BizTimes Milwaukee | October 26, 2020 by BizTimes Media

DESPITE CHALLENGES, PARTSBADGER POSTS IMPRESSIVE GROWTH

plus BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE HILL HAS EYES 5 SWIM HUB PLANNED TO AMPLIFY NONPROFITS’ IMPACT 12 HOW CAN MANUFACTURERS ATTRACT AND RETAIN WORKERS FROM OTHER INDUSTRIES? 14

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OCT 26 - NOV 8, 2020 » $3.25

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2020

PRESENTS:

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

Friday, November 6th, 2020 | Virtual Program - Free | 7:00AM Networking, Program 7:30 - 9:30AM

Creating collaborations Partnerships that confront Milwaukee’s biggest challenges Health inequities, education disparities, generational trauma and social isolation are among the deep-rooted issues that Milwaukee has faced for years. The COVID-19 pandemic this year has only exacerbated those challenges, while also taking a toll on the nonprofit organizations that work to confront them. But amid the tumult and tightening budgets, several community leaders are forging new partnerships and innovating to tackle these longstanding problems. Make plans to attend BizTimes Media’s annual Nonprofit Excellence Awards which will feature a panel discussion of nonprofit leaders who are collaborating to move the needle toward a healthier and more equitable Milwaukee.

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Panelists • Greg Wesley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Business Development, Medical College of Wisconsin (1) • Carrie Wall, President and CEO, YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee (2) • Amy Lovell, Steering Committee Member, Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee (SWIM) (3) • Anne Bastings, Founder and President, TimeSlips (4) Moderator: Lauren Anderson, Associate Editor, BizTimes Milwaukee

Following the panel discussion, we will recognize BizTimes Media’s Nonprofit Excellence & Corporate Citizenship awards. 2020 Nonprofit Award Finalists Nonprofit Collaboration of the Year: • Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers, American Cancer Society and Kohl’s Healthy Families program • Next Step Clinic • The Kellogg PEAK Initiative Nonprofit Executive of the Year: • Laurie Winters, Museum of Wisconsin Art • Maureen Atwell, Hebron Housing Services • Tom Schneider, COA Youth & Family Centers Large Nonprofit (Organization) of the Year: • Easterseals Southeast Wisconsin • Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center • Milwaukee Center for Independence Small Nonprofit (Organization) of the Year: • Artists Working In Education • Florentine Opera • Riverwest Food Pantry Social Enterprise: • Mission Fuel

2020 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner The Ramirez Family, Husco International 2020 Corporate Citizenship Award Finalists Corporate Citizen of the Year: • Belman Homes • CG Schmidt • Kohl’s • The Lueder Financial Group Corporate Volunteer of the Year: • Dan Davis • Jennifer Ott

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4 Leading Edge 4 NOW BY THE NUMBERS 5 BEHIND THE SCENES 6 BIZ COMPASS 7 THE GOOD LIFE 8 INNOVATIONS 9 GETTING THERE BIZ POLL 10 PROJECT PITCH IT

12 Biz News 12 S WIM HUB PLANNED TO AMPLIFY NONPROFITS’ IMPACT 14 SHOP TALK 15 T HE INTERVIEW WITH DENEINE POWELL OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE OF MILWAUKEE

16 Real Estate

COVER STORY

A cut above Despite challenges, PartsBadger posts impressive growth

Special Report

24 Higher education and development Coverage includes reports on the UWM Research Foundation trying to bridge the ‘valley of death’ for university-developed startups and a Marquette University program that is teaching business skills to engineering students.

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BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 26, Number 11, October 26, 2020 – November 8, 2020. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January, April, May, July, August and December by BizTimes Media LLC at 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA. Basic annual subscription rate is $96. Single copy price is $3.25. Back issues are $5 each. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to BizTimes Milwaukee, 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120. Entire contents copyright 2020 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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BIZTIMES DAILY – The day’s most significant news → biztimes.com/subscribe

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NOW

Foxconn campus in Mount Pleasant.

WEDC says Foxconn’s changed plans mean no incentives By Arthur Thomas, staff writer Foxconn Technology Group cannot receive any tax incentives for its job creation and capital investment last year because it is no longer building the kind of plant described in its contract with the state of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. informed the company of its determination Oct. 12. Earlier this year, Foxconn submitted its annual report to the state claiming it had created more than 550 jobs and invested more

BY THE NUMBERS

Northwestern Mutual is providing

2 MILLION

for the redevelopment of the children’s theater and play area on the Summerfest grounds. 4 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

than $280 million. After acknowledging it fell short of its job creation targets in 2018, the company did not seek tax credits last year. BizTimes’ review of Foxconn’s annual report showed the company could have received $45 million in tax credits. WEDC’s review said the company had created 281 jobs that qualified for incentives, short of the requirement for 2019. Foxconn called the determination “a disappointment and a surprise.” That WEDC would take the position it did was not necessarily a surprise. The agency had previously said it wouldn’t verify the company’s eligibility for tax credits under a 2017 contract between the two sides. The contract called for Foxconn to build a Gen 10.5 LCF fabrication facility, designed to produce large television screens. Instead, Foxconn has opted to build a smaller plant that provides it with more flexibility regarding which products it produces. The company is also building facilities to manufacture server products and provide high-speed computing capabilities. “I find talking with Foxconn’s leadership, their energy is infectious and I’m really excited about their being here,” said Missy Hughes, secretary and chief executive officer of WEDC. “It’s just we’re faced with the reality that

they’re not building a Gen 10.5 facility and that is what our contract is based on.” She said the change matters because even though Foxconn’s $3 billion incentive package provides fewer tax credits for a smaller project, it was designed with the massive scale of the original plan. “When that foundation isn’t there, the rest of the meeting of the minds between the two parties goes away,” Hughes said. The two sides have been discussing a new agreement, including reaching a deal to temporarily shield some communications from disclosure or litigation to allow for more frank conversations. Hughes said the 45-day period agreement that was in place this summer was productive. But WEDC’s decision to declare that the project is not eligible for tax credits could have consequences for future discussions. “Foxconn came to the table with WEDC officials in good faith to discuss new terms of agreement which have consequential impacts to Racine County and the Village of Mount Pleasant, third party partners in this development project,” Foxconn said in a statement. “WEDC’s determination of ineligibility during ongoing discussion is a disappointment and a surprise that threatens good faith negotiations.” n

BEHIND THE SCENES

JAKE HILL PHOTOGRAPHY

The Hill Has Eyes By Maredithe Meyer, staff writer

020 has been a scary year, but The Rock Sports Complex in Franklin is aiming to level up with its annual Halloween event, “The Hill Has Eyes.” Set on 45 acres of The Rock’s wintertime ski and snowtubing park, dark wooded trails take attendees on a 60-minute tour of four terror attractions where they encounter mutant cannibals, zombies and monsters, played by a cast of 98 local actors. Despite the real-life threat of the coronavirus, this year’s event is expected to attract 15,000 people over eight nights. Safely managing a crowd of that size means limiting capacity to 55%, enforcing face masks and proper social distance, eliminating enclosed and high-touch features like compression tunnels and the ski lift (also known as the “scare lift”), and training actors on the new do’s and don’ts of COVID-era scares. “There’s been great scenes where two or three actors come together and they create this really cool scare moment,” said Mike Zimmerman, chief executive officer of ROC Ventures, operator of The Rock. “We just can’t do that anymore.” n

The Rock negotiated for months with the City of Franklin Health Department to bring “The Hills Has Eyes COVID-19 Edition” to life this year.

Actors Michelle Borrero-King, Jessica Jefferys, Mohammad Mustafa and Luke Summers select costumes.

Danielle Gallagher applies fake blood to fellow cast member Reagan Meyers’ costume for a dress rehearsal prior to opening night.

ROC Ventures CEO Mike Zimmerman discusses the event’s COVID-19 safety plan with actors during a training session and dress rehearsal.

An actor’s face covering was designed to blend in with his creepy clown disguise.

biztimes.com / 5

Leading Edge BIZ COMPASS

With more employees working remotely,

WHAT S TR ATEGIES HAVE HELPED IMPROVE YOUR INTERNAL COMMUNICATION?

FEAMAN 1 PETE

Vice president, Integrated Payroll Services

“We are constantly evaluating how to better leverage technology to communicate both internally and with our clients. In the blink of an eye, our office ‘watercooler talks’ shifted to group messaging. We replaced in-person meetings with online conferences. And our team rediscovered the benefits of a good old-fashioned phone call.”

BINDER 2 DAVID

Vice president, MLG Capital

“We’ve doubled down on employee communications. Despite a bad hair day or the kids acting unruly, we try to meet face-to-face via (Microsoft) Teams. Moving internal documents to the cloud made access easier, and a monthly highlights newsletter and quarterly town hall meetings supplement weekly check-ins between employees and supervisors.”

1 3

3 ALAN CLARK

Executive vice president, Wisconsin region, First American Bank

“We implemented Microsoft Teams bank-wide. All employees have access to it and departments created Teams sites for their employees so that everyone can collaborate efficiently. Most departments have also scheduled short, regular meetings with their staff to keep everyone updated and engaged. We also have an internal site to share news and announcements, and it’s updated multiple times daily.”

2 5

4 JAMES MADLOM

Chief executive officer, Mueller Communications

“Leadership needs to communicate clear expectations about what is required and when. For us, we have standard reporting to help us gauge workloads and productivity, and we conduct weekly all-staff meetings to manage deadlines and expectations for client work. Blocking off calendars so your teammates know when you are and aren’t available, and being open and honest about bandwidth, is often all the leadership team needs to appropriately manage an employee’s tasks and deadlines.”

5 RODNEY JONES-TYSON Chief risk officer, Baird

4 6 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

“One of the many ways we’ve enhanced communication for Baird associates working remotely is more videos from leaders. Seeing someone’s face and hearing the sincerity and concern in a leader’s voice makes a stronger connection and can also help illustrate important topics, like wearing face coverings.” n

Steve Apel drives the Acieta super late model racecar. He has won five track championships at Slinger Speedway.

Racing into a career opportunity By Alex Zank, staff writer

teve Apel discovered auto racing at just two years old, when he started going to the shop with his father, who was a crew member on a race team. At 14, he started driving. But to sustain his hobby, he needed money.

the

Good LIFE

It was at the race track where he met the person who drove him to a career in the automation business. “It just so happened, the racing and the business kind of merged one night,” Apel said. Apel is a Midwest regional automation manager for Acieta LLC, a Waukesha-based robotic systems integrator. He also participates in super late model car racing competitions nearly every Sunday at Slinger Speedway from April through September. The time and effort put into this lifestyle goes beyond race days. Apel said he spends roughly

30 hours a week on average preparing for races, including car maintenance and repair. He drew connections between his job and hobby. There’s the competitiveness that fuels racing cars and making sales. In fact, Apel said his introduction to sales was procuring money and sponsorships in order to race on weekends. “In the sales position I’m in, winning is everything,” he said. “If you don’t win, you don’t bring any work into the business. Being extremely competitive is something that drives me. I don’t like to lose, and if I do lose, I try to learn how to get better so I don’t lose again.” The competitive drive of Apel and his team has led to five track championships at Slinger Speedway over the past 15 years, a feat that puts him among a small group including the likes of professional racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Conrad Morgan. n

BANKING BEYOND EXPECTATIONS Universally, people value genuine guidance that comes from experience and they want to know their interests are coming before yours. With First Business Bank, I enjoy working creatively to solve clients’ problems rather than promoting a specific product. Our reputation is built on these authentic relationships we have from looking at things from our clients’ perspectives.

JIM FLANAGAN SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FIRST BUSINESS BANK

BUSINESS BANKING | PRIVATE WEALTH | SPECIALTY FINANCE Member FDIC

firstbusiness.com/mke biztimes.com / 7

Leading Edge

INN UWM engineer building smart robotic assistive arm By Brandon Anderegg, staff writer

mR2A INNOVATION: Robotic assistive arm INVENTOR: Mohammad “Habib” Rahman uwm.edu/biorobotic s-lab 8 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

VAT I A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee engineer was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to develop a robotic assistive arm designed to help patients with varying levels of impairment regain their independence. The three-year grant will enable engineer Mohammad “Habib” Rahman and his team to develop a prototype for the arm, called mR2A, which is the latest of his robotic rehabilitation device inventions. Rahman, an associate professor in the College of Engineering & Applied Science, is an expert in bio-robotics, including human-assist robots, medical robots and exoskeleton robots for rehabilitation and motion assistance. The mR2A is designed to help the elderly, stroke survivors and spinal cord patients, with limited or no mobility, perform everyday tasks like eating, drinking and picking up household objects. The arm can be mounted on a wheelchair or any platform, and the prototype design includes a tray attached to the base of a wheelchair that holds four sets of grippers, including one that’s modeled after a fork, another modeled after a spoon, and a three-fingered gripper and two-fingered gripper. Because users have limited mobility, the robotic assistive arm must be capable of changing grippers on its own at their command, Rahman said. These specific grippers might not be used in the final design, but because cost and weight can be barriers for users, Rahman and his team must develop a limited set of grippers with the capacity to accomplish as many tasks as possible, he said. “It’s like plug and play,” Rahman said of the gripper’s design. “For this project, we’ll be going with a gripper that can accomplish 19 tasks and the research will be to optimize the gripper for many tasks.”

Mohammad “Habib” Rahman tests one of his latest inventions, the Smart Robotic Exoskeleton (UWM-SREx), which is used for upper arm rehabilitation. He is currently working on a robotic assistive arm invention, called mR2A.

A key difference in Rahman’s design from other products on the market is how it functions and its ability to switch from gripper to gripper, said Jessica Silvaggi, UWM Research Foundation director of technology commercialization. “This is going to be a very automatic and smooth process for changing and choosing the arm heads,” Silvaggi said. “The other competitors out there just don’t seem to have that flexibility that (Rahman’s team) envisions for this final version.” Rahman declined to provide specific details of his invention to protect the integrity of his research, but said safety and controllability are key to the design. To help users manipulate the robotic assistive arm, the invention will be paired with a tech-enabled interface developed by Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed, professor and chair of Marquette University’s department of computer science. The mobile interface will allow users to change grippers and manipulate the robotic assistive arm’s movements using their eyes, Rahman said. The project is expected

to take three years to complete. Rahman participated in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, which helps faculty turn their research into commercialized products. Through the customer discovery phase of I-Corps, Rahman interviewed people with upper and lower extremity dysfunction to determine their needs and then refine his invention to help meet those needs. Rahman has already designed two wearable upper-extremity exoskeleton robots for rehabilitation and a powered glove for hand and finger rehabilitation. The robotic assistive arm is the latest of 12 different inventions Rahman has submitted to the UWM Research Foundation since 2016, most of which are robotic rehabilitation devices, said Silvaggi. “He’s been one of our very active inventors,” Silvaggi said. “For an assistant professor to put that much time into the customer discovery and entrepreneurial realm is impressive.” The mR2A project is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. n

GETTING

THERE

What excites you about your new role? “I have been with Wintrust for over 19 years and am very honored to be chosen to help lead this next phase of our evolution as a company. I’ve had a passion for technology and making things easier for our customers for a long time. We’ve already made some big strides in my time here, so it’s very exciting to be a part of the additional solutions that we have planned. Being able to work with so many leaders across our organization to implement technological changes, not only for our customers but many that will make life better for our employees on a day-to-day basis as well, is fantastic.”

BIZ POLL

A recent survey of BizTimes.com readers.

Who is getting your vote for president of the U.S.?

53.2% Joe Biden: 43.6% Other: 3.2% Donald Trump:

What experiences are you drawing from in your new role? “I was just reflecting on the fact that, having gotten to work in many different facets throughout the company, as well as my great relationships with many of our project heads, is informing not only how I lead, but from a practical standpoint, how I get to use those skills in presenting to senior leaders and help build consensus to make decisions thoughtfully and quickly. We have so many great opportunities ahead of us in this area and getting to draw on my understanding of financial technology, as well as our culture and the various needs of our employees and clients, are probably my biggest advantages in this role.”

Share your opinion! Visit biztimes.com/bizpoll to cast your vote in the next Biz Poll.

What professional accomplishment are you most proud of? “Right now, I’d have to say receiving this new spot in our company.”

Favorite Milwaukee things to do outside of work? “Oh gosh, I’m obsessed with our city and all of the amazing things we have going on considering our size. In ‘normal’ times, I’d say a Brewers game for sure (or MU/Bucks b-ball in the winter), and I also just love seeing shows at the Rep or Marcus and going out before or after a show at Mason Street Grill or Aria. On the family front, and in these COVID times, we’ve been doing the Zoo or pretty much anything outdoors.” n

SARAH GROOMS Program director – digital transformation Wintrust Financial AGE: 40 HOMETOWN: Milwaukee EDUCATION: Finance degree from Carroll University, Masters’ in applied economics from Marquette University. PREVIOUS POSITION: Senior vice president, regional team leader

Do you enjoy one-legged waterskiing while balancing plates on your head? Did you just get back from a deathdefying adventure in Bora Bora? Tell us more about yourself! We may select you to be featured in BizTimes Milwaukee.

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Leading Edge

PROJECT PITCH IT W

STONEHOUSE WATER TECHNOLOGIES LLC LEADERSHIP: Hensley Foster and Anne Wick A D D R E S S: 247 W. Freshwater Way, Milwaukee WEBSITE: stonehousewater.com W H AT I T D O E S: Develops water treatment systems and antimicrobial products F O U N D E D: 2012

Stonehouse Water Technologies develops antimicrobial products amid pandemic By Brandon Anderegg, staff writer

hile several businesses were stymied by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, Stonehouse Water Technologies LLC pivoted, becoming more than just a water tech company by quickly developing virus-fighting products. Located in Milwaukee’s Global Water Center, Stonehouse Water Technologies’ patented water purification system, the “Water POD,” landed the business on WISN-TV Channel 12’s TV show “Project Pitch It” in February. The at-home “mini water treatment facility,” which the company has sold globally, garnered the support of Project Pitch It moguls, who awarded Stonehouse Water Technologies with the Get Unstuck Award – a $5,000 cash prize and one year of business coaching and strategy deployment from serial entrepreneur Jerry Jendusa. The water tech company has since grabbed the attention of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce for a series of products it brought to market through Stonehouse Innovations, LLC, the research and development arm of Stonehouse Water Technologies. “We were developing products for the water industry and along came COVID and we came up with some really pretty cool ideas,” said Hensley Foster, chief executive officer of Stonehouse Water Technologies and Stonehouse Innovations. “We started with the theory of, ‘What would it take for us to feel safe going back to work?’” The pandemic had just arrived in the U.S. when Stonehouse Water Technologies launched SI to spearhead the development of three new antimicrobial products within a fivemonth period. Using technology from its flagship product Water POD, SI developed POD X and BEDIA, a

SUPPORT

MKE’S

Hensley Foster, chief executive officer of Stonehouse Water Technologies.

soon to be released system that uses engineered plasticized and antimicrobial pellets as a water filtration medium for industrial and residential applications. The first product the company developed during the pandemic was Samaritan Shield, a cleaner protectant that creates an antimicrobial shield coating on hard surfaces for a minimum of 25 hours and up to 21 days. In tandem with Samaritan Shield, SI developed Dr. Moe’s Mist, an air and surface fogger that uses natural and environmentally safe ingredients to eliminate bacteria and viruses on contact. As the shortage of personal protective equipment became evident and the need for reusable PPE products grew, SI released O3 Safe, a portable cabinet that uses ozone gas to decontaminate PPE daily at home or in a business. The company’s latest product, “Sannies,” is set to release this month. The antimicrobial slip-on shoe covering is made from germ-killing material that prevents the room-to-room spread of pathogens from within hospitals. n

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Thursday, November 19, 2020 | Virtual Program – Free | 12:30 - 1:00PM Networking, 1:00 - 2:45PM Program

LOOKING BEYOND THE TUMULT OF 2020 WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? The dramatic news events of 2020 have been felt everywhere, including the southeastern Wisconsin commercial real estate industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to adapt to having many of their employees working remotely. At the same time, civil unrest across the country has drawn increased attention to the issue of racial inequality in communities across America, including Milwaukee, Kenosha and the rest of southeastern Wisconsin. Join us as the 2020 BizTimes Media Commercial Real Estate and Development Conference will feature a pair of panel discussions diving into two key issues that have been front and center this year: 1) How will work at home practices adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic impact the future of the Milwaukee office market? 2) What opportunities exist, and what challenges are in place, to attract economic development to Milwaukee’s lower income neighborhoods?

PANELISTS: • John Coury, Founder, Crestlight Capital (1) • Josh Jeffers, President & CEO, J. Jeffers & Co. (2) 1

• Lyle Landowski, Managing Director & Partner, Colliers International|Wisconsin (3) • Barry Mandel, Chairman & CEO, Mandel Group (4) • Kevin L. Newell, MBA, President & CEO, Royal Capital Group LLC (5) • Ryan Pattee, President, Pattee Group (6) • James Phelps, President, JCP Construction (7)

• Heather Turner Loth, Practice Leader – Project Development and Workplace Strategy • Leader, Eppstein Uhen Architects (8)

MODERATOR: • Andy Hunt, Director, Marquette University Center for Real Estate (9) 7

Exhibit Sponsors: .

COUSTECH S U P PLY

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Event Partners:

BizNews FEATURE Frank Cumberbatch, Amy Lovell and Michael Lovell discussed the goals of Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee at BizTimes Media’s Nonprofit Excellence Awards.

SWIM Hub on city’s near west side planned to amplify small nonprofits’ impact By Lauren Anderson, staff writer FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, TRUE Skool, a nonprofit organization based in downtown Milwaukee, has provided in-school and after-school programs, using hip-hop culture, public art projects, music and other tools to engage with students. The small, community-based organization doesn’t benefit from the backing of a large family foundation or dedicated major funder; instead, like many other nonprofits of its size, it leans on individual grants and earned revenue to sustain its operations. “We are a small organization,” said Fidel Verdin, co-director of TRUE Skool. “We’re not an institutional organization. And, quite frankly, we’re not ran and led by white people. We have a movement that is focused with a laser beam on using the most phenomenal and influential culture on the planet today – hip-hop – to make a positive collective impact 12 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

on our society. Some people may resonate with that. … Some people may not.” TRUE Skool is the kind of organization that does important on-the-ground work but can be overlooked by funders, according to the organizers of Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee (SWIM). SWIM, an initiative aimed at increasing awareness of trauma and supporting trauma-informed work in the community, is now laying the groundwork to develop a collaborative hub for nine nonprofits, including TRUE Skool, on the city’s near west side to provide access to legal, accounting, grant writing and other services. The 11,000-square-foot building is planned to include space for the organizations to host events for donors, community gatherings, and trauma and resilience trainings, while also providing wellness services to address the

second-hand trauma experienced by service workers. “The idea is to ‘heal the healer’ so they can pour out and help the community,” said Amy Lovell, a co-founder of REDgen and a member of SWIM’s steering committee. “… There are a lot of nonprofit centers out there, but there aren’t many that are doing the self-care piece.” SWIM has worked with Milwaukee developer Juli Kaufmann to identify a location for the development, but has not yet disclosed the site. The goal is to help small organizations – including those working in fields such as mental health and wellness, foster care support and anti-trafficking work – scale and increase their impact in Milwaukee, Lovell said. “It’s about giving these community leaders who are working tirelessly, to give them the space they deserve,” Lovell said. “If you

have a small nonprofit – and I say this from starting one – you don’t have the budget to hold a fundraising event or to hold a training. … So, if we build this space, now what they have is a space that is equitable. They have this space for all the work they’re doing.” “These are very passionate people, people who put their lives at risk every single day,” added Frank Cumberbatch, vice president of engagement for Bader Philanthropies and a member of SWIM’s steering committee. “And this statement might be controversial, but they seem to be a group of folks that nobody seems to care about. But we recognize their importance to the city and to the community, so we will provide those resources like space and knowledge for them to develop.” Spearheaded by Amy Lovell and her husband, Marquette University president Michael Lovell, SWIM launched in 2018 as a coalition of local nonprofit leaders, public officials, academics, social workers, health care professionals and other stakeholders to address the issue of generational trauma in Milwaukee. For the past two years, the group, which recently received its nonprofit status, has worked to bring attention to research that indicates trauma – a term used to describe a high-stress psychological response to an adverse experience – is a root cause of disparity in many cities, including Milwaukee. The group partnered in the fall of 2018 with Milwaukee-based nonprofit SaintA to host a conference on trauma at Fiserv Forum, an event that drew 1,500 attendees, leading national trauma experts and a personal video message from Oprah Winfrey. Since then, SWIM has worked with consultant NATAL, an organization that provides treatment and support to victims of trauma

ANNOUNCING A NEW

in Israel, to help steer its path forward. Bader Philanthropies, which has financially supported SWIM since its inception and provides ongoing funding for organizations in Israel, brokered the introduction to NATAL. NATAL held about 40 meetings in Milwaukee to seek community input on the initiative. Out of those meetings, SWIM began building relationships with its nine partnering community-based organizations. “It was a lot of listening to needs, challenges, what’s already in place and the problems,” Lovell said. “They (NATAL) were fantastic at providing a space safe for people to share.” Those conversations helped SWIM leaders narrow their focus, Cumberbatch said. The group determined that the organization would focus on supporting – not competing with – existing organizations working to address trauma. “We concluded that SWIM in itself is not going to be another nonprofit in the community trying to end trauma,” he said. “We are going to function as a hub … a facilitator of what are the needs of the ecosystem that must be satisfied in order for the whole environment to improve.” TRUE Skool co-director Shalina S. Ali sees the hub as a way to “even the playing field” and increase collaboration among community-based organizations. “When we have organizations that are doing really great work but the resources are limited, it hinders our ability – and not just ours but everybody’s – to be able to connect because we’re struggling to get these small grants and add them up to something that creates some sort of sustainability,” she said. While TRUE Skool may not carry the same level of name or donor recognition as other larger Milwaukee nonprofit organizations, affiliating with SWIM offers “huge amplification” of the work it is already doing, Verdin said. And getting the word out to wider audiences – such as corporations and universities – is important, as its programming is aimed at devel-

oping a pipeline of creative talent who choose to stay in the city. “We really look at this as an opportunity to say, how can we be better valued in this space and in this market as a business and as a creative incubator for talent so that hopefully our young professionals from the community don’t feel like they have to go elsewhere,” Verdin said. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated existing challenges in Milwaukee, particularly in communities of color, including food insecurity, joblessness and the digital divide, Cumberbatch said. But it’s also served to raise awareness of the devastation of trauma on the community, he said. “I say to the team just about every day: SWIM has become more important than we ever could have imagined,” he said. “… We were working on this when the greater community paid no attention to it, but we knew the importance. It saddens me to think that it took a virus, a pandemic, a man putting his knee on another man’s neck and killing him on TV to bring attention to trauma in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, blocks away from where people go to work and where people entertain.” “Now we’re really glad that the greater community recognizes that, yeah, we have systemic racism in Milwaukee … that African American boys are under siege,” he added. “We didn’t want it to be this way, but if that’s what it took to get people’s attention then so be it and now let’s get on with the work.” SWIM is preparing to launch a fundraising effort for the hubproject. It has yet not finalized cost estimates. The organization also plans to hire an executive director to oversee the facility and bring on a board of directors, Lovell said. In the meantime, the organization is working on a rebranding effort with the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design to better communicate its mission. “We’re working to maybe rebrand, recognizing that ‘SWIM’ doesn’t actually tell the story of who we are,” Lovell said. n

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BizNews

SHOP TALK Grube

How can manufacturers attract and retain workers from other industries? FOR YEARS it was common to hear manufacturers lament their inability to find and hire new employees. Initially, the problem was primarily characterized as a skills gap. Coming out of the Great Recession, the available workforce did not have the training and experience manufacturers needed. As the unemployment rate in the U.S. and Wisconsin trended downward over the years, the skills gap problem morphed into a body gap. “We just cannot find enough people,” became the common refrain. Of course, when the unemployment rate was at or around 3%, nearly every industry was having trouble finding people. With 27% of its workforce over the age of 55, the manufacturing sector may have felt the pressure to attract new workers more than other industries. Around 23% of workers outside of manufacturing in Wisconsin are over 55, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, most of those workforce concerns went out the window. Survival became the main priority. Managing cash flow became a top concern. As the initial chaos subsided, however, the surviving manufacturers found themselves positioned to take advantage of massive layoffs in other industries like retail, hospitality and restaurants. Over the summer, many employers complained that the availability of an additional $600 per 14 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

week in unemployment benefits made it difficult to attract workers. The average weekly earnings of production workers in metro Milwaukee was around $870 in June and July, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Even though the extra unemployment benefits have expired, many companies say they still find it challenging to tap into the new labor pool created by layoffs in other sectors. “You have to study why a person goes into the hospitality or service industry and you have to start with it’s not the money,” said Ryan Festerling, president of Brookfield-based QPS Employment Group. “It’s as much a lifestyle as it is a career.” He pointed out that workers in the hospitality sector frequently hang out outside of work and socialize together. “It’s part of their life and it’s not just a job,” Festerling said, adding workers in the industry often value a highly engaged work environment, teamwork, seeing an end result and interacting with happy customers. The question for manufacturers is how can they create a similar environment without the ability to exactly replicate the same circumstances. “It’s a tough one, but if you don’t start there, I think you’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,” Festerling said. He suggested manufacturers start by hiring a group of new employees at the same time to help

create a cohort feel and then be deliberate about choosing which manager and projects new hires are assigned to, favoring ones that understand the differences in the industries. Valerie Grube, director of recruiting, background investigations and retention services at MRA, said employers and hiring managers need to be open to new ideas and understand that people are assessing their lives differently amid the pandemic. Most importantly, she said employers need a plan for onboarding their new hires. “Having a plan that is not just throw them in and drink from the fire hose,” Grube noted. “You’re going to have to train them a little bit differently.” She said many companies have a plan for the first day or first week but don’t go beyond that. The plan for onboarding should have more longevity to it and react in real time. “You have to kind of read the room a little differently now,” Grube said, noting the world is filled with a lot of instant gratification and a desire for flexibility and understanding. Employers can use videos to show prospective employees what the work and company culture are like during the hiring process. Grube said these don’t necessarily need to be highly produced and ideally should give people an authentic feel for the job. “The more you educate people on the front-end, the better it is in the long run,” she said, emphasizing the need to be upfront and clear. “It’s not going to be a fit for everyone. That’s unrealistic.” Grube said employers should also study data on the new hires that leave. Is it always happening

Festerling

BEST PRACTICES FOR ONBOARDING AND RETENTION • Study what made other industries attractive. Try to create a similar environment without exactly replicating. • Have a plan for onboarding that goes beyond the first day or week. • Use videos and technology to give prospective employees an idea of the work. • Hire in cohorts and deliberately choose initial managers and tasks. • Use data to identify where retention issues are taking place. after a certain number of days? Are some managers doing worse than others? Is one shift performing better than the other? She cautioned that it is easy to become paralyzed by the analysis of turnover data and employers should keep their review manageable and actionable. n

ARTHUR THOMAS Associate Editor

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the

Interview

IN AUGUST, the African American Leadership Alliance Milwaukee named Deneine

Powell, former executive director of Groundwork Milwaukee, as its first president and chief executive officer. Powell previously founded a small business, run the Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and held leadership positions with Milwaukee Community Service Corps. and the Lilly & Hamilton Inc. Business Strategy Group. AALAM, which was founded in 2017 and launched publicly in 2019, is focused on growing and retaining the region’s pool of African American talent. Powell recently spoke with BizTimes associate editor Lauren Anderson about AALAM’s goals for a city that studies indicate has some of the nation’s largest racial disparities. What was your reaction to the latest African American Wellness Index that again ranks Milwaukee as the worst on measures of African American well-being compared to other metros? “When I read through it, there were no surprises there. As a Black resident, I know how bad things can be. But I also believe there are initiatives out there that directly tie back to some of the concerns. … There are a lot of organizations doing a lot of this work, but I think what is lacking and why it has been so slow, which is why it hasn’t changed much for Milwaukee, is that we’re very siloed. The key word has to be ‘collective impact.’ We have to work together on this. Otherwise it’s just the little boy with his finger in the dam. It’s just not enough. It has to be everyone pitching in to solve the issues.”

How does AALAM’s work tie into the (Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce) Region of Choice initiative? “They have been an incredible partner up until now. We have focused on taking our strategy and aligning with the Region of Choice work that MMAC has done. Our 90-day plan even has some components of the Region of Choice so we can start to see action there. Our intention over the next year is to grow with MMAC and that initiative.”

What does Milwaukee need to do to retain African American talent? “Most successful Black people with families don’t come to Milwaukee because they don’t want their families to be treated as second-class citizens and they themselves don’t want to be treated as second-class citizens. It becomes a difficult sell to bring (Black families) to a place where not only the quality of life for Blacks is low, but then you get into an organization that maybe beats the drum about diversity, equity and inclusion and yet doesn’t deliver on their promises. … Managers come in and then they simply cannot seem to break through a certain level. There are very few Blacks in the C-suite in Milwaukee. There are so many other (cities) where our blackness does not precede us into the room. …CEOs talk a lot about DEI and their commitment to it, but when you’ve got a rate of African Americans leaving your company that’s extraordinary and there’s nothing being done about it, there’s just a revolving door of people of color, you might want to consider why that’s happening.”

With you now at the helm, what’s next for AALAM? “There’s been just years of conversation. I think what they’re really looking for me to do is to take those conversations and those strategies and actually kick them into action. My job is really to turn on the switch and get this machine rolling. We have a lot that has to be done … Between the economy, COVID, police brutality and murders of innocent black people, the community and society as a whole is fragile right now. And I think that there’s no time like the present to initiate these things because the work that we do will heal.” n

Deneine Powell African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee 275 W. Wisconsin Ave. Employees: One, supported by five contractors aalamilwaukee.org biztimes.com / 15

Real Estate

REAL ESTATE WEEKLY – The week’s most significant real estate news → biztimes.com/subscribe

A rendering of the Hawthorne Square development in Thiensville.

Hawthorne Square development planned in Thiensville is a combination of history and future potential

THE HAWTHORNE SQUARE development planned in Thiensville has a meaning that runs deeper than the confines of the project itself. For the developers, NexJenn Real Estate LLC, it is the latest iteration of their family’s history of owning the prime site. For the village, it is the starting point of the greater redevelopment of Thiensville’s northern stretch of downtown. Hawthorne Square is a $24 million mixed-use development planned southeast of Freistadt Road and Main Street in the community of one square mile and roughly 3,200 residents. Once built, the development will include 89 residential units and approximately 14,000 square feet of commercial space. The new buildings are to go up on vacant land around the existing Walgreens store at the hard corner of Freistadt Road and Main Street. Trish Ullrich and Maggie Beach, sisters and partners of Wauwatosa-based NexJenn Real Estate, are developing Hawthorne Square. The land where it will be developed is owned by their father, Leander

FEATURED DEAL: M E T R O M I LWAU K E E S I XBUILDING OFFICE PORTFOLIO

BUYER: WI Park Investments LLC SELLERS: LSOP WI LLC and Somerset Green WM Propco LLC PRICE: $3.6 million total 16 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

A local investor in late September acquired a portfolio of six Milwaukee-area office buildings for $3.6 million. The 245,000-square-foot portfolio includes a mix of single- and multi-tenant buildings, and at the time of the sale was 17.5% leased to six tenants. Five of the buildings are located in Milwaukee’s Park Place office park on the city’s far northwest side. The other is located in Oak Creek. The sellers, both affiliated with Westport, Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners, were represented by Tom Shepherd and Jennifer Huber-Bullock of Colliers International | Wisconsin. Kristian Sydow of Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke represented the buyer, WI Park Investments LLC, which is registered to Carl Tomich of Waukesha. “Suburban office interest is elevated right now due to a decentralization theory that is circulating among market participants,” Shepherd said in a statement. “Investors and tenants are being cautiously optimistic as it relates to the pandemic and some trends are pointing toward single-story office increasing in demand.”

Jennings, and has been owned by the family reaching back to 1966. It once was home to a neighborhood shopping center that included a Walgreens, Kohl’s grocery store and liquor store. Leander Jennings developed the shopping center with the help of his father, David Jennings. The shopping center was demolished roughly 20 years ago, after Walgreens moved out of it and onto the corner. Leander Jennings said the shopping center became dated, as Kohl’s got out of the grocery business, and grocery stores altogether grew in size and wanted to sell their own liquor. “The whole complex was changing,” Leander Jennings said. “We knew we had lost Kohl’s, and (the liquor store) closed, so we said, ‘The heck with it.’ We knew we were going to have to do something different here.” Leander Jennings and his brother Phillip Jennings remained owners of the property until 2017, when Leander bought him out, paving the way to build something on the site, Ullrich said. The development is backed in part by tax incremental financing from Thiensville. The $9.9 million village spending plan is for developer incentives, property acquisition, environmental audits and remediation, demolition work and street and utility improvements. It is Thiensville’s second TIF district in its history. Village leaders plan to use its financing to encourage development around the intersection of Freistadt and Main, even beyond Hawthorne Square. “I think the TIF district as a whole should be viewed as a continuation of the village of Thiensville’s redevelopment efforts that have been going on for about 10 years,” village president Van Mobley said. Part of the strategy involves the village acquiring nearby parcels in order to have greater control over what happens there. Mobley noted the village recently acquired the Chinese restaurant northwest of the intersection. The village will continue buying properties as they become available but is in no hurry

and not actively pressuring property owners to sell, he said. Village leaders have an idea of what they’d like to see developed in the area. “Hawthorne Square is a mixeduse development; I could foresee being kitty-corner to that something similar,” village administrator Colleen Landisch-Hansen said, referring to the northwest corner of the intersection. “As we get farther west down Freistadt, I could see that being more residential, maybe multi-family.” Village leaders point to the Pigeon Creek project, which commenced in 2009 as a catalyst that encouraged several commercial developments to occur at Main Street’s southern end. The infrastructure project widened the Pigeon Creek channel to help control flooding. Ullrich declined to provide a target groundbreaking and completion date on Hawthorne Square. She said NexJenn has been speaking with construction firms, and a groundbreaking will depend on their contractor. They want to time the 12- to 14-month construction project so it finishes in the spring or summer months. The longevity in ownership of the site, and the dedication to redeveloping it amid changes in the demands of the market, makes NexJenn unique, Leander Jennings said. “We are a different form of developer,” he said. “When we develop something, we put our heart into it, and we develop it not only for today, but for tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow.” n

WHO REALLY OWNS IT? 1310 -1312 N . S I X T H S T., D O W N T O W N M I LWAU K E E The northeast corner of Sixth Street and McKinley Avenue may look very different in a few years. The site, which neighbors the Deer District, will become home to Milwaukee Public Museum’s planned 230,000-square-foot museum. The new museum would be built on a 2.4-acre site where three separate buildings now exist. The site includes the 9,000-squarefoot building on the corner, which is owned by Dan Druml of The Druml Co. LLC. It is occupied by The Milwaukee Auto Spa and Gustave A. Larson Co. The three buildings would be razed to make way for the museum. ADDRESS: 1310-1312 N. Sixth St., Milwaukee OWNER: First Partners LLC, registered to Dan Druml ASSESSED: $485,200

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STORY COVER

A CUT ABOVE DESPITE CHALLENGES, PARTSBADGER POSTS IMPRESSIVE GROWTH BY ALEX ZANK, staff writer

Jimmy Crawford, co-founder and chief sales officer; Roy Dietsch, co-founder and chief executive officer; and Kim Crawford, chief operating officer. 18 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

TELLING THE STORY of how PartsBadger LLC came to be, co-founders Roy Dietsch and Jimmy Crawford often say phrases like, “We didn’t know how difficult it would be,” or, “We didn’t know how to do that.” For the Cedarburg-based Computer Numerical Control machining company with a short history and big aspirations, overcoming challenges with a can-do ethos is woven into its identity. CNC shops, especially smaller ones, typically specialize in a single industry because of the complexities and intricacies associated with each, said Dietsch, the company’s chief executive officer. PartsBadger has embraced the learning challenge of serving a diversity of industries, from aerospace and defense to medical devices and transportation industries. No single sector makes up more than 15% of the company’s overall business. “We have a lot of people who know how to learn what all that stuff is,” Dietsch said. “That’s our culture. … So, if a customer needs something, we’re going to figure out how to get them what they need. Everybody is very used to hitting the phones, hitting Google and figuring out whatever it takes.” Take, for example, the time when PartsBadger chief operating officer Kim Crawford took a fact-finding trip to China to learn how to make a perfect sphere for a client. “I went down to O’Hare (International Airport), and I had to stop at the consulate to pick up the visa to get on the plane in a couple hours,” Kim Crawford said. “It was one of those things where we ended up getting this order and it’s like, ‘Well, you’ve got to go to China to figure it out.’ And we did figure it out and brought the piece back, bought an extra piece of luggage (for it). And the customer ended up with the parts in the end to their deadline that they needed.” But not every challenge is solved so easily. Compared to its more-established, well-financed competitors, PartsBadger faces a shortage in lending or investment. “Our biggest hindrance is cash,” Dietsch said. “We’re not venture funded, and that’s the hardest part.” Still, the four-year-old company has ambitious growth plans. Since August 2017, the shop has raked in more than $20 million in sales, and it is now on a $10 million run rate. It has a “robust” plan to reach $20 million, and then $50 million, and then beyond, Dietsch said. “PartsBadger will be a hundred-million-dollar company pretty darn quick here,” he said.

A DISRUPTIVE FORCE Jimmy Crawford and Dietsch were introduced to the CNC machining industry as customers, when they were seeking a customized aluminum

enclosure for their other business, Rugged Video, a Mequon-based company that makes flight recorders and cameras. The enclosure they had been ordering from an extrusion company took too long to make and get to them. They were also forced to design their electronics to fit inside its rigid confines. After they designed their own enclosure, they sought quotes from a dozen CNC machining shops, and heard back from only three. “Two said their software was too old and they couldn’t open the file I had sent them, and the one that quoted us was so expensive, it was cheaper to buy a CNC machine to make the parts ourselves,” Dietsch said. They taught themselves how to use computer-aided design, or CAD, which is used to make the parts to be machined. They also talked their way into a CNC machine training class by promising to buy the machine itself when the training was over. They bought the machine and set it up in the office kitchen. “I would work during the day doing the sales stuff and assembling everything, and then the machine would run at night,” said Jimmy Crawford, who is also PartsBadger’s chief sales officer. “I would sleep on the futon in the next room, and I would hear the machine throw the part against the wall and I’d wake up and go in there and I started all over. It was a heck of a learning curve, but we started making our own enclosure.” The machine fundamentally changed Rugged Video and led to the creation of PartsBadger, Dietsch said. PartsBadger was actually founded as a concept in March 2016. Dietsch said a high school friend of his, Steve Kotlowski, was brought in to run their new endeavor while Dietsch and Jimmy Crawford remained focused on Rugged Video. Kotlowski is the third co-founder of PartsBadger, but he is no longer involved with the company. The logistics proved too difficult, being that he lived in central Wisconsin, Dietsch said. The company was restructured after a few months with Dietsch and Jimmy Crawford as sole owners. They point to August 2017 as the true beginning of PartsBadger, the moment it went from an idea to a “legitimate venture.” That’s when the two decided to put their full effort and attention into the business. Jimmy Crawford and Dietsch still own Rugged Video but have someone else overseeing that business full time.

TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN SUCCESS Because of their experience as customers, Dietsch and Jimmy Crawford realized something in the CNC machining industry was broken, Dietsch said. The big problem they aimed to solve was the quoting process and decided to create a way to instantly quote a job.

PARTSBADGER TIMELINE

2016:

Company founded; starts making parts with one machine in Mequon and small manufacturing partners in China and U.S.

Early 2018:

PartsBadger creates a wholly owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) for quality and logistics facility in China; purchases machine shop in Germantown to expand U.S. machining capacity; and obtains ISO 9001:2015 certification, which sets standards for quality maintenance systems, and AS9100 certifications, which sets additional requirements specifically for the aerospace industry.

Late 2018: PartsBadger owners acquire 15,000-square-foot facility in Cedarburg, its current home, to expand manufacturing capacity and offices.

2019:

Company expands partner network to Malaysia and Singapore.

2020:

PartsBadger invests in additional equipment in Cedarburg, doubling the size of its fifth axis cell while adding more high-speed production machines; hires Malaysia team to manage production in Malaysia and Singapore.

biztimes.com / 19

ANDREW FELLER PHOTOGRAPHY

STORY COVER

Shop manager Rob Brekke The PartsBadger quoting tool analyzes 3D parts and PDF files to quote parts for CNC machining, which can be a time-consuming manual process for machine shops, Dietsch said. The instant quoting tool does not work for all requests. Customers who could not or did not want to use it needed the assistance of engineers. Providing the insight of an engineer meant they had to hire one. They brought on Kim Crawford, Jimmy’s sister-in-law, for that job. “At the time we didn’t even know what tolerances were,” Dietsch said. “We didn’t know the difference between a low carbon steel and a stainless steel. Jimmy and I didn’t know anything. Kim was an engineer, and she had a lot of this knowledge that she was able to bring to the table.” When Kim Crawford was hired in late 2016, her position was initially only temporary. “I ended up really enjoying the concept of the company and with my background in engineering … knowing what we were doing was definitely something big, something that intrigued me to keep going and seeing where it could head,” she said. Dietsch said they aimed to hire seasoned sales 20 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

veterans to grow the company more quickly. The thought was they would bring over their existing customers and industry connections, and the customers would benefit from the instant quoting platform and speedy production of parts. While that strategy proved successful, PartsBadger at first had a hard time convincing salespeople what they were offering was legitimate. “When we were trying to convince the seasoned sales rep who’s been selling machined parts for 20 years that we can do something you’ve never seen before in the industry, they didn’t believe us,” Dietsch said. “They didn’t believe we could get them parts in 14 days or less, or that we could give them a quote right online or in an hour.” PartsBadger formed a full interview process, with Dietsch’s mom conducting pre-screenings, followed by the team convincing the candidate what they were doing was real. “We’ve had that where people just literally hung up on us,” Dietsch said. “They’re like, ‘You can’t do that,’ and then they would just hang up on us and that’s the end of the interview, I guess.” PartsBadger is refining its quoting tool to

make it more sophisticated with the ability to judge more parameters for a requested item. Dietsch said he and a PartsBadger developer have sessions where they “nerd out” with the quoting program algorithm. About 65% of the parts can be entered online and given an instant quote. The other 35% need a closer look by engineers, Dietsch said. PartsBadger also built out a complete end-toend enterprise resource planning, or ERP, system to manage everything from customer acquisition to accounting. Dietsch said a key component is the production management system that coordinates production processes globally. PartsBadger also developed a proprietary sales tool to better reach the $60 billion to $80 billionper-year CNC machining industry. The goal, Dietsch said, is to use technology to make the process of quoting, ordering, producing and delivering parts as fast and efficient as possible, shorten development cycles, reduce required inventory levels and accelerate innovation for customers.

PartsBadger’s nimbleness was put to the test with the global COVID-19 pandemic. At the time the pandemic hit, about 95% of the company’s products were manufactured outside of its Cedarburg shop. Much of the work was performed overseas, particularly in China. Dietsch said company leaders knew supply chains would be disrupted once China extended its New Year shutdown in January. They considered South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines before ultimately choosing to shift work primarily to Malaysia and some into Singapore. This was in part because they already had relationships in Malaysia. “We were concerned about the flood of competing customers heading into China and Malaysia bumping us,” he said. “So, we started sending one of our people (on-demand engineer Josh Williams), who had been to Malaysia before over there and the goal was to solidify the relationships.” A couple weeks later – on Valentine’s Day – Tiffany Tyner-Sohm, global production manager, went to Malaysia to hire employees. “Our first insight was everyone was going to move their production to the Malaysia area, so we just wanted to solidify the vendor relationships we already had in place,” she said. “(Williams) solidified a lot of the relationships over there, so I went over there to reinforce what he did and also get a new team on board there.” Moving over production wasn’t the biggest hiccup to the supply chain, Tyner-Sohm said. It was dealing with the carrier they were using, which didn’t pivot as quickly. PartsBadger also invested at home to beef up domestic capacity. It spent $750,000 to buy four new CNC machines. This bumped the amount of manufacturing it performed in-house from 5% to 25%. That investment provided PartsBadger with a second fallback – increased in-house capability – to lean on in case its first fallback – the production shift to Malaysia – also fell through. The company is also looking to expand its Cedarburg headquarters. The planned 5,000-squarefoot expansion and additional 12 to 15 machines would create 20 new full-time jobs. The company currently has about 50 employees, 40 in the U.S. and 10 international employees. Dietsch said he is looking at incentive options from local and state agencies, and expects to break ground in 2021 or early 2022.

ANDREW FELLER PHOTOGRAPHY

RESPONDING TO COVID-19

AIMING HIGH COVID-19 has tempered some of PartsBadger’s growth plans. Dietsch said the expectation was to finish the year with a $20 million run rate, but the company is now more realistically looking to be somewhere between $12 million and $15 million in 2020.

Machinist Michael Mortl biztimes.com / 21

ANDREW FELLER PHOTOGRAPHY

“The strategies we have right now are working, but it’s really dependent from a macro perspective as well,” Dietsch said. “Especially in manufacturing like this, when you get a dip, it affects our new customer acquisition to a much higher degree because people just kind of stick with the suppliers they have. They don’t have lead time problems; they don’t have pricing problems. Everybody just kind of stays where they are and we need a movement to happen in the market.” Beyond COVID-19, the biggest hindrance to growth is the availability of money. Dietsch said with the initial ramp up, the company grew faster than he or Jimmy Crawford anticipated. They applied for an initial line of credit of $50,000. They were requesting a line of credit backing 60% of the company’s receivables. But they grew so quickly, the loan request got bigger by the week. “By the time they (the bank) scheduled the meeting to talk about the application, we needed $150,000,” he said. “Two weeks after that, I think we needed like $250,000 or $300,000. … And then a few months after that, we needed like $1.5 (million) that was just backing receivables. And we were scrambling to find a financial institution.” They quickly outgrew a bank in Oregon, Wisconsin they had been working with, and Dietsch said he called “probably every single bank in Milwaukee.” When that didn’t work, they turned to angel and venture capital, offering aggressive terms “just to try to get something so we didn’t have to slow down the growth.” They finally found a lender in Commerce State Bank. PartsBadger has lately been using cash from its profits to invest in its growth, but it isn’t enough to keep up, Dietsch said. When talking with venture capital firms and angel investor groups, PartsBadger could show growth that exceeded the projections of other companies that also sought investment, but it had a couple things working against it, Dietsch said. “It’s just really hard for what’s called a flyover state,” Dietsch said. “It’s really hard to get interest and to get the type of investment that we needed.” The company’s age relative to its rapid growth also presented issues. “(They’d say), ‘Well, give us the last two years’ books.’ We hadn’t even been around two years,” Jimmy Crawford said. “So, it’s a slower moving pace, too.” Dietsch said investors also didn’t have another company to compare against PartsBadger. “I just wish from an ecosystem standpoint that Wisconsin and Milwaukee had more opportunity for things like this,” he said. “I think we would be a substantially bigger company today had we been able to secure even modest amounts of investment. Because the only cash we’re able to put into growth is profits. That’s it. That’s all we have right now.” The company has looked to grow in a lean way, being selective about where it chooses to invest. 22 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

ANDREW FELLER PHOTOGRAPHY

STORY COVER

Dietsch said the typical payoff for a shop investment is around four or five years, but they are expecting a payoff in three months. Limitations and challenges aside, PartsBadger is staying the course in its pursuit of growth and desire to reshape the industry. It helps that the company is filled with people who are on board and love what they do, said Jimmy Crawford. “That’s part of the culture, where a lot of the people that work here enjoy doing the stuff,” he said. “Our engineers will be doing quotes at night because they just like doing it. Or they’re designing brackets for this guy because it’s a cool project and it’s what they would do in their spare time anyway.” Kim Crawford recalled when a customer wanted to machine a shifter for a Camaro he was restoring. He had nothing more than a sketch, a shift knob and a photo from someone else’s car. “I worked with him over the course of a couple weeks just here and there a couple hours, and even-

A 5th axis rotary table in a CNC machining center at PartsBadger’s Cedarburg headquarters.

tually got him exactly what he wanted,” she said. The order wasn’t a moneymaker, but it was significant in a different way. The car ended up on display at SEMA Show, a national automotive specialty products trade event in Las Vegas, said Jimmy Crawford. “The car was on display at SEMA, and there’s our shifter, in Las Vegas,” he said. For a company with an eye towards growth, one of PartsBadger’s differentiators is delivering on whatever part a customer needs, Kim Crawford said. “(We work) all the way to just a hobbyist who just designed something on a napkin and says, ‘Hey, can you make it?’” Crawford said. “That’s the thing, working with the customer, because they can’t find anybody else that’ll do it.” n

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Special Report HIGHER EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center houses the school’s entrepreneurial programs and initiatives.

UWM Research Foundation aims to bridge ‘Valley of Death’ for university-developed startups BY LAUREN ANDERSON, staff writer TO JESSICA SILVAGGI, Milwaukee’s regular spot near the bottom of national startup activity rankings is puzzling. It doesn’t match what she sees happening around her. “It just can’t be right; I don’t think they use the right metrics,” said Silvaggi, director of technology commercialization at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Research Foundation. “We have so much going on. There are so many programs and incubators and accelerators. I think we’re all doing a really good job to increase entrepreneurship efforts.” From UWM’s new Lubar Entrepreneurship Center to Student Startup Challenges to the recent successes of UWM spinouts, she sees the momentum behind innovation across campus. UWMRF wants to build on that activity, recently announcing a new effort to assist UWM-developed startups that find themselves in 24 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

Jessica Silvaggi

the “Valley of Death” – that period between when a fledgling busines receives an initial infusion of capital and begins to generate revenue. The new Bridge Grant Program fund will target startups that have licensed intellectual property through the foundation that need a “little bit to keep going” in the interim between launching their venture and

landing the next government grant or investment. “We have some (startups) in that zone right now, asking ‘What do we do now? We’re waiting for an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant and we won’t even know until January, or maybe we’ll get the money in June,’” Silvaggi said. “So, there’s this time when things start to dry up.” About 15 UWM-related startups would qualify for the Bridge Grant funds, Silvaggi said. UWMRF plans to launch the program in January with $1.25 million in available funding, which will include a $200,000 matching grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. The Bridge grants, which will include $25,000 phase 1 awards and $50,000 phase 2 awards, are designed to serve as a stopgap for startups to reach a milestone that would attract an outside investor. The funds

could be focused on translational research, proof of concept, or startup formation and growth. The program follows in the footsteps of many universities that have created gap funds to compensate for the shortage of capital for university-based innovations. “Startups coming out of universities have extraordinary potential but are faced with challenges in converting the underlying research into business opportunities,” said Aaron Hagar, vice president of the WEDC’s Division of Entrepreneurship & Innovation. “This new fund helps close that gap and gets these promising technologies to the point where private sector investment can take over.” The program builds on UWMRF’s existing efforts to help university-based startups scale hurdles in bringing their research and ideas to market.

The foundation has run a Catalyst Grant program since 2007 with support from various funders, including the Bradley Foundation, Herzfeld Foundation, Rockwell Automation and GE Healthcare. Those funds – which are awarded in grants up to $60,000 – are available to students or faculty from any department with an idea or discovery that has commercial potential. After 14 funding rounds, UWMRF has awarded about $1.4 million in Catalyst grants to concepts that would go on to become functioning startups. Among those startups, they have gone on to attract $14 million in additional funding from SBIR and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) programs, venture capital or angel investors. “In some ways you can say we’ve seen a 10(-time) return for those that have become startups at some point,” Silvaggi said. “I think we’re picking some good ones. The selection process has been going well.” Several UWM-incubated startups and spinoffs have landed significant recent investments. TCARE, a caregiving company co-founded by former UWM Helen Bader School of Social Welfare professor Dr. Rhonda Montgomery, in September closed a $3 million financing round that included investments from SixThirty Ventures, Aflac Ventures, BlueCross BlueShield MN, Blu Ventures, Village Capital, Kinetic Ventures and gener8tor. The company, which provides care management services for family caregivers of older adults, was founded in Milwaukee, later moved to Madison and then to St. Louis in 2019. SafeLi LLC, a startup founded by UWM professors Carol Hirschmugl and Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, last year received a $1 million federal grant to commercialize the graphene-based materials it has developed to disrupt the lithium-ion battery market. The award has funded SafeLi’s expansion of its team and enabled it to begin pursuing angel and venture funding. Many of the ventures that UWMRF works with are still in their infancy, however. Some haven’t made it past that initial stage.

“Some have already moved on – companies that formed but decided to go back to just having us try to license (their innovation),” Silvaggi said. “Because it’s hard to be a startup.” Besides funding, researchers-turned-entrepreneurs face additional challenges in getting their businesses off the ground. Silvaggi said there’s the “push and pull” of pursuing innovation while also needing to disclose information as a public institution. “We have an obligation as a public university to disseminate information,” she said. “...Whereas, if you’re a private entity, you can hold off on publication, and keep it secret to develop it longer to really get it going and strengthen your IP and patent filings. Sometimes we have to rush sooner to protect something with a patent when it’s at a much earlier stage because we never stop someone from publishing.” Building out the right team is also key to the success of a startup, particularly when it comes to attracting outside investment. But for researchers, the skills that led them to success in their field don’t necessarily translate to business acumen. “Professors are really good at science,” Silvaggi said. “It’s rare that your founder from the university is an entrepreneur or really wants to be the entrepreneur.” UWM’s ENGAGE mentorship program has worked to build those skills with a team of about 24 seasoned business leaders who volunteer to help UWM innovators strengthen their startups. Silvaggi said she wants to see that network grow to include more business veterans who would be willing to eventually step in as CEOs of burgeoning UWM-developed companies. That person might be a retired executive or someone who is in a financial position to lead the business on the front-end without immediately seeing a paycheck. “We need CEO types who are willing to help out and take a risk to help them eventually get their salary,” Silvaggi said. “It’s hard to find the right match of someone who knows that space and is willing to help.” n biztimes.com / 25

Special Report HIGHER EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT Nearly 100 area engineers have participated in Marquette’s Bridge to Business program.

Marquette program works to build engineers’ business acumen BY LAUREN ANDERSON, staff writer IN TALKING WITH local companies, one consistent piece of feedback that Marquette University leaders have heard is that new engineering graduates are competent in the technical aspects of the job, but sometimes miss the bigger picture of how their piece fits into the business as a whole. Rexnord Corp. has seen that play out among its own new hires. “We hire a bunch of early career engineers, recent grads,” said Joe Hamann, Rexnord’s director of engineering – process sector. “They do great technical work, but their ability to interface with different business

functions can sometimes be lacking.” To address that gap, the Milwaukee-based manufacturer and Marquette partnered four years ago to launch Bridge to Business, a six-day program aimed at teaching early career engineers the business fundamentals of their field. Rexnord has supported the course with an initial $1 million investment in 2016 and is among the companies that have advised Marquette in developing program curriculum. “We were looking at general opportunities, not just for Rexnord, but across Milwaukee, with how can we

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get more of our engineering population, specifically those in their early career, more fluent with general business acumen?” Hamann said. “… We saw it as a great opportunity to not only develop our own talent but to strengthen the baseline of early career engineering talent across Milwaukee.” The program, which recently completed its fourth cohort, familiarizes students with aspects of the business that are outside of their normal purview, such as inventory, logistics management, buyer/supplier relationships, costing, budgeting, project evaluation, marketing, sales and pricing.

The course also focuses on socalled soft skills, like communication style, conflict, negotiation, decision making and presentation skills. The target audience is engineers who recently graduated from college and have completed co-ops or internships, and those who have up to five years of professional experience working in the field. Aside from Rexnord, some of the region’s largest employers have helped steer the program, including ABB, Badger Meter, Briggs & Stratton, Direct Supply, Husco International, Kohler Company, Johnson Controls, Modine Corp., Rockwell Automation and We Energies. Program leaders continuously seek feedback from those companies, holding debrief sessions after each cohort to determine which parts of the program to beef up or change. “Every year it’s a little bit different because we’re constantly tweaking it,” said Kevin Walsh, director of executive education for Marquette. This year, program leaders reinvented the program to offer it fully online amid the COVID-19 health crisis – a significant challenge for a program that’s designed to be interactive, said Robin Hoke, associate director of executive education for Marquette. One of the program’s typical team-building exercises, for example, includes a “Marshmallow Challenge,” which involves building a tower

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structure with uncooked spaghetti and tape to hold a marshmallow. “You can’t really do that virtually,” Walsh said. “There were a lot of exercises like that that had to be redone.” Leaders tweaked some of the course topics, bringing in an expert to discuss how COVID-19 had changed supply chain and inventory models. Using Zoom, the program offered “speed dating”-style virtual networking opportunities, a key component of the in-person program. For many participating businesses, offering professional development opportunities like Bridge to Business serves as a recruitment and retention tool for their high performers. “This program demonstrates the investment that organizations are making in their human capital skill development, which then contributes to retention and their development and keeping people in southeastern Wisconsin,” Hoke said. To date, 96 engineers, represent-

Bridge to Business students work on a supply chain exercise.

ing 13 companies, have participated in the program. Of those, more than 20% have been women. The program also serves to accelerate the upskilling process, helping new employees acquire skills that might otherwise take several years within a company to pick up, Walsh said. “We see it as a nice opportunity to give that team of higher performing individuals an opportunity to see something a little bit different that can help them accelerate on their development path,” Hamann said. “I think there’s a strong play there on the talent retention piece. Along with the other partner companies that are involved, we see this as a way to look at our bench of existing talent and grow them for the future.” The final day of the program includes presentations from participants about what they learned and

how they plan to apply it. Many have found ways to implement changes within their own contexts, Walsh said. One participant proposed a new pricing model to their product manager. Another admitted to previously “winging” the process of determining safety stock and decided to start using a formula to calculate it moving forward. “Those are the kinds of things we really want to see where these early career engineers suddenly have an appreciation for how business works and how they impact finance

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and supply chain and marketing and sales,” Walsh said. Marquette is exploring other industries that might benefit from the Bridge to Business program, along with the possibility of building additional programs for engineers as they progress in their careers to management roles, Hoke said. “There are lots of opportunities across industry sectors and we’ve had a lot of people approach us about it and we are in … conversation with our business community partners,” she said. n

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NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN! NOTABLE HEROES IN HEALTH CARE

BizTimes Milwaukee will feature BizTimes Media 2020 Notable Heroes in Health Care within the December 14th issue of BizTimes Milwaukee. This special editorial feature will profile the executives who are shaping their own organizations as well as the path forward for other women in the industry. Your company, and its executives, are invited to submit a nomination form that will help us determine this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s honorees. The special section will run in print and online, recognizing the chosen individuals for their accomplishments.

Nomination Deadline is November 13th

NOTABLE WOMEN

IN HUMAN RESOURCES These accomplished professionals represent all aspects of human resources. The common denominator: They went into HR to help people and have staked out paths to make an impact. Nomination deadline: December 16, 2020 Issue Date: January 25, 2021

NOTABLE

MINORITY BUSINESS EXECUTIVES BizTimes Media announces BizTimes Media 2021 Notable Minority Business Executives, recognizing minority senior leaders in firms across the metro-Milwaukee area. Nomination deadline: January 4, 2021 Issue Date: February 15, 2021

To view this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winners and nominate, visit biztimes.com/notable

Strategies LEADERSHIP

they were truly willing to listen to one another.

AGREEMENTS

Talk it through The art of a healthy conversation “Let us listen with the same passion with which we want to be heard.”

— Brené Brown

LET’S IMAGINE a company, we’ll call it “Better Inc.,” as a fourth-generation highly successful family-owned manufacturing business. Employees at the company describe their leaders as living the company values of integrity, compassion, customer care and support for employees. For the first time in its history, the company is in search of a new CEO who will not be a family member. Two candidates have emerged, each with seemingly successful leadership experience. However, their styles of leadership are distinctly different, creating a need for candid conversations among family members who have strong beliefs about who the best leader will be. Two of the five family members strongly support Darian Block for his perceived financial acumen, while three support Janine Smith for her collaborative style and commitment to employee development. The family engages the services of a consultant/facilitator to create a safe space for them to have meaningful conversation.

REFLECTION The facilitator asks the siblings to begin with a few moments of quiet reflection to appreciate their strong family history and the generations that came before them. (This simple strategy of silence has proven to reduce tension and invite focus.)

CHECK-IN Each member was then asked to “check in” by sharing an example of success they had in past decision making and why. Without exception, the siblings reveal that they were successful when

Family members developed agreements for their conversations (belief that each has good intentions, avoid sarcasm, listen to one another to understand vs. to rebut.) They also affirmed their values of integrity, compassion, customer care and support for employees before talking about each of the candidates.

PREPARATION/INFORMATION Darian, the first candidate, started a number of businesses with a large footprint in manufacturing. He has a big personality and is capable of selling others on his ideas. There are, however, identified concerns. He has a propensity for stretching the truth. He surrounds himself with friends and business associates who have questionable reputations. It is hard to get a read on Darian’s ability to demonstrate compassion, a strong value in the family-owned business. He tends to admire authoritarian leaders and often expresses to others that he alone solves the problems in his businesses. Nevertheless, he presents himself as fully able to ensure the financial success of the family-owned business, a growing concern for family members during this pandemic. Janine Smith, also a candidate for the CEO position, is admired by her colleagues for her integrity and her capacity to empathize with others. Janine has the ability to collaborate and values diverse opinions. It is clear that Janine has garnered the support of trusted business leaders across the state. In whatever leadership role she assumed, she created a team of experienced leaders to join her in crafting future business vision and execution. Developing members of her team and supporting employees were demonstrated values in her previous leadership roles. However, Janine has not had the years of experience in business that Darian has had.

MAKING THE DECISION Once family members heard the stories of both candidates, they needed to determine what leadership qualities were most important for the future

success of the business. Did they believe that a leader who demonstrated the values held by the company offered the most promise? Or, did they believe that the candidate who promised financial security was best for the company? Fears of two family members who thought that Janine might not have the ability to secure the future financial success for the business diminished as family members discussed how financial success would not likely be sustained if their values were not. Janine became their collective choice for the CEO position, as they honored their agreements and listened deeply to one another, focusing on what was best for the company.

CLOSING/CHECK-OUT The meeting ended with each family member expressing gratitude for the ability to have the conversation with open hearts and open minds. They each felt listened to and valued by the others.

LESSONS LEARNED Healthy conversation requires a commitment to listen deeply for understanding. Strategies to support healthy conversation include: reflection, check-in, preparation/information and check-out. “Daring greatly means the courage to be vulnerable. It means to show up and be seen … to ask for what you need … to talk about how you are feeling. To have the hard conversations.” — Brené Brown

KAREN VERNAL Karen Vernal is executive vice president and chief dreamer for Vernal LLC, a Milwaukeebased leadership and human resources consulting firm. She can be reached at karen@ccvernal.com. biztimes.com / 29

Strategies MANAGEMENT

Guided by core values Vivent Health pivots, grows during COVID-19 IN THE MIDST of the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin has a regional nonprofit organization that is delivering health care to an underserved community in an efficient manner. What started 35 years ago as a response to the exploding HIV epidemic in our country has grown into an organization serving 10,000 individuals with HIV in four states. Vivent Health, once known locally as ARCW (AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin) has become a force driving health care in Wisconsin, Colorado, Missouri and Texas. Their patient-focused approach has permitted them to successfully confront a 20% increase in demand for food and a 15% increase in requests for pharmacy services during this health crisis, while meeting their organization’s financial and budget needs. Under the steady leadership of CEO Michael Gifford and his management team and board, Vivent Health quickly pivoted and responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by reaching out to their clients and meeting them where they are at. Vivent has reached out to this very vulnerable population and provided both tele-med and telebehavioral health appointments. In addition, they delivered food, medicine and home HIV kits to their patients and clients. They were able to accomplish these objectives while completing a merger with a $10 million, 97-employee ASO (AIDS Service Organization) in Austin, Texas in March. Vivent’s goal is to continue to roll out their proven service model until they serve 25,000 in30 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

dividuals with HIV by 2025. This will still only account for a small percentage of the 1 million individuals who suffer from HIV in the United States. I posed a number of questions to Gifford regarding the organization’s expansion strategies and the challenges that they have and will encounter. He explained the driving force behind these strategies is their mission, “A world without HIV.” Another major driver of his efforts is the fact that ASOs from 26 states have sought Vivent’s guidance and support to improve HIV care, prevention and treatment in their communities and states. Their nationally renowned HIV Medical Home model provides unfettered access to care, achieves some of the highest clinical outcomes and reduces health care costs. These goals are accomplished in a number of distinct ways: • Addressing the social determinants of health (such as homelessness, mental health or alcohol and drug abuse issues) so that people have fewer health issues and do not end up in the ER unnecessarily. • Providing comprehensive health care so people know they can turn to Vivent. • Working to address other chronic conditions like smoking and diabetes to reduce health care costs. An independent study showed that their model works. Vivent patients were in the hospital 52% less, in the ER unnecessarily 48% less and have hospital stays that are 10% shorter. One of the greatest challenges Vivent faces is the ability to generate the resources needed to support its national expansion, beyond its financial needs. The organization created both a business development team and a five-person integration team to collectively source opportunities, fully assess and evaluate them and then select the best partners. A key success criteria is organizational and community support for the merger. Any candidate must meet these criteria for integration. It became obvious that Vivent needed to stay true to its model of care, using opportunities to expand access to HIV Medical Home rather than modifying it based on organizational norms of

new partners. Any future merger would be carefully evaluated because it takes 14 to 18 months to complete a merger and stabilize the site. I inquired if he had any concerns that the rapid expansion would dilute Vivent’s efforts in its current locations. His response was, “With four mergers in the last three years, this had been a concern but not a reality.” He went on to say that Vivent had increased services in each of its geographical areas while also expanding to new ones. I finally asked what obstacles were posed to Vivent Health by the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael responded: Be the organization you are, stay true to yourself and rely on your core values. “Finally, agility. We must be able to change direction and priorities as the conditions change,” he said. The future is bright for Vivent as there are still many locations in our country where the target population is underserved and would surely benefit from Vivent’s proven HIV Medical Home model. n

CARY SILVERSTEIN Cary Silverstein, MBA, is a speaker, author and consultant, a former executive for Gimbel’s Midwest and JH Collectibles, and a former professor for DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School. He can be reached at csilve1013@aol.com.

MARKETING

Rules of good copywriting The truth about how to write miracle ads SO, YOU’VE DECIDED to run a series of online ads (or a few radio spots, or trade journal ads, or whatever). Now what? If you want to write an ad that will stand out among the clutter, one that compels your customers to act, then follow the rules. Over time, the advertising industry has developed certain rules that have been modified and honed to perfection. Those who follow them garner the greatest response, generate high awareness levels and create memorable ads. Yes, there are exceptions. And some very effective ads occasionally break the rules. But not many. Follow these seven rules, and you will write better ads.

1. START WITH A GOOD HEADLINE Five times as many people read a headline as read the body copy. A good headline is therefore worth 80 cents of your advertising dollar. For that 80 cents, pack in your brand name, product benefit, and a catchy appeal to your target audience. Certain words or phrases work wonders in a headline: “how to,” “suddenly,” “announcing,” “miracle,” “wanted,” “advice to,” “the truth about,” “hurry,” “compare,” etc. They may seem like clichés, but they work.

2. MAKE YOUR COPY INTERESTING Write your copy as if you are sitting on a barstool talking to the person next to you. She has just said, “I want to buy a new gimcrack. Which would you recommend?” Then tell her. Use the language

your customers use in everyday conversation. If your clients are electrical engineers, speak in their language. If you’re selling to the masses, beware of fancy words or complex sentences. Not “eschew obfuscation.” Rather, “avoid confusion.”

3. SELL THE PRIMARY BENEFIT What sets your product apart from your competitors’? How do I benefit by using it? As a consumer, I want to know what’s in it for me. I don’t care if you’ve been in business since 1929. Or that you have the latest high-tech “state-of-the-art” (oh, please) equipment. What’s in it for me? So, tell me, and tell me fast. Research shows readership drops rapidly in the first 50 words of copy, but very little after that. Deliver your primary message first and do it quickly. You may not get another chance.

4. SELL ONLY ONE THING With rare exception, good ads present one main selling idea: the primary benefit to your customer (exception: “Less filling, tastes great” successfully sold two). Joy makes your dishes shine. Dawn takes away grease. Ivory is mild to your hands. All three are Procter & Gamble products, yet each offers a different primary benefit. P&G knows that trying to convey more than one idea in an ad will only serve to confuse customers, so instead they sell three different products with three distinct benefits.

you’re selling hearing aids, ceramic tile, dry cleaning services or drill presses, fill your ads with facts. The more you tell, the more you sell.

6. USE TESTIMONIALS They’re the next best thing to word-of-mouth advertising. The endorsement of a fellow consumer is more credible than the witty bromide of an anonymous copywriter.

7. T ELL THEM WHERE AND WHEN TO BUY Create action: If you want them to buy your product, tell them where to find it – your store address, phone number and website. Create urgency: “Call today, before we run out of doodads at this low, introductory price.” Or “Stop in our store today, because the sale ends at midnight tonight.” Make them act now, before they move on to other things and forget about your great offer. Now, you might think these rules would make for pretty dull ads, that remaining within such stringent boundaries would limit your creativity, and that it would cause all advertising to look the same. Not necessarily so. Consider this: William Shakespeare managed to create some fairly interesting stories while consistently remaining within the limits of iambic pentameter. n

5. USE PLENTY OF FACTS The more facts you tell, the more you sell. An advertisement’s success increases as the amount of information increases. Facts increase reader identification and product credibility. Facts are truth. They can be trusted. And so, therefore, can your product. Think of it this way: Your customer is not a moron. She is your friend. You insult her intelligence if you assume a few adjectives and some simple slogan will convince her to buy your product. She wants to make an informed decision; she wants all the information you can give her. OK, if you’re selling chewing gum, I agree there are not a whole lot of facts that are going to sell more gum. But if

ROBERT GREDE Robert Grede is the author of “5 KickAss Strategies Every Business Needs,” a speaker and marketing consultant. Visit RobertGrede.com for more information. biztimes.com / 31

Strategies

Tip Sheet on Tap” podcast hosted by Marquette’s Innovator-in-Residence Chuck Swoboda, Moore discussed his entrepreneurial journey and provided insight on achieving success through increasing ambition and embracing failure.

Increase ambition and embrace failure

lmer Moore is the executive director of Scale-Up Milwaukee, founder of Milwaukee Denim Company, and a professor at Marquette University. In a recent episode of the “Innovators

SHOOT FOR THE MOON Moore identified lack of ambition as one of the most significant barriers to growth. “The reality is, if you are tying to grow a business that grows 10% a year, you’ll probably underachieve and grow 5% a year,” said Moore. “If you are diligently trying to grow a business that’s going to grow 25, 30, 45%, you’ll still likely underachieve that, but you’re more likely to get 15 to 25%.” Your goals and plans are an indication of your confidence, said Moore. Confidence in the economy, confidence in your own abilities and confidence in the systems you’ve put in place.

MAKE FAILURE LESS DANGEROUS To explain his philosophy on failure, Moore used the visual of falling off a tightrope lifted three feet off the ground. If an entrepreneur or risk-taker falls off that tightrope, they may break their leg, but they won’t break their neck. “It’s going to teach a lot of folks how to balance, and for the least risk averse, it’s going to give them an opportunity to prove they can do a handstand and a cartwheel on this tightrope,” said Moore. “But it’s also likely to convince some folks that, ‘I just can’t fall. Even though I’m not going to break my neck, I just can’t fall. I can’t break my leg.’” He said that learning how to succeed doesn’t come from being terrified of losing, but instead from loving to win. Listen to the podcast at: www.innovatorsontap.com/podcast/becoming-yourself-w-elmermoore. n

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BizConnections BIZ PEOPLE

Advertising Section: New Hires, Promotions, Accolades and Board Appointments

ACG WISCONSIN ANNOUNCES OUTSTANDING GROWTH & LEADERSHIP AWARDEES ACG Wisconsin is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 ACG Wisconsin Outstanding Corporate Growth Award and the 2020 ACG Wisconsin Leadership Award. Generac has been selected to receive the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award and the recipient of ACG Wisconsin’s first Leadership Award is Jeffery Yabuki, Executive Chairman, Fiserv.

year’s ACG Wisconsin Outstanding Corporate Growth Award. Jeff Yabuki’s exceptional leadership, vision, and commitment to Fiserv and the community make him a well-deserving recipient of ACG Wisconsin’s first Leadership Award. The complete press release can be viewed at https://www.acg. org/wisconsin/news-trends/ acg-wisconsin-news

Generac’s customer focus, innovation, commitment to Wisconsin manufacturing, investment in building careers and developing its employees, and exceptional, strategic growth are among the reasons they were selected for this

EDUCATION

Mount Mary University welcomes Bob Schwartz as Dean of the School for Arts & Design and Business. He was formerly the VP for Global Design & User Experience at GE Healthcare.

BANKING Waukesha State Bank Hires Claire Bessette.

Waukesha State Bank has hired Claire Bessette as vice president - commercial banking officer. In her new role, Claire will be responsible for prospecting, developing and managing commercial loan portfolios.

CONSTRUCTION

Josh Pearson promoted to Chief Estimator for Janesville division.

Josh Pearson of JP Cullen has been promoted to Chief Estimator in the Janesville Division. A graduate of UW-Platteville, Josh has over 11 years of construction management experience, the majority of which in our Industrial Division.

FINANCIAL SERVICES Mount Mary names Bob Schwartz Dean of the School for Arts & Design and Business.

BANKING

SVA Financial Group Welcomes Brian Klein as Wealth Manager.

SVA Financial Group welcomes Brian Klein as Wealth Manager. His experience includes working in the mutual fund industry and private wealth management for high net worth individuals.He provides clients with financial guidance to help meet their goals.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

High Point Capital Group welcomes new Wealth Manager.

Joe LoCoco has joined High Point Capital Group (HPCG) as a Wealth Manager. Joe brings a passion for holistic financial planning, investment advisory services and five years of practicing consumer law to HPCG’s planning and wealth management team.

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34 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

Citizens Bank adds veteran banker to commercial lending team. David Rosenwald has joined Citizens Bank, Mukwonago as Vice President – Business Banker. Rosenwald brings 30 years of commercial lending experience to the expanding team and will work to develop new relationships out of the company’s Waukesha office.

EDUCATION

Keri Alioto named Vice President for Student Affairs at Mount Mary University.

Keri Alioto has been named the Vice President for Student Affairs. She joins Mount Mary after 19 years at Franklin College in Franklin, Ind. She will oversee student success, persistence and engagement.

LEGAL SERVICES

Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown Welcomes Attorney Cameron Weitzner.

The Wisconsin based trial and litigation law firm of Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Attorney Cameron G. Weitzner to the firm’s Criminal Defense team.

ANDREW FELLER PHOTOGRAPHY

PAY IT FORWARD

Marketing exec’s nonprofit venture works to boost Black businesses, restaurants SINCE CHILDHOOD, L. Maxwell McKissick, the founder of Milwaukee-based Blue Jade Branding, has been interested in Daylight Savings Time and particularly with the question: What’s the best way to use that extra hour when clocks fall back in the fall? That question eventually became the premise of the SERVE 60 Foundation, a nonprofit McKissick founded that is dedicated to promoting volunteering for at least one hour at a time. McKissick describes SERVE 60 as an ad agency meets nonprofit, using marketing and events to push out positive messages and encourage community service nationwide. Recognizing the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on restaurants and Black-owned businesses, SERVE 60 recently launched two national social impact campaigns to help those sectors as they weather the pandemic. In August, the organization launched its “31 Days and Beyond” campaign to raise visibility and support for Black-owned businesses, Black entrepreneurs and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). According to a recent University of California-Santa Cruz analysis, COVID-19 disruptions have caused 41% of Black-owned businesses to shutter their doors, compared to 17% of white-owned businesses. In light of the pandemic’s disparate impact, McKissick said the campaign is aimed at helping close the racial wealth gap by shining a spotlight on businesses that are in need of support. SERVE 60 has developed digital and billboard ads to increase awareness of Black-owned businesses in 12 target markets, including Milwaukee. With support from sponsor Husch Blackwell, the organization is also developing an economic empowerment fund that will distribute small business grants and HBCU scholarships of up to $1,000. It is also building the Give Black Network, a national

L. Maxwell McKissick Founding principal Blue Jade Branding Nonprofit served: SERVE 60 Foundation Service: Founder and board chairman network of business professionals that will donate up to one hour of skills or services to support a Black-owned business. “I am a Black entrepreneur, so I understand firsthand the challenges of having a Black-owned business and trying to create, develop and maintain a Black-owned business in America,” McKissick said. “… I think a lot of people can attest to the fact that 2020 appears to be a year of reckoning, with the civil unrest against injustices against Black Americans. We wanted to do something about it.” A separate SERVE 60 campaign, “SERVE. TASTE. GIVE,” is aimed at helping restaurants rebound. The campaign plays off the original SERVE 60 concept, but instead asks people to donate their extra hour from Daylight Savings weekend to “do good” and spend $60 on dine-in, takeout or delivery from a restaurant in their community. In the Milwaukee market, the organization is partnering with Black Shoe Hospitality – operator of Blue’s Egg, Maxie’s and Story Hill BKC –and six iHeart Radio stations to get the word out. n

LAUREN ANDERSON Associate Editor

P / 414-336-7121 E / lauren.anderson@biztimes.com T / @Biz_Lauren

biztimes.com / 35

BizConnections VOLUME 26, NUMBER 11 | OCT 26, 2020

GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR

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EDITORIAL EDITOR Andrew Weiland andrew.weiland@biztimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lauren Anderson lauren.anderson@biztimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Arthur Thomas arthur.thomas@biztimes.com REPORTER Brandon Anderegg brandon.anderegg@biztimes.com

North 3rd Street, around 1920 This circa 1920 photo shows the west side of North 3rd Street near what was then Chestnut Street in downtown Milwaukee. Chestnut was later renamed Juneau Avenue. The buildings on the right side of the photo were later razed for parking and the widening of Juneau. Today, the street is known as Old World Third and the block south of Juneau includes The Moderne, the Deer District beer garden and other bars and restaurants. — Photo courtesy of Historic Photo Collection/Milwaukee Public Library.

COMMENTARY

WEDC makes right call on Foxconn THE WISCONSIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP. recently informed Foxconn that the company does not qualify for tax incentives. Foxconn said that “is a disappointment and a surprise.” But it’s not a surprise at all. Gov. Tony Evers and his administration have indicated for some time that they considered Foxconn in violation of the 2017 deal negotiated with former Gov. Scott Walker. The deal called for tax credits up to nearly $3 billion for the company, with payouts based on actual hiring and capital investment. More than $1 billion in additional public money went into the project in the form of freeway, road and other infrastructure improvements. The massive scope of the incentive package was stunning. But Walker and other supporters said Foxconn would be a game-changing economic development for the state, creating thousands of jobs, supporting a massive supply chain and 36 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

establishing a new high-tech manufacturing industry here. Foxconn said it would build a $10 billion, 20 million-square-foot facility in Mount Pleasant and eventually would have up to 13,000 employees in the state. It would be a Gen 10.5 plant designed for making huge, high definition video screens. In September of 2017, Walker signed the Foxconn deal approved by the Legislature. Now, three years later, Foxconn hasn’t lived up to its end of the bargain. The company scrapped its plans for a Gen 10.5 plant, saying it would build a smaller Gen 6 plant instead to make smaller screens and have more product flexibility. That change negates the deal with the state, the WEDC argues, because the original plant’s massive scale is what justified larger than normal incentives. Also, most of the promised economic benefits of the deal have not been delivered. The company says it has created 520 jobs and invested $750 million in the state. The state says 281 of Foxconn’s jobs and $300 million of its capital expenditures would count for tax credits, if it were building the 10.5 plant as originally promised. Ordinarily that would be an impressive development, but it’s way below expectations.

REPORTER Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com REPORTER Alex Zank alex.zank@biztimes.com

DIRECTOR OF SALES Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com CONTENT SOLUTIONS MANAGER Maggie Pinnt maggie.pinnt@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Paddy Kieckhefer paddy.kieckhefer@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Dylan Dobson dylan.dobson@biztimes.com

ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Sue Herzog sue.herzog@biztimes.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com ART DIRECTOR Shelly Tabor shelly.tabor@biztimes.com

Independent & Locally Owned — Founded 1995 —

The handful of buildings constructed by the company in Mount Pleasant do not represent the transformation to the state’s economy we were promised. President Donald Trump said the complex would be the “eighth wonder of the world.” It certainly is not. The Foxconn deal is shaping up to be a PR disaster for Trump and Walker, primarily because they set the expectations bar so high. Financially, the deal could work out OK for the state, especially since it hasn’t paid out any incentives. As the Foxconn development came up short of expectations, Walker has often pointed out that the deal was good for taxpayers because it was based on performance. If the company wants incentives from the state it’s going to have to work out a new, more realistic deal based on what it’s actually doing here, not the over-hyped promises from three years ago. n

ANDREW WEILAND EDITOR

P / 414-336-7120 E / andrew.weiland@biztimes.com T / @AndrewWeiland

AROUND TOWN Centro LeGala 2020

Centro Legal, a nonprofit legal services provider in Milwaukee, recently hosted its annual Centro LeGala fundraiser. The mostly virtual event included a small, socially-distant gathering, hosted by presenting sponsors Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. and Laffey, Leitner & Goode LLC. 1.

CASEY KNAPP of Foley & Lardner LLP.

DAN O’DELL and CATHY LEFTWICH, both of Laffey, Leitner & Goode LLC.

JACK LAFFEY of Laffey, Leitner & Goode LLC.

Attendees in Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.’s 18th floor office.

JEUNESSE RUTLEDGE of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.

JOE GOODE and MARK LEITNER of Laffey, Leitner & Goode LLC.

MEG KURLINSKI of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.

REBECA LOPEZ of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.

SARAH SARGENT of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.

10. NINA BECK of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. Photos courtesy of Centro Legal.

Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s virtual gala The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music recently hosted its 120th Anniversary Virtual Gala, which included remarks from Henry Herzing, chancellor emeritus of Herzing University and the outgoing board chairman for the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and Eric Tillich, president and CEO of WCM and the gala’s host. 11. DON REBAR, director of marketing for WCM, filming Tillich’s remarks. 12. HENRY HERZING, chancellor emeritus of Herzing University. 13. ERIC TILLICH, president and CEO of WCM.

Photos courtesy of WCM. biztimes.com / 37

BizConnections

ANDREW WUNDROCK |

PRESIDENT

Rely on your team

Wisconsin Pharmacal Co.

After earning his stripes with the company for 25 years, Andrew Wundrock recently took the reins as president at Wisconsin Pharmacal Co. One lesson he has learned throughout his career is that strong leaders are nothing without their team. “‘Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.’ “These carefully selected words, masterfully assembled by Henry Ford, are a guiding principle that has had a major impact on my professional career. Understanding this simple principle has led me to rely on others and build on the concept of the team rather than go it alone. “To realize the full potential of many situations in today’s competitive retail environment, one must employ many disciplines. It is the combination of the strengths of others, carefully ma38 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 26, 2020

neuvered by a strong leader, that produce the best results. “As I have reflected on my career up to this stage it’s apparent to me that I have lived by this simple guiding principle for some time, each step of the way gathering more information, experience, and ultimately the courage to lead. Strong leaders are built over time and have the unique ability to not only lead, but often to lead by example. Strong leadership maximizes the potential of the overall group and leads to excellence in results.

Jackson Industry: Manufacturing and retail Employees: 63 pharmacalway.com

“Rely on your team. Have the courage to give credit, provide leadership, and enjoy the successes that come with well-defined teamwork. Do more of the things that work and learn from the struggles as you progress, and success is inevitably the reward. Striking this delicate balance provides not only success in business, but individually.” n

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

the LASTWORD

Re se

rve

you

rofi

le t

ay !

DESIGNED, MADE AND BUILT IN SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN

A GU I D E TO

Connecting People and Jobs

A PRODUCT OF

MADE AND BUILT IN NORTHEASTERN WISCONSIN 2020

COOL STUFF page 8

WHAT IS IT?

made with pride in northeastern Wisconsin

STUFF BLOWN UP page 14 Featuring Two Creeks Solar Park

COST OF LIVING page 16 Personal budgets and finding a salary that works for you

WHO MAKES IT?

COULD I MAKE A CAREER OF THIS?

CHECK OUT JOB PROFILES - PGS 29-39 TO LEARN ABOUT CAREER OPPORTUNITIES!

FC-BC STUFF NE WI 2020 All Editorial Pages.indd 1

This year more than ever, employers and job seekers need a way to find each other. The annual STUFF publication, focused on workforce development and career opportunities in the manufacturing, building, technology and healthcare industries, highlights the companies in our region that are doing cool things, the technology they are using, and the workers who are building careers and helping those organizations succeed. The 2020 guide features products made in our state, interviews of people in these industries doing interesting things, and details on the career paths available within these companies.

2/28/20 4:24 PM

Southeast Edition: Publishes: December 2020 Space Reservation: November 13, 2020 Reserve your profile today at biztimes.com/stuff

MIDDLE-SKILLING • UPSKILLING • RESKILLING We’re re-imagining the workforce of today and identifying solutions for tomorrow. Want to spotlight your company in the 2020 edition? Reserve your space! Contact Linda Crawford today at advertise@biztimes.com or 414-336-7112

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Here for You Providing safe in-person and virtual care Your health is one of your most important assets. You can feel safe getting the care you need from us, whether in person at our hospitals and clinics or through virtual video visits on your computer, smartphone or tablet. To keep you and your family safe, the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network is taking extra measures to reduce risk, exposure and stress.

Learn more at

froedtert.com/safe.

BizTimes Milwaukee | October 26, 2020

Articles inside

NONPROFIT

MARKETING Robert Grede

THE LAST WORD

MANAGEMENT Cary Silverstein

TIP SHEET

LEADERSHIP Karen Vernal

SHOP TALK

PROJECT PITCH IT

GETTING THERE BIZ POLL

SWIM HUB PLANNED TO AMPLIFY NONPROFITS’ IMPACT

THE GOOD LIFE

BIZ COMPASS

INNOVATIONS

NOW BY THE NUMBERS

BEHIND THE SCENES