Brian Ring: Business Leaders of Tomorrow

>>Vince Thompson: Background Music Hi. Welcome to Dog and Pony. I'm Vince Thompson. What does it take to be a great entrepreneur? The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Year Awards recognize the men and the women who excel at growing and sustaining market leading businesses. Brian Ring, program director of the greater Los Angeles area has come to recognize what it takes to be one of the best of the best. Tell us about this award.

>>Brian Ring: The award program; Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year; is the world's most prestigious award program for entrepreneurs. These are innovators; they are pioneers in their field. It's been people like Herb Calihurb assumed spelling of Southwest Airlines or Michael Dell of Dell Computers, both involved in the program in the early years prior to the pinnacle of their success.

>>Vince Thompson: Do you select regional entrepreneurs and then ultimately choose a national entrepreneur?

>> Brian Ring: Yeah, it's - - it's a step program. It's - - it's really amazing. The program starts locally as I say and I even charge greater Los Angeles area and we have nominations for local winners who then go on to a national program. The national program is at Palm Springs every year at an event hosted by Jay Leno who's done it the last five years and then the national winner can go on to the inner national program at Monte Carlo program in May.

>> Vince Thompson: That sounds fantastic. Now, how would an entrepreneur get considered for this prestigious award?

>> Brian Ring: The entrepreneur can either nominate themselves or be nominated. We're looking for an individual who is running a company currently; successful company. Again, we're looking for companies that are - - have sustained growth and are going forward. It's also a company that an individual who inspires his people through his achievement and leadership and an individual who recognizes where he is in the community and gives back to that community.

>> Vince Thompson: You've seen a lot of proposals; you've interviewed a lot of entrepreneurs, what makes a great entrepreneur?

>> Brian Ring: That's a great question and you know, I interview a lot of our entrepreneurs and - - and the keys are always - - they think about issues differently but their willing to take a risk. They're dedicated, they know every bit about their process that's going on but they're risk takers and to me that's what differentiates them from other business men.

>> Vince Thompson: You've been involved with this program for over 10 years, what have you seen change in the world of entrepreneurship.

>> Brian Ring: The entrepreneur has been pretty consistent over the 10 years. To me it's still the same individuals out there with that spark that just kind of takes off. The environment and the economy always change but the entrepreneur stays true.

>> Vince Thompson: These are insane times; the economy, right. We don't know what's happening; gyrating wildly, lots of speculation and a lot of fear. Imagine your customers are calling and asking for advice, what are the things you're telling them.

>> Brian Ring: You know, it - - it is a time of - - of - - of significant change. The market goes up and down and I think you need to ignore that almost for - - for this point in time. You know, it - - it - - - it's - - we're - - we're telling our clients that you really need to focus on the business at hand and I think everybody even within our own firm, you have to look and - - and - - and kind of tighten up and still be out there in the community. You have to grow your business even in down times.

>> Vince Thompson: So Brian, there are a lot of entrepreneurs watching the show right now online and I'm going to pop over to ernstandyoung.com, what kind of resources can they find to help their businesses?

>> Brian Ring: There are a lot of resources online there. Again, being a large firm, we're involved in every major industry there is so you can search by industry in terms of thought leadership articles of topics, top of mind right now. There's items on clean tech, there's just a vast variety of - - of industry specific knowledge. And also forts to teach a growth company; smaller companies growing. They'll find a lot of thought leadership there in terms of raising capital. The IPO transformation process, exit strategies, there's a wealth of knowledge there. In addition, they can click on to the entrepreneur of the year website as well and find out more about the program there.

>> Vince Thompson: Brian Ring of Ernst & Young, thank you so much.

>> Brian Ring: Thank you.

>> Vince Thompson: If you have questions, ideas, comments, just want to hang out and read our blog; do so at dogandpony.com. I am Vince Thompson, thanks for watching.