Dysfunctions in a management team
Five ways your managers can be failing – and how to correct the deficiencies

By Harry S. Dennis III, for SBT

TEC International and the Milkin Institute sponsored an electrifying conference recently that brought to one location many of the best management and economic thinkers of our time. One of them, Patrick Lencioni, offered some penetrating remarks about "dysfunctional" management teams.
This month, I share them with you at a time in our economic cycle when I believe that the ability of management teams to be "functional" is of the highest priority. Let me address the five culprits, one by one:

Dysfunction No. 1: Inattention to results
Companies suffering from this team malaise are seen in businesses that have stagnated, where competitors are winning the game, where good employees are leaving and where distractions abound everywhere.
The remedy is leadership that publicly declares the results that are needed and then produces results-based rewards.
Contrarily, members of functional, trusting teams find ways to satisfy and retain achievement-oriented employees, minimize individualistic behavior, avoid petty distractions and resent failure at any level.
A Madison TEC member realized he had a president who was very good at focusing on the "process" of business, but not the results of business. He fired him. The business, under the guidance of a new president with a new functional team, has made a dramatic turnaround; 2003 will see the best results for this company in its 40-year plus history!

Dysfunction No. 2: Avoidance of accountability
Lack of management accountability won’t slip under the rug. Everyone sees it. Bill comes in late on Mondays, seems to have an excuse to get home early on Fridays, and leaves team projects dangling. He’s the No. 2 guy so no one can say anything.
Impact? Well, the message is that mediocrity is OK. The fact that deadlines come and go doesn’t seem to mean anything and, in general, the team leader is seen as powerless and ineffectual.
The remedy is the publication of goals and standards, regular progress reviews, team rewards and an insistence by the team leader that r
egardless of one’s position on the team, each member is accountable to the other.
Contrarily, members of trusting teams let the poor performer, regardless of his or her status, feel the pressure to improve. They challenge one another’s approach to problems and they do so sooner than later. They work from a platform of respect, not from a platform of accusation, denial or avoidance.
A Green Bay TEC member put his son, who was head of sales, in a two-day management development "fierce conversation" seminar. He later said his son had to either "put up or shut up" as a member of his management team. It’s a work in progress as this article is being written.

Dysfunction No. 3: Lack of clarity
The team has no directional sense and seems to retrace the same issues over and over again. There’s a lot of analysis going on here and there, and the common complaint is, "We can’t seem to get the pieces to come together." Lots of "second-guessing" going on, too.
The remedy is to set and meet deadlines, to "cascade" messages a little bit at a time but all pointing in the same direction, to develop "worst-case" and "best-case" portraits, and then for the team leader to go at it, even in the absence of full-team consensus.
Contrarily, members of trusting teams set clarity around direction and priorities, get themselves aligned around common objectives, move forward quickly and change direction without hesitation or guilt.
The owner of a well-known Wisconsin paint company faced an impossible battle against the EPA regarding lead contamination dating back 50 years and was close to total business failure. He mobilized his team around a very specific objective: to make the business an attractive acquisition to a deep pocket partner, who could assume the challenge of the on going EPA battle. He succeeded!

Dysfunction No. 4: Fear of conflict
Controversial topics are ignored, there is a prevailing "hidden agenda," only selective team member opinions are solicited and a lot of the team’s energy is devoted to "behind door" discussions, never out in the open among all team members.
The remedy is to actually "mine" for conflict, to permit and encourage disagreement, but to use it in a constructive manner to push toward team goals, without criticizing any party to the conflict.
Contrarily, members of trusting teams have lively, interesting meetings, exploiting the ideas of all team members, debating issues spontaneously and saving the critical points for unified team action.
A Milwaukee TEC member recently faced a two-plant consolidation issue due to economic uncertainties. The question on the table was, "Which plant do we shut down?" His senior group has spent three months debating the pros and cons of Plant A versus Plant B. They needed to reach a decision by April 1. Both plant managers were on the decision team. The decision was reached, they have regrouped and are moving forward.

Dysfunction No. 5: Absence of trust
Concealing team weaknesses and mistakes, not asking for helpful feedback, holding grudges, dreading meetings for fear of exposure, giving answers that don’t answer anything and so on are signs of a lack of trust.
The remedy is for the team leader to openly display vulnerability to the other team members and for each team member to "come clean" about his or her concerns, reservations and trepidations about the team process. In addition, the team must open itself up to self-scrutiny by putting it all on the table and doing so believing that trust in this process will prevail.
Contrarily, trusting teams take risks with one another, ask for help, admit shortcomings, avoid politics and give one another the benefit of the doubt. They keep it all on the table.
A central Wisconsin TEC member recently laid off more than 10% of his workforce. There had never been a layoff in this company. It was critical that his management team keep the lay off information in total confidence for the four-month period during which the lay off deliberations – among the management team – transpired. A difficult decision, and the action was handled with little repercussion.
Until next month, I wish you good team functioning!

Harry S. Dennis is the president of TEC (The Executive Committee) in Wisconsin and Michigan. TEC is a professional development group for CEOs, presidents and business owners. He can be reached at 262-821-3340.

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Manufacturing program wins legislative support
But state lawmakers deal a blow to small business insurance pool

One beneficiary of legislative activity in the powerful committee is the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP). The Madison-based technical support organization had been zeroed out of the Department of Commerce (DOC) budget by Gov. Jim Doyle.
However, Sen. Bob Welch (R-Redgranite), was behind a measure that pulled $100,000 from the Department of Commerce’s Main Street program and restored it to the WMEP.
"I am a big fan of WMEP," Welch said. "WMEP was zeroed out by the governor. … The Governor has since sent us a letter that said he would like to restore his cut to WMEP."
Because of the program’s popularity, Welch said the committee would likely comply with the governor’s wishes.
"It is likely that we would restore even more now that the governor has backed off his early cut," Welch said.
According to Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield), the governor requested $500,000 be returned to the WMEP.
"At that point, I would like to take the $100,000 we allocated and put it back in the Main Street program," Kanavas said.
The WMEP provides subsidized consulting services and training to small manufacturers interested in implementing lean manufacturing processes. The organization received about $1 million in funding from the state in 2002.
State funding and additional revenue from fees charged to manufacturing clients for consulting and training are matched by the federal government.
According to WMEP executive director Mike Klonsinski, the disappearance of state dollars would mean a reduction in federal funding, which is allocated in proportion to revenue from the state and fee revenue.
"We have looked at things and determined we could still keep up with our mission with half-funding," Klonsinski said. "But a full cut gets to the very core of WMEP. To get at it, we would have to increase revenue by seeking larger contracts with larger manufacturers."
According to Klonsinski, the average size of a consulting contract WMEP executes with manufacturers is worth about $5,000 to $6,000.
Meanwhile, Welch and other members of the Joint Finance Committee pulled the plug on a program strongly supported by the governor – the Private Employer Health Care Purchasing Alliance.
The idea of an insurance pool similar to those implemented in other states originated as part of former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s final biennial budget bill. The proposal was hobbled due to technical problems, which were resolved in the version delivered to former Gov. Scott McCallum as part of his budget proposal.
While the pool was to be a self-funded private industry initiative, the biennial budget proposal included an $850,000 loan from the State Life Insurance Fund, which McCallum characterized as unconstitutional.
McCallum vetoed provisions for the loan, as well as other portions of the program, including restrictions on the degree small business health insurance premiums could fluctuate above or below a midpoint.
Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Private Employer Health Care Coverage Board, the agency responsible for overseeing the pool if it is implemented, commissioned a study from the Institute for Health Policy Solutions in Washington, D.C., to identify steps necessary to implement the pool.
However, the Joint Finance Committee shot down Doyle’s budget provision for the pool on a 12-4 vote, instead earmarking over $300,000 to fund a task force hand-picked by the Republican legislature to analyze the potential for a pool.
Kanavas said he was not aware that a study had been commissioned or recommendations regarding the pool had been tendered.
Welch said the state has spent about $1.4 million on the program, even though previous funding was vetoed.
"My understanding is that perhaps some of it is not spent, but to a legislator’s understanding, once it is given to a state agency, it is gone," Welch said.
However, Welch said he supports the pool in principle.
"I like the idea," Welch said. "It is universally popular to have some type of pooling opportunity available to small employers. But to do that, you have to cross a few boundaries that nobody wants to cross. It starts looking more like socialized medicine."
A Doyle spokesman was critical of the committee’s stance on the pool.
"The governor is strongly committed to the program," Doyle press secretary Dan Leistikow said. "He was disappointed that the first thing the legislature did when they took up the budget was to cut a health care program that is designed to make health insurance affordable for small businesses."
According to the state representative of the National Federation of Independent Business, the committee’s move is a setback.
"I certainly would have preferred that they let it pass through," said NFIB Wisconsin state director Bill Smith.

May 16. 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Creating a culture of entrepreneurialism
Conference promoters say Wisconsin has the elements in place for a more vibrant economy

By David Niles, of SBT

Wisconsin’s risk-averse culture is changing, but more needs to be done if the state is to have an economically viable future, say members of a group organizing an upcoming entrepreneurs conference in Milwaukee.
"The culture is changing," says John Byrnes, executive managing partner of Mason Wells, a Milwaukee-based venture capital firm.
But much needs to be done to foster more change and capitalize on the results, they say. Thus the development of this year’s Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Conference, set for June 3-4 at the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee.
Efforts to change the culture are coming from both the private and the public sectors, noted Byrnes and Cory Nettles, the new secretary of the state Department of Commerce.
Nettles said the state would create an Office of Entrepreneurship to support development of cutting edge businesses, and would marshal its forces to support the financing of new businesses.
"We need to rethink the way we allocate resources," Nettles said at a recent press conference outlining the upcoming Entrepreneurs Conference. "There are things we can do to make lenders and investors more comfortable with risk."
Wisconsin ranks poorly when it comes to new business; it’s 47th in new-business formation and 36th in venture capital investment, according to Wisconsin Technology Council reports.
Those numbers are indicative of a risk-averse business climate in Wisconsin that must be changed, Nettles said. "We want to do everything we can to change that culture," he said.
The elements of change are in place, Byrnes said, noting that Wisconsin produces as many patents per capita as other parts of the country which are more identified with entrepreneurialism. "But we don’t turn those patents and ideas into businesses," he added. Thus, the state loses out on wealth-creation that such transfers foster, he said.
Byrnes, who has been in the venture capital arena for more than 25 years, also said Wisconsin needs to develop a deeper admiration for entrepreneurship and business in general. "We have a service industry mentality; here in Wisconsin we say, ‘Mothers don’t let your babies grow up to be businessmen,’" he said.
The Entrepreneurs Conference will take a new approach.
In the past, entrepreneurs made lengthy presentations on their ideas at entrepreneurial conferences. This year, it will be the venture capitalists who will make the presentations, telling the would-be entrepreneurs what it would take to get financing from them.
"We thought we’d turn the tables and put the focus where it ought to be," Byrnes said. "The key resource isn’t capital – it’s people."
Nettles said the conference "will help entrepreneurs find the strategies, tactics and tools to turn their ideas and innovations into thriving new businesses."
The conference will kick off a year-long focus on entrepreneurship, including the first Governor’s Wisconsin Business Plan Contest and the first Wisconsin Visionary Awards. It will also mark the first public appearance in Wisconsin of representatives of Frazier Technology Ventures, the Seattle-based firm that will manage about $60 million in venture capital for the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
Entry of Frazier into Wisconsin is one of the signs Byrnes cited in noting the changing entreprenuerial culture in the state. By the end of this summer, Wisconsin will have four venture capital groups operating here.
Byrnes said he is also witnessing a return of creativity in Wisconsin.
And he says many of the components of the economy of the future are in place in Wisconsin, including high-technology and biomedical infrastructures.
"We already have a leadership position; let’s take advantage of it," he implored.
For the business plan contest, the group hopes to raise "a couple hundred thousand dollars," Byrnes said. Prizes would be awarded in phases as businesses progress in their plans.
The Wisconsin Technology Council and its subsidiary, the Wisconsin Innovation Network-Milwaukee, are organizing the June 3-4 conference.

More information on the conference can be found at www.winfoundation.org.

May 16, 2003 small Business Times, Milwaukee

East Troy manufacturer moving to Oklahoma
Owners cite incentives, proximity to clients

By Charles Rathmann, of SBT

Custom Mechanical Equipment LLC plans to move from its East Troy site to Ponca City, Okla., this summer.
The company manufactures chillers for HVAC systems, mostly as replacements for equipment in existing buildings. The chillers are sold through contractors in the United States and Canada and go into schools, hospitals and other large facilities.
When CME moves to Oklahoma, about six employees will move southwest with the firm. The other 20 or so employees will be on their own.
"We are working overtime every day," CME president Dick Peitz said. "Unfortunately, we are not having to work Saturdays just yet, but we are quite busy."
The slower construction economy actually helps CME’s business, according to Peitz, as aging plants need replacement mechanicals.
"Replacement actually helps our business," Peitz said. "We do new buildings, but not as many as we do replacements. It is probably 80-20."
The company is relocating for a variety of reasons. According to Peitz, much of the company’s work is shipped to the Southwest, and it makes sense to move closer to the firm’s client base.

Incentives to move
In addition, the people at the Ponca City Area Chamber of Commerce (PCACC) made the decision to move easier, he said.
"They have many different things – tax advantages for a period of years," Peitz said. "They would give six acres of land to build a building on and pay for training of the people – to a certain amount of income – for five years."
According to Tim Burg, PCACC assistant director of economic development, local and state initiatives were leveraged to create an attractive package for the defecting Wisconsin manufacturer.
"The State of Oklahoma is very aggressive," Burg said. "They offer a five-year hiatus on personal property, equipment and real estate taxes for manufacturers. And the state offers tax credits based on what the manufacturer pays out in payroll. They offer a 4-5% rebate if they bring their company here and pay more than $2.5 million in payroll a year. But there is another program, the Small Employer Jobs Incentive Act, that CME will qualify for."
Ponca City also has funds from a .5% sales tax, which are earmarked for economic development and incentives.
The chamber and city have aggressively pursued business relocations since the oil industry in the region declined in the 1980s.
Big scores during the early days of Ponca City’s program to land relocations included poultry processor Thorn Apple Valley Inc., of Southfield, Mich., which employed 600, and Sykes Enterprises, a management solution company that moved a 600-job call center from Miami, Fla.

Recruitment
However, smaller firms such as CME are just as important as the large ones to the Oklahoma community, according to Burg.
"We did a project in Ponca City about two years ago," Peitz said. "The chamber of commerce started visiting with us then. We got a few calls from the lieutenant governor and several people from the State of Oklahoma came to visit with us about the move."
The firm’s new 54,000-square-foot building in Ponca City is under construction. Peitz said the company plans to move from its leased 16,000-square-foot facility in East Troy in the next three months.
"If I were a small business and facing the tax burdens I see in the state of Wisconsin …. The state does not seem very interested in influencing new industry," Peitz said. "If I were a small business owner who paid 100% of the cost of health care – well, this is a high health care area, too – I would be looking around to see what other people would do for me. It is a struggle to keep things going. One important thing for people to have is health care. That runs in the hundreds of thousands a year."
Peitz said he contacted the State of Wisconsin about incentives to stay.
"Unfortunately, we did talk to the State of Wisconsin, and they have nothing to offer," Peitz said. "They offered us an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan, which we don’t need. There are a lot of other states who have some pretty good offerings for moving."
However, Wisconsin Department of Commerce (DOC) spokesman Tony Hozeny said no one from CME ever contacted his agency.
"CME never contacted this department," Hozeny said. "They never approached us about this and asked us about any incentive."
Hozeny stressed that all of the incentives offered up by the State of Oklahoma and Ponca City are available here in Wisconsin – including free land.
"You couldn’t say free land is available in every part of the state," Hozeny said. "If you are a community and you think that is an incentive you need, you are going to use it. … You are probably not going to find free land in Pleasant Prairie or somewhere along the border, but as you look toward the center of the state, you are probably going to find it."
Hozeny stressed that non-policy factors are probably more important to CME in its decision than anything the state or local government could do.
"The fact that most of their customers are in the Southwest, to me, that sounds more like a reason for moving," Hozeny said.

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Condo developer says partnerships crucial for development

By Steve Jagler, of SBT

The condo king of downtown Milwaukee is on the verge of expanding his empire.
Barry Mandel, president of Mandel Group Inc., has plans to develop more than 1,000 new upscale condominiums or apartments downtown with a total value of more than $300 over the next five to seven years.
"It’s a big pipeline," Mandel said. "The market is softening, and it’s going to take developments that are the very best at the very best locations that will be successful. We will phase them in as appropriate."
Mandel’s "pipeline" of new condominium and apartment projects includes:
— 560 apartments and condominiums, with a total value of $125 million, at the former Pfister & Vogel tannery in the 1500 block of North Water Street;
— 50 luxury condominiums, with a total value $65 million, at the University Club Tower along North Prospect Avenue in the parking lot of the University Club. The condo units in the 25-story lakefront tower are being sold for $700,000 to $2.5 million each — the priciest condos in Wisconsin. Mandel says he has commitments for about 25 of the units. His partners in the project include Blaine Rieke, Chris Smocke and Peter Mahler;
— 108 condominiums and 40,000 square feet of office space, with a total value of $30 million, at the Marine Terminal building, formerly the Stearns Co. building, 120 N. Broadway in the Historic Third Ward. The condos will be of various sizes and range in price from $250,000 to $450,000, Mandel said.
— 50 condominiums and 138 apartments, with a total value of $36 million, at the Gas Light Lofts project, 136 N. Milwaukee St., in the Third Ward.
— 120 condominiums, apartments or retirement housing units, with a total value of $30 million, at the corner of Prospect and Ogden avenues on Milwaukee’s east side.
— 60 condominiums, with a total value of $20 million, in the RiverCrest development at 2800 N. Commerce St. just north of downtown.
In addition, Mandel is looking west, with the following developments in Brookfield: the Norhardt Crossing Condominiums, with 48 new units and a total value of $20 million at 1861 Norhardt Dr.; the Georgetown Square Apartments, with 145 luxury apartments and a total value of $18 million at 16400 W. Wisconsin Ave.; and the Georgetown Loft Condominiums, with 70 luxury loft units and a total value of $17.5 million at 16300 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Mandel acknowledged that some people question whether there is enough affluent demand to support his upscale condominium developments in downtown Milwaukee. The market will prove to be the determining factor, he said.
The tenants in his condos are a mix of empty-nesters, aging baby boomers, "Gen-Xers" who value diversity and young people from "Gen-Y" who are the well-heeled children of baby boomers, Mandel said.
As the condos are built and occupied, downtown Milwaukee will see a surge of retail development over time to accommodate the expanding affluent population, Mandel said.
"I think there will undoubtedly be more retail. The market will dictate that there will be more retail," he said.
Pointing to his previous successes with the Library Hill and East Pointe developments in downtown Milwaukee, which were made possible by partnerships between the public and private sectors, Mandel said joint ventures such as tax incremental financing (TIF) districts work for the common good of the community.
"I think the TIF is one of the most important tools for redevelopment," Mandel said. "As the public sector becomes more confident in the TIF as a redevelopment tool, there is a greater willingness to move forward with TIFs, and communities are benefiting.
"The job of the city is to provide for the infrastructure. The public sector gets paid back in real estate taxes over time," Mandel said.
New public-private partnerships will be needed downtown to help create affordable housing developments that are in high demand, but are not very profitable for developers, Mandel said.

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Strong plans expansion of headquarters
Expanded TIF district to spark $150 million in development

By Steve Jagler, of SBT

Strong Financial Corp. plans to expand its plush headquarters and add up to $150 million in new development at its Heritage Reserve complex in Menomonee Falls.
The ambitious new development, spread across 120 acres, will include a hotel or conference center, a medical service building, upscale retail, a bank, a senior housing complex, several more office buildings and upscale apartments and condominiums.
The new projects will be linked by a series of streetscaping improvements, ponds and walkways along Good Hope Road and Appleton Avenue.
Although the financial services industry has been trying to weather three consecutive years of a declining stock market, Strong eventually will need to expand its headquarters to meet future demands, according to Bruce Behling, senior vice president of Strong Capital Management.
"If our assets grow, and the lines of services expand, we’ll need to expand to the north, eventually," Behling said. "We’ll hit one of those growth periods again in the future, and then we’ll struggle like hell to build another building."
Strong has grown from six employees when it was founded in 1981 to 1,350 today, Behling said.
A developers agreement was finalized in March to expand the existing tax incremental financing (TIF) district at the Heritage Reserve site by 120 acres, clearing the way for a host of new projects, including:
— $60 million in development on 32 acres in a parcel north of the Strong headquarters and south of North Hills Country Club. The site could be the home of an expanded Strong headquarters or could be the home of another company’s corporate headquarters, Behling said.
— $40 million in development on 30 acres in a parcel south of Good Hope Road, west of 124th Street and east of Appleton Avenue. The site will include a hotel or a conference center and more office buildings, Behling said.
— $20 million in development on 30 acres in a parcel north of Good Hope Road, west of Appleton Avenue and south of North Hills Country Club. The site will be a mixed-use development that will include some upscale condominiums, some upscale retail and some commercial development. The possibilities include restaurants, a grocery store, a dry cleaning store, a bookstore and a bank, Behling said.
— $30 million in development on 38 acres in a parcel south of Good Hope and west of Appleton Avenue. The site will include a senior housing complex, some office buildings and a medical service center, Behling said.
In recent years, Strong has been acquiring the land surrounding its headquarters to preserve the value of its original investment, according to Behling.
The new development at Heritage Reserve will receive another $12 million in TIF funding over 10 years for infrastructure to accommodate the new projects, Behling said.
"We hope that we can liquidate this (TIF financing) by 2112," Behling said. "We could have 10,000 jobs out here when it’s all said and done."
With the new TIF agreement in place, the infrastructure improvements to Good Hope Road and Appleton Avenue near U.S. Highway 45 will begin with $4.8 million in work this year, according to Steve Holzhauer, a principal at Eppstein Uhen Architects, which has been hired to design uniform streetscaping at the site.
"There will be a real visible corridor, with improvements to create a uniform look and feel, with trees, pedestrian paths, berms, unified landscaping, unified lighting, ponds and walkways," Holzhauer said. "There are doctor groups interested in developing possibly a women’s health center or possibly something related to the senior housing development that will go there. We’re looking at condos, retail, an upscale grocery store, and a hotel still makes a lot of sense there."
A second dedicated electrical supply line will be extended to the Heritage Reserve site to minimize any power interruptions in the complex, Holzhauer said.
The partners in the extended TIF district are the Village of Menomonee Falls, the Menomonee Falls School District, Waukesha County and the Waukesha County Technical College District.
Strong bought the site of its current headquarters in 1986 and moved out of its downtown Milwaukee site at 815 E. Mason St. to the wooded, rolling prairie near Highway 45 a year later.
"We could not find suitable rental space in existing buildings we could buy in downtown Milwaukee that met our criteria, which included flexibility, ease of travel, efficiency and technology," Behling said. "We were trying to recruit people from all over the world. We have found this area to help us tremendously in recruiting and retention."
Shortly after moving to Menomonee Falls, the company, in the midst of a booming economy, began acquiring adjacent land.
"The next thing we knew, there’s a piece of land for sale next to us. They were going to put in a Jiffy Lube or something. We started accumulating the land around us, almost in a defensive stance. We set out to create the highest-quality office park," Behling said.
That office park became the Woodland Prime development in Heritage Reserve.
Heritage Reserve would not have been developed without the support and vision of former Menomonee Falls Mayor Joseph Greco, Behling said.
Greco played an instrumental role in establishing the original TIF district that paid for the $5 million in infrastructure needed to develop the land near Good Hope Road, Behling said. That TIF funding will be repaid by 2006, Behling said.
When the extended TIF district is repaid, the prime real estate developments will add substantially to the property tax base of the village, Behling said.
"Joe Greco — all of this could not have happened without him. You’ve got to have strong leadership and municipal leaders have to share the vision," Behling said. "The partnership we entered into made a lot of sense for the village of Menomonee Falls."
The project also received $20 million in assistance in road development from federal, state and local funds that were guaranteed by the private sector.
The Heritage Reserve development stands as the ultimate example of a productive partnership between the private and public sectors, Behling said.
"We ran the numbers, and we couldn’t afford to build the infrastructure to develop all of the land we had acquired," Behling said. "Good Hope Road needed to be improved. It wasn’t safe, and it implied an image that you were leaving civilization.
"We could not have created this ‘Field of Dreams’ without the help of this public/private partnership," Behling said. "We think we’ve got a model now that can be used by others, a cooperation between public and private partners and a cooperation between different municipalities."

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

SBA loans
The U.S. Small Business Administration approved the following loan guarantees during April:
Advanced Orthodontics, N64 W24050 Main St., Sussex 53089, $150,000, Waukesha State Bank;
Anchor Ventures, 5010 W. Vliet St., Milwaukee 53208, $172,000, First State Bank of Round Lake;
Bella Lawns, 8655 N. 43rd St., Brown Deer 53209, $494,460, Legacy Bank;
Beres, 1720 Hwy. 164, Waukesha 53188, $681,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.
The Best Fireplace Co., 9840 S. 27th St., Oak Creek 53154, $348,500, US Bank;
CI Digital Wide Graphics, location to be determined, Kenosha 53144, $250,000, Bank of Kenosha;
Client Tele, 12725 W. Cleveland Ave., New Berlin 53151, $75,000, St. Francis Bank;
Cousins Subs, 1001 N. Old World Third St., Milwaukee 53233, $210,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Crescent City Beignets, 741 N. Milwaukee St., Milwaukee 53202, $276,800, Wells Fargo Bank;
Dairy Queen, 245 E. Hampton Ave., Whitefish Bay 53217, $150,000, North Shore Bank, $25,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank; and $132,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Deutsch & Sons Co., 2172 S. 43rd St., Milwaukee 53219,$150,000, Investors Bank;
Dollar Shop, highways 120 and 12, Lake Geneva 53147, $94,500, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Elliott Vision Center, 5630 Washington Ave., Racine 53406, $250,000, Community State Bank;
Express ATM, 1609 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee 53202, $75,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Fast Cat Trucking, 3530 S. Sylvania Ave., Sturtevant 53177, $47,600, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
The Gotham Grill, 600 E. Ogden Ave., Milwaukee 53202, $385,000, Wells Fargo Bank;
Greg Markim Inc., 830 N. 109th St., Wauwatosa 53226, $50,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Harwood Creative, 216 N. Water St., Milwaukee 53202, $50,500, First Bank Financial Centre;
Industrial Cooling Systems, 4825 N. 32nd St., Milwaukee 53209, $100,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Inn Between Bar & Restaurant, 1520 and 1522 Beckman Dr., Delavan 53115, $605,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Inspired Media, 2821 N. 4th St., Milwaukee 53212, $10,000, US Bank;
I&Z Properties, 922 N. 8th St., Sheboygan 53083, $920,000, Community Bank & Trust;
J&B Express, 2738 S. 31st St., Milwaukee 53234, $50,000, St. Francis Capital Corp.;
Jayp, 9025 W. Appleton Ave., Milwaukee 53212, $765,000, Community Bank & Trust;
Kick It Soccer Shop, 406 Falls Rd., Grafton 53024, $40,000, Community Bank of Grafton;
Koconis Industries, 12600 W. Burleigh Rd., Brookfield 53005, $317,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.
Level-Headed Carpentry, 1000 E. Stonegate Dr., Oak Creek 53154, $65,700, Bank One;
Mark David’s Bakery and Café, 619 Genesee St., Delafield 53018, $150,000, Delafield State Bank;
Moxy, 2219 N. Farwell Ave., Milwaukee 53202, $25,000, US Bank;
The Napa Vineyard, 259 Broad St., Lake Geneva 53147, $25,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Quality Inn & Suites Waukesha, 2417 W. Bluemound Rd., Waukesha 53186, $71,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
Silver Spring House, 6655 N. Green Bay Rd., Glendale 53209, $500,000, US Bank;
Signature Ceramics, 6596 Lakeside Rd., Lake Geneva 53190, $15,000, First Banking Center;
South Star, 4011 W. Capitol Dr., Milwaukee 53216, $50,000, M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank;
Superior New Fashions, 1926 Superior Ave., Sheboygan 53081, $50,000, Community Bank & Trust;
Tek News Agency, 2517 S. 94th St., Milwaukee 53227, $25,000, Capital One;
US Biologies, 170 Progress Dr., West Bend 53095, $275,000, West Bend Savings Bank;
Village Auto Repair, 7061 Main St., Merton 53056, $228,000, Associated Bank;
Weld-Fab Manufacturing, 709 W. Wisconsin St., Hartford 53027, $50,000, Bank One;
Webley Chiropractic Clinic, 181 Commerce St., Burlington 53105, $236,000, Community State Bank;
Wiltneben Auto Service, 2125 Maryland Ave., Sheboygan 53081, $9,200, Community Bank & Trust;
Wolf Pack Adventures, 607 Goldfinch Ln., Howards Grove 53083, $149,000, Community Bank & Trust.
May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Positive development
Maybe appreciating what already works in your company is a way to grow in these uncertain times

By Steve McCombs, for SBT

Throughout the last six decades the focus on most management improvement systems promulgated by business authors, consultants and managers themselves has been on fixing problems in organizations in order to improve them.
Even well respected management gurus such as Tom Peters have been quoted as saying "If it ain’t broke, you ain’t looked!
Could problem-solving indeed be the problem?
Maybe Appreciative Inquiry (AI) could be just the push your company needs to help you get out of the doldrums created by the state of the economy. David Cooperrider, professor of organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University who originated this technique, says that problem-solving always asks people to look backward at yesterday’s failures and their causes, and rarely results in a new vision.
That’s not to say that problem-solving is useless. On the contrary, when used properly it can improve your organization’s performance and even prevent disaster.
Seat belts, air bags and tamper-proof packaging are among the best examples I can think of that have improved our lives by solving problems.
To reap the benefits of AI, train your employees to look at what is, and has been working well in your organization, and then discover ways to apply those concepts to improve your performance in a way that will get your customers’ attention.
Cooperrider calls this the "4-D" cycle of appreciative inquiry. Here is how you might approach it:
— Discovery: Gather your workforce into groups of no more than seven and facilitate a discussion about experiences that made them feel like the company was really succeeding.
Encourage all to share an anecdote or tell a story about and incident or a time when they felt they and the company were at their best. Then work together to create a new one to five-year vision based on those successes.
— Dreaming: Ask the "miracle question." Ask your employees to imagine waking up tomorrow and your company was exactly the way they would like it to be concerning the four main areas of your business: management, operations, sales and finance.
Ask them what they see and how they know it is different. Put this all together and talk through a way that these dreams connect to the most pertinent of the visions.
— Design: Get your employees to now talk about how the organization will truly look based on this combination of visions and what its driving values and principles would be.
— Destiny: Ask your employees "How do we move forward to create this new reality for our company? What do you see as your role?"
In other words, once you have brought your employees this far, the process may take on a life of its own.
Be sure to empower your employees by letting them know what their limits are in terms of time, money, people, and equipment so that they can take the initiative without having to ask for approval at every turn.
What I believe makes this process so powerful is that it follows the human being’s natural thought process, that is: to focus on the positive.
The way I like to illustrate that point in my talks on positive employee discipline is to tell the audience, "Don’t think about a yellow horse!" Then I immediately ask them what is in their heads. With out exception the response is "a yellow horse."
Why? Because, we are programmed to think only in positive terms.
That’s why telling people what not to do can, in many cases, be counter-productive.
Just as focusing on what kinds of behaviors and skills you want your employees to use is more productive than a list of "don’ts," AI focuses on a positive vision for the organization rather than listing all the things that are wrong and must be fixed, which can, in and of itself, create a climate of negativity and blame-placing.
Even though these times seem uncertain and not conducive to growth, it just might be a good idea for you and your employees to rediscover what made you great in the first place and then look for ways to recreate the conditions that supported that success. What we all need is way to get off the dime and differentiate our service or product in a way that will show our prospects and customers how we can improve their condition.

Steve McCombs, consultant, author and speaker, is president of Beyond Performance, a management and performance consulting practice in Milton. He has more than 20 years experience in quality assurance, management consulting and employee development. He can be reached at 608-868-4565 or stevemccombs@netscape.net.

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

TIF projects create ‘domino’ effect of development

By Steve Jagler, of SBT

To detractors, tax incremental financing (TIF) districts have been abused by real estate developers and should be blamed for urban sprawl, corporate welfare and environmental damage.
To supporters, TIF districts are powerful tools of economic development that create jobs, generate wealth and add to a community’s property tax base.
Though the debate continues, one thing is for certain: TIF districts and other partnerships between the public and private sectors are flourishing. Such partnerships were the focus of "Real Estate Development – A Public/Private Joint Venture" symposium conducted by the Marquette University Bell Chair in Real Estate May 15 at Strong Financial Corp.’s headquarters in Menomonee Falls.
Real estate developers and various public officials, including the mayors and economic development officials from municipalities throughout southeastern Wisconsin, were invited to the symposium. Small Business Times interviewed participants for this report prior to the event.
Mark Eppli, Marquette professor and the school’s Robert B. Bell Sr. chair in real estate, said TIF districts and other such partnerships can be used to benefit both the public and private sectors.
"If cities and developers don’t get along, not a whole lot gets done," said Eppli, who organized the symposium. "I expect that what we hope to achieve is to educate both sides, to get both sides looking at each other and say, ‘This works.’ We want to show that this can be done in a good way."
Featured speakers at the symposium, including Bruce Behling, senior vice president of Strong Capital Management, Barry Mandel, chief executive officer of The Mandel Group, and Peter Bell, president of the Pabst Farms Development LLC, planned to extol the virtues of TIF districts and other public/private partnerships at the symposium.
Behling, Mandel and Bell say TIF districts have been crucial to their development projects (see accompanying articles).
The City of Glendale is a prime example of the value TIF districts can bring to a community, according to city administrator Richard Maslowski. Maslowski points to the first four TIF districts completed by the city:
1) A former asbestos-laden elementary school and public works facility site along Port Washington Road near Green Tree Road, which Maslowkski said had "no value" in 1989, was transformed into a Manchester Suites Hotel and an office complex and now has a value of $28 million.
2) A former contaminated industrial site along Port Washington Road, valued at $4 million in 1990, was transformed into the Coventry office and apartment complex, now valued at $47 million.
3) The former Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. offices and silos, with an original value of $2.3 million, was transformed into the Estabrook Corporate Park and is now valued at $51.4 million.
4) A former contaminated service station and abandoned hotel site, once valued at $600,000, was transformed into a Woodfield Suites Hotel and is now valued at $8 million.
Glendale’s three newest TIF districts are accommodating the new Glendale Technology Center and the Heart Hospital of Milwaukee ($9.2 million), a new mixed use development along Silver Spring Drive ($43 million) and a revamped Bayshore Mall (projected $150 million).
Bayshore, which will be renamed the Bayshore Town Center, will be renovated into a multi-story complex that will feature a variety of first-floor retail, second-floor offices, a series of public streets, outdoor restaurants and cafes, a town square and various entertainment venues.
"Bayshore will not be a mall. It will be more of a lifestyle center," Maslowski said.
The Bayshore project qualifies under the "brownfield" stipulation of the state’s TIF law because it actually is located on a former sanitary landfill and continues to "settle," creating uneven surfaces in the parking lots, Maslowski said.
"Without TIFs, none of these projects would have gotten off the ground. In some cases, these were blighted, vacant, industrial sites," Maslowski said. "They also were having a negative impact on surrounding properties. There were concerns that Glendale was not going to survive. Without it (TIF development), we would not be where we are today, and it’s really questionable what Glendale’s future would have been."
The TIF districts have expanded the city’s property tax base, its employment base and its residential values, he said.
"It’s a domino effect," Maslowski said.
Both critics and supporters of TIF districts will be closely watching the fate of a State Assembly bill that will reintroduced by Rep. Michael "Mickey" Lehman (R-Hartford) this fall.
Lehman’s new proposal will have some slight modifications from the bill that was approved by the Wisconsin Assembly, but died in the Senate in 2001.
The bill would stipulate that the Wisconsin Department of Revenue prohibit a city or village from creating a new TIF district if it has already exceeded state TIF limits, which are based upon percentages of the total value of the property in the municipality.
Lehman’s bill also will include provisions that would: restrict cash grants to developers and landowners; restrict the terms in which annexed land from towns can be included in TIF districts; require a joint review board to determine whether a proposed development could not occur without the creation of a TIF district; impose a $1,000 filing fee for a new TIF district; and reduce the maximum life of a TIF district for industrial development to 20 years, from the current 23.
Lehman denies that his bill would impose further restrictions on the use of TIF districts.
Instead, Lehman said, his proposed changes would clarify the state’s existing TIF laws. Lehman said his bill would ensure that the statutes "are appropriate and updated, and our processes are known."

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

T.E. Brennan wins ethics award

T.E. Brennan’s ethics policy is based on the simple, down-home advice president Dick Tillmar gave his kids when they were growing up — don’t lie, cheat, steal or take short cuts.
The advice in all its simplicity drives an ethics policy that was recognized with the 2003 Southern Wisconsin Business Ethics Award, sponsored by the Madison Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals. T.E. Brennan now has a chance to receive national honors in the American Business Ethics Award competition, which will be decided this fall in a competition held by the Society of Financial Services Professionals.
The Society was founded in 1928 and includes more than 25,000 members in more than 200 regional chapters nationwide.
Brennan was founded in 1895 and is the oldest independently owned risk management consulting firm in the country. The company prides itself on independence, objectivity and impartiality when it comes to its relationships with its clients.
"What we do is pure consulting," said Therese Hamilton, Brennan’s director of communications. "We are paid only by our clients. We don’t sell insurance. We don’t accept commissions. We are our clients’ advocate."
That loyalty to clients is what makes Brennan, a firm of 19 employees, stand out, Tillmar said.
"We only work on behalf of the client," he said. "Everything else – vision, strategy, mission — flows from that."
The regional ethics competition was held in 19 regions throughout the country. This year was the first time T.E. Brennan could enter the competition because it was the first time a competition was held in the southern Wisconsin region.
In the application process, Brennan had to submit a copy of its code of ethics and demonstrate how it supports clients and employees, and how it is practiced and promoted. Application sections also included an explanation of the company’s commitment to business ethics, a description of the company’s conflict resolution procedures, examples of the way the company has addressed ethical challenges and examples of corporate citizenship.
In the first round of the regional competition, business students from Edgewood College in Madison and Madison Area Technical College judged entries. In the next round, a panel of nine judges from academia, business professions and the media judged entries that advanced from the first round.
Awards are given in two categories – Large, or companies with more than 250 employees and Small, or companies with fewer than 250 employees.
Although Brennan is a small company, it institutionalized its ethics policy the way large companies do, Hamilton said.
"We’ve devoted time and resources to putting the code in writing and having a system in place to enforce it," she said. "It’s easy to stray from your values, so you have to be constantly thinking about it."
If anything positive resulted from the recent corporate scandals of Enron and others, it is a demand for ethics in business, Tillmar said. While Brennan has always prided itself on its commitment to ethics, the company must be even more diligent now that its commitment has been recognized publicly and officially.
"The corporate ethics problems showed what greed can do," Tillmar said. "Again, the solution is simple. Don’t do anything your mother wouldn’t be proud of."

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

National marketing strategy begins for Pabst Farms
Developer dangles prime sites to retailers, technology firms

By Steve Jagler, of SBT

Essentially, the Pabst Farms development along Interstate 94 in Oconomowoc will create a new city in southeastern Wisconsin.
That city will be a sprawling, upscale community of 6,000 to 10,000 people, replete with housing, stores, restaurants, hotels, business offices, a technology center, a hospital, a new elementary school and even a new YMCA.
Development of the $1 billion project will begin this fall, with the construction of single-family houses, ranging in price from $275,000 to $1 million.
Peter Bell, president of Pabst Farms Development LLC, is busy traveling around the country, attempting to lure prime retailers and technology companies to come to Oconomowoc. Ultimately, he hopes the project’s technology center will become the national or regional headquarters for a major technology company.
Bell was one of the featured speakers in the May 15 Marquette University Bell Chair Real Estate Symposium, "Real Estate Development – A Public/Private Joint Venture."
Bell discussed the progress of the Pabst Farms project in a recent interview with Small Business Times executive editor Steve Jagler. The following are excerpts from that interview.

SBT: What’s the latest and greatest news about Pabst Farms?
Bell: Well, probably the strongest thing we’re working on right now is on May 16 we leave for Las Vegas for the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) convention, and we’re going to present our design we’ve been working on for the retail, the Shops at Pabst Farms. We’ll try to get some feedback from the national retailers on how this is all going to work.
The Shops at Pabst Farms are going to be somewhere between 650,000 to 800,000 square feet of retail area, and it will be kind of a town center, a pedestrian-friendly, civic-involved shopping district. We hope to have an ice skating rink in the wintertime. We hope to have book sales and art sales for the community to be involved in, and it’s going to be like walking down an old main town street, with all new stores and new designs, most of which will be national tenants.

SBT: Do you have any commitments from any national tenants on the retail side of Pabst Farms yet?
Bell: We don’t have any hard commitments, because our design is just coming forward right now. We’re going to get some feedback on the design and make the appropriate adjustments.

SBT: What kind of retail tenants do you hope to attract? Are they smaller, niche retailers or big-box retailers?
Bell: In a shopping district like this, you’re going to get two or three larger-type tenants that could be in the 50,000-square-foot range, and then you’re going to get a lot of your national top tenants, both for soft goods and specialty uses, such as bookstores and record stores. You’re going to have a fine mix of restaurants at all levels. It will be the kind of place with a lot of benches, a lot of landscaping, where people can kind of spend several hours in the shopping experience.

SBT: Is it the intent for Pabst Farms to be place where people live, work and play at the same location, or is it the intent to be more of a destination?
Bell: We’re actually going to target both people. We want to include the people in Oconomowoc and the surrounding communities to be part of Pabst Farms. But there also will be a very strong marketing campaign to bring people to shop at Pabst Farms.

SBT: You mentioned the different municipalities. Are all of them on board now? Are all the pieces in place on the chessboard for Pabst Farms?
Bell: I think, obviously, all the approvals will have to go through for design and plan commissions and so forth, but conceptually, Pabst Farms is well received as a whole. As the residents of the area learn more about Pabst Farms in the meetings we go to, they begin to understand what we’re trying to accomplish, and that is really trying to build a community that is part of Oconomowoc, not separate from it.

SBT: With so many different uses of property, how is all of this going to be tied together?
Bell: Eppstein Uhen Architects — we are kind of using them as our master land planner. Pabst Farms has five different types of environments. One is called the Residences at Pabst Farms, the other is the Pabst Village Center. We also have the Shops at Pabst Farms and the Pabst Farms Business Park and Technology/Research Park.
Those five general areas are really five distinct developments themselves. What we’re trying, with the help of Eppstein Uhen, is to make sure that we keep continuity, architectural design, movement of traffic and quality throughout the whole thing.

SBT: How is the technology and research park coming along?
Bell: We currently believe we are one of the finalists for GE Medical IT. We would like to build something right in there that takes advantage of the fiber-optic line right along I-94 and takes advantages of the educational opportunities of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They’ve got great technical colleges in Waukesha, Madison and Milwaukee.
We think we can build a really unique and special technology park that you might see in Palo Alto or the Triangle in North Carolina.

SBT: So, are you and Bruce Behling of Strong Capital Management going to arm-wrestle then for GE Medical to relocate to your development sites? GE Medical is really being courted, isn’t it?
Bell: (Laughs) Oh, yeah. The Strong park is definitely the site GE is looking at, along with us and a few other sites in Milwaukee.
We like to think we can offer the unique location between Madison and Milwaukee. We have Crites Field out in Waukesha for private jets. Obviously, we have General Mitchell (International Airport) to bring in the general public.
Most important, we’re going to have a very open landscape in which to build something. And we’re going to make this the most well designed data-provider area that you can find through fiber optics.

SBT: Do you have any other prospective tenants for the technology and research park?
Bell: We’re just finishing the design of the research park, and we’ll be going to various trade shows throughout the country. Pabst Farms will be a national presentation development. We hope to attract businesses from outside the state of Wisconsin and bring new, high-quality, clean companies to the area.

SBT: Would you expect, that when it’s all said and done, there could be companies that will move their corporate headquarters into Pabst Farms?
Bell: I would see Pabst Farms easily being, if not a national headquarters location, certainly a regional headquarters location. There’s just a lot of quality of life Wisconsin offers. It’s lake country out here. There’s a lot to offer. You’ve got good schools, good living conditions. You’ve got a wide range of housing products. People who want to continue their education have a wide range of choices. I think when you compare that to other areas of the country, this is very affordable and a good value in the Midwest.

SBT: What kinds of hotels are in the equation for Pabst Farms?
Bell: Ideally speaking, we can see two, possibly three hotels at Pabst Farms. We would like to get a suites product for the businessman that might have a short stay but is looking for something a little upscale. We would like to have a more medium, family-priced product, and we might look at an extended stay product for some of our corporate customers who might have someone to stay for a week or two weeks for some kind of a project or something like that.

SBT: Now, to play the devil’s advocate ….
Bell: No devils here!

SBT: The person who drives from Milwaukee to Madison, looks out from the freeway at the beautiful, natural Pabst Farms site and says, "Why can’t that just stay green?" You’ve had some opposition. Is that quieting down?
Bell: Not only is it quieting down, but when people have had the opportunity to see the plan and what we’re planning to do with the amount of open space …. If Pabst Farms had been developed by multiple developers, or if the Pabst family had not wanted to keep it intact, you would not have ended up with 300 acres of open space. You wouldn’t have had the symmetry of all these multiple developments fitting together.
My principles, my morals came from my dad. He taught me to be good stewards for the land, to build to the land, rather than on the land.

SBT: There was a $24 million TIF (tax incremental financing) district created for Pabst Farms. What do you say to critics who say the TIF law was created to encourage redevelopment of blighted, brownfield sites that otherwise wouldn’t have been developed? Pabst Farms certainly wouldn’t qualify as a blighted property. What do you say to people who believe there shouldn’t be any taxpayer support for this project, which is on the most valuable piece of real estate between Milwaukee and Madison?
Bell: Well I would first say that TIF doesn’t finance things. It gives opportunities to get better land planning done. It allows a developer to get a joint partnership with the city to do master land planning that would not otherwise be done.
Let’s just look at our five environments in Pabst Farms. If they were done by five different developers, you wouldn’t have had 300 acres of open space. You would have had 10% of that. Number two, they may or may not have had the same quality or architectural control. Three, you wouldn’t have had the symmetry or connectiveness of trying to build a city together.
And I think, when Pabst Farms is done, not only will it provide a tremendous tax base that you would not have otherwise gotten out there, but more important, you will have a land plan that really works within an exploding community in Waukesha County. I think that’s the real saving here. You get a master plan done on a very large parcel of land.
And $24 million is just a drop in the bucket to what we’re spending on Pabst Farms. This TIF has helped us to be able to do a better job. It will probably be three to five years before we see any economic returns from Pabst Farms to the ownership.
Our timetable is built off of patience and capital. My family has been doing this for over a century now, so we don’t think in terms of years, we think in terms of decades.

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Personnel file

Julie Cooper has joined Landmark Credit Union as a business loan officer at its Hartland branch. She joins Landmark with 18 years of financial services experience from Bank One, US Bank and M&I. Michelle Polacheck also joined Landmark, in training and development. She has 14 years of financial services experience from The Equitable Bank, Wells Fargo and Securian Financial Services.
Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer & Associates Inc. (GASAI) has announced the election of six associates. William Fleming, Patrick Kressin, Jeffrey Orzech, Timothy Robinson, Brian Schneider and Patrick Skalecki were all nominated and elected at the firm’s annual principal’s meeting in March. Fleming is the Survey Department manager in the firm’s Chicago O’Hare office. He supervises the daily activities of the Field Services staff, including construction engineers and land surveyors. Kressin, a landscape architect in the Commercial Client Group, works from the Milwaukee office and takes a leadership in the GASAI Golf Course and Community Planning group, as well as on other firm projects. Orzech is a civil engineer in the Chicago O’Hare office. Robinson serves as the chief financial officer and is based out of the Milwaukee office. He brings nearly 25 years experience in financial management and his responsibilities include oversight of the Financial Services Department, company-wide and project-specific financial reporting, budgeting, and cash flow. Schneider is an environmental engineer with technical and administrative project management experience. Skalecki is a civil engineer in the Green Bay office.
J. Timothy Lovett has joined the Milwaukee office of DeWitt Ross & Stevens, a Madison-based law firm. Lovett served on the staff of former Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier’s Lakefront Recreational Task Force. He also served on the academic staff with UW-Milwaukee’s Center for Architecture and Urban Planning where he was involved in a variety of projects concerning land use issues in Milwaukee County. Lovett was deputy executive director of the Milwaukee Urban League. Lovett is a graduate of the Future Milwaukee program.
Peter J. Schumacher and Robert A. Sisson have been promoted to vice presidents of commercial lending at the Grafton State Bank. Schumacher has more than 25 years of banking experience — the last 13 as the bank’s controller, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Lakeland College. Sisson has 15 years in the banking industry and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas – Little Rock.
Robyn Calvey, a forest management graduate of UW-Stevens Point, has joined Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful as education coordinator. She has served with People for Trees, a San Diego-based organization. More recently, Calvey
was a program coordinator with Greening Milwaukee. Woody Dugan is KGMB’s new executive director. His background includes the Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce, vice president for development and marketing of Norton-Children’s Hospitals in Kentucky, and director of marketing communications, media and public relations with the United Way of New York City in addition to consulting work with non-profits in Connecticut and New York. He also lead the development of a national tire recycling coalition and served on the board of directors of the Washington (Conn.) Environmental Council, and is the lead developer for a proposed memorial for the World Trade Center.
Ashley Rhines accepted a position as a survey technician at Welch Hanson Associates in Delafield. She holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational communications from Concordia University in Wisconsin in Mequon and has a variety of engineering experiences.
Central States Mortgage, Wauwatosa, has hired John P. Haydin and Todd Rickun as mortgage consultants. The company also has promoted Charles Miller to production manager and Joel Pamperin to production coordinator.
Jim Mattiolo has joined Poblocki Paving Corp. as a project manager and sales representative. He is a 1991 UW-Whitewater graduate and has worked with paving and concrete contractors in Arizona and Wisconsin.
Matthew Waller has joined Zeppos & Associates in Milwaukee as an account coordinator. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising from UW-Milwaukee. Prior to joining Zeppos, he worked for a local marketing firm.
Allison Harwood has joined Brady Marketing Group, Menomonee Falls, as an account executive. She had been with TMP Worldwide, and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from UW-Milwaukee.
Chris Bielfeld has joined MSI General in Oconomowoc as a structural engineer. Bielfeld received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1993 from Marquette University and a master’s in civil engineering in 2003, also from Marquette.
Chipper Express, Wauwatosa, has promoted Jeff "Jay" Kwiatkowski to the position of vice president of operations for the freight broker and logistics firm.
Steve Hoefs has joined Orbis Corp. in Oconomowoc as customer service director. He had been director of North American Customer Service for Ondeo Nalco in Napperville, Ill. He is a University of Iowa graduate with a degree in chemical engineering.
DBA Marketing in Delafield has hired Jill Hartzold Moino as an account executive. She has nine years of agency experience, most recently at the Chicago office of Ketchum.
April Ruther has joined CG Schmidt Inc. in Milwaukee as a human resources assistant. Prior to joining CG Schmidt, Ruther graduated from Port Washington High School and attended the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Roy Ramquist has been named director of North American sales for Soredex North America in Milwaukee. Ramquist was formerly with Gendex as the manager of international marketing and sales.
Wauwatosa Savings Bank has named Susan Luling and Matt Jendrzejczyk as business development/community relations officers for the metropolitan area. They will be located at the bank’s new corporate center at 11200 W. Plank Ct., Wauwatosa.

May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee