Four employers who’ve connected the dots to make wellness click with staff
Beyond ideas Inventors
Search leaders Technology
June 2012 $3.95
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new north b2b June 2012
22 28
34
Features
38
22 COVER STORY ❘ Alla tua Salute! 2012 ❘ Four employers who’ve connected the dots to make wellness click with staff
28 INVENTORS ❘ Beyond ideas ❘ Northeast Wisconsin inventors carry their creations from concept to the marketplace
34 TECHNOLOGY ❘ Search leader ❘ Today’s tactics for ranking higher on search engines involves more than keywords
38 FIREFIGHTERS ❘ Our first update from the trenches of two area business owners working to improve their operations
Departments 5,
On our Cover
4 From the Publisher 40 Professionally Speaking 6 Since We Last Met 10 Corporate Earnings 14 Build Up Pages 21 Pierce Stronglove 39 Guest Advice 42 Who’s News 48 Business Calendar 49 Advertiser Index 50 Key Statistics
Cover illustration by Kate Erbach for New North B2B.
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 3
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Changing gears on interstate conversion The importance of renaming U.S. Highway 41 coming into clearer focus
Sean Fitzgerald New North B2B Publisher 4 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
If you spent all of Saturday morning as a kid looking at maps, I want to take you to lunch sometime so we can chat. Yes, I’m a map and geography geek – always have been, and the predilection only seems to be getting more intense for me as tools like Mapquest and global positioning systems make maps more and more obsolete. I’ll admit that when I look at a map of the United States, the first thing to catch my eye is the interstate highway system. Usually an attractive shade of indigo with thick, fluid lines traversing the nation, the interstate system is a literal road map of economic development and population growth. Not that such growth and development was solely attributable to the interstate system, but it certainly hasn’t hurt. That being said, our own U.S. Highway 41 – despite not being one of the cool kids in the Blue Badged Interstate clique – has fared well in accommodating commerce in the Wisconsin communities north of the Milwaukee area up to Green Bay. It’s currently in the midst of a multi-year, billion dollar upgrade and improvement project which, when completed, will meet and exceed the standards of the federal interstate highway system. Since 2005, local business groups and area chambers of commerce have pushed for an interstate designation for U.S. 41, and I’ll admit that I’ve struggled to understand just why making U.S. 41 a bona fide interstate is worth the time and financial resources expensed in making the highway among the cool clique in the federal highway system. The economic development argument for achieving interstate designation is that some site selection professionals won’t even look at locating a company’s headquarters, manufacturing or major distribution facilities in a community if it isn’t located on or near an interstate highway. I’ve thought that sounds a bit like 1960s-era site selection criteria to me. Yet, I’ll acknowledge that my perspective was a bit myopic. After recent trips out to New England and southern California, I’ve discovered that a U.S. highway doesn’t always mean a roadway built to the standards of the stretch of U.S. Highway 41 here in northeast Wisconsin. Hop on U.S. Highway 6 on Chicago’s south side and you’ll find
yourself stopped at a traffic light every half mile and not able to exceed speeds over 35 mph. Take a Sunday afternoon drive down U.S. Highway 129 through the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia and you’ll find yourself using the steering wheel more in 20 minutes than you would in an entire month on our straight and steady U.S. 41. While those of us who call the New North home are certainly familiar with the quality driving and transportation experience that U.S. 41 affords through northeast Wisconsin, it’s safe to assume that others around the country probably see that the highway isn’t an interstate, and equate the quality of the highway with a roadway perhaps a bit less capable near their own hometown. Yes, that brand certainly doesn’t help the region when site selection professionals are looking at real estate for a new manufacturing facility. But it also doesn’t help the region when out-of-state tourists are looking to drive to northern Wisconsin or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and avoid driving through the Fox Valley because they feel as if they’d be better served on Interstate 39 or Interstate 43. The issue of converting U.S. 41 in Wisconsin to interstate is really about branding. Considering what we already have invested in the roadway, it’s a relatively inexpensive investment at $12 million to erect signs on and near the highway to “shield” the roadway for interstate status beginning in the fall of 2014. Aside from the discussion of cost, there’s no downside risk to converting U.S. 41 to interstate. The return on investment of such a conversion means better visibility for northeast Wisconsin through the national binoculars, the potential for increases in property valuations within 20 miles on either side of the highway, and the potential for job creation and further development of our regional economy. That’s quite a bit for us to gain as a region. Let’s inherit the full value of the improvements put into U.S. 41 over the past two decades and take advantage of the full potential of the transportation artery’s brand as an interstate. It’s the right decision in arming the New North’s economic development toolbox with another highly effective tool. www.newnorthb2b.com
PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING
Criminal Background Check – Be Careful! by Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. Tony Renning
920.232.4842
If you have a particular labor/employment law question, forward it to Mr. Renning at info@newnorthb2b.com. If he responds to your email in a future issue, your name and company will be withheld to preserve your privacy.
Reader Question: What precautions, if any, should be taken as to arrest and conviction record information? Tony Renning: The Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (WFEA) explicitly prohibits discrimination based on arrest and conviction (unless the circumstances of the conviction and the circumstances of the job are substantially related). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) does not provide similar protection. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will investigate an employer’s race-neutral policy to determine if arrest and conviction records may have a disparate impact on those protected by Title VII. In April the EEOC issued new enforcement guidance regarding the use of criminal background checks and arrest/conviction information. The EEOC’s enforcement guidance contains several recommendations for employers: • Develop a “targeted screen” that takes into account the nature and gravity of the offense, the duration of any sentence issued, and the nature of the job held or sought.
Sean Fitzgerald
Publisher & President
sean@newnorthb2b.com
Carrie Rule
Sales Manager
carrie@newnorthb2b.com
Kate Erbach Production
Contributing writers
Robin Bruecker Lee Marie Reinsch
Chief Financial Officer
Vicky Fitzgerald, CPA
• Conduct an “individualized assessment” of any applicant initially screened out due to his or her conviction record or give him or her the opportunity to explain the particular circumstances of the arrest or conviction. • Avoid asking about convictions on employment applications. • Refrain from asking about arrests or basing an employment decision on any arrest record. • Demonstrate that a refusal to hire an applicant was based upon a federal or state legal requirement or business necessity if it is challenged. Wisconsin employers have been precluded from making hiring decisions based on arrest and conviction records. However, in light of the recent EEOC guidance, employers should exercise additional caution. First, any application should clearly state that arrest and conviction record information will not automatically disqualify an applicant. Second, the application should state that arrest and conviction record information will only be considered if substantially related to the position the individual is applying for. Third, employers should afford
NEW NORTH B2B is published monthly by WINNEBAGO B2B LLC for $20 per year or $3.95 for a single issue. A single complimentary subscription is offered to all members of the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce, Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Heart of the Valley Chamber of Commerce, and the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce. Printed by Digicorporation, 120 Lake St., Neenah, WI 54956 POSTMASTER: send address changes to: WINNEBAGO B2B LLC 923 S. Main St., Oshkosh, WI 54902. Bulk-rate postage paid at Oshkosh, WI. Reproduction of any contents of NEW NORTH B2B without express written permission of its publishers is strictly forbidden. The appearance of any advertisement or product information does not constitute endorsement of any product or service by WINNEBAGO B2B LLC. Copyright 2012.
Contact us: P.O. Box 559, Oshkosh, WI 54903-0559 • 920.237.0254 www.newnorthb2b.com
applicants who disclose arrest and conviction record information the opportunity to provide an explanation. Finally, employers should exercise caution as to criminal record databases because the information may not be complete. For counsel as to the legal pitfalls associated with criminal background checks and the use of arrest and conviction record information, contact Tony Renning at (920) 232-4842 or trenning@dkattorneys. com or any other member of the Davis & Kuelthau Labor and Employment Team. Tony Renning is an attorney in the Oshkosh office of Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. (219 Washington Avenue). Mr. Renning provides counsel to private and public sector employers on a wide variety of labor and employment law matters. This article is intended to provide information only, not legal advice. For advice regarding a particular employment situation, please contact a member of the Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. Labor and Employment Team.
Green Bay
Fox Cities
Oshkosh
Fond du Lac NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 5
SINCE WE LAST MET
Since we last met Since We Last Met is a digest of business related news occurring in the Green Bay, Fox Cities, Oshkosh and Fond du Lac areas in the one month since the previous issue of New North B2B.
April 24
April 25
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association approved moving the girls state basketball tournament to the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon in 2013 and 2014, potentially providing a $3 million economic impact to the area each year. The girls tournament has been held in Madison since the event started in 1976, but was moved due to a scheduling conflict with the Kohl Center in Madison for a college hockey tournament. The location of the tournament after 2014 is still to be decided.
The Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee maintained the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent. In doing so, the committee noted economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.
May 1 The City of Green Bay Redevelopment Authority approved expanding an existing tax incremental finance district in the downtown area to accommodate Associated Banc-Corp. relocating its headquarters from Ashwaubenon to the Regency Center office building on Main Street. The TIF district – which also includes the Schreiber Foods headquarters development on the site of the former Port Plaza Mall – could provide nearly $1.5 million in assistance to pay for 200 parking spaces in the Main Street parking ramp. Associated plans to move 350 employees downtown during the course of the next year.
May 2 2002 June 1 – ThedaCare opened its new Level II Trauma Center and the new Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin-Fox Valley at Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah. The trauma center is housed in the ground floor of a new four-story addition at the medical center, while the children’s hospital is leasing the third and fourth floors of the addition.
2004 June 26 – International Association of Machinists Local 1947 representing nearly 2,000 employees of Mercury Marine ratified a four-year contract agreement. A week earlier, the union rejected an offer which included higher health insurance premiums for employees.
2007 June 11 – Wisconsin ranked no. 1 in the nation in health care quality in a first ever rating reported by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Among four different care settings, Wisconsin hospital care ranked first in the nation, and was among the five best-performing states in ambulatory care.
6 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
The annual Best and Worst States for Business survey conducted by Chief Executive Magazine ranked Wisconsin No. 20 on its 2012 ranking, an increase in four spots from a year ago and up 21 spots since it ranked No. 41 out of 50 states in 2010. In announcing its 2012 rankings, the magazine singled out Wisconsin as one of the states that has shown the greatest improvement during the past two years, citing a “conservative statehouse that is shaking things up and drawing business favor.” Texas maintained its No. 1 ranking as the best state in which to do business, a spot it’s held every year since the survey began in 2004. California held up the bottom of the rankings at No. 50, holding that distinction each year of the survey’s history.
May 3 Mondi Akrosil filed a notice with the state Department of Workforce Development that it plans cut 33 jobs at its plant on Garfield Avenue in Menasha beginning in late June. The jobs include 25 union posts represented by the United Steel Workers and eight nonunion positions.
May 4 Cabela’s announced plans to build a 100,000-sq. ft. store on Lombardi Avenue west of Lambeau Field that will be located in the Titletown Development area. Cabela’s officials said the store will employ approximately 175 fulltime, part-time and seasonal employees. Construction is expected to begin later this year and be completed in time for the start of the 2013 Green Bay Packers season.
www.newnorthb2b.com
SINCE WE LAST MET May 4 The U.S. Department of Labor reported 115,000 new jobs were created in April, leaving the national unemployment rate relatively unchanged at 8.1 percent. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade and health care, but declined in transportation and warehousing.
May 8 The Neenah Board of Education raised the base salary for its starting teachers by 18 percent to $40,500 beginning next school year in an effort to remain competitive with neighboring districts. The board also changed the district’s health insurance offering to a high-deductible plan with a health savings account, with the maximum out-of-pocket cost to employees at $1,100 for a single and $2,572 for a family plan.
May 8 Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won the Democratic primary in the special recall election for governor and will square off against sitting Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on June 5. The election marks a rematch of the November 2010 race that Walker won by 5 percentage points.
May 8 Annual economic development figures released by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism revealed tourism revenues in Wisconsin increased 8 percent statewide to $16 billion during 2011. The following is a list of tourism revenues for the counties in our area during 2011: Brown County, $537 million, an increase of 12 percent from 2010 figures; Fond du Lac County, $104 million, an increase of 23 percent; Outagamie County, $260 million, up 4 percent from a year ago; and Winnebago County, $202 million, an increase of 6 percent from 2010 figures.
May 9 US News and World Report’s 2012 Best High Schools rankings recognized the following high schools from the region, with their rank in the state and their rank nationally: Green Bay Preble, No. 5 in Wisconsin and No. 1267 in the nation; Appleton West, No. 8 and No. 1406; Green Bay Southwest, No. 13 and No. 1704; Pulaski, No. 18 and No. 1876; and Oshkosh West, No. 23 in Wisconsin and No. 1953 nationally. Schools were judged on student-teacher ratios, advanced placement test scores, and proficiency in mathematics and English on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam. The top-rated school in the state was Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, which ranked No. 130 nationally.
May 14 Plexus Corp. in Neenah announced plans to build a 410,000-sq. ft. manufacturing facility in the city’s Southpark Industrial Center later this year and eventually create up to 350 new jobs. The company is eligible for $15 million in enterprise zone tax credits through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Plexus officials expect to begin construction on the $50 million plant in July and complete it by fall 2013.
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SINCE WE LAST MET May 16 Employee-owned Appleton Papers Inc. sold a majority stake in the specialty thermal papers producer to Texas-based Hicks Acquisition Company II, Inc. in a deal valued at $675 million. The company will change its name to Appvion and intends to trade public shares on the Nasdaq exchange. The deal is expected to position Appleton for long-term growth and profitability with an improved balance sheet and greater access to capital. Members of the Appleton management team will continue in their current positions under the new ownership structure. The companies expect to close the deal in July.
May 16 1Engineering & Manufacturing, LLC of Neenah was one of eight businesses statewide that have been certified for Qualified New Business Venture tax credits by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to help it seek new investment. The company designs patented engineering solutions for customers in the sub-sea oil and gas market. 1Engineering & Manufacturing’s product line includes saturation diving systems, launch and recovering systems, remote operated vehicle, pressure vessels and industrial skid packages.
May 16 The City of Fond du Lac extended an offer to Joseph Moore, an Army colonel working in Korea, to serve as its next city manager, replacing Tom Herre who is retiring from the post in June. Moore will leave his 25-year career in the U.S. Army, where he’s served as director of public works and as commu-
8 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
nity manager and chief operating officer for military communities in Germany and Korea. Moore is expected to begin his role in Fond du Lac later this summer.
May 22 The City of Oshkosh Common Council approved $3 million in tax incremental financing assistance to the development partnership for the former City Center Hotel along the banks of the Fox River in downtown. The new owners of the hotel – which include Rich Batley and John Pfefferle of Appleton and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Foundation – purchased the property in February and are undergoing a $14 million renovation to modernize and improve the eight-story building. The hotel and a new restaurant are expected to open in early spring 2013.
May 23 Neenah-based Equitable Reserve Association announced plans to merge with Illinois-based Modern Woodmen of America, the third largest fraternal financial services organization in the country with more than 760,000 members. Under the terms of the agreement, Equitable Reserve’s 19,000 members will become members of Modern Woodmen, and the organization would take over Equitable Reserve’s operations, assets and liabilities. The merger will likely result in the loss of 28 fulltime positions at Equitable Reserve’s home office in Neenah. Equitable Reserve’s financial representatives around the country will be offered sales positions with Modern Woodmen.
www.newnorthb2b.com
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YMCA of the Fox Cities Apple Creek YMCA • 920.733.9622 Appleton YMCA • 920.739.6135 Fox West YMCA • 920.757.9820 Heart of the Valley YMCA • 920.830.5700 Neenah-Menasha YMCA • 920.729.9622
www.ymcasofnewis.org
CORPORATE EARNINGS
Once each quarter, New North B2B runs a digest of quarterly financial reports from local publicly traded companies, or from out-of-the-area parent companies with significant operations in the Fox Valley.
Associated Banc Corp.
Illinois Tool Works Inc.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Income
$41.3 million
$15.4 million s 168%
Revenue
$4.5 Billion
$4.3 Billion s 6%
EPS
24 cents
9 cents
Income
$486 million
$623 million t 22%
EPS
$1.00
$1.24
s 167%
The Ashwaubenon-based financial institution reported its nonperforming assets declined $37 million, or 9 percent, from last quarter and are down $176 million, or 33 percent, from the first quarter 2011. The bank’s potential problem loans declined 15 percent from the fourth quarter and are down 47 percent from a year ago.
Kimberly-Clark Corp.
The parent company of Miller Electric Manufacturing operations across the Fox Cities reported organic revenues for its worldwide welding operations – which include Miller Electric – grew 18.6 percent on the quarter due to strong demand from heavy equipment manufacturers and energy producers.
Plexus Corp.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$5.2 Billion
$5.0 Billion s 4%
Income
$468 million
$350 million s 34%
EPS
$1.18
86 cents
s 37%
The manufacturer of consumer paper and tissue products with significant operations in the Fox Cities reported $60 million of lower fiber costs during the recent quarter, with the additional forecast that overall pulp costs are expected to be lower than expected for the remainder of 2012.
VF Corp.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$2.6 Billion
$2.0 Billion s 30%
Income
$215 million
$201 million s 7%
EPS
$1.91
$1.82 cents s 5%
The parent company of Jansport operations in the Fox Cities reported double-digit revenue increases across all of its coalitions, lead by a 60 percent growth in its outdoor and action sports group, which includes Jansport operations.
10 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
t 19%
2Q 2012
2Q 2011
Revenue
$573 million
$568 million s 1%
Income
$20.0 million
$23.9 million t 16%
EPS
56 cents
59 cents
t 5%
The Neenah-based contract electronics manufacturer noted much of its revenue growth has been driven by the 28 new programs its manufacturing solutions group won during the quarter, which company officials expect will generate $316 million in annualized revenue when fully ramped into production.
Bemis Company Inc.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$1.30 Billion
$1.32 Billion t 2%
Income
$44.0 million
$51.2 million t 14%
EPS
42 cents
47 cents
t 11%
The Neenah-based supplier of flexible packaging and pressure sensitive materials completed the first full quarter of its $83 million facility consolidation program aimed at improving efficiencies and reducing fixed costs. Once fully implemented in 2013, these efforts are expected to save Bemis about $40 million in annual costs.
www.newnorthb2b.com
CORPORATE EARNINGS
Brunswick Corp.
Oshkosh Corp.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
2Q 2012
2Q 2011
Revenue
$974 million
$986 million t 1%
Revenue
$2.1 Billion
$1.7 Billion s 19%
Income
$39.7 million
$27.5 million s 44%
Income
$37.3 million
$67.9 million t 45%
EPS
43 cents
30 cents
EPS
41 cents
74 cents
s 43%
The parent company of Mercury Marine operations in Fond du Lac reported sales were higher in its marine engine segment’s U.S. outboard and parts and accessories businesses, and ultimately lead to an increase in outboard engine production at Mercury’s manufacturing facilities when compared to the first quarter 2011.
Humana Inc.
t 45%
The manufacturer of specialty vehicles reported a 61 percent increase in revenues from its access equipment segment as a result of strong demand for aerial work platforms and telehandlers to replace aged equipment. Sales in its defense segment increased just over 1 percent to $987 million for the quarter, while the company’s fire and emergency segment posted an operating loss of $11.3 million partially related to workforce reduction costs at Pierce Manufacturing.
Dean Foods
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$10.2 Billion
$9.2 Billion s 11%
Income
$248 million
$315 million t 21%
EPS
$1.49
$1.86
t 20%
The health and benefits company with extensive operations in the Green Bay area reported membership in its individual Medicare Advantage program increased 18 percent from the first quarter 2011, while membership in its individual stand-alone prescription drug plans increased 22 percent from a year ago primarily as a result of the company’s Humana-Walmart plan offering.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$3.2 Billion
$3.0 Billion s 7%
Income
$37.9 million
$25.3 million s 50%
EPS
20 cents
14 cents
s 43%
The dairy-based foods company with extensive operations in Wisconsin, including the Green Bay area, noted a more favorable environment for raw milk prices lead to 4 percent growth in its Fresh Dairy Direct segment revenues while much of the remainder of the industry struggled to maintain volumes from previous quarters. Combined with a variety of cost reduction measures, the segment recorded an 18 percent increase in operating income for the first quarter.
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CORPORATE EARNINGS
Neenah Paper
Appleton Inc.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$198 million
$173 million s 15%
Revenue
$220 million
$218 million s 1%
Income
$8.9 million
$6.9 million s 29%
Income
($64.7 million)
($5.2 million) t1,144%
EPS
54 cents
44 cents
s 23%
The papermaker with significant operations in the Fox Cities reported revenues in its fine paper segment increased 28 percent to $86.4 million as a result of contributions from its recently acquired Wausau brands, as well as from growth in its core premium brands and doubledigit sales gains in luxury packaging and labels.
Integrys Energy Group Inc.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$1.3 Billion
$1.6 Billion t 19%
Income
$98.9 million
$123 million t 20%
EPS
$1.25
$1.56
t 20%
The parent company of Wisconsin Public Service Corp. operations across northeast and northcentral Wisconsin experienced lower revenues from natural gas sales as a result of unseasonably warm winter weather during the first three months of 2012, though company officials said decoupling mechanisms in place at many of its utilities helped reduce the negative impact.
Blyth Inc.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$283 million
$181 million s 56%
Income
$7.5 million
($1.0 million) s 850%
EPS
87 cents
(12 cents)
s 825%
The parent company of Miles Kimball Co. operations in Oshkosh reported sales in its catalog and Internet segment – which includes Miles Kimball – dropped 9 percent to $33.8 million during the first quarter due to soft sales of general merchandise, partially offset by strong catalog and Internet sales of health and wellness products.
The employee-owned producer of thermal papers reported a heavy operating loss due to restructuring expenses and other costs totaling $61.3 million related to ceasing papermaking at its Ohio mill. The company reported sales of its thermal papers were up more than 11 percent on the quarter.
First Business Financial Services
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Income
$2.2 million
$1.3 million s 64%
EPS
84 cents
52 cents
s 62%
The commercial-oriented financial institution serving Madison, Milwaukee and Northeast Wisconsin reported its non-performing assets declined 45 percent to $22.8 million compared with the first quarter 2011.
Alliance Laundry Systems
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$117 million
$104 million s 12%
Income
$5.5 million
$4.8 million s 15%
The Ripon-based manufacturer of commercial and residential laundry equipment reported most of its revenue increase is attributed to an increase in United States and Canada revenues of $12.5 million.
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.
1Q 2012
1Q 2011
Revenue
$2.5 Billion
$2.6 Billion t 2%
Income
$37.4 million
$33.9 million s 10%
EPS
21 cents
16 cents
s 31%
The printing company with significant operations in the Fox Cities reported operating income from its international segment dropped by 30 percent to $30.6 million in the first quarter 2012, which was negatively impacted by $5.4 million in charges for restructuring and impairment. 12 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
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BUILD UP FOND DU LAC
2
1
Build Up Fond du Lac
Build Up Oshkosh
1
3
2 - 1061 E. Johnson St., Fond du Lac, Kwik Trip, a new convenience store, fuel station and fuel station canopy.
4 - 1410 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Paine Art Center & Arboretum, a 3,600-sq. ft. addition and remodel of the existing carriage house for a conservatory to host receptions. Project completion expected in December.
- 1155 S. Military Road, Fond du Lac, Rolling Meadows Development, renovation of a former nursing home and an addition to the fourth floor for a 101-room hotel and conference center. Project completion expected in July.
14 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
- 1755 W. Fernau Ave., Oshkosh, FedEx Ground, a 13,950-sq. ft. addition to the existing distribution facility. Project completion expected in August. General contractor is Bayland Buildings of Green Bay.
www.newnorthb2b.com
BUILD UP OSHKOSH 3
4
5 6
7&8
C - Indicates a new listing
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5 - 600 Block of Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, a five-story, 340-bed residence hall.
8 - 1990 Menard Dr., Oshkosh, C Qdoba Mexican Grill, a new commercial restaurant building.
6 - 750 Witzel Ave., Oshkosh, C CitizensFirst Credit Union, a new branch office.
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7 - 1250 S. Koeller St., Oshkosh, T.J. Maxx, a new retail strip center development.
- 3601 Oregon St., Oshkosh, C Fox Valley Technical College - Spanbauer Center, an 8,290-sq. ft. addition to the existing campus as well as a remodel of the existing building.
Projects completed since our May issue: None
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 15
BUILD UP FOX CITIES
Relationships. Expertise. SMALL - BANK
BIG - BANK
At First National Bank ~ Fox Valley, we know you... and we know banking. Our bankers’ 80 years of combined experience mean you can trust us to develop a financial solution that best fits your business needs today and tomorrow.
Call us today at 920-729-6900 or visit www.fnbfoxvalley.com.
Build Up Fox Cities
The Build Up department of New North B2B includes a monthly two-page spread identifying significant commercial and industrial construction projects ongoing in the Fox Cities area. C - Indicates a new listing
1 - 2693 W. Grand Chute Blvd., town of Grand Chute, Appleton Alliance Church, a 105,300-sq. ft. addition to the existing church campus.
2 - 1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute, Fox Valley Technical College Jones Dairy Farm Culinary Theatre, a 6,800-sq. ft., 120-seat theater for culinary demonstrations. Project completion expected in December. 3 - 1313 Holland Road, Little Chute,
Outagamie County Highway Department, a 2,406-sq. ft. addition to the existing county highway offices.
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- 2551 Northridge Dr., Kaukauna, Classic Gears and Machining, a 19,504-sq. ft. addition to the existing industrial facility. Project completion expected in June. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK ~ FOX VALLEY Appleton ~ Menasha ~ Neenah ~ Oshkosh
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- 1801 Progress Way, Kaukauna, G&G Machining, a new 37,120-sq. ft. manufacturing facility. Project completion expected in October. General contractor is James J. Calmes Construction Co. of Kaukauna.
6 - 109 W. Second St., Kaukauna, East Wisconsin Savings Bank, a 25,000-sq. ft. addition to and remodel of the existing bank building. Project completion expected in September.
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1700 Nixon St., Little Chute, Poly Flex, a 54,000-sq. ft. manufacturing facility. Project completion expected in June. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.
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- 130 W. Main St., Little Chute, Little Chute Windmill Inc., a windmill and village visitor center.
9 - 3813 E. Calumet St., Appleton, PH East of Appleton, a multi-tenant retail building to include AE Jewelers and a Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurant. General contractor is James J. Calmes Construction Co. of Kaukauna. 10 - 2605 S. Lakeland Dr., Appleton, C Flair Flexible Packaging, a 13,935-sq. ft. addition to the existing industrial facility and a new parking lot. Project completion expected in September. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna. 11
- 101 Main St., Neenah, Affinity Health System, a two-story, 31,400-sq. ft. medical clinic building.
12 - 2460 Towerview Dr., Neenah, C American Enterprises LLC, a 13,950-sq. ft. warehouse and office building. Projects completed since our May issue: • Our Shepherd Child Care and Family Ministry Center, 3335 N. Lynndale Dr., town of Grand Chute. • Kolosso Chrysler Jeep, 2690 W. Lawrence St., Grand Chute.
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www.newnorthb2b.com
BUILD UP FOX CITIES 4 thru 6
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HANSON BENEFITS, INC. Health Benefits For Business and Individuals
5601 Grande Market Drive, Suite A | Appleton, Wisconsin 54913 920.955.1040 | 866.955.1040 | Fax: 920.955.9940 www.hansonbenefitsinc.com
Request a quote online! NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 17
BUILD UP GREEN BAY Build Up Green Bay
Installing Installing Beauty Beauty 10
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The Build Up department of New North B2B includes a monthly twopage spread identifying significant commercial and industrial construction projects ongoing in the Green Bay area. C - Indicates a new listing
Fond Du Lac High School – Fond Du Lac, WI St. Mary’s Church – Ledgeview, WI
At Tri City Glass & Door, we know it takes more than just a great product to do the job right. It takes the installation knowhow that comes from being in business since 1960.
1 - 1575 Lineville Road, Howard, Grand Central Station, a remodel and addition to the existing building for a new convenience store and fuel station. Project completion expected in July. General contractor is Bayland Buildings of Green Bay.
Count on us to enhance your building with quality hardware, glass, and door products, installed on-time by experts.
2 - 1966 Velp Ave., Howard, Vandervest Harley-Davidson, a 32,451-sq. ft. addition and renovation of the existing retail building.
The Right Product. The Right Way.
3 - 1230 Hurlbut St., Green Bay, Oneida Energy Gasification, a 70,000-sq. ft. pyrolytic gasification electricity generation plant.
4 - 2301 Hutson Road, Green Bay, Multipond America, a 24,000-sq. ft. remodel and expansion of the existing industrial building. Project completion expected in August. General contractor is Bayland Buildings of Green Bay. tricityglass-door.com AUTOMOTIVE / RESIDENTIAL Appleton/ResidentialCOMMERCIAL Appleton/Commercial Green Bay 100 W. Northland Mason 2801 Ave. N. Roemer Rd. E. Mason W. St. Northland 2801 N. RoemerAve. Rd. 1811 E. 100 318 1811 N. Military Ave.St. APPLETON GREEN BAY APPLETON GREEN BAY 800.521.5221 800.449.8081 800.924.5715 800.521.5221 800.242.8177 800.449.8081 800.242.8177
5 - 921 S. Taylor St., Green Bay, C Pioneer Credit Union, an addition to the existing office. 6 - 2851 University Ave., Green Bay,
Milo C. Huempfner Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic, a new 192,000-sq. ft. outpatient clinic for veterans services. Project completion expected in the spring of 2013.
7 - 1330 Bellevue St., Bellevue, KI, a 100,200-sq. ft. addition to the existing manufacturing facility. Project completion expected in June. General contractor is Bayland Buildings of Green Bay.
We Believe...
in the importance of the health of our employees which directly affects the level and quality of the services we provide for our clients and their careGivers. Since 1948, we at N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation, Inc., a non-profit agency, have worked to promote independence and improve the quality of life for seniors and individuals with disabilities in Northeast Wisconsin. We strive to meet the needs of the community by focusing on person-centered care. Visit us on the web to learn more about all that N.E.W. Curative has to offer. Go to www.newcurative.org.
8 - Corner of County Road V & Allouez Avenue, Bellevue, C Game Stop, GNC, Sports Clips and Verizon, a 9,200-sq. ft. multi-tenant retail center. Project completion expected in October. 9 - 1511 Lawrence Dr., De Pere, Grand Central Station, a new convenience store and fuel station. Project completion expected in June. General contractor is Bayland Buildings of Green Bay. 10 - 1800 Lawrence Dr., De Pere, Bellin Health - De Pere West, an addition and alteration of the existing health care clinic. Projects completed since our May issue: • SMT Machine & Tool, 1325 Cornell Road, Howard. • Watermark Building / Children’s Museum of Green Bay, 315 N. Washington St., Green Bay. • St. Norbert College Michels Commons, 100 Grant St., De Pere.
N.E.W. Curative – Everything to Gain!
18 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
www.newnorthb2b.com
BUILD UP GREEN BAY 1
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(920) 498-9300 | baylandbuildings.com |
COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURAL DESIGN/BUILD GENERAL CONTRACTOR NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 19
AROUND THE BOARDROOM
36 The number of recall elections for state legislators that have occurred nationwide in U.S. history. A total of 17 of those recalls occurred in Wisconsin, including 13 within the past 12 months. Source: Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance
Title: Search Engine Optimization (SEO): An Hour a Day Author: Jennifer Grappone, Gradiva Couzin Publisher: Sybex; 3 edition (January 2011) Pages: 432 List Price: $29.99 Why Buy: More timely than ever, this comprehensive, can-do book offers expert advice, practical instructions, and smart tools to help you increase visibility for your website on Google and other major search engines. In this new edition of their bestselling guide, veteran search marketing consultants Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin give you the very latest SEO and social media strategies and tricks of the trade in a workable, day-by-day plan. This book will quickly help you increase your visibility and presence on the web.
2012 SUMMER Leisure GUIDE ! lendar a C r u o Mark Y Days, July 3-7
st Sawdu t, July 11-15 ly 11-15 , Ju Lifes lleyball 4 o V s s a ly 12-1 en Gr U.S. Op Rock USA, Ju 20-22 st, July -29 DeerFe ture, July 23 n e V ir EAA A
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www.newnorthb2b.com
AROUND THE BOARDROOM
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Recall Bazaar his intermittent election with the governor’s recall seems to be churning out even more bizarre and excessive candidate PR and marketing than recent elections. It’s a cacophony of crap.
Since the Barrett camp began turning up the crank on its PR efforts in early April, it’s been sending out a record number of media releases - three, four, sometimes five a day. They offer lots of empty, what-some-want-to-hear messaging without being specific, and of course the obligatory but revved-up mudslinging. Still, you can do a lot with $1.3 million: • Barrett’s has a 67-page plan to focus on jobs, protect education, strengthen health care, restore workers’ rights, strengthen manufacturing, partner with small business, establish a venture capital fund to spark new growth, bolster Wisconsin’s agricultural and rural economy, tie tax incentives directly to job creation, and invest in the clean energy sector. Big promises! Or do you just want us to like you more? • Walker’s “divisive ideological civil war” and failure to generate 250,000 new jobs. (According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Wisconsin leads the nation in job loss. Does that count part-time McDonalds and Kohl’s Department Store employees?) • Chris Christie’s monetary and campaign trail support. • Swirling questions about Walker’s criminal defense fund (the “Scott Walker Trust”) and former aides and associates who have been charged with 15 felonies and 3 misdemeanors as part of an ongoing criminal corruption probe into Walker’s past administration. The charges are stunning and wideranging: theft from a veterans’ charity, installing a secret Internet network 30-feet from Walkers’ County Executive desk to campaign illegally, and illegal use of taxpayer money for political purposes. The excess can condition one to ignore them, much like I can when Doo must wear his shock collar for screeching, or when
Mother Stronglove is watching a tenth episode of Family Guy in a single sitting – with ear buds securely hammered into her head. On the flip side, Gov. Walker has been traveling all over Wisconsin at taxpayers’ expense “doing his job as governor,” but his excessive travel smacks of campaigning. For example, on one April Thursday he went from a billsigning in the morning in Eau Claire to be the keynote speaker at a conference in downtown Milwaukee during lunchtime to signing another bill in Green Bay at 2:40 that same afternoon - and these days of criss-crossing the state several times in an 8-hour period seem to occur once a week or more. Walker’s other “doing his job” errands in recent weeks include these gems: • Delivering remarks about Wisconsin’s tourism industry at Bay Beach in Green Bay • Attending a groundbreaking ceremony at the Drexel Avenue interchange in Milwaukee County’s south suburbs • A visit to Kindercare in Hudson • Commemorating the fishing season opener in Spooner • Hitting the water for the fishing season opener in Trego • Making tourism announcements in Wausau and Eau Claire • Stopping in Black River Falls and Waunakee to highlight Wisconsin manufacturing. It’s bizarre. At the time of this writing, the gloves are still on. The crap is flying fiercely. Where their communications are concerned, both candidates are stinkers.
Behind the façade of Mr. Stronglove is an advertising professional wielding strategic and conceptual stealth in all forms of media (except book jackets). Send comments (or crisp twenties) to piercestronglove@gmail.com. To submit work for review, it must be attached as a pdf in Adobe format with no other attachments.
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 21
COVER STORY
Four employers who’ve connected the dots to make wellness click with staff Story by Sean Fitzgerald New North B2B publisher
Alla tua Salute! 2012 7th Annual New North B2B Corporate Wellness Awards
Leadership in Wellness-Mega Company
Appleton Papers Inc. Leadership in Wellness-Large Company
Schwabe North America Inc. LaForce Inc. Start Up Wellness Program Award
N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation Inc. 22 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
If there’s a tie that binds the winners of our seventh annual Alla tua Salute! Employer Wellness Awards for northeast Wisconsin, it’s the idea that wellness programs are never necessarily set in stone. Employer wellness programs are fluid entities within a company that evolve along with the evolution of the health and behaviors of its workforce. The changing dynamics within the wellness programs of the four organizations recognized in our 2012 honors occurred as a result of experimenting, learning and making adjustments along the way. In that regard, the term ‘wellness journey’ is certainly more appropriate than the often ethereal reputation maligned with the term. In its seventh year in New North B2B magazine, Alla tua Salute! – taken from the Italian for “to your health’ – recognizes and celebrates those employers in northeast Wisconsin who have implemented programs encouraging their staff and their families to take greater responsibility for their own health and wellness. These companies are often well down the road of their wellness journey, and invariably discovered minimal group health insurance rate increases along the way by creating a genuine culture of wellness within the workplace. www.newnorthb2b.com
COVER STORY Selected by a panel of some of the region’s leading experts in health plan and wellness program design, these employers represent excellence in employer-based wellness programming at the top of its game in northeast Wisconsin. After seven years of presenting this award through B2B, our panelists have noted a heightened wellness aptitude among the nominations we’ve received over the years. “It seems to me that these plans are becoming much more robust, and much more sophisticated,” said Chris Hanson, president and owner of Hanson Benefits Inc. in Appleton and a longtime panelist for the Alla tua Salute! recognition. For our 2012 employer wellness awards, our panelists acknowledged Appleton Papers Inc. with our Leadership in Wellness Award – Mega Employer, Schwabe North America Inc. of Green Bay and LaForce Inc. of Green Bay, both with our Leadership in Wellness Award – Large Employer, and N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation Inc. of Green Bay with the Start Up Wellness Program Award.
Creating options With more than 1,800 employees and a highly refined focus on health and wellness, Appleton Papers captured our newly created mega-company category for excellence in employer wellness programming. The manufacturer of specialty papers was a 2010 Alla tua Salute! Award winner, and has only ramped up the performance of its wellness program even further since that time. The company’s health care costs have actually been trending downward during the past few years – a phenomenon relatively unheard of in today’s existing health care climate. Appleton Papers subsidizes about a third of the cost of the salad bar in its on-site cafeteria, which has helped make it one of the most popular options among employees. The company has an on-site fitness center open 365 days a year, which is staffed by two employees from the Fox Cities YMCA
through a longtime partnership which allows employees to receive health and fitness coaching at no cost and to participate in a variety of fitness classes and tracking programs. If employees would rather work out elsewhere than the company fitness center, Appleton still provides that employee with a reimbursement for their cost, said Kerry Arent, vice president of human resources for Appleton. “We wanted our people to use a health and wellness facility and not be constrained by what we had on site,” Arent explained. To help keep wellness on top of employees thoughts, the company places weight scales in its restrooms as well as informational posters on the back of the door to the restroom stalls. Health risk assessments are offered annually to all employees at no cost. Salaried employees and their spouses are required to take the HRA each year
to be eligible to enroll in certain medical plans, but despite being voluntary for most of the company’s employees, the number of those opting to participate is high. Appleton incents employees to take the HRA by offering cash to salaried employees and a premium discount to its union employees, with incentives ranging from $200 to $300 each year. As more and more employees participate in the HRA, the company acknowledges it’s played a role in decreasing the cumulative HRA average. But Arent said it’s simply part of the process of having more employees take control of their health. “We understand that the first step towards improving health is becoming aware of health,” noted the company’s nomination for the award. Equally as impressive, Appleton Papers places heavy emphasis on promoting its employee assistance program. While most employers may offer an EAP
Selecting our award winners
Since early February, B2B solicited nominations for the healthiest employers in the region. We sought companies who promote innovative wellness initiatives and track and improve employees health year to year. Each member of our panel reviewed all of the nominations and observed a variety of factors. Wellness initiatives needed to include all eligible employees, not simply offer a pat on the back to those already healthy employees with a history of proper exercise and nutrition. Our panel also gave a nod to employers who were able to demonstrate an ability to improve the health of the workforce over time, as well as awarding creativity in providing unique, out-of-the-ordinary benefits. Efforts to communicate wellness program results to employees was also carefully considered by panelists. Lastly, our panelists gave recognition to those companies who demonstrated strong support for wellness from ownership and upper management.
HEALTH CARE PANEL
Michael Bina
principal partner IntellectualMarketing, Green Bay
Chris Hanson
president Hanson Benefits Inc., Appleton
Barbara Van Gorp David Brand vice president of employee benefits, McClone Insurance Group, Inc., Menasha
employee benefits specialist with Valley Insurance Associates, Oshkosh
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 23
COVER STORY Out in Front: Emeritus Wellness Programs With more than a decade each of robust wellness initiatives in the workplace, both Miles Kimball Company of Oshkosh and J. J. Keller & Associates of Neenah have become mentors for other employers in northeast Wisconsin starting out on the path of their own wellness journeys. J. J. Keller is one of the founding sponsors of the Well Cities-Fox Cities initiative, and likewise, Miles Kimball is a founding sponsor for the Well Cities-Oshkosh initiative. Both organizations are past multiple-time winners of B2B’s Alla tua Salute! Awards, and in 2011 recognized their efforts with our Emeritus Wellness Program Award. Catalog and Internet retailer Miles Kimball received B2B’s inaugural Alla tua Salute! Award in 2006, as well as in 2008 and 2009. The company’s Wellness Connection initiative began conducting annual health risk assessments with its employees and their spouses dating back to 2000, and has 12 years of concrete data to illustrate its employees are much healthier today than ever before. At the same time, its group health insurance premiums have increased at a far lesser rate than its industry counterparts. Miles Kimball has less than a 3 percent rate of employees within the high-risk group, but federal health regulations require thirdparty administrators of HRA data to report a minimum of 3 percent in the high-risk category – even though actual results may be less – so employers can’t easily identify and potentially target those few employees with poor health. Compare that to results at the outset of its wellness program in 2000 when the company reported a low-risk population of just 23 percent, a medium-risk group at 58 percent and a high-risk segment
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at 18 percent of its workforce. It’s a rate of improvement almost any company would envy. For its efforts, Miles Kimball was recognized in 2011 with the gold level Well Workplace award from the Wellness Council of America. Wellness is deeply ingrained into the culture of J. J. Keller, which received B2B’s Alla tua Salute! Award in 2010 and 2011. The provider of safety and regulatory compliance products and services has 15 years of health risk assessment data. It opened a 2,000-sq. ft. state-of-the-art fitness center for employees back in 1998, and boasts the longestrunning Weight Watchers at Work program in the state. The company launched the in-house program in 1995 and pays 25 percent of the cost for employees. In early 2009, J. J. Keller established an onsite health clinic staffed by a fulltime nurse practitioner and a part time medical assistant. With a goal of increasing productivity by allowing employees to receive health care treatment sooner, as well as reduce time away from the office traveling and waiting for appointments, the clinic has been a hit with staff. Nearly 64 percent of employees went in to use the clinic during the first 12 months it was open, demonstrating $150,000 in direct savings compared to what otherwise would have been health plan expenses for doctor’s office visits. J. J. Keller operates its own onsite food service cafeteria – as opposed to having it run by a thirdparty caterer – allowing company officials to determine and provide healthier nutrition options like a salad and sandwich bar and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as to control portion sizes. - by Sean Fitzgerald
program, it’s often just a benefit sitting on the sidelines that receives little use. Appleton makes a concerted effort to drive up utilization of its EAP program, and notes its high rate of use among employees and their family members means they are learning coping mechanisms and stress management tactics. The effort caught the attention of Barbara Van Gorp, vice president of employee benefits at Menasha-based McClone Insurance Group and one of the four panelists evaluating Alla tua Salute! nominations, who said reducing stress can often be the low-hanging fruit in improving an individual’s health. “A lot of companies skip right over stress,” said Van Gorp, who noted stress can induce tobacco use, overeating, excessive consumption of alcohol or a desire to not exercise. Appleton Papers is a leader in the Well Cities-Fox Cities initiative, and recently received recognition from Wellness Council of America for its wellness efforts.
Mission of healthy living Schwabe North America, Inc. in Green Bay, which acquired the former Enzymatic Therapy in 2010, enhances “life through the power of nature” as part of its corporate mission, so it makes sense that the creator and distributor of nutritional supplements would look to enhance its employee’s lives through its wellness program. With one of the most robust wellness programs our panel has reviewed in years, Schwabe reimburses employees for registration fees for activities like the Bellin Run or the Cellcom Marathon; reimburses the cost of playing in a sports league like basketball, volleyball and even golf; and reimburses employees for the cost of going to an off-site fitness center, even though the company has it’s own fitness center at its I-43 Industrial Park facility on Green Bay’s east side. The 480-employee Schwabe makes available for its employees’ use a nurse practitioner, a certified master herbalist, a chiropractor, two massage thera-
www.newnorthb2b.com
COVER STORY pists and a professional counseling service. Seven years into its wellness program, Schwabe requires employees and their spouses or domestic partners enrolled in the company health plan to take an HRA annually. Even employees who aren’t taking the company’s group health insurance plan can participate in a health risk assessment voluntarily on the company’s dime, an opportunity our panelists have rarely seen. “That’s important, because you never know when circumstances will change in that employee’s life and they’ll have to come on to the company’s health insurance plan,” said Van Gorp. The program is working, and employees have changed behaviors and adapted to a completely healthy living environment at Schwabe North America, said Tina Fairbairn, the benefits and wellness specialist for the company. Composite HRA scores for the company have increased each year for the past six years, with the exception of a slight decrease in 2011 as a result of bringing on 154 new employees to the company. Even so, the cost of the company’s self-funded HSA medical plan increased by just 1 percent in 2011 and climbed only 3 percent this most recent year. As impressive as Schwabe’s wellness plan appears, the company didn’t always hold spouses and domestic partners to the same standards of mandatory health risk assessments and health coaching, Fairbairn acknowledged. It’s a fairly recent requirement that went into place this past year. “For the past two to three years, spouses had been hitting our claims data more than were our associates,” said Fairbairn,
which management analyzed and modified for 2012. Schwabe’s wellness program is built around 11 key initiatives which employees are encouraged to earn credits toward. As employees accrue more credits toward each initiative, they can earn incentives of cash or paid time off from work. “I thought it was creative that they’d offer cash or paid time off,” said Michael Bina, principal partner with Green Baybased IntellectualMarketing and a founding panelist for our wellness awards, noting some employees might value personal time more than they would more money. In addition, the company includes its safety program handin-hand with its wellness program, which Van Gorp said makes total sense, because so often injuries at work can take a toll on worker’s comp insurance, short-term disability or lost work time. “Yet, so many companies separate that out,” Van Gorp said.
May health be with you With roughly 400 employees, LaForce Inc. in Green Bay has evolved its nearly 7-year-old wellness plan into a program that employers twice their size would envy. Tagged Healthy, Wealthy & Wise, the program encourages employees to participate in a variety of healthy activities in the quest of earning LaForce Loot, points which can be redeemed for a contribution toward their health savings account or for cold, hard cash. It’s the employee’s choice. The company previously offered just cash incentives, but LaForce President Brian Mannering said LaForce included the
Let the Name Calling Begin! Call Me “Drama Queen”
I’ve been called a “Drama Queen” all my life. I’ve always loved to pick out colors and decorate, so I guess “Drama Queen” is fitting. Whether it’s a dramatic entrance, or a more calming palette, I enjoy working with Keller clients to share my expertise and love of atmospheric design.
I am a face of Keller, and to make your next building project worry-free, leave the drama to me. I will do my best to get your project completed on time and within your budget. I am an Employee Owner, Project Manager, and Design/Build Expert. But don’t just take me at face value, call today and experience for yourself the difference that is Keller, Inc.
Construction Excellence Since 1960
1.800.236.2534 l www.kellerbuilds.com Offices in the Fox Cities, Madison, Milwaukee & Wausau
Char, AKA “Drama Qu een” Interior Des igner Co-Owner See Char’s work at the following local businesses: Hoff Law, Capital Credit Union in Little Chute, Van Zeeland Manufacturing, Timbercrest Dental Center, R Spa, R.R. Donnelly in Menasha, Baye Dentistry, McNeilus Steel, Winnebago Oral Surgery Center, Kidzland II, and Veronica Tovar D.D.S. to name a few.
A
FACE of Keller
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 25
COVER STORY Start up success
2006
Miles Kimball Company
2007
Miller Electric 4imprint
option of an HSA contribution from the company this year to incent those employees looking to cut down health care costs. LaForce, a distributor of door hardware and manufacturer of doors and frames, requires all employees and their spouses enrolled in the company health plan to take an annual health risk assessment. In fact, new employees are required to establish a baseline HRA score within their first 30 days of employment. “I like that they get you in to take your HRA right in your first 30 days,” said Bina, noting it helps sets the tone for an environment centered around health and lets the new employee know the company takes its wellness plan seriously. “We want people to understand that we care” Mannering said about the company’s wellness program. “Maybe they’re on top of their health issues, but we just want to make them aware.” LaForce does require quarterly health coaching with its on-site nurse if the employee or spouse’s HRA score is below a certain level, a mandate panelist David Brand, an employee benefits specialist with Valley Insurance Associates in Oshkosh, called “edgy, but very smart.” As a result, the company has helped some of its employees treat and correct their health concerns through the coaching with a nurse. Health coaching is available as an option to all employees and spouses, which Mannering said is really the second step – the action step – after presenting employees with the results of their HRAs. LaForce offers a robust calendar of fitness events and activities allowing em26 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
ployees to improve their health together. In addition to an on-site fitness center, the company holds regular fitness classes at no cost to the employees. In addition, LaForce also emphasizes financial wellness as part of its overall program, a component Van Gorp appreciated because of the role finances often play in inducing stress. Mannering said the financial coaching the company has offered to its employees at no cost the past three years was simply an extension of the relationship LaForce already had with the professionals managing its 401(k) and retirement benefits. The impact of Healthy, Wealthy & Wise at LaForce is evident. Cumulative HRA scores for the company have improved each year since the initiative began other than this past year, which remained unchanged from the previous year as a result of a change in the evaluation system which provided greater penalties to employees rating on the extreme low end of health tests. Communicating the results of the wellness plan’s performance is critical to LaForce employees. It’s mandatory for all employees to attend the annual benefits meetings, of which they’re paid to attend.
Just two years into its own wellness journey, not-for-profit N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation Inc. exhibits many of the characteristics of an employer who’s fine-tuned an employer-based wellness initiative after more than a decade. The 95-employee agency in Green Bay which helps promote independence for seniors and individuals with disabilities has required its employees and their spouses on the group medical plan to take an annual health risk assessment. Those employees or spouses who smoke cigarettes can’t participate in the agency’s $2,000 deductible plan – the lowest premium offering from NEW Curative – without going through a tobacco cessation program. And after just two years, the progress is revealing. Tobacco use has nearly been cut in half during the past two years with only about 10 percent of employees now smoking. HRA scores have climbed as a composite for the organization, with significant decreases in the number of employees ranking in the lowest, least healthy ranges, noted Rick Jelinski, vice president of human resources for N.E.W. Curative. How did the organization accomplish so much in such a short span of time? When N.E.W. Curative switched from a traditional health plan to a high-deductible health savings account plan in 2010, it reduced insurance premiums by nearly $100,000 for the year which was reinvested back into funding HRAs, paying for wellness coaching and regular on-site nurse visits, as well as providing HSA contributions. N.E.W. Curative allowed health coaching to be voluntary this past year, but after experiencing few employees
2008
Miles Kimball Company
2009
Miles Kimball Company Sadoff & Rudoy Industries Lutheran Homes of Oshkosh www.newnorthb2b.com
COVER STORY
g c T
2010
Appleton Inc. J.J. Keller & Associates Miron Construction
going on their own accord, management changed course to make it a mandatory requirement for employees or their spouses who score low enough on their HRA. Hardly punitive, though, the requirement is aimed at helping employees manage diet and exercise into their lives more effectively so that they become healthier and improve chances for better HRA results. Beginning next year, employee premiums rates will be based on HRA performance – the higher the score, the greater contribution the organization will make toward the employee’s health plan. The agency already provides employees showing improvement on their HRA or scoring 86 or higher with an additional stipend toward their HSA account. Placing employees in different health plans because of tobacco use takes guts, but can certainly help demonstrate the differences in cost for insuring smokers compared with nonsmokers. “Some employers hesitate to take that stand because they’re worried they’ll offend,” said Van Gorp. Indeed, Jelinski acknowledges N.E.W. Curative staff have become much more informed consumers of health care in the past two years, and conscientiously make decisions about prescription drugs, for example, with their own financial contributions in mind more than ever before. “We’ve gotten away from the standard deductible, and our employees now have the ability to make real purchasing decisions when it comes to health care,” Jelinski said. “Going to the high-deductible health plan helped set off a frenzy of employees asking ‘How do I spend this money (in the HSA account)?’” That’s the kind of behavioral change wellness plans strive to achieve. “They’re connecting the dots real well, and quickly,” noted Hanson. In one instance last year, an employee took paid-time off to drive to Milwaukee for an MRI, saving $1,500 from having the same medical diagnostic test done in the Green Bay area. “That’s really thinking outside the box as an employer,” said Brand. “That’s really pushing the envelope of what companies should be doing, but I like it.”
2011
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Integrated Community Solutions NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 27
INVENTORS
a e s d i
Beyond
Local inventors carry their creations from concept out to the marketplace
Photo illustration by Stolley Studio of Oshkosh.
28 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
www.newnorthb2b.com
INVENTORS
How many times have you heard lately that the American inventor is the American Dream has become
a
dead,
nightmare,
and we’re all just a bunch of automatons
addicted to Chinese electronics? Story by Lee Marie Reinsch In his book, “Why Have Americans Stopped Inventing?” author and patent attorney Darin Gibby says Americans are coming up with less than half the inventions our ancestors did 150 years ago. He blames the U.S. patent system and the huge costs associated with getting a patent, which pretty much boot the average garage-bred inventor out of the running. From the sounds of the media drumbeat, homegrown innovation is inert as a rodent in the proverbial mouse trap. Which means maybe we don’t need to build a better one after all. But in northeast Wisconsin, imply that innovation is extinct and you’re likely to get yourself decked with a Friendly Bed, a Parti-Bowl or a vanishing television screen. “Our philosophy is to be good at what you do, stay ahead of the curve, and develop a network of people that allows you to trust them,” said Gretchen Gilbertson, who with her husband Tim founded the now 9-year-old Seura (pronounced seera) in Green Bay, a company that makes televisions that transform into mirrors, luxury waterproof TVs for showers and yards, and backlit mirrors. “Sales are a testament for doing things very well,” Gilbertson said. Last year, Wisconsin inventors contributed 1,784 patents to the nation’s 108,626. It’s a lot higher than Alaska, with only 27 patents, but eons behind California, with 28,148. We’re behind our neighbors Illinois and Minnesota, which each more than doubled our number, producing more than 3,800 patents last year. But the good news is our numbers have increased over the last decade or so: in 2011, Wisconsin put out 217 more patents than in 1998.
Art is in the eye of the beholder Less than a decade ago, the Gilbertsons’ lives looked completely different. Both worked in product development and consumer research for large companies, Gretchen for the Huggies line of diapers at Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Tim with developing custom refrigeration products for the hospitality industry. Then the magic light bulb of the inventor went on. They had seen a showcase home in Madison that had a bathroom with a bulky combination mirror/television that sat in a 5-foot hole in the bathroom wall. “Visitors were crowded in the bathroom marveling at this thing,” Gretchen Gilbertson said.
The Gilbertsons brainstormed how to make a better one and planned the company they’d form soon thereafter. “We were like, ‘We love the concept; there’s nothing at all like it on the market that most people have ever heard of. Is there any opportunity for us to expand it and create a product that can be sold to the mass market?’” Gilbertson said. “On the way home we were already starting to draw up plans, and we were beginning to establish relationships with people in the electronics field.”
One of the high-tech products developed by Green Bay-based Seura.
What’s out there? One of the first things a prospective inventor needs to do is market research. Gilbertson and her husband were researching and finding focus groups to bounce their ideas off within a month of the showcase of homes that sealed their fate. “Find out who is selling it, how much is it selling for, who is buying it and what are they paying for,” said Mark Payne, mechanical engineering associate with Fox Valley Technical College’s Fab Lab, an inventor resource center for the region. “That will give you A – an idea on whether to proceed – and B – it’s important to have if you are entering into licensing negotiations.” Fab Lab is short for ‘fabrication laboratory,’ and it offers help to inventors with design, prototyping and general direction of their idea. It’s located at FVTC in Appleton and is a NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 29
INVENTORS yearly at the D.J. Bordini Business & Industry Center in Apcollaborative effort with the Massachusetts Institute of Techpleton. Past speaker topics have included marketing, product nology. They can help take an idea all the way through the liability, focus groups, web development and other businessconcept development process to commercialization, which is oriented topics. ultimately the goal of any invention. “We try to steer people in “No product is worth anything the right direction,” Hitzler said. unless it goes somewhere, which “We’re an education-based means if you have an idea, you group – we don’t push products owe it to yourself to go network Inventors Network of Wisconsin meets at 7 p.m. or inventors, we push invenand see what resources are out the second Monday of every other month (starting tors to have as much knowledge there to help you,” said Joe about the process as we can.” Vosters, president of Bill-Ray with January), at the D.J. Bordini Business & Industry Center, 5 Systems Dr. in Appleton across the street Many people with good ideas Home Mobility in Appleton and from Fox Valley Technical College’s main campus. don’t know where to start. “They the inventor of Friendly Beds, a immediately think they have to heavy-duty system of compo- Meetings cost $10 each for nonmembers, but a $30 knock on the door of one of those nents that fits over any size bed membership buys free access to meetings. More to improve independence for the information about the group may be found online ‘invention help’ places,” Hitzler said. “There are a lot of steps an elderly and those with physical at www.inventors-network.org or by emailing Jeff inventor has to do in order to do challenges. Hitzler at inventorgb@sbcglobal.net. it right. You need to determine “You can’t be shy about going if there is a sizable market out to different groups to make the there – just because your mom and you like it doesn’t mean connections and meet people, because sometimes when you are it’s going to sell.” networking, it may take five layers of connections before you get to the person with the answers you need,” Vosters said.
Inventors Network of Wisconsin
Bringing inventors together Inventor Jeff Hitzler of Green Bay founded the Inventors Network of Wisconsin in 1999 to provide support and savvy to those bitten by the invention bug. It meets six times
The inventor’s journey
Regardless of whether an idea is for a gizmo, foodstuff or widget, it generally will take a similar path from conception to construction. It needs to be evaluated from a market perspective, business and investment-opportunity angles, intel-
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INVENTORS lectual property issues, and cost and logistics of manufacturing. That’s where a project profile comes in handy. It’s a way of clarifying goals, expectations, areas where help is needed, and progress already made, Payne said. Ideas also usually need a prototype. Fab Lab helps with designing and creating physical or virtual prototypes of potential products. A prototype can be taken to investors to show how it would work and to parts manufacturers to show what it should look like once made and get a ballpark estimate of production costs. Costs to develop an idea through Fab Lab are far less than what an “invention help” company would charge, said Herb Goetz, inventor services program manager at Fab Lab. Fremont inventor Louis Woods, who came up with the idea for a fishing-rod brace called Enjoy the Fight for those with grip or hand problems such as arthritis, made a homemade prototype that he brought to the Fab Lab, according to Payne. “We were able to leverage our abilities to address all those features that make it a successful product versus just an idea,” Payne said. Some products can be taken to market relatively inexpensively if you’re able to position yourself to be in a licensing negotiation early on, according to Goetz. “That’s the way most inventors want to go – license the idea to a company that manufactures and markets the product, and split the royalties from sales. If you want to take the product to market yourself, it gets expensive.” A patent can take three to five years to obtain, and costs can run up to $30,000, according to Gibby’s book. With licensing, it’s like a company rents your idea from you. Say you have an idea for a new McDonald’s burger package. “You can go into business yourself and make (the package) but it will be a huge investment for machinery and materials and a huge commitment of time, or you can go to McDonald’s and say ‘Here, this is patented so it’s protected; here is the idea and I will sell it to you and I want one cent for every one sold,’” Payne said. Hitzler has licensed two of his inventions: an adjustableangle paintbrush and the Parti-Bowl (www.youtube.com/user/ PartiBowl), a snack bowl with an adjustable divider that enables Cheetos, Chex Mix and chip dip to coexist in peace, unlike Packers and Vikings fans.
Necessity: The mother of invention Four years ago, Vosters, the Friendly Bed guy, lived a different life than the one he’s living now as president of Bill-Ray Home Mobility in Appleton. He was designing and selling equipment for the paper industry, with nearly 30 years of experience behind him. He knew his industry by rote. But he knew zero, zilch, nada about health care. Then his 50-year-old brother-in-law, Bill, had a stroke, and Vosters quickly learned the marketplace for bed-area assistance had some serious holes. He was appalled at some of the home medical equipment he saw: flimsy guard rails, chintzy grab-bars and poles intended to help a patient balance but were inherently unstable, he said. Vosters cared for Bill a few days a week and saw what a gargantuan task it was for him to get in and out of bed. Then Vosters’ own father, Ray, in his
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INVENTORS ninth decade, began needing help from Vosters’ mom getting in and out of bed. “He was living at home but hanging on by his fingernails,” Vosters said. “No one wants to leave their home and their independence, and the need was there for better-quality assistive aids to help in the bed area where mobility needs are the greatest.”
So Vosters came up with his Friendly Bed, a strong steel system of grab bars and poles that fits over any size bed. It doesn’t wobble like some cheaper home health products that are covered by Medicaid (which Friendly Bed isn’t at this point), he said. “There was nothing like it out on the market, and I knew there wouldn’t be until I brought all the (components) together into one package,” Vosters said. “When you put all of these items together, you get a lot more over all benefit than you would with what you could do with a wobbly bed rail here and a flimsy trapeze bar there and a balance pole from somewhere else. A lot of the benefits only become possible because of tying together all of the elements into one heavy-duty product.” Vosters is marketing the Friendly Bed across the country, via Internet and trade shows, and he has a showroom in Appleton where people can take the Friendly Bed for a test drive. His patent is pending, but meanwhile it’s protected from theft. Vosters had his own prototype made through contacts in the equipment-manufacturing community. He’s a good example of the self-venturing inventor, having launched Bill-Ray Home Mobility to market the Friendly Bed. “If it all works out well, you get a bigger share of the pie,” Vosters said. “You are doing absolutely everything – engineering, purchasing, accounting, marketing, packing up boxes, answering phones – and doing every aspect of the business yourself,” Vosters said. “Your head starts spinning with the many hats you wear.”
Submitted photo
COLLEGEof BUSINESS
The deluxe model of Vosters’ Friendly Bed in his Appleton showroom.
32 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
Lee Reinsch writes and edits from Green Bay.
LEADERSHIP AS STRETCH AND REBUILDING Presented by Dr. Dale Feinauer, Professor of Management and Human Resources and Wisconsin Family Business Forum faculty liaison, UW Oshkosh College of Business
Successful managers need to be able to effectively manage their bases of support within an organization. Learn how to identify these bases. Discuss why it is necessary to push these bases in order to make positive change occur in an organization. Learn how to gauge when a base has been “pushed enough” and how to rebuild support within the bases. The concepts of transactional and transformational leadership are applied to this approach to leadership. Tuesday, June 5, 2012 – 5:00-7:30 p.m. Sage Hall, UW Oshkosh campus Wednesday, June 13, 2012 – 5:00-7:30 p.m. Stoney Creek Inn, 1100 Imperial Ave., Rothschild, Wis. Register online at uwosh.edu/cob/graduate
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INVENTORS
10 Insider Tips for Inventors By Herb Goetz and Mark Payne of Fox Valley Technical College’s Fab Lab
➊ The prototype before the patent. Prototyping first saves you money like this: it makes the patent attorney’s job of patent searching, artwork and writing the claims/descriptions easier; if your invention doesn’t work, you won’t need a patent and finally; it’s likely that by production time your invention will change due to design/engineering input, material selection, manufacturing process etc., etc. and you won’t need patent edits. Note: Early on, a professionally developed Virtual Prototype (3D computer model) is an acceptable substitute to a physical model or feasibility prototype. ➋ Invent-Help companies? CAUTION. These companies stay in business because they deliver what they promise but what they promise usually isn’t what you need. They know that but you don’t. If you read the fine print, you’ll see their ‘success’ rate (ratio of conversions to product commercialization) is usually very low. ➌ New Product Assessment – Get one. Having a New Product Assessment serves you in several ways: it can serve as a “red light/green light” indicator for your invention indicating whether you should continue investing. These reports contain valuable information which improves your position during licensing negotiations and just having one makes you look more professional because you will be better educated about the potential of your invention. ➍ I must have a patent. Not always. Get in – get out. Rushing to market with your product without patent protection can be a viable way of capturing early sales, leaving the competition to play catch-up. Then, when the knock-offs hit the shelves and after you’ve made your investment back, you make the decision whether to continue or cease production. ➎ Provisional Patents are cool. Why? They are easy and inexpensive to file, you can do it yourself (check the US Patent and Trademark Office website), the USPTO establishes a priority filing date, and you are allowed to claim “Patent Pending.” Note: If the one-year time frame lapses, the USPTO discards your PP application.
➏ Seek Professional Help. Face it, very few people have all the knowledge and experience to bring a product to market all by themselves. Savvy inventors realize they need experts to fill the gaps for services they can’t perform themselves. Often they seek out the professionals like designers, engineers, marketing firms, manufacturing reps and business and patent attorneys to get the job done. This approach can actually save you money in the long run. ➐ Use a patent agent? Most people have never heard of a patent agent. A patent agent can do the same thing as a patent attorney except litigate for you. If you handle the patent process correctly the first time, you probably won’t wind up in court. Furthermore, agents aren’t attorneys, so their rates are lower. As with doctors, it’s not a bad idea to get a second opinion. ➑ Know your market. Intimately knowing your market will pay unending dividends. You should have a good understanding of: who your competition is, what it will cost to manufacture, what a realistic retail price point is, and perhaps most importantly, who really wants to buy your product and who really wants to sell it. ➒ Licensing. This is what most inventors are after. Most licensing agreements are usually offered around a 5 percent cut (this could be from units sold, but ask about a cut from units manufactured). But be careful, some companies may license your idea just to keep it off the market – they’ll sit on it once they have control of it. Licensing agreements are negotiable too, so rely on expert help to ensure that a “winwin” deal is struck. ➓ STOP. Don’t mortgage the house. Build your idea carefully and deliberately. Learn to accept the feedback you are getting and be prepared to cut your losses if your idea just isn’t working out like you imagined. Invest in the next step only when you are satisfied with your progress. Do a gut-check: does the advice or information that you are acting on make financial sense? Does continued development of your idea make good business sense? A few thousand dollars wisely invested is better than many thousands wasted. NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 33
TECHNOLOGY
Search Leader
Today’s tactics for ranking higher on search engines involve more than keywords Story by Robin Driessen Bruecker As of early 2012 there were well over 600 million websites on the Internet. That number can make the goal of getting and keeping the company website in the top tier of search engine results daunting. Plus the methods for getting seen on the first page of Google, Bing, and other search engine results pages have evolved since the early days of search engine optimization, which typically meant cramming a lot of keywords into online content in the battle to reach the higher rungs of the search engine ladder. “Keyword stuffing is outdated, and has been for a few years,” said Amanda Betts, marketing director for Stellar Blue Web Design LLC in Appleton. Like Stellar Blue, agencies in northeast Wisconsin that provide search engine marketing have witnessed a steady change in tactics over the past decade.
A bit of history What makes a website search engine friendly? If search engines can read the website’s content, and the website doesn’t come across as spam to the automated Google filters, it will most likely rank higher in a search, explained by Larry 34 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
Stopa, president of E-Power Marketing Inc. in Oshkosh. Content within Flash, frames or iFrames can’t be read by search engines, and a website can be labeled as spam when it has an URL with a session or user ID, or redundant content that is used with different URLs of the same website or on another website. At the time E-Power Marketing was started in 1998, Stopa said, “search engine marketing was about gaming the many search engines at that time by precisely stuffing keywords in meta-tags and content.” That changed in 2003 when keyword stuffing was rendered obsolete by Google. “What Google made critical for search visibility is quality content that interests the target audience,” continued Stopa. “This remains true to this day. Yet many who claim to know search engine optimization (SEO) today still rely on stuffing keywords. This creates confusion in the marketplace because many who buy SEO are buying obsolete strategies. “Too many still expect some magic secret formula will generate search visibility. This distracts them from developing quality content needed to earn search visibility. Those who built search visibility with content established a foundation for strong onwww.newnorthb2b.com
TECHNOLOGY line marketing success that continues for many today. Those who had search visibility and lost it did so through the creation of websites that are not search-engine friendly or attempted SEO practices that resulted in penalties from Google.” Remember AltaVista? It fell prey to gaming. “In 1998, AltaVista was an important search engine that fed search results to Yahoo,” said Stopa. “Back then, precise keyword density was everything for success. This meant you could ‘game’ AltaVista, resulting in AltaVista offering poor search results that led to its demise. It never could keep up with the quality search results of Google.” Leading the search engine revolution, Google put an end to keyword gaming and other tactics that led to poor search results, which made Google a leader in the search engine pack. Stellar Blue’s Amanda Betts said search engine marketing has been “nothing but change since the beginning. As search engine users, we demand more – faster, clearer, more accurate results. Therefore search engines have begun honing in on requirements, rules (algorithms) and authority. Once upon a time, a marketer could put ‘Brett Favre’ on every page of a website to boost web traffic. Now, that trick is considered black hat or tricky. Search engines are so much more focused on relevancy of content as well as popularity than ever before.”
Is there a difference between organic SEO and plain old SEO? “Marketers and companies give different terminology for different services,” explained Betts. “In Stellar’s world, normal SEO is organic SEO, meaning you are working within tactics that are indexed on their own by search engines: links, content, keywords, updates etc. are indexed naturally on their own. There is no forced placement on search engine result pages. Only results that search engines deem the most relevant because of the quality and authority of links, content, keywords, updates, etc.” Social media has fueled the search visibility race as well. “The more active you are on social media, the more likely you will see improving search visibility on Google and Bing,” said Stopa. If it’s done right, a blog can be a great way to get more search visibility. According to Stopa, a good business blog should be actively updated, contain strong searchoptimized content, and be part of the website’s main domain rather than a separate entity. Betts also noted the importance of blogging in generating strong content.
How to rank higher
Search engine tactics today There’s no question there is still a big demand for effective search engine marketing. Mark Lezotte, director of online marketing for Skyline Technologies Inc. which has offices in Appleton and Green Bay, said search engine marketing can be put into two categories: 1) organic search engine optimization, which involves a website that has solid content, is architecturally correct and incorporates best practices; 2) and paid search, which includes the sponsored links that appear in search engine results and are affected by what was paid for them, the advertising quality, and the content to which consumers are directed. Organic SEO is effective but takes time. Pay Per Click – a type of online advertising, such as affiliate marketing – gets faster results but eats up finances. “Pay Per Click will generate traffic and sales fast. But PPC burns through money fast,” Stopa explained. “You have to have your PPC program properly set up with measurement tools offered by PPC providers. With them you can optimize the program around keywords and ad messages that generate the most response.” Organic SEO has been a focus at Skyline since 2006. Lezotte said the initial reaction by companies to organic SEO was strong because it was seen as a low-cost way to generate business, but they didn’t realize how much time needed to be invested in ongoing web content creation. Many eventually ended up dropping their SEO programs. “These services are still well sought-out, but we are finding our customers are better educated than before and have a better idea what to expect,” noted Lezotte. “We spend more time educating our customers upfront with regards to what to expect and how to maintain an ongoing SEO program than we have in the past. With this approach we have found greater success for our customers versus attempting to chase down each of the search algorithm updates provided by Google.”
Getting on that most-viewed first page of search engine results is the goal of any company’s website. Jeff Hayes of AlignTech Solutions outlined some methods for getting company keywords to rank higher and be seen: • Conduct market research on potential keywords in target demographics and choose ones that strike a balance between “high competition” and “relative obscurity.” • Optimize each domain or subdomain and each page for the desired keyword(s), especially the home page. • Blog! If possible, become viewed as an expert in your company’s industry by blogging frequently with high-quality content. • Make sure the company’s website looks good not only on laptop computers, but on iPhones, Android phones, and others. • Set web page content in the intermediate reading level – not too basic and not too academic. Hayes noted there are other website attributes that search engines evaluate. “However search-engine vendors do not want their public or SEO practitioners to know the precise metric combinations or formulas used for calculation of page rank,” he explained. “This is because search engines rely on their own reputations to produce income. As search engine gamers figure out how to get the rankings they want without ‘paying their dues,’ search-engine companies change their ranking formulas in response.”
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 35
TECHNOLOGY “For the last few years, websites should only focus on three to six strong keywords per page and use them within the content when it’s natural,” she said. “Search engines are indexing information like users. What user would want to read a sentence like, ‘We are a team of business consultants providing services as business consultants and excelling in the area of business consulting?’” “What makes a website search engine strong now is the amount of relevant content pages for the search engines to index. The best way to accomplish this is through business blogging: writing on topics that are areas of service or products.” In doing so, Betts went on, the activity-loving search engines are given fresh content to index as well as reminded about the company’s services or products. Additionally, companies should monitor the number of links that point to their own website – the more links there are, the more popular the website appears to the search engines, she said.
Other factors Other variables come into play with how a website ranks in search visibility, such as domain authority and page authority. “Domain authority (DA) is a metric that should reflect the likelihood of ranking high in a Google search,” said Jeff Hayes, principal at AlignTech Solutions LLC in Neenah. “I say ‘should’ because the DA doesn’t change overnight and it’s not 100 percent correlated with ranking. A domain’s DA changes slowly over time and in response to a number of factors that Google
looks for in, say, a best choice or highest ranking for a particular keyword. “Page authority (PA) is the same as the DA with the exception of scope. PA provides an approximate value of the ranking ‘worth’ of a single page in a domain, whereas the DA ranks for the entire domain.” Hayes also mentioned link juice, which he likened to stored energy in a rechargeable battery. “When other websites mention my website by posting a link to my website, for example, it gives me link juice, or an extra charge on the battery.” The higher that linking website ranks, the more link juice (or charge) is given to Hayes’ website. However, Hayes said, if he posts a link to another website from his own website, he surrenders some link juice (drains the battery).
Search success Online marketing service providers have several methods for helping their business clients achieve success. For example, E-Power Marketing offers a free website assessment which reviews the client’s website for content quality, search friendliness and visibility, technical problems, and untapped opportunities. The assessment also includes an analysis of the search visibility of competitors’ websites. Stopa said measuring the return on investment of a website can be accomplished through Web measurement tools like Google Analytics, enabling a company to see what’s working and what isn’t. “The strategy is to develop a search engine-friendly website
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TECHNOLOGY with a clear hierarchy that uses keywords in navigation and in content,” explained Stopa. “The more thorough the content, the more effective the website will be for search visibility.” He advises search optimizing each page around the most relevant target phrase for the content, using the target phrase naturally and avoiding overuse, and promoting the content through social media to attract attention and linking. One search visibility success story from the E-Power Marketing team is that of a new website for kitchenware maker Progressive International (www.progressiveintl.com). “In the first 12 months after launch, website traffic increased 52 percent and search engine referral traffic grew 87 percent with the establishment of over 250 first-page search positions on Google,” said Stopa. In another case study, E-Power guided the 2010 development of a new website for LinerWorld (www.linerworld.com), which sells aboveground swimming pool liners. The effort increased search referral traffic 83 percent in 2011 compared with 2010, and generated over 5,000 online sales in 2011 compared with 3,700 in 2010, noted Stopa. Smaller businesses have other factors to consider. The domains of small businesses usually aren’t as strong as those of larger companies with brands that are more well-known, Lezotte said, which affects how high the smaller companies rank in the search engines based on popular keywords. He pointed out that larger organizations also may have a staff member who is dedicated to the company’s website marketing. “When we are working with smaller businesses, we encourage the customer to focus on ‘long-tail’ search keywords,” said Lezotte. “These are words that have a lower overall total number of searches, but this is where the smaller businesses with weaker domains have a greater likelihood of ranking well. In many cases these words or phrases are more specific than general terms and as a result represent users who are further along in the buying cycle and represent a more qualified lead.”
The price tag The costs of improving search visibility depend on goals and budgets. Hayes pointed out several factors to consider, including what the goal is – for example, does the business want to be at the top of page one of a search engine with a single keyword, or get a Facebook following of 50,000 fans? His team also looks at how much keyword competition they will face to reach the goals, based on geographic location, industry, economic status, and other factors. “To rank high in the search engines for a keyword in multiple locations, for example, the cost will be higher than it is for ranking high in, say, Green Bay only,” he pointed out. Additionally, does the website promote a person, product, or service? If it’s a product, is it established or new? Does the client want to write his or her own blog and social media posts, or pay someone else to do it? And so on. Other factors include the geographic target – local, regional or national – and the amount of website content. “In general, the costs to produce a company’s stated SEO goals can range from $300 a month for relatively straightforward goals with a handful of keywords, to several thousand dollars per month,” said Hayes.
Additionally, the competitiveness of an industry’s keywords affect how much SEO services cost, Lezotte said. Skyline offers clients an introductory package that includes keyword demand and difficulty research. Once organic SEO efforts establish visibility, the number of paying customers increases and the visibility becomes easier to maintain, Stopa noted. “There is no online or offline marketing alternative that can compete for cost effectiveness,” he said. Betts touted blogging and link building as cost-effective options for businesses with a limited budget. “Pay the upfront fee to integrate a blog into your website and you can create page after page of content for no external cost,” she said. “As for linking, there are plenty of expensive avenues to tackle with that initiative, but a cost-friendly idea would be to have all your employees link their social networks such as LinkedIn to your company website. Also explore opportunities with your partners, distributors, manufacturers, etc. to provide exchange links to one another’s websites.” With the Web being a major source of information for products, services, careers, and more, it’s a good idea to do whatever fits the budget to improve the company’s search engine ranking. “Think about the last time you heard someone say they found a business in the Yellow Pages,” said Lezotte. “Now think about the last time you heard someone say that they found a business because they Googled it.” Robin Bruecker has 16 years experience in magazine and marcom writing. Contact her at robinbrueck@yahoo.com.
New North B2B’s 2012 Alla tua Salute! Award Recipient Schwabe North America, Inc. is excited and humbled to receive this award!
Thank You
to our employees who have committed themselves to living a healthier lifestyle, and for helping to enhance the lives of others through the power of nature! Headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Schwabe North America employs 543 people and is the leading branded manufacturer of natural medicines sold in health food stores and to health care practitioners. SNA sells products primarily under the brand names, Nature’s Way®, Enzymatic Therapy® and Integrative Therapeutics™. The company’s best-selling products include Alive!® multiple vitamins, Pearls ™ probiotics, and Remifemin® Menopause Relief, which are sold at fine retailers nationwide.
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 37
FIREFIGHTERS PROGRESS REPORT
Firefighters of northeast Wisconsin Gary Vaughan and his team at Guident Business Solutions are donating their time and expertise to work with Bridal Elegance & Formalwear owner LuAnn Vander Zanden to cure some of the financial woes her business is suffering. After 13 in years in business, Vander Zanden said she’s ready to turn the corner toward profitability after years of financial discipline paying off debts related to financial mismanagement by Vander Zanden a previous partner as well of taking care of repairs on the 110-year-old building her business owns in downtown Kaukauna. Vander Zanden first met with Vaughan in early April to learn abut the typical process Guident uses when working with its clients. Vaughan consults from the perspective that almost all problems within a business stem from financial issues. He believes that if a business can get its financial documents in order and the owner takes time regularly to understand what those documents indicate, they can make more appropriate decisions relative to their operations. Vaughan began by collecting the past 12 months of profit and loss statements from Vander Zanden to help her assess the validity of the information she is using in making her business decisions. Next, the two will evaluate Vander Zanden’s balance sheet and cash flow statements. Vaughan said he begins the process, though, strictly with the profit and loss statements because they offer the best assessment of how the busines is actually performing. In the weeks ahead, Vaughan will work with Vander Zanden to create an annual budget for the business, a process Vander Zanden acknowledges she hasn’t done before, but knows that she should do. At that point, together with Vaughan, she’ll begin to set strategy and specific goals to accomplish in the near future and beyond. In our other Firefighter episode, Steve Van Remortel and Mike Thuecks with SM Advisors are donating services to work with Caramel Crisp and Café owner ChanGuident Business Solutions LLC www.guidentbusinesssolutions.com
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da Anderson, who is wrestling with a variety of different directions she might take her trendy downtown Oshkosh café, confectionary, bakery, ice cream parlor and gift shop. After four years in business, Anderson has a bunch of ideas about new directions in which to take her business. So many thoughts, in fact, that she’s having trouble which to pursue and the best strategy for executing those ideas. During an initial meeting in early April, Anderson met with both Thuecks and Van Remortel to describe her business and tell them about herself - everything about herself. “Which I did. I didn’t hold back either,” Anderson said. SM Advisors’ proprietary Stop Selling Vanilla Ice Cream Process helps business owners develop and deliver a differentiating competance, target markets that add value to the competance, and to effectively communicate that value and capture new business. Through their work with Anderson, Van Remortel and Thuecks hope to refine a strategy for Caramel Crisp & Cafe going forward. Following that first meeting, Thuecks had Anderson take a behavior assessment, and to Anderson’s surprise, she was amazed with the accuracy of the results. “I apparently am a good choice for an entrepreneur. Bad choice for an accountant. No detail orientation, strong leader,” she said. Thuecks then provided a confidential questionnaire Anderson for Anderson’s husband and staff to complete. In late May, he met one-on-one with Anderson’s husband as well as her staff, and then finally again with Anderson to summarize the discussions with those around Anderson. Thuecks also began reviewing Anderson’s financial documents for Caramel Crisp, of which Anderson commented, “I do not think he was all too happy with my lack of detail in this process.” Perhaps that will be addressed in an upcoming Firefighters Progress Report in a future issue of B2B.
On the Web
Methodology New North B2B kicked off its 2nd annual Firefighters of Northeast Wisconsin initiative in April 2012, aimed at assisting those northeast Wisconsin small business owners who feel as if they’re constantly burning the candle at both ends, putting out fires, spinning their wheels, but intent on finding a way to improve. We put out a call for nominations back in January. In the end, our staff selected two area businesses for this endeavor: Bridal Elegance & Formalwear of Kaukauna and Caramel Crisp & Cafe of Oshkosh. Through the generous help of Steve Van Remortel and Mike Thuecks of Green Bay-based SM Advisors and Gary Vaughan of Guident Business Solutions in Appleton, the two dedicated-to-improve businesses are receiving four to five month’s worth of consulting at no cost to help their owners work on the strategy of growing their business rather than regularly attending to problems. B2B is providing a monthly update on the progress of their efforts in each issue leading up to a capstone article in the September 2012 issue of New North B2B magazine.
SM Advisors www.smadvisors.com
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GUEST ADVICE
Tragic safety lessons learned Tragedies at Upper Big Branch Mine, Deep Water Horizon spotlight the importance of safety programs
Charles P. Howes Safety Consultant/Trainer Integrated Risk Management Assoc.
Remember Don Blinkenship? He was the CEO of Massey Energy Company’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia when it suffered the explosion on April 5, 2010 that killed 29 miners and injured several others. As battalions of news reporters assembled outside his office and bombarded him daily with questions about the safety of his mines, Blinkenship resolutely maintained he had done more to advance mining safety than the mining industry as a whole had done in the last decade. Yet, according to a July 18, 2010, editorial in The New York Times, there is evidence the accident may have been caused when a company electrician bypassed a methane detector alarm that kept interrupting the flow of coal. Apparently the electrician was ordered to by-pass the detector by a middle-management supervisor. Mr. Blinkenship may have spent a lot of money and effort to advance safety, but all of his efforts could have been undone by subordinates who at least “perceived” that upper-management valued production numbers more than safety. As a consequence, a criminal investigation ultimately held Blinkenship solely accountable for a faulty perception. News about the explosion in the Upper Big Branch mine was quickly squelched by the explosion on the Deep Water Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. That explosion claimed the lives of 11 workers and injured 17 others, and initiated the worst oil spill in the history of the United States. The lives of the dead and injured roughnecks were only overshadowed by the horrific consequences caused by the vampiresque actions of British Petroleum. The event quickly cast BP’s CEO Tony Hayward in a villainous spotlight for public attention. Unsure of what had been done as far as safety training, what to do or what to say, he committed one public relations blunder after another while his employees quickly grabbed their 10 minutes of fame by pointing out a lack of safety and maintenance procedures to newspapers and programs like 60 Minutes. According to one electrician on the Deep Water Horizon, a supervisor ordered the continuation of work even while he was handed parts of a critical gasket that had been destroyed during the drilling operation. There were reports that Hayward and BP may, indeed, not have been technically responsible for the lack of safety training in that they leased the rig from Transocean, Inc., and
it was Transocean’s rig, people, systems and safety processes. Nevertheless, Hayward’s and BP’s legacy are irreparably damaged by the simple oversight of not ensuring that their contractors were adequately trained. Is there a common problem here? I think yes, and it’s a problem that affects most businesses in the industrialized world. That problem is the failure of top management to adequately communicate the safety message to middle managers who are tasked with the duel responsibilities of optimizing productivity and maintaining safety. Is there a solution? Again, yes, and the solution is found in effective communication of safety policies and verifiable training. Nothing effectively communicates a devotion to safety as well as training. Training is both time consuming and expensive, but a dedication to safety training is always clear evidence a company is willing to put money where their mouth is. Those who do not train in regulatory compliance have no right to a defense of happenstance. Risk is sometimes essential to profitable businesses, but any business engaged in risk of any level has a moral obligation to their employees – and the public – to develop and strictly adhere to written policies and procedures, and to train, train, and train some more! The finger pointing starts immediately when there is an injury or catastrophic event at any business facility. The question always arises as to who is responsible; however, all of us – executives, managers, mid-level managers and employees – must share some part of the responsibility for our actions or lack of action. The real question is: who is going to be held accountable? And, as I am sure that Blinkenship and Hayward would attest, that person is going to be the person who sits at the helm of the business. The lesson to learn: Provide verifiable employee safety training in your workplace, develop and adhere to written policies and procedures, and communicate your company’s safety message clearly, consistently, and often. The image you save may be your own! Charles P. Howes (www.charleshowes. com) is a safety consultant and trainer with Integrated Risk Management Associates, LLC in Green Bay. He has over 30 years experience in industrial safety and security. Email him at chowes@irmaassociates.com for a free brochure. NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 39
PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING
What is Functional Fitness? by TNT Fitness Results
Functional fitness is a form of exercise gaining popularity as gyms dedicated to this style of exercise open at an increasing rate. The most popular affiliation, CrossFit, opened an average of three gyms per day across the US last year after the debut of the Reebok CrossFit Games on ESPN 2. The goal of functional fitness is to create an efficient way to exercise combining strength with cardiovascular training. Exercises focus on multi-joint and multimuscle movements that promote stability and flexibility in order to increase the participants’ physical capabilities to take on life’s adventures. A functional fitness workout may include exercises such as a kettlebell swing, burpee, or Turkish get-up. All movements require stabilization of joints and muscles, coordination, control of momentum, and engage the trunk. An example of an exercise that is not functional would be sitting down on a chair isolating a certain muscle or joint through a given exercise such as leg exten-
Derek Toshner
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sions. This type of exercise does not challenge the cardiovascular system, nor does it make someone more functional, i.e. this movement would never be performed in a real life situation. However, others take functional fitness to the extreme, creating ‘circus-like’ movements. Standing one foot on a bosu ball while bicep curling in one arm and shoulder pressing in the other, creates movement that is unnecessary. Although this may be challenging to stability and involves multiple muscles and joints, a functional fitness exercise should be one that mimics the basic movements of life, without a great level of danger. An example that mimics life movements but has dangers that outweigh the benefits would include performing a back squat standing on an exercise ball. I’ve seen this before and often wondered what would happen if the ball popped or if it rolled out from under the participant. For functional fitness, ask the following: Is it fun? Is it challenging? Do the workouts
920.251.4481 combine strength and cardio training into one movement or workout? Does it make your active lifestyle easier? Is it safe? As with many professions, there are under qualified people trying to take charge, often times leading to a form of fitness that is either unsafe or circus like. Be sure to find a qualified professional in your area. Derek Toshner is the owner of TNT Fitness Results serving the Fox Valley. Toshner holds a B.S in Exercise Science and is Russian Kettlebell Certified Level 2 (RKC II) and a Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Specialist (CK-FMS). He is a CrossFit Regional Championships Competitor, an International Tactical Strength Challenge Champion, a qualifier for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 400-meter hurdles and is a three-time NCAA Division 3 National Champion in the 400-meter hurdles. He can be reached at 920-251-4481 or Derek@tntfr.com.
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PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING
Tourism grows in Winnebago County
by Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau 920.303.9200 The Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) celebrated National Travel and Tourism Week in May by moving into the top 10 in Wisconsin counties for traveler spending. In 2011 visitors to Winnebago County spent $201.7 million, moving from 17th in the state to 10th out of 72 counties. The economic impact of tourism supported the equivalent of more than 4,600 fulltime jobs and $105.7 million in wages and salaries. Room tax revenue increased by more than $63,000 last year as individual visitors spent an estimated $72.18 per day in Winnebago County. Sales efforts attracted 20 new events and approximately 30,000 new visitors and spectators to the region. These successes are directly related to the re-branding initiative launched in early 2011. The brand, “Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s Event City,” has taken hold as event organizers, meeting planners and visitors continue to look to our area as a one-stop Wendy Hielsberg
destination for leisure, business and sportsrelated travel. The OCVB’s new website, VisitOshkosh. com, experienced major upswings in visitor traffic, page views, and both new and repeat visitors thanks to an improved and increased focus on the calendar of events and sections related to EAA lodging. The website was recognized in 2011 by the International Academy of Visual Arts with a Gold Award of Excellence in the Travel and Tourism Category. This momentum and increased focus on strategic marketing of Winnebago County events has tourism partners optimistic for even more growth in 2012. The OCVB is the official destination marketing organization for Winnebago County, committed to support and enhance the economic impact of tourism through events, service, sales and marketing. A private notfor-profit 501(c)6 corporation, the OCVB is funded by hotel/motel room tax assessed by local ordinance. In 2011, city room tax
collections totaled $1,211,789. Of this total, the OCVB operated on 44 percent of the room tax collections. In Winnebago County, tourism is a fundamental component of the local economy, providing jobs, tax revenue and a variety of businesses and services that would not be possible without the added boost from traveler expenditures. The overall aim of the OCVB is to become Wisconsin’s most innovative and effective destination marketer. Our goal is to develop new and existing events, generate diverse sources of revenue, and facilitate support for important destination based capital projects. For complete details about Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s Event City, go to VisitOshkosh.com. Wendy Hielsberg is the Executive Director of the Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau. To learn more about the contents of this article or other tourism related information, visit www.visitoshkosh.com or call the OCVB at 920-303-9200.
Do Credit Inquiries Hurt Your Credit Score? by Credit Matters, Inc. For most people, credit inquiries have little impact on their credit score. This may seem contrary to what we’ve heard, and leads many people to fear having their credit pulled because they think it will drop their score. While it’s true that certain inquiries do affect your credit score, let’s separate fact from fiction about how much impact they do have. The inquiries section of your credit report contains a list of everyone who accessed your credit report within the last two years. There are two types of inquiries: soft (voluntary) and hard (involuntary). Only hard inquiries affect your score. There is only one type of hard inquiry – when you apply for some type of loan or line of credit, such as a mortgage, auto loan or credit card. Soft inquiries include the following: purchasing your own credit report, credit checks by prospective employers, credit account reviews by your current Dan Krueger
creditors, applications for insurance, or if a prospective landlord pulls your credit. None of these inquiry types affect your score. Putting a point-value on how much a credit inquiry affects your score is not an exact science since your whole credit picture is taken into account in the scoring formula. What we do know is that inquiries account for less than 10 percent of what goes into your score. Additionally, inquiries more than six months old have no impact on the score. A mortgage or auto loan inquiry typically impacts the score only three to five points. Shopping for a mortgage or an auto loan often results in multiple lenders pulling your credit, even though you’re looking for only one loan. To adjust for this, multiple auto or mortgage inquiries in any 14-day period count as just one inquiry in the scoring formulas. However, applying for several credit cards at once will result in each inquiry
800.531.7279 affecting your score, because it is possible to obtain several credit cards at once. In this situation, the score may drop by 15 to 30 points at most. Dan Krueger is the owner of Credit Matters, Inc., a registered Credit Service Organization with the State of Wisconsin. Since 2003 Credit Matters has assisted over 3000 consumers and small business owners with credit restoration and consultation services. For assistance with your credit management or score improvement needs, call us at: 800.531.7279. “Professionally Speaking” is a promotional spot for business professionals to share their expertise with New North B2B readers. To learn more about how your business can take advantage of opportunities with Professionally Speaking, contact Carrie at 920.237.0254 or email carrie@ newnorthb2b.com. NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 41
WHO’S NEWS Incorporations New North B2B includes a monthly list of new business incorporations filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.
Brown County
M&W Machine LLC, Daniel Wegner, 1670 S. Pine Tree Road, De Pere 54115. Badgerland Fire Protection LLC, Keith E. Garot, 320 Main Ave., Ste. 300, De Pere 54115. The Cupcake Couture LLC, Michelle Axford, 1946 Sandy Springs Road, De Pere 54115. Badger Steam Cleaning Pro’s LLC, Jessica A. Guzek, 2115 Mahogany Ct., De Pere 54115. County Line Stables LLC, Deborah Scabia, 2008 County Line Road, De Pere 54115. Reality Fitness LLC, Heidi L. Gooding, 320 Main St., Ste. 201, De Pere 54115. Grayfox Anesthesia LLC, Jeremy J. Jerdee, Sr., 3985 Garrett St., De Pere 54115. Country Stables LLC, Mindy Zielinski, 640 County Line Road, De Pere 54115. Krueger Electric LLC, Kevin Krueger, 5640 Peterson Lane, Denmark 54208. JJH Janitorial LLC, Jose Jaime Hernandez-Gomez, 1400 N. Baird St., Lot 27, Green Bay 54302. Hissho Sushi LLC, Phaingly Kao, 560 Menlo Park Road, Green Bay 54302. G.V.H. Mechanical LLC, Gary F. Vandehei, 1140 Hickory Hill Dr., Green Bay 54304. Reps Fitness and Performance LLC, Brent Jay Blundell, Jr., 683 Borvan Ave., Ste. B, Green Bay 54304. Guardian Janitorial LLC, Shawn D. Bowers, 2304 Main St., Green Bay 54311. Katana Tattoo LLC, Paul A. Dhuey, 309 N. Broadway, Green Bay 54303. Scheuring Shell LLC, Daniel J. Pamperin, 1275 Glory Road, Green Bay 54304. New Leaf Design Center LLC, Barbara Jo Delforge, 3072 Bay View Dr., Green Bay 54311. Modern Hearing Solutions LLC, Chad Robert Sorenson, 4695 Maple Dr., Green Bay 54313. Geoelectric Leak Detection LLC, Timothy John Ambrosius, 2679 Continental Dr., Green Bay 54311. Reliant Logistics LLC, Terry Robert Hansen, 535 Kenney St., Green Bay 54301. LAR Concrete Construction LLC, Lee A. Rucinski, 221 Huth St., Apt. 302, Green Bay 54302. Dynamic Metal Technologies Inc., Kevin Fredrick, 817 Marquis Way, Green Bay 54304. Mi Pueblo Market LLC, David Castillo, 1695 Main St., Green Bay 54302. Imagine Chiropractic and Wellness Center Inc., Angela R. Thiele, 445 Cardinal Lane, Ste. 110, Green Bay 54313. Reyes Cleaning LLC, Maria Engracia Reyes, 1404 S. Oakland Ave., Apt. 4, Green Bay 54304. Dynamic Chiropractic Ltd., Matthew S. Thomas, 858 Hansen Road, Green Bay 54304. Al’s Handyman Home Services LLC, Alan G. Wachtendonk, 1441 Mohican Ct., Green Bay 54313. Schave Anesthesia Services LLC, Tiffany Ann Schave, 2173 Palmer Dr., Green Bay 54311. Bay Castle Cleaning LLC, Mary L. Graycarek, 912 Lakeview, Green Bay 54313. Wallaby’s Steak House LLC, Calvin F. Williquette, Jr., 2244 Shawano Ave., Green Bay 54303.
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Titletown Crossfit LLC, Jason William Nobles, 2638 Tulip Lane, Ste. B, Green Bay 54313. Relax Inn Massage Wellness LLC, Diane Marie Ellerman, 2373 Bluestone Pl., Green Bay 54311. Moxie Art Designs LLC, Allison Gyzen, 910 Athens Dr., Green Bay 54311. Custom Catering by J LLC, Judith M. Summers, 1243 S. Irwin Ave., Green Bay 54301. Nicolet Restaurant of De Pere LLC, Robert Crowley, 1274 Sunny Creek Dr., Green Bay 54313. Cast Concrete LLC, Kyle C. Lentz, 965 LaCroix Ave., Green Bay 54304. CBE Anesthesia Services LLC, Cheryl Marie Burkel Emmers, 2044 Fawn Lane, Green Bay 54304. Lazy Dog T-Shirts LLC, Fred Lynch, 2912 Nikki Lee Ct., Howard 54313. Green Bay Bowfishing LLC, Bret Alexander, 3603 Standford Dr., New Franken 54229. American Warehousing LLC, James Roberts, 2614 County Road P, P.O. Box 176, New Franken 54229. Ken’s Concrete LLC, Kenneth J. Deterville, 3883 Conard Road, New Franken 54229. How Landscaping Services LLC, Matt Cornelius, 3812 N. County Line Road, Oneida 54155. Chrisman Crushing Inc., Pennee Chrisman, 2633 Quail Lane, Suamico 54173. Sydrow Golf LLC, Nick Stephens, 201 Royal St. Pat’s Dr., Wrightstown 54180.
Fond du Lac County
Garden Scents Everlasting LLC, Monica Flier, 107 E. Main St., Brandon 53919. Old Stone Design LLC, David J. Grinwald, W3311 Elmore Dr., Campbellsport 53010. MCK Pilot Car Services LLC, Mark D. Rahn, N3635 County Road W, Eden 53019. Hmong Culture Services LLC, Tong Moua, 588 Mustang Lane, Fond du Lac 54935. Good Vibrations Studios LLC, Debra Dawn Lewis-Hasenberg, 27 7th St., Fond du Lac 54935. Ronin Worldwide Tactical Training LLC, Joseph Schmidt Jakubicz, 655 Triangle Road, Fond du Lac 54935. Flying Needles Embroidery LLC, Janet Schueller, N5556 Winnvue Ct., Fond du Lac 54935. Meyer Family Farms LLC, Samuel D. Meyer, 42 N. Main St., Fond du Lac 54935. Wallace Generations Farm LLC, Lloyd C. Wallace, W7456 Forest Ave., Fond du Lac 54937. Family Auto LLC, Dino Spinelli, 713 Lakeshore Dr., Fond du Lac 54937. Korte Protection Service LLC, David J. Korte, 211 Yacoub Lane, Fond du Lac 54935. AJ’s Maintenance LLC, Adam Joseph Puetz, N8823 County Road W, Malone 53049. The Mancave Medic LLC, Glenn Kirk Hamer, 927 Wisconsin Ave., North Fond du Lac 54937. Kevin’s Snowplowing/Big & Small Vehicle Repair LLC, Kevin B. Drewry, 715 Lake Shore Dr., North Fond du Lac 54937. 7 Mile Creek Ranch LLC, Tanya Hansen, W8194 County Road Y, Oakfield 53065. Professional Writing Services LLC, Peter E. Hintz, 722 Woodside Ave., Ripon 54971. Professional Counseling Services LLC, Nancy L. Hintz, 722 Woodside Ave., Ripon 54971. Van’s Countryside Dog Park LLC and DogGone Groomers & Boarding LLC, Jolene Vander Woude, N3061 W. Center Road, Waupun 53963.
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WHO’S NEWS Oconto County
Real Estate Photography Professionals Inc., Paul James Loehlein, 2860 T-Berg Circle, Abrams 54101. Tenderheart Learning Ctr. LLC, Jean Marie Mercier, 5202 Brown Road, Little Suamico 54141. Sobieski Self Storage LLC, Ronda Ann Hugo, 5821 Allen Road, Little Suamico 54141.
Outagamie County
Mobile Safety Solutions LLC, Kevin Pullen, N3895 Anita Wieckert Road, Appleton 54913. Veteran Seamless Gutters LLC, Chad M. Zettler, 823 W. Spring St., Appleton 54914. The Sodfather and Sons LLC, Aaron D. Tomlinson, N3042 Full Moon Lane, Appleton 54913. Hotel Sweets LLC, Jose L. Arroyo, 2700 W. College Ave., #9-357, Appleton 54914. PCS Floor Solutions LLC, Protective Coating Specialists Inc., 826 S. Westland Dr., Appleton 54914. North East Wisconsin Inspection Services LLC, Jon William Oldenburg, 718 S. Weimar St., Appleton 54915. Exterior Custom Solutions LLC, Jason Attreed, 1306 W. Cedar St., Appleton 54914. David John Stadtmueller Auto LLC, David John Stadtmuueller, 1211 E. Wisconsin Ave., Appleton 54911. Lighting By Design Inc., Jim D. Dobbe, 1824 W. Cloverdale Dr., Appleton 54914. Commerce Yellow Pages LLC and Multi-Platform Advertising LLC, John Hale, 2907 Schaefer Cir., Appleton 54915. Esprit Counseling & Consulting LLC, Jennifer W. Koeppl, 477 S. Nicolet Road, Ste. 9, Appleton 54914. Minuteman Handyman LLC, Bryan Kneeland, W5928 Tranquil
Way, Appleton 54915. Oriental Food Market LLC, Tou Xiong, 343 W. Wisconsin Ave., Appleton 54911. Bachand Remodeling LLC, Lucas E. Bechand, 17 Thistle Down Ct., Appleton 54915. Avenue Tanning LLC and Thrifty Tickets LLC, Frank B. Hamilton, 513 W. College Ave., Appleton 54911. Independent Guardianship Services Inc., Thomas J. Fuhrmann, 1400 Oakcrest Ct., Appleton 54914. Mr. D’s Handyman Services LLC, Arlen D. Dombrock, 721 S. Clara St., Appleton 54915. Premium Investigations LLC, Jason J. Johnson, N9561 Noe Road, Appleton 54915. Fox Valley Club Sports LLC, Sarah M. Wilder, W5544 Colin St., Appleton 54915. Pitsch Firearms LLC, Eric Paul Pitsch, 614 N. Oneida St., Appleton 54911. New Construction Supply LLC, Benjamin Lawrence Cronin, 2725 E. Milestone Ct., Appleton 54913. Growing Positive Guardianship Corp., Timothy J. Stutzman, 520 Jeffrey St., Combined Locks 54113. G & L Hydraulics Inc., Gerald J. Wildenberg, N3470 State Road 55, Freedom 54130. Source Graphics LLC, William J. Kohrt, N3358 French Road, Freedom 54913. Hansel Countryside Landscaping Materials LLC, Mike Hansel, W6625 County Road JJ, P.O. Box 110, Greenville 54942. Absolutely Electric LLC, Michael J. Goodreau, 203 N. Mill St., Hortonville 54944. Dombrowski Roofing and Siding LLC, Edward J. Dombrowski Jr., 3521 County Road M, Hortonville 54944. Medella Personalized Fitness Coaching LLC, Kimberly Anne Maas, N2540 Greendale Road, Hortonville 54944.
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WHO’S NEWS
Committed to building and measuring a culture of wellness among our employees
Appleton Papers Inc. www.appletonideas.com
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Lighthouse Church of Jesus Christ Inc., Michael N. West, 1717 S. Main Ave., Kaukauna 54130. H & S Custom Concrete LLC, William J. Haring 122 DeForest Dr., Kaukauna 54130. Xreme Clean of the Fox Cities LLC, Brian James Laitinen, 276 S. Helen St., Kimberly 54136. Wilde Web Marketing LLC, Shawn Michael Wilde, 1359 1/2 W. 4th St., Kimberly 54136. Marc Busko Speaking LLC, Marc Michael Busko, 1037C Truman St., Kimberly 54136. Bob’s Bear Bait LLC, Bob Rolland Spierings, Sr., 1901 Ceil St., Little Chute 54140. Boot’s Windfall Inn LLC, Wayne Marquardt, 1413 Buchanan St., Little Chute 54140. BDI Builders LLC, Brian Van Boxtel, 344 S. Grant St., Seymour 54165.
Winnebago County
Instructor Staffing Solutions LLC, Maria A. Wierichs, 1024 Manitoba St., Menasha 54952. Healthy Changes Counseling Center LLC, Christine Marie Vander Wielen, 1486 Kenwood Dr., Menasha 54952. Newtech Consulting LLC, Vince Newberry, 1044 Southfield Dr., Menasha 54952. Imhoff Imagery LLC, Spencer M. Imhoff, 1061 Durham Lane, Menasha 54952. Dusk 2 Dawn Personal Cares LLC, Dawn Marie Malone, 410 1st St., Apt. 11, Neenah 54956. Churchwell Insurance Agency Inc., Carrie Churchwell, 1075 S. Lake St., Neenah 54956. Headwater Hollow Farms LLC, Susan B. Schroeder, 706 Main St., Neenah 54956. Albright Brothers Farm LLC, James Albright, 3711 N. County Road K, Omro 54963. Eclectic Innovative Strategists LLC, Linda M. Mueller, 8765 Edgewater Road, Omro 54963. Ruth A. Weber, O.D. LLC, Ruth Ann Weber, 3779 County Road FF, Omro 54963. Forensic Appraisal Group Ltd., Kurt C. Kielisch, 1705 Oshkosh Ave., Oshkosh 54902. Robalou Productions LLC, Louise Lin Brock, 1951 S. Oakwood Road, Oshkosh 54904. Lee Yang Insurance & Investments LLC, Lee Her Yang, 2825 Prairie Wood Dr., Oshkosh 54904. Hanneman/Dustrude Dental LLC, Michael L. Hanneman DDS, 1218 Witzel Ave., Oshkosh 54902. Tamara’s Personal Training LLC, Tamara L. Treu, 1012 Oregon St., Unit A, Oshkosh 54902. Gradient Home Mortgage LLC, Jeff Jahnke, 375 City Center, Oshkosh 54901. Restaurant Rescue LLC, Marcus David Wilson, 323A W. South Park, Oshkosh 54902. Barefoot Lawn Service LLC, Kurt Anthony Julian, 727 W. 10th Ave., Oshkosh 54902. Rich N Rare Limousines Inc., Megan Kelly, 1985 W. Snell Road, Oshkosh 54904. Wilson’s Auto Service LLC, James Lee Wilson, 1104 Oregon St., Oshkosh 54902. Anything Wood Construction LLC, Andrew Deffibaugh, 1181 W. 18th Ave., Oshkosh 54902. Property Preservation Solutions LLC, Michael K. Gregesich, 6520 County Road T, Oshkosh 54904. Bartelt Acupuncture LLC, Megan Grace Bartelt, 146B Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh 54901. Timeless Design Woodworking LLC, Aaron P. Klingbeil, 6969 County Road M, Winneconne 54986. www.newnorthb2b.com
WHO’S NEWS Building permits B2B includes a monthly list of building permits (not to include residential projects) in excess of $400,000. Qdoba Mexican Grill, 1990 Menard Dr., Oshkosh. $423,000 for a new commercial restaurant building. General contractor is The Redmond Company of Milwaukee. April 11. Fox Valley Technical College, 3601 Oregon St., Oshkosh. $742,605 for an 8,290-sq. ft. addition to the existing Spanbauer Center campus as well as a remodel of the existing building. General contractor is SMA Construction Services. April 17. Multipond America, 2301 Hutson Road, Green Bay. $695,000 for the remodel and expansion of the existing industrial building. General contractor is Bayland Buildings Inc. of Green Bay. April 19. American Enterprises LLC, 2460 Towerview Dr., Neenah. $750,000 for a 13,950-sq. ft. warehouse and office building. Contractor is TJK Design. April 27. Flair Flexible Packaging, 2605 S. Lakeland Dr., Appleton. $1,000,000 for an addition to the existing industrial facility and a new parking lot. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna. May 8.
Business honors Awards and honors earned by individuals are listed separately in the Who’s News section of New North B2B.
A custom sampling kit created for Verdi Olives by Coalesce, Inc. in Appleton and Austin Straubel International Airport’s FlyGRB campaign created by Arketype in Green Bay both received top Addy recognition at the regional level and both advanced to the national Addy Awards competition. Coalesce’s project for Verdi Olives advanced in the sales promotion point-of-purchase category, while FlyGBR advanced for its television and print campaigns. The FlyGRB ad campaign previously was named Best of Show at the local Addy Awards by AAF-Fox River Ad Club. Affinity Health System received a Well Workplace award by the Wellness Council of America by complying with the seven standards of: capturing CEO support, creating cohesive wellness teams, collecting data to drive health efforts, carefully crafting an operating plan, choosing appropriate interventions, creating a supportive environment and carefully evaluating outcomes. Baker Tilly in Appleton climbed to No. 8 on the 2013 Vault Accounting 50 ranking from the No. 16 ranking it held a year ago. Vault, a career intelligence website, provides information and solutions for professionals and students pursuing career opportunities. Vault asked accounting professionals to assess their firm in key areas including firm culture, work/life balance, compensation, business outlook, location, prestige, and overall job satisfaction. The Vault Accounting 50 is then compiled using a weighted formula. Spark Advertising and AlignTech Solutions, both in Neenah, received a President’s Award from Future Neenah for its contributions to Neenah StreetBall through branding assistance, website planning and designing the event logo. Jet Air Group in Green Bay received the 2012 Wisconsin Aviation
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 45
WHO’S NEWS
Campshure
Hert
Finley
Business of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Aviation Trades Association. Jet Air has grown from 29 employees to more than 40 in the past two years and added new aircraft to its fleet. It recently added an FAA-certified flight simulator, testing center and helicopter training to its flight school.
Panzer
WS Packaging Group Inc. in Green Bay received a 2012 Business Friend of the Environment Award from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. Heartland Business Systems in Little Chute received two Cisco Partner Summit awards for Public Sector K-12 Partner of the Year and Central U.S. State, Local & Education Partner of the Year.
New hires Grandone
Fritz
Skyline Technologies, Inc. in Green Bay hired Chris Campshure as a business intelligence engineer. He has more than 20 years experience in the IT industry, most recently working at SunGard Higher Education for the past five years as a business intelligence developer. Miron Construction Co., Inc. in Neenah hired Brandon Blank as a regional risk control manager, Julie McCarthy as an accounts payable clerk, and Amber Sell as an accounting professional. Blank has worked in the construction industry for six years, most recently as a construction safety manager for a producer of iron ore pellets in northern Minnesota. McCarthy has worked in the construction industry 17 years, most recently as an accounting assistant at Spancrete. Sell has seven years in the construction industry working for a general contractor in Green Bay. Christine Dickert was hired by Stellar Blue Web Design of Appleton as a sales and marketing assistant. Dickert had previously served as an intern for Stellar Blue. Valley VNA Senior Services in Neenah hired Julie Hert as a client care coordinator. Hert has nine years experience in senior care and 20 years of marketing and sales experience.
Lisowe
Wilke
Provident Financial Consultants, LLC in Oshkosh hired Cassandra N.F. Dorn, CFP as a financial advisor. Dorn has seven years experience in financial services, having previously worked with Duxstad Fletcher Wealth Planning and Fletcher Financial Network. J. F. Ahern Co. in Fond du Lac hired Rob Finley as controller of its accounting department. Finley has more than 20 years of financial experience, having most recently operated a consulting firm. Prior to that he served as business management systems director for Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton.
46 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
Prasse
Williams-Lime
Patkar
The Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau hired Randy Prasse as its executive director. Prasse most recently served as director of destination marketing and branding for Discover Mediaworks, and previously served as CEO of Wisconsin State Fair Park. He currently serves as president of International Festivals & Events Association-Wisconsin. Pamela Williams-Lime was hired as the executive director of The Trout Museum of Art in Appleton. Williams-Lime previously served as the executive director of the International Wildlife Center of Wisconsin and the Windhover Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac. Dnyanesh Patkar was hired by Alta Resources in Neenah as vice president of eBusiness. Patkar has nearly 20 years of global consulting and leadership experience in technology, strategy and business process outsourcing, most recently serving as vice president for corporate development, architecture and analytics with Schneider National in Green Bay. He was recently named to Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2012. ThedaCare added Michael Panzer, MD to its behavioral health team in Menasha as a psychiatrist, John Grandone, MD, to ThedaCare Orthopedics Plus as a rheumatologist, and Tracy Fritz as a nurse practitioner to Women’s Care of Wisconsin at its Oshkosh location. Dr. Panzer has been practicing for more than 20 years and has a special interest in treating children and young adults with anxiety disorders, college students and the artistic population. Dr. Grandone specializes in joint, cartilage and autoimmune conditions. He has been involved with many research projects, co-authored three publications and served as an educational lecturer for various audiences. Fritz specializes in pregnancy, STD treatment and counseling and menopause management. Fox Cities Sign and Lighting Services, LLC in Menasha hired Jennifer Lisowe as a marketer, outside sales representative and office manager. Lisowe has seven years experience in sales and as an office manager, having most recently worked for Glass Doctor. BayCare Clinic Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine in Green Bay added Chad DeNamur as a podiatrist. DeNamur provides medical and surgical care for those suffering foot, ankle and lower leg problems. First Business Bank – Northeast hired Patty Wilke as a client relationship specialist. Wilke has experience in loan administration and has worked with the Small Business Administration and other government guarantee programs. Laura Guy was hired as the president of Schaper, Benz & Wise Family Wealth Counsel, a division of Schaper, Benz & www.newnorthb2b.com
WHO’S NEWS
Phillips
Miller
Nowakowski
Wise Investment Counsel, Inc. in Neenah. The new division provides estate, charitable, retirement and financial planning services to affluent families. Bayland Buildings, Inc. in Green Bay hired David Phillips to its commercial sales team as a sales representative and George Johnsen to its drafting department. Phillips has more than 30 years experience in the construction industry, having most recently worked at Portside Builders in Sturgeon Bay. Valley Insurance Associates, Inc. hired Matt Miller as a commercial lines account executive. Miller worked the past seven years at EAA in Oshkosh as a development programs manager. He was instrumental in starting Oshkosh Festivals, Inc., which produces Oshkosh Irish Fest and Oshkosh Oktoberfest. Verus Investment Advisory Group hired Dawn Nowakowski as its director of client development. Nowakowski has more than 20 years of retail banking, financial services and outside business development. In addition to client development, Nowakowski will create and manage a marketing program for the firm.
Rovinski
Myers
Coonan
employees: Butch Van Boxtel from project supervisor to estimating and purchasing; Dan Wanta from crew foreman to sales representative; Paul Truttmann from crew foreman to project supervisor; and Adam Eisenreich from drafting to estimating. U.S. Bank in Fond du Lac promoted Sara Marquardt to branch manager of its South Main Street and Marr Street offices and Anne Pierce to commercial relationship manager. Marquardt had previously been a district manager for U.S. Bank in Nashville. Pierce previously served as the bank’s Fond du Lac branch manager.
Marquardt
Individual awards Lifongo Vetinde, an associate professor of French at Lawrence University in Appleton, received a 2012-13 Fulbright Teaching and Research Fellowship. Vetinde will use the fellowship to spend 10 months teaching at the Université Gaston Berger in Senegal. Vetinde has been a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1996.
Pierce
Keller Inc. in Kaukauna hired Tyler Rovinski as a project manager. He has eight years experience in project management, sales and service, having most recently worked for Brown County Cabinets as a sales representative and project manager. R.A. Smith National hired Tina Myers to its ecological staff. Myers has 13 years experience in ecological sciences including 11 years in private consulting and two years working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Her background includes delineation of hundreds of wetlands in Wisconsin and Illinois, feasibility studies, stewardship plans, rare plant surveys and wildlife surveys.
Promotions The Twin City Catholic Educational System promoted Patrick Batey to system president and Sandy Ehlers to principal of Seton Catholic Middle School in Menasha. Batey had been principal of St. Mary Central High School in Menasha for the past three years. He has more than 35 years experience in both parochial and public school systems throughout northeast Wisconsin. Ehlers was a teacher at Seton for 12 years and at SMC for two years prior to her tenure as principal of St. John Neumann Catholic Middle School in Oshkosh. Ethan Allen, Inc. of Green Bay hired Cathy Lynn Coonan to its design team. She previously represented the company in the Chicago area. Bayland Buildings, Inc. in Green Bay promoted the following NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 47
WHO’S NEWS The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s College of Nursing presented its annual Nightingale Awards to the following nurses from the region: Jeanean Bauer, a wound care/ostomy nurse at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton; Mary Ann Berrens, a staff nurse in the day surgical unit at Appleton Medical Center and New London Family Medical Center; Lynette Joy Bosin, a registered nurse at St. Agnes Hospital Home Care in Fond du Lac; Audrey James, a staff nurse in the intensive care unit and the emergency department at Aurora Medical Center; and Teresa Paulus, a public health nurse for the Winnebago County Health Department. Kathy Halverson, a long term care insurance specialist and president of Halverson Planning, LLC in Green Bay, was recognized as the top long term care insurance specialist in Wisconsin for 2011 by The American Association for Long Term Care Insurance. Chuck Schroeder, the safety and training manager at Bemis Company in Oshkosh, was awarded an Advanced Safety Certificate by the Wisconsin Safety Council.
Elections / appointments Gov. Scott Walker appointed Wendy Arnone of DePere and Chris Hanson of Appleton to the state’s Health Insurance Risk Sharing Plan Authority. Arnone was appointed to serve as an insurer representative. She has been the Health Plan CEO at United Healthcare of Wisconsin, Inc. in Green Bay since 2007. Hanson, owner of Hanson Benefits, Inc. in Appleton, was appointed to serve as the small business representative. Hanson has more than 25 years experience in health care and insurance. She is one of the founders of the Well City-Fox Cities initiative.
Creative Construction with Experience
• commercial • retail • industrial • hospitality design/build & consulting services
920-759-5033
2204 Crooks Avenue, Suite A • Kaukauna, WI 54130 team@frontierbuildersandconsultants.com
48 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
Business calendar New North B2B encourages businesses and organizations looking to attract interested persons to upcoming events to send an announcement to: New North B2B, Attn: Who’s News, P.O. Box 559, Oshkosh, WI 54903. For more events, log on to www.thenewnorthevents.com. June 6 Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce Coffee Connection, 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at AAA Insurance, 504 N. Rolling Meadows Dr. in Fond du Lac. Cost to attend is $2 for AC members. For more information or to register, call the AC at 920.921.9500 or go online to www.fdlac.com. June 10 Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce Sales Club, 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the chamber building, 120 N. Jackson St. in Oshkosh. No cost to attend for chamber members. For more information, call 920.303.2265 or go online to www.oshkoshchamber.com. June 11 “Explore Starting a Business,” a no-cost workshop from Fox Valley Technical College’s Venture Center, 6 to 9 p.m. at D.J. Bordini Center, 5 Systems Dr. in Appleton. For more information or to register, call 920.735.5709 or email venture@fvtc.edu. June 14 “Explore Starting a Business,” a no-cost workshop from Fox Valley Technical College’s Venture Center, 6 to 9 p.m. at the Oshkosh Riverside
Better Business Bureau New Members
Businesses accredited through the Northeast Wisconsin office during May 2012 Best Informed Home Inspections LLC, Winneconne Beyond Garages LLC, Appleton C J’s Auto Body, Red Granite Carlife Auto Repair LLC, Appleton Farmers Insurance, Oshkosh Gary Basten Construction, Green Bay Gold Times LLP, Green Bay Happy Tails Pet Grooming & Boarding LLC, Sheboygan Hein Plumbing Inc., Manitowoc J Rogers Construction LLC, Sheboygan Krizek Home Improvements, Two Rivers Kvindlog Services, Waldo Kwiatkowski Funeral Home, Omro Novak-Ramm-Ziegler Funeral Home, Sheboygan Original Image Productions, Appleton Randall’s Specialties, Green Bay Robinson Roofing & Decking, Green Bay Schaumberg Builders LLC, Freedom T & Associates, Green Lake Volkswagen Oshkosh, Oshkosh
www.newnorthb2b.com
BUSINESS CALENDAR campus. For more information or to register, call 920.735.5709 or email venture@fvtc.edu. June 14 Women in Management – Oshkosh Chapter monthly meeting, 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at La Sure’s Banquet Hall, 3125 S. Washburn St. in Oshkosh. Program is “Learning More About the Christine Ann Center and Domestic Abuse.” For more information or to register, go online to www.wimiwi. org or contact Nancy Jo at njdietzen@chamco.org or 920.232.9786. June 12 Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce Sales Club, 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the chamber building, 120 N. Jackson St. in Oshkosh. No cost to attend for chamber members. For more information, call 920.303.2265 or go online to www.oshkoshchamber.com. June 18 Fox Valley Moxie Exchange monthly meeting, 3 to 6 p.m. at Rasmussen College, 3500 E. Destination Dr. in Appleton. Speaker is Paula Rosch discussing “Fostering ‘In’trepreneurial Thinking and Trend Spotting.” For more information or to register, go online to www.moxieexchange.com or contact Autumn Hill at 920.915.1208 or autumn.hill@moxiemovement. com.
Advertiser Index Appleton Papers Inc. www.appletonideas.com.................................. 44 Bank First National www.bankfirstnational.com.................................. 36 Bayland Buildings Inc. www.baylandbuildings.com............................ 19 Capital Credit Union www.capitalcu.com........................................ 13 CitizensFirst Credit Union www.citizensfirst.com . ............................ 50 Credit Matters, Inc. www.creditmattersinc.com.................................. 41 Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. www.dkattorneys.com..................................... 5 Digiprint www.digiprint.biz............................................................ 40 Fast Signs www.fastsigns.com....................................................... 44 First Business Bank www.firstbusiness.com. ...................................... 2 First National Bank ~ Fox Valley www.fnbfoxvalley.com. ................... 16 Frontier Builders & Consultants www.frontierbuildersandconsultants.com.. 48 Guident Business Solutions www.guidentbusinesssolutions.com............ 16 Hanson Benefits www.hansonbenefitsinc.com.................................... 17
June 19 Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce Business Connection, 5 to 7 p.m. at Marian University in Fond du Lac. Cost to attend is $2 for AC members. For more information or to register, go online to www.fdlac. com or call 920.921.9500.
Jackson Kahl Insurance www.jacksonkahl.com. .............................. 45
June 19 A.M. Oshkosh, a morning networking event sponsored by the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, 8 to 9 a.m. at Sonex Aircraft, 511 Aviation Road in Oshkosh. No cost to attend, but registration is required by going online to www.oshkoshchamber.com or calling 920.303.2266.
Live at Lunch www.oshkoshchamber.com. ........................................ 27
July 6 Heart of the Valley Chamber of Commerce monthly Coffee & Conversations forum, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at Little Chute Village Hall, 108 W. Main St. in Little Chute. There is no charge to attend, but registration is appreciated by contacting the chamber office at 920.7661616.
Keller Inc. www.kellerbuilds.com. ................................................... 25 LaForce Inc. www.laforceinc.com..................................................... 8 Larson Engineering Inc. www.larsonengr.com.................................. 36 Network Health Plan www.networkhealth.com . ................................ 51 NEW Building & Construction Trades Council www.newbt.org.......... 11 N.E.W. Curative Rehabilitation Inc. www.newcurative.org.................. 18 Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau www.visitoshkosh.com.... 20, 41 Outagamie County Regional Airport www.atwairport.com. ................ 13 Poker on the Fox www.pokeronthefox.com........................................ 20 Rhyme www.rhymebiz.com........................................................... 30 Sadoff & Rudoy Industries www.sadoff.com................................... 14
July 16 Fox Valley Moxie Exchange monthly meeting, 3 to 6 p.m. at Rasmussen College, 3500 E. Destination Dr. in Appleton. Speaker is Whitney Johnson, co-founder of Rose Park Advisors and a Harvard Business Review blogger, discussing “Getting a Seat at the Table.” For more information or to register, go online to www.moxieexchange.com or contact Autumn Hill at 920.915.1208 or autumn.hill@moxiemovement.com.
Schwabe North America Inc. www.enzy.com. ................................ 37 Security Luebke Roofing www.securityluebkeroofing.com. .................... 43 Teal Consulting Group www.tealcg.com......................................... 27 TEC www.tecmidwest.com. .............................................................. 7 Thomas James Real Estate www.tjsite.com................................... 52 TNT Fitness www.tntfr.com........................................................... 40 TNT Adventure www.tntfr.com. ..................................................... 31
Coming to B2B in July Energy Efficiency
Tri City Glass & Door www.tricityglass-door.com................................ 18 UW Oshkosh College of Business www.mba.uwosh.edu................... 32 Waterfest www.waterfest.org......................................................... 30 Winnebago County Solid Waste Management www.co.winnebago.wi.us/solid-waste/container-rental-program. ..................... 49
YMCA www.ymcasofnewis.org.......................................................... 9
Green approaches to trimming energy costs
NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012 l 49
KEY STATISTICS Per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.
$3.73 May 13 $3.76 May 6 $3.79 April 29 $3.84 May 20, 2011 $3.77 May 20
Source: New North B2B observations
April
717,000
2.6%
from March
29.9%
from April 2011 April
0.5%
April
$408.0 billion
0.1%
from March
6.4%
from April 2011 (2007 = 100)
April
97.4
1.1%
from March
5.2%
from April 2011 (Manufacturers and trade)
March
$1,580 billion
0.3%
from March
from February
from April 2011
from March 2011
0.5%
6.6%
Appleton Fond du Lac Green Bay Neenah Oshkosh Wisconsin
March Feb. Mar. ‘11 8.7% 8.9% 8.1% 8.3% 9.9% 10.0% 8.6% 9.1% 7.4% 7.6% 7.5% 7.9%
9.4% 9.1% 10.9% 9.8% 8.0% 8.3%
Prices for small businesses using less than 20,000 therms. Listed price is per therm.
$0.564 April $0.746 May 2011 $0.746 May
Source: Integrys Energy (Numbers above 50 mean expansion. Numbers below 50 mean contraction.)
April March
54.8 53.4
If there are indicators you’d like to see in this space, contact our office at 920.237.0254 or email info@newnorthb2b.com.
50 l NEW NORTH B2B l JUNE 2012
www.newnorthb2b.com
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Thomas James
Tom Scharpf Real Estate, LLC 920.379.0744
1 DocK & 3 oVErhEaD DoorS
tjr2216@aol.com www.tjrsite.com
GrEaT WESTSIDE LocaTIoN
fIrST fLoor offIcE coNDo
3675 N. main Street, oshkosh
2850 Universal Street, oshkosh
600 S. main Street, oshkosh
For lease 25,000 SF of warehouse/mfg. space and 3,000 SF of office space 1 acre of land for expansion
For sale or lease, 6,370 SF office building with a basement Separate heated garage with bathroom
For sale 2,950 SF office condo Open office space, private offices, conference room, lunch room 1,100 Sf of basement storage
1 DocK & 2 oVErhEaD DoorS
SharED TrUcK ramp
hIGhWaY 44 BUSINESS pLacE
2009 Jackson Street, oshkosh
2909 Green hill court, Vinland
2370 State road 44, oshkosh
For sale 20,609 SF building Floor plan includes offices/showroom/warehouse Great corner location
For sale 26,000 SF industrial complex Each unit has a showroom/office 18’ ceiling heights & overhead doors
For lease 550 SF private suite with kitchenette 8 person shared conference room
LaND for SaLE Green hill court, Vinland - Zoned Industrial 2.73 acres - Price $95,000 Price per acre $34,798 Behind Trades & commerce Square Jackson Street, oshkosh - Zoned c2 2.88 acres - 125,452 SF Price $349,000 - $2.78 PSF or purchase 1/2 acre lots starting at $79,900 Just south of Snell road 3098 Jackson Street, oshkosh - Zoned m1 1.65 acres - 71,874 SF Price $199,900 - $2.78 PSF corner location Jackson & fernau
2308 Jackson Street, oshkosh - Zoned c2 .64 acres - 27,878 SF - Price $269,000 - $9.65 PSF corner location Jackson & Smith 2316-2324 Jackson Street, oshkosh - Zoned m1 & c2 1.11 acres - 48,351 SF - Price $495,000 - $10.23 PSF Directly to the north of 2308 Jackson Street 2601 S. Washburn Street, oshkosh - Zoned m3 4.92 acres - 214,315 SF - Price $1,950,000 - $9.09 PSF frontage just off hwys 41 & 44 State road 44 & hwy 91, oshkosh - Zoned m3-pD 2.47 acres - 107,593 SF - Price $425,000 - $3.95 PSF Located at signalized corner
all sites advertised are approximate acres and approximate square footage. Some sites have buildings on them.
Tom Scharpf ❘ 920.379.0744 ❘ tjr2216@aol.com ❘ www.tjrsite.com