Going from IT leader to Grease Guy to Biodiesel Entrepreneur
June 3, 2016
Hosted by Marcia Zidle
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Guest Information
Episode Description
After a successful 25 year run in the IT industry, Mr. Dobson decided to turn a hobby into a new career. While working, he began collecting used fryer oil after work from a local restaurant and made biodiesel at home to fuel his vehicles. Intrigued by the business side of biodiesel and the staggering number of businesses that were short-lived, he decided to research the cause of so many failures. The results pointed to a lack of maturity in the fledgling industry and failure of most to have an integrated business model. In 2011, with fuel prices rising he decided to take the leap and started American Bio Source. Hear Walter's story on how he built his business. First securing used fryer oil from hundreds of restaurants; then acquiring a biodiesel plant in his community; and most recently obtaining the next piece of the vertically integrated model: a biodiesel distribution company, just in time to help him distribute the fuel that is going to come from the biodiesel plant.
The Business Edge
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Your entrepreneurial vision has taken hold. Your business is growing. It's everything you hoped for and more. Or is it? With growth come bigger headaches: more hiring, more capital, more customers to satisfy, more employees to deal with, more plates to juggle and more demands on your time. Whether you realize it or not, you are experiencing Growing Pains!
On The Business Edge, with host Marcia Zidle, The Smart Moves Coach, you will hear how to make the leap from running a stressful business that is always putting out fires to leading a successful company that operates like a finely tuned management machine. You will meet savvy, street smart entrepreneurs and business leaders who’ll share their stories of success and even missteps as well as practical solutions to the unique challenges faced by growing companies.
Marcia Zidle
Marcia Zidle, The Smart Moves Coach, works with entrepreneurial ventures and small to medium size companies to build and leverage their leadership foundation to move from Start-Up to Scale-Up to Successful Enterprise. In other words, she helps them take the growing pains out of growth.
Coming from a unique entrepreneurial and corporate background, she’s both street smart and strategic as she guides CEO’s and their management teams to focus on the right priorities - the right talent - the right alignment - the right performance to get the right results that will satisfy their investors, customers and other stakeholders.
With 25 years of management, business consulting and international experience, she brings an expertise in executive and team leadership; employee engagement and performance; personal and organization change; emotional and social intelligence. Her clients range from privately owned businesses to mid-market professional firms to divisions of global companies in the following industries: healthcare, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, transportation, high-tech, hospitality as well as governments and nonprofit agencies.
Marcia's "claim to fame" is as a global citizen, living as an expatriate with her family in Scandinavia and Australia. In fact, one of her children is an "Aussie.” She’s traveled in over 30 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Far East and South Pacific.
