Awards, Rankings, and Testimony
Closed Published by Dr. Beyster June 17th, 2010 in Entrepreneurship, Government, San Diego.Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
The big news last week was that I attended the annual local Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards ceremony at the Hyatt here in La Jolla. A crowd of 1,000 people cheered on their favorite competitors, and five winners were announced. These five entrepreneurs included:
- Larry Gilbert, Event Network Inc. (Consumer Products)
- Scott Huennekens, Volcano Corp. (Health Sciences)
- Russ Mann, Covario (Emerging)
- Tim Penick, T.B. Penick & Sons (Construction and Facilities)
- Kishore Seendripu, MaxLinear Inc. (Technology)
These winners will go on to the national competition for E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, with the awards presentation to take place at Desert Hot Springs in November. I’ll probably attend, as I do each year.
J.D. Power Rankings
I would like to note in passing that the J.D. Power 2010 Initial Quality Rankings were released today, and the Ford Motor Company did quite well, achieving a fifth-place ranking. This is up three positions from its 2009 ranking. Lincoln also did quite well, rising 18 positions to number 8 in the J.D. Power rankings. Of particular note is that Ford (and its Lincoln division) is the only American auto company in the top 10, and above the industry average.
Toyota did poorly, dropping 15 spots to finish in 21st place for 2010. Even the Lexus brand was tarnished. The division of Toyota dropped three places, from 1st place to 4th.
I am pleased to see Ford do well in these quality rankings. It has been doing a lot of things right ever since Alan Mulally came to the company from Boeing a few years ago.
Capitol Hill Testimony
I watched the testimony of General Petraeus, Defense Secretary Gates, and other military leaders to Congress with interest. I agree with the military leaders that we should not get out of Afghanistan prematurely, and that we need to keep funding intact.
Regardless of Obama’s desire to exit the country starting in July 2011, we must first make sure our job is done. It appears to me that we have some way to go.
– Bob
