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

President relies on partners to help build Brookfield engineering company

Mark Peters believes that when people have a vested interest in the company where they work, they are more likely to care about that company’s success. While that may not be a revolutionary viewpoint, Peters puts his wallet where his mouth is.
The president and chief executive officer of Impact Engineering Solutions Inc., Brookfield, retains 65% ownership in his company. However, he has granted partner status to five others who help oversee the day-to-day operations of the firm.
Those partners include: Jane Armstrong, controller; Tom Miller,
director of operations; Mike Stone, director of sales; Brian Quincey, director of consulting services; and Tom Volk, senior project manager.
"These people focus on doing the right things. It heightens their commitment to involvement," Peters says. "It instills a sense of pride and owner-
ship. It certainly gives them a more pronounced voice when sharing their opinions on directions and policies."
Although Impact Engineering’s customers have been struggling through a depressed manufacturing economy, the Brookfield company continues to grow.
By focusing on the "who" of his company, before the "what," Impact Engineering’s annual revenues have grown from $2.5 million when Peters acquired the firm in 1995 to $4 million.
Peters says his management team is the key to his company’s success in providing technology-based design engineering support services to original equipment manufacturers, including Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Strattec Securities, Rockwell International, Magnetek, Regal Ware and John Deere & Co.
That stable of customers with a strong presence in Wisconsin is one reason Impact Engineering intends to stay in the state and ultimately move to its own building, Peters says.
Peters, his partners and a rotating handful of key employees meet quarterly "off-site" with an independent consultant to take a look back and to project where they’re going.
"It’s not my vision. It’s a management vision," Peters says. "The other partners are managers. When we go through a year-end (evaluation), I don’t put the budget together. They put the budget together and build a plan to achieve that."
Sometimes, that plan needs to change, and Peters and his managers must confront brutal facts. For instance, the company had planned to open an office in Chicago this year.
"We thought the economy would come around sooner, and we’re now adjusting. We put some of our strategic initiatives on hold. We’re going to reforecast and re-budget," Peters says.
The company walks a fine line between focusing on its core competencies and being flexible and creative enough to change course to embrace new opportunities.
Impact Engineering recently added Vince Adams as the director of its new Analysis Services Division.
"When you’re young and growing, there’s lots of opportunities, and you’ve got to figure out which ones fit your core competencies and which ones don’t," Peters says. "Opportunities are not all created equal. We believe in a process here called progress, not perfection. Do something to get the ball rolling and refine it as we go."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Maverick consultant turns theme of courage into executive development

By Susan Paprcka, for SBT

No guts, no story. It’s Susan Marshall’s trademark saying, and she has certainly lived by it. An author, speaker and consultant, Marshall has built a career on providing consulting and coaching resources for businesspeople seeking to develop and enhance powerful and practical executive skills with an experiential approach.
She founded her company, Executive Advisor, in 1997, offering organizations three primary consulting services: strategic positioning, performance management and executive development. The delivery of those services focuses on Marshall’s central themes of vision, courage and leadership.
"Growth, improved performance and measurable results are not possible without vision, courage and leadership," according to Marshall, of Jackson in Washington County. "An individual’s growth will be limited by what he or she refuses to see. The same is true for companies."
Marshall published her first book in 2000 entitled How To Grow A Backbone: 10 Strategies for Gaining Power and Influence at Work, which effectively ties into her consulting themes. The book’s focus is on tangible ways individuals can succeed through confidence, competence and risk-taking.
Her book has been translated into German, Spanish and Chinese.
She says she chose the terminology of "backbone" because of what she witnessed during her many years in the corporate world — lack of courage and accountability in leadership roles. "In my interactions with people, I’d see so much conflict avoidance," Marshall recalls. "People that were afraid to speak up and take responsibility and say what they really wanted to say; many of them simply lacked confidence."
Since the book’s release, Marshall has also developed the concept into a course based on the same themes. The course is titled "Developing Executive Stature: Six Weeks to Greater Power and Influence" and is designed to offer executives an experiential, accountable learning experience.

Are you in the game?
According to Marshall, too much executive development has become what she calls "entertainment training." Meaning that executives attend conferences, seminars and workshops with the expectation that speakers will be interesting, engaging and entertaining, and that their learning is the responsibility of the speaker.
"Accumulating a catalog of ‘learning experiences’ has nothing to do with growth or improvement," says Marshall. "Just as a resume can list important titles and well-known companies, the quality of the individual’s experience will be determined by how fully engaged he or she was in learning and performing each role."
That’s why Marshall says she decided to make the course into a six-week format that meets once a week. She wants executives to listen, engage and use what they’ve learned in the work setting, then return to the class ready to discuss the effectiveness of what they’ve discovered. Such an experiential approach makes the executive more engaged in and accountable to the learning process, she says.
"The quality of coaching experience lies in helping the individual to take responsibility for his or her current state and to help those people decide how they want to improve it," she says. "It is not a simple or quick proposition, and it should not be billed as such."
Week one of the course is an introduction and overview that sets the stage for understanding how prevailing business events affect the individual and organizational success. Participants rate their current levels of power and influence as a basis for comparison throughout the course.
The second week is "context and intelligence gathering," in which participants develop a context within their current work, including a brief developmental sketch to understand how they arrived where they are at, and an integration map that shows important links to others.
Week three is about "perceptive observation" – the importance of listening, information gathering and eye contact.
Week four is "new thinking, stronger partnerships," which builds on the enhanced awareness of the first three weeks and focuses on individual thought habits and the importance of relationships.
The fifth week is called "powerful presentation," where participants learn to assess their effectiveness based on feedback from a variety of sources and identify ways in which to modify their actions for enhanced success.
And the final week is about generating consistent results. Participants evaluate their propensity for making excuses, creating diversions or constructing rationalizations to avoid challenging situations or potentially controversial decisions. Participants once again rate themselves on their current level of power and influence and compare them with the first week’s self-evaluation.
The curriculum is under consideration for several graduate outreach programs across the country.

Paying attention
Marshall has been active in the business community for more than 25 years, both in the corporate setting and in her private practice. She has held corporate positions in advertising, marketing, training and development, and general management, and has worked with a variety of organizations, including General Motors, Nestle, Subaru of America, Harley-Davidson, Apple Computer, Revere Ware, Hewitt Associates, the Society of Automotive Engineers, Kmart, Sears and many other Fortune 50 to 1000 companies and organizations.
She also has a very diverse background — from leading a turnaround to coaching executives, from creating workshops to facilitating MBA orientation at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business. Marshall is also currently a chairperson for the executive coaching organization Executive Agenda.
Always a reader and a learner, Marshall says she became interested in executive development during her experience in corporate situations where she says she many times felt she threatened people because she challenged the way things were being done and the excuses for lack of success that were being made.
"I noticed that executives many times resisted real learning, that once they reached their executive goal, they felt they had no more reason to learn," says Marshall. "They saw the presentation of new ideas as challenging their authority, and I found it to be quite a disturbing reality."

For more information on Executive Advisor, visit www.executiveadvisorllc.com.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Larson Co. announces two acquisitions

The Gustave A. Larson Co. of Pewaukee has purchased certain assets from Pameco Corp. in seven states and has acquired Jensen-Klich Supply Co.
Larson will now be operating 14 former Pameco locations in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
The move is designed to establish a major presence for Larson in the Colorado, Utah and Idaho markets, and helps strengthen Larson’s customer service to it’s customers in the states of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, said Andrew Larson, president of Gustave A. Larson Co.
"The branch teams in these locations have had a strong commitment to customer service. This is a tremendous opportunity for our company to work with them, and achieve the long-term growth potential that these markets offer," Larson said.
The Klich acquisiton is designed to establish a major presence for Larson in the Iowa and Nebraska markets. Jensen-Klich has branches in Omaha and Lincoln, Neb. and Clear Lake, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa.
"This acquisition further establishes Larson as an industry leader and a major regional player in the consolidation of the highly fragmented HVAC/R industry," Larson said.
Jensen-Klich Supply Co. works in the Iowa and Nebraska residential new construction markets with three locations in Iowa and two locations in Nebraska. The company’s products include Armstrong Air Conditioning Products, Magic Pak multi-family comfort systems, Lennox Hearth Products, Heatcraft Refrigeration Products, Snappy sheet metal products, Tecumseh compressors, and Hart and Cooley registers and grilles.
The Larson company is a wholesale distributor of commercial refrigeration and HVAC products. Its products include residential and commercial HVAC equipment and accessories and commercial refrigeration products. Following the completion of these transactions, the company will operate 45 locations serving customers in 13 Midwestern states.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

East Troy’s Contract Comestibles helps Saz’s take off in retail sales

By David Niles, of SBT

Steve Sazama has been working for more than five years to build a solid retail business to complement his Saz’s restaurant and related operations in Milwaukee.
He’s encountered challenges typical of any smaller player in the consumer-oriented retail food business, including those associated with finding producers willing to handle his smaller amount of product with consistency and high quality.
Until he found out about an East Troy company that has a reputation for doing things that don’t seem quite feasible.
It’s a connection that Sazama believes is crucial to the expansion of his retail business, now that he’s reached a plateau in market development. That plateau was reached by a combination of diligence, trial-and-error, persistence, relationships and branding savvy. He himself is now part of the brand – witness his smiling face in the Sunday newspaper grocery store coupon section pages and on the packages of his products in grocery store refrigerators and freezers.
His East Troy business partners, John Delikat and Matt Nitz of Contact Comestibles, are smiling, too. Because the Saz’s connection has helped position their relatively young company for growth well beyond the work they do for Sazama and a handful of other customers.
The future is so promising that a "penthouse of pork" — as Sazama refers to is — is under construction on the upper level of the East Troy plant, a former milk condensing facility, providing dedicated space for the production of Saz’s shredded barbecue pork and chicken that is sold in grocery store "party packs."
Contract Comestibles also makes and bottles Saz’s barbecue sauces for grocery store sales, while other products — mozzarella sticks and barbecue ribs — are made elsewhere.
Delikat and Nitz are also working on a way to produce Saz’s salad dressing for bottling. And, someday, they may produce chili for the restaurateur.
And that’s how the connection between Saz’s and Contract Comestibles began.
Delikat and Nitz started their business in 1997, taking their experience from another food products company. "We decided we were going to start doing miracles for ourselves rather than for other people," Nitz recalled in a recent interview at the East Troy facility on Beulah Avenue.
Fortunately, they started with a product line, giving them immediate cash flow.
"But we knew a company isn’t built on one customer," Delikat said. "We knew we had to broaden the customer base."
A few leads went nowhere. Then their insurance agent contacted them. He had read an article about Sazama’s desires for more retail business. Delikat sent an e-mail to Kathy Koncel, sales and marketing director for Saz’s, noting that Contract Comestibles had some production time available.
The two sides talked — about chili. "The first product we talked about, chili, we haven’t even done; everything else just took off," Delikat said. "We just haven’t gotten to that chili yet."
Contact Comestibles started producing Saz’s pork and chicken in one package size, "and they just kept throwing more ideas at us," Nitz said.
Among those ideas was barbecue sauce, which another company had been making. When that plant was sold, Sazama learned the new owner wasn’t interested in batches as small as he required. He needed to find a new producer, and he turned to Delikat and Nitz.
The two were reluctant.
"We didn’t have any interest in putting in bottling equipment," Nitz said. "Working with rigid plastic bottles is completely different from packaging in bags."
And they didn’t see how it would make economic sense. "It’s kind of tough to put in a whole line of machinery for one customer’s sauce," Nitz said. But working with Sazama, they determined that it was feasible, although not terribly profitable.
So they agreed to take on the sauce project – in a slow, controlled manner. "But they wanted it about immediately," Delikat said. "So we did it."
"It was a minor miracle," Nitz added.
"They did the impossible," Sazama said of the situation. "Our goal was one year; they did it in two months."
While the sauce line might not be so profitable in the short term for Contract Comestibles, Delikat and Nitz see it as an opportunity for future business. "The equipment is now in place, opening a venue for more business," Nitz said.
Like the controlled growth of the business since its start, Delikat and Nitz want future growth to be measured. The welcome expansion, but not at the cost of lower quality.
They focus on lines that can be easily automated — for two reasons. One is the labor issue. The other is the quality issue.
Contract Comestibles currently employs eight people — four full-time and four part-time. Three to four people run production lines on any given day. It’s a staff that’s largely stayed on with the company. "We’re blessed with very little turnover; we do our darndest to take care of our employees," Nitz said.
But they don’t want too many employees. "We’re not fond of the minimum-wage concept that comes with labor-intensive lines of production, and the supervision needed for such work," Nitz added. "So we don’t want hand-intensive jobs."
"So we’re a little bit selective in the companies we’ll do work for," Delikat added. "If it doesn’t lend itself to automation, it’s not for us."
That automation not only reduces the need for labor, it also helps control quality, which pleases Sazama.
"The consistency of the product from this company is really great," Sazama said of Contract Comestibles. That high quality wasn’t always there when Sazama tried other food processors. He recalled how a former processor would provide barrels of sauce that significantly varied in weight. "So the viscosity of the sauce varied tremendously," he said. "Contract Comestibles caught that situation right away."
That’s thanks to the quality-control background of Delikat and Nitz. "We measure everything," Nitz said. "I think we have filed that companies 10 times our size keep."
Contract Comestibles also handles egg products for another firm. "When we learned they were dealing with eggs, we knew quality control wouldn’t be an issue," Sazama said.
Not only does keeping such records help ensure consistency, it also makes it a lot easier to correct a problem if something does go wrong.
"There’s definitely a lot to be said for keeping good records," Delikat said.
There’s also a lot to be said about controlling growth and about having the right mindset when selecting growth opportunities, the two owners say.
When asked why the company is doing so well, Nitz attributes the size of the company and the mindset of its management. Delikat adds that it’s because of a willingness to do things that other companies don’t want to undertake.
"They’ve been able to adjust things for us – things that other processors wouldn’t do," Sazama says.
Delikat, who had studied for a degree in electrical engineering, says the "you can’t do that" attitude seems to be too prevalent in some businesses. "By the time other businesses are saying that, I prefer to be starting to do it," he said. "There is no ‘can’t.’ It may be a matter of financial viability, but there is no ‘can’t’."
Nitz, with a chemistry degree, added: "You kind of have to look at it and find your way around the problem; to see what you can do to make it affordable."
Saz’s salad dressing is a classic case in point. Contract Comestibles is studying how to bottle it for retail sales. It’s not a matter of just making the dressing and bottling it. The problem? "Saz’s dressing is real food; it’s not a bunch of chemicals," Delikat said. "It contains real sour cream. Real eggs. Many salad dressings on store shelves really don’t have real food in them."
So they’re working on a way to keep the real ingredients and stabilize the product for shelf life.
Contract Comestibles currently leases about 15,000 square feet of space in its plant. It’s enough space to allow for growth – but regulated growth. "If we continue to add production lines at the same rate at which we’ve done, which is about one or two new lines per year, things will go well," Nitz said.
And the company will remain a processor of foods for other companies. "Contract Comestibles wouldn’t make a good brand name on a package," Nitz says. "But we’re not about having our name on a package; that’s not what we do. We’d rather do the manufacturing and figure out things for other companies. We know what our strengths and weaknesses are."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

To win tomorrow, create and cultivate new leaders today
Fast Company editor Polly LaBarre explains the new leadership agenda at Racine’s Sustainable Community Series

By Kay Falk, for SBT

As senior editor and the public face of Fast Company magazine, Polly LaBarre shares its mission to explore today’s business world with "the intensely competitive but often unsung heroes and rising stars at companies across America," as she puts it.
Those ideas are designed to explain how the business game and competition have changed, and to equip readers to be successful in this new business environment.
Winning in business was the focus of her recent speech in Racine — "The New Leadership Agenda — Are You Navigating or Just Weathering the Storm?" LaBarre spoke as part of the Racine Sustainable Community Series, sponsored by SC Johnson and the Racine County Economic Development Corp., on May 22. Prior to her visit, she shared these thoughts with Small Business Times:
— This battered economy is all we have. "Recession, recovery, a falling stock market, slowdowns, war, unemployment and layoffs, corporate greed and dishonesty — these constant economic pressures have people waiting for the next big thing to happen," she says.
"People have to stop waiting for the rest of their lives to begin — and stop hoping for some killer app to come along and jumpstart the economy," LeBarre says. "The reality is, the next thing has started. This is it. Great things will happen, new ideas will get funded and companies will grow, but it won’t happen as quickly or dramatically as it did from 1995 to 1999."
— Former "givens" won’t work. Most facets of the business world have changed. There are continual advances in digital technology, global competition, deregulated industries such as telecommunications and energy and a shift in younger people’s expectations about business, lifestyles and why people work in the first place.
"The notion that you can do business in the same old way and be the kind of a leader that rallies the ‘troops’ to blindly follow you won’t work anymore," she says.
At the same time, LaBarre says, "We need to forget everything we learned about time (faster is better), about how money works (there’s no free capital anymore) and leadership. There’s a new concept of ‘normal’ that we focused on as the cover story in our May issue, and it affects how you go about equipping future leaders."
— Winning companies are different. "My talk focuses on what it takes to win in business today. My key points are that real winners compete on ideas," she emphasizes. "Strategic originality is a requirement if you want to even be in the game today. At the same time, the best companies understand that they don’t prosper at the expense of customers."
She continues, "In many ways, the past decade has been a betrayal of all the business world’s promises to customers. How many really satisfied customers are there? Winning companies are serious, and seriously creative about their relationship with their customers."
LaBarre adds, "Real winners are as disciplined as they are creative. They execute relentlessly and understand the need to be creative in that execution."
* Leaders help everyone in the company succeed. "The businesses that truly succeed in the future will be the ones that do the best job of creating the most confident and committed leaders, deepest in the ranks," she emphasizes. "That’s what success – both at the individual and the organization levels – really hinges on."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

How managers can keep their distance while staying close to their employees

By Daniel Schroeder, for SBT

Question: I’m getting a lot of pushback about my management style from a couple of my employees. Although we work closely, I don’t want to get "too close." I invite their input, but reserve the right to make the final decision. I can tell they don’t like this, but I’m their boss, and my boss holds me accountable for what they do. I don’t think they fully appreciate the difficult position I am in — I get pressure from two directions. How can I help them to understand that I am on their side and trying to do what it takes for all of us to succeed?

Answer: In my last article, I talked about the important contribution that communications and interpersonal skills make to managerial success. Your question underscores this point — a foundational ability for any manager is being able to work effectively through and with others.
Your situation is a common one. On the one hand, you want to forge an open channel and establish a good working relationship with your direct reports. You want to have the value of their experience and insight. You want to develop a positive climate. Yet, you recognize that sometimes the tough calls have to be made. You know that being an effective manager isn’t simply about being popular — it’s about achieving results. Now, I’ll grant you that it would be nice to be both popular and a producer, but that’s not always possible.
For starters, then, you need to come to grips with the fact that not every decision you make is going to yield neat and tidy results. You may not always have the luxury of pleasing all parties. Sometimes the decision you make will bring closure to the immediate situation. At other times, one decision will open up or expose other issues that will need to be decided. Over time, then, the ability to tolerate ambiguity becomes increasingly important.
Confronted with those kinds of difficult scenarios where the "right" alternative appears elusive, you are forced to engage in what some have called paradoxical thinking. Paradoxical thinking helps managers deal with competing priorities. As you are well aware, managers are constantly making trade-offs. Sometimes, there are no right answers. And the higher you move in the chain of command, the more severe the tensions become.
Managers are frequently asked to confront contradictory pressures (e.g., connecting with people vs. generating results). Much of the time the choice is not between good and bad, but between good and good or bad and bad. In such cases, there is a need for paradoxical thinking – thinking that transcends the contradictions and offers the perspective that two seemingly opposite conditions can simultaneously be true.
In order to engage in paradoxical thinking, you must be willing and able to engage in contradiction. You must be willing and able to integrate seemingly opposite ideas or behaviors. You must be willing and able to step outside your current level of thinking and attempt to see things from a new perspective.
For you, the contradiction appears to have the issue of control at its core. Your employees want more autonomy. You want to hold on tight. Using paradoxical thinking, you will be able to see that each of you is right. After all, it is desirable to have employees who are self-sufficient and autonomous. Yet, as a manager it is also desirable to exercise control and legitimate authority.
So, what needs to happen is for you and your employees to be work through this situation before their morale and/or productivity take a nosedive.
Put simply, you need to establish a "common ground" around work expectations. Here is a simple technique that I often use to help clarify the amount of independence that employees may exercise in making decisions that attach to their work. Ideally, to promote maximum "buy in," the following three steps should be constructed and implemented in participative (i.e., manager and employees) fashion.
First, identify the decisions that attach to the job. Second, identify the levels of operating authority that attach to each decision using this "freedom scale":
Level 5 – Act on your own.
Level 4 – Act, but advise me.
Level 3 – Recommend a course of action that is negotiated with me.
Level 2 – Ask me what to do.
Level 1 – Wait until being told what to do.

The third step is to put this "road map" into practice, monitor the results, and evaluate its effectiveness.
My experience tells me that the kind of clarity that emerges from this process can be quite powerful. Every one is reading from the same page and ambiguity is decreased. Employees understand the latitude with which they can operate. Managers sponsor the process and control its execution.
Over time, the freedom scale can be revisited and changed. In that sense, it becomes a dynamic process, not one that is rigid and unbending.
For that to happen, though, you will have to engage in more paradoxical thinking.
But, you already knew that.

Daniel Schroeder, Ph.D., of Organization Development Consultants Inc. (ODC) in Brookfield, provides "HR Connection." Small Business Times readers who would like to see an issue addressed in a column may reach him at 262-827-1901, via fax at 262-827-8383, via e-mail at schroeder@odcons.com or via the Internet at www.odcons.com.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

More employers learning Spanish as Hispanic workforce expands

By Heather Stur, of SBT

Mark Wiener is not the kind of manager who wants his employees to be intimidated by him. He wants them to feel comfortable talking to him, and he wants conversations to be more than shoptalk. He likes to know his employees — their backgrounds, families, interests.
He believes one of the ways to cultivate a congenial work atmosphere is to speak the employees’ language.
At the Four Points Sheraton Milwaukee North, which Wiener operates, several of his employees are native Spanish speakers. So he decided to enroll in a Spanish course at the Spanish Immersion Institute in Whitefish Bay so that he could communicate with his employees in a way that was most comfortable for them.
"This is a family-oriented business, and I want my employees to feel like they’re part of a family here," Wiener said. "I want them to feel comfortable, and sometimes that means speaking in their language."
A second language, primarily Spanish, has become a popular business tool, whether used to communicate with a growing number of Spanish-speaking employees or to do international business.
Coral Mateu Anderegg, a native of Madrid, Spain, and a former Spanish professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, opened the Spanish Immersion Institute about a year ago, originally to provide an immersion education program for children. She soon recognized that there were many adults interested in learning Spanish, primarily to communicate with Spanish speaking employees.
"Milwaukee has a large and growing Hispanic population, especially on the south side, and people who work in that area have come here wanting to learn Spanish so that they can communicate with their customers," Anderegg said.
Nurses, doctors and police officers are some of the professionals who have enrolled in the institute’s two-year Spanish immersion program. Courses meet twice a week and are taught in conversational Spanish from day one. Students typically are fluent by the time they complete the program, Anderegg said. Classes include a maximum of 10 students.
"People who enroll in these classes usually do not want to be in a university setting to learn a language," Anderegg said. "They are not as comfortable in larger classes, and they tend to have different objectives than college students."
For about five years, Milwaukee Area Technical College has offered Spanish courses tailored specifically for various industries, companies and organizations. The curricula are designed by an organization called Command Spanish, and MATC is a licensed registered provider.
At MATC, an individual company or organization requests a program, and MATC instructors teach the classes at the business site. Fluency is not the goal of the program, said Genell Gialdini, spokeswoman for MATC’s Office of Community and Corporate Learning. Rather, programs are designed so that employees can quickly learn basic phrases they might need in their jobs.
Mostly, students learn basic commands. For example, nurses learn phrases such as "Step on the scale," and "This may hurt a bit." Students do not learn verb conjugation, tenses or the difference between masculine and feminine nouns.
"We market it as a time-sensitive, short-term program," Gialdini said. "The companies that use it know it does not take the place of an interpreter."
Programs can be as short as six weeks, in which students meet for two hours per week and learn about two pages of phrases. Learning takes place through various repetition and memorization exercises, and classes are highly interactive, Gialdini said.
From a business perspective, speaking Spanish not only can make Spanish speaking employees feel more comfortable, it also can be an effective customer-service tool regardless of what language the customer speaks.
"Our employees often work directly with customers, and if an employee has a question that I can’t answer right away due to a language difference, that’s not good for our customers," Wiener said. "If I or other managers can communicate directly with our employees, it will make our operation more efficient, and we will provide better service to our customers."
What’s more, being in the hotel industry, Wiener’s customers come from all over the world, including the Spanish speaking regions. The ability to communicate in the customer’s language is another element of service Wiener can provide.
"Any way that we can provide better service to our customers, we will do it," Wiener said. "That is most important."

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Motivating employees in difficult times

Motivating employees is always important, but inspiring your team takes on increased significance during challenging economic times. When business results are less than promising, emotions, such as fear and anxiety, can bring employee performance to a standstill. Here are some suggestions from the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs to help foster productivity, high morale and loyalty in your workforce in the best and worst of times.

Give them vision
To keep up morale, make sure employees know and understand the organization’s mission, vision, values and goals. Those concepts represent the organization’s reason for being and, as such, help workers focus their efforts in the right direction and see that their contributions matter. Be sure they know who benefits from the work of your organization.

Don’t hide the target
Setting clear expectations is a great way to motivate employees and keep them on track. Clearly establish goals with each employee, indicate the results you expect and how those results contribute to the overall performance of your business. To confirm their understanding, ask employees if they have any questions or need any resources to complete the tasks you assign. Finally, make sure if the organization’s goals change, you let your employees know how these changes impact their roles.

Provide regular feedback
Conducting an annual employee performance review is important, but it’s not enough. Employees need to know, on an ongoing basis, when they have done a job well and when you expect better or different results. Keep in mind that the more immediate the feedback, the more effective it is. Try to catch people in the act of doing what you want and acknowledge their performance immediately.

Make employees part of the solution
Employees need to be involved. Empowering employees to make decisions about their work and to solve day-to-day problems demonstrates your confidence in them and motivates them to live up to your expectations. Another bonus: when you make employees part of the solution, it is easier to get their buy-in and commitment for the long-term.

Focus on people development
Since most people thrive when skill building and learning are part of their daily experiences, investing in your staff’s development should remain a priority. Training, career development and other learning opportunities don’t have to cost a lot, particularly when you utilize internal resources. The best way to ensure the growth of your team is to create an individual development plan for each employee and work with them to carry out the plan.

Communicate!
You cannot over-communicate, particularly in uncertain or difficult times. Sharing information and building your staff’s understanding of what’s happening in the business and in the industry is key to engaging them and to aligning their efforts and performance with the organization’s objectives. What’s more, sharing information with employees sets a good example and encourages them to do the same with one another.
Since not everyone processes information the same way, it’s helpful to use multiple forms of communication, particularly when the information is critical. For example, you might follow up an e-mail message with a voice mail reminder. And don’t assume that, just because a communication has gone out, that it has been understood and accepted. Instead, ask questions to confirm comprehension.

The power of praise
Recognizing and rewarding workers is one of the most powerful ways to impact morale. Acknowledge good effort, not just results. Keep in mind, too, that people are motivated by different things, whether it be money, travel, training, promotions or a flexible work schedule. The best way to find out what motivates your staff is to ask them.

Build fun
There are important milestones in the life of every business. Be sure to mark them. Throw a party and celebrate your workers’ accomplishments. Don’t ever allow yourself to get so caught up in the daily routine that you fail to see the good work being done.

Be positive
Every day, millions of people arrive at their workplace ready to contribute their best. The attitude of business leaders can greatly impact employees. Be positive and supportive and your employees are more likely to act similarly.

The above column was provided by the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs, based in Brookfield; www.wicpa.org.

May 30, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee