January-February 2015 by Connect Business Magazine

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OFC Is A Family Denise Radtke and daughter Lynn Thompson

Long-time Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic (OFC) employee Denise Radtke couldn’t have found a better boss. For the last couple of years her boss has been her daughter, Lynn Thompson. Both work in the OFC surgery scheduling department, and both thoroughly enjoy working with a family member. It’s the same with Mankatoans Mary Olson and Stacy Houg, also family members–mother and daughter. Olson works in the OFC insurance department and Houg has been an OFC MRI technician more than a decade. As OFC co-workers, if necessary, they have the ability to check in with each other during the work day. OFC employees Radtke, Thompson, Olson, and Houg invite you to become part of the OFC family, too—if you haven’t already. They promise to treat you as family.

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Contents

THE MAGAZINE FOR GROWING BUSINESSES IN SOUTHERN MINNESOTA

STAFF & CONTRIBUTORS BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR 2015

Steve VanRoekel Ridley Inc.

Publisher: Jeffry Irish

According to 54-year-old President/CEO Steve VanRoekel of Mankato-based $568 million (2014 revenues) Ridley Inc., the business he leads doesn’t manufacture animal feed per se, but more the high-tech nutritional ingredients and supplements that go into making other animal feed better—similar to the way Intel chips make computers faster and better, he explained in a Connect Business Magazine interview.

Dale Brenke

Schmidt Siding & Window

Editor: Daniel J. Vance

Associate Editor: Carlienne Frisch Art Director/Staff Photographer: Kris Kathmann Advertising Manager: Steve Persons Contributing Photographers: Art Sidner Contributing Writers: Carlienne Frisch, Deb Schubbe, Michael Tanner Production: Becky Wagner Circulation: Becky Wagner

ISG

CIRCULATION 8,800 for January 2015 Published bimonthly

CORRESPONDENCE Send press releases and other correspondence: c/o Editor, Connect Business Magazine P.O. Box 452, Nicollet, MN 56074

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It’s been a long time since Brenke counted the precise number of leaves on each stalk of corn as he did for the research and development staff of Green Giant in Le Sueur, Minnesota; but he seized something almost magical from that summer job in the ‘60s, something hard to beat.

Chad Surprenant

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EDITOR’S LETTER

2015 Business Person of the Year It was a merry Mankato fest this time around in our annual Business Person of the Year competition. Our Minnesota State University College of Business panel of professors judged CEO/president Steve VanRoekel of Ridley Inc. our Business Person of the Year according to our nomination criteria, which includes business results, community involvement, personal character, and leadership. A tip of the business hat to you, Steve, for a stellar job serving cows, company, and community, and to $568 million Ridley Inc., Steve’s employer, which is the largest business headquartered in Mankato. (This is when we remind you Taylor Corporation is in North Mankato.) Ridley has more than 700 employees and operations in 29 states, and a 500-employee joint venture with Omaha-based Ag Processing, called Masterfeeds, likely Canada’s largest feed business. Masterfeeds revenue isn’t included in the $568 million. To the uninitiated, Ridley Inc. is the proud parent of Hubbard Feeds and soon-to-be primary occupant of yet another Tailwinds Group retail/office project on Riverfront Drive in downtown Mankato. Our first and second runners-up were Dale Brenke of Schmidt Siding & Window and Chad Surprenent of ISG. The narratives of these three Business Person of the Year winners should excite and inspire. We hope you enjoy this issue. We thank our readers who created a healthy pool of nominees yet another year. Sursum ad summum,

Daniel J. Vance Editor

Provider of High-Quality Animal Nutrition Products

it’s in our nature

or of

424 N. Riverfront Drive • Mankato, MN 56001 • www.ridleyinc.com 6

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CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CEO, CHAD SURPRENANT, ON BEING SELECTED A BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR. Ridley Tower – Mankato An ISG Project

ISG applauds all of this year’s Business Person of the Year recipients on their commitment to industry and community. We wish them much continued success.

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Steve VanRoekel

By Daniel J. Vance

BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR 2015

Photo by Kris Kathmann

N OF TH RSO EY PE 15 R 20 EA

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Minnesota State College of Business panel judged the CEO of the largest business headquartered in Mankato as our 2015 Business Person of the Year.

N OF TH RSO EY PE 15 R 20 EA

BUSIN ES S

1 st P L A C E

N OF TH RSO EY PE

15 R 20 EA

USIN ES S

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According to 54-year-old President/CEO Steve VanRoekel of Mankato-based, $568 million (2014 revenues) Ridley Inc., the business he leads doesn’t manufacture animal feed per se, but more the high-tech nutritional ingredients and supplements that go into making other animal feed better—similar to the way Intel chips make computers manufactured by others faster and better. VanRoekel and Ridley have at least one thing in common. Similar to the nutritional ingredients Ridley Inc. manufactures to help feed companies become better, VanRoekel has been and is a key ingredient in helping Ridley Inc.—and Greater Mankato—become so very much better. Ridley is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (trading symbol: RCL) and supplies nutritional ingredients to American meat, milk, egg, and niche producers, operates 29 U.S. facilities, and employs 700, including more than 50 with advanced professional degrees. It has three operating divisions, Hubbard Feeds, Ridley Block Operations, and Ridley Feed Ingredients, and a muscular 500-employee joint venture with Omaha-based Ag Processing, named Masterfeeds LP, which could be Canada’s largest feed company. (Masterfeeds LP revenue wasn’t included in the Ridley figures above.) As for being our Connect Business Magazine 2015 Business Person of the Year, VanRoekel has guided Ridley to five consecutive years of muscular growth and in 2014 inked a deal for Ridley to re-site its world headquarters into a soon-to-be Tailwind Group office building in downtown Mankato. He is past chair of the American Feed Industry Association, and locally has been actively involved with Greater Mankato United Way, Feeding Our Communities Partners, and YMCA. With the emergence of VanRoekel, Ridley and Greater Mankato have acquired a nutrient and supplement that helps everything around him grow. continued >

Business Person of The Year 2015 winners selected by MSU Mankato College of Business faculty.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

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Steve VanRoekel | Business Person of the Year 2015: 1st Place

As you and I were becoming acquainted before sitting down for this interview, you told me off the cuff that you had read in our last issue about how Deb Taylor had been adopted from South Korea—and how much that story meant to you. While living in Chicago in the early ‘90s, I was traveling internationally for Continental Grain Company. We had a consulting arrangement with a South Korean company. I recall going through the airport in Seoul and seeing Korean and American businessmen carrying babies. I asked some questions about why and learned these businesspeople flying had signed up to transport babies for an adoption agency. So on that trip from South Korea to Chicago I ended up caring for an 8-week-old South Korean baby. The baby was picked up in Chicago and adopted by a family from Des Moines. I did this a couple times and it was transformational for me. Not to get emotional, but I realized I was caring for a baby whose life would soon be completely changed and I began thinking about how I had been feeling sorry for myself. I made the decision right there in my mind, that when I traveled internationally, from that moment forward, how I was going to treat people. While traveling, I could choose

to be miserable or to embrace it. All of a sudden, travel became different. There is nothing to be accomplished by being upset as a result of traveling other than to hurt yourself. So I now have this thing I like to do. If I’m at an airport bar, for example, I might sit down on a layover and buy the person next to me a drink on the condition they buy the person next to them one—or I might pick up their coffee. It’s amazing the kind of conversations you can start. I did that a year ago at the Minneapolis airport and struck up a conversation with Jordan Burnham, a man who speaks at high schools and colleges about when as a teenager he threw himself off a fifteen story building trying to kill himself. He survived. Now he is a prominent speaker on suicide prevention. I talked with him about my grandfather’s suicide—and missed my connecting flight because of the good conversation. Tell me about growing up. I grew up in Maurice, Iowa, a town of about 50 back then. The telephone book had one page. It was a Dutch community. I ended up at Northwestern College (in Orange City, Iowa) in an odd way. In high school, I was considered a very average student. My guidance counselor and teachers said I had never worked up to my potential. When age 18, my senior year, I

literally got off the back of a hayrack to go on a vocational school tour. My school counselor had convinced my parents vocational school was the right place for me. I was uncomfortable touring the school and on the drive home with my parents asked if there was something else I could do. My dad had attended Northwestern College and we would be going right past it on the way back to the farm. My dad said he would try to get me in, and the next thing I knew I was in a dorm room. It seems striking that someone so used to things being so small would end up running something very big. When you grow up on an Iowa farm in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the world is really small. Your life revolves around work with dad and going to school with a small group of kids. My grandfather was the junior high school science teacher. We went to church three times a week. When you grow up in agriculture in small-town Iowa in a fairly religious community, all those constants create a good foundation. I learned the value of family, hard work, and education. Where did you learn to take risks? Your company has taken many risks over the last decade since you’ve been leading.

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Ridley Inside | Ridley Inc.

If you work really hard at objectives today, think things through on your own so they make sense for you, and not get too far ahead of yourself, then opportunities to take the next step and beyond will come to you. I’ve always had a philosophy that if you set your goals too grand and too far down the road then you miss things happening right in front of you. In terms of my life, that can be illustrated by my getting off the hayrack and ending up at college after having never initially intending to be there. If you work really hard at objectives today, think things through on your own so they make sense for you, and not get too far ahead of yourself, then opportunities to take the next step and beyond will come to you. We have that same philosophy at Ridley. We’re ambitious and take risks, but we don’t believe in setting big, audacious goals, like doubling the size of our company or putting a man on the moon. Those kinds of goals don’t resonate well with most people. We’re conservatively leveraged as a company and have little debt. We want to be in a position to take advantage of good acquisition opportunities.

What did you learn from your parents? I spent most my time on the farm with my father. He had grown up on his dad’s farm, had left for school—was an accountant for a short period—and returned to the farm. He grew his farm many times over through the ‘80s. He taught me a work ethic. He was very smart and took risks during some difficult periods. Like many fathers and sons, he and I didn’t get along well on the farm. I used to think it was because we were both stubborn, but after having raised two boys myself into adulthood, I can say that it probably had more to do with me. My dad and I have a great relationship today. Can you think of any event in your corporate career where you felt you were too far ahead of yourself? We have made some significant mistakes. One was being heavily involved in financing large livestock and poultry

operations in the late ‘90s to early ‘00s. Many of our competitors did the same: they wrote sub-debt financing to get a customer’s business. So, in essence, you were trying to become your own best customer. In a manner of speaking, yes. That turned out wrong. For one, we had tens of millions of dollars out in sub-debt and, when markets turned bad, had to write off a substantial portion. As a company, we took our eyes off the ball in doing what we do best, which is nutrition. We also became involved in swine genetics. My constant reminder of that venture is a porcelain pig sitting on a bookshelf here in my office. The business was Cotswold, which was an acquisition made before my time, with locations in the U.K., Germany, Canada, and U.S. This was a fairly misguided attempt at trying to become our own customer and to diversify.

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Steve VanRoekel | Business Person of the Year 2015: 1st Place

We eventually exited that industry after some $50 million or more in losses.

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I would imagine the temptation to become your own customer would be great at times. Would you do it again? There is something to be said for diversification, but it has to be well thought out. One thing our management team spends time on here is thinking about what we should not be doing. We’re just coming off our fifth consecutive year of solid growth. I attribute that to three things: one, we are fortunate to be in agriculture and when agriculture is going well that generally goes well for agribusiness; second, we have a great management and employee team focusing on the right things; and lastly, over the last six years we have left all the wrong things. One person in town I bounce ideas off is Denny Dotson. To me, it’s remarkable he has a thriving foundry. One reason is some time ago his management team decided to stop doing some things. For them it was manufacturing castings over a certain weight that they couldn’t do efficiently. We have done the same thing. We stopped doing high-volume, low-margin work. We are focused now on higher value-added, lower-inclusion, specialty products. When we say we’re a feed company or animal nutrition company, most people might think we manufacture finished feed. But in reality we make mostly the products that go into finished feed. If we were in the computer industry, we would be like Intel, which makes chips for computer manufacturers. For example, we have a facility in Illinois manufacturing very low inclusion, vitamin

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How VanRoekel Was Chosen In our September issue, we asked readers to nominate area business leaders for our annual Business Person of the Year award, based on the criteria of business results, personal character, leadership, and community involvement. After receiving nominations, we gathered information on each nominee. Minnesota State College of Business professors then selected the top three nominees for inclusion in our January issue.

Ridley Inside | Ridley Inc.

and trace, mineral premixes. Those concentrated mixes go into egg layer feed at the rate of one pound per ton or less. We stay focused on things like premixes and specialty products, not finished products. Take me through your career path after college and before being named Ridley president in 2004. I stayed at Northwestern College two years. When I left the farm, it was obvious I wasn’t going to go back. I transferred to Iowa State and majored in animal science. My parents helped pay for college, but I earned a good portion by working in a local bar and restaurant. I married my senior year and was very motivated to find work after graduating in 1983. I started off with Continental Grain’s Wayne feed division as a sales person in Iowa. I’m proud to have been in sales and learned things that would carry through my entire career. I learned that if you listen to a customer, and if you have something that can help him, and form a relationship, it was just a matter of getting him on the same page. That same philosophy carried through with every position I’ve had. My job today is to listen to everyone from customers to employees to shareholders and the board, and try to understand what they are saying and wanting. If I can do something to meet their needs, everybody wins. I spent three years in sales, had some success, and moved into a marketing manager position with Wayne in Chicago about 1986. I was there seven years in a variety of positions from business development to responsibility at one point for the company research farm and marketing department. I became bored after seven years,

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Steve VanRoekel | Ridley Inside

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Volunteer Tutor Said Steve VanRoekel: “I’ve done in-school mentoring at Washington Elementary School three of the last four years—but not this year (2014-15). It’s for the YMCA In-School Mentoring Program and involves kids from third to fifth grade. Just this weekend in the Mall, I ran into the kid I had for the first two years after having not seen him in a while. Since I had spent only an hour a week with him during the school year, I wondered if he would remember. I’ve never had anyone run and jump at me so quickly. For my 90 minutes once a week, which included lunch, I went out with Nick at recess, did games and crafts, and talked.”

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Steve VanRoekel | Business Person of the Year 2015: 1st Place

Commercial Industrial Architectural Sheet Metal

AWARD

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You had never done anything like that before. It was a $45 million project. I was in my 30s. There were a lot of people who said we couldn’t do the deal. I brought the partners together, we got a team together to help and raised the financing we needed, we bought property, and at the last minute my company dropped out. There was a line of others wanting in. The facility was constructed, and today still is operating in Utah.

you would have with Ridley? That’s a very good question. Number one, I did my homework. I understood the costs of moving around raw materials and had good estimates to the penny. I knew how far away we had to be from retail markets in the West in order to take orders at night and deliver store door next day. The (Utah) partners were classic entrepreneurs. For example, we planned a two-day trip to Utah to look for potential sites. We picked one town because of its location on rail and proximity to truck freight. We planned for two days of analysis, including site planning and having the county people with us. I put both these entrepreneurs in a car. On the way into town, at the same exact time, they both simultaneously asked me to stop. I pulled over. They both got out and walked about 30 feet in front of the car. I said, “What are you looking at?” I thought we had many things to consider before picking a site. They said, “We think it will look good right here.” (Laughter.) I learned from them that if something made sense, go for it.

What did you take away from that experience that laid the foundation for other projects

And after awhile you joined Ridley? I ended up back in Chicago. I never thought I’d leave Continental Grain. I had

and then an opportunity became available to start up a new business unit for them on the West Coast. I raised my hand to do it. While in California five years, I helped start dairy feed joint ventures in Fresno and Phoenix. I also had the idea of starting a large egg operation in Utah. We had a client who was one of the nation’s premier egg marketers—and another client in Iowa that was building some modern egg production operations—and my idea was to put them all together with Continental Grain and into one facility in Utah.

SINCE 1977 Steve VanRoekel | Ridley Inside

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Getting to know you:

Steve VanRoekel Age: 54. Fiancée: Melanie Grund. Education: Iowa State, BS in animal science, 1983. Children: Sons, Taylor and Garrett. Organizational involvement: Feeding Our Communities Partners, board; YMCA board; Greater Mankato United Way, former chair; and American Feed Industry Association, former chair.

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Ridley Inside | Ridley Inc.

been there 16 years. When I started there, Continental and Cargill were the same size. But by the ‘90s, Continental was making dramatic changes, including selling their core grain division to Cargill. I was on a team at Wayne looking at the future of our division and didn’t like the conclusion. I felt I had a better idea. Ridley was growing, and had been in North America only five years. In 1999, CEO Bob Gallaway at Ridley was looking for someone to run Hubbard and contacted me. Bob Gallaway hired you. This was only five years before you took over. Were you hired with the intent of taking over some day? I don’t know, you’d have to ask Bob, but it wasn’t my intent. But when coming to Mankato, I did have responsibility for Hubbard. About six months after being in Mankato, at a Ridley board meeting, we proposed that Ridley buy the Wayne feed division of Continental Grain, the company I had left. Bob Seldon, another great entrepreneur who was on the board, said it would be a great opportunity. In 2000, we closed on the acquisition. Suddenly, I was back with the same fantastic people I had been with before.

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Bob Gallaway personally moved Ridley headquarters to Mankato. He was on our cover ten years ago. What are your impressions of Bob? I’ve learned much from him. He and his wife are doing well and I just saw them this weekend in the grocery store. I learned from him how to be fiscally disciplined in terms of running the company. I also learned patience from Bob. Was the transition to CEO difficult? The minute you become CEO, the good thing is you have a pulpit from which to get things done, but the bad thing is if you use that pulpit too much, you can get yourself in trouble. Also, the minute you become CEO, people begin taking you a little too seriously. I remember the first time a particular executive and I talked after I became CEO. We were just (having a brainstorming) session. I noticed he was writing things JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

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SteveShoes VanRoekel Large

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down. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “Well, we’re going to do this, aren’t we?” I have people who work for me who are brilliant operational guys, who get things done, have great business savvy, and are shrewd judges of talent. You have to be very careful what you do and say because they already know what they’re doing. Give our readers some idea about the size of Ridley. From a revenue standpoint, we’re about $600 million. We don’t spend time dwelling on revenue numbers because we’re commodity-based. Commodities prices can go up and down. Last year we had an EBITDA of $40 million and a net profit of $21 million. We have 29 U.S. plants and 700 employees. Many of the employees in this office are advanced degree professionals. We have about 50-some employees overall with advanced degrees in some form of animal science. We have about the same size business in Canada, Masterfeeds LP—it’s arguably Canada’s largest feed business. It’s a joint venture with AGP. Their sales are not included in the $600 million figure. That business alone is the same size as ours. We are the only two owners, it’s headquartered in Ontario, and it operates completely separately. Ridley has an office in Winnipeg. Do you pay corporate income taxes in the U.S. or Canada? You’re listed on the Toronto stock exchange. There is a corporate office in Winnipeg, but no one is there. It’s only there because we are incorporated in Manitoba. The office was moved here because Bob was named CEO and he had been living here. All company functions are done here. Virtually all our income, except that which comes out of our Canadian joint venture, is U.S. income and is taxed at U.S. tax rates. The fact we are traded on the Toronto stock exchange is unusual, but it was the most expedient way in the 1990s for us to raise capital to buy Hubbard Milling. That’s why Ridley went public. We began in Canada. Ridley Corporation of Australia held 60 percent of the shares until 2008. If your readers are wondering if we have been taking advantage of a tax avoidance,

Ridley Inside | Ridley Inc.

the answer is, no. Unfortunately, we don’t avoid much in terms of taxes. (Laughter.) But that’s a good question, and I’ve been surprised people haven’t asked before. In 2008, Ridley paid out $6 million to Canadian cattle producers to settle a lawsuit over what is commonly called Mad Cow disease. What did you learn from that experience? I learned how to spend a lot of time in lawyers’ offices. (Laughter.) There is only so much I can say about this because, believe it or not, this class action lawsuit is ongoing. We settled for a tiny fraction of what the face value of this suit was, which should tell you something about the validity of the lawsuit. It was a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of Canadian cattle farmers. Ridley and the Canadian government were named as the two parties. The lawsuit against the Canadian government continues. Our settlement amount, basically, went

to fund the law firm suing the Canadian government. We are still a party to it. But any liability on our part has been settled. Their allegation was we provided the feed that fed the farmer that resulted in Mad Cow disease. We disputed it. Your company has been especially aggressive with acquisitions, adding about a half dozen companies since 2000. Walk me through the joint venture with Masterfeeds, which you touched on earlier, and what that move did for your company. We had struggled for years in Canada, even though our initial entree into North America was made through it. In about 2009, I called Rob Flack, who runs the Masterfeeds business, and said we should talk. We met two or three times, and nothing happened until three years ago, when we were competing to acquire a Canadian company and both of us missed out. In

2012, we put our businesses together. We have had a great partnership with AGP (which owned Masterfeeds), our partner. To close the deal, we all met with our chair and AGP’s leadership team. We all sat for dinner about seven o’clock, and had an hour or two of conversation about the way we all looked at the world. Then someone at the table said, “Why not get this done tonight?” Our majority shareholder is Fairfax Financial Holdings of Toronto. AGP is the majority shareholder of our joint venture, and a co-op. You’re having a new headquarters building constructed in a high profile area of Mankato. When did you make the decision to occupy that building? We will occupy about three of the five floors. It’s a funny story. I ran into Kim and Kent Schwickert in the Chicago airport in January 2014 and we chatted. Back in Mankato, Kim called to ask if we had any

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SteveShoes VanRoekel | Business Person of the Year 2015: 1st Place Large

interest in moving. I told him no. A day later, and without knowledge of my conversation with Kim, my CFO called to tell me our lease was up at the end of the year and we needed to do our due diligence. He called Kim to get an idea about costs. The next thing we knew Kyle Smith and Michael Sather (of Tailwind Group) were in our office and they said they were going to put us in the building. In short, our out-of-pocket costs will actually be lower. Between Kyle and Michael, the other investors, and the City, this was a win-win situation we couldn’t pass up. You’re the past chair of the American Feed Industry Association. Tell me about some experiences you had on Capitol Hill. Anyone that has been to Capitol Hill can’t help but be inspired. Everyone usually goes in the spring to Hill visits. There are all these bright, young, intelligent people there and all this great history. But then, it’s sort of like Las Vegas—after a day and a half you can’t wait to get out. How so? Everybody complains about gridlock. You can feel that tangibly when you’re

there. I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican—and I won’t disclose my political persuasions. When in Washington, you learn your representatives aren’t calling the shots. It’s the parties. I’ve told politicians running for office in Washington that the number one thing I want them to do is not feel like they have to do exactly what John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi says. As for other stories about being on Capitol Hill, I can’t think of any I can repeat to your readers. (Laughter.) Can meat, milk, and egg production—the industries your company is based upon—coexist with ethanol production? In the near future, at least, there probably won’t be more ethanol plants built. Based on this year’s corn crop—and I’m not pro- or con-ethanol—we’ve proven we can produce enough to satisfy existing production of ethanol and also demand for meat, milk, and egg production. Having said that, by 2050, there will be another three billion people who will require more food. In the long term, can we co-exist? We’ll see. There is an old adage: Never bet against the American farmer’s ability to produce. This

Steve VanRoekel | Ridley Inside

Generosity Encouraged Fairfax Financial Holdings (majority owner of Ridley) has been one of Canada’s largest insurance companies and owns roughly 70 percent of Ridley stock. It manages about $30 billion in investments. In 2009, after talking with potential investors, Steve VanRoekel received a telephone call from Fairfax’s founder, Prem Watsa, saying he was interested in buying the majority interest. He wanted VanRoekel in Toronto right away. So VanRoekel and his CFO went, and they all talked for four hours, after which Watsa announced his intent to purchase the majority of shares. India-born, Watsa donates a certain percentage of pre-tax company earnings to charity. His policy inspired Ridley’s policy of donating one percent of earnings to charity, amounting to more than $1 million in recent years, said VanRoekel. 18

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Ridley Inside | Ridley Inc.

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Ridley Inc. Address: 424 North Riverfront Mankato, MN 56001 Telephone: 507-388-9400 Web: ridleyinc.com

year was another clear evidence of that. You’ve been involved as past chair of Greater Mankato United Way, and with Feeding Our Communities Partners and Mankato Family YMCA. What are your impressions of having served with those organizations? I’d always been involved with organizations as a fundraising volunteer, but hadn’t been actively involved with (nonprofit) board responsibilities until I became CEO. What I’ve gotten out of that is the chance to meet many terrific people who I have learned a great deal from, both business and nonprofit. We have some really talented business people in the community, such as Laura Bowman and Denny Dotson. Laura was president with United Way when I was chair. I learned from her. If in the private sector, she could easily run a company. As for Denny Dotson, I have learned about many things, from lean manufacturing to how to manage through cyclical down times. If I’m having a question about something I’m not sure I’m looking at the right way, I have coffee with him. Anything else? I’ve always read Connect Business Magazine and found the magazine fascinating. The cover stories (usually) are about people putting their own money at risk. That’s not the case with me. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a great management team and employees, and to be working in agriculture. What we have accomplished at Ridley—and that’s been quite a lot these last five years—has been the product of a team effort. I want to make sure this comes across to your readers. Editor Daniel J. Vance writes from Vernon Center.

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BUSINESS TRENDS

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

The November election left a footprint on more than the U.S. Senate, where Republicans again became top dog. It affected the makeup of state houses and governor’s mansions in an historic way not seen before. All this will affect business legislation in state after state. According to the Washington Post, Republicans not only gained throughout the South—its political bread and butter—but also captured governorships in deep-blue Maryland, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Democrats jettisoned one Republican gubernatorial incumbent, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania. Thirty-one states now have Republican governors.

In addition to the Minnesota House, the GOP won control of House chambers in New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Virginia, the Senate chambers in Maine, Washington, New York, and Colorado, and both chambers in Nevada. Republicans now have complete control— the House, Senate, and governorship—in 24 states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, while Democrats completely control seven, including California and Oregon. Starting January 2015, Minnesota and Missouri will be the only Midwest states with a Democratic governor, and Minnesota the only one with a Democratic governor and a chamber. Minnesota’s political agenda will be different from the national climate and should lead to Minnesota further differentiating itself from surrounding states. One way to determine probable winners and losers in upcoming business-related, federal legislation over the next couple years is to learn the identities of top donors from 2013-14 and assume politicians will vote along with their contributors’ wishes. One way to track donations is through the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which traces the “contributions of $200 or more from PACs and individuals

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to federal candidates and from PACs, soft money (including directly from corporate and union treasuries) and individual donors to political parties and outside spending groups, as reported to the Federal Election Commission.” Many contributions in 2013-14 went to outside spending groups. The 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission allowed for this type of spending, which permitted unions and corporations to directly and indirectly spend on advertising as long as it was done “independently of any candidate,” says the Center for Responsive Politics. Of course, many contributions this cycle went directly to Democratic and Republican candidates or their parties—and from that we can track the types of donors. Democrats received more than half of all candidate/party contributions (and not to outside spending groups) from these sectors: Lawyers & Lobbyists (65 percent of contributions), Unions (89 percent) Communications/Electronics (60 percent), and an “Other” category, which included a host of contributors from various foundations and universities. By far, unions were the Democrats’ most loyal constituency, including the National Education Association (giving $23 million to both parties and outside spending groups),

Carpenters & Joiners Union ($9.9 million), American Federation of State/County/ Municipal Employees ($8.7 million), AFL-CIO ($8.2 million), Laborers Union ($5.3 million), and United Steelworkers ($5 million). The members of Congress in our Connect Business Magazine reading area, Democrats Collin Peterson and Tim Walz, received the bulk of their contributions from entirely different sources. The top five industries supporting Peterson in 2013-14 were Crop Production & Basic Processing, Agricultural Services/Products, Leadership PACs, Dairy, and Public Sector Unions. The top five backing Walz were “Retired” contributors, Lawyers/Law Firms, Public Sector Unions, Health Professionals, and Transportation Unions.

Republicans nationally received more than half their contributions from these sectors: Finance/Insurance/Real Estate (62 percent), Miscellaneous Business (62 percent), Health (57 percent), Energy/Natural Resources (79 percent), Agribusiness (74 percent), Construction (71 percent), Transportation (71 percent), and Defense (60 percent). They pulled in significant contributions from Elliott Management (a hedge fund, which contributed $12.2 million to both parties and outside spending groups), Renaissance Technologies (hedge fund, $8.7 million), Koch Industries ($6.4 million), Las Vegas Sands (resorts/casino, $5.6 million), TD Ameritrade (online broker, $4.9 million), and Uline (packaging distributor, $4.6 million).

The top federal candidate recipients from each sector in 2013-14: Finance/ Insurance/Real Estate (Cory Booker, D-NJ, $4.1 milion), Ideology/Single Issue (a category that include EMILY’S List and Club for Growth, Kay Hagan, D-NC, $1.9 million), Other (Kay Hagan, D-NC, $1.6 million), Miscelleanous Business (a category that included the NFL Houston Texans and Home Depot, John Boehner, R-OH, $1.8 million), Lawyers & Lobbyists (Ed Markey, D-MA, $2.4 million), Health (Mitch McConnell, R-KY, $1.5 million), Labor (Ed Markey, D-MA, $393,000), Communications/Electronics (a category that included Comcast and Google, Ed Markey, D-MA, $1.4 million), Energy/ Natural Resources (John Boehner, R-OH, $1.7 million), Agribusiness (Thad Cochran, R-MS, $905,000), Construction (John Boehner, R-OH, $739,000), Transportation (Bill Shuster, R-PA, $751,000), and Defense (Thad Cochran, R-MS, $392,000). Politicians don’t always vote with contributors. But with historic Republican victories in November at the state and federal levels, Republican causes certainly appear to have a leg up the next two years—except in Minnesota and a handful of other states that went against prevailing winds.

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BUSINESS TRENDS

OIL PRICES

Economics analyst Ambrose EvansPritchard writes for The Telegraph (London) and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, and for many years has been spot on much of the time. In early December, he opined on what he believed was an upcoming drop in crude oil to $50 per barrel, and the American and world turmoil that could result.

As for plummeting prices, EvansPritchard said the “Mideast petro-states with deepest pockets such as Saudi Arabia” would be the primary beneficiaries of free-market oil due in part to their ability to weather lower prices. The losers primarily would be the OPEC members on the fringe, such as Nigeria and Venezuela, who depend far too much on oil revenue to keep their countries afloat. A price drop could de-stabilize these nations, particularly Nigeria, which has widespread tension already between Muslim and Christian. Although a Bank of America report believed about 50 percent of U.S. shale producers would be “under water” once prices fell below $55, Evans-Pritchard cited a different report by Citigroup conjecturing most American rigs had costs closer to $40 a barrel. What the current free fall in prices has done is strangle new shale production plans in Mexico and Argentina, dial down expansion in Canadian oil sands, and limit Russian development in marginal areas. The first U.S. shale fields to cut back on

production likely will be those in the Permian Basin of New Mexico and Texas. Evans-Pritchard said the downturn should last well into midway next year, about when the world excess of one million barrels daily should be tapering off, after which prices should rise again to over $80 per barrel. The short-term slash could stimulate the world economy, which could force the Fed to raise rates.

WE’RE GOING THROUGH A

GROWTH

SPURT. BUT WE’LL NEVER OUTGROW GIVING.

In the last three years, Marco’s gone through quite a growth spurt. We’ve doubled our workforce and expanded from 11 locations to 40. That’s good news for the communities we serve. We give up to 5% of our pretax profits to local programs that make our communities stronger. Because growing is better when we’re doing it together.

marconet.com 22

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CONNECTING BACK

Read the entire articles at connectbiz.com

5 YEARS AGO

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 Our 2010 Business Person of the Year (BPOY) was Pam Year of Mankato-based MRCI. Our introduction to her cover story began this way: “Pamela J. Year verbally chisels out one point crystal clear: Mankato-based MRCI WorkSource is a $46 million private nonprofit business. It has never been nor will ever be a government agency.” BPOY runners-up were Bryan Sweet of Sweet Financial Services (Fairmont) and Jerry Dulas of Dulas Excavating (Wells). 10 YEARS AGO

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000 This cover featured Army veteran Milt Toratti, our second BPOY, who headed Riverbend Center for Enterprise Facilitation, Blue Earth County’s economic development arm. The National Association of Counties in 2003 had named RCEF the nation’s “Best Rural Economic and Community Development Program.” He did it on a $50,000 budget. BPOY runners-up were Lori Wightman of New Ulm Medical Center and Chad Surprenant of I&S Engineers & Architects. 15 YEARS AGO

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 Our introduction to this cover story said it all: “If you’re expecting Bob Weerts to be another Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ or some introspective MBA who analyzed and plotted his way to success, think again. This guy is one big ball of bubbling electrons that won’t stay put, impulsive, a whirling dervish, a straight shooter but from the hip, who somehow worked and willed his way though a crippling childhood bout with polio to be one of southern Minnesota’s most respected entrepreneurs.” Companies profiled: Computer Business Solutions (Mankato) and Aqua-Ozone (St. Peter).

WE CAN HELP YOU LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR A SUCCESSFUL FUTURE Eide Bailly’s dedicated ag professionals understand the industry and how to help you succeed now and in the future. From tax planning to FSA, succession planning and financial statements, see how we can help you make decisions with confidence.

20 YEARS AGO

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 This issue featured a special report on taxes, and profiled St. Peter Woolen Mill and EI Microcircuits (Mankato).

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By Deb Schubbe Photo by Kris Kathmann

Expectations Exceeded DALE BRENKE 2ND PLACE: BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR 2015

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SON OF THE Co-owner’s Penthusiasm, ER Y high standards, and genuine kindness take him the distance in a home improvement business that’s 1 P L AC E gained national recognition.

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It’s been a long time since Dale Brenke counted the precise number of leaves on each stalk of corn as he did for the research and development staff of Green Giant in Le Sueur, Minnesota; but he seized something almost magical from that summer job in the ‘60s, something hard to beat. Brenke says, “I used to watch my superiors and see how they related to people, how they treated others and interacted with fellow employees.” Brenke knew then the approach wasn’t just a concept, but a way of life for any good business. He brought that lifestyle with him, pumping gas at Bernie’s One Stop service station in Mankato in 1971, and that same year to the Fireplace Shop, an affiliate of Schmidt Awning & Siding Company (now Schmidt Siding & Window Company), where Brenke’s career took off. Today, owning a half stake in Schmidt Siding & Window, CFO and Marketing Manager Brenke and the rest of the company still live and breathe teamwork and customer relations. It’s become a quote as customary as the fixtures around the workplace: we’re not out to close a sale, but to open a relationship. “Our motto is, ‘Exceed expectations, create customers for life,’” Brenke says. Everyone who works there, salesperson or installer, has this slogan instilled in their minds from day one on the job, he says. The company’s commitment shines in the trophies gracing the shop. Named in the Big 50 of Remodeling Magazine for quality work on a national level, Schmidt Siding & Window has an aim to satisfy every customer. For 21 years running, Qualified Remodeler, another home improvement magazine, has listed them in the top 200 largest remodeling companies in the country.

Business Person of The Year 2015 winners selected by MSU Mankato College of Business faculty.

continued > JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2015

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Dale Brenke | Business Person of The Year 2015: 2nd Place

Born in St. Peter, Minnesota, 66-year-old Brenke grew up in Le Sueur with his parents and younger sister. They had one pet, a parakeet, until Brenke hit 12 years old and they moved to a farm. Brenke became surrounded by ducks and geese flying about, tailwagging dogs, a few squealing pigs, sheep, and chickens. With woods skirting the farm, Brenke put to use his favorite childhood possession, a long bow, which he still has. He spent his free time listening to the whir of arrows as he hunted squirrel, rabbit and pheasant. “I’ve shot many deer with bow and arrow,” Brenke says. Family time often meant plunking down at a relative’s house for good cheer, food, and a few hands of Buck Euchre. But whenever possible, young Brenke hightailed outside to hike in the woods or hunt with one of his cousins. Life on the farm wasn’t all hunting and fried chicken, though. Brenke collected eggs and fed the chickens, a few pigs and sheep. His father worked days as a carpenter and farmed 40 acres between Le Sueur and Belle Plaine nights and weekends. The whole family chipped in for chores, even his mother, who had been stricken with a long-term illness that had stolen much of her strength. Brenke would kill, pluck, and scald the fryers, and his mother butchered and sold them. “She worked hard, as hard as she could,” he says, and she expected the same from her children. “She wouldn’t let you just sit around,” Brenke adds with a gleam in his eyes. “I drove the tractor a lot for Dad. We had a two-row planter, and we almost thought we were big-time having a four-row cultivator. And I plowed. We had a two-bottom plow, so it took a lot of time to do even forty acres.” Farm life trained Brenke to be an early riser, and to this day he’s up at 5:30 a.m. and to work by 6:30 a.m. Moving to the farm dropped Brenke into the Henderson school district, where he became more studious and excelled in sports. “I lettered in baseball in eighth grade, and in basketball and football in tenth,” he says. He doesn’t know why he did better in Henderson. “Could be because it was a smaller school, a graduating class of 22. Le Sueur probably had 80 or 90, or more, back in ’66.”

Dale Brenke | Expectations Exceeded

SERVICE AREA:

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Phone: (800) 963-SAFE or (507) 625-6741 Email: dispatch@amvan.com Web: amvan.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

Brenke has a miniature monkey fist hanging in his office. What is it? Brenke says, “They’d bring in a ship and throw out this line, a little rope, and it’s got a ball on the end called a monkey fist. They’d throw that to the people on the dock, who would grab it and pull in the big line to hook onto the pier to tie the boat. So we say, “Sell them one window and that’s a monkey fist, because if we do our job, they become a customer for life.’”

Expectations Exceeded | Schmidt Siding & Window

Brenke’s love for football didn’t go unnoticed by his hard-working family. He had a paper route, and when delivery time conflicted with football, his dad, busy as he was, delivered the papers so thirdstring quarterback Brenke wouldn’t miss out on playing. “And I was a hundred pounds,” he says with a laugh, “so it’s not like football was going to be my future. He just did it because he wanted to. He was very special in that way.” Having volunteered for the draft, Brenke served 23 months, undergoing infantry training in California and finishing his Army stint in Germany, where he put his typing skills to use as a log book clerk. A shadow sweeps over his eyes when he mentions his cousin, a Marine who was killed in Vietnam four months before Brenke volunteered. “It (Vietnam War) seemed a waste of money and people,” Brenke says, “and I think I felt a lot of confusion about it. I just didn’t think we had a need to be there. But there’s a big difference nowadays in how returning service people are treated,” he adds. “People are praising and thanking them; whereas in our day, you were actually looked down upon if you were in the service. So, a big difference. And that’s a great thing!” The strong sense of family and diligent work ethic helped shape Brenke, but influences from his early jobs also steered him in positive directions. Toting along a mindset of kindness and mutual respect reaped from Green Giant, in 1971 22-year-old Brenke worked part time at Bernie’s One Stop service station while finishing courses at Mankato Commercial College. With a smile and a chuckle pumping gas and wiping bug splatters off windshields for a mere $1.10 per hour, Brenke warmed the right hearts. His friendly nature sparked a friendship with customers next door, Robert Schmidt and his son Gary. In 1949, Schmidt had founded what was then called Schmidt Awning and Siding Company. Offices and a retail showroom and their affiliate business, the Fireplace Shop, were just a stone’s throw away from the service station. Their company vehicles were gassed up by Brenke often in 1971. That same year, Schmidt offered Brenke a bookkeeping position that soon whisked Brenke into management of the Fireplace Shop. Within three months of Brenke’s employment, the business relocated to the current location on the corner of Fifth

Dale Brenke | Expectations Exceeded

Experience Brenke is a member of the Builders Association and several chambers of commerce. The company donates to 30-40 different charities and fundraisers a year. Schmidt Siding & Window offers siding, windows, roofing, doors, gutters and gutter helmets, helmet heat, pergolas, pavilions, sunrooms, retractable awnings, decking and railing. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

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Dale Brenke | Business Person of The Year 2015: 2nd Place

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To succeed, Brenke, who has twice been nominated for Business Person of the Year, says above all, “Surround yourself around good people is the main thing. You can’t have a good attitude if you’re around people who don’t have one.” Street and Madison Avenue. Brenke learned a lot pounding the pavements of Fairmont, New Ulm, and Hutchinson back in the day with owner and top-notch salesman Robert Schmidt. A year into the job, Brenke married. He and his wife, Patti, spent their honeymoon hitchhiking through Europe and taking photographs. “We went through Germany— I always wanted to go back there after the Army—and Holland, Netherlands, France and down into Spain. The highlight was seeing the Eiffel Tower.” He chuckles a moment with an impish grin. “For our 25th wedding anniversary, we didn’t want to spend the money going back to Paris, so we went to Las Vegas and stayed at The Paris.” Brenke and Gary Schmidt bought out Robert, making Brenke a 50-50 owner of the business in 1981. They had added windows to their inventory in 1984, a good move; but sadness followed in 1985 with the death of Brenke’s mother. Nonetheless, her work ethic and love for family have lived on in the way Brenke lives and conducts business every day. In 1986, Schmidt Siding & Window bought a franchise for ABC Seamless Steel Siding that changed their look. “We had been a distributer for aluminum siding, but it came in 12-foot lengths,” Brenke explains. “The average house had a couple hundred seams, and the worst seamless job is better than the best ‘seamed’ job.” Two years later, with changes in Environmental Protection Agency pollution standards, wood-burning stoves and fireplaces lost popularity and the partners closed that part of the business. In 1997 they stepped it up, becoming a franchisee for Renewal by Andersen Windows,

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

a Green-Seal-certified window made from recycled materials, creating a 100 percent recyclable product. Also in the mid-nineties, their exclusivity rights to the seamless siding wares came to an end. Competition spurred new thinking. Marketing, a strong suit for Brenke, became their lifeblood. The company created a playhouse boasting their windows and siding. From 1989 through 2009, their playhouses made the rounds in parades. Each year they offered one to the public through a drawing or raffled it off for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other nonprofits. Brenke gets a little choked up talking about the excited Make-A-Wish recipients. “One girl got to go to Disneyworld and meet Cinderella,” he says. The company created one more playhouse in 2014 to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Schmidt Siding & Window. In 2003, ownership changed hands again. Jim Hockert and Steve Beetch bought Gary Schmidt’s half of the business in equal shares. In 2008, the new three-owner team hosted a $40,000 Extreme Exterior Makeover promotion, granting one lucky winner a sunroom befitting a queen. “It was a bit extravagant, but it sure put us on the map,” Brenke says with a tap on the table and a grin. Today Schmidt Siding & Window has a warehouse on Third Avenue for staining and varnishing windows to match existing woodwork. Owning four gutter machines and seven siding machines to serve a 60-80 mile radius of Mankato, they’re ready to take on any competitor. “Every year for 18 or 19 years now, we win the award, hands down, for top performer for the most gutter helmet sold in our territory,” Brenke says. For each of the last 21 years, Qualified

Express Diagnostics Expectations Int’l | Blue Exceeded Earth

Remodeler magazine has named Schmidt Siding & Window Company a leader in the home improvement business, always ranking in the top 200 of the nation. From number 179 in 2008, they jumped to number 162 in 2014. But it was in 2004 that they were really smiling. Remodeling Magazine, based out of Washington D.C., recognized the company as a national “Big 50 remodeler,” which is an award for quality work, rather than for volume. Brenke attributes the company’s success to the three R’s, which make up 86 percent of the business: repeat customers, referrals, and reputation. “That’s what brings people to us. It’s what makes us who we are,” he says, clarifying that the 86 percent comes from their employees exceeding expectations, a monkey fist approach to business (see sidebar), working hard, and being kind. “Being kind counts a lot. It comes back to you.” He quotes Paul McCartney’s original line in the Beatles’ song, “The End”—“‘… the love you get is equal to the love you give,’ and that’s true even in business.” Brenke talks about the company’s future with the enthusiasm of a kid who just bagged his first deer. Residential steel roofing with a life expectancy of 100 years took its place in their inventory in 2005. The fireproof roofing saves energy and withstands 170mile winds, yet mimics the beauty of traditional asphalt shingles, which Brenke hopes will be illegal soon. “They shouldn’t be thrown in our landfills by the tons and tons. It’s just crazy.” Brenke says steel roofing is the wave of the future. “We’ve got pictures of homes standing in the middle of a city devastated by a hurricane, or whole city blocks burned down, and the home with the steel roof is still sitting there.” In the last two years, they’ve also added helmet heat to the business, a heated cable built into gutter helmets to prevent ice dams. “We’re the only system that has it that I know of,” Brenke says. To succeed, Brenke, who has twice been nominated for Business Person of the Year, says above all, “Surround yourself around good people is the main thing. You can’t have a good attitude if you’re around people who don’t have one. And when you see that working, it’s pretty easy, really.” Fifteen or

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FOCUSED ON AGRICULTURE more of their 53 workers have been with the company 20 plus years. “We have a good atmosphere,” Brenke says. Brenke and his wife of 42 years, Patti, have a good atmosphere around the home front, too. Their son, Kris, and is wife Anita, live in Mankato, as does their daughter. “We sold Kelly and her husband, Pete, 20 acres across the street from us. Last year they built a house, so they moved in with us April 1 with three children and no dogs. When they left in November, they had four children, a dog, and two rabbits.” Brenke smiles when he mentions seeing family at work. Pete, sales manager, is one of the employees with 20 years in at the company. Brenke doesn’t plan to fully retire just yet. He’d like to mentor other dealerships with his marketing expertise. “It’s all about creativity,” he says. “Creativity is the mother of marketing, and yet so many dealers do very little. Some of the ads I see are about as creative as looking at a blank piece of paper. They have no message or underlying theme to create that 86 percent. And that’s something I can help with.” Brenke’s current goal is to assure the business a smooth transition when he retires. He doesn’t hunt as much anymore, but loves golf. With 20 golf courses within 20 miles of the cabin he and Patti have near Brainerd, he’ll be there whenever possible. “I want to lower my handicap to single digits,” he says with his trademark chuckle. He’s also going to snap more scenic photographs, a hobby he took up in the Army. Though not a big fisherman, he enjoys throwing a bobber out from a boat and observing the eagles and osprey, just like that young boy who loved watching the ducks and geese flying about, sunshine on his face and sounds of nature in his ears. Deb Schubbe writes from Wells.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

OFF-THE-CUFF

The live album The Last Waltz and the same-named Martin Scorsese film, in part, helped score my late teen and early college years with a sentimental spot, where brain synapses still connect with other synapses to contain all my best ‘70s memories. The live album and film both featured the ‘60s-’70s group The Band. The Last Waltz literally was the last concert for The Band and featured high-octane live appearances by legends Neil Young, Bob Dylan, EmmyLou Harris, Eric Clapton, and others. In sum, The Last Waltz was The Band throwing a gigantic going away party before breaking up. You might have yours, but my favorite member of The Band was Robbie Robertson. Perhaps his greatest songwriting achievement was The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, which was sung in gravelly cigarette tenor by drummer Levon Helm. In a Robertson tribute, I’m interjecting first-verse lyrics of Dixie Down throughout this column—just because I’m editor and can do what I want one last time. Similar to The Last Waltz, this Off-The-Cuff column is my swan song after 19 years at your Connect

Business Magazine. Rather than Young, Dylan, and Clapton, my “Last Waltz” features VanRoekel, Brenke, and Surprenant. Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train ‘Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again Looking back over these years as editor, I’ve sometimes been taken up in thought by how small the world of business is and how interconnected people are. For Daniel J. Vance example, personally, Editor I learned only by being editor that I had a relative by marriage who managed a Taylor Corporation plant in Indiana and another who was a Ph.D. researcher for a Kentucky feed company Ridley purchased. My life and job have been enriched talking with these relatives and through them getting inside peeks into businesses here. While editor and interviewing people for cover stories, I gained friends, such as Bill Carlson and Floyd Palmer—men who had little in common, except raw genuineness. I gained a friend in the late Lowell Andreas, who very quietly did so much for so many people. He and I, believe it or not, helped start a Mankato church that still exists. I could mention dozens of other people who enriched my life. In the winter of ‘65, we were hungry, just barely alive By May the 10th, Richmond had fell It’s a time I remember, oh so well

Mental health counseling is a cause. I am a post-traumatic stress disorder survivor and desire to do something more in life to help people than edit a magazine my remaining years. (I am 56.) If having to describe myself in one sentence—and my lovely wife probably would agree—I am a person motivated by a rooted Christian faith to improve the human condition and to advocate for others in need. That’s the reason why I also nationally self-syndicate a weekly newspaper column about people with disabilities. In a similar vein, the aspect about Connect Business Magazine I enjoyed most was being an advocate for business decision makers in our nine-county region. The mainstream media and popular culture often malign and misrepresent people in business and I tried giving you a safe place to tell your stories and shine. The night they drove old Dixie down And all the bells were ringing My replacement is the accomplished Grace Webb. The March 2015 issue will be

I’m leaving as your editor because in September 2006 I began graduate studies to become a mental health counselor and have had exiting on my mind. Mental health counseling has been my fourth career. Lately, it has been taking up nearly all my time. For the record, my first career involved grocery/drug industry sales (General Mills, and Chaimson Brokerage, ten years), the second wholesale grocery buying (two years, my most favorite job of all), and the third writing/editing (including books and newspaper columns, 21 years). They say people change careers five times before retirement. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

CONNECT Business Magazine

OFF-THE-CUFF

100 percent hers. She has been a radio news director, a daily newspaper reporter, and a freelance magazine writer. In every respect, I am comfortable she will carry on as an advocate for people in business and give you all a fair shake. I will be training her on January 2, and the rest of January will be hers. You can reach her at editor@connectbiz.com. If you want me, you can reach me at danieljvance@ gmail.com or at my counseling office at 507-726-6550. And now, one last time: Thanks for reading southern Minnesota’s first and only locally owned business magazine, since 1994, covering nine counties of southern Minnesota, from Gaylord in the north, Waseca east, the Iowa border south, and west to Springfield. My thanks to Publisher Jeff Irish for granting me the distinct privilege of working with a professional staff these 19 years. The night they drove old Dixie down And all the people were singing They went, “Na,na,na.na, na na na na na na na na na.”

CONNECT Business Magazine

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

RE: Thank You When he arrived in my office for the interview, I had never met Editor Daniel Vance in person, however I felt like I knew him well. That’s because for many years I had read his interviews in Connect Business Magazine and been inspired by the stories he helped tell. Upon arriving (in my office), Daniel announced it would be his last interview for Connect Business Magazine. Frankly, after having learned so much from his many subjects throughout the years, I felt perhaps it should have been me interviewing him. What stories he might tell. Perhaps someday he will. Through reading those many interviews one can’t help becoming familiar with Daniel’s uniquely personal style. I must tell you ours was an enjoyable and thought-provoking conversation. He is leaving for a full-time career as a licensed counselor and will be very, very good at it. I am very honored to have been his final interview and wish him nothing but good fortune as he moves forward. I’ll miss your stories, Daniel. Thank you for the many years of great stories. Steve VanRoekel, CEO/President, Ridley Inc.

BULLETIN BOARD

Any chamber of commerce, convention and visitors bureau, or economic development organization in our reading area—large or small, from Amboy to Waterville—can post on our free bulletin board. For details, email editor@connectbiz.com.

Blue Earth Cindy Lyon, Blue Earth Chamber

Mankato Julie Nelson, Small Business Development Center

The 74th Annual Chamber Banquet is Friday January 23, honoring: Giant volunteers; 2014 Business of the Year Winnebago Manufacturing; Community Service Award winner Bruce Ankeny; induction of new Chamber board members Ryan Milbrant (Blue Earth Drug), Mandy Farrow (Farrow Cabinetry), and Ryan Gustafson (Frundt & Johnson Law Firm). The Chamber thanks members for renewing and also eleven newly joined members. The Chamber, Convention & Visitors Bureau, and The Giant wish you a prosperous New Year.

For years, small businesses have reported their top concern as having access to affordable healthcare. Get answers to your questions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its key provisions for small employers at our ACA workshop on January 15. Presenter: Mike Fortner from Gravie, a Minneapolis company that helps businesses sort through the many insurance options available—both on the public exchange and in the private market. Details and register at myminnesotabusiness.com/workshops-clinics/.

Fairmont Margaret Dillard, Fairmont Area Chamber

Mankato Richelle Ballenger, Greater Mankato Growth

Business Day at the Capitol provides local companies the opportunity to see the state legislature in action and to influence public policy. It’s March 3 and is provided by Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. We would like to have representation from Martin County. Also, Leadership Martin County has been designed to enable candidates to learn about Martin County resources, strengths, and challenges. Applications accepted now. Limited to 20. Contact us today at 235-5547. Or visit Fairmont.org/chamber/leadership.htm.

Are you looking for a way to help attract new talent or help retain the talent you currently have? The newly created recruitment toolbox can help showcase how Greater Mankato is a great place to live, work and do business. With sharable documents, videos and links, the recruitment toolbox is a great way to introduce the Greater Mankato community to potential residents and visiting friends, family and colleagues. Visit greatermankato.com/toolbox to use this resource today.

Gaylord Amy Newsom, EDA Coordinator The City of Gaylord currently has thirteen commercial properties and four residential lots listed on its exploregaylord.org website, including a 9.77 acre shovel ready commercial site, which is bare industrial land that received shovel ready certification in June of 2014. Please take a look at the available properties, plus tax incentives from the City, under the EDA section of the exploregaylord.org website.

Mankato Kathryn Reeder, Visit Mankato The 2015 Guide to Visiting & Living in Greater Mankato highlights the attributes of Greater Mankato and offers something for everyone to consider, including adventures, wellness events, family getaways, and invigorating cultural experiences. The guide also includes maps, things to do, shopping, and a complete restaurant listing. Download the digital guide at visitmankatomn.com or telephone Visit Mankato at 385-6660. The guides also are available in kiosks located at Mankato-area hotels, attractions, and universities.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

Local Chamber & Economic Development News

New Ulm Audra Shaneman, New Ulm Chamber

Waseca Kim Foels, Waseca Area Chamber

About 250 people came out on December 2 to recognize M.R. Paving & Excavating as our Business of the Year. New Ulm Chamber hired Sarah Warmka as marketing specialist. Bockfest at August Schell Brewing Co. and Fasching (the German Mardi Gras) takes place on February 14. The Farm Show goes from March 6-7 and the New Ulm Home and Health Show is March 27-29. For more information, contact the New Ulm Chamber at newulm.com.

Waseca Area Chamber hosts the annual Community Awards event January 31 at Starfire Event Center to honor local citizens working hard to better our community. The Chamber will recognize LeAnn Dahle (Sacred Heart School) as 2014 Boss of the Year, and the City of Waseca Historic Preservation Commission for the James J. Donahue Community Development award. Other awards will be announced that evening. Check out wasecachamber for more information on business and calendar of events.

Region Nine

Sleepy Eye

Nicole Griensewic Mickelson, Development Commission

Trista Barka, Sleepy Eye Area Chamber

A new year means new projects and ideas. What is your plan to finance them? The Region Nine Development Commission administers a Revolving Loan Fund to assist existing businesses, as well as new entrepreneurs, in securing financing they are otherwise unable to secure through traditional channels. Let Region Nine help finance your dreams in 2015. To find out more information visit rndc.org or contact LuAnn Vanderwerf, finance director, at luann@rndc.org.

Sleepy Eye celebrated the holidays by crowning the 2015 Little Miss and Mr. Holiday, and with Santa visits and a holiday lights decorating contest. This was the first year of Sleepy Eye Lights in Motion, which was a walk- or drive-through synchronized light/music display. There are hopes this will grow in coming years. The Chamber holds its annual meeting in February and will announce the 2014 Extraordinary Volunteer and Shining Star Awards.

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Elmore: 507-943-3131 Lewisville: 507-435-2451 Madelia: 507-642-3251 Mankato: 507-345-7069 Mapleton: 507-524-3630 North Mankato: 507-625-3268 St. James: 507-375-3201 Lake Crystal Loan Production Office: 507-726-6475 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

CONNECT Business Magazine

N OF TH RSO EY PE

15 R 20 EA

BUSIN ES S

2 nd P L A C E

By Carlienne A. Frisch Photo by Kris Kathmann

3 rd P L AC E

COMMUNITY BUILDER Chad Surprenant | 3rd Place: Business Person of the Year 2015

Born and bred into the business, Mankato entrepreneur connects with community, company, and colleagues.

Chad Surprenant was born to be an engineer, according to his mother, Mary Jo. What he’s doing today as CEO and president of ISG (formerly I+S Group) is engineering the future, not only of the company, but also Greater Mankato. “Mankato is at a unique place in the timeline of any community,” Surprenant said. “We are the regional leader, an epicenter of sorts, of a vast agriculture-based economy to which the area has built retail, health, professional, education, food and manufacturing. We have been named a Metropolitan Statistical Area. It literally puts us on the map and is a huge responsibility. The more we can guide and shape the advancement of our MSA community, the easier it will be for all businesses and organizations to attract and retain the people necessary to compete in our ever-changing, greater-footprint, endeavors.” Surprenant’s introduction to business began before his third birthday, when he spent his days playing under drafting tables. He has always called his parents by their first names, Ken and Mary Jo, the names he heard I+S customers use when they brought their projects to the first office in the Surprenants’ basement on North Fifth Street in Mankato. The firm subsequently occupied several other small locations before settling in an office on North Riverfront Drive. It was at that location Surprenant was interviewed as runner-up for Connect Business Magazine Business Person of the Year a decade ago. In a recent interview, he discussed the changes and growth he has overseen since that time. continued > 36

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Business Person of The Year 2015 winners selected by MSU Mankato College of Business faculty.

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Chad Surprenant | Business Person of The Year 2015: 3rd Place

“In 2004, our company was owned 78 percent by Surprenants; now there are 20 shareholders,” he said. “When Ken was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, he retired (and passed away in 2011). Mary Jo essentially retired in 2008 as well. I’ve been the only Surprenant here since then. When I was interviewed by Connect Business Magazine 10 years ago, we had 60 employees, two offices, both in Minnesota, licensing in five states, no acquisitions, and $5 million in revenue,” Surprenant said. “Since 2004, we have been named three times to the Zweig White Hot Firm list, recognizing the 100 fastest growing firms in our industry—once pre-recession and twice post-recession.” With significant organic growth and the acquisition of two other companies, including Mankato-based Paulsen Architects in 2013, ISG now employs 160 people in seven locations in three states, and has annual income of more than $20 million. ISG provides a spectrum of services, including architecture, engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture, environmental services and planning. In 2009, ISG led the way for other businesses considering Mankato City Center as their corporate headquarters. Occupying several floors, ISG is the largest tenant in the U.S. Bank Center in Mankato. “Our business efforts go well beyond the greater Mankato area,” Surprenant said, “but I’m more involved than ever in the local

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

Mom’s Take For Chad Surprenant, life has always been about the business. His mother, Mary Jo, said, “When Ken and I began the business in March 1973, Chad, who was going to be three years old that April, came to work with us. He did literally grow up under the drafting tables.” The three older Surprenant children were in school by then and missed out on the day-to-day experiences of the new enterprise. None chose to be involved in the company. Gregory is a technical writer, Margaret is vice president of a financing company, and Theresa works with university student job placement. The story of how the company came to be rolls off her tongue, along with family history. “Ken was a very, very hard worker who liked doing his own thing his own way,” she said. “He liked the challenge of something new and different. We farmed with his parents for a couple of years after we married in 1960. Ken, who had just gotten out of the U.S. Army, went back

Community Builder | ISG

With significant organic growth and the acquisition of two other companies, including Mankato-based Paulsen Architects in 2013, ISG now employs 160 people in seven locations in three states, and has annual income of more than $20 million. to school on the G.I. Bill to study mechanical and electrical engineering at Mankato State University and the University of Minnesota. Then he farmed and worked for the Murray County Highway Department, developing an interest in civil engineering. Unable to get a loan to improve and expand the farm, we decided Ken would finish his degree at Iowa State University in Ames. By then we had three children.” Mary Jo worked as a quality controller on the night shift assembly line at an Ames electronics company that assembled parts for electronic subpotentiometers. She continued, “Ken worked as a janitor, then as a tester in the structural engineering department on campus. He was offered a research position and an invitation to get advanced degrees, but with three children, he wanted to make some real money.” Ken Surprenant’s first post-college job, in 1966, was as assistant city engineer for the City of Mankato. Shortly after his hiring, the city engineer resigned and Surprenant was named acting city engineer. Because he wanted to become a licensed engineer, he had to work for four years under the supervision of a professional engineer before taking the Professional Engineer’s Exam. So he took a job as the assistant city engineer in New Ulm, where Chad was born in 1970. Returning to Mankato, Surprenant worked as a civil engineer for a local firm, eventually accumulating the work experience required for taking the

economy. My activities on various boards are not place-holding volunteer efforts. I have been on the board the entire time as Greater Mankato Growth made significant strides in combining the Chamber of Commerce and Greater Mankato Economic Development. Serving on the MSU Civil Engineering Advisory Board, I’ve seen the civil engineering program go from inception with an inaugural class in 2003 to graduating classes in the order of 25.” Surprenant’s involvement with the Mankato Area Youth Baseball Association includes making a substantial donation, along with other Surprenant family members, to the Community Fields, with naming rights on one field in honor of his father. While he served on the Mankato Golf Club board, the club was annexed into the City of Mankato, built significant capital improvements and renovated its course. In 1993, with a civil engineering degree from Iowa State University in hand, Surprenant interviewed with several companies, listing on his resume the summer work he’d done for I+S. His inquiries resulted in several job offers. Then, his parents took him aside and told him, “There’s an opportunity for you here.” He doesn’t recall feeling any pressure, so “at age 23 I weighed out the pros and cons. More responsibility with I+S, but not as much exposure on how to do things. I decided just to

engineering exam. His work on sewage treatment facilities left his family with an unusual legacy. Mary Jo recalled, “On all of our vacations we had to see how communities handled their waste treatment. We visited aeration ponds, and when possible, toured the entire facility. The girls and I were sent into women’s restrooms to see which brand of fixtures were used—American Standard, Kohler or Eljer.” When Gene Isakson, who had both engineering and sales credentials, approached Surprenant in 1973 about starting a business together, I+S was formed as an engineering company. Within a year the Surprenants bought out Isakson, who had decided to perform county engineering duties. For continuity’s sake, they chose to keep the name that incorporated the initials of both founders’ last names. When 23-year-old Chad joined I+S in 1993, shortly after earning an engineering degree, he’d already had 20 years of involvement in his parents’ work. He quickly assumed management and leadership responsibilities. Mary Jo recalled, “Chad was always very interested in going out with Ken to check structures, and he was fascinated by bridges. Before he could read words, he could read numbers, so he planned our vacation routes on maps. When he was in elementary school, he planned one trip to include as many bridges as possible.”

Chad Surprenant | Business Person of The Year 2015: 3rd Place

keep my eyes and ears open as to how other companies did things.” To complement his father’s problem-solving skills and his mother’s financial expertise, he focused on growing the company. He officially became CEO in 2001, already having served as defacto CEO for several years. He soon added “and Architects” to the name “I+S Engineers,” and in 2008, chose the more generic “I+S Group.” “We don’t want a name that may eliminate us from a project,” Surprenant said, “but it was tough for me to retrain my brain after 40 years.” Following the acquisition of Paulsen Architects, Tami Norberg Paulsen was named Director of External Relations and morphed the company name to ISG. Of the company’s 160 employees, 20 are shareholders, including seven board directors.

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Surprenant said his management style was to “trust my gut instincts. I have a partner with an MBA in our LaCrosse, Wisconsin office, who tests my gut with black-and-white logic and math. We work pretty closely on business aspects. I put myself in the client’s shoes, assess if our approach is the right approach. We always try to give the client three options, including the one they asked for. I review the design and the ideas, occasionally playing the devil’s advocate.” Surprenant uses an engineering approach to management and leadership, saying, “There’s not necessarily a textbook for problem solving people issues. You have to determine the variables in the

Chad Surprenant | Community Builder

Chad’s Connections

there for

you

making dreams come true

• Chair, Civil Engineering Advisory Board • Treasurer, Greater Mankato Growth Board • Past President, South Central College Foundation • Mankato Area Foundation Board

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• Awards: “Young Engineer of the Year” in 2003 from the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers, and in 2004 from the Minnesota Federation of Engineering.

Community Builder | ISG

problem and decide how much weight you’re going to give each variable, recognizing that whatever you’re doing might not be all positive. It looks like an equation.” Surprenant’s extensive experience is part of many equations. He said, “I’ve done nearly all the jobs, including survey crew, some drafting, design and calculations, report writing and seeking possible sources of funding. My very first job, when I was five or six years

Chad Surprenant | Community Builder

A Winter Wonderland

Personal Chad Favorite school subjects: “I liked math and sciences, but the class I liked best was novel reading, taught by Gretchen Etzell. I have an artistic and literary component.” Least favorite: “I really disliked band. I played the trumpet and baritone horn. I was horrible at it.” Family: Wife, Tara (“She can do anything, including work on a surveying crew”) and three children: Noah, Ellie and Caleb. Recreation: “I like traveling, history, reading, and I like anything my kids are involved in. I enjoy hitting the open road. There’s nothing better than a driving vacation, without reservations and no schedule.” Of what accomplishment most proud: “My civil engineering degree, despite entering Iowa State without a strong math background, and my Professional Engineering licensure. Most prized possession: “We weren’t brought up to be very materialistic.” Most prized intangible: “My immediate family–they are the ones you go home to.” Three words that describe you: “Driven, persistent and understanding.” If you weren’t doing this: “I would write travel advice. A couple of friends call me ‘the Chad app’ because I know the good places to go.”

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Chad Surprenant | Business Person of The Year 2015: 3rd Place

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Numbers tell the story of change, with the company growing over the past two decades from 10 to 160 employees and clients increasing from about 50 to “well north of 1,000, the majority longterm,” according to Surprenant. old, was feeding vellum drawn plans into a blueprint machine. It had an ammonia process, and it stunk. I’d stand on a stool and feed those plan sheets non-stop.” He continued, “At about 14 or 15, I did a bit of surveying. When I got my driver’s license I delivered blueprints and specs. I really liked going here and there, including the Twin Cities. I always liked the mystery of it all. During summers in college, I did structural calculations and construction inspection work. I learned what’s practical in the field.” “Ken was a dreamer, but very goaloriented in reaching those dreams,” he said. “Mary Jo resisted change even though she’s very intelligent and capable. When I came on board, I broke up their tied votes. I like change, and we’ve done a lot of it, but sometimes I feel like I’m lazy about not changing more. I don’t really miss being an engineer because I view management issues as engineering problems of sorts.” Numbers tell the story of change, with the company growing over the past two decades from 10 to 160 employees and clients increasing from about 50 to “well north of 1,000, the majority long-term,” according to Surprenant. Clients include municipalities, agribusinesses, civic and cultural organizations, commercial businesses, and educational institutions. ISG is designing a new public school administration building in Faribault, a master plan for the parochial school system in LaCrosse, expansion for the middle schools in Mankato, projects at Minnesota State University-Mankato, athletic facilities throughout the Upper Midwest, and is doing pre-referendum conceptual planning for

CONNECT Business Magazine

THE ESSENTIALS

ISG Address: 115 East Hickory Street Mankato, MN 56001 Phone: 507-387-6651 Web: is-grp.com

St. Peter High School. “There has been a fundamental shift in how we do business,” Surprenant said. “Firms like ours used to be geographically centric, picking up a large percentage of business within a driving limit of 90 minutes. In the mid-2000s we became a clientcentric firm, opening a Faribault office to provide leadership and growth opportunities for employees. We searched for clients that would have multiple projects. All of a sudden we were saying ‘no’ to some projects we would have chased blindly before. The recession forced us to implement our new strategies, which made us come out of the recession a much stronger and better firm. Now we chase clients, not projects. We do everything in house, but strategically partner with other firms at times. We compete with people all over in various arenas—architecture, engineering, etc. We’re licensed in 30 states. People hire us for many reasons, but not to tell them something cannot be done. When something heats up in a market trend, we’re usually ready to go with services we can provide.” Carlienne A. Frisch writes from Mankato.

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Very New or Re-formed Businesses or Professionals New To Our Reading Area

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ART SIDNER

Dork Den Alex Lamminen has done much in 25 years of life, including being co-owner and general manager the last few months of the new Dork Den in New Ulm. Lamminen said in a telephone interview, “I was in the coffee business eight years, including having been a supervisor at Caribou Coffee. I also was an assistant manager for a Topper’s Pizza in Burnsville. I started it all when I was 16. Doing all that showed me hard work can pay off.” Most recently, and importantly, he also was an employee at a Burnsville game store, Legion Games. During most of that busy stretch, he attended college “off and on” about four years, studying music education and music business. From his parents, he said, he learned to pursue interests he was passionate about. He left Caribou Coffee in 2014 to become a tour manager for Wizards of the Coast for the card game, Magic: The Gathering. He joined on for the 35-state Vans Warped Tour, one of the nation’s largest music festivals. He said, “It was an unbelievable experience. My boss at Legion Games had offered me the position.” All along, Lamminen enjoyed gaming at The Dork Den in Mankato, and knew owners Greg Fenske and Joe Huber. Earlier this year, they approached him about starting a Dork Den New Ulm location, which opened in September. He said, “It’s an offline gaming store. We sell board and card

games, miniature gaming, and role-playing games. We have different events throughout the week (for each kind of game.) Some games we have are Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, the Star Wars X-Wing and Warhammer 40000 miniature games, and board games Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, King of Tokyo, and more.” He said, “It’s nice to be able to share my (gaming) passion with like-minded people or just introduce someone to the world of hobby gaming.” DORK DEN Facebook: Dork Den—New Ulm Address: 1627 South Broadway Street Telephone: 507-225-0040

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RIVER’S EDGE GROOMING AND BOARDING Address: 520 20th Street North Facebook: River’s Edge Boarding and Grooming Telephone: 507-404-0460

ART SIDNER

It was a tough four-year stretch for 45-year-old Dani Andersen from 2008-2012, a period in which she had Stage 3 ovarian cancer, fractured her spine, became separated from her husband, and divorced. All that difficulty preceded her November 1, 2014, opening of her New Ulm dog grooming and boarding business. In a Connect Business Magazine telephone interview, she said, “I grew up in Algona, Iowa, and had a successful commercial cleaning business with my ex-husband for 20 years, and at the same time worked 15 years in a nursing home activity department and did home healthcare.” She and her husband lived on 15 acres, and on it cared for nine horses, four dogs, and two cats. In 2008, she developed cancer, and in 2011 fractured her spine. After her divorce in 2012, she met a man from New Ulm, and they eventually married in September 2014. She has been cancer free now six years. Said Andersen, “One of my first friends in New Ulm, Deb Christiansen, has a pet daycare and boarding business, Pup’s Playland. Today, we’re in the same building and we’re friends. She has done really well, but there are some dogs she can’t (or won’t) take, such as ones with special needs, older dogs, dogs that are aggressive, those with separation anxiety, shy dogs or

ones that aren’t spayed or neutered.” The grooming part of her business is run by Andersen’s daughter, Jessica DeRoos, a certified groomer, who works half the week in New Ulm and half for a Mankato pet store. She said, “I’ve always had a nurturing way and respect for all life. Having cancer helped me further understand that. At our business, I try keeping a stress-free environment. And we don’t take just special needs dogs—we take all dogs.” Boarding runs $20 a night, and her business offers groom and board packages.

GET YOUR BUSINESS NOTICED ALL YEAR with personalized cards from Carlson Craft

1750 Tower Blvd., North Mankato www.stationerygift.carlsoncraft.com 507.625.0547

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Comment on Hot Startz! at connectbiz.com

MANKATO

Jo’s Fitness Garage

ART SIDNER

Jo Ann Radlinger was an all-conference, high school basketball player in Butternut, Wisconsin, and while finishing a business degree at University of Wisconsin-Superior chose to return home to coach junior varsity basketball. In a telephone interview, she said, “By doing it I found out how much I loved coaching and that set the stage for my (later) love of training.” After college, she would work for the State of Minnesota 13 years as a grants manager to oversee funding approved by the Senate and House that applied to chemical dependency programs. After marrying, her husband relocated to Mankato for work and she followed him, but could not find the same kind of work she had enjoyed in the Twin Cities. “By then, I had been into fitness my whole life, starting out in the weight room at age 26,” she said. “I began training people on the side. About ten years ago, I competed for the first time on stage in figure and body building.” Eight years ago, she began working as a contractor with several Mankato-area gyms, and while working at theirs took note of what she would want her own to look like and what she would offer. She opened Jo’s Fitness Garage at 1859 Madison Avenue on August 1, 2014. She does one-to-one and private group

training, drop-in classes, corporate wellness, training for children young as nine, and was the trainer for the Mankatobased Panic semi-pro football team. She said, “I’ve been super blessed to have a very loyal clientele, and my passion is my business. Recently, we threw a going-away party for a client. He had come in rotund and left in peak physical condition. He thanked me for changing his life, and I thanked him for changing mine. I have gratitude he chose me as his trainer.” Jo’s Fitness Garage has a fully equipped gym. JO’S FITNESS GARAGE Address: 1859 Madison Avenue (between Walmart & Arby’s) Telephone: 507-995-0317

To be considered for one of three spots in the March Hot Startz!, email the editor at editor@connectbiz.com. Businesses considered must have started—or changed greatly in form—within one year of our publishing date. Professionals chosen must be new to our reading area.

Gislason & Hunter LLP is pleased to announce

the Addition of Two New Attorneys

Chris Demet 507-354-3111 cdemet@gislason.com www.gislason.com

Sung Woo “Matt” Hu 507-354-3111 swhu@gislason.com www.gislason.com

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PRESS RELEASES

Think differently about work. Think Manpower.

To submit a press release for publication:

Mankato 507.345.4201 us.manpower.com

Email: editor@connectbiz.com Fax: 507-232-3373

FAIRMONT

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Dynamic Agents

Incentives for Job Creation SHOVEL VEL READY DY LOTS S

New Ulm Economic Development Corporation

507-233-4305 • www.nuedc.com nuedc@newulmtel.net

From the Chamber: new members include Robert Meschke, Timeless Designs by Melissa (Melissa Brunk), Visual Identity Vault (Jay Doyscher), New Century Press (River Valley Woman), Westman Freightliner (Paul Phillip), and House of Hope (Deanna Green); new businesses include Serenity Salon (Melissa Lampman and Ashley Clow), and Squeegee Squad (Jim Reynolds); KRISMA Counseling relocated to 117 Downtown Plaza; Emily Holm, Pharm.,D., provides medication therapy management to Mayo Clinic Health System clinic and dialysis patients; Douglas Forstrom is a member of the 2014 Chairman’s Cabinet of New York Life Insurance and Marco, Inc. pur-

chased Northeast Photocopy Company, a Wisconsin copier and printer company. Martin County EDA received a Blandin Broadband Community Grant.

Gaylord From the Chamber: The City of Gaylord joined the Greater Minnesota Partnership.

Lake Crystal From TBEI: James “Archie” Englund was named VP of Engineering and Quality and Kurt Meyer Chief Financial Officer.

Le Sueur From the Chamber: New members include Manske LLC (Ron Manske) and the CPA firm Boyer & Co. (Mary Sue Meger and Randy Hoppe).

Madelia From the Chamber: New members include Thrivent Financial (Tim Flitter), and The Furniture Clinic (Rick and Lisa Elkins).

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robinsonappraisalmn.com appraisal@hickorytech.net 115 E. Washington, Mankato *State certified/licensed appraisers

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MANKATO

Alliance Pipeline donated $10,000 and Jerry Dutler’s Bowl and Rumors Lounge hosted a Color Pin fundraiser, both for Habitat for Humanity ReStore expansion. Mankato Clinic gave a $2,000 grant to the Habitat ReStore Environmental Outreach Program. Greg Thoen, Ameriprise Financial, was named to the 2014 Chairman’s Advisory Council. Matt Pierson is inside sales specialist of IP cameras and phone systems at Computer Technology Solutions; the company is a HP Qualified Supplies Partner. Enventis shareholders approved the merger with Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc.; Enventis was named Minnesota State University’s Philanthropic Partner of the Year. From I+S Group: Travis Fristed is environmental services manager, and Kristen Petersen is the Faribault office project manager; new shareholders include David Doxtad

MANKATO

Coughlan Companies Robert and Jim Coughlan, Coughlan Companies, are recipients of the 2014 Family Business of the Year Award, presented by University of St. Thomas’ John M. Morrison Center.

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Enventis

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The Enventis Foundation transferred nearly $4 million of assets to the Mankato Area Foundation to form the donoradvised Enventis Community Fund to provide support to local nonprofits.

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and Derek Johnson, Iowa, Will Kratt, Wisc., and Paul Lawton and Justin Steffl, Mankato. Todd Snell, Snell Motors president, was nominated for the 2015 Time Dealer of the Year Award. From Pioneer Bank: VP Mindy Annis is a personal banker for Mankato, Marie Krause is a personal banker for North Mankato, Andrea Johnson is a business banker for North Mankato, and Clay Sharkey is assistant vice president and senior credit analyst. Region Nine Development Commission received a National Association of Development Organizations 2014 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award. Schmidt’s Siding & Window celebrated its 65th anniversary in October. Terry Keller, a vice president and commercial banking relationship manager for U.S. Bank, was a U.S. Bank Pinnacle Award honoree for third quarter 2014. Sarah Parsons is a real estate agent with Weichert, Realtors-Community Group.

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NEW ULM AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Supporting the businesses who make us a special place to visit for a weekend, or a lifetime. See our historical downtown, do some shopping – open your own business! We’ll help you make it your home.

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107 EAST CHERRY ST., MANKATO, MN 56001 LANGEMEIERARCHITECTS.COM Q Architecture Q Planning Q Adaptive Reuse

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PRESS RELEASES

From Greater Mankato Growth: new members include Homestead Media, Prairie River Home Care, Coffee Hag, Eatery Tap, Westman Freightliner, River Valley Truck Rental & Leasing, Discover Chiropractic, D&K Powder Coating, Dale Carnegie Training, BMO Harris Bank, and Realty Executives Associates, Angie Jenkins and Emily Swalve and the GMG Board of Directors approved a plan to invest approximately $370,000 to build regional agricultural business prominence.

MANKATO

Greater Mankato Growth

Call Karla VanEman today!

From GMG: the MankatoNorth Mankato Metropolitan Statistical Area recorded an all-time high of 57,683 jobs in October.

(507) 345-4040

SIGN REPAIR Exterior commercial signs need repair? Lights out? Faces cracked? Poles need paint? We can help! We come with ladders, boom trucks, parts, paint and lots of experience!

507.345.4274 signguy@charter.net

CONNECT Business Magazine

From Greater Mankato Growth: In November, GMG, the City Center Partnership, and Visit Mankato recognized the following businesses, organizations and professionals with awards at the Greater Mankato Business Awards & Hall of Fame, presented by I+S Group: Hall of Fame (Minnesota Elevator); Distinguished Business (PresenceMaker); Entrepreneurial Business (Friesen’s Family Bakery & Soup Bar); Brian Fazio Business Education Partnership (Minnesota State University and Taylor Corp. Innovation Center); Hap Halligan Leadership (Barb

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

Embacher); Young Professional of the Year (Kevin Velasquez); Bring it Home (Bent River Outfitter); Hospitality Award (Nicollet Bike Shop, Justin and Jenna Rinehart); renovation over $3 million (VINE Faith in Action); renovation $1-3 million (Front Street property owners and City of Mankato); new construction under $2 million (Veterans Memorial Place); renovation under $1 million (Visit Mankato); downtown detail (Pub 500); facade improvements (Public Safety Center); Innovative Interior Remodel/Renovation (Y Barbers/Onatah On Belgrade); and CityArt People’s Choice (Eric Thorsen for bronze sculpture “Green Sea Turtles.”) Abdo, Eick & Meyers merged with Baune Dosen & Co on December 1. Climb 2 Feed Kids, a fundraiser benefiting the BackPack Food Program, raised more than $32,000 to help feed elementary students.

New Ulm August Schell Brewing Company agreed to purchase and preserve the Grain Belt Beer sign on Nicollet Island. New Gislason & Hunter attorneys are Chris Demet and Matt Hu. From the Chamber: M.R. Paving & Excavating was named 2014 Business of the Year.

North Mankato Chuck Freiberg, AIA, is a senior associate architect at Brunton Architects & Engineers.

South Central College and the Basque Government Ministry of Education, Linguistic Policy and Culture agreed to strengthen exchanges of educational, academic, research, innovation, and cultural purposes.

St. James Galen Reding is chief agricultural banking officer, Marvin Kimm is southeast market president, and Jen Winkelman is assistant vice president at Pioneer Bank. From the Chamber: Subway moved to the corner of 1st Street South and 6th Avenue; Heidi Rudolph is Watonwan County’s assistant land management director; Roberta Maciel has taken sole command of American Family Insurance; and Deb Englund is owner of Englund’s St. James Cleaners.

Nick Smith Mankato, MN (507) 625-5649

Stacey Johnson Owatonna, MN (507) 455-5299

Jay Horner Owatonna, MN (507) 455-5200

Jessica Grayson Owatonna, MN (507) 455-5358

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From the Chamber: Mathiowetz Construction, which celebrated 90 years in business in November, received one of five Minnesota Family Business Awards from Twin Cities Business Magazine and Hubler for Business Families.

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Andy’s Bike Shop is a new business.

Waseca From the Chamber: Magic Wash & Storage (Briana and Jason Worke) and Dollar Tree (Katie Peterson and Kari LaMont) received the First Dollar Award; new members included Thrivent Financial (Brent Kohler), Manpower, and Auto Valu; Ambassador Progress Awards to businesses Mid State Mutual Insurance (new manager Brad Kullot), Streamline Communications, Domino’s Pizza, Summer House Farm, Magic Wash & Storage, and Dollar Tree; and the Chamber “Roots” award went to Waseca Lakeside for 30 years in business.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

Gaylord 507.237.5521

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NATIONAL OPINION

As they whistle past the postelection graveyard, Democrats have found a new tune: Voters may have rejected their candidates for everything from U.S. Senate to dogcatcher, but they really still agree with them on the issues. Of course this clearly isn’t true when it comes to Obamacare, which just dropped to its lowest approval ever in the most recent Gallup poll. And as we examine the election results in more detail, it’s apparent

that voters don’t much like other liberal ideas—like tax hikes—either. Kansas is exhibit A. Democrats and much of the media were convinced that Republican governor Sam Brownback’s decision to slash state taxes would doom him. Brownback cut the personal-incometax rate by more than a third, from 6.45 to 3.9 percent, and Kansas became the first state ever to completely eliminate taxes on passthrough income Michael D. Tanner (income earned by individual business proprietors). The papers were full of stories suggesting that Brownback was “an object lesson in the limits of conservative governance,” according to the Washington Post. “Tax Cuts on Trial in Governors’ Races,” echoed a headline in the New York Times. The Fiscal Times warned “Brownback Feeling Big Backlash to Tax

Cuts in Kansas.” But when the smoke cleared, Brownback was reelected. So were other tax-cutting Republican governors. Obviously taxes were far from the only issue in these races. Still, it is interesting that of the two Republican governors who lost reelection, the most prominent— Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania—was one of the few who raised taxes. Taxes were a big issue in blue states, as well. In fact, they may have been the biggest reason that some normally solid-blue states turned red. In Massachusetts, for instance, Democratic candidate Martha Coakley said she wanted to explore ways to replace the state’s flat 5.2 percent income tax with a graduated one. She also opposed an initiative on the ballot that would repeal automatic indexation of the state’s gas tax. While Coakley left the door open to additional tax hikes in the future, her opponent, Charlie Baker, ran on a firm “no new taxes” platform. No doubt Coakley was a poor candidate all around, but this was

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still Massachusetts, the home of Michael Dukakis, Ted Kennedy, and John Kerry. That Baker will be the next governor shows that the power of taxes as an issue has not gone away. In Maryland, too, taxes helped flip a deep-blue state. The Democratic candidate, Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, was closely tied to Maryland governor—and wannabe presidential candidat—Martin O’Malley, who had raised the state’s taxes by more than $9.5 billion since he took office. Republican Larry Hogan was outspent by roughly five to one, but hammered home relentlessly a message of rolling back taxes and reducing state spending. He won in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by two to one. And, in President Obama’s home state of Illinois, incumbent Democratic governor Pat Quinn campaigned in favor of making a temporary 2011 income-tax hike permanent. He lost to Bruce Rauner, who promised to phase both individual and corporate taxes back down to 2011 levels.

Voter opposition to taxes was even more obvious when they had the opportunity to speak directly to the issue. In several states, voters turned down proposals to hike taxes, even when tied to popular initiatives such as education or transportation. In Missouri, for instance, voters overwhelmingly turned down a sales-tax increase that would have funded a number of transportation projects. And, in Nevada, voters turned down measures that would have removed a cap on the state’s mining tax and imposed a 2 percent tax on gross receipts for businesses with revenue over $1 million. And, of course, voters in Massachusetts approved that ballot measure eliminating the inflation adjustment on the gas tax. When they weren’t turning down proposed tax increases, voters were making sure that there would be fewer such proposed hikes in the future. For example, voters in Georgia put in place a cap on the state’s income tax. That measure passed by a threeto-one margin. Meanwhile, in Tennessee,

voters prohibited the legislature from levying any taxes on payroll or earned personal income. In North Dakota, voters banned taxes on mortgages and real-property transfers. And Michigan voters approved a complex measure that eliminated the personal property tax, while also devolving a portion of revenues from the state’s “use tax” (similar to a sales tax but levied on things not subject to sales tax) to local governments. Are we detecting a trend? American voters are clearly fed up with a government that demands ever more and more of their money. A middle-income family today in a state with high taxes faces a total tax burden of more than $10,000, nearly a quarter of its income. Is it any wonder that voters have—yet again—told us that enough is enough? The voters have spoken. The question is: Is anyone listening? This article appeared on National Review (Online) on November 19, 2014. Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author of Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution.

Corporate H

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

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