She waved her fine lace handkerchief at him and said, “Brave knight, I have been trapped in this stone tower for nearly a year by a wicked old witch. I have survived only by the kindness of the birds and squirrels that bring me nuts, berries and water. If you can free me from this tower, I will be eternally in your debt!”

“But how can I reach you at such a great height?” asked the knight.
“Use the Ladder of Diminishing Returns,” came the answer. So the knight, looking around, found a strange ladder on the ground near the tower. He leaned it up against the tower and noticed that the rungs of the ladder were spaced in a very peculiar fashion. Near the bottom they were spaced about a foot apart—very similar to most ladders. But near the top—as the ladder went past the princess’ window—the rungs were closer together: first nine inches apart, then six, then three, then one, and finally there was only a half-inch gap between the rungs as it passed the window.

“What a very odd ladder,” murmured the knight.

“Oh,” said the princess, “you are just seeing the diminishing returns. You see, the ladder has to be tall enough to let you climb up to a little below my window. From that point you can pull yourself in or me out and rescue me. But if you continue to climb, the rungs are so close together that you don’t get any real benefit in rescuing me and you might get your foot caught—you’ve reached the point of diminishing returns.”

“Ah, I get it” said the knight. “If I don’t climb up enough, I fail to rescue you and lose my reputation as a great knight, but if I climb too far, there’s no real benefit and it could even get worse.”

“That’s right” cried the princess. Wow, you are really, really smart too, and I want to marry you. But first, can you get on with rescuing me from this stone tower? I could really go for a big ole’ burger and fries after all those nuts and berries.”

And that is the (nearly) true story of how the knight and princess met and why you should put in just the right amount of effort into the tasks that you are about.

For the full article see http://utahvalleybusinessq.com/spring2012/62.html

Lendio makes business financing simple by matching qualified small business owners with active banks, credit unions, and other lending sources. Through a proprietary matching technology, Lendio helps business owners identify the type of business loan and specific lenders that gives the highest probability for securing business loan approval.

Needle provides ecommerce websites with expert shopping assistance online through a chat, voice and video communications platform. Needle has experts ready to help in a variety of categories from electronics to cosmetics and helps ecommerce sites raise conversion, increase average order value, and enhance customer loyalty. Needle’s Guided Shopping Platform can be used across multiple sales channels and is customized for each partner’s specific needs.

“Both Lendio and Needle are in very opportune categories where their services are becoming more and more of necessity for their customers,” said SageCreek Partner Greg Butterfield, who serves as SageCreek’s lead for the Lendio and Needle teams. “We’re excited to begin working with these two companies and their executives. They have already demonstrated their ability to become leaders in their respective categories, and we believe the SageCreek team and methodology will build upon their success.”

“SageCreek has been an excellent resource for us,” said Brock Blake, Lendio CEO. “We’re very excited about our future with them.”

“Needle is at an exciting time in its business and working with SageCreek and Greg Butterfield to further develop our partnerships and sales strategy just makes sense,” said Morgan Lynch, CEO of Needle.  “SageCreek’s business connections and expertise run deep and by tapping into those resources Needle will experience explosive growth.”

About SageCreek Partners

SageCreek Partners is creating and driving a new category of service: Mentor Capital. Working as a companion to technology companies and their investment partners and boards, the SageCreek team helps drive equity value, grow revenue and leverage over 100 years of business experience for strategic decision making.  For more information about SageCreek Partners, please visit www.sagecreekpartners.com or follow us at http://twitter.com/SageCreekPartnr.

PR Contacts

Cheryl Snapp Conner or Jeremy Kartchner

Snapp Conner PR

801 994-9625

cheryl@snappconner.com or jeremy@snappconner.com

ALPINE, UT – December 1, 2011 – Mentor Capital firm SageCreek Partners has signed Infuse Medical (www.infusemed.com) as its newest client account. Infuse Medical is a specialized education agency that provides medical device manufacturers with innovative products and programs to take their education and marketing efforts to new heights.  Recently, Infuse has also begun providing sales analysis tools that help medical device manufacturers determine which sales representatives, collateral materials and approaches are most effective.

From custom training programs with interactive 3D simulation to comprehensive and secure content management systems to sales analysis tools, Infuse Medical is one of the most innovative and progressive organizations in the medical device education and marketing space. For example, medical device manufacturer’s field sales representatives use Infuse Medical content to graphically demonstrate a complex process or surgical technique on a mobile device to surgeons in the operating room.  The company’s technology platforms are ideally suited for manufacturers to use in providing sales professionals and customers with precise and up-to-the-minute product documentation and visualization.

“As Infuse Medical considers its several options for business expansion and new innovations, we are extremely pleased to provide our strategy counsel to the company’s senior management team,” said SageCreek Partner Mark Bonham who serves as SageCreek’s lead for the Infuse Medical team. “We look forward to many additional advances for Infuse Medical during early 2012 and in the seasons to come.”

”Innovation continues to drive great change within healthcare and its ancillary industries,” said Jordan Erickson, President of Infuse Medical. “Infuse is thrilled to be working with the team of innovation specialists at SageCreek Partners. Their validation of our strategy and recommendations will ensure that Infuse continues to be spot-on with technology platforms and custom digital solutions that accelerate the transfer of knowledge.”

About SageCreek Partners

SageCreek Partners is creating and driving a new category of service: Mentor Capital. Working as a companion to technology companies and their investment partners and boards, the SageCreek team helps drive equity value, grow revenue and leverage over 100 years of business experience for strategic decision making.  For more information about SageCreek Partners, please visit www.sagecreekpartners.com or follow us at http://twitter.com/SageCreekPartnr.

PR Contacts

Cheryl Snapp Conner or Jeremy Kartchner

Snapp Conner PR

801 994-9625

ALPINE, UT – November 21 2011 – SageCreek Partner Mark Bonham will address the ways officers and directors can protect their companies during global political and economic upheaval at the 11^th annual Summit D&O Conference for directors and officers in Park City, Utah next week. At the event, Bonham will moderate the panel Global Political and Economic Upheaval—Are you Isolating or insulating your Company? at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 1 at Park City’s St. Regis Resort. Presenters on Bonham’s panel will include

• Kirk Jowers, Member of Caplin & Drysdale and Director of Hinckley Institute of Politics; and
• Joan Woodward, Executive Vice President Public Policy, The Travelers Companies, Inc. (Woodward is also former Executive Director of Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s Markets Institute and former Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and Senior Economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget.)

“The Summit is an ideal setting to engage with top-notch thinkers in a forum that allows participants to hear ideas, ask questions, test recommendations and come away with practical plans to operate or supervise a business with better governance, creativity and success,” Bonham said. “This year’s event and this panel offers business analysis and even insider perspective from Washington D.C. on some of the most pressing business and political problems confronting businesses today.”

The Summit Event is presented in partnership with the Utah Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors [NACD] and offers NACD credit. Summit D&O Conference is a world-class directors and officers training and leadership conference dedicated to helping the boards of public, pre-IPO, and private companies improve corporate governance and best practices.  For more information or to register for 2011 Summit D&O, visit http://www.summitevent.org.

About SageCreek Partners

SageCreek Partners is creating and driving a new category of service: Mentor Capital. Working as a companion to technology companies and their investment partners and boards. For more information about SageCreek Partners, please visit www.sagecreekpartners.com or follow us at http://twitter.com/SageCreekPartnr.

PR Contacts

Cheryl Snapp Conner or Jeremy Kartchner

Snapp Conner PR

801 994-9625

cheryl@snappconner.com or jeremy@snappconner.com

With Windows 7 migrations in full swing, few would argue the advantages of a strong privilege management solution for IT. A recent vendor survey shows a 463 percent jump in demand to implement privilege management among companies moving this year to Windows 7. Sixty-three percent of respondents consider it critical to manage administrative privileges for end-users to ensure security and reduce vulnerabilities.

When users don’t have local administrator rights, they can’t make changes that destabilize the system, or require extra support to correct the problems they accidentally create. Additionally, a locked-down system is less susceptible to malware.

But by its very name, a “personal computer” is generally seen by a user as “my device.” Many organizations allow users to run with local admin rights simply because it’s too difficult to keep systems locked down.

But removing admin rights is only a part of the fix. There are legitimate situations that require elevated privileges for users to accomplish their jobs. What companies really need is a way for users who need those rights to gain those privileges smoothly.

How do you accomplish that? A strong privilege management solution needs to take individual and collective user needs into consideration. Users have a set of things they do to get their jobs done, and they expect to be able to perform their necessary work without IT intervention. If users have been able to perform certain tasks on their own in the past, they are naturally going to expect that right to still be in place after a desktop lockdown happens.

A new study by SageCreek Partners describes current market compensation for a world class CEO in a company that has $25 MLN to $50 MLN in revenues.  The study evaluates cash compensation, equity compensation, and other relevant data.  The study considered multiple CEO elements and included several sources of data.  For the full study please visit http://sagecreekpartners.com/library.

ALPINE, UT – Aug. 30, 2011 – SageCreek Partners (www.sagecreekpartners.com) today announced expanded services to support clients who are growing or who are planning for expansion in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. As a key component of this move, the company has added Managing Director Geoff Masters to the company’s roster of mentor capital resources.

Geoff Masters is a senior executive with 25 years of experience helping companies grow their business presence in the Asia Pacific region. He helps to align the marketing, sales and channel partner resources a company needs to establish and grow a market presence in this region. Prior to joining SageCreek Partners, Masters held numerous Asia Pacific Managing Director & Vice President roles for global companies such as Sterling Software, Computer Associates and Altiris, as well as CEO and Director level positions at companies that he has taken through IPOs on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Masters is an Australian citizen, residing in Sydney.

“The APAC region is playing an increasingly important role in the growth of every company that markets and sells internationally,” Masters said. “I look forward to working with SageCreek to bring additional strategy to the SageCreek companies who currently sell or would like to sell and market more effectively into these regions.”

“AtTask is seeing tremendous interest from the Asia-Pacific region,” said Scott Johnson, CEO of AtTask, one of the US companies currently working on expansion into the Australia and New Zealand regions with SageCreek Partners’ help. “With a strong customer base already in the region, working with an already established and trusted industry veteran in the area is making our expansion both seamless to our customer base and easy from a business-building perspective. Geoff Masters with SageCreek is exactly that.”

Since 2008, SageCreek Partners has provided mentor capital resources through the collective experience of partners Greg Butterfield, Dwain Kinghorn, Steve EricksonSteve Erickson, Mark Bonham and Jan Newman, who have taken multiple successful companies from start up, to global and market leadership and exit.

For more information about SageCreek Partners visit www.sagecreekpartners.com.

About SageCreek Partners

SageCreek Partners is creating and driving a new category of service: Mentor Capital. Working as a companion to technology companies and their investment partners and boards, SageCreek Partners is comprised of seasoned executives with leadership experience throughout the U.S. and globally. For more information about SageCreek Partners, please visit www.sagecreekpartners.com or follow us at http://twitter.com/SageCreekPartnr.

PR Contacts

Cheryl Snapp Conner

Snapp Conner PR

(801) 994-9625

cheryl@snappconner.com

But removing administrator rights is only part of the story – organizations need a privilege management solution so that users are still able to perform approved tasks that require elevated rights. Simply removing local admin rights without providing for a way to elevate approved processes in a controlled way leads to end user frustration. Like any other infrastructure software project, a successful rollout and implementation of a privilege management solution requires planning.

Organizations need to understand what the operational changes will be and how to implement these changes in a way that is most helpful to the end users in the organization.

The steps I’m about to outline are described in more detail in a new eBook from privilege management provider Viewfinity (www.viewfinity.com). However, I’ll summarize them here, to provide an overview of the steps any IT administrator could take to enact a least privilege environment with the least disruption possible, and with maximum grace.

In short, these are the critical steps:

Acknowledge end-user requirements

Define the project’s operational and security objectives

Communicate objectives with end-users

Provide visibility of operational status

Enable a feedback processes

In future columns (as well as in subsequent chapters of my eBook) I will focus on breaking down the step-by-step process into project phases, including tools that will help you collect and organize the data you’ll need in order to get started.

We’ll address how to identify user accounts that have local administrative rights, discover which applications and desktop functions require administrative rights, and how to effectively manage the number of policies required to allow end users to have the functionality they need in order to do their job.

In this column, we’ll focus on the initial step of acknowledging end-user requirements.

Most organizations that are looking to implement a privilege management solution are coming from an environment where end users have had local administrator rights. Many organizations have allowed a number of users to run with administrator right because there has been no practical way to limit the access and maintain productivity. By its very name, a “personal computer” is generally seen by a user a “my device.”         Many organizations allow users to customize the systems according to their own preferences.

In many organizations, users have been running with local administrator rights because historically it has been too difficult to lock down the system.      There are a number of use cases where users need to have elevated rights to complete their tasks. In particular, with the growth in the use of laptops by an increasingly mobile and remote workforce, organizations have had difficulty in enabling productivity without granting users local administrator rights. Without a privilege management solution, the support of remote workers that don’t have administrative rights can be a challenge.

Information workers understand that computer systems access business confidential information and that there is a need to help ensure that the systems are free from malware to help protect this information. They also generally understand the value of using approved software and they want their organizations to be in compliance with software licensing and regulatory controls.            A successful privilege management project helps organizations enable end users to do what they need to accomplish their jobs and protect the corporate resources by adding a layer of defense against malware and helping to promote the use of authorized software.

As much as users may acknowledge the need for better security, they want to be able to get their jobs done.

A strong privilege management solution needs to take the user needs into consideration. End users don’t want to think in terms of privileges. The users simply have a set of things they do with their computers to get their job done, and they expect to be able to perform their necessary work without needing regular IT intervention. For example, if users have been able to perform certainly tasks on their own in the past, such as install approved software from known locations, they are going to expect to still be able to do it after a desktop lockdown happens. Many legacy applications require elevated rights to be able to run successfully.

In the planning phase of a desktop lockdown and privilege management project, companies need to acknowledge that there are tasks that end users expect to perform for their job functions that need elevated rights. Simply stated, moving to a locked down environment without acknowledging that there are going to be cases where certain processes need elevated rights will lead to disenchanted users.

However moving to a locked down environment in conjunction with a privilege management solution should make the transition nearly transparent to end-users, which is the optimal objective of every significant IT change.

For a full copy of the Viewfinity eBook “Moving to a Least Privilege Environment: A Step-by-Step Plan,” visit www.viewfinity.com. To reach author Dwain Kinghorn , email dkinghorn@sagecreekpartners.com