The Greater Good WMPG

Amidst the flurry of efforts to keep small businesses open and their workers employed, how have Maine startups been navigating the Covid-19 pandemic? To answer this question, we invited two entrepreneurs and a business professor with deep roots in Maine’s startup community to discuss today’s startup landscape and share their perspectives on the last seven months. We talk about changing customer needs, pivots, access to capital, hiring talent, and how people are emerging from the first waves of the pandemic with new ideas and businesses. Featured guests are Brian Rahill (CourseStorm), Patrick Breeding (Marin Skincare), and Prof. Jason Harkins (Associate Dean of the University of Maine Business School + Co-managing Director of Scratchpad Accelerator). (Note: With our recording studio on the University of Southern Maine campus closed, we are posting episodes using the “live” audio from our new Covid-19-focused webinar series, the Greater Good Webinar/Podcast Series. This episode used the “live” audio from our October 7th webinar.)

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Connect with Us
Website: umainecenter.org/greatergood
Twitter: @greatergoodpod

Media headlines are often centered around large urban areas, but rural communities are facing unique challenges in combating the pandemic. To discuss these challenges, three main healthcare and public health experts with a longstanding interest in revisioning Maine’s public health and rural health systems join us on the podcast. We discuss the rural health challenges before the pandemic hit, what is happening now in rural healthcare and rural economies, and where we can go from here to create a brighter future. (Note: With our recording studio on the University of Southern Maine campus closed, we are posting episodes using the “live” audio from our new Covid-19-focused webinar series, the Greater Good Webinar/Podcast Series.)

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Connect with Us
Website: umainecenter.org/greatergood
Twitter: @greatergoodpod
Produced by the University of Maine Graduate and Professional Center, with help from WMPG

Welcome to the Greater Good Webinar/Podcast Series! With our recording studio on the USM campus closed, we will be posting episodes using the “live” audio from our new Covid-19-focused webinar series. In this episode, we chat with leaders at L.L. Bean about how they successfully pivoted manufacturing and operations capabilities to protect and support employees, healthcare workers, and Maine residents at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guests shared their experiences making face coverings, procuring PPE by leveraging their supply chain, and boxing food for Good Shepherd Food Bank. Discussion topics included the decision-making process, the manufacturing transition, corporate social responsibility, and the impacts to employee morale.

Part two of our conversation with Dr. Jennifer Monti focuses on how we can increase the speed of medical innovation, better serve rural populations, invest in public health, and the importance of building partnerships between medical professionals, universities, and the private sector to solve critical problems in healthcare. Dr. Monti asserts that the best medical ideas can come from anyone and anywhere: patients, medical professionals, and even complete strangers.

Dr. Monti is a general cardiologist most interested in the intersection of medicine, public health, and entrepreneurship. She developed the Innovation Cohort at Maine Medical Center in response to her experience as an inventor and entrepreneur moving an idea from scribbled drawing to working prototype, company formation, fundraising, and clinical trials. She firmly believes good ideas come from every corner of an organization, and that Portland, Maine should be the easiest place in America to learn to invent and to be an inventor. She received a degree in biochemistry with honors from Harvard College, as well as degrees in medicine and public health from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Jenn's favorite lunch spot is LB Kitchen, her favorite place for dinner is home with her kids, and her favorite local business is Print Bookstore on Congress St. in the East End. She is a huge college basketball fan and is still upset that the Big East fell apart.

The American healthcare system has an urgent need to develop innovative ways to care for patients and communities. Workers in every corner of a health system- from administrators to physicians to custodial staff - have unique and important insights. The Innovation Cohort at MaineHealth is designed to turn these insights into transformative medical care.

Join us for a conversation about healthcare innovation and collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Monti. Dr. Monti is a general cardiologist most interested in the intersection of medicine, public health, and entrepreneurship. She developed the Innovation Cohort at Maine Medical Center in response to her experience as an inventor and entrepreneur moving an idea from scribbled drawing to working prototype, company formation, fundraising, and clinical trials. She firmly believes good ideas come from every corner of an organization, and that Portland, Maine should be the easiest place in America to learn to invent and to be an inventor. She received a degree in biochemistry with honors from Harvard College, as well as degrees in medicine and public health from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Jenn's favorite lunch spot is LB Kitchen, her favorite place for dinner is home with her kids, and her favorite local business is Print Bookstore on Congress St. in the East End. She is a huge college basketball fan and is still upset that the Big East fell apart.

What is leadership? How is it developed? How is it defined? We've assembled an expert panel of business professors and leaders to discuss modern leadership styles and philosophies, how different generations of workers view leadership, and what this means for the workforce of the future. Our guests are Professors Richard Bilodeau and Emily Newell of the University of Southern Maine’s School of Business; and Becky McKinnell of iBec Creative.

Professor Richard Bilodeau teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in entrepreneurship, creative strategies, design thinking, business sustainability, and marketing at the University of Southern Maine. In addition to his teaching, Professor Bilodeau oversees USM’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and serves on the advisor groups for the Honors Program, Food Studies Program, MEIF Entrepreneurship Training Program and Ci2 Lab. He also has an active consulting practice, working with a wide range of businesses, from small retail and coffee shops in Maine to industry leaders like The Weather Channel, ESPN, Nielsen, and Deloitte.

Professor Emily Newell is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at USM and a former intercollegiate athletics professional. Her research centers around the intersection of intercollegiate sport and higher education, with a focus on international students, minority students, first generation students, and academically at-risk students. Prior to joining USM, Emily was a faculty member at Georgia Southern University.

Becky McKinnell, founded her award-winning digital agency iBec Creative the day after graduating from the University of Southern Maine in 2006. Becky has since been recognized as one of Businessweek’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs 25 and Under, was named U.S. Small Business Administration Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and received the Stevie Women in Business Award, among numerous industry recognitions for her company’s work. In addition to iBec, Becky is a founding partner of ikno intranet, a social intranet software designed for companies between 50 and 500 employees that need an easy and intuitive way to communicate online. And most recently, Becky launched a necklace and handbag line inspired by salt air, Wildwood Oyster Co.