1000 Cranes Blog

Naomi Takeuchi Becomes National University Adjunct Professor

For Immediate Release
May 11, 2009

Naomi Takeuchi Becomes National University Adjunct Professor

National University's School of Media and Communications has hired Naomi Takeuchi as one of its newest adjunct professors.  After completing training in its online system, Ms. Takeuchi will lend her wealth of experience in strategic communications and marketing to students enrolled in the program. 

National University is the second-largest, private, nonprofit institution of higher learning in California. Founded in 1971, National University consists of five schools and one college, including the Schools of Business and Management; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and Media and Communication; and the College of Letters and Sciences.

National University offers 100 undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as 22 teacher credential and certificate programs. A leader in online education, National University offers more than 50 graduate and undergraduate degree programs and over 1,200 courses online.

National University's administrative and academic headquarters are located in La Jolla, California.

Happy New Year! Looking Forward to 2009

December 31st is a time to reflect on the year, and today is the time to look forward of what's to come! 

1000 Cranes has several key events planned for the upcoming year.  We will continue to deliver excellent service of customized strategic planning solutions and organizational management consulting by continuing our key partnerships and developing new ones.   

Key certifications will continue and new ones planned on the horizon:

• Standards for Excellence Licensed Consultant
• Kellogg Action Lab College of Consultants
• Success Measures Consultant Certification (New for 2009!)

Key partnerships include:

• Duke University - continued development of courses in their Nonprofit Certificate Program. 
• Walker and Associates - collaboration in the development of strategic and fundraising plans for the Robey Theatre Company
• Tidewater Community College - collaboration that allows 1000 Cranes to offer CEUs for its courses
• Regus Office systems - collaboration to provide office support for 1000 Cranes in Durham, Washington, DC and Toronto, Canada.
• Amazon S3 Video Spooling - In addition to our YouTube postings for the 1000 Cranes videolog, we now have our own offsite storage agreement with Amazon Simple Storage Solutions (Amazon S3) to allow spooling of video of longer lengths.

New activities on the horizon:  

• Government Projects - 1000 Cranes is now registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database allowing 1000 Cranes to bid on government projects.  
• Canadian services - development of service offerings into the Ontario province. 
• Speakers Bureaus - Developing relationships with speakers bureaus to represent 1000 Cranes for keynote speeches, seminars and workshops. 
• The "Visionary" Series - A training program built on forward thinking principles.   

Stay tuned for more to come in 2009! 

I spoke too soon about credit!

Well, of course, after posting my blog yesterday that it appeared that credit was flowing well, I was notified by my banker at Scotia Bank in Canada that they could not extend a credit card to the business even if I had five times the amount of collateral in personal assets at their bank.  I am still flabbergasted by it all as I knew the restrictions were pretty tight up there, but come on, you've got to be kidding me! 

One good thing is that the exchange rate for Canadian currency is good for Americans right now, so a transfer of personal assets there still makes sense, but the whole point of transferring the money in the first place was to get a line of credit.

From what I understand from my banker, for non-Canadian residents, the banking laws are much stricter there.  Hence, even though I would have plenty of collateral to handle a loan, my bank would not extend credit to me in the way of a credit card but rather only through their Interac system (equivalent to an ATM/Debit card) where funds can be extracted only if they are already in the account.

Needless to say, this is something I'll need to think about over the weekend!  So much for credit flowing between countries! 

1000 Cranes Partners with Walker and Associates to help the Robey Theatre Company

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:   
    Rodney Walker, President
    Walker and Associates
    (626) 396-9593
    rodney@waa.bz

    Naomi Takeuchi, President
    1000 Cranes Business Consulting
    (919) 806-4932      
    naomi@1000cranes.com

Walker and Associates and 1000 Cranes Enter into a Partnership to Assist the Robey Theatre Company

 Los Angeles, CA  (September 22, 2008) - Rodney Walker of Walker and Associates is partnering with Naomi Takeuchi of 1000 Cranes Business Consulting to provide funding development and strategic planning support for the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles. 

According to Naomi Takeuchi of 1000 Cranes, “Consulting with Walker and Associates is a wonderful mutual partnership where we can take the best practices of two strong consulting organizations and offer a complete solution to the Robey Theatre Company.” 

“Having the opportunity to work with the Robey Theatre Company and its founders, Bennet Guillory and Danny Glover, is a tremendous honor,” said Walker.  “We are looking forward to helping the Robey Theatre preserve the legacy of famed pioneer Paul Robeson and build a sustainability strategy.” 

The start of the partnership between Walker and Associates and 1000 Cranes first began at the Alliance for Nonprofit Management Annual Conference in Los Angeles in August 2006. This partnership not only expands the respective service offerings of both companies, it also leverages geographic presence of both to provide services throughout the US and the Ontario Province of Canada.

Walker and Associates is a private consulting firm based in Pasadena, California providing high quality capacity building consultation to institutional and community-based nonprofit organizations. For further information about Walker and Associates, visit www.waa.bz.

1000 Cranes Business Consulting is a private consulting firm based in Washington, DC, Raleigh/Durham, NC and Toronto, Canada serving nonprofits and small businesses in strategic planning, business consulting and financial analysis with a focus on social enterprise.  For further information about the 1000 Cranes, LLC, visit www.1000cranes.com.

The Robey Theatre Company was founded in December 1994 by Danny Glover and Bennet Guillory to fill a void of opportunity for Black theatre artists. Artists of color, particularly Black playwrights, have long lacked a forum where their work can be developed in collaboration with their peers. Black audiences have had insufficient opportunity to hear these voices in an ongoing basis and their unique expression of the culture. Robey was founded to fulfill this need.  For further information about the Robey Theatre Company, visit www.robeytheatrecompany.com. 

Alliance for Nonprofit Management is the professional association of individuals and organizations devoted to improving the management and governance capacity of nonprofits – to assist nonprofits in fulfilling their mission.  For further information about the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, visit www.allianceonline.org.

#####

1000 Cranes Celebrates Its Fifth Year in Business!

It's hard to believe that five years have passed since the humble beginning of 1000 Cranes Business Consulting.  After teaching for Duke University's Nonprofit Certificate program in June 2002, I decided to go ahead and create the company when the demand started increasing for speaking engagements and consulting events. 

On September 30, 2003, the NC Secretary of State's office officially registered the paperwork for 1000 Cranes, LLC, and 1000 Cranes has been climbing along ever since.   The business has had its ups and downs just like any organization, but overall, it has been a rewarding journey. I left my full-time job in corporate America to focus on 1000 Cranes full-time on July 1, 2005, and have not looked back. 

I have many people to thank for making 1000 Cranes such a success.  1000 Cranes is blessed to have a fantastic set of clients, wonderful partner consultants and outstanding advisors.  I don't know what I would do without a great lawyer, accountant and image advisors on the team. 

Most of all, faith has been a big driver for the business.  As many of you know, the Philosophy of 1000 Cranes includes:

1. Success comes from Faith and Vision.
2. Success comes from Planning and Execution.
3. Success comes from Embracing Change.
4. Success comes from Collaborative Relationships.
5. Success comes from Helping Others.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported 1000 Cranes over the years.  We appreciate your business and continued patronage and look forward to serving you over the years to come.  

Believe.  Plan.  Fly.® 

1000 Cranes Launches Two-Day Education Classes

1000 Cranes celebrates its five year anniversary at the end of this month, and many of you know that the start of 1000 Cranes came after Duke University approached Naomi Takeuchi to begin teaching for its Duke Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management.  

That humble beginning in June 2002 led to the creation of 1000 Cranes, LLC in September of 2003.   It's only fitting that five years later, the course material developed to help both nonprofits and corporations become more effective has come to fruition into publicly available courses. 

Based on popular demand for our interactive teaching style and for the gift of making difficult subjects approachable, 1000 Cranes and its partner consultants are launching four courses in five markets in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.   The courses include the following:

• October 6-7   
  Grant Writing Fundamentals    Atlanta, GA
• October 9-10   
  Grant Writing Fundamentals    Raleigh, NC
• November 13-14   
  Strategic Planning    Charlotte, NC
• November 17-18   
  Social Enterprise Endeavors     Washington, DC
• November 20-21   
  Advanced Grant Writing    Washington, DC

In an effort to assist nonprofits and social enterprises, the 1000 Cranes teaching philosophy will follow several tenets whenever possible:

1) Help nonprofits.  In the case of our first launch in Atlanta, GA on October 6-7, our work will benefit the Walk in Power Ministries in Atlanta.   This arrangement came about after Christopher Broughton (one of the ministers) approached 1000 Cranes about helping the ministry in Atlanta.  Since 1000 Cranes does not have an office in the area, this launch of classes proves to be a mutually beneficially arrangement.   Walk in Power Ministries has been instrumental in helping us secure a location for our first  launch in beautiful Buckhead region, and a portion of the room rental charge that would normally go to a corporation will go to the nonprofit.  We will also provide a full day of consulting services pro-bono after the class is completed! 

2) Use social enterprise resources.  For our first launch of classes, we are checking with social enterprise vendors who provide photocopy services.  Binders and customer materials can be produced by these social enterprise vendors providing them an income stream from our events. 

3) Follow green practices.  Our courses include a continental breakfast and lunch, we will ask our catering vendors to look for green options such as using water pitchers instead of water bottles for our events.   If salads, for example, can be made from locally grown produce, we will also check into those options.

For more information about our courses, please see our website at www.1000cranes.com/classes.php. 

When you attend a training course, do you ask if the trainer has a set of tenets they follow?   If so, what are they? 

When you attend a class, does it support social enterprises and/or green vendors?  

What do you value in training classes?  The networking?  The instructor-led methodology?  The opportunity to get away from the office?  All of the above? 

1000 Cranes Presents to the NC Black Elected Municipal Officers

Today, I had an opportunity to lead a strategic planning session for the NC Black Elected Municipal Officials (NCBEMO) meeting in Spring Lake, NC. 

It's wonderful to see the energy and commitment that comes when people come together to focus on a consolidated idea and move toward it.

They are still in the preliminary stages, and we anticipate more great work will come of this in the months to come. 

What really impressed me about this client is at the end of my presentation, they gave me a framed appreciation certificate for my time and participation in their conference.   It was such a thoughtful gesture 1000 Cranes has been very blessed in having some of the best customers.  Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference in feeling appreciated for what you do. 

I often tell my friends and colleagues that my consulting engagements often take me to places and provide experiences that stretch my mind and soul.  It is truly a blessing that me and 1000 Cranes' partner consultants enjoy. 

What do you do to appreciate the people who help you?

How do you find the joy in the work that you do in helping people?

What do you do to seek the best in you and others? 

1000 Cranes Wins Contract with Success Measures!

I'm pleased to announce that 1000 Cranes has entered into an agreement as an authorized consultant with Success Measures, a program of NeighborWorks America. 

1000 Cranes has several clients providing support to Community Economic Development (CED) communities in North and South Carolina who use the Success Measures Data System (SMDS)  for their program measurement efforts.  This relationship with Success Measures/NeighborWorks positions 1000 Cranes as a leader in the CED field in outcomes measurements.

With more funders looking for results-driven measurements, it's anticipated this area will continue to grow for 1000 Cranes. 

1000 Cranes Wins El Centro Latino Contract!

I'm pleased to announce that 1000 Cranes will be providing support services to El Centro Latino of Carrboro, NC. 

This marks our first agreement with an organization in support of the Hispanic community! 

1000 Cranes will provide facilitation, training and coaching services and will deliver our content in Spanish through an arrangement with one of our Spanish-speaking partner consultants!   

Stay tuned for more updates as 1000 Cranes begins to deliver services to support in other languages as well.  With our recent opening of a Toronto branch, we anticipate translating our materials into French, too, as the need arises.    

1000 Cranes Opens Toronto Presence!

I'm pleased to report that 1000 Cranes has entered into a three year agreement with Regus/HQ systems for a presence in Toronto, Ontario which begins today, no foolin'! 

After recently registering the company with the Ontario Province as a Non-Provincial LLC at the end of February, it made sense to begin looking for a location where we could conduct meetings and recruit local talent to help on a contract basis. 

The new address is located at 1 Dundas Street West, Suite 2500, Toronto, ON  M5G 1Z3. 

It's located right next to the Eaton Centre with easy access from the TTC Subway stations at Dundas or Queen Street on the Yonge Line. 

We find this to be a strategic move for 1000 Cranes to efectively deliver services in the Canadian market.   This, in addition to our recent addition of the Washington, DC address, positions 1000 Cranes to be a serious contender for future contracts and engagements.   

With our registration in Ontario, we will also be exploring potential partnerships in Ottawa with a fact finding trip in May.  Stay tuned for more activities in Canada!