May 2013

Content Remains King

Pierce Stronglove

CEO Bounce Back?

Management

Leadership e d u c at i o n

Programs helping New North employers groom management to handle more complex challenges

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new north b2b May 2013

24

18

Features

30

18 COVER STORY ❘ Leadership Education ❘ Training programs helping NE Wisconsin employers groom management 24 MANAGEMENT ❘ A CEO Bounce Back? ❘ Local business leaders comfortable with near term outlook 30 WORKSPACES ❘ 21st Century Workspaces ❘ Comfort, collaboration create greater productivity 34 OPERATIONS ❘ White Collar Waste ❘ Trimming wasteful processes in the office environment using lean techniques

Departments

5,

On our Cover

4 From the Publisher 41 Professionally Speaking 6 Since We Last Met 10 Build Up Pages 16 Around the Boardroom 17 Pierce Stronglove 29 Guest Advice 42 Who’s News 49 Business Calendar 49 Advertiser Index 50 Key Statistics

Illustration by New North B2B.

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 3

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Linking education with business

Event allowed educators to show innovative solutions to help develop workforce

Sean Fitzgerald New North B2B Publisher 4 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

By now we’ve all heard at least some discussion about the impending demographic shift among skilled positions across northeast Wisconsin.

Several manufacturers face the issue of filling positions for long-time employees who plan to retire in the next few years, taking decades of institutional knowledge along with them as they enjoy their retirement.

The issue itself was identified in the late 1990s as the first wave of Baby Boomers reached age 50. But at the time, their retirement still seemed such a distant event that many thought market forces would naturally fill any such void in the workforce before becoming a genuine concern.

The Fond du Lac County Retirement Departure and Intentions Study conducted in 2011 indicated there could be as many as 19,000 unfilled jobs among Fond du Lac area employers by 2026 if no action is taken. Regarded as one of the most articulate perspectives on the future of a community’s future labor force of any projected within northeast Wisconsin, the study concluded fewer students were choosing to pursue such professions, and that survival for many businesses would require them to taking a leading role in collaboration with educators to provide a solution.

It’s with this pending workforce crisis in mind that the Labor Management Council Inc. of Northeast Wisconsin brought together educators and business leaders for its recent spring summit in April called “The American Dream in 2015.” It wasn’t the first time education and business have convened in an attempt to indentify workforce solutions – and it certainly won’t be the last – but it was a unique event in that it showcased educators sharing the efforts they’ve made to bridge workforce gaps, as well as to seek out additional opportunities with the business community to collaborate.

The event featured state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers delivering the keynote address, as well as a panel of top leadership from the four technical college districts serving the New North. Those technical colleges have been at the forefront of delivering more immediate solutions to filling workforce gaps in a variety of industries, as well as connecting primary and secondary school teachers to new innovations within industry.

The summit event also included representatives from a handful of northeast Wisconsin public school districts sharing programs

they’ve helped develop with businesses in their own communities.

“A lot of school districts are working more with businesses locally to understand what they need (in regard to employee skills and capabilities) and are now implementing that into their curriculum,” said Steve Kovalaske, director of the Labor Management Council and organizer for the event.

Kovalaske said the more than 100 attendees at the event came away with plenty of new ideas on exposing northeast Wisconsin students to lucrative career opportunities among local employers, as well as the knowledge they’ll need to obtain jobs in those professions. Just as important, the event offered another rewarding opportunity to promote communication between two sectors – business and education – too often isolated from one another.

Last call for Alla tua Salute!

Here’s a final call to all readers working for employers with outstanding wellness programs to submit a nomination for B2B’s 8th Annual Alla tua Salute! Awards.

The nomination deadline is May 10. This year’s award winners will be recognized for excellence in employer-based wellness programming in the June 2013 edition of New North B2B. Many readers may have noticed the tall drink of milk with the headline “Chug-a-Lug!” in our recent issues of B2B. That same ad appearing on page 40 in this edition provides the details for submitting a nomination.

Alla tua Salute! – Italian for “to your health” – started back in 2006 as a means of encouraging New North employers to embrace workplace wellness practices leading to the improved health of employees, lower use of health care for chronic illnesses, and ultimately decrease group health insurance premiums for the company.

Since that time we’ve recognized more than a dozen employers from Fond du Lac to Green Bay whose innovation and commitment to healthier employees has provided measureable results. We’re anxious to hear and share the innovative approaches your company has taken with its wellness program.

Simply visit us online at newnorthb2b.com and click the “Alla tua” button on the right side of the home page to download the nomination forms. But please do so soon – our deadline is May 10. www.newnorthb2b.com

PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING

Compensatory time in the private sector

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 is the status of legislative efforts to provide compensatory time for employees in the private sector?

Tony Renning: Currently employees working in the public sector who exceed a 40-hour work week are able to make a choice between paid time off or overtime pay. However, private sector employees are prohibited by law from making this same choice – as of now, private sector employees must provide overtime pay.

HR 1406 – The Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 – introduced in the House of Representatives on April 9, would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to provide compensatory time for employees in the private sector. In lieu of overtime pay, employees could receive compensatory time off at a rate not less than one and one-half hours for each hour of employment for which overtime pay would otherwise have been required.

Employees who want to receive cash wages could continue to do so. No employee could be forced to take compensatory

Sean Fitzgerald

Publisher & President

sean@newnorthb2b.com

Carrie Rule

Sales Manager

carrie@newnorthb2b.com

Kate Erbach Production

Contributing writers

Michael Bina Cheryl Hentz Lee Reinsch

Chief Financial Officer

Vicky Fitzgerald, CPA

time in lieu of receiving overtime pay.

The Working Families Flexibility Act retains all existing employee protections under the FLSA, including the 40-hour work week and how overtime compensation is accrued.

The Working Families Flexibility Act adds additional safeguards to ensure the choice and use of compensatory time are truly voluntary. For instance, employers and employees would be required to complete a written agreement to use compensatory time, entered into knowingly and voluntarily by the employee.

Where the employee is represented by a union, the agreement to use compensatory time would have to be part of the collective bargaining agreement. An employer would be forbidden from making the compensatory time agreement a condition of employment.

Employees could accrue up to 160 hours of compensatory time each year.

An employer would be required to pay cash wages for any accrued, but unused, compensatory time at the end of the year.

The bill recently passed the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. A vote by the House of Representatives is expected shortly.

For advice and counsel concerning wage and hour laws and, specifically, the potential impact of the Working Families Flexibility Act, 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

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Fox Cities

Oshkosh

Fond du Lac NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 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.

March 25 The City of Green Bay was awarded its bid to purchase the 145-room Clarion Hotel out of receivership for $2.85 million.

The purchase of the hotel will allow the city to move forward on its plans to expand the nearby KI Convention Center by nearly 30,000 square feet, which proposes to use the space on and above the Clarion parking lot and connect with the hotel.

The city plans to retain the existing management company for the hotel, but is ultimately seeking an investor to acquire the hotel and provide a few million dollars in needed upgrades to the property. The conference center expansion project is expected to cost $20 million, and construction is expected to begin this coming October.

March 26 The Outagamie County Board of Supervisors denied a request to invest $150,000 in the Fox Cities Regional Partnership, citing a variety of concerns including governance of the economic development organization as well as its associa-

tion with the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry as opposed to being a completely separate entity. Despite the lack of financial support from the county, the 1-year-old economic development agency has still secured more than $600,000 toward its target of $800,000 to $1 million from private companies, individuals and other local governing jurisdictions.

April 2 Voters in the Menasha Joint School District approved a referendum to borrow $29.9 million to expand and renovate Menasha High School. Two separate additions will total 46,630 square feet of educational space for science labs and a separate wing for music and art programs. Renovations to existing space include improvements to a gym, locker rooms, swimming pool and the technical education area. Construction is expected to begin in October and all projects should be fully complete by September 2015. The borrowing is expected to impact the tax rate by 78 cents for every $1,000 of equalized property valuation for the next 20 years.

2005

2011

May 6 - A study featured in the May edition of Expansion Management Magazine ranked Oshkosh-Neenah No. 6 and Fond du Lac No. 15 among the top metropolitan area public education systems in the country. The study compared 2,800 secondary school districts throughout the country with a minimum of 3,300 students, noting categories such as college board scores, graduation rates, teacher salaries, per pupil expenses and student teacher ratio.

May 10 – R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. informed employees of its plans to shut down operations at its Ahnaip Street book printing and bindery plant in Menasha

by July. About 25 employees who work in book binding will be transferred to the company’s Midway Road plant in Menasha, while about 14 employees who work in printing will be laid off and offered severance packages.

2007 May 9 – The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approved Alliant Energy’s request to construct the 41-turbine Cedar Ridge Wind Farm in southeastern Fond du Lac County. Once complete, the wind farm is expected to generate 98 megawatts of electricity, or enough to supply power for about 30,000 homes.

6 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

2012 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 – also includes the Schreiber Foods headquarters development on the site of the former Port Plaza Mall. Associated plans to move 350 employees downtown during the course of the next year.

www.newnorthb2b.com

SINCE WE LAST MET April 2

April 2

Voters in the Hortonville Area School District approved a referendum to borrow $25.4 million to construct a new primary grade school, build a new transportation facility, expand the middle school, renovate the high school and upgrade security at schools across the district. The new K-4 primary school will be built on County Road JJ – it and the other building projects are expected to be complete by September 2014.

The borrowing is expected to impact the tax rate by 21 cents for every $1,000 of equalized property valuation for the next 20 years. Voters also rejected a second referendum request to exceed taxing limits by $370,000 per year to help offset operating expenses associated with the new facilities.

April 2 Voters in the Pulaski School District narrowly approved a referendum to borrow $4.4 million for building repairs and security upgrades across the district, but denied three other referenda totaling almost $22 million related to a new swimming pool, new technology, building and classroom renovations, and enhanced spending authority for regular operations.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a $33 million referendum in November 2012 which packaged all of the items together into one singular request. The request to exceed spending limits would have allowed the district to tax property owners an additional $650,000 for each of the next seven years to upgrade technology.

Voters in the Oakfield School District rejected a request from the board of education to exceed state revenue limits by $900,000 a year for the three school years between 2014 and 2017. The district is currently in the second-to-last year of a previously approved request to tax property owners an additional $700,000 each year through 2013-14. District officials indicate they need to cut at least $600,000 from the budget, and plan to revisit the issue with voters this coming November.

If the measure would have been approved, it was estimated to impact the tax rate by 74 cents for every $1,000 of equalized property value.

April 5 The U.S. Department of Labor reported 88,000 new jobs were created in March, leaving the national unemployment rate relatively unchanged at 7.6 percent. Employment grew in professional and business services and in health care, but declined in retail trade.

April 9 Oshkosh Corp. announced plans to lay off nearly 900 employees from its defense division, including 700 production workers starting in mid-June and 200 salaried positions through July. The layoffs come as production winds down from a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar contract with the U.S. Defense Department to provide military transport vehicles for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company said it expects daily

The Faces of Keller Customers

Our Valued Customers. Without them we would be nothing. These are the faces of our company we treasure most. The big smile on the face of someone we just helped to expand their business, remodel their office or build them a new facility where they can be more productive, effective and happy. People like Kevin and Sherry from Lamers Bus Lines, who have chosen Keller for over 19 building projects across Wisconsin.

The Lamers have faces that we love, not only because they have a big smile, but because three generations trust the Keller Design/Build Experts to put those smiles on their faces time and time again. We are Employee-Owned, Design/Build Experts. But don’t just take us at face value, call today and experience for yourself the difference that is Keller, Inc.

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FACES of Keller NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 7

SINCE WE LAST MET production volumes will decline by nearly 30 percent this summer. Company officials said they have begun insourcing work previously conducted by vendors to Oshkosh Corp., allowing it to save 165 production jobs.

April 9 The Wisconsin Safety Council and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development presented 18 companies statewide with its 2012 Corporate Safety Award, including the following from northeast Wisconsin: Agropur, Inc. of Little Chute and Appleton; The Boldt Company of Appleton; Energis High Voltage Resources, Inc., Green Bay; Georgia-Pacific’s Broadway facility in Green Bay; Leicht Transfer and Storage Co. of Green Bay; Menasha Packaging Company’s Green Lake plant; Mercury Marine’s Plant 36 Racing facility in Taycheedah; Tweet/Garot Mechanical, Inc. of Green Bay; and Wisconsin Public Service’s Pulliam Plant in Green Bay. In addition, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Safety was bestowed upon Tom Baumgartner, director of safety at Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac; and Tim Howald, chairman and CEO of Tweet/Garot Mechanical in Green Bay, was honored as the 12th inductee into the Wisconsin Safety Hall of Fame.

April 11 Lawrence University officials announced plans to raise $5 million to refurbish the Banta Bowl near the east bank of the Fox River, the first phase of a more detailed master plan

to upgrade athletic facilities across the Appleton campus. The project would replace the natural grass with field turf, widen the playing surface to allow for soccer and other sports, and construct a new entrance, patio area and new locker rooms.

A new concession stand, restrooms and ticket booth may be considered as well, depending upon the success of fundraising efforts.

April 15 Neenah-based Galloway Company announced plans for a $5 million expansion of its sweetened condensed milk plant, which will allow it to better accommodate shipping and receiving operations from incoming trucks and railcars.

Part of the expansion includes a 13,500-sq. ft. addition for manufacturing, packaging and warehousing space, as well as added offices. Another freestanding 4,500-sq. ft. building will be constructed on a railway spur to allow more efficient unloading of sugar delivered by railcars. Construction is expected to start this month and be complete by November.

April 15 Pulaski School District Superintendent Mel Lightner announced plans to resign at the end of the current school year to take a similar post with Grafton schools north of suburban Milwaukee. He’s served as Pulaski’s top education official for the past five years.

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SINCE WE LAST MET April 16 Mary Whitrock, chief academic officer of the Green Bay Area School District, was selected by the Ripon School District Board of Education as its new superintendent of schools. She has nine years experience in school administration, as well as nine years of classroom experience in elementary and middle school teaching. She replaces Richard Zimman, who’s served as superintendent in Ripon for the past nine years and plans to retire at the end of June.

April 17 Yen S. Meier, owner of Yen’s Chinese Buffet in Kimberly, was bound over for trial in Outagamie County Circuit Court on charges of benefiting from human trafficking and conspiracy to commit human trafficking related to accusations she forced a Chinese woman to work for months without pay. The alledged victim claims Meier took all of her legal documentation, withheld food, and required her to work six days a week without pay. Both of the counts against Meier carry maximum penalties of 25 years in prison and $100,000 in fines if convicted.

April 18 Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. opened Wisconsin Center China, a trade office in Shanghai intended to give Wisconsin businesses expanded access to growing markets in China, particularly in industrial machinery, medical equipment, clean energy, clean water technologies and agricultural prod-

ucts. China is Wisconsin’s third largest export market, growing exports by 12 percent in 2012 to $1.5 billion. Wisconsin Center China uses local marketing and business consultants to provide market assessments, partner searches, and to facilitate business meetings.

April 22 Packaging Dynamics Corp., the Chicago-based parent company of Thillmany Papers operations in Kaukauna and De Pere, announced plans to sell those two mills to a newly organized company controlled by the investment group KPS Capital Partners L.P. KPS has previously agreed to purchase Wausau Paper’s specialty papers mills in Mosinee and Rhinelander. The acquisition is contingent upon the execution of the sale between Wausau Papers and KPS, ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement between the new company and the United Steel Workers, and regulatory clearances. The sale is expected to close by the middle of this year.

Coming to B2B in June Alla Tua Salute! 8th Annual Awards Recognizing workplace wellness success

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BUILD UP FOND DU LAC 1&2

3

4 5 6

Build Up Fond du Lac 1 - 700 Stanton St., Ripon, Alliance Laundry, a 20,000sq. ft. addition for assembly, metal stamping and a press shop. Project completion expected in summer.

2

- 790 Eastgate Dr., Ripon, Ripon Medical Center, a 120,000-sq. ft. hospital and medical office building. Project completion expected in early 2014.

3

- 51 Sheboygan St., Fond du Lac, Windhover Center for the Arts, a 17,700-sq. ft. addition to include additional

classrooms and a new gallery. Project completion expected in the fall.

4

- 545 & 600 W. Pioneer Road, Fond du Lac, Mercury Marine, an addition to the product development and engineering facility and separate additions to its manufacturing and fabrication plants. Project completion expected in late 2013.

5

- 385 W. Rolling Meadows Dr., Fond du Lac, Wells Vehicle Electronics, a two-story, 64,000-sq. ft. headquarters and manufacturing facility.

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BUILD UP OSHKOSH 7 8

9

10

C - Indicates a new listing

11 6 - 123 E. Larsen Dr., Fond du Lac, McNeilus Steel, a 96,000-sq. ft. industrial coil processing facility. Project completion expected in August. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

10 - 625 Pearl Ave., Oshkosh, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Alumni Welcome and Conference Center, a twostory, 40,000-sq. ft. welcome center and meeting facility.

Project completion expected in December.

Build Up Oshkosh

11 - 3735 S. Washburn St., Oshkosh, Big Rig Chrome Shop, an 18,192-sq. ft. retail building and warehouse. Project completion expected in May. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

7-

2017 Jackson St., Oshkosh, C Family Dollar, a new retail store.

8 - 112 Viola St., Oshkosh, Oaklawn Elementary School, a two-story, 68,000-sq. ft. school building. Project completion expected in August.

9

Projects completed since our April issue: • Wisnet.com, 985 S. Main St., Fond du Lac. • Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Store, 1210 S. Koeller St., Oshkosh.

- 2251 Omro Road, Oshkosh, Horicon Bank, a new bank office. Project completion expected in June.

SPLISH-SPLASH Dive in and nominate your employer as one of the healthiest in NE Wisconsin.

Go online to www.newnorthb2b.com and download our Alla Tua Salute! form.

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 11

BUILD UP FOX CITIES 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 - W6390 Challenger Dr., town of Greenville,

Outagamie County Regional Airport, an 8,000-sq. ft. general aviation terminal building and a separate 12,000-sq. ft. hangar for general aviation.

2

- W6400 County Road BB, town of Greenville, Fox Valley Technical College Public Safety Training Center, a 93,000sq. ft. training facility for fire protection and law enforcement personnel. Project completion expected in December 2014.

3 - 3250 N. Mayflower Dr., town of Grand Chute,

C TLM Auto, a 2,774-sq. ft. addition to the existing commercial building.

4 - 1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute, Fox Valley Technical College Transportation Center, a 43,486-sq. ft. addition to the existing transportation education center.

5 - 1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute,

Fox Valley Technical College Health Simulation and Technology Center, a three-story, 60,572-sq. ft. health care and emergency medical services education and training facility.

Project completion expected in August.

6-

1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute, C Fox Valley Technical College Student Success Center, a twostory, 96,750-sq. ft. academic building. Project completion expected in fall 2014.

7-

1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute, C Fox Valley Technical College Agricultural Building, a 7,659-sq. ft. addition to the existing academic building.

8 - 1025 W. Navitus Dr., town of Grand Chute,

Navitus Health Solutions, a three-story, 68,600-sq. ft. new office building. Project completion expected in September.

9 - 421 W. Northland Ave., town of Grand Chute, C Dollar Tree, a 12,000-sq. ft. multi-tenant retail center with two additional tenant spaces for lease. Project completion expected in August. General contractor is James J. Calmes Construction Co. of Kaukauna.

10 - 340 Patriot Dr., Little Chute,

Green Stone Farm Credit Services, a two-story, 21,000-sq. ft. office building.

11

- 133 Main St., Little Chute, Salon Indulgence, a 3,682-sq. ft. salon and spa facility. Project completion expected in late spring.

12

- N139 Eisenhower Dr., town of Buchanan, Pizza Ranch, a 6,129-sq. ft. restaurant building. Project completion expected in July. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

13 - 1506 S. Oneida St., Appleton, St. Elizabeth Hospital, a five-story, 90-bed patient tower, as well as renovations to the cancer center and behavioral health.

14 - 540 Discovery Dr., Neenah, Futek Forms, Tags and Labels, an 18,100-sq. ft. industrial facility. Project completion expected in June. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

15 - 2444 Schultz Dr., Neenah, Plexus Corp., a 473,369sq. ft. manufacturing facility. Project completion expected in late fall.

Projects completed since our April issue: • Tailwaggers Doggy Daycare, 100 Allegiance Ct., Little Chute. • St. Mary Central High School Fine Arts Education Center, 1050 Zephyr Dr., town of Menasha.

12 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

www.newnorthb2b.com

BUILD UP FOX CITIES 8 10 3

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BUILD UP GREEN BAY Build Up Green Bay The Build Up department of New North B2B includes a monthly two-page spread identifying significant commercial and industrial construction projects ongoing in the Green Bay area.

C - Indicates a new listing

1

- 900 Isbell St., Green Bay, BioLife Plasma Service, a 17,500-sq. ft. medical facility.

2 - 1499 Lombardi Ave., Green Bay, Cabela’s, a 100,000sq. ft. retail store. Project completion expected in August.

3 - 922 Stadium Dr., Ashwaubenon, C Green Bay Packers, a 2,600-sq. ft. network building and parking lot.

4 - 400 N. Washington St., Green Bay, Schreiber Foods Inc., a five-story, 250,000-sq. ft. corporate headquarters building.

Project completion expected in early 2014.

5 - 3050 Walker Dr., Green Bay, AK Pizza Crust, a 48,036sq. ft. addition to the existing manufacturing facility. Project completion expected in July. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

6 - 955 Challenger Dr., Green Bay, EuroPharma, an 11,700sq. ft. addition to the existing packaging and warehouse facility.

Project completion expected in July. General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

7-

1100 S. Huron Road, Green Bay, Frontline Building Products and Green Bay Overhead Door, a 217,884-sq. ft. industrial facility to include offices and more than 200,000 square feet of warehousing space. Project completion expected in spring.

General contractor is Keller Inc. of Kaukauna.

8 - 2535 Babcock Road, Ashwaubenon, Krist Oil Company, a 4,600-sq. ft. fuel station and convenience store.

9 - 3383 Spirit Way, Ashwaubenon, FedEx Ground, a 100,000-sq. ft. distribution center and offices. Project completion expected in June.

10

- 1201 Ashwaubenon St., Ashwaubenon, Triangle Distribution, a 12,582-sq. ft. addition to the existing industrial facility for a cooler and dock doors. Project completion expected in May.

11 - 500 Main Ave., De Pere, Van Dyn Hoven, a multi-tenant, mixed-use commercial office and residential building.

12 - 100 Grant St., De Pere, St. Norbert College Gehl-Mulva Science Center, a 150,000-sq. ft. education and research facility which will jointly house the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Green Bay campus. Project completion expected in spring 2015.

13 - 2121 Innovation Ct., De Pere,

Foth & Van Dyke LLC, a 95,000-sq. ft. office building. Project completion expected in fall.

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14 - 2222 American Blvd., De Pere, Washworld Inc., a 48,428-sq. ft. corporate headquarters and industrial facility.

Projects completed since our April issue: • Dorsch Auto Credit, 2564 Lineville Road, Suamico.

• Milo C. Huempfner Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic, 2851 University Ave., Green Bay. • C.A. Lawton Company, 1900 Enterprise Dr., De Pere.

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AROUND THE BOARDROOM

31 The percent increase of venture capital investments in Wisconsin in 2012, which climbed from $72.8 million in 2011 to $95.2 million. Nationally, venture capital funding fell by 28 percent.

Source: PriceWaterhouseCoopers and National Venture Capital Association

Title: Thought Shredder Author: Chris Elliott Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. (2013) Pages: 140 List Price: $9.99 Why Buy: Green Bay author Chris Elliott has a gift to connect seemingly every day experiences to the past and create life lessons.

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Better Business Bureau New Members

Businesses accredited through the Northeast Wisconsin office during March 2013

A & D Lawncare, Green Bay American Auto Transmissions, Green Bay Brent Michael Woodworking, Plymouth Centerline Contracting LLC, Waupaca Daryl Ristow Roofing, Appleton EZ Computers LLC, Algoma GE Contracting LLC, Kaukauna Golke Brothers Roofing & Siding, LLC, Waupaca Grunts For Hire LLC, New London Hi-Tech Electric Inc., Berlin Highland Building Consultants LLC, Green Bay Home Pro Roofing LLC, Appleton Janssen Dental Clinic S.C., Green Bay K-9 Perfection LLC, Manitowoc Kramer’s Moving Service LLC, Kaukauna Krueger Sentry Gauge Inc., Green Bay Leo’s Service LLC, Winneconne Marinette Roofing & Gutters, Marinette Mark Schairer Excavating, Campbellsport Massive Roofing, Appleton Pro Inspect LLC, Neenah Rautmann Custom Homes, Sheboygan Rent-A-Handyman Inc., De Pere Riverside Luxury Bath Systems LLC, Fremont The Stiegler Company Inc., Green Bay Timeless Wrought Iron, Cleveland Today’s Furniture Advantage, Appleton Used Laptop Spot LLC, Fond Du Lac Wrought Iron Solutions, LLC, Ripon

16 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

www.newnorthb2b.com

AROUND THE BOARDROOM

Who wisely purchased BodyGuardz® device protection for his iPad before reviewing marketing communications that make coffee shoot out of his nose, causing him to crush their creators to dust under the full weight of his Birkenstocks.

Content remains King Marketers’ most preferred content marketing tools

I swear on Mother Stronglove’s cankles: it’s even better when they go back and evaluate which tactics have proved most effective, and identify and address the challenges of less effective tactics to improve their performance. Examples of these criteria:

Web Traffic Sales Lead Quality Social Media Sharing Sales Lead Quantity Customer Feedback SEO Ranking Time Spent on Website Inbound Links Company Awareness

83 percent cite website articles

78 percent cite eNewletters

Google 39%

91%

B2B’s Top Five Social Media Networks Youtube 61%

Nitwits

Twitter 80%

B2B marketers who make content marketing the focus of their marketing efforts

Facebook 80%

9%

94 percent of B2B brands generate their own exclusive content instead of offering links to content on other sites or repurposing third-party content. Although newer social networks like Pinterest, Foursquare and Tumblr are rapidly growing content distribution tools, they still don’t reach decision influencers or decision makers. The main social media network used by B2B marketers aren’t surprising:

LinkedIn 83%

B2B brands are increasing their budgets (68 percent of B2B CMOs increased their content marketing budgets) for 2013 to develop and implement these tactics - blogging, case studies, webinars, videos, articles for their websites, whitepapers, and other forms of content marketing campaigns - to help prospective and existing customers connect the dots. The result: achievement of common objectives, promotions, metrics and measurable results.

87 percent cite social media

No prize for guessing B2B marketers’ favorite media strategy. With 91 percent of B2B companies making it the focus of their marketing efforts, content marketing has rapidly become the CMO’s top choice.

The 21st century industrial revolution is here. The “Made in China” era is rapidly coming to an end. Business Insider calls content marketing “the next trillion-dollar industry.” The Economist says its impact will be comparable the printing press and steam engine. Top technology experts like those who brought us Amazon.com, the F-35 fighter jet and the BMW 3-series also say it could be bigger than the Internet.

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 MAY 2013 l 17

COVER STORY

Leadership e d u c at i o n

Various training programs help New North employers groom management to handle more complex challenges

Story by Sean Fitzgerald, New North B2B publisher

18 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

www.newnorthb2b.com

COVER STORY It’s one stress out of a business owner’s life to find dedicated employees who come to work on time each day, fulfill their job responsibilities, and routinely contribute to the overall mission of the company without issue.

But it’s even more rare to find that same dedicated employee who could also step in and run the company with much the same vision and passion as the owner if that person were suddenly gone due to an unforeseen illness or injury, or even unexpected death.

Growing companies in northeast Wisconsin increasingly recognize the recipe to continued success doesn’t only include access to capital, a healthy workforce supply, regular demand from the marketplace and a healthy attitude favoring innovation and change. The recipe isn’t complete without an evolving crop of leaders within the ranks of company management who can break out of their day-to-day responsibilities, grab the proverbial bull by its horns, and help lead the organization with much of the same vision and style of execution as the owner would.

“Owners have an important need to have people step up,” said Alan Patterson, president of the Fond du Lac-based professional training and coaching firm Mentore and one of the collaborators who helped found the STRAT program through Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac. STRAT is just one of a number of programs across the New North region designed as solutions for employers to further develop the leadership talent within their organization. While some programs are focused on helping a recently promoted skilled laborer from the shop floor learn the finer points of supervising co-workers who were previously peers, many of these other programs are geared toward those employees already providing leadership through a management or directorlevel role, but perhaps need additional guidance to help them someday handle the more complex responsibilities of a vice president or general manager position.

A succession plan in place Moraine Park’s STRAT program is just getting started with its third session, having rolled out its inaugural class of about ten participants in 2011. The intensive 9-month program was designed to provide employers with succession solutions for executive-level management roles within their organization, said Jo Ann Hall, dean of economic and workforce development for Moraine Park.

“This isn’t your standard leadership development program,” noted Hall, who said STRAT is intended to train leaders to become strategic thinkers within their organization, linking strategy and execution to achieve measureable results.

The name of the program itself is taken from the terms strategy, alignment and talent – all focal points of Patterson’s training methodology. A Ph.D.-educated trainer and business strategy consultant, Patterson’s list of clients includes Fortune 500 firms as well as small to mid-size companies across the country.

The program involves regular sessions where participants come together as a class – representing second-tier manage-

ment from area manufacturers, retailers, health care providers, insurance firms and educational institutions, among others. It also involves one-on-one coaching between class sessions from experienced business leaders in the region. Each participant also develops a project for their employers of which they ultimately need to execute and provide measureable outcomes.

Patterson emphasized the employer sponsoring a manager to participate in STRAT needs to have an understanding and sound belief in staff development and its ability to help define its strategy.

➧

For more information

Moraine Park Technical College STRAT program www.morainepark.edu/strat

STRAT helped challenge Keith Johnson to further reflect on his own leadership style, as well as that of others he’d worked for in the past. After nearly four years at Kondex Corp. in Lomira as its manager of product engineering, Johnson was promoted in 2012 to vice president of business development and product engineering for the designer and manufacturer of specialty cutting implements for the agricultural industry. He said the program helped him broaden his perspective of Kondex, which has grown substantially in just the past few years.

“For any growing company, building that ‘bench’ of skilled leaders for succession planning is critical as we grow to the next stage,” Johnson said.

Having spent his entire career in a manufacturing environment, Johnson said he took particular delight in going through the program with peers from unrelated industries, in which he discovered many of the issues associated with leading a large organization forward – whether it be financing, finding a sufficient amount of qualified employees or complying with government regulations – are common across all sectors.

Additionally, Johnson found it valuable to meet and network with CEOs from other companies, as well as meeting economic development and government leaders from the area.

“Being connected in the community is a big part of leading a growing company,” Johnson said.

In fact, after two years and two complete sessions, Patterson indicated the networking component of the STRAT program – not initially considered critical to the program – has emerged

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 19

COVER STORY as one of the more valued aspects of the curriculum. He said greater emphasis is being placed on teaching participants to recognize the value of connecting to the right person within an organization.

Results shared by the more than 20 graduates of the program during its first two years are encouraging, both for the participants’ careers as well as for their employers. A total of 92 percent of STRAT participants reported they increased their level of visibility and credibility throughout their organizations.

Prior to enrolling in STRAT, fewer than 10 percent of participants reported having a clear sense of how to measurably impact their leadership performance on the job – at the completion of the program, more than 90 percent were able to do so.

Participation in STRAT is an investment for an employer – tuition costs about $5,000 for the nine months of intensive training. Hall emphasizes STRAT isn’t a ‘fix-it’ program for an organization who is having difficulties with the skills of its management. There are other training programs available – both through Moraine Park and elsewhere – to help address such concerns within a company.

Grooming leaders in Green Bay While the STRAT program is currently offered only through Moraine Park’s service district in Fond du Lac, Washington and Dodge counties, Hall said she hopes to eventually attract more participation from employers up into Oshkosh and the Fox Cities.

Other leadership development programs do exist, though the

20 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

structure of each varies from program to program, and each varies in its experience and length of service to local employers.

One such program just settling in to the starting blocks in the Green Bay area is the Leadership Excellence course through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Small Business Development Center. The six-month-long program is designed to enhance the leadership skills of those managers and executives “who have influence on the business owner,” described Ryan Kauth, director of the SBDC office at UW Green Bay.

➧

For more information

University of Wisconsin Green Bay Small Business Development Center Leadership Excellence www.uwgb.edu/sbdc

Kauth is still recruiting participants for its inaugural session, which will kick off later this spring. The program includes a halfday morning session with all of the class participants once each month for half of a year. The class sessions are designed to educate leaders on relevant organizational development principles and practices, and will focus on various leadership topics such as culture, performance management, organizational purpose and leadership legacy. It also has an online component to engage participants in between class sessions. The program is being delivered in conjunction with Inspired Training Institute,

www.newnorthb2b.com

COVER STORY a Green Bay-based leadership coaching and consulting firm.

“It’s more of an executive coaching program,” Kauth said, noting it’s designed for executive management in a “largersized small business,” though participants enrolled for its first upcoming session represent companies of various sizes.

Similar to the STRAT program, class participants come from a variety of different industries, including health care, service and the financial sector. That’s by design, Kauth indicated, allowing those enrolled to recognize the similarity of issues that exist within organizations in non-parallel industry sectors.

The Leadership Excellence program was created to prepare participants to deal with “the uncomfortable stuff” that the business owner often has to handle, Kauth said. He noted business owners – particularly in small operations they started themselves – don’t have the time and often don’t know how to go about starting any genuine succession planning for themselves or other key positions within the company. As a result, the Leadership Excellence program also includes a projectbased component.

“The six sessions blend together so that they have this holistic approach to developing and executing a project for their organization,” he said.

The cost for employers to send a participant through Leadership Excellence is $1,495. A few spaces remain for its upcoming six-month program, and Kauth said he welcomes inquiries to provide more information by contacting him at 920.496.2112 or emailing kauthr@uwgb.edu.

A new approach to an MBA The more classically academic approach to leadership development through a master’s in business administration degree is taking a new approach through an upcoming executive MBA program at UW Oshkosh which will be the first-of-itskind in northeast Wisconsin.

Starting this coming September with an expected class size of about 25 students, this accelerated 16-month program meets only on Saturdays and is geared toward the working professional who’s already a bit seasoned in their career. Participants are required to have a minimum of eight years of professional experience and at least five years of management experience, indicated Kathy Hagens, MBA program director for UW Oshkosh’s College of Business.

➧

For more information

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Executive Master’s in Business Administration www.uwosh.edu/cob/graduate

That’s by design. Class discussions are intended to be more practical than theoretical, with students drawing upon their professional experience to discuss and understand the management principles they’ll be learning. The curriculum is also

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 21

COVER STORY designed to provide a stronger emphasis on leadership than the more traditional MBA program offered through the school, Hagens said, as well as studies in change management and strategy development, among other areas of running an organization.

“Students will learn to develop and deploy business strategies and grow revenues within their organization,” Hagens said of the program’s outcomes. “They’ll learn to think strategically, assess risk, and identify alternative solutions to problems that arise.”

Students enrolled in this first executive MBA class will go through the program as a cohort, with graduation planned for December 2014. Subsequent eMBA classes will begin the program anew each September, Hagens said.

Holistic leadership Marian University’s master’s degree in organization leadership and quality was built more than 20 years ago on the principles and criteria of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, though it’s attracted students from a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds. Past students entering the program have included physicians, vice presidents of industry, law enforcement executives and even one student who already achieved a doctoral degree in engineering, according to Hank Lindborg, a graduate professor at Marian who developed the program back in 1992 and has since been involved with its delivery.

The master’s program is designed for working business professionals to lead and manage organizations in an increasingly complex global environment, though Lindborg emphasizes the unique approach to ethical and social responsibility, teamwork and quality is the attraction for many of the participants looking to enhance their leadership focus.

➧

For more information

Marian University Master’s of Science in Organization Leadership & Quality www.marianuniversity.edu/business

“This gives a holistic view of what leaders do to improve organizations and make them successful,” he said.

The accelerated program is set up as a cohort in which students move through the two-year program together as a group. The program is available at both Marian’s main Fond du Lac and Appleton campuses, as well as through its Milwaukee area location. It consists of 12 courses, each course meeting one night a week for seven weeks.

Lindborg said each class collaborates to manage two or three team-based projects – consistent with the Baldrige Award principles – all of which support nonprofit efforts in a variety of communities across eastern Wisconsin.

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MANAGEMENT

A CEO Bounce Back?

Survey finds local business leaders more comfortable with outlook for the near term

Story by Michael Bina

Down, down, down…

New North’s economic elevator was heading straight to, well…yeah, down there!

Generally positive, optimistic and future-focused people, New North region CEOs and business owners have not been feeling themselves lately. Their mood and instinct has been trending “south” since January 2012.

The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse – a more than a decadeold, regular quarterly survey of business owners and chief executives across northeast Wisconsin – has been tracking the moods and feelings of CEOs and business owners in the New North for 52 consecutive quarters. Throughout the years, The Business Pulse has uncovered many interesting feelings and moods in both its Current Conditions Index and its Future Expectations Index. The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse measures Current Economic Conditions compared to three months prior, and its Future Economic Expectations index asks business leaders to look out over the next three months.

24 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

A downward trend During nearly all of 2012, business owner and CEO insights have been trending downward. Their traditionally upward, positive attitude had been trending on a slope seemingly slipperier and steeper each quarter – their proverbial glass half full had sprung a big leak!

By January 2012, future expectations of CEOs started dropping. In the first quarter of 2012, the Current Conditions Index stood at 116.8 while the normally more bubbly Future Expectations Index only reached 116.0. During the second quarter of 2012, Current Conditions Index fell to 107.7 and Future Expectations continued falling to 100.3. By the end of the third quarter 2012, Current Conditions stood at 93.8 and Future Expectations Index fell even further to 89.2.

Having the Future Economic Expectations Index lower than the Current Conditions has rarely happened in the 11 years The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse has been conducted. And it certainly had never happened three quarters in a row. www.newnorthb2b.com

MANAGEMENT At its most recent low this past autumn, CEOs said economic conditions in their industry became even worse than in the previous three months – 35 percent said conditions were worse, compared with 21 percent in the second quarter a year ago.

CEOs also indicated their gross revenues were not as strong during the third quarter of 2012: only 38 percent said they had an increase in total receipts, compared with 45 percent showing an increase during the second quarter.

Likewise, fewer CEOs saw increases in net profits – only 31 percent reported an increase in Q3 compared with 41 percent in Q2 – and fewer CEOs reported gains in employment within their organizations, with 19 percent noting an increase in Q3 vs. 28 percent in Q2.

These critical trends were clearly down in northeast Wisconsin. The reasons were many.

“The downturn in the first three quarters of 2012 may have had more to do with the political context rather than the economic context,” said David Wegge, director of the Strategic Research Institute at St. Norbert College in De Pere, which regularly develops and conducts The Business Pulse survey.

“The political context continued to produce uncertainty for CEOs and business owners: the 2012 presidential election; the uncertainty about the impact of the Affordable Care Act; the potential for falling off the Fiscal Cliff were all – no doubt – significant contributors to the decline in confidence CEOs were feeling regarding their future economic prospects.”

Nevertheless, the trend is significant, Wegge added.

Local CEOs framed some of the apparent pessimism of the second half of 2012 as being associated with governmental uncertainty as well.

“I think once elections are settled, whatever the results, entrepreneurs get back to believing that – despite the governmental self-inflicted wounds and burdens placed on our still, mostly capitalist economy – the long-term trend line of the American economy is toward growth,” said John Dykema, president of Campbell Wrapper Corp. and Circle Packaging Machinery Inc., both firms located in Green Bay. Dykema is a regular participant in the Nicolet Bank Business Pulse quarterly survey. “It’s not the growth that it could be, but it’s growth, nonetheless.”

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Brighter days ahead?

Landmark Staffing Resources President and CEO Monica Vomastic is also a regular participant in The Business Pulse. She keeps a close eye on the Nicolet Bank Business Pulse indices, and noted she now sees conditions turning around.

“Eliminating uncertainties creates a more favorable future,” Vomastic said. “The Fiscal Cliff is behind us, we now know sequestration means a reduced growth rate. Most companies have determined the financial impact of the Affordable Care Act and are adjusting their business models.”

“My industry is predicting stronger growth in the second quarter of 2013 as companies continue to expand temporary workers. The announcement (in early April) of Japan’s $1.3 trillion stimulus was a welcome surprise to the global markets. With certainty and more optimism, greater results will be achieved.”

Wegge quantified this optimism, citing much improved results from the most recent Business Pulse conducted in February.

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MANAGEMENT

“

The ‘shock and awe’ phase of the general economic crisis is over, but the fundamental restructuring of economic policy triggered by the crisis is just beginning.

”

Bob Atwell, CEO, Nicolet National Bank

CEOs not eager for healthcare overhaul Massive legislative initiatives in healthcare go into effect in just seven months, yet a significant percent of New North business owners and CEOs are “not too familiar” with what’s ahead.

In seven months a LOT is going to happen in healthcare. How familiar are local CEOs with these changes? How confident are they that they’re getting the information they need to make significant decisions for their business?

Where are they getting this information?

The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse sought answers to these questions in its most recent survey of CEOs this past February.

About two thirds (67 percent) of CEOs surveyed indicated they are “very” or “somewhat familiar” (58 percent) with how the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect their business. However, 22 percent said they are “not too familiar” and 19 percent are “not familiar at all.”

Organizations with more than 50 employees tend to be somewhat more familiar with the impact of so-called Obamacare than those with 50 or fewer employees. The Business Pulse survey found no differences between CEOs in the goods producing sector compared with those in the service sector.

CEOs were also asked how confident they are that they are obtaining adequate information to assist them in making good decisions. One in five indicated they’re “very confident,” while 42 percent said they are “somewhat confident,” 25 percent “not too confident” and 13 percent were “not at all confident.”

Organizations with 50 or fewer employees are somewhat less confident.

CEOs are most likely to be turning to their insurance agent for information, as indicated by 61 percent of respondents. Nearly half (46 percent) are looking to their accountant; 35 percent use an insurance broker; 23 percent surf the Internet; 18 percent look to the federal government; 12 percent look to state government; and 21 percent choose other sources. Respondents could identify more than one source of information.

26 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

Attitudes about Obamacare

While roughly two thirds (68 percent) agree that the Affordable Care Act will expand health insurance coverage to more people, most CEOs tend to see more negative effects than positive.

When asked if they thought the law would “slow the rate of health insurance cost increases,” four out of five said it would not (18 percent disagree, 61 percent strongly disagree). Ten percent were “not sure.”

Just 11 percent of CEOs believe the new law will slow rate increases. Just 13 percent believe it will improve the overall health of the public. And just 8 percent think it will reduce paper work

and make the provision of health care less complex.

A significant majority (68 percent) believe Obamacare will be successful at expanding coverage to more people, but CEOs are concerned that it will separate patients from doctors (61 percent agree; 26 percent disagree; 14 percent who are not sure). Attitudes among CEOs – across economic sectors and among those in small and large firms – were consistent.

A clear majority of CEOs agree that health insurance companies should be allowed to charge higher rates for those who smoke (94 percent said “yes”) and those who are overweight (75 percent said “yes”).

How the Survey is Conducted The Nicolet Bank Business Pulse© is a Quarterly Study of CEOs and business leaders in northeast Wisconsin (Brown, Calumet, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano, Winnebago Counties) and Menominee, Michigan. It is designed and implemented by IntellectualMarketing, LLC. The survey was conducted February 14 – 27, 2013 with 104 CEOs in the New North. Participants include: 30% in manufacturing; 26% in services; 17% retail trade; 5% wholesale trade; 6% finance, real estate, insurance; 6% in transportation, communications, utilities; 6% in construction; 4% in other industries. 14% have fewer than 6 employees; 25% have 6-25; 17% have 26-50; 11% 51-100; 23% 101-250; 3% 251-500; 5% have 501 to 1,000 and 2% have more than 1,000 employees. Questions to Dr. David G. Wegge 920.217.7738.

www.newnorthb2b.com

MANAGEMENT “The most significant shift is the substantial improvement in future expectations,” Wegge said. “From 2009 through 2011, the Future Expectations Index and the Current Conditions Index were about the same. Then, future expectations headed south, and dropped below current conditions for the next three quarters.”

According to the latest Business Pulse survey for the first quarter 2013, CEO perception that the economy will improve in general during the next three months increased from 15 percent to 26 percent. Views that economic conditions within their specific industry would improve in the next three months increased from 16 to 32 percent, and projections of gross revenues increasing in the quarter ahead improved from 29 to 45 percent.

Additionally, the number of CEOs who said net profits would increase in the quarter ahead doubled from 20 to 40 percent of those participating in the survey. Capital spending and employment projections remained positive as well.

“Today, with a 22 percent improvement in confidence about the future, it appears that CEOs may be coming out of their post-recession funk,” Wegge said. “Of the six indicators we look at in the Future Expectations Index, perception of the general economy, the economy in their industry, gross revenues and net profits all saw considerable improvements.”

The latest Conference Board survey showed CEO confidence improving from 42 during the third quarter 2012 to 46 in the last quarter of the year. The Conference Board survey – a national metric of business confidence – interviews 100 CEOs across the U.S. A score of 50 indicates the same percentage of positive and negative responses, while scores higher than 50 indicate more positive than negative responses, and vice versa for scores lower than 50. Ultimately, this means CEO confidence nationally may be leveling out as well.

“The ‘shock and awe’ phase of the general economic crisis is over, but the fundamental restructuring of economic policy triggered by the crisis is just beginning,” said Bob Atwell, CEO of Nicolet Bank, in a report to shareholders and bank customers earlier this year. “In particular, the financial services and health care sectors are the subject of massive new legislative initiatives. Consequently, the environment remains clouded and complex, but we believe this chaos creates great opportunity for seasoned companies.”

Expectations Index did catch Riopelle by surprise.

“It’s unusual for the Future Expectations Index to spike this high in one quarter, so we need to watch what the CEOs say in the next Business Pulse,” he said.

The next Nicolet Bank Business Pulse survey will be in the field shortly. Northeast Wisconsin CEOs will weigh in and either celebrate or commiserate.

If you are a CEO, business owner or general manager in the New North, you are welcome to join The Business Pulse conversation. Each quarter, Nicolet Bank will email you a short business survey. After the results are analyzed by the Strategic Research Institute at St. Norbert College, the results are sent to respondents.

It doesn’t cost anything but a few minutes of your time. To enroll, contact Bob Atwell, CEO at Nicolet Bank (batwell@ nicoletbank.com) or Mike Daniels, president of Nicolet (mdaniels@nicoletbank.com).

Michael Bina is a writer, educator and thought leader based in Green Bay. Read his musings about business on his blog at newadventuresofnicolet.blogspot.com.

Thinking ahead, creating opportunity Green Bay-based consultant Jack Riopelle is a retired owner and president of an industrial firm who now shares his expertise to help up-and-coming businesses plan their future strategically. He’s also a regular participant in The Business Pulse survey, and believes the recession created opportunities for those business owners who were forward thinking.

“I think the New North business climate is a tale of two cities,” Riopelle said. “In my opinion, companies that innovated, reduced structural costs and/or created new markets or products during the Great Recession are doing well.”

Riopelle believes many of those CEOs who hunkered down during the recent recession and continued the “same old-same old” routine are probably struggling right now. Their competition has passed them by, he said.

This recent quarter’s 22 percent improvement in the Future

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 27

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GUEST ADVICE

Company need a new direction?

Just like in your car, your CPS can help guide your business

Steve Van Remortel President, SM Advisors

We had house guests last month. When they were getting ready to leave, I started giving them directions to Door County, the next stop on their trip. My friend stopped me in mid-sentence and said, “Don’t worry.

I have my GPS.” I started thinking about that, and I realized that your business plan is like your global positioning system. We could call it your CPS, or Company Positioning System.

It represents your guide, your map for everything you do “on” your business.

The first step is to decide who is on the planning team. Each department should be represented directly or indirectly on the planning team. From our experience including more people on the team in the first year is recommended so you have greater buy-in and more ambassadors for the plan.

Now that you have your team identified, we can move into the meat of your business plan, or CPS. Here are the fundamentals that should be in your plan to position your company for long-term prosperity: • Define your competence - You must define “why” a customer is going to buy from you instead of someone else. Your competence is the one strength or combination of strengths that you do better than any of your competitors. A competence leads to a clear differentiation for your organization.

We like to say that without a competence you are “Selling Vanilla Ice Cream.”

• Illustrate your tangible value - You must make your competence tangible. Everybody says they have the best service or the best quality, but few prove it. It is your responsibility to show your customers and potential customers what your competence delivers to them in concrete, tangible measurements.

• Develop department plans – From experience, the most profitable organizations become experts at departmental planning.

Department plans detail how each department is going to work “on” the business to deliver the strategic plan. As each department completes its action plans, the progress of the organization accelerates.

• Implement a talent management system - You can have a great strategy, but if you don’t have the right people in the right positions, your success will be limited.

A talent management system focuses on recruiting, hiring, developing and retaining the right talent to deliver your competence and strategy. You must “Build the Team to Achieve Your Dream!”

• Dig into plan execution - At SM Advisors, we focus on helping our clients develop and implement a Plan Execution Program. This instills the necessary discipline and accountability into the culture of your organization to implement the plan. And let’s be honest, accountability is one of the greatest obstacles for most organizations.

“

Are you ready to find a

direction for your company?

”

Then turn on your CPS!

If you implement these five fundamentals into your organization, I’m confident that you’ll experience top and bottom line growth. Are you ready to find a direction for your company? Then turn on your CPS! The process and templates to implement these fundamentals into your company are available online at: www.stopsellingvanillaicecream.com.

Remember, those who plan - Profit!

Steve Van Remortel of Green Bay is a professional speaker, strategist, advisor and author of the book “Stop Selling Vanilla Ice Cream.” Contact him at steve@smadvisors. com or go to www.smadvisors.com or www. stopsellingvanillaicecream.com.

Guest Advice in New North B2B is offered by invitation of the editor, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Winnebago B2B, LLC or its staff.

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 29

WORKSPACES

21

Century Workspaces st

Comfort, collaboration and light create environments for greater productivity Story by Lee Reinsch

30 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

www.newnorthb2b.com

WORKSPACES If you’ve spent your entire working life in an openconcept office, fighting to focus amid 68 cacophonous coworkers, and dreaming of the pin-drop silence of a private office (or even a shoulder-high partition), the design world has news for you: You are S.O.L. You will never get that corner office. You will never even get that basement office. Forget that tranquil you-space. Heck, you’ll be lucky if you get an actual workstation to house your Beanie Babies.

You may as well position yourself face down in a puddle of upheaved dreams right now, because the office plan of the future is your personal brand of apocalypse.

But, on the other hand, if you’ve been pet-crated into a soundless, airless version of cubicle hell, then the office-system gods have opened the clouds – and floor plans – for you.

“The days of the cubicle with the 72-inch walls are over,” said Jonathan Webb, vice president of business marketing with the global commercial-furniture maker KI, Inc. of Green Bay. Workspace walls, which began tumbling down several years ago, continue to make their plummet. Panels between desks creep lower than a Kardashian neckline. If panels do exist, they’re made of see-through material – like glass.

Spaces are open, and horizons are lower. Meeting spots, rather than walled-off meeting rooms, let small groups of colleagues gather for a quick confab. “Activity spaces” let them converge to share data or work away from their desks.

“Young people today like to collaborate,” said Curt Beilke, owner of Systems Furniture in De Pere. “They don’t want to spend all day in a cubicle by themselves.”

They want the freedom to move around, from pod to activity space to meeting spot to lounge. Technology has changed the way we work, and that’s changing the feel of our offices.

“Everything is instantaneous; everyone wants to have everything right now,” said Chelsea Redlin, interior designer with Ashwaubenon-based VerHalen Commercial Interiors. “You don’t want to have to walk around your cube to show something to the person sitting next to you; you want to just look over and talk to them. We’re so technology-driven that it’s like ‘Hey, I can just pull something up on my iPad, and show you this beautiful presentation. I don’t have to pull it up onto a projector screen and wait for it to warm up.’”

Out of the Dark Ages The denuding of the modern office is fueled by a hunger for natural light, say the deities of workplace design.

Natural light increases employee productivity and generates well-being, they say.

“Businesses are increasing the amount of daylight that can come into a room,” said Char Brittnacher, interior designer with Kaukauna-based design/build firm Keller, Inc. “They’re increasing the size of the windows or putting transoms (small windows above a door frame) on interior doors that let natural light cascade into the interior of the building.”

Skylights and solar tubes pump even more natural illumination into a building’s netherparts typically devoid of regular windows. Claustrophobes and Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers, this is your decade.

“I think especially here in Wisconsin in winter season, with

New wave collaborative conferencing the limited availability of light, people just do better with natural light versus fluorescent,” Brittnacher said. “People have less eye strain, and fewer headaches. Your mood is better in natural light conditions versus artificial light conditions. It provides a huge benefit to how your body performs. Employers are seeing that efficiency and mood shift, and they want to be able to offer that benefit to their employees.”

Taking advantage of outdoor light is also a budget-friendly way to be part of the whole sustainable-everything movement.

“It’s expensive to buy all of your furniture green, but people are like ‘Hey, if we move our workstations out into middle of the room, and lower the panels, we can be green without even trying,’” Redlin said.

And people are realizing it doesn’t make much sense to let a few select kahunas hog all the sunlight. Bye, bye, window offices.

“It’s popular now, rather than having the executive offices around the perimeter of a building, to have them out on the floor, blending in with everyone else,” said Redlin.

It changes the feel of the office to have execs out among the plebes.

“They’re more accessible,” Redlin said of higher-ups.

“They’re not shut up in some stuffy office.”

If honchos do get offices, they’re in the main area and not enclaved. Or the walls are glass, so they can be caught picking their noses, just like the rest of us.

Bigger yet smaller Even though open-plan offices are clearer and lighter, and spaces seem bigger, personal footage is contracting.

“Whereas an eight-foot-square (8x8-foot) space used to be standard, now even six-foot-square (6x6-foot) is somewhat big,” according to Webb.

So it could be good that desks are shrinking, too. Today’s work surfaces look more like table tops: few if any drawers,

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 31

WORKSPACES little to no storage.

One reason? Not as much paper to file.

“Things are electronically stored,” Webb said. “People aren’t running to the printer to print documents. We’re not retrieving a tree’s worth of faxes anymore. People are more mobile than ever, and the technologies available allow us to be plugged in at home, at the office, or anywhere. People have access to information at their fingertips and can do their work through their technology, and that usually means they need less space.”

Remember those big clunky desks and banks of bulletproof metal file cabinets? They came from an era when technology was bigger and clunkier, from couch cushion-sized monitors to copiers rivaling Oldsmobiles.

“The look has gone back The Swopper chair to the sixties, with straighter lines, lighter looking workstations, no dark heavy workstations anymore. Now it’s a lighter open look that they want,” said Joyce Anderson, sales executive for Emmons Business Interiors in Oshkosh.

Ever wonder where all our heavy rotary-dial phones went?

Rumor has it the Mafia used them when they couldn’t get concrete blocks.

Reinventing that round thing

Along with the discovery of natural light and the flattening of corporate hierarchies, another not-exactly-revolutionary concept is reinvigorating the modern office: The wheel.

Everything in the enlightened office can roll, from lounge chairs to desks to meeting areas to entire departments.

“The way it used to work was that purchasing was in one place, engineering was in another, and marketing was in another,” Beilke said. “Now they’re creating teams and working across a number of disciplines on a given project. Desks are on wheels so they can move the whole station to another spot and plug in when the team changes.”

Walls have wheels, too, and can be moved wherever. Walls can be glass, whiteboards, tackboards, privacy screens, or whatever suits the need on any given day.

Work doesn’t necessarily take place in the traditional places it used to, Beilke said. “Before, work was in your cube or in your private office, and now young people want to work in a space like a coffee shop.”

So employers are building coffee shop-like spaces into their office configurations, with cafe-height tables and booths.

But, unlike coffee shops, employer-sanctioned hot spots actually have enough outlets. Outlets can be found on pillars, on lunch tables and hidden in seat cushions.

In many cases, desks aren’t meant for anyone to spend a whole lot of time in, and they may not always even be used by the same person, according to Amy Sell of Systems Furniture in De Pere. They can take the form of a “plug-and-play” station

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32 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

www.newnorthb2b.com

WORKSPACES

CLUBtalk like at hotels.

“You are not really taking ownership per se, but it’s sort of a we-can-work-anywhere concept,” Sell said. “Since you aren’t taking ownership of a workstation, we can reteam and regroup for different projects.”

Other things that have slimmed down: The big ergonomic Michelin Man chair. Instead of overstuffed upholstered chairs, many are made of thin mesh for air circulation. They have adjustable lumbar curves that don’t look like they’re on steroids. Some even mimic the human spine, with adjustable links down the length of the back. Others have Memory foam or gel cushions.

Auxiliary seating. Almost all office furniture companies are making cushion-topped rolling filing cabinets for impromptu guests, according to Brittnacher. Other stowaway chairs, like the Swopper, www.thehumansolution.com/swopper.html, slide under the desk out of the way when not in use. The Swopper – around $500 to $700 – is a colorful bouncy stool with shock absorbers and a funky look.

Meeting rooms. Small tables with multi-platform-capable screens are replacing the big roll-down projector screen. They let a handful of people share data from different devices, from smartphone to laptop, wirelessly and instantly.

“You can collaborate with people on different floors, or different buildings,” Beilke said. One is called CLUBtalk by Teknion www.teknion.com/products/tables_clubtalk/default.asp.

Conference rooms. The room with the Last Supper table and 12 puffy chairs is going the way of the typewriter. Replacing it are “activity spaces” with smaller tables or clusters of chairs with tablet arms.

Sit-stand desks. These raise and lower either electrically or via crank, allowing workers to stand and work if they wish.

Sales of these are up 150 percent over three years ago, said KI’s Webb.

Lunch rooms. They’re multipurpose now, serving as workspaces, meeting spots and a place to escape one’s desk.

“I think they’re shifting into work lounges,” said Sell. “It’s rare that we’re installing lunchrooms or breakrooms anywhere that are not serving multiple functions. Work is being done everywhere.”

Lee Reinsch writes and edits from Green Bay.

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NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 33

OPERATIONS

White collar waste

34 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

Implementing lean efficiencies within an office environment trims wasteful processes Story by Cheryl Hentz Lean principles and techniques started and have been used in the manufacturing industry for decades. Because of the many successes achieved there, offices and other workplace settings have also begun applying lean more recently to improve their operations as well. While some strategies vary as much as the setting itself, the basic principles are the same.

“It’s very difficult to improve anything that you can’t measure. So the number one thing I recommend is to measure how long it takes currently to do something, and then set that as the baseline,” said Aaron Armstrong, assistant professor of mechanical engineering with Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Armstrong works with a variety of businesses across northeast Wisconsin to eliminate waste and streamline operations within their office functions. “Once you understand what’s taking time and where the most time is being spent, (you can develop a system) that becomes a roadmap for improvement.”

Armstrong’s second recommendation is that there’s great potential for balancing the flow of work through one’s office areas. Offices are notoriously inefficient “because people don’t really see what they’re doing in a productive paradigm,” Armstrong said.

If one can measure the value-add versus the non value-add, then work on reducing the non value-add part, that’s a great way to streamline the process and reduce the amount of waste that is encountered.

www.newnorthb2b.com

OPERATIONS Considering lean processes So how can you achieve this in your business? Armstrong offers these tips: “A lot of companies I see think that going to an electronictype office or paperless office will solve all their inefficiencies.

But many times that just heightens the waste and makes it more difficult to make sustainable lean improvements. Before at least there was a pile of paper in the “In” box. Once it’s all electronic, it’s much easier to neglect things that are falling behind or unresolved,” he said. “So I always recommend that people first try to improve their paper system before going to an electronic one. Otherwise it’s just much more difficult to identify delays or convince people of the need to improve.”

He also recommends using a “tagging sheet.”

“It’s a simple way of documenting every time we touch an order or a job, or something else going through the office environment. We record when we start working on a job and when we stop working on it, and what we did while we were working on it,” Armstrong said. “What’s important is not when we start and stop. That’s what we ultimately focus on and the valueadded. But from a waste reduction standpoint, what’s more important is the time between when we stop one activity and start the next. That’s where waste comes in.”

Using a type of visual management system can also help.

People tend to use white paper for everything. But if they used different colored paper or even just a colored mark at the top of different types of papers, it could help categorize tasks and

g N i N e p O

help reduce wasted time and errors in quality.

Statistical Process Control is another technique that can be put in place in an office environment.

“What you essentially do here is track the rate at which things go wrong. What you want to do is set up a way of measuring the performance of how you’re doing, and when you see deviations from that performance you can identify when things go wrong or when something fundamental has changed. That will help you resolve the issue before it causes real problems or affects your customers,” added Armstrong.

“

Once you understand what’s taking time and where the most time is being spent, that becomes a roadmap for improvement.

”

Aaron Armstrong, assistant professor of mechanical engineering Milwaukee School of Engineering

Achieving results Cindy Wetzel is an instructor in the Lean Performance Center at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton who has worked with a variety of businesses since the Center opened

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OPERATIONS five years ago. One of its clients, Community First Credit Union, approached the Center looking to improve its loan process.

“There’s so much legislation related to home loans, but they really needed to think about how they passed along information, how long it should take, and how they communicate with customers,” Wetzel said. “The faster you can communicate with your customers, the better off you are.”

One of Community First’s goals was to give its customer an answer on loan applications as quickly as possible. If the credit union couldn’t approve the loan within 24 hours, they at least wanted to explain the delay to the customer and explain how much additional time it might take.

Wetzel also worked with Neenah-based Adventures in Advertising. According to Marie Miller, director of continuous improvement for AIA, they developed and implemented an idea generation program called “Mydeas.”

“This is a program where every person everyday is empowered to come up with new ideas to gain efficiencies in the processes they do. We incorporate a lot of visual management so when you’re walking by a department everybody can see all of those great ideas,” Miller noted. “We also track how many new ideas have come to the table, whether they’re in progress, and how many of those ideas have been implemented.”

The program kicked off at the end of March with 294 ideas offered in the first two weeks. A total of 54 of those ideas have already been implemented, Miller said.

“So it has gained a huge amount of traction and our folks are just really pleased with the ability to begin having those

ideas and being appreciated and being able to work on them through the implementation process and see them come to fruition,” said Miller.

AIA has also redone its orientation process for new employees to make it more efficient.

“That training program used to take eight months to complete; now it only takes four weeks. We’ve also incorporated a cross-training program into the orientation, so we’ve not only reduced the training by seven months, but we’ve introduced new training within the four weeks the program now takes,” Miller said. Feedback they’ve received from employees is that the training program is now much more comprehensive and introduces company and industry principles much quicker and more thoroughly than in the past. As a result, employees are able to ramp up faster and begin to service customers much quicker.

Lean in action Another organization demonstrating success in lean office functions is Menasha-based Affinity Health System. Gary Kusnierz, vice president of performance excellence for Ministry Health Care, the parent organization of Affinity, said he and colleagues initially studied lean through Milwaukee School of Engineering. For the past four years, it’s managed lean projects and training in house, and even has lean coaches spread throughout the organization. Kusnierz has personally been responsible for leading many of the efforts to eliminate waste in the health system’s various departments.

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 37

OPERATIONS “Our whole philosophy of the deployment of lean is centered around the patient and their families,” Kusnierz said. “When you listen to the patients, you get significantly differently results than if they were to come from the CEO, a VP, a director, physician or even a staff person.”

Here are just a few of the programs Affinity has implemented using lean principles: From a patient safety standpoint, it had been experiencing an average of four falls per 1,000 patients, so it established a “patient falls team” to help reduce the number of falls to less than the national benchmark. They reduced falls down to two per 1,000 patients and have remained there for the last few years.

In its new emergency department at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Appleton they created a “no wait” environment.

“Anybody that comes into the ER they are basically asked three or four simple questions and then immediately brought back into the clinical pod where the next form of care is performed on them and the process begins. So we took a 90-minute wait in our old ER and zeroed it out to nothing basically,” Kusnierz said.

In addition, from the time a patient first enters the emergency room to the time when a nurse begins their process, the time has dropped by 37 percent.

The time between when they enter to the time the patient sees a physician has been reduced by 32 percent.

“Over the last six months our patient satisfaction scores in that new emergency department have been in the top 2 percent in the country,” he explained.

Affinity recently opened a new clinic in Neenah and employed lean philosophies in the design of that space. As soon as a patient enters, they’re taken back into a clinical area where beginning triage questions are asked, an exam is done, financial transactions and co-pays are handled, and other matters are dealt with.

“We’ve really streamlined the process for patients in our clinics, and at the same time made things a lot more private for them, too,” Kusnierz said.

It’s also implemented “Walk in

38 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

Lean Office Benefits Benefits to Employees

• Lean principles reduce waste due to overproduction and time spent waiting. One way to eliminate this kind of waste is to cross-train employees.

• Employee roles are better defined which causes less friction and brings about better employee satisfaction. This helps boost employee productivity.

Benefits to Customers/Clients

• Lean principles help develop and implement flexible operations which can, in turn, easily adjust to changing customer demands.

• Delivery time is reduced and there is less chance for error in customer orders.

• Greater customer satisfaction leads to more customer referrals.

Miscellaneous Benefits

• Improved performance leads to higher returns of investment.

• Increased revenues and profits due to reduction in waste.

• Greater competitive edge over other similar companies.

• By reducing the time it takes for office processes through reduction of waste and inefficiencies, you’re more likely to get tasks done on time. So the shorter amount of time it takes to do office tasks the less likely you are to be late.

Wednesdays” or “Walk in Weekdays” at some clinics where patients can walk in without an appointment and be treated.

“We’ve made our patient flow so efficient that we can absorb that extra patient flow coming in unscheduled.

Certainly we all like scheduled events or appointments but people are very busy and we have to accommodate people.”

In its pharmacy, Affinity’s inventory turns have improved from 11 to 24 turns.

“That’s significant and probably one of the best practices in the country. And that has helped us reduce our inventory by nearly a half million dollars annually,” Kusnierz said. “At the same time our staff satisfaction level improved to over 75 percent.”

Lastly, Affinity has worked diligently on identifying and reducing environmental waste. It’s currently at a 20 percent reduction in overall energy consumption. And as part of the new bed tower project at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Appleton, they’re actually looking into creating their own manufacturing site in order to pre-fabricate a lot of

the construction of that new facility offsite and then bring it into the site in modular format.

“With that we know we’re going to enhance the quality of the final product, and we’re looking at ways to continue to reduce the overall cost of the project,” Kusnierz explained.

Whatever you choose to do in your own business to improve efficiencies and eliminate waste, Wetzel offered these basic principles to remember.

“There’s always opportunity for improving on a standard, no matter what your business is,” she said. “But when you improve on a standard, it’s important to continuously improve on it, that you train to it, that you communicate it, and that you hold each other and yourselves accountable to follow it.”

Cheryl Hentz is a freelance writer from Oshkosh with nearly 30 years of professional writing experience. She can be reached at 920.426.4123, via email at cheryl.hentz@gmail.com, or through her blog at www.cherylhentz. blogspot.com. www.newnorthb2b.com

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Time for our 8th Annual Corporate Wellness Awards To nominate an employer, go online to our Web site at www.newnorthb2b.com and download our Alla Tua Salute! form.

Our panel of business and healthcare experts will select the most innovative employers for this honor.

Awards will be presented in our June 2013 edition in each of four categories: • Small Company (5 to 50 employees) • Mid-sized Company (51 to 200 employees) • Large Company (201 or more employees) • Start Up Wellness Program (2 years or less) Nominations due by May 10, 2013.

Send your nomination by mail to New North B2B, P.O. Box 559, Oshkosh, 54903 or email sean@newnorthb2b.com.

PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING

Planting the seeds of knowledge

by NEW Consortium on Adult Education As we enter this time of year, Jane Calkins we think of renewal, a time to

start fresh, “Spring forward” if you will. Many times this means changing out the winter clothing for warmer weather, cleaning the windows, sweeping out the garage of fall’s leftover leaves and planting vegetables. What about considering this time of year to plant seeds of knowledge?

The Northeast Wisconsin Consortium on Adult Education (NEWCAE) might be the perfect place to start. NEWCAE, comprised of many local public and private educational institutions of higher learning, offers a one-stop shop for both individuals and employers. NEWCAE is here to educate, promote and provide information on collegiate-level learning opportunities, that when married with industry knowledge, help craft employees who can help businesses achieve new, innovative ways to reach and satisfy their clients. As a combined group, NEWCAE’s members offer everything: diplomas, certificates,

associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degree, master’s degrees, and doctoral studies.

Employees can learn more about all degree majors – business, healthcare, public service, liberal studies – on our NEW website at www.newcae.org.

Busy, working individuals seeking additional education – from certificates to a Ph.D. – can check out www.newcae.org and find a program that fits their lifestyle whether it is online or in a traditional residential setting. Each school has contact information, as well as a list of its educational offerings on the website.

Employers can use the same site to request an on-site education fair by simply contacting one member school. Employers can host an education fair for all employees or for a specific department of the organization based on the employee benefits. In the past, employers have found this experience worthwhile and many offer annual fairs so their employees can continually access all the educational oppor-

920.750.5965

tunities in this area. This on-site fair is free to the employer.

The world of education is renewing, too.

Today’s classroom isn’t necessarily the traditional bricks and mortar we’ve seen in years past. Today’s 21st century classroom is reflective of the changing needs of today’s student. Classes can also be online, delivered via distance education or through hybrid learning. With so much innovation and progression in education, NEWCAE can help you learn and understand these advancements, all from the convenience of your home or employee lunchroom.

A college degree can change your life, but earning one doesn’t have to. To schedule an education fair for your organization, please check out the NEWCAE website at www.newcae.org or you can reach our chair, Jane Calkins, at 920-750-5965.

Start planting your seeds today so you can reap the harvest within your organization tomorrow!

Retirement confidence remains low

by Thome Benefit Solutions Despite signs of economic recovery, a new survey says Americans’ confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement remains at historic lows as workers appear to be grasping the realities of what they need to save.

The 2013 annual Retirement Confidence Survey, released March 19 by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington and co-sponsored by the Principal Financial Group® finds overall confidence levels are essentially unchanged since the record lows set in 2011.

Only 13 percent are very confident they will have enough money for a comfortable retirement. A full 28 percent – the highest number recorded during the 23 years of the survey – are not at all confident.

Workers have growing doubts about their ability to pay for basic expenses in retirement and are least confident about being able to afford medical costs and Kate Thome

long-term care.

The lack of confidence may also stem from a finding that workers seem to be realizing just how much they may need to save. Nearly 70 percent say they need to set aside 10 percent or more of total household income to fund a financially secure retirement. Four in 10 put the target at 20 percent or more.

Despite those projections, the survey finds less than half are taking steps to prepare and total savings remain modest. Saving and planning for retirement are overshadowed by immediate worries about job certainty, daily expenses and debt.

“Especially in the face of current financial challenges, Americans need a plan for saving and spending so they can manage short-term needs and better prepare for the long-term,” said Greg Burrows, senior vice president of The Principal, a longtime underwriter of the Retirement Confidence Survey. The survey shows overall

920.215.3262 retirement confidence is 20 to 40 percent higher among workers who take positive financial actions including calculating retirement savings needs, saving in an employer-sponsored plan, and getting advice from a financial professional.

The entire article and survey results may be found online at tinyurl.com/cualpjq.

Kate Thome is a Financial Representative of Principal National Life Insurance Company and Principal Life Insurance Company, Principal National (except in New York) and Principal Life are issuing insurance companies of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.

Kate can be reached at 920/215-3262.

While this communication may be used to promote or market a transaction or an idea that is discussed in the publication, it is intended to provide general information about the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that The Principal is not rendering legal, accounting, or tax advice.

It is not a marketed opinion and may not be used to avoid penalties under the Internal Revenue Code. You should consult with appropriate counsel or other advisors on all matters pertaining to legal, tax, or accounting obligations and requirements.

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 41

WHO’S NEWS Incorporations New North B2B publishes monthly new business incorporations filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.

Brown County

Silver Fox Crafts and Decor LLC, Timothy Duquaine, 1217 Westwood Dr., De Pere 54115.

Alpha Anesthesia LLC, Mark Oleck, 4447 Oak Ridge Ct., De Pere 54115.

Peace Love Yoga LLC, Elizabeth Mae Sternig, 601 W. Rock River Cir., De Pere 54115.

Bay Area Construction Services CORP., John McDougal, 831 Cedar St., De Pere 54115.

GC Badgerland Flooring LLC, Gina Pilgrim, 1708 Patriot Way, De Pere 54115.

De Pere Management & Development LLC, Dave Williquette, 3022 Williams Grant Dr., De Pere 54115.

Castaneda’s Cleaning Service LLC, Sulema Michelle Castaneda, 1512 Lynwood Lane, Green Bay 54311.

AMS Profit Training Solutions LLC, Andrew Schroedere, 971 Victory Blvd., Green Bay 54304.

C2C Mobile Services LLC, Scott Allen Nemecek, 3135 Barley Circle, Green Bay 54311.

Central Church INC., Aaron Schaut, 931 Schoen St., Green Bay 54302.

B& G Construction LLC, Gregory Allen Pangrazzi, 2441 Wandering Springs Cir., Green Bay 54311.

Blue Sky Invention Company LLC, Patrick Heideman, 148 Arrowhead Dr., Green Bay 54301.

Match Realty Group LLC, Steven Anthony Walczak, 916 Willard Dr., Ste. 132, Green Bay 54304.

American Marketing Association Northeast Wisconsin INC., Ryan Kauth, 2701 Larsen Road, Green Bay 54303.

Elegant Windows INC., Dustin J. Devroy, 1720 Lenwood Ave., Green Bay 54303.

Day Anesthesia Services LLC, James Ronald Day, 371 Wagon Wheel Ct., Green Bay 54302.

Friends Bar & Grill LLC, Terri Senn, 5365 Edgewater Beach Road, Green Bay 54311.

Green Bay Summer Volleyball Camps LLC, Michaela Mae Franklin, 562 S. Huron Road, Green Bay 54311.

Monte Cristo Rare Books LLC, Matthew J. Malcore, 2665 St. Ann Dr., Green Bay 54311.

Family Century Cleaning LLC, Youa Yang, 3723 Catalina Dr., Green Bay 54311.

Elite Tournaments LLC, Chris Greisen, 1710 Arabian Dr., Green Bay 54313.

Diversity Design and Development LLC, Darci Marie Donaldson, 2812 Viking Dr., Green Bay 54304.

Grossardt Communications LLC, Susan Grossardt, 235 Windward Road, Green Bay 54302.

B&B Plowing LLC, Brandon Kyle Bergevin, 2808 Helsinki Road, Green Bay 54311.

Indo-US Medicine S.C., Umang Gautam, 4343 Chatham Pl., Green Bay 54313.

World Wide Staffing LLC, Stephanie McCormick, 1221 Bellevue St., Green Bay 54302.

Lifefit LLC, Jamie M. Scanlan, 3041 Jaguar Lane, Green Bay 54313.

American Medical LLC, Eric Paulowski, 1331 Ponderosa Ave., Green Bay 54313.

Art Siefert Snap-On Tools LLC, Arthur A. Siefert, 2080 Cardinal Lane, Green Bay 54313.

Metals America of Green Bay LLC, William P. De Clerc, 1657 Ledvina St., Green Bay 54313.

Pickels Resturant LLC, Lyhia Kerin, 527 Vroman St., Green Bay

42 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

54303.

Elite Recycling LLC, Cash 4 Cars LLC, 2884 Humboldt Road, Green Bay 54311.

Over The Top Construction LLC, Deric David Marks, 2964 Beth Dr., Green Bay 54311.

Santosha Yoga Center LLC, Jessica Sue Steffens, 933 Anderson Dr., Green Bay 54304.

Jestme Tattooing LLC, Joseph John Lambert, 1400 Sterling Heights Ct., Green Bay 54302.

Umoja Counseling LLC, Tiffany Jo Jennings, 455 Alpine Dr., Green Bay 54302.

Tribal Procurement Institute INC., Gwen Carr, 909 W. Packerland Dr., Green Bay 54303.

Canyon Bluff Studios LLC, Christine A. Vander Velde, 2760 Canyon Bluff Road, Green Bay 54302.

Aisco Industrial Couplings LLC, Danmar Holdings LLC, 2718 Heartland Ter., Green Bay 54313.

Star Orchard LLC, Darrell Haen, 1113 Holland Road, Greenleaf 54126.

Chet Hassemer Hoof Trimming LLC, Chet Hassemer, 3413 Hill Road, Greenleaf 54126.

Calumet County

Innovative Building Products LLC, Melvin Curtis Bricker III, W428 Margaret Ct., Sherwood 54169.

Journey To Holistic Health LLC, Susan Paul, N7719 Palisades Tr., Sherwood 54169.

Fond du Lac County

Ramco Industrial Controls LLC, Cary Ray Ramthun, N2289 U.S. Hwy. 45, Campbellsport 53010.

Abel’s Stardust Stable LLC, Tracy Abel, N4760 County Road UU, Eden 53019.

Son Shine Inn LLC, Joanna Butzke, 102 Campbellsport Ave., Eden 53019.

Sassypants Events & Design LLC, Sarah Duffus, 14 Manor Hill Dr., Eden 53019.

S&J Transport LLC, Sally A. Drew, N9261 State Road 26, Eldorado 54932.

River Road Power Equipment Rentals LLC, David William Ryan, N5507 River Road, Fond du Lac 54937.

Capher Translation Services LLC, Matthew Ryan Capelle, W4596 4th St. Road, Fond du Lac 54937.

Foot of the Lake Candle Company LLC, Shawn R. Tamblin, 836 Meadowbrook Lane, Fond du Lac 54935.

Access Insurance Marketing INC., Kelsey Schneider, N9786 Higland Park Road, Malone 53049.

Lasting Impressions Home Makeover and Staging LLC, Brent J. Boettcher-Langkabel, W3523 County Road WH, Malone 53049.

Hauer Family Farm LLC, Christine H. Arrowood, W7859 E. Clark Road, Oakfield 53065.

Plagenz Financial Services LLC, Dennis R. Plagenz, W1713 Sandstone Road, Ripon 54971.

H&H Lawn Mowing LLC, James M. Holbach, 114 Taylor St., Waupun 53963.

Fowl Mouthed Guide Service LLC, Jason Dangers, W13217 County Road AW, Waupun 53963.

Water/Wastewater Technology and Services LLC, Steven R. Schramm, 711 Oak Lane, Waupun 53963.

Green Lake County

Brewer Farms LLC, Linda Brewer, 2219 Wall St., Berlin 54923.

JM Design LLC, Justin Mlodzik, W1159 Super Sport Dr., Berlin 54923.

www.newnorthb2b.com

WHO’S NEWS Berlin Fixture Design LLC, Peter C. Trochinski, W2761 Cypress Ct., Berlin 54923.

Oconto County

Leonhardt Lawn and Landscape LLC, Erik Richard Leonhardt, 6265 Main St., Abrams 54101.

Creative Image Promotional Products LLC, Susan Anne Deviley-Bertrand, 231 County Road J, Little Suamico 54141.

Outagamie County

Fox Cities Exchange Club Fundraising INC., Abraham D. Eisen, 319 W. Verbrick St., Appleton 54915.

Affordable Health Insurance Advocates LLC, Harry Paul Dorman, 1500 N. Casaloma Dr., Ste. 41, Appleton 54913.

Rock Paper Scissors Studio Salon LLC, Sarah Marquardt, 945 E. Eldorado St., Appleton 54911.

Val U Beauty Supply LLC, Momodou Colley, 609 W. College Ave., Appleton 54911.

Steven Klein, Ph.D., S.C., Steven P. Klein, 5733 Grande Market Dr., Appleton 54913.

Random Acts of Charity LTD., Adam Graff, 1000 W. College Ave., Ste. 7, Appleton 54914.

Grand Kakalin LLC, Randall Stadtmueller, 425 W. Water St., Appleton 54911.

All Around Storage LLC, Jared Van Lanen, 2228 E. Stirling Pkwy., Appleton 54913.

Rex Remodelers LLC, Rex A. Carney, 1614 N. Lilas Dr., Appleton 54914.

Live Oak Advocacy INC., Kimberly Massey, 620 N. Rankin St., Appleton 54911.

All Clear Snow Removal LLC, Peter A. Van Houwelingen, 477 S. Nicolet Road, Appleton 54914.

Mortgage Training Today LLC, Barbara Lynn Werth, 1927 N. Birchwood Ave., Appleton 54914.

Wordsolutions LLC, Scott E. Hutchinson, 1507 N. Edgewood Ave., Appleton 54914.

North East Wisconsin (NEW) Community & Economic Development Cooperative, no agent listed, 532 N. Sampson St., Appleton 54911.

Omward Yoga LLC, Amanda McDonough, 1038 E. Eldorado St., Appleton 54911.

Statewide Trenching LLC, John Mueller, 106 Kayla St., Combined Locks 54113.

Edge Plumbing LLC, Kevin Kussow, W3435 Rock Road, Freedom 54913.

Zing Integrated Marketing LLC, Martin Joseph Murphy Jr., W2893 Garvey Road, Freedom 54130.

Maple Hill Restaurant INC., Dennis C. Luebke, N1672 Julias Dr., Greenville 54942.

American Pipewerx LLC, Justin Lindner, 714 Giese St., Hortonville 54944.

Insurance Resource Consulting Group LLC, Mary M. Hosmer, W8684 Pheasant Run, Hortonville 54944.

Precision Gun Smithing LLC, Robert S. Radlinger, N1236 Jacob Ct., Kaukauna 54130.

Vans Resort LLC, Donald M. Vanevenhoven, N2322 Applewood Ct., Kaukauna 54130.

Ultimate Lawn Mowing Service LLC, Christopher Michael Coffey, 408 West 17th St., Kaukauna 54130.

Abplanalp Agency LLC, Bradley J. Abplanalp, 415 S. Joseph St., Kimberly 54136.

Firefly Woodfired Pizza LLC, Karlyn Mary Saffran, 304 Garfield Ct., Little Chute 54140.

Social Media Management LLC, Kaitlin M. Hodgden, 800 E. Factory St., Seymour 54165.

Better

Leaders Decisions

RESULTS

TEC is about

peers helping peers grapple, wrestle and come out on top with sound solutions to serious and significant business obstacles and, most importantly, new business opportunities. Our membership network has experience with a wide gamut of issues such as: Working with entrepreneurs Risk-taking Dealing with ownership in transition Finding the most effective personnel Strategic planning Benefit and retirement planning Doing business globally Implementing new technologies

TEC offers programs, products and services for large and small companies. Contact us today to start moving your business forward.

Michele Bernstein

800.236.9832

tec@tecmidwest.com www.tecmidwest.com

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 43

WHO’S NEWS Winnebago County

AMB Stables LLC, Anne Marie Brunner-Abderholden, 5098 Oakridge Road, Larsen 54947.

Universal Funds Recovery LLC, Stanley B. Hanson, 7623 Widgeon Lane, Larsen 54947.

Schwalbach Painting & Sandblasting LLC, George A. Schwalbach, W5906 Woodland Road, Menasha 54952.

Studio One Recording Studio INC., John W. Seidel, 1313 Midway Road, Menasha 54952.

Onsite Auto Detailing LLC, Gustavo Armando Nunez, 500 Schindler Pl., Menasha 54952.

Appleton Gospel Church INC., David Parks, 2101 Deer Prairie Dr., Neenah 54956.

Sinnet Research & Assistance LLC, Jayne M. Sinn, N141 Oakwood Ave., Neenah 54956.

Absolutely Charming Beauty Salon LLC, April Childs, 1443 Tullar Road, Neenah 54956.

Experimental Spacecraft Association LTD., Todd L. Peters, 400 Eleventh St., Neenah 54956.

Information Technology Integrators LLC, Gary Micheael Ruble, 7500 Sunburst Lane, Neenah 54956.

Ellis Fence Company LLC, Brett Ellis, 874 Lorinda Ave., Omro 54963.

Bonfire Events LLC, Patrick Glen Plank, 2738 Lost Lane, Omro 54963.

Country Meadows Childcare LLC, Heather Noelle Resop, 7831 County Road K, Omro 54963.

Victory Christian Cathedral INC., Alfred T. George, 1135 Arthur Ave., Oshkosh 54902.

Leaf It To Us Landscape LLC, Rodney A. Larson, 2330 Wisconsin St., Oshkosh 54901.

Six Blocks Photobooth LLC, Charles David Block, 1122 School

Ave., Oshkosh 54901.

Moracktion Guide Service LLC, Patrick John Morack, 1008 Jackson St., Oshkosh 54901.

Tipler Insurance Services LLC, George A. Tipler, 7093 County Road T, Oshkosh 54904.

Dance Kidz of Oshkosh INC., Shirley Brooks, 130 State St., #133, Oshkosh 54903.

Salzsieder Handyman LLC, Steven J. Salzsieder, 3443 Brooks Road, Oshkosh 54904.

Packers Pizza INC., Michael Schaefers, 2471 Newport Ct., Oshkosh 54904.

Jeff Nozar Carpentry and Remodeling LLC, Jeffrey J. Nozar, 2762 Ryf Road, Oshkosh 54904.

Certifi-Cuts Lawn Service LLC, Gregory D. Olesen, 1023 Adams Ave., Oshkosh 54902.

Transnational Education and Learning Society INC., Emmanuel Jean Francois, 1261 Wisconsin St., Oshkosh 54901.

American Tank Lines INC., Dalvir Singh, 1015 S. Washburn St., Oshkosh 54904.

Custom Security Technologies LLC, Jon R. Boyce, 1209 W. 10th Ave., Oshkosh 54902.

Total Security and Safety INC., Donald Hunke, 1432 Old Knapp Road, Oshkosh 54902.

Winnebago Bicycle LLC, Benjamin Rennert, 502 N. Main St., Oshkosh 54901.

Belville Law LLC, Amanda M. Belville, Esq., 1909 Mount Vernon St., Oshkosh 54901.

Custom Painting & Staining INC., Amanda Jirikowic, 10145 County Road W, Winchester 54557.

Patrick Huck Agency LLC, Patrick Alan Huck, 908 E. Main St., Winneconne 54986.

Relax.

We’ve got you covered.

For all your commercial, industrial, and institutional roofing needs.

866-799-0530 | N2971 Hwy. 15, Hortonville

www.wiroofer.com

44 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

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.

Have corporate guests that travel to Green Bay? Planning your next meeting or event?

Pain Centers of Wisconsin, 1616 N. Casaloma Dr., town of Grand Chute. $627,000 for an interior alteration of the existing commercial building.

General contractor is Miron Construction Co. of Neenah. March 6.

Green Bay Packers/Ashland Business Center, 2230 S. Ashland Ave., Ashwaubenon. $492,445 for interior alterations to the existing commercial building. General contractor is Miron Construction Co. of Neenah. March 18.

Family Dollar, 2017 Jackson St., Oshkosh. $556,000 for a new retail store. General contractor is Premier Construction Group Inc. of Appleton.

March 22.

Fox Valley Technical College Student Success Center, 1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute. $5,550,186 for a two-story, 96,750-sq. ft. academinc building. General contractor is Miron Construction Co. of Neenah. April 1.

Fox Valley Technical College Agricultural Building, 1825 N. Bluemound Dr., town of Grand Chute. $1,808,000 for a 7,659-sq. ft. addition to the existing academic building. General contractor is Miron Construction Co. of Neenah. April 2.

Fairfield Inn, 2850 S. Oneida St., Ashwaubenon. $783,700 for interior alterations to the existing hotel facility. Contractor is Vertical Excellence Inc. of Georgia. April 9.

Green Bay Packers, 922 Stadium Dr., Ashwaubenon. $850,000 for a 2,600-sq. ft. network building and parking lot. General contractor is Miron Construction Co. of Neenah. April 15.

New businesses RightDoc.com was launched by physical therapist Mike Zielinski of Appleton. The online service connects consumers to thousands of physician profiles across Wisconsin. The Internet database shares consumer endorsements, information about physician education and experience, and information consumers need to select a specialized physician.

New locations QuickStart Inc. moved its Green Bay office from Packerland Drive to 211 N. Broadway, Ste. 217, in Old Fort Square in the Broadway District. The phone number for the office remains 920.884.7685.

Inner Sun Yoga Studio in Oshkosh moved to 716 Oregon St. Its new location now enables Inner Sun to offer aerial yoga. The phone number for the studio remains 920.651.1279.

Choose the Ramada Plaza as your preferred hotel and leave the rest to us!

• • • • •

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Room for any occasion - 7,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space to accommodate 3 to 300 people. Onsite catering.

Free wifi throughout hotel & business center located in the lobby.

Big D’s Bar & Grill-Onsite restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner! 2-4-1 drink specials all day, every day!

Manager’s Reception every Wednesday! Enjoy a free drink and hors d’oeuvres from 5pm-7pm.

Complimentary shuttle service to transport your guests to and from your office, the airport and area attractions within 3 miles of the hotel when available.

Rewards! Sleeping rooms and meeting space qualify for Wyndham Rewards points and Plaza Club rewards points redeemable for many gifts and future stays!

Ramada Plaza Hotel 2750 Ramada Way, Green Bay, WI 54304 920-499-0631 www.greenbayramada.com

Epiphany Law

welcomes attorney

Patrick Furman

Epiphany Law is pleased to welcome attorney Patrick Furman who comes to us after practicing law for 15 years. He will help our expanding estate planning and probate practice as well as assist in business law matters.

Patrick currently resides in Kaukauna with his wife and three daughters; he earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh Law School.

Mergers/acquisitions Fond du Lac-based Sadoff Iron & Metal Company acquired Aluminum Resources, Inc. of Fond du Lac. Aluminum Resources, a processor and supplier of foundry and mill grade recycled aluminum products was founded in 1988.

920.996.0000

4211 N. Lightning Dr., Appleton, WI

www.epiphanylaw.com

NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 45

WHO’S NEWS Business honors

former Wisconsin and National Elementary School Principal of the Year. After teaching 25 years in the Menasha and Appleton districts, Schmidt finished her career as principal at Appleton’s Richmond Elementary School, retiring in 2011.

The De Pere Area Chamber of Commerce presented its Outstanding Business of the Year Award to Cellcom and presented its Outstanding New Business of the Year Award to Chateau De Pere.

Schmidt

First National Bank-Fox Valley hired Eben Johnson as a commercial banking officer out of its Oshkosh office.

Johnson has 19 years of retail, commercial and agricultural banking experience, having most recently worked for BMO Harris Bank in Oshkosh.

Appleton Downtown Inc. presented the following awards to businesses and organizations during its recent annual downtown awards event: Downtown Business of the Year Award to Avenue Jewelers; Dreamers and Doers Awards to The History Museum at the Castle and to Fox Cities Performing Arts Center; Renovation/Expansion Award to Anduzzi’s Sports Club; Rising Star Award to The Vintage Garden; Walter Kalata Landmark Award to Spats Food & Spirits; and its President’s Award to West, formerly known as West Business Services.

Epiphany Law LLC in Appleton hired Patrick Furman as an attorney. Furman previously owned his own practice for eight years, and has been practicing law for 15 years. He has particular expertise in estate planning and has experience working with life insurance, spendthrift and special needs trusts along with tax preparation for estate plans.

New hires Johnson

American Digital Cartography, Inc. in Appleton hired Bruce Siebers as the director of sales and marketing. Siebers was previously an account manager at NEP Company, Inc. in Appleton.

Candeo Creative of Oshkosh hired Sheng Lee Riechers as its communication director. She previously worked as a writer for UW Oshkosh Alumni Relations and as social media manager for UW Oshkosh Career Services and Journalism Department.

BrownBoots Interactive Inc. in Fond du Lac hired Carolyn Boettcher as a graphic designer. Boettcher specializes in web design, logo design, branding and advertising.

Miron Construction Co., Inc. in Neenah hired the following new staff members: Jeff Mishler and Chris Deiss as project managers; Gerald Jochman as an estimator; Debbie Knapp as a project coordinator; and Ashley Duckart as a marketing assistant.

Siebers

Boettcher

M3 Insurance hired Beth Krause as an account manager in its Green Bay office specializing in employee benefits.

Krause previously worked as a patient services representative supervisor at Prevea Health in Green Bay. Spancrete hired Patrick Geenen as its director of construction services. Geenen is LEED AP certified, and previously held management leadership positions at Vinton Construction and Berghammer Construction.

Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. hired Anthony J. Steffek as a litigation associate in its Green Bay office. Steffek has significant experience in the areas of federal litigation, contract management and employment-related matters. He is also experienced in mediations.

Leibold in Neenah hired Chad Fulwiler as director of marketing and business development. Fulwiler has 23 years experience in strategic branding, package design and integrated marketing.

The Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley in Appleton hired Beth Servais as its volunteer and special events coordinator.

She previously worked as the assistant manager of visitor experiences at the Building for Kids Children’s Museum in Appleton and as the assistant to the curator of education at the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton.

Appleton-based Ledgeview Partners hired Chad Collett as product manager and Jamie Kutchek as an inside sales account manager for a petroleum customer. Collett has more than 15 years of marketing experience, including the past seven as vice president of marketing at WOW Logistics.

Kutchek has more than 15 years of sales experience.

Fox Valley Savings Bank in Fond du Lac hired Laurie Jarvenpaa as a mortgage consultant. She most recently worked as a loan officer with Prospect Mortgage where she specialized in helping first-time home buyers.

U.S. Bank hired Jesse Osborn as branch manager for its downtown Oshkosh office. Osborn previously held branch manager positions with Wells Fargo Banks in Manitowoc and in Florida.

The Building for Kids Children’s Museum in Appleton hired Bobbie Schmidt as its executive director. Schmidt is a Fulwiler

Collett

Kutchek

46 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

Osborn

Dieter

Trimberger

Miller www.newnorthb2b.com

Client service should be

EXCEPTIONAL, not the exception.

Every bank wants to provide real client service. But most aren’t set up to make it happen.

First Business is different.

We intentionally limit ourselves to fewer clients than comparable banks of our size so that we can offer each client an exceptional level of service. We know your name.

More importantly, we get to know your business.

That’s what makes the difference. Call us today.

(L-R) Mickey Noone, President Will Deppiesse, Vice President First Business Bank - Northeast

Y O U R S U C C E S S C O M E S F I R S T. Member FDIC

www.firstbusiness.com

Commercial Lending : Treasury Management : Equipment Finance : Asset-based Lending : Trust & Investments : Private Banking

Fox Cities: 920-734-1800 Oshkosh: 920-231-2400 Green Bay: 920-435-5442

WHO’S NEWS Promotions

Individual honors

Azco Inc. in Appleton promoted John P. Trottier to president and CEO, succeeding Mark Loper, who will assume the role of chairman of the board. Trottier has been with Azco for 22 years, including the past 14 years as executive vice president. Azco also promoted Robert Brockington to vice president of estimating. He has been with the company for 12 years, serving as a project coordinator, project manager and senior estimator.

The De Pere Area Chamber of Commerce presented the following awards to individuals during its recent annual awards event: Volunteer of the Year to Deb Barlament, director of business development at Wisconsin Dairy Business Association; Ambassador of the Year to Jacque Wilson, owner of A Better You; and VIP of the Year to Jackie Olson, corporate communications with American Transmission Company.

The Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley in Appleton promoted Jennifer Dieter to community relations director. She previously served as the fund development and volunteer coordinator.

Women in Management-Fox Cities Chapter presented its 2013 Fox Cities Woman Leader of the Year Award to Sandi Moore, a student services counselor and coordinator of the Wo/Men’s Educational Bureau at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton.

The Building for Kids Children’s Museum in Appleton promoted Kristen Trimberger to associate executive director. Trimberger joined the organization in 2011 as director of education and family learning. She’ll continue in that role as well.

M3 Insurance in Green Bay promoted Kayla Warmka to an account manager specializing in property and casualty insurance. She joined M3 in 2011.

Elections/appointments Kevin Miller, executive director at Windhover Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac, was appointed by the governor to serve a term on the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Appleton Downtown Inc. presented its Bernie Pearlman “Downtowner” Award to Joe Martin, and presented its Volunteer of the Year Award to Mary Ann Wepfer.

Certifications John D. Zuleger of Zuleger Advisors, Inc. in Appleton earned the Chartered Healthcare Consultant professional designation from The American College. The ChHC designation demonstrates an advanced understanding of the new complexities in healthcare, government regulation and insurance planning.

There is something

Neenah Marketplace

124 W Wisconsin Avenue, Neenah tel 920.720.0068

Aspen Marketplace

(Next to ShopKo) 1110 Midway Road, Menasha tel 920.886.1880

Downtown Appleton

107 E. College Avenue, Appleton tel 920.882.9336

Aspen Landing Menasha

in the air 48 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

124 Main Street, Menasha tel 920.725.7777

www.newnorthb2b.com

BUSINESS CALENDAR 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.

May 1 Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce Coffee Connection, 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at Ideal Chiropractic, 976 E. Johnson St. in Fond du Lac. Cost to attend is $5. For more information or to register, go online to www. fdlac.com or call 920.921.9500.

May 2 Business over Breakfast, an event from Fox Valley Technical College Venture Center, 7:30 to 9 a.m. at D.J. Bordini Center, 5 Systems Dr. in Appleton. Cost to attend is $15 and includes breakfast. To register, call 920.735.5709 or email venture@fvtc.edu.

May 6 Family Business First Awards of Northeast Wisconsin, presented in conjunction with the Wisconsin Family Business Forum Annual Dinner Celebration, 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Butte des Morts Country Club, 3600 W. Prospect Ave. in Appleton. Keynote speaker will be Tom Boldt of Boldt Construction, Inc. in Appleton. For more information or to register, go online to www.familybusinessfirst.com.

May 7 North Eastern Wisconsin Construction Industry Partnership Spring Program, 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Clarion Hotel, 201 Main St. in downtown Green Bay. Event includes presentations on building and development from Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt, Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach, representatives from the Green Bay Packers, and Wisconsin Paper Council President Jeff Landin, among others. No cost to attend, but registration is required by contacting Ted at 866.966.3928 or email busrep1@newbt.org.

May 7 “Assessing Your Company’s Leadership IQ,” an A.M. Connect event

from Heart of the Valley Chamber of Commerce, 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the chamber offices, 101 E. Wisconsin Ave. in Kaukauna. To register or for more information, call 920.766.1616 or go online to www. heartofthevalleychamber.com.

May 7 Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Power Networking Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the chamber offices, 300 N. Broadway, Ste. 3A in Green Bay. No cost to attend for chamber members. For information, call 920.437.8704 or email members@titletown.org.

May 8 Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours, 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Gandrud Auto Group, 2300 Auto Plaza Way in Green Bay. Cost is $5 to attend for chamber members. For information, call 920.437.8704 or email members@titletown.org.

May 9 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 “How to Network Successfully.” For more information or to register, go online to www.wimiwi.org or email Patty at pshea@ sheaelectricllc.com.

May 9 A.M. Oshkosh, a morning networking event from the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, 7:45 to 9 a.m. at Baldor Generators, 3815 Oregon St. in Oshkosh. Cost to attend is $2, and registration is required by going online to www.oshkoshchamber.com or calling 920.303.2266.

May 14 Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce Sales Club, 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the chamber building, 120 Jackson St. in Oshkosh. No cost to attend for chamber members. For information, call 920.303.2266 or go online to www.oshkoshchamber.com.

May 21 Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce Business Connection, 5 to 7 p.m. at Fox Valley Savings Bank, 51 E. 1st St. in Fond du Lac. Cost to attend is $5 at the door. For more information or to register, go online to www.fdlac.com or call 920.921.9500.

Advertiser Index Aspen Coffee & Tea www.aspencoffee-tea.com. ................................ 48 Bank First National www.bankfirstnational.com.................................. 25 Borsche Roofing Professionals www.wiroofer.com........................... 44 Builders Exchange of Wisconsin www.bxwi.com............................ 13 Capital Credit Union www.capitalcu.com........................................ 22 CitizensFirst Credit Union www.citizensfirst.com . ............................ 20 Clean Image Janitorial www.cijanitorial.com..................................... 9 Concordia University www.cuw.edu/getstarted................................... 50 Davis & Kuelthau, s.c. www.dkattorneys.com..................................... 5 EP Direct www.ep-directprinting.com. ............................................... 35 Epiphany Law www.epiphanylaw.com. ...................................... 27, 45 Fast Signs www.fastsigns.com....................................................... 12 First Business Bank www.firstbusiness.com. .................................... 47 First National Bank ~ Fox Valley www.fnbfoxvalley.com. ................... 37 Fox Valley Savings Bank www.FVSBank.com................................... 33 Guident Business Solutions www.guidentbusinesssolutions.com............ 16 Keller Inc. www.kellerbuilds.com. ..................................................... 7 Marian University www.marianuniversity.edu..................................... 39 Moraine Park Technical College www.morainepark.edu....................... 8

National Exchange Bank & Trust www.nebat.com............................. 2 Network Health Plan www.networkhealth.com . ................................ 51 NEW Building & Construction Trades Council www.newbt.org.......... 15 NEWCAE www.newcae.org........................................................... 41 NWTC Corporate Training & Economic Development www.corporatetraining.nwtc.edu......................................................... 52 Outagamie County Regional Airport www.atwairport.com. ................ 21 Ramada Plaza Green Bay www.greenbayramada.com........................ 45 R&R Steel Construction Company Inc. www.rrsteelconstruction.com..... 14 Sadoff & Rudoy Industries www.sadoff.com................................... 10 Silver Lake College of the Holy Family www.sl.edu/AdultEd. ............. 25 Skyline Technologies www.skylinetechnologies.com............................ 33 TEC www.tecmidwest.com. ............................................................ 43 Thome Benefit Solutions www.thomebenefitsolutions.com.................... 41 UW Green Bay Adult Degree Program www.uwgb.edu/adults. ........... 36 UW Oshkosh College of Business www.mba.uwosh.edu................... 32 UW Oshkosh Division of Lifelong Learning www.uwosh.edu/cnl ....... 28 Winnebago County Solid Waste Management www.co.winnebago.wi.us/solid-waste/container-rental-program. ..................... 44 NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013 l 49

KEY STATISTICS Per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.

$3.56 April 14 $3.58 April 7 $3.66 March 31 $3.68 April 21, 2012 $3.85 April 21

Source: New North B2B observations

January

1,036,000

March

$418.3 billion

0.4%

from February

2.8%

from March 2012 March

99.5

0.4%

from February

from February

46.7%

from March 2012 February

$554 million

3.5%

from March 2012 (Manufacturers and trade)

February

$1,642 billion

0.1%

38%

from January

from February 2012

February Jan. Feb. ‘12

9.0% 8.9% 9.1% 8.9% 10.3% 10.1% 9.4% 9.2% 8.1% 7.8% 8.2% 8.0%

9.2% 8.7% 10.4% 9.5% 7.9% 8.0%

Prices for small businesses using less than 20,000 therms.

Listed price is per therm.

(2007 = 100)

7.0%

Appleton Fond du Lac Green Bay Neenah Oshkosh Wisconsin

4.9%

$0.809 March $0.761 Apr. 2012 $0.746 April

Source: Integrys Energy (Numbers above 50 mean expansion. Numbers below 50 mean contraction.)

March

February

51.3 54.2

from February 2012 If there are indicators you’d like to see in this space, contact our office at 920.237.0254 or email info@newnorthb2b.com.

Start Your Degree Today!

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Starting in April and May

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920-968-0933 • 3232 North Ballard Road

Green Bay

920-498-2551 • 1150 Springhurst Drive

50 l NEW NORTH B2B l MAY 2013

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OUR POLICY, NO HEALTH INSURANCE JARGON.

AT NETWORK HEALTH, WE SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE. More and more people everywhere are intimidated with coordinating their health care. This leads to frustration, surprises and bad experiences. Meet Network Health, a different kind of health plan. We understand it requires more than just words and language, but also a commitment to customer service to break through industry clutter and confusion. Let us help you today.

Networkhealth.com/EndTheJargon

800-826-0940

HMO plans underwritten by Network Health Plan. POS plans underwritten by Network Health Insurance Corporation, or Network Health Insurance Corporation and Network Health Plan. Self-funded HMO and POS plans administered by Network Health Plan.