We are pleased to introduce Essential Living Foods, one of our many valued customers. ELF is a Certified Organic Conservation Driven Importer and Distributor focused on making available internationally the highest quality, ecologically sound organic commodities from around the globe What makes Essential Living Foods so special? The type of foods and products they promote and the “farm to table” approach to sustainable business practices. Essential Living Foods has made an unwavering commitment to true quality- in every aspect of the company. Thanks Essential Living Foods and we are happy to work with you!
The Boston Harbor Hotel was the location of a regional summit focusing on the impacts of climate change on all aspects of business. This all-day climate change summit on Friday, February 12, featured a speaker from the EPA, policy makers from the six New England states, and prominent business leaders. The speakers dished out perspectives on how businesses can position themselves to benefit from state and national energy and environmental initiatives.
The message of the day for businesses: Vision and values give a company a sense of direction, but long-term success depends on embracing sustainable business practices. Global climate change is accelerating and sustainable business will depend not only on being very finely tuned to these changes, but also being expert in understanding how they interact and tangibly affect our economy.
In the world of business, especially in today’s economy, it’s the “survival of the fittest” elimination process which weeds out the weaker companies from the sea of competitors. One of the key “separators” is cost management. A company’s ability to critically analyze and effectively manage its business expenses is its competitive advantage.
Although each industry carries its own costs, there are certain expenses that every for-profit business must account for. One of the standard cash out-flows is taxes. But are taxes really a business cost? Taxes share some of similar characteristics with other traditional costs, such as advertising and R&D, but they also have distinguishing features.
Finders are individuals who source finance for producers to get their film projects funded, but for the most part, they are rarely informed about the craft which they are being engaged. By this, I mean that most finders are not “full-time finders”, but merely seizing on an opportunity that they consider may make them a quick buck. Most finders usually have a full time job in finance, or are self employed in the film industry, and they happen to have made a few connections with some independent producers that need someone to find them money.
Exemplar Companies is pleased to host Professionisti Italiani a Boston meeting on February 17. Keynote speaker at the event will be Italian philanthropist and world renowned racing yacht owner Vincenzo Onorato, patron of America’s Cup team Mascalzone Latin and winner of 6 world cups.
Reaction to Haiti’s Natural Disaster (by Ben Doherty)
We at Exemplar join with the rest of the world in offering our deepest condolences to those affected by the earthquake in Haiti. The ongoing human rights crisis following last week’s natural disaster is astounding. Thousands of people remain trapped within the rubble. Millions have been left homeless scouring the streets. Children suffer without food, water and the securities of home and family. The death toll is unfathomable.
The Exemplar team applauds the efforts of the United States government, our military men and women, and countless medical and emergency response volunteers who are now in country helping with the response. While we should be extremely proud of our country’s efforts and assistance and the generosity of thousands who have offered assistance in some way or another, let last week’s events serve as a reminder of how fortunate we are to live in the United States and enjoy its abundance of benefits.
There are a number of ways to get your film financed these days, but by far the most lucrative from a financial and career perspective is through a studio such as Sony, Paramount or Warner Bros who have the capital to fund independent films. Unfortunately they rarely do unless you have a pre-existing and somewhat successful relationship with them or a cool and very high concept story.
Organizations have many missions. Among them is a paramount focus on pleasing the customer. They measure satisfaction with surveys, pride themselves that they have great communication with customers and even ask for testimonials to show how happy their customers really are. But, I think that for some operations folks (you know the ones that get involved in the nuts and bolts to help make organizations run), the customer can sometimes seem once removed and sometimes even more distant. They may feel left out. However nothing could be farther from the truth.
Mergers & Acquisitions - A Case Study
Historically, mergers and acquisitions have been the most commonly used methods of corporate growth – and today’s extraordinary business environment has presented exceptional M&A opportunities. Strategic M&A present a company with a potentially larger market share, more diversified market opportunities, increased revenues, and enhanced shareholder value.
The Internet is exploding as a means of international communication and commerce. Commercial entities and individuals may simply register and run an internet site with a distinct name that is accessible globally. It is a global commons where ideas, products, goods, and services are moved back and forth effortlessly with no need for passports and border crossings. However, it has been organized exclusively with Latin-based characters giving this global vehicle a decidedly Western bent - up until now. The first Internet addresses containing non-Latin characters from start to finish will soon be online thanks to the October 30th approval of the new Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Fast Track Process by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers board (ICANN). Prior to this change, domain names were restricted to Latin characters – the 26 characters in the English alphabet. What are the implications of an internationalized Internet for our customers? This move opens the market to an infinite number of domains and phishers, pirates, and scammers. There are trademark infringement implications, potential cyber pirating issues, and the thorny jurisdictional questions inherent in this borderless cyberworld.
Today is the start of a new year and the beginning of my new Blog Spot where I shall attempt to enlighten, thrill, excite, engage and educate as many of you as possible to the trials and tribulations of the world of film and more specifically from time to time, Film Financing.
I’m sure many of you reading this will know everything and more about what I will write about over the coming months but there will no doubt be an unfortunate few that will know little to nothing. My tips are more of an education than anything, but will also endeavor to provide some pros and cons to the various financing vehicles that every film producer should know.
Blogs provide companies accessible forums because they facilitate the free-flow of information and communications concerning topics ranging from company news to significant industry developments. However, earlier this year, the SEC revisited its legal regulations pertaining to “Internet-based speech” and applied existing standards to company-hosted blogs and shareholder forums, which means that corporate bloggers should proceed with caution!
As the ground is shifting, everyone is talking about China now. I still remember when I was a child, the general public perceived China as a country with a great amount of non-wealthy people, a Communist-minded government, and the Great Wall. Nowadays, the only thing that remains unchanged is probably the Great Wall. In actuality, their current political system is somewhere in between socialism and capitalism; China has more people, over 1.3 billion, and the world cannot underestimate the potential of the third largest economy in the world. With its exponential growth and unlimited potential, China is playing an important role in the world’s economy and this is worth everyone’s attention.
Animals have long served as an inspiration for human artists who, for reasons of symbolism, employ animals in metaphorical fashion within their work. During 2007, the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art of Athens, GA, USA, hosted an exhibition entitled Animal Instincts: Allegory and Anthropomorphism, which “explore[d] individual and societal tendencies to imbue other species with purely human physical and psychological characteristics.” The exhibition featured works reflecting a number of subject matters, including War & Animal Allegory; Dystopic vs. Utopian Visions; Human Identity Through Animal Character; Animal Equality, etc.
On December 8, 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) decided to launch a one-year pilot program that includes accelerating the review of “Green Technology” patent applications.
Exemplar Customer Cybergraphix Animation, an animated film and entertainment company based in Los Angeles, CA, signed a Domenstic Distribution deal with Funimation for it’s Manga-Sytle Animated Film project Guardians of Luna.
For those of you in the Boston area who have not been to Mass Innovation Night - Get With The Program! Billed as a science fair for adults, Mass Innovation Nights provides entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors with a place to connect with the media, influential bloggers, the marketplace, potential investors and each other. Find out more about this must attend event here.
About the Exemplar Website:
Exemplar has taken great care in the building of its new website to bring interesting and meaningful content to our customers. We also have tried to make your visit to our website an enjoyable experience where you can learn more about what we stand for and the many ways in which we can help our customers to overcome challenges and grow their businesses.
In this blog, we wanted to share with you some of the thought that went into the illustrations you see on our site. Like any good site, it is very much a living and evolving canvas for sharing knowledge, demonstrating capabilities, and keeping you apprised of new innovations that bring our customers exactly what they have been asking for in a professional services firm. The content and illustrations that you will find on this site will, no doubt, reflect our development and evolution as an Exemplary services firm(s). We are pleased to share our inspirations with you and welcome your feedback, as we continue to expand and refine our new and evolving creation, hand-in-hand.
Exemplar/Revolve customer Audissey Guides, a media pioneer in the high-tech tourism industry, is a Finalist and top 5 among thousands of businesses poised to win the Forbes $100K Business Challenge! With voting ending at midnight, Monday, November 30th, Audissey is poised to be honored for excellence by Forbes.com and win a $100K prize to as funds to grow their business. Vote Now to support them and if they win, we will announce it here!
I have been putting a lot of thought lately into what it is about the profession of law that has gone astray and left so many professionals either miserable or driving them out altogether. The perceived “roots” of these problems have long been the subject of scholarly articles and current discussion: Lack of work-life balance, unchallenging work, systemic under-delegation, no diversity (and no more than lip service to solving the problem], competitive individualistic work environments, eat-what you kill systems, and, of course, the dreaded billable our system with it’s evil sister [quotas]. I have become passionate about Exemplar and the fixed-price model based on the subjective theory of value because executing on the business model Is DOMINO ONE to all of the other “symptoms” of a broken system. That’s right—the business model fixes and addresses each and every one of the factors that represent the deterioration of an honorable profession. (READ MORE)
