Please register by March 14th for breakfast headcount purposes, and to be included on the meeting's attendee list. Thank you.
The Coffee By Design Story:
Presenter: Mary Allen Lindemann
Co-owner of Coffee By Design
How The Right Consultants at The Right Time Helped Coffee By Design To Transform a Small Business Into an agent of economic and community benefit.
Mary Allen and her husband and business partner, 
Alan Spear, started Coffee By Design 20 years ago. Their one location was staffed by them and a part time employee. Their latest space at 1 Diamond St in Portland is not just another retail shop but also state-of-the-art roasting warehouse of thousands of square feet, along with service lines that wholesale coffee to such retail giants as LL Bean, sell and repair specialized equipment for the industry, and train employees for the surprisingly complex tasks in their enterprise. They now employ 50 part time and fulltime employees.
Along the way, they have won multiple national and international quality awards, and CBD has become legendary for contributing to the wellbeing of local and international communities through such organizations as Envision Maine, Portland Buy Local and Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility (MEBSR). the CBD Jardin Fund and the Rebel Blend Fund.
In their journey from start-up to successful and growing, they have used consultants wisely. Mary Allen will talk about how they have identified different needs for consulting,how they have found people they can partner with, and how we consultants can best approach businesses like CBD.
Somehow, Mary Allen knew that a BA in poetry would lead to an interesting and meaningful career. What she never would have guessed was how her life would change the day she tried a Caffe Latte while living in Seattle in the late 1980’s, before the specialty coffee boom really took hold. Today she is dedicated to ensuring that CBD stays true to its Maine roots and maintains its commitment to giving back to the local and international communities to which CBD is intimately connected. Part of her job is to make sure the company continues to be a good corporate citizen. She believes “it is an honor to represent the many farmers we buy from by serving you a great cup of coffee.” Mary Allen is proud to work with Alan, and loves being Mom to Alina. She hopes the work she does on a daily basis makes a difference now and in the years to come. Mary Allen's email is mal@coffeebydesign.com.
Roundtable
Takes place from 9:45-10:30 following the regular meeting and is optional
Technology Tsunami: Competitive advantage or the cost of doing business?
Facilitator: Tom Czyz, principal
Business Technology Alignment, LLC
We are awash, flooded, and overwhelmed by the speed of technological change. Smart-phones, tablets, and laptops provide access to systems yielding endless views into and management of money, products, and services. Access to information is available globally and at the blink of an eye courtesy of the Internet and Google, respectively.
FedEx, AA, Mobil Oil, Dell, and Walmart have leveraged the technology tsunami to provide competitive advantage. However, for most companies the technology tsunami has added to the cost of doing business, with minimal to no benefit in return.
As consultants how can we help our clients validate and address their concerns regarding the added cost of doing business brought on by the technology tsunami? This discussion will touch on the obvious candidates -- smart-phones, tablets, laptops and other reincarnations of the personal computer -- marginal benefits to an organization or just added cost? - as well as alignment and interdependence issues. Who needs that shiny new technology?
About the business: The only true changes in Information Technology over the past forty years have been the personal computer, the Internet and Google. The personal computer provided a transition from the mainframe’s focus on commerce and accounting to office applications and personnel efficiency. The Internet increasingly connected individual users globally and Google access to vast amounts of information in the blink of an eye.
Today via smart-phones, tablets, and laptops we have access to an endless “range” of applications (Apps) or Systems around management of money, products, and services entering, moving through, and exiting an organization. The endless “range” of systems has become more easily available globally through the “reach” of the Internet with significant assistance from the “speed” of Google and other search engines.
Business Technology Alignment helps clients deal with the onslaught of constant technology "change", assisting with the question of: How are personal and business lives better off with the endless range of systems that are easily available today? Tom's email is thomasczyz@yahoo.com.
The Facts...
The A.C.E. regular meeting has networking, a buffet breakfast and a speaker. Guests are welcome.
You can pay online by credit card (Visa, MasterCard or Discover NOT AMERICAN EXPRESS!) or mail a check to:
A.C.E.
110 Marginal Way #142
Portland ME 04101
If you are mailing a check, please register here so the system can track the registrants for us. Thanks!
Members: the $22 fee only works if you pay in advance. At the door, it is $28.
