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8/27/2010
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$1.50/AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
Vol. 31, No. 34
INSIDE
“Farming can be financially sustainable. But we need more entrepreneurial farmers who are willing to take risks.”
Glenwillow outfit cleans up with deal
– Peter McDermott (below), urban grower and network manager, Entrepreneurs for Sustainability
A Chagrin Falls company that sells soy-based cleaning products to major retailers such as Home Depot, Kroger and Ace Hardware has piqued the interest of another Northeast Ohio company. The Hoover unit of TTI Floor Care North America has purchased Nutek LLC, which has contracts with several suppliers across the state. Read Chuck Soder’s story on Page 3.
Crain’s Aug. 16 story on school sparks dustup
Witness this, local giant in mining says By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
Feeling a little unnoticed — if not underappreciated — Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. wants Cleveland to know it has one superstar that isn’t taking its talents to South Beach, even if it already has gone global. Cliffs is beginning its “Witness” advertising campaign today, Aug. 30, which pokes fun at the departure of LeBron James and is running in local business publications, at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, on area billboards and in the local editions of national publications such as Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Forbes.
INSIDE: Witness Cliffs’ print ad that is a spoof of the former LeBron James banner in downtown Cleveland. Page 4 “We’re feeling undernoticed for sure,” Cliffs spokesman Steve Baisden said. “We wanted something that raises our profile in this town. We have to compete for talent in this market and want to be recognized as one of the top industrial companies here.” Cliffs has grown rapidly in recent years, Mr. Baisden said, increasing revenues from $1.2 billion in 2004 — when it still was known as ClevelandCliffs Inc. — to what is expected to be more than $4 billion this year. Along the way, it has gone from being a U.S.only company to a Fortune 1000 giant
By JAY MILLER and TIMOTHY MAGAW jmiller@crain.com, tmagaw@crain.com
JASON MILLER
Cliffs Natural Resources boosts its visibility in ads
GROWINGPAINS Urban farmers, advocates cite challenges in cultivating business, but government collaboration advances efforts By KATHY AMES CARR ■ kcarr@crain.com
F
arming is a tough business. Not only is it physically demanding, but it also can be mentally and emotionally taxing, especially for entrepreneurial urban farmers who must sift through a field of obstacles before their dreams become for-profit realities. However, the need for small farms is emerging in Cleveland and other cities as consumers grow more aware of sources of food and industrial farming becomes more costly, said Peter McDermott, who farms two plots on Cleveland’s near West Side. So, a hearty group of urban farming pioneers is rising to the challenge. “We’re going to need tens of millions of farmers over the next few decades as energy to generate industrial farms becomes more expensive and scarce,” said Mr. McDermott, a network manager for Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, or E4S. “Industrial farms use a lot of natural gas and oil, but we’re going to have to transition into farms that rely more on human and animal energy.” See FARM Page 11
See CLIFFS Page 21
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Accrediting body head chastises Chancellor president Chancellor University president Robert Daugherty has gotten a rap on the knuckles from the president of the Higher Learning Commission, the agency that accredits the for-profit university, for his response to a story about Chancellor in the Aug. 16 issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The rebuke, which came in an Aug. 19 letter from commission president Sylvia Manning, followed an open letter from Mr. Daugherty to the Chancellor community that was distributed by the university administration on Aug. 17, one day after the story appeared in Crain’s about the potential loss of Chancellor’s accreditation.
ON THE WEB: The full text of the letters from Chancellor University president Robert Daugherty and Higher Learning Commission president Sylvia Manning is available at www.CrainsCleveland.com/chancellor. Mr. Daugherty’s letter described the story as “a biased, factual (sic) inaccurate and misleading description of our school.” The story recounted executive staff turnover at Chancellor and the issuance last Feb. 25 by the Chicagobased commission of a “show-cause” order, which gave Chancellor almost a year to show it’s deserving of continued accreditation. In his letter, Mr. Daugherty wrote that Robert Appleson, vice president for accreditation relations at the Higher Learning Commission, was “supportive of Chancellor and the progress we are making” and that Dr. Appleson had told Mr. Daugherty that a Crain’s reporter had misquoted and lied to Mr. Appleson in the course of reporting the story. The letter came to the attention of Dr. Manning, who voiced displeasure See CHANCELLOR Page 20
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PHILANTHROPY Nonprofits focus on current donors, adjust programs to meet economic realities ■ Page 15 PLUS: PASSION FOR THE JOB ■ PROFILES ■ & MORE
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