Miller joins Grace Matthews

Tammie Miller has joined Grace Matthews as a vice president of mergers and acquisitions.
Milwaukee-based Grace Matthews provides merger, acquisition and finance advisory services to corporate and entrepreneurial clients. It is based at 219 N. Milwaukee St. and has another office in Boston.
Miller had earlier been a senior vice president at Innovative Resource Group, a subsidiary of Cobalt Corp., and an investment banker with Alex Brown & Sons, Lehman Brothers, and First Chicago.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies and astrophysics, and a master’s of business administration degree, both from the University of Chicago.
"Tammie Miller’s corporate finance and health care background will be a timely addition to Grace Matthew’s experienced staff," said managing director John Beagle. "Tammie will help us continue to expand, and she represents the kind of deep, experienced professionals we provide to our investment banking clients."
While Grace Matthews has completed investment banking transactions in many areas, Beagle anticipates continued growth in the manufacturing, technology, health care and related fields.
While at Innovative Resource Group, she oversaw 400 employees and $50 million in revenues. While with Cobalt, Miller completed more than 15 acquisitions and divestitures, and participated in the firm’s ultimate sale.
Grace Matthews has completed more than 100 transactions involving a range of companies from private, middle-market companies, to large foreign and US-based multi-nationals. It is on the Web at www.gracematthews.com.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Understanding the adult learning process will enhance communications in your company

By Rochelle Lamm, for SBT

Over the past decade, brain scientists and education researchers have come to understand that in much the same way that personalities differ from person to person, the same holds true for adult learning styles.
Each adult’s brain is uniquely "wired" and absorbs, processes and retains new information in the way that best suits his/her individual needs.
That distinction, along with such variables as natural abilities, personal and work experiences and formal education determine each person’s individual learning style and ultimately determine how each person learns best.
Understanding the learning process can be critical to helping business owners react to the challenges that await them.
Unlike children, who learn new things with relative "clean slates," adults do not learn or make decisions in a vacuum. They build bridges between what they already know and the new information they need to learn, making an adult’s mindset a critical part of the learning process.
In fact, educators estimate that identifying and unblocking mindset obstacles can account for as much as 50% of an adult’s ability to receive, retain and use new information.
While every adult learner does not necessarily fit into a textbook learning style, for scientific purposes, a group of leading educational researchers divide the population into four main modes of learning.

— Type One learners need to know "Why is this important to me?" Type Ones learn best when they are able to sense and feel information, talk about it extensively with others, connect it to past experiences and then reflect on its importance.

— Type Two learners want to know "What are the facts?" Type Twos learn best when they are provided scientific research and data. To learn, they need the opportunity to step back and reflect on the material they are presented and develop theories based on what they observe and think.

— Type Three learners need to know "How is this practical?" Type Threes learn best when they are able to establish how something is useful or practical.

— Type Four learners want to know "What if I do this?" Type Fours learn best by experimenting with new information to try it out for themselves.

Despite varying learning styles, educators have determined that all adults are consistent in how they can improve the retention of information. The learning process begins with hearing. When a concept or information is verbalized, the listener’s brain "fires up" certain connections – or synapses – between cells.
The more frequently a learner hears that particular information, the more stable that connection becomes, until it’s finally "hardwired" into his or her brain. Remembering begins to occur and information is stored and passed along to the short-term, mid-term and long-term memory and finally to long-term storage, where it is permanently placed in the listener’s memory bank.
Just listening, though, does not translate into meaning and purpose. The learner must also understand information in order to use it. Empirical research suggests that adults recall only 10% of a presentation they heard just 48 hours before. For example, most members of an audience that a presenter "wowed" two days ago are likely to forget 90% of the information given to them later in the week.
Communication breakdowns can have devastating consequences for business people, especially sales professionals. Their success is predicated on an ability to make a lasting impression on a prospect or client, so it’s imperative that information conveyed during presentations and meetings can be understood, retained and converted into action plans.
Fortunately, retention rates can improve to 50% if adults are encouraged to take the right kind of notes and 75% if prompted to engage in a dialogue about what they have heard.
Many educators and neurological scientists conclude that adults’ brains process, sort and store pictures better than they do words. Rather than traditional note taking, they advocate "laser note taking," a process that involves associating key words and phrases with images that free the brain to focus on learning only the most crucial information.
In order to retrieve information 48 hours later, an adult learner must also have the opportunity to talk about what he or she has just processed. Talking moves information along the neural pathways – or four stages of memory – in the brain.
Neurological researchers have demonstrated that learning is a multi-stage process that transfers information along a continuum from simple facts to more complex concepts. Each stage of learning and comprehension must be mastered before the next one can take place.
To move from simply knowing to actually doing, however, the learner must ask questions that require progressively higher levels of thinking. Those questions can stimulate and accelerate the learning process by taking the learner from a basic level of knowledge to an advanced plane of understanding. This exercise trains the brain to retrieve the right information at the right time.

Rochelle Lamm is the chairwoman and CEO of The Academy of Financial Services Studies and Precision Marketing Partners, Milwaukee. She recently co-authored Understanding How Adults Learn: A Wholesaler’s Ultimate Competitive Edge, a publication that is available by calling 414-961-7776.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Accelerated technology, focus on ‘now’ help Penworthy book more business

Laurence "Larry" Compton says you can’t change the past and you can’t predict the future. That’s why his mantra of doing business is ".now," as in "dot now."
"Just get things done. When we do well, we just get it done. We have .now. Whatever you’re working on now, just focus," Compton says. "And keep your ethics pointed north. We have a very focused organization."
It wasn’t always that way when Compton bought half of a business that was struggling along with several corporate names for its various missions in 1989.
By 1992, Compton became the sole owner of the firm and set out to consolidate the business into one name with one focus: The Penworthy Co., a provider of prebound books for school and public libraries.
"We buy a book from a publisher, and we rebind it to make it much more durable for multiple uses," Compton says.
Most folks aren’t aware that out of Penworthy’s office in Milwaukee Historic Third Ward, the company provides books to more than 7,000 customers in every state, except Hawaii.
Penworthy’s business concept is quite simple, but its process is quite complex and advanced.
Penworthy buys books appealing to children in kindergarten through sixth grade. The company sends the books, mostly paperbacks, to a bindery subcontractor in Indiana, where the books are sheared, and the pages are stitched, bound and glued into a laminated spine. The copy of the cover of the original book is scanned in by an Iowa subcontractor, and a more durable cover is applied to the reinvented book that can now withstand the wear and tear of repeated usage at a library.
Along the way, Penworthy has rebound books bearing very familiar titles to parents with young children: "The Little Engine That Could," "Curious George," "Sesame Street" and "Scooby Doo," to name a few.
"At any given time, we have 800 to 900 titles," Compton says.
Penworthy has 37 employees who help 20 field sales representatives sell books to libraries throughout the country.
When Compton bought the company, it had a staff of seven office staff people handling business for $2.1 million in annual revenues. Today, Penworthy has only four office people, but its revenues have grown to more than $8 million.
That kind of efficiency has happened because Compton decided to invest in accelerated information technology. He added four information technology specialists to his staff.
The IT specialists used the Lotus Notes platform to create customized software that streamlines Penworthy’s entire customer relationship management program in 2000. With the new software, the company’s field reps can see the inventory back at the Third Ward office, they can make purchasing transactions and they can order the books to be delivered a couple days later through an integrated program with the United Parcel Service.
Meanwhile, Penworthy’s staff in Milwaukee uses an integrated mapping program to steer the field reps to new appointments.
"We have made massive changes in how we do business through technology. We integrated our database. The place is paperless," Compton says. "It’s been very important. As an ROI (return on investment), it’s one of those things that, once you bit the bullet and did it, it changed how we did business with our customers. It runs like a machine … Dot now."
As the company’s flywheel began to gain momentum, Compton and his staff added one other wrinkle to their operation. They hired a professional artist who created the Penworthy Bear. The logo of that bear now appears on the backs of the firm’s prebound books.
"We’ve heard anecdotally that people look for a book with the bear on it," Compton says. "It gives us a common theme in which we can promote our products. It has enhanced our image. We are known as the bear.
"We operate our business in a world of children, but we’re not children. We’re adults, and we wanted a bear that reflected a bear, not a teddy bear," Compton says.
The final piece to Penworthy’s puzzle was getting the entire staff to focus on the company’s evolving core mission. As business grew, some of the employees weren’t understanding that mission.
"We had some dissension and conflict from some people within the organization," Compton says.
Compton hired Milwaukee business consultant Joan Lloyd, who suggested the company conduct a production meeting every other Wednesday at 10 a.m. A manager and an employee from each of Penworthy’s departments attend the meeting and bring the others up to date about what they are doing.
"I selected Joan to help get everybody thinking on the same page. She did that and did an excellent job," Compton says. "What it was was communication issues. People found there wasn’t anything secret going on. It really worked wonderfully."
Dot now.

Laurence "Larry" Compton
President,
The Penworthy Co.
Milwaukee

Age: 57
Education: Bachelor of science degree in business and master’s in business administration from the University of Nebraska
Company’s annual revenues: $8 million
Employees: 37 employees (in-house) and 20 field sales representatives
Role model: "None, really. I used to read a lot of Peter Drucker, and I guessed I learned to look for the incongruities. There was Joe Schojnacki, a businessman in Texas who was a University of Wisconsin graduate who was a ‘get it done’ kind of guy."
Leadership philosophy: "Just get things done. When we do well, we just get it done. We have ‘.now’ (as in ‘dot now). Whatever you’re working on now, just focus," Compton says. "And keep your ethics pointed north. We have a very focused organization."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Acquisition prompts Waukesha Foundry to change name

Waukesha Foundry Co. has changed its name to Waukesha Kramer Inc. and plans to nearly double its workforce.
The changes reflect Waukesha Foundry’s acquisition of Milwaukee-based Kramer International in January.
The majority of the estimated 100 employees at Kramer International’s foundry, 114 E. Pittsburgh Ave., will be transferred to Waukesha Foundry’s main production plant at 1300 Lincoln Ave., in Waukesha, company sources said.
Waukesha Kramer, which specializes in castings of corrosion- and heat-resistant metal alloys, is owned by the Facilitator Capital Fund, a Madison-based private equity fund.
"We’re moving the entire operation out to our main facility," said Todd Kurtz, senior sales correspondent at Waukesha Kramer. "The majority will be transferred. Some of the office staff already has moved. Some production (workers) have chosen not to move out here."
The addition of the Kramer International employees will essentially double Waukesha Foundry’s workforce. The combined company will add Kramer International’s customers to its client base, Kurtz said.
"We bought the business to increase our presence in the pump market," Kurtz said.
Waukesha Foundry acquired Kramer International from Atchison Casting Corp. of Atchison, Kan. Atchison has been having ongoing financial problems and is restructuring its debt and selling some of its divisions to raise capital.
The companies did not disclose the purchase price, although in a US Securities Exchange Commission filing, Atchison reported gaining $3.8 million from the sale of Kramer International’s assets and the assumption of liabilities by Waukesha Foundry.
For the first six months of its most recent fiscal year, Kramer International recorded net sales of $5.4 million and a net income loss of $618,000, according to the SEC filing.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

If you want strong sales growth, you’ll need strong sales management

By Theodore Pappas, for SBT

In today’s struggling economy, business owners are trying to grow revenues just to stay solvent. The economy long ago has pushed many businesses beyond the breakeven point. Now, it’s grow revenues or perish.
There’s one requirement in developing new sales: sales leadership. Without it, a sales team flounders and rarely reaches its objectives. The owner or sales manager must provide that leadership or, if inexperienced in leading a sales team, the owner should consider hiring a part-time sales manager.
In most successful businesses, sales leadership comes from the sales manager. Next to the owner/president, the sales manager is the most important "engine" in the organization.
A successful sales leader is an effective teacher, knows how to plan, has courage, possesses common sense and demonstrates compassion.
Leaders are stallions; they lead the herd.
They are unafraid yet careful.
Welcome accountability
And they welcome accountability. Accountability is the abrasive that polishes their personality – it makes them radiant. Accountability proves their worth.
All great "coaches" were first good teachers. They taught first and then had their students emulate them. They broke down complicated tasks into easy-to-follow routines. Their students learned to execute from the simple to the complex. It’s not enough to tell a salesperson: "Here’s your product, there is your territory, now go out and sell something!" The good teacher is also a good motivator. However, without the benefits of good teaching, the voice of motivation becomes a noisy tin can.
The owner or sales manager that plans to grow sales from one level to another must have several plans. The leader must have a process for hiring, interviewing, selecting, coaching and managing.
Often times each team member has to be taught and motivated individually and differently from the others. The leader must sense that need.
Other important programs deal with qualifying, differentiating, overcoming objections and value-added techniques. Not all people can be led the same way. The mark of good leader is getting all the flowers to bloom "where they are planted." The leader gets every sales team member to succeed.
Sales leaders need the courage to be an advocate for the sales team. That means both delivering the bad news to the team, such as increased quotas, smaller territories and reduced commission rates, and being willing to tell the president that he is wrong – behind closed doors.
A manager that doesn’t stand up for his team loses respect and control. And a good sales manager supports the boss and does not belittle him behind his back.
Quite often the sales manager risks a lot being honest. But without honesty, he’s not a leader but just a replaceable "staffer."
Since individual sales team members rarely have the ear of the president, they need to depend on their leader to voice their concerns.
Along with courage comes common sense. Too often decisions are mired in artificial operating procedures, which stymie growth and customer satisfaction. The leader has to see through bureaucratic mesh and be willing to take a pragmatic approach to a solution.

Focus on the mission
I have seen presidents become more concerned about where and how a document is filed than in getting the order and satisfying a customer. The sales manager needs to make sure that the president doesn’t lose focus on the overall mission: getting the order and growing profitable sales.
There are times when sales managers, having had the courage to properly address difficult situations and having used common sense, could not always adjudicate sales situations to the satisfaction of the entire team. However, even when a manager must be firm, that firmness can be tempered with compassion.
The compassionate leader needs to demonstrate to his people that managers are co-strugglers in the success and failures of their sales people. That is, when sales people fall short of objectives, the manager shares in the loss.
An effective sales leader is not a fool who charges in without forethought. To be effective, a leader must be respected by his boss and peer managers. That means his actions must reflect the best interests of the company. What’s good for sales is not always what’s good for the company.
It has been my experience that the sales manager is too often viewed as the manager that makes too much money. But the effective sales manager earns every dime. Think of it: nothing happens in any business until someone sells something. Finally, if you want to make sure that your sales herd returns to green fields of profitability, entrust it to the stallion that has traveled the road.

Theodore Pappas is the principal of Sales Coaching and a member of the Institute of Management Consultants in Brookfield. He can be reached at 262-784-9910 or at: tpappas@wi.rr.com.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Health Foundation will reap $256 million from Cobalt acquisition
The Wisconsin United for Health Foundation will receive approximately $256 million in cash to promote the health care of Wisconsin residents after Cobalt Corp. is acquired by the nation’s second-largest health insurer.
Milwaukee-based Cobalt announced Tuesday it has agreed to be acquired by WellPoint Health Networks Inc. in a transaction valued at about $906 million.
The acquisition will result in the Wisconsin United for Health Foundation, a nonprofit corporation created to promote the general health, welfare and common good of Wisconsin residents, receiving a cash windfall and 3.1 million shares of WellPoint common stock.
The funds will solely be used to support public health initiatives to be developed by the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison.
The two schools will split the cash windfall evenly, according to a spokeswoman for the Medical College of Wisconsin.
The foundation owns approximately 60 % of the outstanding shares of Cobalt and has agreed to vote in favor of the acquisition.
The transaction will result in Milwaukee losing the corporate headquarters of another publicly traded company.
However, WellPoint and Cobalt officials said Milwaukee will continue to be the headquarters for Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin and the national headquarters for the combined company’s Medicare Part A claim processing business. Currently, more than 600 employees work in that division at Cobalt’s downtown Milwaukee offices, located at 401 W. Michigan St.
Cobalt is the Blue Cross & Blue Shield health insurance licensee for Wisconsin.
Cobalt’s health maintenance organizations (HMOs) — Compcare Blue, Unity Health Plans and Valley Health Plans – cover about 300,000 members in Wisconsin.
Cobalt is the state’s largest HMO. Cobalt also provides point-of-service (POS) plans, specialty health care products and related administrative service.
After the acquisition was announced, shares of Cobalt’s common stock rose to $20.46, up $2.51, in trading Wednesday morning.
Small Business Times first reported last September that Cobalt could become a takeover target by WellPoint, based on speculation by Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Craig Kennison.
“Cobalt also may be in an enviable market position, in that it is one of just three publicly held companies in the Blue Cross & Blue Shield network of 43 companies,” SBT reported Sept. 27, 2002. “That could make Cobalt a takeover target of WellPoint Health Networks of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Anthem Inc. of Indianapolis, Ind., which have been buying up the publicly traded blues affiliates, Kennison said.”
The SBT report noted that Cobalt was one of the top 20 performing U.S. stocks since the previous year’s 9-11 terrorist attacks, based on a review of stocks for companies with a minimum market capitalization of $25 million and a minimum share price of $5. At that time, Cobalt’s shares had risen 173 % to $18.10.
Cobalt’s recent successes came after some corporate hiccups. The company had withdrawn a proposed secondary stock offering last August, due unfavorable market conditions. Cobalt also announced plans to close its claims and customer service departments in Stevens Point and Evansville, eliminating 176 jobs, after the firm lost $140 million from 19999 through 2001.
Cobalt bounced back to compile a net income of $73.9 million in 2002.
In announcing the acquisition Tuesday, Cobalt and WellPoint officials did not specifically address the impact the merger will have on the number of employees in Milwaukee.
A conference call with the media involving Cobalt chief executive officer Stephen Bablitch and WellPoint CEO Leonard Schaeffer is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
“I am convinced that this merger will be good for our customers, the policy holders, our employees and our shareholders, and will enable the Wisconsin United for Health Foundation to advance public health in the state,” Bablitch said.
“With a common blue brand heritage and similar member-focused business philosophies, the combined organization will be well-positioned to grow significantly in Wisconsin,” Schaeffer said.
The acquisition marks the continued growth of WellPoint, which is ranked #103 on Fortune magazine’s 2003 Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations.

Small Business Times, June 4, 2003, By Steve Jagler, executive editor

Property Sales
James T. Barry Co.
Hedstrom Trust has purchased 31 acres of land at 8922 Nicholson Rd., Caledonia, from Brinkman Trust. The buyer purchased the land as an investment.
Other sales announced include:
– the 8,000-square-foot Vulcan Waterproofing facility at 5022 N. 125th St., Butler;
– the 5,800-square-foot industrial facility at 832 Philip Dr., Waukesha;
– a 1,800-square-foot office building at 826 Genesee St., Delafield.
Boerke Co.
Paul Egner and Balfin Printers have purchased a 18,455-square-foot industrial property at 7820 and 7826 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee, from Thomas and Norma Roscoe, for $202,000;
Jack L. Marcus Inc. has purchased a 94,472-square-foot retail and warehouse space at 7320-7400 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee, from AMF Bowling, for $450,000. The facility had been AMF Regency Lanes.
Other sales announced by the Boerke Co. include:
– A 66,000-square-foot industrial facility at 8711 W. Port Ave., Milwaukee, by Florine Investments from United Stationers Supply Co., for $2,130,000;
– A 130,000-square-foot retail facility at 8922 W. Brown Deer Rd., Milwaukee, to The Learning Enterprise of Wisconsin by Leisure Investments for $1,190,000;
– The retail facility at 9114 W. Silver Spring Dr., Milwaukee, to RCK by Southland Corp. for $230,000;
– The retail facility at 7605 W. Lisbon Ave., Milwaukee, to RCK by Southland Corp. for $200,000;
– The retail facility at 5835 W. Hampton Ave., Milwaukee, to RCK by Southland Corp., for $230,000.
Judson & Associates
Badgerland Investors has purchased a 30,361-square-foot property at 650 Industrial Ave., Hartland, from Patti Davies.
Other sales announced by Judson include:
– 26,000-square-foot facility at 54 Capitol Dr., Oconomowoc, to T&G LLC by Northwest Real Estate;
– 8,400-square-foot facility at 1921 S. West Ave., Waukesha, by The Bemar Group from Michael Kelliher;
– Two acres of land at 21600 W. Capitol Dr., Brookfield, sold by Harold and Betty Krueger;
– Three acres of land at Capitol Drive and Gumina Road, Brookfield, by East-West from Betty Shalmo.
MLG Commercial
Biehn Construction of Kenosha has sold a 15,868-square-foot office and warehouse building at N114 W19049 Clinton Dr. in Germantown. The two-tenant property was sold for $650,000 to ALC Inc., which is currently occupying 8,000 square feet of space. The remaining space is leased to Baseman, a flooring installer for gymnasiums.
Bob Ford, Susan Ford, and Tim Ley of Waukford LLC have purchased an industrial building at 1419 Poplar Dr. in Waukesha. The 7,500-square-foot building will be converted into a multi-tenant facility with Waukesha Appliance leasing a unit to store appliances and Ford Construction Co. leasing another unit.
Ogden & Co.
A commercial parcel of land at 10115 W. Loomis Rd., Franklin, was sold to Switchback Enterprises, which intends to develop the land, zoned “community business.” The property measures 2.62 acres and was purchased from Bill Katzman.
The Newhealth Building LLC purchased a two-story 12,000-square-foot office building along the Capitol Drive corridor in Pewaukee, at 1155 Quail Court. Newhealth Building will used the facility for its medical offices on the upper level, and will lease out the remaining 6,000 square feet. The purchase price was $1,475,000.
Siegel-Gallagher
A 16,800-square-foot commercial building at 2213 W. North Ave. has been purchased by Chun Lee and Jong Kim. The building, formerly a BioLife Plasma Services location will be redeveloped for retail use.
Property leases
Apex Commercial
– 2,477 square feet of office space at 1011 N. Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, by Spider Logic;
– 2,267 square feet of office space at 3077 N. Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, by Milwaukee Career College
– 989 square feet of office space at N16 W23233 Stone Ridge Dr., Pewaukee, by Camp Manito-wish YMCA;
– 955 square feet of office space at 2433 N. Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, by Family Options Counseling.
James T. Barry Co.
– 36,00 square feet of space at 2081 S. 56th St., West Allis, to West Allis Electric.
Boerke Co.
– 112,114 square feet of industrial and warehouse space at 525 W. Marquette Ave., Oak Creek, by Henkel Corp. from Centerpoint Properties Trust, for $3.65 per square foot.
Dickman Co.
– 111,000 square feet of industrial space at 6625 and 6565 N. 60th St., Milwaukee, by Sellars Absorbent Materials.
Judson & Associates
– 2,117 square feet of space at 16230 W. Lincoln Ave., New Berlin, by Zentec Industries from Jim Brick;
– 4,132 square feet of space at W220 N7136 Townline Rd., Lannon, by CS Motorsports from Tim Nitschke;
– 26,000 square feet of space at 54 Capitol Dr., Oconomowoc, by Fiberesin from T&G LLC;
– 4,200 square feet of space at W226 N900 Eastmound Dr., Pewaukee, by Systems & Hardware from Nagawicka View Dairy Farm;
– 1,000 square feet of space at 5800 Broad St., Greendale, by Origins Therapeutic Massage;
– 1,100 square feet of space at 860 Rose Dr., Hartland, by Edward Jones from Nagawicka View Dairy Farm.
MLG Commercial
Teacher’s Retirement Systems, State of Illinois, has leased 5,624 square feet of office and warehouse space to Jeff Watts, of Watts Communications. The space is in the Crossroads Corporate Center I at 20900 Swenson Dr. in Waukesha.
Joe Strohbusch, president of Source One Distribution, has leased 15,070 square feet of space at 5560 Park Dr., Butler. Source One Distribution is a distribution company for its corporate parent company, Alpine Insulation. Source One chose the location because of its proximity to one of its Alpine Insulation locations as well as its customers.
Ogden & Co.
– 2,477 square feet of office space at 1011 N. Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, leased by Wipfli Ulrich Bertelson’s Spider Logic Division.
Wangard Partners
– 1,849 square feet of office space at 330 S. Executive Dr., Brookfield, to Sunbelt Business Brokers of Wisconsin;
– 4,800 square feet of industrial space at 16255 W. Lincoln Ave., New Berlin, to International Production Technologies
May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Developers line up to purchase Walker’s Point foundry

The rebirth of Milwaukee’s near south side is continuing as real estate developers are frothing at the prospects of transforming another industrial site into condominiums or retail uses.
Atchison Casting Corp. is selling its Kramer International foundry buildings in Walker’s Point, with a combined asking price of $1.75 million.
The buildings include:
— A 14,282-square-foot foundry at 114 E. Pittsburgh Ave., with an asking price of $900,000.
— A 9,375-square-foot building at 130 S. Ferry St., with an asking price of $600,000.
— A 5,892-square-foot building at 156 S. Ferry St., with an asking price of $250,000.
The buildings are being marketed by the Polacheck Co.’s Industrial Properties Group.
The Kramer properties may be sold in parcel or individually, according to Polacheck vice president Rand Wolf.
"We don’t want to sell the small one until we know what’s happening with the two larger properties," Wolf said. "The building at 156 S. Ferry St. will probably be knocked down, but the other buildings have more character."
The main foundry’s site, near the Menomonee River and South First Street, is prime real estate, as the momentum from the redevelopment of Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward has spilled south into Walker’s Point and Bay View, in an area historically known as the Fifth Ward, Wolf said.
"As you can imagine, we’ve had a number of offers for the buildings. We’re negotiating with one party now on an offer we’ve received in the last week," Wolf said. "It’s probably 50-50 as to whether they want to use the existing buildings or knock them down and start over."
The redevelopment of the Kramer International buildings will add to a cavalcade of real estate rebirth on the city’s south side:
— The nearby Waterfront Condominiums project, which is nearly completed on along the river.
— The recent acquisition of the former Milwaukee Solvay Coke & Gas Co. site at 311 E. Greenfield Ave., where a $1.5 billion development that could include 14 office towers is planned.
— The former Teweles Seed Co. towers at 222 S. Third St. are being redeveloped into an apartment complex.
— The former National Warehouse Corp. site at 435 S. Water St. has been purchased by investors who want to develop a hotel at the site.
— The former Reimer Photo Graphics site at 300 E. Bay St. in Bay View has been purchased by a business that plans to redevelop the building for mixed uses.
— The Hide House, a former tannery at 2625 S. Greeley St., is being redeveloped for businesses and art studio space in Bay View.
— The Red Car Gallery has opened at the corner of 1st and Walker streets.
"It’s phenomenal how much action there’s been in that part town. It’s amazing," Wolf said. "It’s jumped across the river, and it’s going wild. We’re getting a lot of inquiries."
The main Kramer International foundry site, which was built in 1910, has a total assessed value of $318,400, according to city records. However, that assessment is with an industrial zoning classification.
"When the industrial users find out what the prices are, they tend to go away," Wolf said.
The Milwaukee Department of City Development (DCD) has allowed other former industrial buildings in the neighborhood to be transformed into loft condominiums.
"Every project is judged on its individual merits, and we have yet to see plans on this site," said William Zaferos, special assistant at the DCD. "There’s been a housing boom downtown, and in many cases it’s been because buildings have been used in imaginative ways, particularly in the lofts and the warehouses.
"I really think that area is on the verge of exploding, if it hasn’t already, in development," Zaferos said. "People are rediscovering the city, and they seem to have found out all at once."
The Kramer International properties are being sold by Atchison Casting of Atchison, Kan., the former parent company of the firm.
Facing a financial crisis, Atchison sold its Kramer International division in January to Waukesha Foundry Co., which has now changed its name to Waukesha Kramer Inc.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Beckett keeps Chryspac’s flywheel spinning

As William "Bill" Beckett sees it, God has a way of putting him in the right place and connecting him with the right people at just the right time.
In 1968, just one day before the United States launched its doomed Tet Offensive in Vietnam, Beckett was "running convoys" for a logistical supply unit of the US Army. Beckett, a Milwaukee native, ran into a soldier who was a fellow Wisconsin native. The soldier offered to switch Beckett to a new assignment. Beckett accepted the new post.
Good thing.
"The unit I was with was shelled. It was as if God was moving me out of harm’s way, moving me in the right direction," Beckett recalls. "I met the last living officer from that unit. That’s where I was supposed to go. And it was a guy from Wisconsin that saved my butt."
Thirty-five years later, Beckett is saving some butts on his own. He is the president and chief executive officer of Chrysalis Packaging & Assembly Corp. (Chryspac), a Milwaukee company that is on the verge of remarkable growth.
Beckett plans to make several acquisitions of other companies and plans to move from his firm’s 22,000 square feet of space in a warehouse on Milwaukee’s south side to a much larger and newer location.
"What I have to do is get big. I’ve got to go and buy companies. I’ve got to be the transaction maker for this company," Beckett says.
Chryspac is no longer flying under the radar screen in the packaging and assembly industry. When Beckett acquired the former Outsource Packaging & Assembly Corp. in 2001 and changed its name to Chryspac, the company had about $400,000 in annual revenues. By the end of 2001, it had grown to $800,000, and it blossomed to $1.9 million in 2002.
And counting.
"Five different companies have offered to purchase our company, including two in the last two weeks," Beckett says. "Even though we’re small, the financials are solid. Everything is paid for. But I’d rather be more proactive and acquire companies, than sit back and wait to be bought. I feel that flywheel turning. I think we’re seeing some momentum there. It still needs a lot of energy behind it, but it’s going forward."
Beckett is a firm believer that to grow, a company needs to be flexible. In fact, he even changed his business model from being a startup company to acquiring an existing firm. That change was made, even though it resulted in him not being able to cash in on a $100,000 loan from the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. and a $100,000 loan from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, because his company was no longer considered a startup firm.
Yet, Beckett is modifying his business model again to go into acquisition mode to build capacity and procure larger packaging contracts with corporations that produce consumer goods, including food products.
Throughout the changes, Beckett says he has been blessed to have the right people on his "bus." In the front seats of that bus are production supervisor Jose Rodriguez and production coordinator Bryan Bockmann.
"First who? Both of them are very, very talented people. We have a largely Hispanic workforce, and Jose understands the culture. He’s bilingual and one of the best people managers I have ever worked with. And he’s well compensated for it," Beckett says. "Brian’s the same way. He’s very meticulous and well organized."
Chryspac’s quality assurance technician Laura Diaz and office manager Diana Marquez also play key roles at the firm, Beckett says.
The core team of players has helped the company generate a 27% rate of return for the firm’s seven private shareholders.
"And that’s cash," Beckett says. "We’ve blown the socks out of every project that we’ve done."
Chryspac’s customers have included Delphi Automotive, Strattec Security Corp., Serigraph Inc., A.L. Schutzman Co., Evco Plastics, Intermet, Badger Truck Center and JRS Distribution.
Chryspac hopes to gain additional leverage for landing larger contracts by forming a joint venture with a Chicago company soon and by gaining its ISO 9000-2001 quality assurance certification early next year.
Beckett hasn’t hesitated to invest in accelerating his technology. Last year, he purchased another shrink-wrapping machine. That investment enabled him to boost production by 30% in one shift, allowing him to eliminate his second shift, thereby saving substantial costs.
Ultimately, Beckett doesn’t know where the growth will lead him to relocate his plant. However, don’t expect him to set up shop in a cushy office park in the plush suburbs.
"We’re a company with both a business and a social objective. This is something I’ve thought about doing for 25 years," Beckett says.
While reflecting on his workforce, Beckett’s sees history repeating itself in some ways.
"As an African-American, it’s interesting to me. I see the Asians and the Hispanics today, and they remind me very much of the Italians and the German immigrants to this country early in the last century," Beckett says. "They work hard, and they have a dream. They’re not afraid to hold down three jobs to get it done, if that’s what it takes. And yet they are deeply rooted in their native cultures and languages."
Beckett says many manufacturers in southeastern Wisconsin fell victim to the lure of the suburbs, yet they regret it today because they moved too far away from their available workforce and are now bearing the costs of recruiting and transporting employees from the inner city.
"It’s like the US tank commanders that outran their supply lines in the Iraq War," Beckett says. "Wherever our new plant is, it’s got to be convenient for our workers. This company is driven by the caliber of the people here. We do team-building, supervisory training and even offer English-as-a-second-language courses here. A business is about people."

William "Bill" Beckett"
President and CEO,
Chrysalis Packaging & Assembly Corp.
Milwaukee

Age: 59
Education: Bachelor’s degree in sociology and master’s degree in urban studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; graduated from the Minority Business Executive Program of the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Company’s annual revenues: $1.9 million
Employees: 75 (at peak production)
Role model: Bob Johnson, CEO of BET (Black Entertainment Television), and the late Reggie Lewis, former CEO of Beatrice International.
Leadership philosophy: "It’s the vision. I have the vision. Then my managers, my employees. … They have the solutions. They understand where this is going, and they keep it on track. They keep me on track, too."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

How to be an effective executive

By Susan Marshall, for SBT

Forget the MBA courses, the executive retreats, the high-powered consultants, and whatever silver bullets you might find on the Internet. The truth about executive effectiveness is that it is available to anyone who wants to do certain things consistently.

Do you want to be an effective executive? Do this.

1. Return phone calls. Even if you don’t recognize the caller, return the call. It may be someone with an important lead or contact, someone who needs your help, or someone calling to thank you for something you’ve done. If it turns out to be a telemarketer, hang up. People who don’t return phone calls tell others that they’re too busy, too scattered, too disinterested, or too scared to bother with the caller. That’s bad business.
2. Pay attention when people talk to you. To the extent that you can put your own issues aside for the time you’re speaking with someone, do it. You can’t listen well and think about something else at the same time. If you are unable to give full attention to someone, ask if you can speak at another time. Make it soon. When you pretend to listen, but don’t hear what was said, you won’t remember. A bad memory can wreak havoc on your business.
3. Take responsibility for your actions. Don’t blame someone for something you said. Don’t play two people against each other to make yourself look smart or good. When you say something, mean it. When you do something, have a purpose for it. When you make a mistake, own it.
4. Think before you speak. Anytime you let words fly without having considered their impact on others and their reflection on you, you are playing Russian roulette with your image, credibility, and reputation. Use words that are well understood. Industry jargon and current slang may make you feel important or hip, but you’ll sound pedantic at best and juvenile at worst.
5. Decide before you act. Reacting to fast-changing events is dangerous. There are times when you’ll need to decide something in the moment. When you have the experience to do so, go for it. Responding, however, to a false sense of urgency almost guarantees that you’ll end up regretting your speedy action.
6. Mind your manners. Speak with clarity and intent. Respect people you interact with. Behave in ways that promote professionalism and courtesy Be genuinely proud of yourself and the people you work with. Your reputation and your business will prosper.
7. Please remember that it’s not all about you. As an executive, you are important, there’s no arguing that. What you do has impact far beyond your immediate sight. Think about who will be affected by what you say and do. Realize that you are an instrument for getting things done, not the beginning or end of everyone else’s world.

When you’ve mastered these things to the point that they’ve become second nature, you’ll notice all sorts of improvements in communications, results, self-confidence, and relationships. You’ll be a more effective executive. If you want to pick up advanced education courses, by all means do so. But remember that higher learning will always take a back seat to good practice.

Susan Marshall is owner of Executive Advisor in Jackson, www.executiveadvisorllc.com She can be reached at 262-677-1215.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Coakley wins on appeal
Appellate court forces city to pay $50,000 relocation costs

A downtown Milwaukee moving and storage company that lost its parking lot to the Park East Freeway redevelopment process won a key battle in court, forcing the City of Milwaukee to pay relocation costs as it moves from its current location.
When the city in January 2002 used its powers of eminent domain to purchase a parking lot used by C. Coakley Relocation Systems Inc., company president Chris Coakley claimed the loss of the lot would force his firm to move from its location at 1300 N. 4th St.
In most situations, a business owner can be entitled to up to $50,000 reimbursement to pay for costs associated with relocation if land on which business is conducted is purchased under eminent domain law.
To be eligible, the business must meet a few conditions, including that the site must be owned and occupied by the business operation for at least one year.
Coakley had purchased the plot that included his 100,000-square-foot building and the lot across the street from Lappin Electric in 1998, along with the .176-acre parking lot across McKinley Avenue.
The city has relocated McKinley Avenue to the south, through the lot Coakley owned. The remainder of the lot and adjacent properties will be made available for redevelopment as the project moves forward.
The city won the first legal round when the court determined that Coakley was not entitled to any further help from the city to find a replacement site.
Coakley filed an appeal Nov. 15, and on May 13, the District 1 Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision. However, Chris Coakley’s Roadster, LLC, which leased the building to the moving company, is still involved in a separate lawsuit against the city regarding the value of the property.
Because the city’s acquisition of the property is still a matter of ongoing litigation, Chris Coakley declined to comment further on the issue.
Charles Graupner of Michael, Best & Friedrich’s Waukesha office, who represented the city in the case, said the city was considering appealing the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme court.
"That is being considered, but no decision has been made at this time," Graupner said. "… From our viewpoint, the position the Court of Appeals took is at odds with a ruling of the District II Court of Appeals."
The case cited by Graupner has to do with whether or not business is conducted on the site. If no business is conducted on a parcel, a business cannot be considered a displaced party when that parcel is taken through eminent domain, according to Graupner.
Because Coakley used the site for parking — some of which was leased to others — and because the lot was not marked, fenced or identified as part of the business, Graupner claims Coakley was not truly displaced.
However, in its written decision, the appellate court claimed the Racine case cited by Graupner as precedent involved an absentee landlord, as opposed to a company such as Coakley that uses parking to support an adjacent business.
The court also took issue with Graupner’s argument that Coakley did not conduct business on the property, which was across the street from its building.
The court wrote, "To suggest that parking lots, separated from buildings by (roads) or buffer-zones, are not part of the business occupancy is contrary to common sense. Accordingly, the parking lot that is intended to serve customers and employees of a company which holds a lease to a larger parcel must be considered occupied by the business it is obviously intended to serve."
Graupner said the decision’s impact could be significant.
"The implications are perhaps greatest for the Department of Transportation (DOT), because this is a practice they are involved in fairly commonly," Graupner said. "In situations where the DOT acquired parcels used for parking, it is generally not subject to the comparable replacement requirement."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Saz’s branches out
Steve Sazama successfully transferred the popularity of his Saz’s restaurant foods into catering operations. He’s the biggest food vendor at Summerfest and State Fair. He’s been at the Bradley Center for eight years. He’s at Miller Park. He’s at the nation’s only Navy training facility – the Great Lakes Naval Center just south of the border in Illinois. He’s at Elkhart Lake. He just took over the food service at the Pettit National Ice Center.
But his move into the grocery store business hasn’t been as smooth. “It’s proven to be the biggest challenge of my career,” Sazama said over a lunch interview at his State Street restaurant in Milwaukee.
Still, he’s tackling the business. And he’s succeeding.
“It helps that the industry is moving more toward ready-to-eat convenience foods,” says Kathy Koncel, sales and marketing director for Saz’s Barbecue Products.
Sazama entered the retail market in 1992 when he took his barbecue sauce to grocery store shelves. His “Original” sauce now outsells KC Masterpiece in the stores that both are in, Sazama says.
The retail products include additional varieties of sauce, natural cheese curds, mozzarella sticks, shredded pork and chicken in barbecue sauces, and barbecue ribs. He’s working on a way to bottle and sell his salad dressing.
Saz’s products sell in about 200 stores. Last year, about $1.2 million worth of grocery products sold. Overall, his businesses do about $5 million a year in sales.
Sazama uses Acosta Sales & Marketing in Waukesha to nationally broker sales of his sauces and frozen foods, and Food Marketing Services in Pewaukee to broker sales of barbecue pork and chicken, and ribs for sale in meat-section refrigerators and delicatessens.
Sazama has stepped up his marketing of the retail products, and can be seen on packaging of the items and in print advertising.
“We’re branding Saz,” says Koncel.
That print advertising has include Sunday coupon pages in co-promotions with Johnsonville sausages.
The package designs are the work of Creative Advertising Services of Mequon. Sazama had already been working with that company’s vice president, Julie Casper. Sazama likes what Creative Advertising Services came up with. “Now we have something we can grow with,” he says.
Saz’s State House restaurant, at 5539 W. State St. and founded in 1976, is still popular and, at times, hard to get into. But Sazama says the restaurant business is changing fast. “Are we a dinosaur? he asks, recalling that a few years ago he decided to make no “brick and mortar” expansions. Yet his party room addition since then has done well for the restaurant.
It is a changing world, however, and Sazama envisions the day when restaurants won’t be able to afford to be open seven days a week or as many hours as they now are, mainly due to labor and health-care costs.
Sazama has chosen to face that changing world head-on. And his business enterprises have grown because of that decision.
May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee