Radio show talks business in the Q-C

• Doug Schorpp

 

• Nov 13, 2011 Updated Nov 13, 2011

 

 

Larry Patten and his son James Patten work on their radio show at the World Leadership Institute of Davenport. Wednesday October 19, 2011. (Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES)

Doug Schorpp

A weekly radio broadcast focusing on the Quad-City business community is the latest addition to the offerings of the World Leadership Institute of Davenport.

The institute was started in 1997 by Larry Patten and now involves his son, James.

The institute launched Quad-City Business Radio on Feb. 5. The first guest was Tara Barney, chief executive officer and president of the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce. Other guests have included business owners and executive officers, event coordinators and community representatives.

“We wanted to test the format and potential response of the Quad-Cities on the idea of a show like this. The response has been overwhelming,” Larry Patten said. “This is so different from the regular news we get on a daily basis. I was very excited to be bringing the positive stories about businesses in our community.”

“Working with a number of different businesses, we have had a unique opportunity to learn many stories of Quad-City businesses. How they got started, have grown and overcome challenges,”  James Patten, who joined WLi in 2005, said. “We have a diverse base of businesses here in our area and we felt these stories just needed to be shared.” Off

Mike Duffy, president of Per Mar Securities Services, Davenport, has been a guest on the radio program.

“I ran into Larry before he started it and told me he was going to have a radio show,” Duffy said. “He said he wanted upbeat, positive shows of the Quad-Cities. And after being on, I would say it is a down-home, feel-good, pro-business Quad-City program.”

Duffy said he wondered what topics they would address. But “we just ended up having a conversation,” he said. There were questions about how he got started, his family, etc. “It is more personal.”

The institute started out as a consulting and training firm, the Pattens said. But the institute began to identify what separated companies that excel from those that simply maintain the status quo. They said they discovered the critical ingredients to producing positive change within any organization and put them into a methodology they call Strategic Development.

“We work with a variety of organizations … who are looking to enhance their action planning process,” James Patten said. “We have a unique way of identifying an organization’s progress. The biggest thing we end up doing is to align the organization, to be a strategic guidance partner.”

Duffy said he is impressed with the institute’s approach and results.

“He has mentored two or three of our people,” Duffy said. “I had not done it until talking to three or four people who told me how much Larry had helped them.”

Larry Patten began his business career while in high school when he developed Century Records, a customer phonograph record production company. He operated the company successfully until 1972. Since then, he has served as chancellor of Palmer College of Chiropractic, president of a college, president of a radio group and president of a public television network.

He was involved in the deployment of the nation’s first interstate fiberoptics communications networks and developed some of the first educational distance learning programs in the country. He has written 14 books, including “Countdown to Eternity,” “The Rondine Solutions” and “Vortex in Time.”

His books on business include “Strategic Organizational Development,” “Champion Leaders” and “The You in Your Business.”

He has developed the Performance Scan and Analysis program that helps companies improve their operations. He has coached numerous executives and individuals in both their business career as well as their personal life.