In today’s wireless world, the competition is tighter and the enhancements of digital mean better technology and service – and more confusion because the choices are no longer so simple.
Ask Oz
Get some real answers to your questions about wireless options. Here are some questions to help you assess your needs:
1. What is your primary reason for wanting a wireless phone?
The type and style of use will be a large factor in determining which carrier and plan is appropriate for your needs.
2. Will the majority of use be local or out-of-town?
This question addresses the biggest change in the wireless industry: the improvement from cellular to digital. The basic differences between digital and cellular lie in the technology each uses. Digital technology provides a clearer, sharper voice transmission that is as dramatic as the difference in sound quality between cassette tapes (analog) and compact discs (digital). Digital also has enhancements in power requirements, reliability, accessories and features, as well as in privacy and security.
Simply put, analog services have only one remaining advantage over digital: availability. For the moment, however, digital penetration is more concentrated in metropolitan areas. Users also wanting service in rural areas will need dual-mode phones capable of functioning on both digital and cellular networks. The time frame for the increased penetration of the digital networks into rural settings is estimated between 18 and 24 months.
3. How many minutes will you use each month?
Users who spend a great deal of time on their phones may want to consider requesting a contract. Several companies offer business plans that have reduced charges for high-volume use. Some users have found advantages in pre-purchasing their minutes each month.
4. What will your peak use time be?
Many companies charge a higher per-minute rate during high-usage times of day and lower rates during evening and weekend hours. Don’t let the house drop on you here. If you have a high-usage rate plan, your discounted or free minutes may only count during off-peak times.
5. Find out which features you want and what the costs will be.
Take a look at available features. Many companies offer plans that include various accessories with the initial cost of your phone. Or you may want to indulge yourself. PrimeCo has a phone that can play a tune, give stock quotes or even a joke of the day. Nextel has Direct Connect, allowing you to instantly connect with one or all of your co-workers with the push of a button. Sprint’s Touch Point phone – a day, address and phone book in one – lets you point, click and connect.
Pay attention to the men behind the curtains
Don’t get carried away in the maelstrom of fancy offers for free phones and great-sounding prices that will get you and your little dog, too. Somewhere over the rainbow there may be a place where there really are such things as “free phones”; here it’s not going to happen. Even ruby slippers can’t get you out of the contracts that may accompany such deals.
Other things to watch out for are activation fees, network surcharges, monthly administration fees, and with cellular or dual-mode phones, the costs of roaming.

Strauss brothers target end-users with case-ready veal products
Walk along the meat counter of any grocery store and you’ll see plenty of beef, chicken and pork. The veal selections, however, probably won’t catch your eye. That is, if the grocer even has any veal displayed.
Randy and Tim Strauss are out to change all that. And in the process, they’re changing the way their 62-year-old Franklin-based Strauss Veal is doing business – and, possibly, how the entire meat industry does business.
Strauss who?
Unless you’ve seen its logo on an upscale restaurant’s menu, or have seen a semi-trailer with the words “Strauss Veal” emblazoned upon it heading down I-94, you might not have known of the firm, or that it’s in the top-three in volume among the nation’s 17 veal processors. Since its founding in 1937, Strauss Veal has been a low-key operation, originally operating out of Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley and then relocating to South 60th Street, just south of Ryan Road, in Franklin.
“We’ve been a low-key business. But now we need to be more consumer-oriented,” says 33-year-old Randy Strauss, who with his brother Tim, 31, serves as co-president of the family-owned firm.
That change in direction is being carried out through this month’s introduction of case-ready veal products, complemented by a private-label line of gourmet sauces.
“Our new product line will revolutionize how veal is perceived and used,” Tim Strauss says. “We’re making it simple and convenient for anyone to prepare a delicious meal with veal by including cooking directions on our packaging, and offering the best-tasting ready-to-use sauces available.”
It’s an entirely different focus than their grandfather Milton Strauss had for the company in its early days. But it’s also a natural progression, note the younger Strausses, who are in the process of taking ownership of the 100-employee firm from their father Richard Strauss.
When Milton Strauss ran the firm, his customers primarily bought dressed carcasses. The local meat market or grocery store butcher would then cut up a carcass, displaying various cuts in his meat case.
By the time Richard Strauss was running Strauss Veal, buyers were asking for parts of the carcass, which they would then divide.
Now, portion control is the name of the game, with buyers, particularly restaurants, wanting individually-packaged servings of veal rather than, say, a veal leg.
“No one but us has to do anything now,” says Randy, whose first job with the firm was unloading calves. “We do more cutting than in the past. It makes it a lot easier for the restaurants. No one has to do anything but us.”
And now, the Strauss brothers hope, grocery-store owners will enjoy that same convenience. The Strausses say there’s an incentive for the stores to carry the case-ready products. Meat that’s cut up, wrapped and displayed at the local store has a shelf-life of two to three days, and it’s labor-intensive. The case-ready Strauss Veal products, however, have a shelf-life of 21 days, due to the way the product is handled at the Franklin plant and how the portions are hermetically sealed.
“The grocer doesn’t have to worry about taking a loss on reduced-priced meat that’s at the must-sell date,” Tim Strauss says. “He doesn’t have to worry about turning a $7 meat sale into a $2 sale.”
And consumers will be demanding more of the type of product, the brothers believe.
“We seen an incredibly rising demand for meat that is not cut at the store,” Randy says, noting consumers’ fears of foods which might become contaminated. “The question is, How do we present it?”
How they are presenting it is both upscale and consumer-friendly. While the black-and-red packaging is intended to position the meat in an elegant fashion and to make the product stand out among the myriad offerings in meat cases, the step-by-step cooking directions, seasoning tips and accompaniment suggestions are intended to make the products appealing to anyone.
“Veal is an anonymous item,” Tim says. “If it’s not on your grocery list, you don’t see it in the meat case. People don’t even know it’s there; we’re out to change that. With our case-ready products, you’re sure to see it. Will you buy it? Maybe. The chances are now better than before that you will.”
The products include osso buco, chops, scaloppini, shoulder steaks, stew and ground veal. To complement those cuts, the Strausses are selling masala, tomato basil and picatta sauces.
“Our goal with this new case-ready product line is to dispel certain consumer misconceptions,” Randy says. “We’re doing this to surprise the multitude of home cooks who may never have given a second thought to veal as part of their everyday menu planning. Yes, we want existing veal-consumers to buy more. But we also want others to try it.”
The sauces to accompany the veal are made to the brothers’ specifications. “We eat veal all over the world,” says Tim, noting the firm’s international sales. “We’ve tasted the best recipes, and we feel are sauces reflect the best.”
The venture into case-ready distribution is a “no-lose” proposition, the brothers believe.
In the Milwaukee area, some Pick ‘n’ Save stores, Sendiks and Grasches will be carrying the products initially. And Wal-Mart Supercenters is interested in test-marketing the products in some of its grocery sections.
While Strauss Veal is one of the nation’s largest veal processors – it handles 300 to 500 calves per day – the brothers have also seen market conditions change. As with many other products today, veal is becoming a commodity impacted by competitive market pricing. By creating a branded consumer-ready product, Strauss Veal will be better able to control profit margins.
Along with the sales and marketing that the firm is undertaking, Tim and Randy Strauss expect the new veal products to garner considerable attention in newspaper and magazine food sections, which could further drive demand.
“This will get attention; there’s nothing like this,” Tim says, noting that some of the firm’s client restaurants are already asking for bulk orders of the Strauss sauces.
In their 48,000-square-foot facility in the Franklin Industrial Park, the brothers have created a “clean room” for packaging the case-ready products. That room now includes one packaging machine for modest production volume.
They don’t expect to be using that space for long. “My prediction is that in a year we’ll be breaking ground for an addition to handle this. And that, in two years, we’ll be going 24-hours-a-day on this line of products,” Randy says, noting that the operation is “already busting at the seams.”
The brothers are so confident that the new line will be a success that they are not worrying about allocating resources for its production. Rather, they’re worried about how they will keep up with the expected demand.
“The fear is that so many people will like it so fast that we’ll have to worry about how to handle the demand,” Tim says. Part of that worry concerns the availability of the foreign-made equipment that packages the case-ready meats.

Robert A. Ornst Jr. has been appointed chief executive officer of Selzer-Ornst Co., a Wauwatosa-based construction services firm.
Ornst succeeds his father, Robert A. Ornst Sr., who remains chairman of the board.
Ornst Jr. has been president of the company since 1993 and is the third-generation of the family to run the firm.
Burt Trouteaud has been appointed as the executive director of the Glendale Association of Commerce. He became active in the early 1980s as a business member of the association, then known as the Glendale Business Council.
Trouteaud has volunteered the last 12 years as the association secretary and editor-in-chief of the Community Development Authority. He retired from his own manufacturing business in 1995.
Gary L. Hanneman has been named vice president-commercial banking at Johnson Bank.
Most recently, Hanneman served as vice president-corporate banking with Associated Bank in Milwaukee. Prior to that, he was with Bank One, Racine, also as a vice president.
A resident of Racine, Hanneman graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor of science degree in finance and accounting. He currently serves as a member of the Racine Founders Rotary Club.
Milwaukee Protestant Home has announced the appointment of a new team of vice presidents. Marge Gozdowiak has been named vice president of health services, Ed Hida has been appointed vice president of residential services, David Hopkins has been named vice president of finance/chief financial officer, and Phyllis Petri has assumed the role of vice president of human resources.
Michael DiCastri has joined Johnson Trust Co. as assistant vice president-senior trust operations analyst. DiCastri has four years of trust experience, most recently with M&I Trust where he was a mutual fund trader. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, DiCastri received his master’s degree in economics. He resides in Milwaukee.
Barbara Armstrong has joined the Milwaukee office of Kahler Slater Architects as director of operations. She holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture & Urban Planning. Prior to joining Kahler Slater, Armstrong was quality improvement officer for YW Works at the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee.
McGlinchey & Associates, Brookfield, has promoted Melissa McGlinchey, CBC, to vice president, client services. McGlinchey joined the marketing communications agency in November of 1992. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An active board member and treasurer of Milwaukee’s BMA (Business Marketing Association) chapter, McGlinchey will serve as chairperson to its 1999 Bell Awards competition.
Stephen Rudolph has been named vice president-corporate sales and service at Associates for Health Care, Inc., in Brookfield. Previously, he was vice president-special projects for AHC. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
IVM, Inc., formerly Video Wisconsin, of Brookfield, has announced the promotion of Patrice Nault to vice president of operations, and the formation of a new management team for the purposes of guiding the corporation into the future. The leadership team is made up of John Barto, president; Craig Swartwout, vice president of technology and development; Angie Haber, vice president of sales and marketing; and Nault.
Sal Corrao has been named general manager of the Russ Darrow Superstore at 8380 N. 76th St. in Milwaukee. The Superstore handles Pontiac, Nissan, Isuzu, and KIA automotive lines. Corrao and his wife Patricia reside in Milwaukee.
Cindy Barber has been named assistant vice president-private banking officer at Johnson Bank. Barber will be located at the main office in Kenosha. She joined Johnson Bank in 1978, holding various positions. Most recently, she was assistant vice president-personal banker/business development. Currently pursuing a business administration degree at Carthage College, Barber resides in Kenosha. She serves on the board of directors of Women’s Horizons, Kenosha Night at the Brewers, and is a member of the Kenosha West Rotary and the Kenosha Women’s Network.
William Menzel has joined NCL Graphic Specialties, Inc., Waukesha, as vice president of human resources. A Vietnam veteran, Menzel is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a resident of New Berlin.
The law firm of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C., announced the election of Carol A. Gehl and Daniel B. Geraghty to become shareholders effective Jan. 1. Gehl has been a member of the Securities team since 1992 and Geraghty with the Tax and Employee Benefits team since 1994.
Bernard E. Adee has been elected to the board of directors of Ridgestone Financial Services, Inc., and its subsidiary, Ridgestone Bank. He retired in Sept. 1998 as a first vice president of Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee. Previously he spent more than 25 years as a bank regulator and as a senior executive in several Wisconsin bank holding companies.
Bonnie Thielecke has joined EPIC Staff Management of Milwaukee as human resources director. EPIC Staff Management is a professional employer organization (PEO) that provides medium-sized and small companies with human resources, safety, payroll, benefits and training services that range from telephone support to comprehensive solutions. She is a graduate of Cardinal Stritch College with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Thielecke is a member of the society of Human Resource Management and the Human Resources Management Association of Wisconsin. She is a past board member of Milwaukee-area Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Gordon Pierce, of New Berlin, has been promoted to vice president of the Milwaukee-based office of the architecture/engineering firm of Hammel Green and Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA). Pierce leads HGA’s Great Lakes Office Engineering department. He holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from California State University, San Diego, and an associate of arts degree in architectural structural technology from Madison Area Technical College.
Raymond Sachs, of Wauwatosa, has been promoted to associate vice president at the Milwaukee-based office of Hammel Green and Abrahamson. Sachs is a member of HGA’s architectural staff, serving as a project manager. He holds a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Jeffrey Raasch, of Mequon, has been promoted to associate vice president at the Milwaukee-based office of Hammel Green and Abrahamson. Raasch is a member of HGA’s architectural staff, serving as a designer. He holds a master of architecture degree and a bachelor of science degree in architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Timothy J. Gasperetti has been promoted to the position of vice president of construction services at Irgens Development Partners, in Wauwatosa. He has been with the firm since 1990.

Donna Wolf Steigerwaldt, chairwoman and CEO, Jockey International, Kenosha, $525 million;
Ruth Michels, CEO, Michels Pipeline Construction, Brownsville, $140 million;
MaryJo Cohen, president, National Presto Industries, Eau Claire, $108.6 million;
Helen Gaudiosi, chairwoman, Dawes Transport, Milwaukee, $88,685,00;
Valerie Carter, president and CEO, V&J Foods, Milwaukee, $70 million;
Kelly Murphy-Simon, president, Rollette Oil Co., Janesville, $57 million;
Jane Bierman, president, Lincoln Wood Products, Merrill, $50 million;
Susan Lipp, president, Full Compass Systems, Middleton, $40 million;
Marilyn Mueller, president and CEO, Mueller Graphic Supply, Milwaukee, $33.4 million;
Marie Blakeman, vice-president, treasurer, Nor-Lake, Hudson, $31 million;
Carol Ann Schneider, chairwoman and CEO, SEEK, Grafton, $31 million;
Susan Marks, CEO, president, ProStaff, Brookfield, $23.1 million;
Maryjoy Madrigrano, president, Beer Capitol Distributing, Milwaukee, $23 million;
Darlene Ballweg, president, Ballweg Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Buick, Sauk City, $22 million;
Mary Cavicchi, president, CEO, MJ Care, Racine, $20 million;
Beth O’Malley, president, O’Malley Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Honda, Suzuki, Wausau, $20 million;
Sandra Fuchs, president, Fuchs Holding, Sauk City, $19,322,508;
Monica Garbo Principe, president, Garbo Motor Sales, Racine, $18.9 million;
Nancy Frank Osterman, co-president, Mary S. Frank, vice president, A.D. Schinner Co., Milwaukee, $18,770,263;
Lucia Schaub, president, Security Travel, Sheboygan, $17,904,540;
Marsha Lindsay, president, Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, Madison, $17.2 million;
Doran Gendelman, CEO, Interplan, Milwaukee, $16.9 million;
Carolyn Victor, CEO, Fedco Electronics, Fond du Lac, $16,441,144;
Theresa Grandlic, CEO, Joe Van Horn Chevrolet, Plymouth, $16,276,253;
Karen Isaacson, president, Maryjoy Madrigrano, secretary, vice-president, Triangle Wholesale Co., Racine, $15 million;
Mary Ennis, president, Frontier Motor Cars, Milwaukee, $15 million;
Kristine Sexton, president, Directions, Inc., Neenah, $14 million;
Joan Schaupp, majority stockholder, vice chairman, LCL Transit Co., Green Bay, $13 million;
Karin La Freniere, president, Quality Customs Broker, and Quality Freight Services International, St. Francis, $12,658,945;
Rebecca Naugler, president, Kathy Olson, vice president, Elizabeth Ranger, vice president, Goli’s Avenues of Travel, doing business as Carlson Wagonlit Travel, La Crosse, $12,547,141;
Cynthia Heberling, CEO, Custom Computer Systems of Wisconsin/Inacomp, Madison, $12.5 million;
Leota Ester, president, Ester Leota Employment Specialist, doing business as Landmark The Staffing Resource. Appleton, $12.5 million;
Carlene Kolbe, president, owner, The Veltra Corp., Racine, $12.4 million;
Mary Stanek Wehrheim, president, Stanek Tool, Brookfield, $12 million;
Nancy Nell, president, Nan Sea Enterprises of Wisconsin, Cedarburg, $11,720,000;
Nancy Zieman, president, Nancy’s Notions, Beaver Dam, $11,719,769;
Miriam Meyer Allison, president and CEO, Sunstone Financial Group, Milwaukee, $11,612,000;
Mary Schmidt, Schmidt Engineering & Equipment, New Berlin, $11.3 million;
Barbara Thompson, president, Miller & Thompson Forwarding, Milwaukee, $11 million;
Donna Kolocheski, president, Kay Beer Distributing, DePere, $10.9 million;
Darlene Thurley, president, Plainfield Trucking, Plainfield, $10.5 million;
Susan Horn, president, Travel Associates, Milwaukee, $10 million;
Isabelle Polacheck, president, Reliable of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, $10 million;
Jean McKey, president, McKey Perforating, New Berlin, $10 million;
Ruth Metz, president, Animart, Beaver Dam, $10 million;
Susan A. Kirsch, chairwoman and CEO, E.G. Artz, Brookfield, $9,854,098;
Elizabeth Little, president, Barbara Lock, vice president, V. Richard’s Market, Brookfield, $9.6 million;
Deborah Teglia, president, Paving Mix and Construction, Oak Creek, $9.5 million;
Elizabeth Pulitzer, president, XMI Corp., Chippewa Falls, $9 million;
Norma Knollenberg, president, Top Brands, Oshkosh, $9 million;
Catherine Johnson, president, Sanborn Tube Sales, Waukesha, $9 million.

The Milwaukee Economic Development Corp.’s (MEDC) Loan and Finance Committee has approved six loans, including one for an Ace Hardware store on West North Avenue in Milwaukee.
Cunningham’s Ace Hardware received a $300,000 MEDC loan to convert the former Uptown Shop-Rite grocery store at 5020 W. North Ave. into a 13,300-square-foot Ace Hardware store in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
Members of the Cunningham family will offer hardware products and repair services that appeal to the owners of older homes surrounding the store.
The business expects to employ four full-time workers and will add seven part-time employees.
Lincoln State Bank is also participating in the $1 million project.
MEDC’s loan committee also has approved financing totaling $1,119,900 that will leverage $4.3 million in investment in other projects.
Gilo Photography, Inc., received a $122,000 loan from MEDC to assist with a move to 621-23 S. Second St.. The new location is a two-story building that was completely renovated to accommodate the residential and business needs of the company.
Jane and David Geilenfeldt started Gilo Photography, Inc., in 1985. The business specializes in high-quality commercial and advertising photography for advertising agencies and corporations around the state.
The company employs two full-time people and expects to add one employee full-time to accommodate growth.
Participating in the $306,000 project is Layton State Bank.
St. Paul Veterinary Clinic, located at 2620 W. St. Paul Ave., has been operating since 1986 at that site. The business has no parking and the practice is at capacity in its current space. The owner, Marie Losch, will use a $204,000 MEDC loan to construct a new 5,700-square-foot veterinary clinic at 431 N. 27th St., which is around the corner from the current business location.
The new site will have an extra 2,700 square feet of clinic space over its present 3,000 square feet of rental space. The business will double the number of operating rooms, provide more kennel space and eliminate current parking problems by adding space for 40 parking stalls. The company expects to add five full-time jobs to its staff of 16 employees.
Tri City National Bank also participated in the $540,000 project.
Old World Brewery received a $300,000 MEDC loan. The opportunity arose to purchase a new building for the business in City Hall Square at 769-71 N. Water St.
Old World Brewery will be a 225-seat restaurant and brewpub. The three-story building has 24,000 square feet of space.
Lincoln State Bank also participated in the $1,510,000 venture.
National Baking Co. Inc., received a $131,000 MEDC loan to finance expansion at 3200 S. 16th St. and at a second retail location at 12430 W. National Ave. in New Berlin.
MEDC had originally reviewed a loan for the company’s operation on South 16th Street in November 1997. The company re-evaluated its original plans and has decided to expand at both locations.
The company expects to add two full-time employees to its current staff of 26 full-time and 17 part-time workers.
Firstar Bank participated in the $328,000 amendment of the project.
Lakefront Brewery, Inc., received a $62,900 loan amendment from MEDC for improvements made to the 23,000-square-foot City Forestry building at 1872 N. Commerce St. along the Milwaukee River on the north edge of downtown Milwaukee.
Lakefront Brewery produces approximately 3,000 barrels of beer annually. The facility improvements will help give the business more visibility with the public, enhance tours of the facility and add exposure to Lakefront Brewery products.
The company has six full-time employees and expects to add three more.
Park Bank participated in the $628,606 amendment of the project.
SBA loans
The following loans guarantees have been approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration for Wisconsin during November:
Amundson Insulation, 8667 N. 107th St., Milwaukee 53224, $98,000, Ozaukee Bank;
Animal Emergency Center, 7320 W. Florist Ave., Milwaukee 53218, $557,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
Burger Boy, Highway 33, Port Washington 53074, $300,000, Firstar Bank;
Dave Heather Oshkosh, 425 Fond du Lac St., Waupun 53963, $740,000, State Bank of St. Cloud;
Five Star Fitness & Fun, 125 Pine St., Lake Mills 53551, $40,000, The Greenwoods State Bank;
Heus Manufacturing Co., W155 Kiel Rd., New Holstein 53061, $500,000, National Exchange Bank & Trust;
HIE Inc., 4230 W. Loomis Rd., Milwaukee 53221, $100,000, Bank One;
Himalaya Enterprises, Highways 31/50, Kenosha, $576,000, Racine County Business Development Corp.;
HT Enterprises, 139 E. Sheboygan St., Campbellsport 53010, $1 million, National Exchange Bank & Trust;
Lockhart Enterprises, N6424 Highway 12/67, Elkhorn 53121, $342,000, Firstar Bank;
Matco Tools, 7557 S. 68th St., Franklin 53132, $55,000, Associates Commercial Corp.;
MHZ USA, S83 W18346 Saturn Dr., Muskego 53180, $110,000, Citizens Bank of Mukwonago;
Midwest Medical Claims Service, 5225 N. Ironwood Rd., Glendale 53217, $20,000, Norwest Bank;
Racine Auto Body, 7300 Washington Ave., Mt. Pleasant 53406, $504,000, Racine County Business Development Corp.;
Riverwest Pottery Works, 6103 W. Mequon Rd., Thiensville 53092, $20,000, Bank One;
Sentra Protective Systems, 3055 N. Brookfield Rd., Brookfield 53045, $50,000, St. Francis Bank;
Therm Tech of Waukesha, 301 Travis Ln., Waukesha 53189, $150,000, Waukesha State Bank;
Traditions Coffee House, 141 Front St., Beaver Dam 53916, $12,000, M& Bank South Central;
Watertown Collision Center, 409 Clyman St., Watertown 53094, $163,000, First Bank of Oconomowoc;
West Bend Lakes Golf Club, 1241 Hwy. 33, West Bend 53095, $607,000, Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.;
Wisconsin Truck Equipment, W4484 Potter Rd., Elkhorn 53121, $82,000, Amcore Bank, Clinton;
Wisconsin Petroleum, 540 E. Burnett St., Beaver Dam 53916, $598,000, State Bank of St. Cloud;
Wise Photography, 788 Bragg St., Fond du Lac 54935, $127,500, Bank One;
Woodcraft, 1725 S. 108th St., West Allis 53214, $300,000, AT&T Small Business Lending Corp.;
Yelle, 115 Lincoln Ave., Sheboygan 53081, $70,400, Bank One.
Minority loan
Patterson Training and Consulting, Inc. (PTC), Milwaukee, has received an $83,000 loan from the state’s Minority Business Development Fund for an expansion project.
The project is expected to create 33 jobs over the next three years, and leverage $277,000 in additional investment.
PTC’s clients have indicated a need for information technology and technical skill development. The company will use the loan to help finance the necessary equipment to open and operate a New Horizons Learning Center franchise in Kenosha County or Racine County. New Horizons Worldwide, Inc., the franchiser, is the largest computer training company in the world.
Training grant
Walenta Grinding, Inc., of Brookfield has received an $18,272 Customized Labor Training grant from the state.
The company operates a high-quality grinding service for original equipment manufacturers and subcontractors which produce parts for OEMs.
Walenta Grinding has recently purchased CNC and centerless grinding equipment. The new equipment provides the company with an opportunity to win additional market share.
It will use its grant money to train 10 current and three new employees on the equipment.
The training project will leverage $18,272 in private funds.

WMEP bridges productivity gap for small manufacturers
SBT Associate Editor
Before he heard about a program that helps businesses improve their manufacturing operations, Richard Pettibone says the lead time at Drewco Corp. in Franksville used to be three to four weeks.
Through a business associate, he heard about the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP), which provides small manufacturers with a low-cost assessment of their operations.
After Drewco received guidance in how to set up cell manufacturing, the maker of special holding fixtures for machine tools has seen its lead times reduced to one week.
“Before, all of our manufacturing areas were separated from one another,” says Pettibone, the president and owner of the 28-employee firm. “All we did was rearrange the machines. Because the machines are so close together now, communication has improved. So if there’s a problem, they can correct it immediately. The results have been very, very good.”
Aside from the manufacturing improvements, WMEP advisers helped Pettibone establish a five-year business plan, with the goal of doubling business over that time period. The plan takes into account everything Drewco will need – from equipment, to floor space to managers and computers.
“Now we have a plan, and some sequence of events that have to happen to make this business grow,” Pettibone says.
As crucial as smaller manufacturers are to the economy, the productivity gap between large and small firms is growing. According to a National Research Council report, many small firms are operating far below their potential, despite using modern manufacturing equipment, methodologies and management practices. Limited resources, lack of in-house expertise and lack of access to the newest technologies are some of the significant barriers faced by smaller manufacturers.
WMEP aims to bridge the productivity gap by working directly with manufacturers to provide expertise and services tailored to their most critical needs, which range from process improvements and worker training, to business practices and applying information technology. Solutions are offered through a combination of direct assistance from WMEP staff and assistance from outside consultants, many of them from technical colleges.
WMEP has its own field staff, and is supplemented by the resources of area technical colleges, says Mike Klonsinski, executive director of the private, not-for-profit organization which started in Wisconsin in 1995, and is part of a national network of manufacturing assessment centers linked to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
“We come to small companies with small-company expertise, but with the larger knowledge of what they need to compete,” says Gina Catalano, regional manager for WMEP in southeastern Wisconsin. “Because we do this a lot, we can marshal resources faster than a company can do it themselves.”
Based on their findings, WMEP advisers offer follow-up advice and on-site assistance. The typical engagement period for a manufacturer with WMEP is six to nine months, although it can be longer, Catalano says. It’s not unusual for WMEP to start working on a project with a company and then find that additional projects crop up.
That was the case with Milwaukee Precision Corp., a manufacturer of precision machined parts and measuring instruments. The company’s challenge was to eradicate the Year 2000 problem from all of its systems by April of this year. WMEP assisted in the selection of a Y2K software system. The process also led to re-evaluating numerous other operations within the company, including replacement of long-outdated program language.
WMEP helped Milwaukee Precision Corp. form a cross-functional team to evaluate its operating methods and helped the company make changes to incorporate along with its software. Beyond the Y2K problem alone, WMEP’s helped Milwaukee Precision revise its goals to improve operations companywide, Catalano says.
“These are people who have been in manufacturing for a long time, and who have a wealth of experience,” adds Drewco’s Pettibone.
Of the eight full-time WMEP field agents in southeastern Wisconsin, each one has no less than 25 years experience in his field, Catalano says. The agents have backgrounds in engineering, manufacturing management, labor-management relations and finance.
Jordan Controls on Milwaukee’s northwest side has always been interested in process improvements. But the manufacturer of electric actuators met with mixed success in those efforts, says president Bob Seidell. (Electric actuators take a signal and tell a valve on a boiler to close, for example).
Enter WMEP, which assisted Jordan Controls in determining the most critical areas that required improvement. At the outset, WMEP brought in a team of five people who went around the company and interviewed employees. That was followed by an assessment, which recommended the formation of cross-functional teams to determine and solve the problems.
The company was then assigned a facilitator from MATC, who conducted a series of offsite meetings with the company’s entire management team and supervisors.
Jordan Controls used the prioritization techniques suggested by WMEP in order to break down the problem areas. That involved forming seven process improvement teams.
The areas that were addressed included improving internal training, scheduling and delivery, improving sales order entry, setup reduction in the machine shop, making the transition to cellular manufacturing, and mapping the information flow of an order all the way to shipment in order to reduce lead times.
While it’s still a little early to see results, Seidell says the product scheduling team that ordered a new front-end order system has realized instantaneous results, as on-time deliveries have improved.
“The soft benefits are that it certainly helped us analyze, distill and focus on the most important areas for process improvements,” Seidell says. “They taught us a methodology of how to form our own cross-functional improvement teams. The model that WMEP taught us is one we will probably use forever.”
While WMEP has been involved with Jordan Controls for well over a year, consultants are always available. According to Seidell, the $3,000 cost for WMEP’s involvement was “astonishingly low.”
“In fact, it was so low, we thought it couldn’t be any good at that price,” he shrugs.
Evidence suggests that the manufacturing extension partnership is a bargain. A report by the Center for Economic Studies at the Bureau of Census showed that 1,559 firms which used the MEP service realized an growth of anywhere from $9,017 to $2,334 per employee. That compares to an average growth rate of $508 in added value per employee for non-MEP client firms. Using the most conservative estimates, total impact on the economy from 1,559 firms in two states over a five-year period resulted in additional economic output of $1.268 billion, the study said.
“One client who came to us by word-of-mouth told us we’re like a best-kept secret, that we need to start advertising our services,” Catalano says.
To request the help of WMEP, call the WMEP regional office at (414) 906-9637.

Some firms still hesitate, but electronic commerce is the future of business
Electronic commerce is more than just ordering a book through amazon.com. “To me, electronic commerce is the automation of the buying and selling process through the Internet,” says Rick Saindon of Greenbrier & Russel, Inc., an information technology consulting firm.
As more businesses engage in electronic commerce, or e-commerce for short, others who will want to do business with those firms are also getting into the act.
“We’ve found in a number of cases, we start talking about the consumer to business (e-commerce), and they say, ‘Wait a minute. We have distributors, we have resellers, wholesalers,'” Saindon says. “And they get a little nervous when we begin to offer products directly from the manufacturer to the end-customers through them.”
In effect, many manufacturers are reluctant to cut off their wholesalers and distributors, key components of their sales force.
Reasons for hesitancy
Saindon listed several additional reasons why companies have hesitated to begin using e-commerce.
Formative years. Saindon readily admits that some of the companies that were pioneers of e-commerce as little as two years ago may have gotten burned by the high cost and relatively cumbersome operating platforms used. Few canned solutions were available, so most companies were forced to develop their own e-commerce systems. Because each system was highly proprietary, the individuals that developed them could command higher salaries elsewhere for having developed the system, leaving the original companies without skilled individuals to maintain their systems.
Not ready for mission critical. Issues such as reliability, availability and security had to be addressed before companies became confident that the system would work.
Evolution. Earlier proprietary e-commerce platforms were so complicated the cost of evolving the application to reflect changes in the business were not only very costly, but time consuming, Saindon says.
Support costs. If the company is selling to global markets, the site should be maintained 24 hours a day, seven days a week by professional technicians. “However, businesses that just sell in the United States can say, ‘We’re going to guarantee our e-commerce site is up from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.,’ so that reduces some of that support burden,” Marc Blazich, Milwaukee branch manager for Greenbrier & Russel, says.
Internet connection costs. Saindon estimates that an e-commerce site going full tilt would need wider bandwidth, costing a business between $2,000-$2,700 per month.
The wrong people are making the decisions. “The people who are interested aren’t the managers of Information Services or Technology Group, it’s the CEOs and the (big picture) people,” Blazich says. “They’re the people that are more concerned about what their competitors are doing, more than the head of IT.”
“To the guy in IT,” Saindon adds, “it’s a whole new technology and another project and more burden and more support.”
Y2K. Companies are racing to get their systems Year 2000 compliant, which leaves little time to invest in the technology required for a good e-commerce site. But Saindon thinks that companies should position themselves with e-commerce technology as a cheap insurance policy against the potentially crippling effects of the Year 2000 bug. “In other words,” Saindon says, “the traditional business-to-business interfaces may break down in which case this new mechanism could be sitting on the shelf waiting for establishing a quick link where those traditional, existing links have broken (down).”
Reasons to jump in
Of course, there are reasons why companies are eager to try e-commerce as well.
Target marketing and advertising. The site can change its look depending on who is accessing it (through log-on information). If distributor A buys 10 items consistently, the site can display those items up front, versus distributor B who purchases items on a more random basis and may need a browsing feature on his Web site view. That also enables the business to target its advertising efforts depending on who is accessing the site.
Beating your competition to the Web. As time goes on, more and more companies will sense their competition moving to the Web, forcing them to set up a site as well.
Streamlining the business and customer service. “They (customers) want to be empowered,” Saindon says. “They want the opportunity to take control of the situation themselves. They don’t want to wait in a queue, waiting for the next available representative to talk to. They can go out and find it (information) when they want it.” It also reduces overhead costs in providing customer service because less staff is needed due to the self-service element of e-commerce.
Managing growth and reducing overhead. “As you grow a company traditionally, you don’t want linear growth in the overhead mechanisms that it takes to support that growth,” Saindon says. “You want non-linear so you can grow the company with something less in terms of the overhead costs. Electronic commerce is a way to apply technology as a way to do that.”
Reducing operational costs with fewer steps. Saindon uses Microsoft’s MS Market, an e-commerce procurement tool, as an example of the cost-savings of e-commerce. The industry standard for processing purchase orders (POs) is $104 per PO. The cost for processing POs with MS Market is $5 per PO. After Microsoft implemented MS Market, it re-allocated 27 people from its procurement department to other areas within the company. Microsoft processes 291,000 transactions per year, for a net savings of $28,809,000 using MS Market. “And they’re running this whole thing on one server and one sequel server,” Saindon says. “So it’s not a huge platform to handle this volume of transactions, but they’re saving a ton of money.”
Increased revenues. Electronic commerce reaches out to the global market and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Trickle down mandates from large customers. Companies like General Motors or Sam’s Club require vendors to use e-commerce.
Built-in controls. E-commerce sites can be customized down to the individuals ordering from them. So if individual A is only authorized to buy $1,000 at a time or buy certain items, that’s all the site will allow him to do.
At minimum, a company needs a couple of PCs, an Internet connection and about $4,200 for Microsoft’s Site Server, Commerce Edition 3.0. It would also need Windows NT and some other basic operating software to get up and running. (Other programs available require more hardware and are more expensive according to Saindon and Blazich.)
For companies that are still hesitant in investing in an e-commerce experiment, there are hosting services available where companies can “test drive” an e-commerce site for as little as $500 a month. An Internet connection is the only thing required of the company testing the service.
Saindon recommends the Microsoft product for several reasons including cost, ease of use, support software companies and the Microsoft’s track record in developing new technologies. “I’m banking on (Bill) Gates because over time he’s proved again and again that he has the staying power and the resources – whether or not he’s the best product doesn’t matter to me – he has the vision and the ability to win the game,” Saindon says. “I’m going to ride him as far as he’ll take me.”

New corps guiding Waukesha into new millennium
A lifelong Waukesha resident. A La Crosse native and a Milwaukee native. A transplanted Californian.
They’re the new kids on the block, relatively speaking, in Waukesha government: the mayor, the superintendent of schools, the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce and the chief of police, respectively – and they’ve got big plans for the city.
But more than that, these new heads of their various departments within the city of Waukesha are working together to realize their goals for the city, which center around community-building and cultivating a sense of city pride.
Although Mayor Carol Lombardi took office just this past April, she’s been involved in some aspect of Waukesha government since 1954, when as a senior in high school at what was then Waukesha High School, she took a job as a secretary for then-Mayor C.C. Smith. Her post-high school hope was to become an elementary school teacher, but instead she stayed on as the mayor’s secretary for six years. Later on, she was able to get into the education field by working first as a reading aide at Whittier School and then as a counselor aide at Waukesha South High School. Lombardi held additional employment within the Waukesha School District as an administrative secretary to the superintendent of schools.
Five years ago, after retiring from the school system, Lombardi returned to City Hall, this time a member of the Waukesha Common Council. Today, she is Waukesha’s mayor.
“I love this city and I love the people who live here,” Lombardi says. “I want to be as involved as I can in making this city as great as it can be.”
Having lived her whole life in Waukesha, Lombardi knows quite well the history of Waukesha, going all the way back to the city’s founding in 1896, through the time when Waukesha was known as “Cow County, USA,” because its farms raised some of the world’s most prized cows, up to present times. She wants other Waukesha residents to be well-versed in the city’s history, too, and City Hall is the best place, in Lombardi’s opinion, to teach that history. She’s started a City Hall beautification project through which she hopes to turn Waukesha City Hall into a public museum of sorts – a welcoming place through which visitors can walk, taking in bits and pieces of Waukesha history, as well as the works of local artists and students.
In addition to the City Hall project, Lombardi and the Waukesha Common Council have created a city administrator position, with the goal of improving efficiency within the city government, Lombardi says. A city the size of Waukesha – 62,800 souls and growing – cannot be without a city administrator, Lombardi believes.
For Lombardi, team work is the only way she sees her goals being attained, and the most successful team, she says, is the one which operates according to a philosophy of mutual respect.
“We can do a lot in this city, but we have to do it as a team,” Lombardi says. “There’s a real sense of respect among the leaders in this city. I feel a very positive vibe here.”
Dave Schmidt understands the value of involving the community, parents and business in the education of a city’s children. Having spent nine years as the assistant superintendent of the Appleton school district, a district known for its decentralized structure and its commitment to the “Village Partnership” – a program in which schools connect with businesses and parents – Schmidt, a La Crosse native, came to Waukesha in July to begin his duties as the new superintendent of the Waukesha school system, with a plan that can be summarized in two words – decentralization and collaboration.
Schmidt and the school board are in the process of writing the parameters by which next year’s budget will be decentralized for participating schools. In Schmidt’s philosophy, individual schools can best educate their students if given more control to deal with the issues faced by that particular school.
From the collaboration end, in February the Waukesha Area Chamber of Commerce will facilitate tours and dialogue between Waukesha teachers and business people, and Schmidt says plans for mentoring and job shadowing programs are in the works. Additionally, Schmidt is working with the Waukesha Police Department to start a police-school liaison program.
“Public education and business need to learn more about each other,” says Schmidt. “The students are future employees for these businesses, and the businesses have the jobs that the students will need. Business people here are very open to working with the schools because they know that what and how the students learn will affect them.”
The community involvement ethics carries over to the Waukesha Police Department, where Chief Leslie Sharrock, the oldest of the new kids in terms of time in office – he’s been Waukesha’s police chief since March of 1997 – is working to install in Waukesha what he terms the “community policing concept.” It’s an idea Sharrock brings from Moorhead, Minn., where he was police chief before coming to Waukesha, and the basic premise centers around the idea that police must partner with the community in order to address issues and solve problems effectively.
To that end, in the summer of 1997 a police substation was opened in downtown Waukesha and a bike patrol was implemented to have police more visible and accessible in the downtown area and throughout the community, Sharrock says. In February of 1998, Waukesha received a $450,000 federal Community Policing Grant to be used over a three-year period. Starting in January, Sharrock will visit all the neighborhood block clubs in an attempt to raise their level of involvement in community policing.
“I surveyed our department and the community, and one of the main things I found was that both the police and the residents wanted more interaction between the community and police,” says Sharrock, whose career in law enforcement began 33 years ago in the San Francisco Bay area, where Sharrock was a police officer.
In March of 1998, the Waukesha Police Department started a 10-week Citizen Police Academy program, in which citizens come to the police department one night a week for three hours to learn about what police do.
“It’s good for people to get a realistic view of what police work involves,” says Sharrock. “It’s not like ‘NYPD Blue’ and we don’t solve homicides in 30 minutes.”
Like Schmidt and Lombardi, Sharrock believes in the need to collaborate with city leader in order to achieve his goals. He mentions the development of a police-school liaison program as one of his main goals for 1999, and Lombardi spent a day with Waukesha police officers learning what a day in their lives is like.
Ann Nischke has been active in the Waukesha Area Chamber of Commerce since 1990, when she came to Waukesha to be the CEO of the Waukesha YMCA. In 1994 she was elected president of the Chamber, and today she is the Chamber’s executive director.
“I’ve always known how dynamic this organization is,” says Nischke, who worked for 15 years with the Milwaukee and Waukesha YMCAs before becoming CEO of the Waukesha branch. “The genius is in the many councils and committees it has. It serves the smallest businesses up to large corporations such as G.E.”
Strategic planning focus groups have come together at the Chamber to determine what is needed in Waukesha to help businesses, says Nischke, and workforce development and employee retention are two issues she’s found to be very important to the community. As part of a plan to address these issues, Nischke is working with Waukesha’s Workforce Development Center and the Waukesha school board.
“Many other leaders in this city are very progressive and want to see change happen,” Nischke says. “They understand that good change will only happen by working together.”

Staff needs training in dishing out, taking criticism
Roadblock: Marlene was completely frustrated by her co-worker, Jenny. As sales consultants, they had the same job responsibilities, each with her own group of assigned client accounts. In order to give the best service to the clients, the two salespeople had agreed to handle each other’s calls when one of them was out of the office. Jenny, however, was less conscientious than Marlene in taking care of the customers’ concerns and often failed to let Marlene know of the situations that came up with her accounts.
Marlene had vented her frustrations to everyone in the office – but not to Jenny. After yet another incident, Marlene finally “lost it” and told Jenny in no uncertain terms that she was inconsiderate and impossible to work with. Jenny retaliated with a verbal attack on Marlene, adding to the already tense atmosphere in the department.
Problem: Like many people, Marlene has no problem telling third parties what her complaints are about another person – yet she is unwilling to give the critical feedback directly to the individual involved. Not surprisingly, her stored-up emotions erupted in a personal attack.
The reason for her unwillingness to confront Jenny is one most people will identify with: she is afraid of the response she will get. And she has good reason to be concerned because she has not developed the skills for giving criticism in a manner that minimizes or avoids a defensive response.
This same “syndrome” often appears when managers or team leaders should be giving critical feedback to those people whose performance they manage, and when employees should be giving appropriate and needed feedback upward to their managers.
Solution: ll members of the organization should be expected to confront problem situations directly in a professional manner – both when giving criticism and when receiving it. And as with all job requirements, training should be provided to help people learn this necessary inter-personal skill.
A model for giving critical feedback should include these guidelines:

In today’s low unemployment environment, relying on traditional recruitment methods such as newspaper classified advertising is no longer enough. You need to make employee recruitment part of your overall strategic plan, says Jude Werra, a Brookfield executive search consultant. Here’s a few suggestions to develop a pipeline:

“We just put on four new people, and we are looking for six or seven more,” says the president of the family-owned firm. “It’s not easy to find them – it’s like pulling teeth. We need an office manager, an administrative assistant, and we are looking for professional salespeople. I think we’ve lost a lot of business because we simply cannot find the right people. Our hands are tied.”
In Sheboygan, INSpire Insurance Solutions can only address the absolute essential requirements of writing software for insurance companies because it does not have enough people to do the work. Says INSpire vice president Rick Gaumer:
“There’s pent-up demand. Our company could stand to hire 25 to 30 people right now. We are just kind of stringing out things and doing only that which is absolutely necessary.”
At Production Stamping Corp. on Teutonia Ave. on Milwaukee’s northwest side, owner Jeff Clark works with employees who have brushes with the law. If they have to spend a month in jail for committing a misdemeanor crime, that employee is granted leave and allowed to return to work. Those on work release are granted flexible hours to coincide with their jail time.
To Clark, this is more than a social experiment. It’s about retaining the employees he desperately needs to get the job done.
“We are growing, but the biggest limiting factor for us is not capital [equipment], it’s human capital,” Clark says.
According to Clark, in the past, you molded the employee to your business. But with unemployment hovering at an all-time low, employers such as Clark are catering to the people who are available and willing to do the job. To that end, he is moving the company in May to a new facility in the Riverworks Industrial Park in Milwaukee’s inner city because it is more accessible to the 40% of his employees who get to work by taking the bus.
“Our workforce is an inner city workforce,” says Clark. “So, that’s where we need to be, because that’s where the people are. We need to make it easier for them to get to work.”
According to a local study performed by BDO Seidman and UW-Whitewater, the single greatest challenge facing most company owners in southeastern Wisconsin today is recruiting and retaining quality employees.
But employers don’t need a study to tell them what they already know.
“We haven’t had a layoff here, ever,” Stangl says of his 55-employee firm. “We’re a private company, and we’re looking for people to stay with us for the long haul. We’d rather wait than hire someone who is wrong. Trying to find them is the hard part. It’s at an epidemic stage.”
A shrinking workforce
The shortage of qualified, able-bodied workers is national in scope. The problem will grow more acute as the Baby Boom ages and fewer workers are available to take their place, says Julie Peck, who runs a Thiensville executive search firm.
The US birth rate peaked in 1947, at 26.6 million, and today those people are 51 years old. By 1972, the birth rate for people who are now age 26 had dropped down to 14 million. Working age people (25 to 64) currently outnumber probable retirees (65 and over) by a ratio of four-to-one. Based on census trends, that ratio will drop down to three-to-one by 2020, and nearly two-to-one in 2030.
In other words, the numbers suggest that the shortage of qualified workers is not temporary. It’s here to stay, Peck says. Employers who recognize that and make hiring and retaining a part of their overall strategic plan will be the ones who win out. The underlying message from executive recruiters and personnel experts is that employers who continue to approach hiring the way they have in the past are in for a rude awakening.
“There’s going to be fewer people to choose from,” Peck says. “It’s going to be a seller’s market. They [employees] are going to be able to say ‘I won’t work weekends, and I won’t work overtime.'”
The good news is, small companies are in a much better position to respond, to change and be flexible in ways that large companies cannot due to their size and organizational rigidity, Peck says. Small companies need to exploit that advantage in the never-ending search for employees.
Six years from now, ethnic minorities will comprise 28% of the workforce, up from 20% in 1990, Peck says. Hispanic and Asian populations are growing at the fastest rate in the US Peck says. As an employer, you must make yourself attractive to those groups by establishing a track record of minorities succeeding within your company, Peck says.
One area company making strides in terms of diversity and inclusiveness is Deluxe Electronic Payment Systems of Glendale. As part of a change in leadership, the company now recruits minorities and offers domestic partner benefits. Worker-friendly policies like that have helped the company reverse an attrition rate that threatened the continuity of Deluxe’s workforce less than two years ago.
Establish a pipeline
Most people view management of their career as something they choose to avoid, says Brookfield executive search consultant Jude Werra. And employers are the same way, Werra says, as they tend to look at staffing in a reactive mode, rather than in a planful, proactive way.
Employers who take a continuous, long-range approach to staffing are in a better position when a key employee leaves the firm, Werra says. Thus, by establishing a network and developing a pipeline of potential candidates, an owner or manager is not starting from scratch in his search for a replacement, but already has a group of potential successors lined up.
“The roots of a hiring decision may well have been set months or years earlier by one of your executives becoming active in your principal trade organization,” Werra says. “When a vacancy occurs, you know who you are likely to call because you know what’s going on in other firms.”
Employers who establish good working relationships with colleges and technical schools are in a better position to court graduates than an employer who just walks in cold. It’s all about building relationships and networks which will bring qualified people to your doorstep.
“Why would a certain professor recommend his best graduate to someone who is a stranger versus [an employer] who has been offering internships?” Werra says. “People tend to go with somebody who is familiar … they pick the low-hanging fruit.”
Another tried-and-true method is developing your own “farm team” of college interns, says Paul Pagenkopf of Meyers Consulting, in Milwaukee. Pagenkopf recalls the example of a company which put graduate students on projects that fit their skills. Ultimately, those people were hired into full-time positions and eventually became managers, directors and vice presidents at the company, he says.
Training students within your company’s culture before they formally apply for the position gives you a competitive advantage over other companies who might be recruiting your candidate, the BDO survey says.
Hiring as marketing
Bill Lowell, of Business Development Directives in Mequon, recommends that employers view hiring from a marketing perspective. Business owners need to approach recruiting and retaining employees the way they would the marketing of their business.
The objective is to find new customers/employees, or keep existing employees. Just as you would in marketing, you accomplish that by profiling your customer/employee, says Lowell, who helped compile the BDO/UW-Whitewater study.
Look at where your potential or existing employees are in their career cycle, Lowell says. Recent college graduates are interested in things such as having enough money to pay off their student loans and having the right technology to perform their jobs. Mid-career people are interested in things like day-care, flexible hours and 401-k plans. Older workers are interested in the transferability of their retirement plans, and the ability to take off large blocks of time.
“You’ve got to profile your employee the same way you would your customer,” Lowell says. “Don’t look at shooting all over the place and hoping somebody is going to land.
“Small business owners are busy,” Lowell adds. They’re running and gunning, and trying to go out and find someone, that’s one more headache they don’t need. If they would just step back and look at this from a marketing perspective, they would be a lot better off.”
Another way to profile and match is to ask your existing employees what it is they really like about working for your company. Then go out and try to find someone to match that profile, Lowell suggests.
It’s important that your marketing/hiring efforts are reaching the intended audience. Lowell cites a “beautiful” brochure that was developed for Family Health Plan to recruit physicians into the HMO. But when the brochure was test-marketed to doctors, it fell flat. With the aid of market research, the brochure was reformulated and it succeeded in helping attract physicians to the HMO, Lowell says.
The lesson there is, find out who you are trying to reach, then shape your message to reach them, whether it’s doctors to your HMO or factory workers to fill vacancies at a growing manufacturing firm. But be true to your own company’s culture in seeking out a potential employee. If you’re like Weimer Bearing’s Stangl, you’re looking for the right fit.
“In the sales area, we’re looking for an ’11’ on a scale of one to 10,” Stangl says. “We are picky.”
Creative approaches
Classified advertising still has its place in finding employees, but is no longer a guaranteed method, Pagenkopf says.
Holding open houses, participating in job fairs and on-campus recruiting are successful strategies. So is recruiting via radio and television advertising, which area firms like Generac Power Systems Inc. have used to their advantage.
Because the Waukesha-based manufacturer of generators and industrial systems was growing at a rate of 20 to 40%, Generac had to find a way to reach the masses, as it was hiring up to 50 people at a time. So it started advertising on radio and cable television, and also used billboard advertising in addition to traditional newspaper ads.
“All of a sudden, there was this awareness of Generac, that we were growing,” says Generac human resources director Stephanie Borowski.
The company, which now numbers more than 1,000 employees, also instituted a 24-hour job hotline which details current openings and job fairs. Callers can leave a message and a company representative will call them back.
One of the more innovative approaches to finding people is the use of direct mail. Lowell cites the example of a company that bought a list of people living in the immediate area, then sent out a company brochure along with a letter soliciting employment applications.
Others have used churches as a resource, by contacting pastors and asking if they know of anyone who is new to the area or who has last his or her job, says Marlene Haigh of Project Management Associates in Racine.
“Anything you can do to set yourself apart,” Haigh says. “Today’s workers are like independent contractors. They interview the company as much as the company interviews them. It’s a two-way street. I think people are shopping around more than ever to find the right opportunity. I think managers really have to adopt this mindset that things have changed.”
If you are looking for supervisory or management people, Internet recruiting is growing in popularity, Haigh says, as technologically-savvy management level types are more likely to scour the Internet for employment opportunities.
United Parcel Service has a 31-foot mobile recruiting van it takes to high schools and college campuses in the Chicago area, says UPS recruitment manager Dave Chisholm. Inside the van, a video monitor plays a recruiting tape which sells the package delivery service as a good place to work. Recruiters hand out t-shirts and stage cookouts in order to pull in potential recruits. So far it’s working. In the first nine months of 1998, UPS had 473 calls as a result of the recruiting van. Out of that, 42 people were hired. In November, the mobile recruiting van was responsible for rounding up 90 people who interviewed for driver positions.
“There is so much you’ve got to do out there today, it’s unreal,” Chisholm says. “We try not to think outside the box, but outside the galaxy.”
Referral bonuses are growing in popularity. Stangl will pay $1,000 to anyone inside or outside the company who brings him an employee who stays for a year.
Covenant HealthCare has begun recruiting registered nurses from Canada to Milwaukee area hospitals, paying bounties of up to $500 to employees who successfully recruit nurses here. Covenant’s Katie Graceffa recently returned from a recruiting visit to Toronto with 60 rÃ&Copy;sumÃ&Copy;s in hand, making several hires out of that batch. Canada’s nationalized health care system has contributed to an oversupply of nurses. Graceffa says Covenant could easily hire 100 full-time to part-time nurses.
Shorewest Realtors was having trouble finding employees until it put out the word among its own workforce: Who do you know? Within the space of a month, the company was inundated with qualified people, many of whom were relatives of Shorewest employees, says Shorewest CEO John E. Horning.

What are computer viruses?
Answer
Let’s first get some facts straight about viruses. Computer viruses are not actually living creatures. They are just programs like any other, except that they copy themselves onto other programs. They “infect” them. They cannot actually run by themselves. To activate a virus, you need to run the program which was infected.
Here is a good example: A computer virus is a self-replicating program containing code that explicitly copies itself and that can “infect” other programs by modifying them or their environment such that a call to an infected program implies a call to a possibly evolved copy of the virus.
From all of this information, you should be able to see that you cannot get infected by a computer virus by just reading e-mail or opening a document. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. There is a programing language called WordBasic. This is used to write macros for Microsoft Word. It is also used, by some people, to write computer viruses. Those would be started when a document, which is already infected, is opened. Some of these viruses are harmless, while others are very destructive.
Question
I think I have a virus,
what do I do?
Answer
So you think you have a virus? Well, maybe you don’t. Many people just think that they have a virus because something is wrong. Perhaps the computer is slower or you can’t read floppy disks any more. Those are not sure signs of infection. There could be some hardware problems instead, or it could be caused by new software that you have installed, or even a change in a configuration file.
The first step to take to check for virus infection is to use a reliable virus scanner/checker. However, no matter how much they tell you how good they are, I recommend using at least two of them. The more famous ones are F-prot, Innoculan, Mcafee, Norton Anti-Virus, Thunderbyte.
After you have installed at least two of them, run them to see if they find a virus on your computer. Be sure to turn “heuristics” off if you can, as that will greatly reduce the number of false alarms. If there is only one infection, it may be a false alarm.
If the scanner tells you it can clean them, you should make a backup copy of all the infected files. You can then let the scanner clean the originals only (not the backups). After you have cleaned them, try running the programs again. If they appear to be working well, then all is fine, and you can delete the backups. If, however, they are not working, then you should delete them, and restore your backups. You should try other scanners, to see if they can remove it. Different scanners can usually remove some viruses that others can’t.
If you can’t find anything that will remove the virus, and you have an uninfected backup, then you should re-install the backup. If you don’t have any backups, then you will have to wait a while for a new update of your anti-virus scanner. During that time, you should not run the infected program under any conditions. If the program is not important, you can always delete it. If you do not know what the file is used for, do not delete it.
After you have finished your new scan, you should do another scan, with a different scanner. That should be done to pick up the viruses that might have been missed by other scanners.
Question
How do I prevent
a virus infection?
Answer
The simplest solution is to always leave your computer turned off, but that might not be too useful (and then there is no point in owning a computer). Otherwise, be careful with any new things that you install on your computer. That would include any floppies and anything downloaded from the Internet.
Another thing that you should always do is watch anybody that uses your computer. Other users could bring a virus on, even if they don’t mean to. Of course that is not always possible, so you should consider using a scanner that stays in memory. It checks all files before you open them, and also scans memory when you load it.
This tech Q&A is provided by EntrÃ&Copy; P.C. Solutions, of Brookfield. Small Business Times readers who would like to see a question asked can contact EntrÃ&Copy; at 938-2139 ext. 3022, or visit its Website at www.pcsentre.com.