stacey Tisdale Advertiser Index

Black MBA - Summer 2008

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