ASID design winners noted

Several Milwaukee-area architectural and design firms were recognized for their work at the American Society of Interior Designers Design Competition 2002 awards ceremony.
The celebration was held Feb. 6 at the Broadway Theater Center in Milwaukee. Award-winning projects in the commercial category include the Sharon Lynde Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin NICU, Motion Fitness & Racquet Club, and Design North Inc. in Racine
The Wisconsin ASID chapter entered 53 residential and commercial projects in the 2002 competition – its largest number of entries in several years, said Nancy Miller, spokeswoman for the chapter.
"Firms are doing good projects, and they want to be recognized," she said.
The Sharon Lynde Wilson Center for the Arts won a Gold award – the competition’s highest honor. A team of designers and artists working under the direction of Engberg Anderson Design Partnership Inc. created a facility that reflected the outdoor park environment in which the building is located, said Joanne Johnson, Engberg’s head of design.
The building is located at Mitchell Park in Brookfield and also serves as an educational facility for the Elmbrook School System.
"The center is designed to bridge the downtown Milwaukee art scene including the art museum, ballet and conservatory of music with the suburbs," Johnson said.
The center’s look took the form of a lodge in a park, and designers incorporated natural materials such as stone and wood into the center’s interior design. Warm, natural colors were used to complement the wood used, including the high-peaked wood ceiling in the lobby.
The auditorium features wood ceilings and cherry paneling, and slate flooring was placed throughout. The carper and seating fabric feature warm green tones and patterns that are reminiscent of leaves.
Since the center was built for the arts, Engberg’s design team worked with Wisconsin artists to decorate the center with local art. Susan Falkman created the 40-foot limestone fireplace in the center’s lobby. It depicts dancers in abstract form. Steven Feren designed blown glass birds that hang like a chandelier from the ceiling of the auditorium. The sculpture is lit by fiber optics, producing the illusion that the birds are flying, Johnson said. Michael Gross created the theater-themed ceramic tiles in the corridors and restrooms.
Johnson credits the interaction between interior designers and artists with the creating a unique structure worthy of ASID’s highest honor.
"The integration of art, architecture and interior design was the most unique aspect of the project," she said. "Our ideas played off each other and generated new ideas."
ASID is the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for interior designers. Its 32,000 members include interior designers, students and industry partners who practice commercial, residential, medical and restaurant design. The Wisconsin chapter provides learning sessions, tours, awards and community service opportunities to its members.

May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Bukackek Construction enters high-end hardware market

By Charles Rathmann, of SBT

Income stream diversification. Hitting ’em where they ain’t. A new venture from design-builder and construction manager Bukacek Construction, Racine, is an example of both business strategies.

The contractor has formed a new division – BCI Group, which will broker high-end commercial and residential hardware. Acting as a manufacturer’s representative of sorts, BCI will sell about 15 different domestic and imported hardware and fixture lines through architects and contractors involved with luxury homes and resort properties nationwide.
According to company president Nick Bukacek, the market for those products is fragmented geographically, and a nationwide supplier should be able to get the price advantage.
"I got the idea when I was building a spec home in Colorado," Bukacek said. "As I was pricing the products for the house, everything was so much more expensive out there. We found a local supplier here and just the geographic difference from the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains was 20%. Our local guy said he still had a 40% margin. It seemed to me that nobody is taking this model nationwide."
BCI rolled out its product line in April at the Kitchen & Bath Show in Orlando, Fla.
While architects and contractors in the residential market are still busy, Bukacek said that BCI will help his construction company, which spends most of its time on commercial, industrial and other non-residential projects, strike a balance across different markets.
"It’s been a slow March," Bukacek said. "And that’s one reason we are doing this. This is a way to diversify our revenue stream."
BCI will market its product lines – including spa tubs from Bouvier Hydro and bronze door hardware from Rocky Mountain Hardware – will be sold on-line and through phone and in-person selling.

May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Sales files should be periodically culled; here’s what to keep and what to trash

By Marcia Gauger, for SBT

Question: I’m doing some spring cleaning and realize that I have accumulated quite a bit of paper in my customer files. Regarding customer files and records, what’s important to keep?

Answer: Spring cleaning is important. If you haven’t cleaned your files in a while, I think you’ll find it refreshing. You mentioned that you have accumulated quite a bit of paper, which leads me to believe that you are organizing customer information in a paper-based format.
The short answer is, keep only what you don’t have in an electronic format, such as customer brochures or handwritten notes.
Most important, ask yourself how you will use the information in the future. If you don’t have an answer to that question, pitch it.
If you haven’t worked with a particular account in more than two years, you may consider tossing the entire folder.
Whether in electronic or paper-based format, collecting customer information can be extremely useful if the information is purposeful.
One salesperson recently shared her frustration of transferring to a territory where the previous salesperson had not kept customer records. She spent the first three months interviewing customers to determine what had taken place to date, which was embarrassing and costly.
Storing files electronically has its advantages, mainly in terms of sorting and sharing. Most electronic files are easily merged with handheld devices, like the Palm Pilot, making customer information easily accessible. Beyond the obvious address, phone, etc., here are some categories that you may consider collecting:
History – Think of your customer records much like doctors’ records. After a brief glance, your doctor has a snapshot of what has taken place to date and what kind of condition you’re in. Individual customer interactions may seem insignificant.
Yet, married with other interactions, they reveal a total picture of your account’s personality. Jot a quick note immediately after each customer meeting including your objective and subsequent outcomes.
You may think you’ll remember the details without writing them down, but you’ll be surprised how much is forgotten within the first 24 hours after a meeting.
Contacts and influencers – It’s important to record information about your key contact. It is also important to keep information about influencers who may affect your sales outcomes.
When considering influencers, think of those who can release funds (usually referred to as economic influencers), those who use or supervise the use of your product or services (usually referred to as user buying influences), those who make recommendations and judgments (like gatekeepers) and coaches who can best guide you in the sale.
Behavioral style – Behavioral style refers to the logic that buyers use in making decisions. We typically refer to four main categories of behavior, including direct, outgoing, steady or easy-going and analytical.
Tracking information about customer behavioral styles can shed light on how to prepare for future meetings. Is the customer blunt and to the point, or analytical and detail-oriented?
Communication style – Communication style refers to the vehicle that customers prefer when sending and receiving information. Like behavioral styles, tracking this information will help you prepare for meetings and can even help you prioritize your sales calls.
Visual people need to see you more often than auditory or kinesthetic customers do. If you aren’t sure of your customer’s communication style, simply ask, "How do you prefer that I communicate the information to you? Would you prefer written communication, a phone call, or do you want me to stop by and walk you through it?"
Common objections – The old saying, "hindsight is 20-20" applies to customer likes and dislikes in particular. If history repeats itself, tracking this information can help salespeople avoid past mistakes.
Personal and business interests – Understanding each of your customers personally will increase your ability to build rapport and relationships.
Track information that customers reveal regarding hobbies, interests, family and anything else that they want you to know. Use this information to sincerely take interest in your customers.
Let customers know you think of them other than for the sale by inquiring about personal interests or jotting a note periodically.
Proposals and quotations – It’s important to keep accurate records or what was promised and what was acted upon. This is especially true in businesses where pricing is flexible and proposals are custom-designed.
The bottom line about customer information is that it’s only valuable to keep if you will use it in the future to either build sales or relationships.
If you decide that information is worthwhile keeping, the next question to ask yourself is, "where will I look for the information when I need it?" If you can answer that question, you’re in good shape!

Marcia Gauger is the president of Impact Sales, a performance improvement and training company with offices in Wisconsin, Florida and Arkansas. You can contact her at 262-642-9610 or marciag@makinganimpact.com. Her column appears in every other issue of SBT.

May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Optimistic investors inject $1.3 million into concrete-pumping business

Even as private and public project owners scale back on building plans and contractors here report a soft market, a group of out-of-state investors and a Wisconsin-based concrete pumping professional are betting on increased demand for pumped concrete.
Great Lakes Concrete Pumping Wisconsin was incorporated as a limited liability corporation last December and opened its doors in February. The West Allis company, which has invested $1.3 million in capital equipment, is owned by Richard Farrell and a group of investors based near Denver.
Farrell’s partners, Jeff Moll, Bob Rosendale and Pete DeGrood, own Southwest Concrete Pumping, which operates in Denver, Atlanta and Minneapolis.
The strength of the combined companies – coupled with favorable market projections from the Portland Cement Association, cause Farrell to be optimistic, despite a slow start.
"We had a pretty lousy February through March," Farrell said. "It was rainy and cold, compared with January and February."
Concrete pumping is a specialized way of delivering concrete into a form on a construction site. Concrete pumps push specialized concrete mixes through a lubricated pipe.
Great Lakes Concrete Pumping owns three pumps, but Farrell said that for larger jobs, additional equipment could be brought in from the Southwest Concrete Pumping fleet as needed. The company has already handled some significant jobs, including the 1,000-yard Elmbrook Hospital project for general contractor C.G. Schmidt.
The slow start – weather not withstanding – is not surprising, given figures cited by Portland Cement Association chief economist Ed Sullivan. Sullivan gathers a variety of data and predicts macro, construction-specific and concrete-specific trends for the US and specific markets.
According to Sullivan, Portland cement consumption will decline this year in Wisconsin.
"We have it declining in 2003, in part because of Wisconsin’s exposure to manufacturing," Sullivan said. "It is not expected to pick up until the second half of the year. Then we have it increasing 1.2 and 1.9 percent as you move further out in the horizon."
Farrell also cites anecdotal evidence of ongoing demand for pumped concrete, specifically in the residential market.
"A number of years ago, 90% of the homes built were concrete block," Rosendale said. "Now, 90% have poured walls versus blocks."
Bob Stelter, chief financial officer of Bentley Construction Co., Milwaukee, agrees with Farrell about the increasing popularity of concrete pumping versus block for residential construction, in part because it is harder to find brick masons to lay block walls for a basement.
However, Stelter, who also serves as president of Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Greater Milwaukee, cautions against placing too much emphasis on any specific construction market indicator as a basis of predicting the future.
For his own edification, Stelter looks to data collected by AGC chief economist Ken Simonson. Simonson provides regional reports, dividing the country up by Federal Reserve office. Southeastern Wisconsin technically falls into the Chicago Fed territory, which presents challenges.
"I try to blend between the Chicago and Minneapolis forecasts," Stelter said.
Because of its reliance on manufacturing, the economic wind might blow differently in Wisconsin than in neighboring markets, according to Sullivan. The economy here may even react differently to economic forces than other manufacturing-heavy states.
"If I recall, compared with the national average, the Wisconsin manufacturing base has more exposure to the export markets than say Michigan, which is basically servicing the domestic auto market," Sullivan said, pointing to the large number of job shops and smaller manufacturers in Wisconsin. "It is possible that the manufacturing base in Wisconsin may lag the manufacturing recovery that you might see nationally."

Property leases
Apex Commercial
10,168 square feet of office space at 150 N. Sunnyslope Rd., Brookfield, to Nelson Occoneel & Kramer;
3,590 square feet of office space at 2401 N. Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa, to Wiernick, Martin & Neumaier;
1,500 square feet of office space at 2228 Miller Park Way, Milwaukee, to EMSL Analytical;
1,007 square feet of office space at 700 Pilgrim Parkway, Elm Grove, to Dr. Russell Brethauer
Polacheck
3,058 square feet of space at 111 E. Kilbourn Ave., Milwaukee, to Deutsche Investment Management, from Great Lakes REIT;
8,064 square feet of space at 10711 W. Oklahoma Ave., West Allis, to Priya Corp., from Auto Parts Distributors.
Property sales
James T. Barry Co.
A 357,000-square-foot industrial facility on 23 acres at 6600 W. Washington St. in West Allis has been sold to 6600 Washington LLC, a Chicago-based real estate investment group by Whitnall Summit. The sale is the largest industrial and the largest industrial/investment transaction completed in Wisconsin in 2003, according to James T. Barry III, president of the Barry Company/Colliers International. “This was an extraordinary transaction and provides good evidence that investors are showing confidence in Metropolitan Milwaukee’s industrial real estate market,” he said. The 6600 W. Washington property formerly housed the Wisconsin operation of Siemens Corp. and before that Allis-Chalmers. The Siemens facility was closed in May 1999. The building was purchased by Whitnall Summit in July 1999. The Barry Company procured eight tenants, bringing the building to almost 100% occupancy. The property was then packaged as an investment property and marketed to investors.
Boerke Co.
St. John’s Lutheran Church has purchased a 47,582-square-foot office property at 217 Freeman Dr., Port Washington, from Cook Composites & Polymers, for $1.2 million.
Cambridge Major Laboratories has purchased 4.249 acres of land in the Germantown Business Park from Skyline Development Corp. for $191,205.
Macrifin Real Estate Corp. has purchased the 12,095-square-foot Harter & Marshall Building at 9850 S. 54th St. from Harter & Marshall Properties for $795,000.
Carisch Brothers has purchased the Arby’s restaurant property on one acre of land at 3048 Douglas Ave., Racine, from Sweet Brothers for $200,000.
Dickman Co.
Multi-Fab Products has purchased the 28,050-square-foot industrial Maysteel Commerce Drive property at N90 W14507 Commerce Dr., Menomonee Falls, from ESG Properties, for $948,900, and a 13,750-square-foot industrial property at 3260 N. 126th St., Brookfield, from Andakat LLC.
NAI MLG Commercial
John and Claudia Deede have sold a 33,600-square-foot multi-tenant office/warehouse building on Whitnee Drive in Germantown. The property was sold to John Hennes Trucking Co. for $1.6 million. The building is partially occupied and John Hennes Trucking Co. plans to lease out one remaining unit, which has 800 square feet of office space and 7200 square feet of warehouse space.
Ogden & Co.
A 60,000-square-foot building at 4044 N. 31st St. in Milwaukee. The building was sold to an investors group, G&D Properties LLC for $320,000. Previously, the property was used as storage space, but future plans include leasing the building to various tenants.
Polacheck Co.
DDR Properties has purchased 1.07 acres of land from Gilberts Hardware at 17045 W. Capitol Dr., Brookfield.
Arkadly Tsirlin has purchased 0.32 acres of land from Hometown Inc. at 5200 W. Mill Rd., Milwaukee.
Stone Design, aka Cudahy Building Partnership, has purchased five acres of land at 2025 E. Birchwood Ave., Cudahy, from Anchor Bank.
Mexican Village Inc., has purchased three acres of land from Jopp, Michael & Streich, Scott, dba Mitts, at 7905 S. 27th St., Milwaukee.
May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Personnel file

Ellen Reidy has joined National Survey & Engineering, a division of R.A. Smith & Associates, Brookfield, as a civil engineer in the regional mall group. Reidy is responsible for site grading, drainage, paving and utility design for various commercial developments. Reidy was most recently employed with Edwards and Kelcey, Milwaukee, as an engineer. She has a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Marquette University. Sara Arnold has joined National Survey & Engineering as a civil engineer in the private development practice group. Arnold is responsible for sewer and water main designs, grading and erosion control plans, paving and storm drainage plans, stormwater management plans, calculations and permitting. Arnold was most recently employed with Mayo Corp., Madison, as a civil engineering and surveying intern. She has a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering with an environmental emphasis from UW-Madison.

Mike Christensen, Matt Horton, Shem Lemke, Marcia Gabriel and Larry Palank have been promoted at Hunzinger Construction Co. Christensen was promoted from project manager to senior project manager. Horton was promoted from project manager to senior project manager. Lemke was promoted from assistant project manager to project manager. Gabriel was promoted to director of Hunzinger Construction University. She also is an assistant project manager. Palank, was promoted to vice president of pre-construction services. He has served as a senior estimator at Hunzinger for 27 years.
Paul Salb has joined The Waterstone Group, Mequon, as a business development/relationship manager in the firm’s Employment Administration Services Division. Salb has six years of experience in human resources management and administrative outsourcing.
Daniel Peters has joined Jos. Schmidt & Sons Construction Co. in Sheboygan as a project manager. He has more than 30 years of construction experience. During the last 12 years he was the president and co-owner of Wall-Rich Construction Co. in Manitowoc. Along with his project management, he will help Jos. Schmidt & Sons expand its presence in the Manitowoc area.
Michael D. Huitink has joined the litigation practice group of the Godfrey & Kahn law firm in Milwaukee. He received his bachelor of science degree, summa cum laude, from Central Iowa College in 1996 and his law degree, cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1999.
Tammy Gilpin-Ripp has joined Versant in Milwaukee as an account group director. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications from UW-Milwaukee, and earlier worked at Hanson-Dodge Design and at BVK.
William J. Evans has joined Robertson Ryan & Associates, Milwaukee, as a vice president, working at the firm’s Waukesha office. He had been a vice president at Frank F. Haack & Associates, Wauwatosa.
Phil Yewlett has joined Vilter Manufacturing as credit manager for the industrial refrigeration company. Yewlett brings 10 years of experience in commercial credit, holding the position of credit analyst for Equifax, Dell Computer and Railtrack. He is a graduate of Cardiff University in Wales, United Kingdom, with a degree in economics and is a member of the Institute of Credit Management, United Kingdom. Yewlett will be based at the company’s headquarters in Cudahy.
The Rev. Dana Lindsley has been named head of the consultation department of Christos Ministries.
David Curtis has joined Ellenbecker Investment Group, Elm Grove, as a sales and marketing associate.
Russell J. Barry has been named a stockholder in the Ruekert/Mielke engineering firm in Waukesha. He has been with Ruekert/Mielke since 1994 and has worked as a project manager and project engineer on a variety of municipal projects. He chairs the firm’s Project Management Committee and holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from UW-Milwaukee.
Wisconsin Window Sales of Waukesha has hired Steve Statz as a sales representative for the Madison area.
State Financial Bank has announced a number of promotions and hires. LaVerne Davis, assistant branch manager of the Milwaukee location on Downer Avenue, has been promoted to branch manager. Michelle Engel, assistant branch manager of the New Berlin location, has been promoted to branch manager. Diane Brock, head teller at the Waterford location, has been promoted to assistant branch manager. Carl Markowski, assistant branch manager at the Whitefish Bay branch, has been promoted to branch manager. Mary Burgdoff-White, regional operations supervisor at the Greenfield location, has been promoted to assistant branch manager. Janine Donnelly, teller supervisor at the Muskego location, has been promoted to personal banker. Jason Klein has joined State Financial Bank as a commercial lender in Elkhorn. Renee Jirik has joined the bank as branch manager at the Brookfield location. Matthew Dionne has joined the bank as branch manager of the Elkhorn location.
Scott M. Morgan has been named director of pharmacy at TriCast in Wauwatosa. He has been a pharmacist for more than 20 years and most recently was manager of the clinical pharmacy of a health benefits company. John Adler is TriCast’s new national practice leader. He has more than 13 years of experience in prescription drug benefit management insurance entities and consulting firms.
Tim Gordhamer has joined the La Macchia Group design/build firm in Milwaukee as a project manger. Prior to joining La Macchia Group, Gordhamer worked for several years at Building Committee Inc. (BCI) in Milwaukee. He served in the Army Reserves for 10 years until he was honorably discharged at the rank of captain.
Jody A. Petry has joined Clifton Gunderson’s Southeastern Wisconsin Service Center as an audit senior manager. Petry is a graduate of Western Michigan University. She has more than 12 years of public accounting experience.
Michael Fischer has joined Welch Hanson Associates, a division of Yaggy Colby Associates, as a project engineer. He earned his civil engineering degree at UW-Platteville, and has experience in storm water management, water and wastewater systems, as well as subdivision design experience from initial site design through construction management and project inspection.
Integrated Risk Solutions, Delafield, has hired Lori Mentel as a systems supervisor for the risk management and insurance brokerage firm. Mentel brings more than 10 years of accounting experience to the company. She most recently served as an accounting manager for a local insurance group. She is a resident of Brookfield.
Tammie Miller has joined Grace Matthews Inc. as vice president. Miller previously was the senior vice president of operations at the Innovative Resource Group, a subsidiary of Cobalt Corp., Milwaukee. Earlier in her career, Miller served at Alex.Brown & Sons and Lehman Brothers in a variety of investment banking roles, and she was an associate at First Chicago. Miller earned her bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies and astrophysics, in addition to her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
Thomas Kopatich has joined RFP Commercial in Milwaukee as a broker. He is a graduate of University of Wisconsin with a degree in real estate and urban development and has more than seven years of experience.
Sherry Frederick has joined Promo540 in Kenosha as an apparel sales associate. She has been best known in the Kenosha area for owning/operating Sherry’s Custom Graphics – a silk-screening and embroidery operation servicing local businesses, organizations and sports teams. Promo540 has been working with Frederick for two years. Sherry will continue to service her clients through Promo540.

May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

20-acre mixed-use project in Union Grove was delayed for seven years

Developer John Bernhardt had dirt moving on the future site of the Maple Grove commercial center on Highway 11 in Union Grove a couple weeks before a mid-April groundbreaking ceremony.
His interest in getting started was understandable, given that the project has been delayed for seven years.
The project will include a 30,000-square-foot Piggly Wiggly grocery store, an 8,000-square-foot retail strip and additional outlot development.
The Maple Grove project had been saddled by expensive requirements by the Union Grove Village Board.
A subdivision bordering the Maple Grove site on the north drains directly to the land Bernhardt was developing, and Bernhardt was required to handle the flow.
"We have a stormwater retention pond that is more than five acres in size," Bernhardt said. "The subdivision just to the north dumps an incredible amount of water on our project – water that used to head north. There was an old farmer’s drain tile on our site that used to carry that excess water away."
Bernhardt is also saddled with the cost of a sanitary sewer lift station to service not only his project, but also a total of 100 acres that might be developed in the future.
Bernhardt owns 40 acres of land south of Highway 11, but even if all of that property is developed within the timeline set in his developer’s agreement, he will not recover the $340,000 the lift station will cost.
"There is the potential that we might receive a quarter or a half of the lift station reimbursed back to us," Bernhardt said. "The lift station cost is estimated around $220,000, and the cost of putting it on the other side of the road and running the sewer under there is $120,000."
The other issue that hung up the project with the village board, according to village records, was the relatively high density of the project.
Work is under way on grading for the site, and a split-face concrete block Piggly Wiggly building should be completed within three months. Ground should also be broken this year on a model condominium unit.
"I hope to sell 10 units this year," Bernhardt said of the condos, adding that the units range from 1,500 to 1,800 square feet and will be priced at about $199,000.

May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Hefty embarks on new life as venture capitalist

By Charles Rathmann, of SBT

Since retiring as chief executive officer of Cobalt Corp. in December, Thomas Hefty has been traveling and laying plans for a very active retirement.
"I plan to teach a little, practice law a little and work on venture capital," Hefty said, bemoaning the number of business cards he will need to carry.
One of the cards will bear the name of Milwaukee law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, where Hefty will work in the company’s corporate, health care, government relations and insurance practice group.
On the venture capital front, Hefty plans to "facilitate some venture capital and invest a little money of my own."
Hefty has the resources to expend. According to US Securities Exchange Commission documents, he is walking away from Cobalt with about $400,000 in vested stock options. Additionally, he filed to sell $1.23 million in Cobalt shares last August.
Hefty, long an advocate for a more aggressive business environment in Wisconsin, said the willingness of creditors to take risks on small companies has a critical impact on the state’s economy.
Wisconsin lags when it comes to new business startups, and the number of large companies based here is lower than that of many comparable states. Those two facts are related, according to Hefty.
"Where do big companies come from? They start as small companies," Hefty said, pointing to some Wisconsin financial giants that originated as innovative niche players and still call the state home. Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corp. (MGIC), CUNA Mutual Mortgage Corp. and others, Hefty said, identified an unmet need of the customer and created products – indeed, entire industries – to respond to those needs.
"Large companies are often not nimble enough to do that," Hefty said. "A large company might not see the value in a $5 million niche."
Bankers in Wisconsin can have as hard a time seeing opportunity as corporate chiefs, according to Hefty.
"Banks here are much more conservative than other parts of the country," Hefty said. "In some markets, it is nothing for someone to have a bankruptcy on their record. In Wisconsin, it’s like the kiss of death."
Fear of failure breeds fear of risk. However, Hefty said, the market is ripe for venture capital, indicating that many deals that would be funded by banks in other markets require the help of a venture capitalist in Wisconsin.
Hefty has a few chips to bring to the venture capital table. According to filings last year, Hefty owned 26,250 shares in Cobalt and 18,200 shares in Cobalt spin-off American Medical Security Group, Inc. , and in August of last year alone, he liquidated $1,233,000 worth of Cobalt stock and exercised options to buy them back for $290,223.
While some venture capital groups working in the Milwaukee area, including Silicon Pastures and Techstar Early Ventures, focus on technology, Hefty plans to focus on the financial and insurance services industries.
"I figure it makes the most sense to invest in something you know a little bit about," Hefty said.

May 2, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

The Waukesha Area Chamber of Commerce has announced winners of its Top 10 Small Business Awards. One of the 10 will be named the Small Business of the Year at a June 26 awards luncheon.

The 2003 Top Ten Small Business Award winners are:
–Bielinski Homes
–Economy Lighting Designer Showroom
–HNI Risk Services
–The Roberts Group
— The Schroeder Group, Attorneys at Law
— Spectrum Digital Services
— Stearns Lighting Sales
–Tanis Inc.
–Weissgerber’s Seven Seas
— Zeppos & Associates
The June 26 awards luncheon will be at the Country Inn Hotel & Conference Center in Waukesha, with 11 a.m. networking and the program starting at 11:30.
For more information or to register, call the Waukesha Area Chamber of Commerce at 262-542-4249. Small Business Times helps coordinate the awards program.

Milwaukee Fence will move, expand
Company to use MEDC loan to help finance purchase of State Street property

Milwaukee Fence plans to purchase a building on the city’s west side to accommodate expansion of the company. A loan from the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp., approved at the April 7 MEDC Loan Committee meeting, will facilitate the move, pending approval of bank financing.
Milwaukee Fence is currently at 2067 S. 1st St., in a former Milwaukee city yard.
It will move into a 20,500-square-foot complex formerly occupied by Acme Iron & Steel on a 1-1/2-acre lot.
The additional space will allow the company to expand its fabrication shop and retail areas, give it space for storage that is now in leased space, and create a more efficient office space.
"We’re looking to grow," said Mark Oliver, who co-owns the firm with Mark Coughlin. "We’ve been looking for the right building for eight years."
While the move may have been a long time coming, Oliver said the move might not come quickly, given that its busy season is fast approaching.
Milwaukee Fence originated as a provider of residential chain link fences. Over the years, it has added wood, ornamental aluminum and monumental fencing to its product line. It now serves commercial as well as residential customers. The company holds a 15% share of the metropolitan Milwaukee fence market.
Milwaukee Fence anticipates it would add 10 employees to its 20-person staff as a result of the growth fostered by the move.
The MEDC Loan Committee approved a $200,000 loan through its Second Mortgage Program. An additional $300,000 would be borrowed from M&I Bank.
Other loans approved

In other action, the Loan Committee approved a $380,000 Second Mortgage Program loan for Dita Investments and Besa Corp., as co-borrowers, owned by Bynjami and Afrdita Zeqiri. The Zeqiris intend to buy a building at 5354 S. 27th St. in Milwaukee that formerly housed a McDonald’s restaurant. They would convert the facility into a full-service, family-style restaurant.
Another $570,000 in financing would come from Tri City National Bank. The restaurant would have nine employees.

An $88,000 MEDC Second Mortgage Loan was approved for Capital Building LLC and Barefoot International Ltd. of Milwaukee.
Barefoot International, which manufactures and distributes water skiing and skateboard equipment, moved to a 32,000-square-foot facility at 3879 N. Richards St. in Milwaukee about one year ago. The Richards Street site offers four times the space it had at its previous location on North 60th Street.
The company is now adding equipment to expand manufacturing capabilities for its product lines. As space tightened at its 60th Street facility, the company gradually subcontracted all of its manufacturing functions. With space available in the Richards Street building, the company is able to bring some of the manufacturing operations back inhouse, giving it greater control over costs and lead times. With the new equipment, the company also will provide machining services for other businesses.
John Seipel and Mike Seipel each own 50% of Capital Building and of Barefoot International. They now employ 16 people full-time and two part-time, and intend to add eight full-timers and two part-timers. Additional financing of $122,000 for the project would come from M&I Bank.

A $90,000 Second Mortgage Program loan was approved for Lada Driver School, at 3575 N. Oakland Ave. in Shorewood. The company intends to add commercial driver training at a site at 5200 W. Mill Rd. in Milwaukee.
Company owner Arkadiy Tsirlin has been operating Lada Driver School out of rented space on Oakland Avenue for seven years, providing classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction. The expanded operation would offer training for commercial drivers and for motorcyclists.
The 0.32-acre site on Mill Road also offers a parking lot large enough to accommodate maneuvers students need to make to obtain Class D and motorcycle licenses.
Tsirlin would add 392 square feet of space to the existing 1,234-square-foot building. Other building and lot improvements would be made.
Lada Driver School now employees three people full-time and three part-time. An additional 18 full-timers and five part-timers would be added in the business expansion.
North Shore Bank would participate with financing of $136,500.
MEDC also approved $152,000 in Target Loan Program financing for Hautchu Inc., doing business as The Rice Palace at 3726-30 W. National Ave. in Milwaukee.
Company owners Chuedang and Youa Vue have a previous MEDC loan for the purchase and expansion of a former bowling alley at 3726-30 W. National Ave. They formerly operated as Gaoyoua’s Food and Bakery.
They plan has been to expand their wholesale Asian food business into the new location and add a bakery and delicatessen, a restaurant and a banquet hall.
Their wholesale food operation moved in February. Additional funds are needed for furniture and finishing the improvements of the banquet hall area.
Completed renovations include the kitchen and a large cold-storage area which is being used for wholesale processing. The bakery and delicatessen is nearly finished.
The Vues plan to add eight employees full-time and eight part-time. They currently employ one full-timer and one part-timer. A Tri City National Bank loan of $278,000 would also be used for the project.

April 18, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

G. Edwin Howe is the president and chief executive officer of Aurora Health Care, the largest health care provider system in eastern Wisconsin. In many ways, Aurora is at a crossroads. For the most part, the nonprofit company has saturated the eastern half of Wisconsin with clinics and hospitals. Still, Aurora is contending with aging buildings, changing technology and the emergence of competition from for-profit heart hospitals in the market. At age 62, Howe, also faces decisions for his personal future. Howe recently discussed a wide range of issues in an interview with Julie Sneider, an independent journalist who has been covering the health care industry in southeastern Wisconsin for 13 years. The following are excerpts from that interview.

SBT: Let’s start with St. Luke’s Medical Center’s recent decision not to pursue the construction of a 50-bed, for-profit heart hospital in Milwaukee. Why the change in direction?
Howe: It wasn’t so much a change in direction, because we didn’t halt it. We had never decided to build it. We explored the idea. Our feeling was that we have such a wonderful heart hospital in St. Luke’s, it really didn’t make sense to try to split the business into the less complicated surgeries in one place and the hard cases at St. Luke’s.
We had some physicians who thought it would be slick to have some equity or ownership in a for-profit heart hospital, and our feeling was that when we talked to them about the risks associated with it, they finally agreed that it wouldn’t make any sense. Some of our cardiologists are investors in the for-profit heart hospital with Covenant HealthCare (an Aurora competitor).

SBT: For those physicians who are investors in the Covenant-affiliated heart hospital, how will their relationship with St. Luke’s be affected?
Howe: Almost all of them will continue their privileges there (at St. Luke’s). They are a good group of doctors. My expectation is that maybe some of the simple or uncomplicated cases they will do at the for-profit hospital they are associated with, and the complicated heart cases that require the kind of skills that St. Luke’s has, they’ll continue to do those at St. Luke’s. I guess we don’t expect a huge impact on St. Luke’s, but time will tell.
But I think our expectation is that, between the hospital Covenant is building and the one that MedCath Corp., is developing that may consolidate things in Milwaukee. That may lead to some of the more marginal community hospital heart programs … closing. So we expect that the impact on St. Luke’s will be pretty minimal.

SBT: Are you saying that the opening of the boutique heart hospitals will have a positive effect on the health care market in southeastern Wisconsin?
Howe: From our standpoint, it gives us someone to compete against, so it will make us work harder. So that’s probably good for us. If in fact it ends up reducing the number of marginally sized (heart surgery) programs, that should be good for the health care market.

SBT: Who do you think those marginal providers are?
Howe: I think a person would have to look at the numbers and see which ones don’t meet the national guidelines for how many (surgeries) a heart program ought to have.

SBT: Wisconsin for so long has had nonprofit health care, unlike other states. How far do you think this for-profit hospital trend will go in Wisconsin?
Howe: Well the reason I’m not as upset about it as other people are in the community is that I believe the market cleans all those things up. And when we’ve had other for-profit ventures, they seem to be hot for a while and then they tend to go away. There was a period of time where everyone wanted to do (for-profit) dialysis. Then there was the time everyone wanted to do urgent care centers. And the reality is that there are changes in regulations in how care is delivered, and they tend to have a short life lots of times. These for-profit entities are pretty risky business ventures.

SBT: The trend of for-profit psychiatric hospitals that moved into the Milwaukee area several years ago and then closed – is that another example of the market forces you are talking about?
Howe: Yes, that’s another real good example.

SBT: If we could shift gears to talk about Aurora’s growth strategy. When you look back at Aurora’s growth over the last decade, are you now in all the locations you want to be? Do you think you are close to saturating the eastern Wisconsin market?
Howe: Yes, I think we are pretty much how we want to be. Eastern Wisconsin has 3 million of the 5 million people in the state. That’s about the size of Atlanta or a market area of that size, so that would make us the 12th- or 13th-largest market in the United States. And that gives us the size we need so we can get the computerization and the other things that are right where the future of health care will go. We’re real happy with that.
And one of our early desires as a system was to make sure there was good access to health care, and so we’ve invested a lot in clinics. We’ve always said we want to be within 15 minutes of all patients in eastern Wisconsin, and we’ve pretty much accomplished that. … We think we are positioned exactly where we need to be in the future.

SBT: Are there any gaps you need to fill? What about building a hospital in Appleton or in Waukesha County?
Howe: The gap is western Waukesha County. We have a large physician presence out there (with the Wilkinson Medical Clinic). With the growth of the population in western Waukesha County and with our physicians out there, we need to make sure people in western Waukesha County have (hospital) choices in the future. So that’s something we want to get accomplished.

SBT: What is the status of your proposal to build in western Waukesha County?
Howe: It is still in litigation and discussion.

SBT: Is the Oconomowoc area the preferred location?
Howe: Well, someplace in western Waukesha County. Oconomowoc could be a great site, and we have a wonderful piece of property, and it’s zoned the way it’s supposed to be zoned. And of course, that’s what the lawsuit is about.
Appleton is a very competitive market. People have choices. There are two really good hospitals in Appleton, and there doesn’t seem to be any need for us to have a hospital there. So, I would not expect that at any time we would have a hospital in Appleton.

SBT: Do you ever look to territory outside eastern Wisconsin, perhaps Madison or even farther west to La Crosse or Eau Claire?
Howe: No. Madison is a unique city, and I don’t think we would bring any value to Madison. And the rest of the state is great, but there is not much population there. If you get over toward the Mississippi River, the choices are with the systems in Minnesota. So, we’re real happy to be in a market with 3 million people.

SBT: What about Aurora’s existing hospital and clinics and maintaining those that are aging? How much will Aurora have to invest in order to maintain those structures so that you can continue to offer state-of-the-art technology and medical care?
Howe: Well, we’ve been trying over time to upgrade or replace the ones that need to be replaced. We replaced the hospital in Two Rivers with a new Manitowoc facility. Sometime in the next few years, the hospital in Sheboygan will need to be upgraded.

SBT: Are you more likely to take the replacement hospital approach in Sheboygan?
Howe: I don’t think the board and the staff have gotten to that point yet. They still need to think about that, and I don’t know what their recommendation will be.
And then in the southern part of the state, the board and physicians in Aurora’s southern (region) have recommended that, as opposed to having two hospitals (Memorial at Burlington and Lakeland in Elkhorn), it would make sense to consolidate into one. So they’ve made a preliminary decision on that, but they don’t know where the hospital should be or how big it should be, the services that would be offered, how to pay for it or what’s going to go in it. So they have a lot of decisions yet to make.

SBT: Any idea how much Aurora will invest in next five or 10 years, either to replace or to upgrade aging facilities?
Howe: No, I don’t have a projection on that. All those things need to compete with other issues such as buying the new diagnostic equipment that’s coming out. … Go out to GE Medical Systems and look at some of the incredible technological advancements that are being made for the future. That’s where we will have really tough decisions. We probably won’t have enough money to buy a third of what we would like to buy. None of those decisions are easy.

SBT: Aurora’s growth strategy over the last 10 years seems to have been a matter of territory. If you are now in nearly every location you want to be, what is Aurora’s strategy for the next 10 years?
Howe: I think it’s taking advantages of the opportunity to integrate. If we do that right, we think we can focus on improving patient safety, reducing costs and making sure people have access to care. That’s how we will measure our success.
We have the size now and the ability through new science, technology and information systems to make a really big difference in improving the health of the population. Already, when we measure what we do for diabetic care or people with heart disease or high cholesterol, the benchmark data say we are clearly in the top quartile in the country in those efforts.

SBT: The cost of health care, obviously, is a big concern to everyone, increasingly so to small employers in the Milwaukee area. Aurora recently announced a plan to keep its price increases below the medical consumer price index through 2005. Please explain your rationale for pursuing that plan and describe the reaction you are getting from the local business community.
Howe: Part of what we’re doing with our First Monday Report is to show, first, that we are going to control our prices. But what is more important than controlling our prices is addressing how much health care is used. We also have to try to stop the overuse of health care services, which we as a society do sometimes.
An example is end-of-life care. Advance directives can keep patients from getting more care than they want. And we still have people who want antibiotics for illnesses that antibiotics don’t help, so we over-treat in that area.
We also under-treat people. For instance, half the people who have diabetes don’t know they have it. So, if we (Aurora) can identify those patients and treat them, they should never show up in an emergency room in a medical crisis, so there are huge cost savings in doing that.
There also are a lot of things in the patient safety area that can be addressed to lower costs. So far this year, we have automated a large amount of our prescription writing. When we do that, we remove chances for error. So, I think there are big savings there, and that’s really where the opportunities (to lower costs) are.
What we are trying to do is to get the (health care cost) debate and discussion in Wisconsin to be constructive. At the moment, there are still a lot of people looking for easy answers and blaming others for the high cost of health care.

SBT: Recently there have been calls for universal health care in Wisconsin. What do you think of those proposals?
Howe: All those people are talking about how to finance health care. If I may make a case, the way we finance health care in this country is kind of weird. But none of that gets at how you utilize the health care. The savings in the improvement of quality is not in how you pay for health care, but how you actually deliver it and deliver it in a coordinated way, making sure that people get the right care at the right time. And that’s where the focus of the debate needs to be. If you do that right, you can go back and say, "OK, what’s the most fair way to pay for it?"

SBT: How can Aurora help small employers struggling to find affordable health care for their employees?
Howe: We’re not an insurance company, so from that standpoint, we can’t be real helpful in solving that part of the problem. From that standpoint, part of the problem is that with the small number of employees, they (insurers) begin individually underwriting people. Only 7 percent of the people make up 57 percent of the health care costs, and that’s the small group we have to work on.
Somehow, small businesses have to be able to group their people so that they can (get insurance) like a large employer can, so the risks are spread over a larger population. I don’t personally know the best way to do that, but that’s the kind of discussion small business, insurance companies, providers and the government should have. Perhaps we could have regional pools, or something of that nature, as some people have talked about.

SBT: You mentioned the idea of regional pools. The governor has talked about forming a pool for small employers. What do you think of that proposal?
Howe: It depends on how it’s set up. The disaster would be if it only picked up high-risk companies. You need a mix of risk. You can’t have adverse selection.

SBT: Is it possible to have any type of direct contract or relationship between a health care provider and small companies? Or is that idea impossible because of the numbers?
Howe: I think there are lots of things small companies could benefit from by having a relationship with a provider that talks about care management activities. But the business of the provider becoming an insurance company won’t work.
So, I think small employers should be able to get to a point where they can go to an insurance company and say, "Most of our employees live near a certain provider and use that provider, let’s work with that system to get something that works for our company." So yes, I think there should be opportunities like that.

SBT: What are your personal plans for the future? How much longer do you want to stay in this job?
Howe: This job is incredibly fun, and there are so many things left to do. I would like to keep at this until it no longer seems fun.

SBT: Do you have plans to retire at a certain age?
Howe: Oh heavens, no. The breakthroughs in science and medicine are so exciting right now. I think health care is going to go through an amazingly wonderful period of time as the new genetic information is brought into play and starts affecting drugs and other treatments. We will be able to design care and treatment to the individual. It’s a great time to be in health care.

April 18, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Many people say that everything has been different since Sept. 11, 2001. I join them and add that, no matter how different it has been, everything is heightened now that we are at war in Iraq.
If you gathered a thousand of your friends and co-workers and asked how things were different for them now, you’d probably get a thousand different answers. We each experience war in our own way. It isn’t something we plan; it just happens.
I’m not talking about the great divide between those who for a long time believed this war was necessary, and those who are still fighting against it. That division is complex and populated with many well-meaning people on both sides, and incendiary extremists on both sides.
That aside, just look around you to see many different responses to this change that has been rumbling for close to two years and spiked huge in March of this year.
Most of the behavior boils down to an unconscious drive to reduce anxiety. In addition, I know people — and so do you, I’d bet — who very deliberately and consciously are doing things to lower stress levels. That’s a healthy response to the widespread tension and might include increasing exercise, learning meditation, watching funny movies, laughing with friends, spending more time in nature or spiritual practice.
My church community has an outdoor labyrinth. After the war began, baskets appeared at the entrance to the labyrinth, baskets holding laminated cards with prayers for the Armed Forces, for the nations, for peace. I have walked that labyrinth a few times and found a measure of inner peace. I don’t ask why.
Others call themselves information junkies and stay glued to the television. They feel that the more they know the safer they are, and have to deal with sifting through the barrage of information pouring out of the TV and radio, much of it conflicting. Some of these people find it hard to leave the television screen even to sleep, and some feel that way because they have sons, husbands or brothers fighting for us.
One of my best friends has a son at the front, and she holds her breath many times each day, thinking she may get a glimpse of him in a news report and know, really know for that moment at least, that he’s OK.
Others seem to find comfort in becoming instant experts, and setting straight all their friends and colleagues who obviously have got it all wrong. (I think the networks hire some of these if they can put "retired military" after their names.)
Others seem to deal with the anxiety only through action. And that action takes many forms, depending on the person. Some send money or supplies to the front, others band together to show support for the troops or to protest the war. Some say they are doing both at the same time — a difficult concept for me to grasp.
There are others who deal with the discomfort by avoiding, to the extent they can, any newscasts or conversations about the war.
Most parents are exercising care in the exposure their children have to the barrage of war news and straining to find the language to talk to them about the realities they can’t avoid.
Whole school systems struggle with the issue of how to deal with this war — in the classroom. And some adults feel safest if they limit themselves to very small doses of news — or thinking — about the war.
Among your colleagues, wherever you work, you’ll find some, if not all of these reactions, and probably some others I haven’t mentioned.
We are all affected emotionally in many ways. My husband and I both had tears falling down our faces when we watched an interview of an infantryman mourning his comrade killed in that "taxi" suicide bombing. We hear of inhumanity to man, and we’re angry. A report, a thought, a siren — and we feel fear stepping up our heart rate. We grieve. We hold each other a little closer.
We are all affected in our thinking; our cognition is infected with this war. No one can avoid it completely, and we are a nation proud of our right to think for ourselves. So these brains of ours are distracted from their usual activity for some moments or hours.
All of this affects our behavior of course, and may strengthen or rattle our belief systems.
It’s only human.
For those running a business, or a department within a business, you will see these same reactions emerge in the face of change. The bigger the change, the more likely these reactions will appear.
Change within our own organizations is essential. And the impact will reflect a microcosm of what the international community is experiencing now.
We can learn to expect and respect these various human responses, and as leaders do our best to guide our employees through change with truth and justice.

Jo Hawkins Donovan has a coaching and psychotherapy firm in Whitefish Bay, and can be reached at 414-332-0300, or jo@hawkins-donovan.com. The firm’s Web site is www.hawkinsdonovan.com. Hawkins Donovan will respond to your questions in this column. Her column appears in every other issue of SBT.

April 18, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee