Crain's Detroit Business, Feb. 9, 2015 issue by Crain's Detroit Business

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www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 31, No. 6

FEBRUARY 9 – 15, 2015

$2 a copy; $59 a year

Compuware units predict growth

Page 3 Nonprofit offers to help startups become high-fliers

Strategy: Push mainframes, seed cloud biz

Lori Blaker: Making a world of difference with family biz

BY TOM HENDERSON CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Chris O’Malley, the president and CEO of Compuware Corp., which was reconfigured as a mainframe-only business in December, says he has no intention of running a shrinking company. He says that within three years he will halt a decade-long decline in revenue and prove wrong O’Malley those who say an ongoing slide for the aging computer platform is inevitable. John Van Siclen, the president and CEO of Dynatrace LLC, the stand-alone business spun out from Compuware to focus on cutting-edge, cloud-based technologies, says his company will beat early expectations, too, and despite a round of layoffs in January is on a fast growth track.

Inventors make Ernest effort to revive the typewriter CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS Kennedy: More than Obamacare mandate foe, Page 17

When Compuware, the Detroitbased computer services company, was bought by Thoma Bravo LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm, for $2.4 billion in a deal that closed in December, it was quickly split into two companies, which long had been a goal of former Compuware CEO Bob Paul. (See accompanying Q&A.) Compuware was founded in 1973 as a mainframe support business, Van Siclen but recent acquisitions had made it a major player in the a segment known as application performance management, which allows large companies to monitor in real time the performance of their various software applications. The mainframe business has high margins, but has

LIFE AFTER COMPUWARE: WHAT FORMER CEO BOB PAUL IS DOING – AND PLANNING PAGE 26

See Compuware, Page 26

Second Stage On Feb. 11, 1985, Crain’s reported that Stroh’s Detroit plant was likely tolikely be torn down. Detroit plant was to be tornStroh’s down troubles and razed. were an omen a shift in the beer industry. This story tells of how Stroh’s troubles were representative of a shift in the beer industry.

ISTOCK PHOTO

LOOKING BACK

30 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK How 3 startups survived the first 3 months, Page 11

This Just In 2 businesses win $100,000 grants in NEI challenge

NEWSPAPER

The New Economy Initiative has announced the two winners of its $100,000 NEIdeas challenge: Detroit-based J & G Pallets and Trucking and Highland Park-based Sherwood Prototype. The two firms will both receive $100,000 grants to help them grow their businesses. “These are businesses that have wreathed a lot of storms and have the potential to grow quite significantly,” said Dave Egner, executive director of NEI. NEI devised NEIdeas last year to help small businesses in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck that have been open at least three years and are looking to grow. The challenge was broken into two parts: $10,000 grants to 30 firms and $100,000 grants to two firms. The program is expected to relaunch this spring. — Amy Haimerl

For Stroh’s, the Bell’s tolled The crumbling of a Detroit institution rang in the era of craft breweries BY DUSTIN WALSH CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

troh Brewery Co. announced 30 years ago it would raze its 1 million-square-foot brewery, bottling and warehouse buildings on Gratiot Avenue at I-75. The late Peter Stroh, chairman of the iconic Detroit beer company, said no amount of investment could save the brewery in the face of a declining beer audience — which dropped from 31 million barrels to 24 million barrels annually. That year, 1985, marked the beginning of the end of Stroh and a culture shift for Michigan beer drinkers as a small-time home brewer took his craft legal. Larry Bell founded Kalamazoo-based Bell’s Brewery Inc. the same year Stroh’s was razed and today is one of the largest local beer producers — expected to produce 410,000 barrels of craft beer in 2015.

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The Stroh Brewery Co. plant along Gratiot Avenue in Detroit. Today, it’s the site of Brewery Park, the headquarters of Crain Communications Inc. – and where Crain’s Detroit Business has been written since 2001.

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

MICHIGAN BRIEFS Survey: More small firms leave it to workers to buy health coverage Only 28 percent of small-business owners who offer employee health coverage indicated they intend to continue those benefits into 2016, according to a Grand Valley State University survey that asked how they were reacting to the Affordable Care Act. That move stems in part from the option available for individuals to buy coverage through public health exchanges created under Obamacare, MiBiz reported. The results confirm much of what insurance carriers have seen and heard from small employers, said Scott Norman, vice president of sales and client services at Priority Health, which sponsored the GVSU survey. The results also point to the expected rise of the individual market.

How can you save a mall? Some developers turn to ‘de-malling’ Despite numerous headlines touting the death of the American shopping mall, West Michigan developers have avoided an untimely demise. One key has been a push to effectively “de-mall” the sprawling shopping complexes where stores are connected via interior corridors. Instead, they’re rearranging the traditional shopping malls so that the stores are only accessible from outside entrances.

State turns on money spigot to end Flint water torture The problems for the Flint water system just keep going drip, drip, drip. … Last week, the Genesee Intermediate School District said it had stopped using city water and was giving bottled water to about 1,300 preschoolers. Also last week, Gov. Rick Snyder and the state stepped in, pledging $2 million in grants. The money will pay for a contractor to perform a leak detection survey of city water lines and shut down the Water Pollution Control Facility incinerator, replacing it with facilities allowing for waste disposal in landfills, The Associated Press reported. Flint’s emergency manager, Jerry Ambrose, said the financial relief also will free money to accelerate the replacement of major pipelines, which he said will increase water circulation and improve quality. In January, Flint’s system was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act because of high levels of a The de-malling strategy effectively breathed new life into Grand Rapids’ Centerpointe Mall, now about 98 percent occupied, according to Colliers International. The de-malling of Centerpointe has inspired developers to do a similar project at another mall that has fallen on hard times in recent years: Holland’s Westshore Mall on U.S. 31.

MICH-CELLANEOUS 䡲

Amway Corp. President Doug DeVos told The Grand Rapids Press that the direct-sales giant

disinfectant byproduct. Flint, formerly a major customer of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, severed those ties last year to build a pipe into Lake Huron, ostensibly to save money. Until the pipe is ready in 16 months, Flint gets water from the Flint River, which residents say has the smell, taste and appearance of something that looks less like water and more like, well. Last year, a General Motors Co. engine plant stopped using water from the Flint River after the automaker said it caused rusting on its engine parts. The decision is expected to cost the city about $400,000 per year in lost revenue. “The water today is within all acceptable guidelines — and that’s an improvement over where it was a couple months ago,” Ambrose said. “That says the water is safe. It doesn’t say the quality is acceptable, and that’s not acceptable to us.”

will not cut back on its expansion plans or workforce despite an 8 percent decline in sales last year. Amway attributed the decline to a strong U.S. dollar and lower sales in China, the Ada-based company’s largest market. 䡲 The latest quarterly survey of office furniture executives by Michael A. Dunlap & Associates found the industry “very steady” heading in the new year. “We are confident that the industry is still on course to achieve its best year in more than a decade,” said Michael Dunlap, head of the Holland consultancy.

䡲 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will spend an additional $12 million this year on improvements to the Great Lakes navigational system, The Associated Press reported. The additional money allocated to the Detroit district will pay for eight projects involving dredging of ship-

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CORRECTION 䡲 The cost of Oakland University’s Executive MBA, health care leadership emphasis, is $42,500. An incorrect price was published in a list of selected area leadership programs in the Feb. 2 edition.

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ping channels or other repairs, replacement or construction. 䡲 A subsidiary of Grand Rapidsbased Universal Forest Products Inc. acquired assets of Rapid Wood Mfg. LLC of Caldwell, Idaho, MiBiz reported. In January, Universal acquired a majority stake in Australia’s Integra Packaging Proprietary Ltd. 䡲 Carson Health in Montcalm County was acquired by Sparrow Health of Lansing, Sparrow said in a statement. Carson, with 61 beds, had been an affiliate of the Sparrow system since 1997. 䡲 The Daily News in New York City reports that Dow Chemical Co. Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris bought a condominium in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood for $10.75 million. The 2,500-square-foot abode on the 17th floor has three bedrooms, “sweeping views of Midtown ... and 12-foot ceilings.” It is said that his neighbors include actress Cameron Diaz.

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

February 9, 2015

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Nonprofit’s goal: Help firms rocket Endeavor starts affiliate to boost Detroit entrepreneurs BY AMY HAIMERL CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Help is coming for Detroit’s high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurs, whether they are in technology or the trades. The global nonprofit Endeavor is launching an affiliate here to help

firms that are on the cusp of extraordinary growth. “The entrepreneurial talent in Detroit and the broader region is impressive,” said Endeavor cofounder and CEO Linda Rottenberg. “We’re excited to support these companies to scale, stay and multiply their impact by invest-

ing, mentoring and inspiring the next generation of local high-impact entrepreneurs.” Historically, the New York City-based organization has worked in glob- Egner al emerging markets, such as Chile, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, bringing mentoring, talent and ac-

cess to investors to more than companies. It has shied away from the United States because the support for entrepreneurs is strong here, but Endeavor realized that a few U.S. cities face similar challenges to those entrepreneurs in emerging markets. So, in 2013, it opened a Miami affiliate and now will make Detroit its second U.S. location. Endeavor made its way to Detroit through Dave Egner and the See Endeavor Page 27

Inside

Celebrating a Soup that’s fed many a small biz, Page 10 Company index

Making a world of difference

These companies have significant mention in this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business: Accountable Care Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Active Solutions Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Atwater Brewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Autocam Medical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Autoliv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Belfor Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

TTI boss Blaker went global with business, causes BY SHERRI WELCH CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

In the early 1990s, Lori Blaker was a divisional president at her parents’ technical manual and training company, working with Ford Motor Co. to train automotive electronic control technicians. She was also a hostess at the Palace of Auburn Hills’ Palace Grille. A single mother with three children, Blaker needed the second job to make her house payment and keep shoes on her sons’ feet. “I was probably one of the worst-paid employees because I was family,” she said. “My dad was kind of old school.

If you were family ... he felt he was providing us with an opportunity to work, and we should be happy with that.” But Blaker pushed for more. And today, under her leadership, the company now known as TTi Global has grown to $110 million in revenue and has established a presence in 25 countries. The obstacles Blaker, 57, had to overcome along the way — including sexism, divorce and the challenges of balancing motherhood with the company’s top job — today drive her efforts to help other women achieve success. She is active on the speaker circuit and spends time mentoring young women in metro Detroit. She’s also working to empower women internationally by sharing her story and creating vocational programs to aid budding female entrepreneurs. But it all took root in the family business. See Blaker, Page 28

Bell’s Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Compuware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 26 Cooper-Standard Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Detroit Fiber Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 12 Detroit Regional Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Detroit Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Domino’s Pizza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Dow Corning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Dynatrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Edward Rose & Sons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Endeavor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Federal-Mogul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Hello West Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Inteva Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 ITC Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Kelly Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Metaldyne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Mich. Center for Empowerment & Econ. Development 11 Michigan Charitable Gaming Association . . . . . . . . 4 Michigan Gaming Control Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Michigan Office Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone . . . . . . . . . . . 29 MSX International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 28 New Economy Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Northern United Brewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Oakwood ACO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 JOHN SOBCZAK

Lori Blaker was the first employee of the company launched by her parents, but had to prove to her father she was tough enough to be in charge.

Owens Family Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 12 SkySpecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 14 Southeast Michigan Accountable Care . . . . . . . . . . 7 Strategic Staffing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 28 Stroh Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 TTi Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” The Hemingwrite: To have electric and have not the Internet. F YO TES TE UR GWRI O C MIN HE

Inventors offer an Ernest effort to make keyboarding more like writing

BY BILL SHEA CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” However inspiration comes, Detroitbased inventors Adam Leeb and Patrick Paul are banking that enough writers want both nostalgia and a distraction-free writing tool that they’ve created: the Hemingwrite. Employing the name of the grandfather of 20th century American literature, the

TRW Automotive Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Vistage Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Visteon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 WADL TV-38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

— Ernest Hemingway pair created a modern portable electric typewriter/word processor hybrid last fall that employs an e-ink screen (instead of paper or traditional LED display) on a device that doesn’t allow the user to indulge in the attention-gobbling distraction of Internet browsing or social media. In other words, no Trivia Crack, Facebook or kitten videos. Enough writers are captivated by the single-function Hemingwrite that they’ve pledged more than $342,000 in 45 days to a now-closed Kickstarter fundraising campaign with an original goal of $250,000.

See Hemingwrite, Page 25

Department index BANKRUPTCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 BUSINESS DIARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 CALENDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 CLASSIFIED ADS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 KEITH CRAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 MARY KRAMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 OTHER VOICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 RUMBLINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 STAGE TWO STRATEGIES . . . . . . . . . . 16

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Court date set in battle over state gaming rules BY SHERRI WELCH CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

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Oral arguments are set for March 3 in a Michigan Gaming Control Board appeal that will attempt to reinstate millionaire party rules introduced last year. The case is the latest in nearly a year and a half of legislative wrangling between the state board and the Michigan Charitable Gaming Association over tighter regulation of the charity poker games. The Michigan Court of Claims last summer enjoined the new rules, determining that the gaming control board should have gone back through the entire rule-making process after changes were made following legislative and public hearings. Emergency rules have been in place to govern ongoing million-

aire parties since last July. Those rules are enabling charity poker games to continue, albeit at a reduced rate, said Rick Kalm, executive director of the gaming control board. Since July, the board has issued more than 1,000 millionaire party licenses to charities, each license good for up to four consecutive days, he said. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approved 25 new bar/restaurant locations as sites charities can rent for the games, adding to 40 other locations approved prior to 2011 and the charitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; option to use their own, private facility. Those approvals follow the closure of 23 or more permanent poker rooms around the state that were operating unlawfully, according to the state board, and a reduction in the number of games

that can take place at a location, among other regulations. The new rules â&#x20AC;&#x201D; both emergency and proposed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are decreasing charitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ability to raise money through the games, said Jean Kordenbrock, manager of the Michigan Charitable Gaming Association. Charities are having a tough time finding a spot to host a fourday event, especially on the west side of the state, Kordenbrock said. Permanent poker rooms are an important factor in helping charities â&#x20AC;&#x201D; especially those from small towns with limited populations â&#x20AC;&#x201D; attract people to charity poker games, she said. Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com. Twitter: @sherriwelch

FCC significantly boosts opening bid for Adell TV station The Federal Communications Commission has significantly increased its expected opening bid for local broadcaster Kevin Adellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s WADL TV-38 in Clinton Township to a maximum of $380 million with a median price of $360 million. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up from a possible $170 million last year. The revised estimate comes from a new report on behalf of the FCC by investment firm Greenhill & Co. LLC. The FCC in early 2016 will auction portions of the 600-MHz UHF over-the-air broadcast spectrum from TV stations to mobile wireless providers that need more airwaves bandwidth . Adell will continue to own The Word Network, the Southfield-based Christian television programming satellite network that is a separate company. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Bill Shea

BANKRUPTCIES The following businesses filed for protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit Jan. 30-Feb. 5. Under Chapter 11, a company files for reorganization. Chapter 7 involves total liquidation. Al Huda Properties LLC, 4640 Nutmeg Drive, Ypsilanti; voluntary Chapter 11. Assets, $906,500; liabilities, $67,300. Al-Hafiz LLC, 4640 Nutmeg Drive, Ypsilanti; voluntary Chapter 11. Assets, $2,003,000; liabilities, $164,054. QSC-Novi LLC, 174 Ridge Road, Grosse Pointe Farms; voluntary Chapter 7. Assets, $13,000; liabilities, $37,500 Town Center Flats LLC, 45343 Market St., Shelby Township; voluntary Chapter 11. Assets and liabilities not available. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Chad Halcom

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Novi-based ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ITC), the nation’s largest independent electricity transmission company, has reorganized its executive ranks to support expected increased investment in electric grid development activities. To prepare for nearly $4.5 billion in capital spending from 2014 to 2018, outlined in its five-year investment plan, ITC CEO Joseph Welch announced the following: Linda Blair, executive vice president and chief business unit officer, will be responsible for leading all aspects of the financial and operational performance of ITC’s four regulated operating companies. She also will become president of ITC Transmission and Michigan Electric Transmission Co. businesses. Gregory Ioanidis, to vice president of business unit finance and rates for the four regulated operating companies, from president of ITC Michigan. Daniel Oginsky, to executive vice president of U.S. regulated grid development, from executive vice president and general counsel. Kristine Schmidt, to vice president of regulated grid development, from president of ITC Great Plains. Terry Harvill, to vice president of international and merchant development, from vice president of grid development. Brian Slocum, to vice president of operations, from vice president of engineering. Joe Bennett, to vice president of engineering, from director, facilities, safety and security. Gretchen Holloway, to vice president of finance, from director, finance, special projects and investor relations. Christine Mason Soneral, to vice president and general counsel, from vice president and general counsel for utility operations. Simon Whitelocke, to vice president and chief compliance officer, from vice president, external and regulatory affairs. Nina Plaushin, to vice president of regulatory and federal affairs and will assume additional responsibility for regulatory issues. She had been vice president, federal affairs. Kevin Burke, vice president of human resources, will assume additional responsibility for marketing and communications. ITC was born in February 2003 when a group of New York-based private equity investors acquired DTE Energy’s transmission subsidiary in Michigan for $621 million. Through those subsidiaries, ITC owns and operates high-voltage transmission facilities in Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. It serves a combined peak load exceeding 26,000 megawatts along 15,000 circuit miles of transmission line.

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

February 9, 2015

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ACOs saving millions under Medicare’s cost-cutting program BY JAY GREENE CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Many of the 15 accountable care organizations in Michigan are saving millions of dollars for the Medicare program along with passing along significant financial rewards to hundreds of participating physicians, according to several local ACO executives. Under Medicare’s ACO cost containment program — begun as three-year pilot projects outlined in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 — groups of hospitals, physicians and other providers band together to coordinate care for seniors enrolled in traditional Medicare. If they generate sufficient savings and hit predetermined quality targets in their second contract year, the ACOs split the savings with Medicare. In Southeast Michigan, for example, Dearborn-based Oakwood ACO LLC saved Medicare $17 million and kept $8.4 million during its first 18-month period from July 2012 to December 2013. United Outstanding Physicians’ Southeast Michigan Accountable Care (SEMAC), also based in Dearborn, saved $24.6 million and kept $12.1 million during the same period. Detroit Medical Center’s Michigan Pioneer ACO, saved $14 million and kept $6 million. Pioneer is on track to generate similar savings in 2014, officials said.

One of metro Detroit’s newest ACOs, The Accountable Care Organization Ltd. (TACO), based in Farmington Hills, also is saving Medicare money, but officials for the ACO said it is too early to predict financial numbers for 2014, the physician-led organization’s first year. Other ACOs operating in Michigan include the Genesys Physician Hospital Organization, Accountable Healthcare Alliance PC, St. John Providence Partners in Care and Physician Organization of Michigan ACO. Tony Vespa, SEMAC’s executive director, said the shared-savings ACO ranked No. 4 in the nation in performance, saving $24.6 million for Medicare from July 2012 through the end of 2013. Ranked ahead of SEMAC were Memorial Hermann ACO in Texas, Palm Beach ACO in Florida and Catholic Medical Partners in New York, Vespa said. “Our organization shared $12.1 million. There were a lot of happy doctors here who got their checks before Christmas,” said Vespa, noting that the 149 participating doctors were rewarded based on number of patients, utilization, quality and ownership shares. Vespa said that through the third quarter of 2014 SEMAC is on track to save about $16.4 million for the second year. Under the Medicare ACO program, ACOs that cut expenses by at least 2 percent share savings

with Medicare. So far, 243 ACOs saved Medicare $877 million during an 18-month period ending in 2013 and recouped $460 million for their hospitals and doctors, according to documents provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. While financial savings for 2014 haven’t been released, ACO savings appear to be ahead of projections. In 2012, Medicare projected $1 billion in savings for the first three years of the program and up to $5 billion through 2019. But ACO executives like Bill Isenstein, Oakwood ACO’s executive director and COO, said second and third year contract savings may be lower than the first year because ACOs must hit predetermined quality targets to be eligible. Still, quality also appears to be on the increase for the Medicare patients. Overall, ACO performance on quality improved for 28 of 33 measures, including depression screening, medication reconciliation, colorectal cancer Isenstein screening and normalizing blood-sugar levels. For example, data from Oakwood showed its ACO scored above average on 18 of 33 measures.

Isenstein said the biggest area of savings for the Oakwood ACO come through reduced hospitalizations, reduced readmissions, fewer emergency visits and lower hightechnology diagnostic tests for its 14,000 Medicare patients. On the other side, Isenstein said, the biggest area of lost revenue comes from patients choosing to see physicians not part of Oakwood ACO and going out of the Oakwood post-acute care network. “Hopefully our doctors do a good job at stressing the importance of continuity of care, but the model we set up allows patients to go elsewhere for care,” Isenstein said. Medicare also is adding dozens of new ACOs, including several in Southeast Michigan. Nationally, there are more than 40 ACOs covering 7.2 million of 50 million Medicare beneficiaries. In 2013, Jeffrey Margolis, M.D., president of The Accountable Care Organization, said physicians, primarily affiliated with Michigan Healthcare Professionals PC, formed the ACO to coordinate care for some 28,000 Medicare patients in their care and to reduce costs for the Medicare program. “So far The Accountable Care Organization’s program seems to be a success,” said Margolis, who also is president of Michigan Healthcare Professionals. Because ACOs are rewarded for lowering costs on hospital care,

physician services, home health, nursing home and durable medical equipment, some ACOs contract or affiliate with post-acute care providers. For example, TACO has a contract with Center Line-based Binson’s Hospital Supplies Inc. for home medical and respiratory Margolis equipment. Participating in TACO are 25 hospitals that are part of McLaren Health Care Corp., St. John Providence Health System, Beaumont Health System and DMC. Of TACO’s shared savings share, 50 percent go to physicians based on volume and quality measurements, 30 percent for shareholders, 10 percent for ACO leadership and 10 percent is kept for infrastructure, capital reserves, information technology and patient education. Of the $8.4 million in shared savings for the Oakwood ACO, Isenstein said the 450 participating physicians, including about 140 primary care doctors, split about 80 percent with the higher performing doctors receiving larger shares. Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325, jgreene@crain.com. Twitter: @jaybgreene

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OPINION

Walker puts face on area transit needs F

or years, public transit advocates have tried to find a champion to expand transit options in Southeast Michigan to at least match other metro areas. But finding a “name” that resonates regionally rather than one of the five counties was hard. Until now. The Detroit Free Press profile of Detroiter James Robertson and his 21-mile walk to work in Rochester Hills has gone viral. Robertson’s face — and his work ethic and resilience — resonate with thousands of people — enough to have raised more than $300,000 in a crowd-funding page aimed at helping him buy a car, insurance and gasoline. Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights has given him a 2015 Ford Focus. But Robertson himself has said that he wishes the region simply had better transit. Rochester Hills, where his employer is based, opted out of suburban bus service, the kind of service that would have at least allowed him to cut down on the miles walked. But a more integrated city-suburb transit system is needed. Southeast Michigan’s nascent Regional Transit Authority will seek voter approval of some type of dedicated tax to expand transit — without communities being able to opt out. The RTA should get to know Mr. Robertson. He knows how to tell a story.

Innovation comes in all sizes Everything old is new again, as many have written. As Bill Shea reports on Page 3, a couple of Detroit-based inventors have mounted a successful Kickstarter campaign to build, well, a typewriter. It’s actually more sophisticated than that, an electric typewriter/word processor hybrid called the Hemingwrite that uses an e-ink screen. Its most important asset? An aid to concentration in the form of no Internet access. Also looking to innovate an old teche rit mingw The He nology is Chris O’Malley, CEO of Compuware Corp., which post-acquisition is only in the business of mainframes. As Tom Henderson reports in a Page 1 story, to that end, the company has developed a product — the first new one for the company since 1999 — to help younger IT managers understand what mainframes do and work with them. Our takeaway is that these stories are a good reminder that innovation comes in a number of forms, some of it disruptive and some of it involving legacy businesses and technologies. A good thought for old-line media companies as well.

TALK ON THE WEB From www.crainsdetroit.com Re: Patterson proposes property tax cut in Oakland County The intentions are good and it plays well with hard-core Republicans. But I think most people would much rather have the money spent on the roads. Rock & Roll 35

Re: Ally seeks riskier borrowers as new CEO takes helm of auto lender These companies seem to forget what got us in the position we were in just over six years ago. The problem once again is greed to drive the sales engine of lending. We will never learn! jk6590

Re: Pension cuts, interest paybacks from bankruptcy prompt cries of betrayal This is the price government employees pay when corruption runs rampant in Detroit. Thank your

Reader responses to stories and blogs that appeared on Crain’s website. Comments may be edited for length and clarity. politicians and council members. Many of us in the private sector would be lucky to get any pension. Especially these days. Kaos Rex

Re: Gilbert, others eye city-owned sites in Brush Park, Midtown, riverfront Would be glad if Gilbert intervened. There is so much well-located land that is completely empty. It needs a quality, rapid redevelopment. There are some lovely buildings along John R, but I personally wouldn’t want to be surrounded by blocks of urban prairie. If a lot of quality mixed-use developments go in quickly, however, the look, the safety and the appeal of the neighborhood would turn around

in an instant. BobNB

Re: Jeb Bush touts conservative policies to aid middle class, business If the GOP wants to win in ’16, they had better get someone else besides the current clown car of dummies they’re trotting out. They have zero chance. Apparently they have learned nothing in the last eight years. Trexinmichigan

Re: Nexteer eyes bigger brand with HQ move to Southeast Michigan Nexteer already has an office in Troy from where a couple of executives work. Although it’s a great company to work for, they have been having a hard time recruiting engineers as it’s located in Saginaw. So, I can understand the unSee Talk, Page 9

KEITH CRAIN: At least we know that action is coming Warren Evans, our newly elected executive of Wayne County, is trying to be as transparent as possible. The county is in terrible financial shape. The scope of the fiscal woes was sadly kept from the residents of Southeastern Michigan by the previous executive for years. There are massive shortfalls in terms of revenue and expenses. Evans realizes that to avoid another bankruptcy, the county is going to have to take some draconian measures immediately before it runs out of money this summer. It is too bad that this financial news wasn’t available to the tax-

payers and the residents of Wayne County before Robert Ficano left office after badly losing his re-election campaign. There should be a requirement for an independent audit of these municipal governments on an annual basis. This audit would be a means for representing the taxpayers of these government bodies. The results must be made public, not just given to the elected officials. Evans is going to need some

very good financial officers, and I hope the résumés come to him to give him some choices. That’s going to be a key spot in his newly elected office. Sadly, it would appear that Evans is going to have to apply the tough medicine that the county has avoided all these years. It would appear that the county has been living way beyond its means and stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Now, our newly elected executive

is going to have to put into place a lot of the fiscal restraint. Certainly, the partially finished county jail is a testimony to the incompetence of the county and its contractors. Everyone connected with that project had to know how misdirected it was and fiscally irresponsible. Now Evans, right out of the box, has to come up with a solution that is bound to displease everyone. The tough decisions because of the budget crisis might alienate lots of people — from the unions to contractors to employees to taxpayers. I only hope we all remember that

he is only cleaning up his predecessor’s messes. Any pain and distrust should be directed at decades of malfeasance of his predecessors, not the current administration. There is a lot to be done in Wayne County. Perhaps the lessons from the bankruptcy of Detroit will give the new administration a road map for what has to be done. It will not be a pretty picture for a while. Let’s hope that Evans has the fortitude to stay the course. Any deviation will have disastrous results for the county, Detroit and all of Southeastern Michigan. We wish him well.

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OTHER VOICES: Biz-community college ties need to grow firsthand the importance President Barack Obaof establishing collaborama’s recent proposal to protive relationships bevide students with free tutween community colition to local community leges and the businesses colleges underscores the imand industries that surportant role our instituround our campuses. We tions play in the education are doing a much better and training of today’s job of listening to what workforce and that of the futhe workforce demands ture. are today. A competitive business Rose Bellanca We take what we hear environment demands employees and workers to be highly and translate it into curricula that trained and engaged from the very is relevant and gives our students first day of employment. Commu- competitive advantages in the nity colleges, through active part- workplace, allowing them to make nerships with business, provide seamless transitions to careers specialized training in focused in- across our state, the country and dustries, small-business assistance, career centers and continuing education for workforce development. According to a recent report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, economists project that by 2020, 65 percent of jobs will require some form of postsecondary education and training. At federal and state levels, leaders have taken strong stances to emphasize that community college curricula needs to better align with the demands of the 21st century workforce, particularly in the skilled trades and in-demand industries of information technology, advanced manufacturing and science, technology, engineering and math professions. In my role as chairwoman of the Region 9 Talent Council, which is part of the state of Michigan’s Regional Prosperity Initiative — I see

TALK CONTINUED ■ From Page 8

derlying fact. But I am disappointed that they don’t intend to move their engineering workforce to Detroit’s suburbs, at least partially, to begin with. NewGuy

internationally. On community college campuses nationwide, students are taking classes across a broad spectrum of programs giving them the in-demand skills for professions such as radiology, welding, information technology, advanced manufacturing, facilities and energy management, computer systems, nursing, sustainable building practices, and surgical technology. The skilled trades gap is a national challenge. A 21st century job requires knowledge and training — and it must be affordable. That’s where the community colleges play a crucial role: enabling

students across the country to reach toward their educational dreams in an environment that will not leave them saddled with unimaginable debt. Data from a report released by the American Association of Community Colleges titled “Where Value Meets Values: The Economic Impact of Community Colleges” shows that for every $1 a student spends on a community college education, he or she sees a return on investment of $3.80. I agree with Gov. Rick Snyder that Michigan can lead the nation in developing an educated and skilled workforce. We are on the right track with innovative part-

nerships between businesses and community colleges as we work collaboratively toward a shared goal of economic vitality. All of this reinforces why Obama felt so strongly about the economic stimulus provided by community colleges. Talented workers are our most important resource. I encourage all business leaders to make important connections with a local community college to learn how future partnerships can mean greater productivity and enhanced business success. Rose Bellanca is president of Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor.

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Re: Bracelets from crime scene bullet casings support gun buyback efforts More profiteering from crime doesn’t seem like the best idea to me. Hey, check out my new bracelet, it was used to kill four people. Isn’t it cool? No, not really. E Stone E

Re: Duggan gets high marks in Year 1; challenges turn complex Having lived across from Detroit in Windsor for 20 years and then in Bay City for another 28 years, traveling through Detroit for most of that time, I can see the positive changes in the last year. So many positive comments coming out of the city and those who visit. Hope is alive in Detroit. Mayor Duggan has started a fire, and it is contagious. I believe it started with Dan Gilbert seeing potential in a city that most had given up on. I believe one man can make a change, just as Martin Luther King Jr. did. Mayor Duggan is a no-nonsense, positive and forward-thinking person with the determination to see things through. I am betting on him doing what others have said is impossible. Don Davis

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Fundraising party to celebrate 5 years of Detroit Soup pitch sessions BY AMY HAIMERL CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Some of the brightest names in Detroit small business have one thing in common: Detroit Soup. The Empowerment Plan, Rebel Nell, Sit on It Detroit, Shakespeare in Detroit, Fresh Cut Flowers and Always Brewing Detroit, among others, got

their start pitching at community fundraising sessions hosted by Detroit Soup. Soup is the I.R.L. (that’s “in real life”) Kickstarter: People come together once a month to crowdfund an idea. Participants pay $5 to share bowls of potluck soup — or whatever volunteers bring — and then listen to pitches from individ-

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uals about what they would like to accomplish in their neighborhoods. At the end, the attendees vote on the winner. That project gets the kitty plus a matching grant from Detroit Soup. “Detroit Soup was the catalyst for really launching us,” said Amy Peterson, co-founder of Rebel Nell, which hires disadvantaged women to make jewelry from graffiti that has flaked off Detroit walls. “We were really fortunate to win and ecstatic for the financial support. But it was so much more than that. It was the validation from everybody who believed in us and the support from our community. That was really rewarding.” The first session was held above a bakery in Southwest Detroit, with “whiskey and potato leek soup,” said Amy Kaherl, Detroit Soup co-founder and executive director, laughing. “There weren’t even any pitches. We had doors on milk crates.” But there was an idea that Detroit residents could come together and support their neighborhoods for the small price of $5. Now the group is celebrating five years, 95 dinners and more than $85,000 doled out to 108 projects. It’s also raised $300,000 in grants that allows it to match the dollars raised at each soup, fund the organization and pay neighborhood leaders to host soups. So in classic Kaherl style —

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUP

Amy Kaherl is Detroit Soup’s cofounder and executive director.

she’s also a DJ — they are hosting a giant fundraising party to celebrate on Feb. 15 at Ford Field. The evening will feature dinner, dancing, live performances by Flint Eastwood and Detroit Pistons DJ Emily Thornhill and past Soup winners, such as Rebel Nell’s Peterson and The Empowerment Plan founder Veronika Scott, two of Detroit’s most famous social entrepreneurs. Empowerment hires previously homeless women to make sleeping bag coats for homeless people “Everybody said ‘no’ to Veronika, thought she was crazy, until she came to Soup,” Kaherl said. Tickets to the Soup event are $25, or $125 for a VIP ticket that grants entry to a private reception. “We have had an incredible five years at Soup,” Kaherl said. “Beyond just wanting to celebrate the

people that help make it happen every month, I really wanted to raise awareness of our impact. Our hope is that the community with whom we’ve built Soup will turn out to learn about what we do, to hear first-hand from winners about exactly how we make an impact and yes, I’ll say it — to donate to the cause.” Kaherl herself is now looking ahead to the next five years of Soup. She would like to have an event running in every City Council district. She is also heading to Nepal next month with the BBC to start a soup in Katmandu, and then to SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin, Texas, with ad agency Team Detroit to host one at the music festival. She is also considering licensing the Soup name to others seeking to start something in their cities. “I helped a friend in L.A. do a fundraiser, and I watched people do a live auction and give $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 — just open their checkbooks — and I don’t live in that world,” Kaherl said. “We really want to be a resource in the future to help other communities like ours start up a soup. Not just a one- or two-time thing, but something sustainable.” For tickets to the fundraiser or to donate, visit detroitsoup.com. Amy Haimerl: (313) 446-0416, ahaimerl@crain.com. Twitter: @haimerlad

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‘30 DAYS MEANS 30 DAYS’ How one company got its customers to pay up promptly, Page 16

growing small businesses EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK Amy Haimerl is entrepreneurship editor and covers the city of Detroit. She can be reached at (313) 446-0416 or at ahaimerl@crain.com

Amy Haimerl

A good week for entrepreneurs It’s Detroit Entrepreneur Week! And it’s legit. In the past, I’ve found celebrating entrepreneurs for one week a year much like celebrating moms on one day each May or black history in February. It seems like we should be doing more to bake appreciation and respect into all 365 days. But this year’s program, organized by the Michigan Center for Empowerment and Economic Development, has a schedule to reinvigorate firms that have been around for at least two years and inspire those who aspire to entrepreneurship. “We are committed to rebuilding Detroit neighborhoods, and Detroit Entrepreneur Week is a great start. We are excited to be involved and look forward to connecting entrepreneurs to local resources,” said Robin Kinnie, communications manager for MICEED. The program is from 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 10-14 at Focus: Hope Center for Advanced Technologies, 1400 Oakman Blvd. Plus, there is a Small Business Legal Academy being held at Wayne State University Law School on Saturday, Feb. 14. (Disclose: I’ll be hosting a panel on legal aspects of sales and marketing at the academy.) Here is the schedule of events: Tuesday: Building for business growth, moderated by Jill Ford, special adviser/entrepreneurship for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Presenters include Build Institute, ProperUS Detroit, Michigan SBDC and TechTown Detroit. Wednesday: Building food entrepreneurs, hosted by Food Lab Detroit. Thursday: Entrepreneurship and neighborhood sustainability, hosted by TechTown and Detroit Future City with a number of neighborhood associations. Friday: Two panels, one on sales and marketing and one on different approaches to lending. Saturday: Small Business Legal Academy, featuring “ask a lawyer” sessions with attorneys from some of the region’s most prominent firms. “We’re proud to support the growth and development of new, local businesses in Detroit because it is our hometown, and because we believe this is a great time for entrepreneurs to get involved in building the city’s prosperity,” said Rod Blake, director of real estate and development at event sponsor Olympia Development of Michigan. To register for entrepreneur week, visit dew15.eventbrite.com.

LARRY PEPLIN

Najma Wilson (left) and Mandisa Smith found a storefront along Livernois Avenue in an area once known as the Avenue of Fashion — seemingly a good spot for Detroit Fiber Works LLC. They signed the lease Jan. 1, 2014 — just in time for the polar vortex. So much for foot traffic in the first two months of business.

Startup diaries Three businesses reveal secrets of the early months store for newbie business owners?

BY GARY ANGLEBRANDT SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

hey say the first year or two of running a business is always the riskiest for a startup. From funding to paying rent to marketing, the early years amount to an education earned on the fly. But what’s it really like? What surprises are in

Detroit Fiber Works LLC Owners: Mandisa Smith and Najma Wilson

thought, ‘People love us; “ We it’s going to work.’ Then January comes and nobody comes in here.

This month we asked three businesses that opened within the past two years to share their stories about grinding through the early months. Here is how three companies adjusted to changing conditions, abandoned original plans, made the most out of little and, above all, hustled.

Owens Family Foods LLC

SkySpecs Inc.

Owners: Scott and Suzi Owens

CEO: Daniel Ellis; CFO: Tom Brady

would cold call. I’d walk in “ Iand say, ‘Can I talk to a

You think a lawyer’s a “ lawyer and an accountant’s an

manager?’ It seems silly now, but it worked.

accountant. That’s 100 percent not the case. You have to find one that specializes in startups and what you do.

”

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”

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omething unexpected always happens when starting a business. For Mandisa Smith and Najma Wilson, it was the weather. The owners of retailer Detroit Fiber Works signed a lease on Livernois Avenue, in the strip north Seven Mile Road once known as the Avenue of Fashion, on Jan. 1, 2014 — just in time for the polar vortex. Few souls walked through the doors during the first two months of business. “We had no idea. We thought, ‘People love us; it’s going to work.’ Then January comes and nobody comes in here. We end the month with $500 in sales, and rent is a lot more than that,” Smith said. They managed to work through those dark days and turned a corner in March. It helped that Smith and Wilson were frugal in launching their business. Rather than taking out a bank loan, they spent about $7,000 out of pocket to get the doors open. Plus, they had a fair amount of goods to sell, and artists supply new inventory on consignment, which relieves upfront costs. The two originally planned to open an artist cooperative but adjusted their model after realizing all of their time would be eaten up trying to manage everyone in the co-op. Detroit Fiber Works also benefited from a slew of initiatives launched to support Detroit entrepreneurs. Key assistance came from Revolve Detroit, a program run by the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. with the goal of sparking new retail business in the city. Revolve created a pop-up district on Livernois, funding the build-out of storefronts and negotiating with landlords for rent breaks during that time. It selected Detroit Fiber to participate in the program, charging Wilson and Smith 10 percent of sales as rent plus utilities. It was successful enough that Wilson and Smith decided to make their store permanent — and Revolve pitched in a $1,000 startup grant. “I tell people all time, if there were no Revolve Detroit, there’d be no Detroit Fiber Works,” Smith said. She also received entrepreneurial training through the Detroit Build Institute (formerly D:hive) program, learning about business plans, accounting, marketing and

Owens Family Foods LLC Opened: 2013 Location: Dearborn

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February 9, 2015

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

n 2011, Scott Owens went with his wife, Suzi, to a bank seeking a loan to start a business making hot sauce. “They basically laughed at us,” said Scott Owens. “The bank said, ‘We can’t even give you a $10,000 loan.’ ” Owens had been laid off from the auto industry in 2008, and the family’s Dearborn home was underwater after a third of his neighbors walked away from their mortgages. But he and Suzi didn’t put their idea for a food business on the shelf. Instead, they cashed out their

In October, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded Detroit Fiber a Detroit Knight Arts Challenge matching grant of $20,000. The money is to go toward building an art installation using fiber art techniques on the median on Livernois. Shinola invited Detroit Fiber Works to participate in a pop-up event last month, giving the business another marketing boost. The combined efforts were invaluable, Smith said, especially in providing support and structure in the early months. The most difficult part of running a small business has been the general uncertainty. Smith has an MBA and spent most of her career working in marketing and dealer support for Chrysler, so retail is a new experience. “That’s the worst part, not knowing how your month is going to go,” she said. “The reality is, the business does become your life. I’m always here. If I’m not here, I’m doing something related to the business,” she added. That fact sometimes is lost on family and friends, too, who might think that the endeavor is just for fun and that the owners, as their own bosses, have a wide open schedule. Wilson was expected to be available for her grandchildren all the time, and Smith had to show her husband she really meant business. “My husband thought it was a hobby at first. As time goes on, he sees I’m really serious about this,” Smith said. “People now are generally on board that this is a business and it takes time.” Detroit Fiber scratched out a profit in 2014, and this past January was far better than that of 2014, giving them high expectations for this year. But it’s still too soon for Smith and Wilson to start paying themselves a salary. One question hanging in the air is the direction of the Livernois strip. Will it see the same success as other Detroit neighborhoods, like Midtown and Corktown? News stories in 2013 pointed at early signs of a revival, and some new shops have joined Detroit Fiber — at least five, by Smith’s count — in the two blocks around her business. “Midtown was not an overnight success. It was decades in the planning. I’m hoping that it doesn’t take a decade for Livernois to become what it can be,” Smith said.

401(k)s and formed Owens Family Foods LLC, which makes “Scotty O’Hotty” brand hot sauces. They started by hustling sauces out of their car, taking samples to grocery stores. “I would cold call. I’d walk in and say, ‘Can I talk to a manager?’ It seems silly now, but it worked,” said Scott, who is president of the company. They got the sauces into 100 stores, Westborn Market and Hiller’s Markets stores among them. But the Owens laid the foundation for several years before they walked into those stores. They spent two years methodically researching, getting food processing licenses and trademarks, building a See Next Page

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website and perfecting the recipes. “If I was going to do this, it had to be all or nothing. Nobody in my family ever did anything like this. They all punched a clock,” Scott Owens said. “I figured, if I’m going to do this, I’m not just going to go in and skip down a path.” Suzi Owens attended a two-day Michigan State University Product Center program on food entrepreneurship, where she learned about Food and Drug Administration rules, bottling and manufacturing, pH testing, food safety and licensing. “We were a little naive when we jumped into it. We didn’t realize the rules and regulations,” she said. The MSU Product Center also holds an annual Making It In Michigan conference where food entrepreneurs connect with experts and buyers. The Owens have picked up valuable contacts through the event and learned how to source bulk ingredients. For their first few product runs, the Owens paid retail prices at a Kroger store, Suzi said. The $50,000 to $60,000 price tag to launch the business was covered by the 401(k) money. Scott’s parents contributed to the purchase of a bottling machine (and have since been paid back). The Owens spent another $25,000 to get the business up and running after launch, mostly to buy machinery and graphics services using money that came from sales. Scott kept those expenses low by buying equipment on eBay. He waits for good deals to pop up rather than waiting until he needs something at the last minute, and is gathering the equipment ahead of setting up a commercial kitchen in his own building when the time is right. After launching the business, he learned he was better off without a building (and he couldn’t afford one anyway without that bank loan). There was no way he’d sell enough sauce right away to cover overhead and costs to keep the building humming. “I was looking at small buildings that cost $1,200 to $2,200 a month — and we’d still have to convert it — and we weren’t making that a month,” he said. Instead, they began using the services of The Culinary Studio LLC in Southfield, where food entrepreneurs can rent commercial kitchen time for prototypes and small production runs. It wasn’t until last year that the Owens really felt they had the business up and running. Suzi quit her day job as a dental assistant. After making a first hire, a relative, at the end of 2013, they added six more in 2014, bringing the total to seven part-time workers. Last summer, Jack Aronson of Ferndale-based Garden Fresh Salsa Co. Inc., well-known in the local food world for his support of entrepreneurs, began advising the Owens, who rent time at his facilities when they have bigger product runs. Without Culinary Studio and Aronson, Scotty O’Hotty sauces wouldn’t have been possible, as it saved them “a ton of money” on overhead and insurance, Scott said. The Owens also are continually learning more about the impor-

hit as many events as possible, an average of three or four a month last year. Sometimes it’s a farmers market, other times it’s a beer fest in Royal Oak, a trade show in New York, the Stars & Stripes Festival in Sterling Heights or the Buy Michigan Now Fest in Northville. Vendor booths run anywhere from $300 to $1,000 at these shows. Sometimes these events span several days. Long or short, the events COURTESY OF OWENS FAMILY FOODS mean lugging a When Scott and Suzi Owens went to a bank to obtain a tent, money box, loan to start their hot sauce business, “they basically product — the enlaughed at us,” Scott said. “The bank said, ‘We can’t tire booth — even give you a $10,000 loan.’ ” around and finding a baby sitter for the tance of margins in the food busi- Owens’ two children. ness. It’s not enough to only build The events have been a primary in a profit margin to the retail cost source of education, though, as of the product, but also to work in food entrepreneurs share tips and enough cushion to absorb the costs knowledge. Suzi called it “word-ofof brokers and distributors. mouth learning.” Labor costs also have eaten up “We snuggled up to some of the more money than expected. That is other made-in-Michigan compathe second biggest expense, after the nies,” she said. cost of produce — peppers, tomatoes Owens Family Foods plans to and onions. Then come the costs of hire more people this year, includbottles, spices and labels. ing a full-time accountant. For now, The Owens of course don’t have the company uses a family member a big budget for advertising, so their marketing plan has been to See Owens, Page 14

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Owens: ‘We were so wet behind the ears’ ■ From Page 13

who happens to be a CPA but is in Florida. The Owens, who haven’t taken a paycheck out of the business, also want to hire someone to manage the kitchen full time and some marketing staff. Scott still works as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry. They expect a distribution deal this year to lead to big growth and plan to invest in marketing, the company’s website and apparel. The company also is part of Forgotten Harvest’s program to co-brand food products in exchange for licensing fees that will raise money for the charity. In retrospect, the Owens said they’re glad the bank declined to give them a loan early on. The company has zero debt now and can take money from sales and immediately put it back into the business. “We were so wet behind the ears, we would have gotten too far in before our revenue was where it needed to be,” Scott said. The Owens have not tried to ask banks for any expansion loans just yet, but Scott expects to seek a loan when it comes time to purchase a building and consolidate operations. He’s waiting until they’re turning over at least 1,500 cases of hot sauce a month, a goal he hopes to hit this year. They’re doing between 250 and 350 cases a month now. The economy feels strong to the Owens, who just bought a brandnew truck and see people forking over $5.99 for a bottle of locally made hot sauce. But they haven’t yet checked with any banks to get a sense of how they’d fare if they tried to get a loan. “I’m in no hurry to go into a bunch of debt. But to go to the next step where want to be, we’re going to have to,” Scott said.

SkySpecs Inc. Opened: 2012 Location: Ann Arbor

enture-backed tech startups do things a little differently than businesses that sell artsy goods and food products — they get their money first and then hope to get customers. Ann Arbor-based SkySpecs Inc. has raised $1.35 million in funding from business plan competitions, grants and venture backing, while still in what’s known in the tech startup world as a “pre-revenue” state of existence. The company, started by four University of Michigan engineering students, makes control systems that automatically prevent commercial drones from crashing into things. The person holding the controller doesn’t have to worry about hitting a bridge or a person. But these startups hardly have it easy. They slog through early years developing often-complicated technology and spending just as much time chasing money. It’s a drawnout, gambling lead-up to one day having sales that reward the effort. SkySpecs launched on paper in 2012, but that was just one small

first step. The company’s first few years were spent honing its product and chasing money, whether at business plan competitions or from investors. SkySpecs raised $595,000 in seed funding, plus grants and prizes from student business plan competitions, including $10,000 from the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition in 2012. It won $50,000 at the Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge in February 2013. In November, SkySpecs won the $500,000 first prize in the main portion of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. So what has it done with all that money it raised? About 80 percent has gone toward people and research and development. It has taken time to home in on what the product and market will be. Initially, SkySpecs planned to make a complete drone, including a carbon fiber frame and flight controller. It’s since decided to limit its scope to sensors and software. The money raised gave the company time to make this adjustment. The first plan would have

been akin to making 10 products, requiring even more capital. This decision was made just last June — two years after the company launched — when the company saw that the drone industry had changed. Many of the commercialgrade parts that go into drones were readily available, whereas a few short years earlier they hadn’t been. But the biggest expense is the cost to develop the product. “Staff for us is the clear leader in terms of spending money. About threefourths to 80 percent of our monthly burn goes to developers and the rest of the team,” said Brady CFO Tom Brady. SkySpecs also has extracted marketing juice from Techstars, a leading startup accelerator that recently opened a Detroit program See Next Page

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focused on mobility. SkySpecs, however, was accepted into the New York program and has been operating from there since October. The company is used to the nomadic life, first operating out of the UM incubator TechArb for six months, then out of a rented warehouse that was little more than a garage near Zingerman’s Deli for about a year, before taking up temporary residence at Techstars. At another point, they were shown a storefront for use as a possible home. “We laughed. It was next to a massage parlor,” said Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs. Drones are louder than people think, and there’d be incessant testing going on. “The neighbors are not going to like Ellis that.” With so much pressure to raise funding and build a product, some of the basics have gotten overlooked and become headaches. The entrepreneurs didn’t think at all about payroll taxes, for example, until tax time reminded them and they had a big bill. “Payroll taxes are no fun. As a newbie business owner, I feel sheepish to say I didn’t know the company’s part of the taxes,” Brady said. Getting lawyers and accountants has proved less straightforward. “You think a lawyer’s a lawyer and an accountant’s an accountant. That’s 100 percent not the case. You have to find one that specializes in startups and what you do,” Brady said. They went through two lawyers before finding one they liked. “We had not raised money yet, thankfully,” Brady said. “You don’t want to be switching lawyers in the middle of a fundraising.” As with choosing a bank, choosing a lawyer and an accountant required a long look at the company’s plans. They wanted professional services that were close to home and carried a personal connection, while also being able to scale for growth. “It’s not always the best idea to go with the option that is cheapest or most available,” Brady said. SkySpecs has eight full-time employees and has relied on its own network to find talent. The first hires that the owners didn’t already know came to them through recommendations from their circles. “We don’t look at résumés. It’s personal recommendations followed by time,” Ellis said. Ellis expects to double the staff size by the end of the year. Prototype sales are planned for April, and regular sales in the third quarter. Another round of funding will be launched this year as well, and the company should be settled into a permanent base in Ann Arbor soon. It also is considering a secondary space in downtown Detroit. Ellis feels the economy moving in the right direction on the sales and fundraising fronts. More investors jumped into the game last year, making it easier to raise money. “Even if it’s not directed at us, we’ve seen a lot more friends get access to capital in 2014 compared to 2012,” he said.

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Second Stage

Pressing for payment ‘worth the squeeze’ for Active Solutions BY GARY ANGLEBRANDT SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

At the start of 2014, 30 percent of Active Solutions Group’s receivables were outstanding. “Another 30 to 60 days and we would have went under,” said President Frank Kadaf, calling it the “Battle of Accounts Receivable.” Active Solutions, like many growing companies, had expanded significantly, A look at but its collecproblem-solving tions system by growing remained the companies same. “I wasn’t accustomed to having to handle that much in receivables,” Kadaf said. “We’d been nonchalant about collecting. As long as we had a steady stream, we were good.” But without money for equipment, Active Solutions couldn’t supply new systems to customers, many of whom were in the middle of tight schedules for moving their offices or setting up new locations. Active needed its clients to pay. Making that happen, however, is a delicate balance. A small business can’t go scorched-earth on its clients, but it also can’t go bankrupt waiting for payments.

STAGE 2 STRATEGIES

ACTIVE SOLUTIONS GROUP INC. Location: Dearborn Description: Supplier of voice-overInternet phone systems as a service President: Frank Kadaf Employees: 10 Revenue: $1.15 million in 2014 Problem: Figuring out how to deal with slow-paying clients Solution: Kadaf went to his accounting head and said it was time to lay down the law. “We had to reach out to customers who were 30 daysplus and get them to pay without upsetting them,” Kadaf said. “Thirty days means 30 days. Kadaf We added a late fee, which we never used to do. We sent a letter to everybody, saying you have X number of days to pay.” The fee was the greater of 5 percent or $25, compounding every 30 days. For companies owing $20,000, that $25 turned into a more motivating $1,000 base fee. Advance warning was given first, which prevented backlash.

Accounting turned into more of a proper department, as any large company would have. It pressed customers, politely but firmly. It became a firewall between the head of the company and overdue clients who wanted to bend Kadaf’s ear. “They always want to talk to me, not accounting, so they can give me a story,” Kadaf said. Sob stories were treated in-kind. Accounting was told to explain that Active was under duress, too, with employees to take care of and a chief not taking a paycheck. “The people on other end also are business owners; they understand the pain. They pay more attention and (are) more inclined to pay than just blow you off. It never worked to go at them with a hard attitude,” Kadaf said. The company got better results from pressing right away and now has a policy to never let receivables go beyond 10 percent of revenue. Active “took in a ton of money” in the first 45 days of this new direction, with a big chunk coming in the first two weeks. Active ate some credit card fees, but as Kadaf said, “the juice is worth the squeeze.” If Active hadn’t done this, it might have missed out on the rest of 2014, which turned out to be a boom year as companies reinvested in infrastructure.

“We’re seeing companies spend money like crazy,” Kadaf said in December. Expert opinion: A company should never worry about appearing weak for demanding its money, said Richard Beadle, founder and coowner of Vistage Michigan, a peer-topeer business coaching organization in St. Clair Shores. At 30 percent of revenue outstanding, Active had practically turned itself into a bank. Owners don’t have to be aggressive, but they should be assertive. “It’s not about, ‘I’m a weak soul, I need to ask for money.’ This is about running a business,” he said.

Reminding late payers that they’re dealing with businesses with the same pressures, as Active did, is a smart tactic. Beadle also recommended setBeadle ting up terms where a third is paid up front, a third at some midpoint of the project and the rest upon completion. That way, the company always has “feeder money to get work done and not have to go to a bank itself.”

CRAIN’S SEEKS NOMINATIONS FOR 20 IN THEIR 20S Do you know a 20-something who is someone to watch? Crain’s 20 in their 20s recognition program seeks young professionals who are making their marks in the region. Candidates are not limited to any particular field or activity but include upand-comers who are making waves as young professionals within a company, have shown success or originality as entrepreneurs, or have made local impacts in some other demonstrable way. Besides the corporate world, candidates are considered from creative industries, nonprofits and social entrepreneurship arenas. Winners will be profiled in the June 1 edition and honored at a future awards event. Nominees must be 29 or younger before June 1. Nominations are due Feb. 13. To fill out the form, visit www.crainsdetroit.com/nominate. Questions? Contact Amy Haimerl at ahaimerl@crain.com or (313) 446-0416.

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PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK Contact Mary Kramer at mkramer @crain.com.

CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS Mary Kramer

Narrative about the D takes a U-turn When Grand Rapids-based Michigan Office Systems decided to open its eighth Michigan office, it considered Troy. But at the eleventh hour, MOS President Ralph Slider opted for downtown Detroit. Detroit? The decision reflects the changing “vibe” in the city. The office opens this month in 1001 Woodward Ave., facing Campus Martius Park. “We’ll be the only (office product) Slider manufacturer with an office in Detroit,” Slider said, referencing Xerox’s ownership of MOS. For Slider, the new office is a chance to sell copiers, office technology and services to the growing company base downtown. For the city, it’s another example of the changing Detroit narrative — from downtrodden decay to Comeback Kid. Warren Rose experienced that change in the narrative when he attended the National Multifamily Housing Council annual meeting last month in Palm Springs, Calif. Rose is CEO of family-owned Edward Rose & Sons, which has developed, owns and manages 60,000 apartment units in 15 states from its headquarters in Bloomfield Hills. Rose is used to seeing his home state in an underdog role. So he was surprised that the conference included a two-hour general session called “Reimagining Detroit” — featuring Daryl Carter, a Detroit native who chairs the housing trade group; Jonathan Holtzman, who has revived two flagging apartment buildings in downtown Detroit; and Gina Metrakas, a former federal housing official who now leads urban revitalization for Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures LLC. “It was a complete 180, from decay to ‘you’ve got to be a fool not to be in Detroit,’ ” marveled Rose. Detroit Regional Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah sees the same kind of “flip” in the Detroit narrative locally. The chamber’s fourth annual Detroit Policy Conference on Feb. 26 offers a crash course on opportunities in the city. Keynote speakers include Mayor Mike Duggan and Peter Kageyama, author of For the Love of Cities, and panels on education, entrepreneurship, neighborhood revitalization and whether the “two” Detroits — divided by race, income or tenure in the city — can be united. A big difference over four years, Baruah said, is that traditional business and civic groups are embracing the idea of making a difference in neighborhoods, not just downtown and Midtown. For information on the conference, visit detroitchamber.com/dpc.

Autocam founder John Kennedy has navigated risks and rewards, highs and lows — and a bit of controversy

The ‘quintessential entrepreneur’ BY TED ROELOFS SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS

lunging down a twisting French mountain road on a hot afternoon in 2006, John Kennedy was determined to catch the cyclist just ahead of him. The last thing the West Michigan business owner recalls is the sight of a large commercial van headed his way as he rounded a hairpin turn. “I think I made the mistake of braking, straight-lined and went right into it,” Kennedy recalled while sitting in the Kentwood office of Autocam Medical. With his recent $300 million sale of Autocam Corp. to Tennessee-based NN Inc., the manufacturer of precision medical instruments and devices occupies most of his energy as CEO. Kennedy would later learn he had broken his humerus, clavicle, scapula and all of his ribs and suffered a collapsed lung. Six months later, he was back on the bike, a moment he never doubted would arrive. “I think I have this optimism that nothing is ever going to put me down for long,” Kennedy said. His response to that event more than eight years in the past says as much about this devout Catholic as his business track record, his commitment to workforce training or even his well-publicized — and eventually successful — legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that employers provide birth control coverage to employees.

A career of twists, turns Kennedy, 56, recalled just how much of a calculated risk it was to buy Autocam Corp., a subsidiary of Autodie Corp., in 1988. He put about $1.3 million of his own money, earned in real estate investments, against a debt of about $14 million. At the time, the company, which made parts for fuel injection systems, had just one customer. “I do remember harrowing times, days of angst about the hill you had to climb,” he said. “I remember thinking: ‘I’m 29 years old. If I lose all this, I could start over and do it all again.’ ” Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place Inc., a West Michigan economic development organization, has known Kennedy since the early days at Autocam. Klohs calls him “the quintessential entrepreneur and innovator.” Kennedy, she said, is blessed with acute financial instincts along with a knack for anticipating industry trends before others do. She also credits him with taking a lead role in West Michigan in promoting workforce talent development. See Kennedy, Page 18

JON BROUWER

John Kennedy made news for his court fight against the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for birth control coverage. But before that, he built a business, sold it, bought it back and survived a bicycle crash. He’s now back in the saddle and hopes to build Autocam Medical into a $200 million business.

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Kennedy: ‘A risk taker’ ■ From Page 17

In 2012, Autocam established the Advanced Manufacturing Program in collaboration with Grand Rapids Community College and other manufacturers to maintain a better pipeline of manufacturing talent. Applicants accepted into the program start at $13 an hour while they attend classes for a two-year program paid in full by the company, now called the Autocam Precision Components Group of NN. Upon completing school and 8,000 hours on the job, machinists earn at least $17.50 an hour at a plant where the average annual income for an hourly worker exceeds $50,000. Autocam also picks up the tab if the worker wants to earn a four-year degree in fields such as engineering. The Advanced Manufacturing Program class that enrolled in the fall of 2014 has 19 students, including six from Autocam. In Southeast Michigan, in the Michigan Advanced Technician Training program, employers pay tuition for three years for employees, who rotate between work and earning an advanced associate degree. Gov. Rick Snyder cites the program, commonly know as MAT2, as another solution to the skilled-worker gap. Kent County resident Madalyn Bueche, 21, hired in at Autocam in 2012 and simultaneously enrolled in the GRCC Advanced Manufacturing Program. She graduated in 2014 and is now enrolled at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, intent on earning a four-year degree in engineering in three years while working as a machinist full time at Autocam Precision Components. The company pays for her education. “It’s pretty awesome,” Bueche said. “I’m going to go as far as I can go.” Klohs said Kennedy was creating such opportunities for workers long before other employers. “It’s a passion of his,” she said. Kennedy thinks it’s the right thing to do, both for the workers the program trains and for the company. Graduates are required

to stay at a company two years after they complete the program to have their full education paid. Autocam Medical is joining the program this fall. “We don’t retain them all,” Kennedy said. “But the ones we do work their butts off for us.” But beyond all that, Klohs points to one central quality that she sees as key to the Kennedy code: “He is an optimist with tenacity and a lot of guts. He is a risk taker.”

Detroit roots Growing up in suburban Detroit, that’s hardly how Kennedy viewed himself. He describes himself as an “above average” student — first at Austin Catholic Preparatory High School in Detroit before it closed, then at Grosse Pointe North High School, where he earned a scholarship to the University of Detroit. Kennedy and his wife, Nancy, who have four children, met at UD, a Catholic institution, where both earned accounting degrees. Kennedy served in student government and ran cross-country and track. He worked part-time jobs to pay his way through school and stayed at home to save on room and board. He graduated in three years in 1979 at the age of 20, was hired as an accountant for Deloitte LLP in Detroit and later transferred to the firm’s Grand Rapids office. He later joined Autodie, a tool and die manufacturer, where he was CFO. Having lived on both sides of the state, Kennedy has been frank about the differences he perceives between metro Detroit and West Michigan. He considered buying plants in Southeast Michigan but told Crain’s in 2011 that he decided against it “because the productivity wasn’t there. I think Detroit has more of an entitlement culture in the workforce generally, union or nonunion.” See Next Page

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By the 1990s, as he built Autocam, Kennedy had made the transition from distance runner to cyclist. He was riding more than a hundred miles a week and joined a West Michigan cycling club. Which is how, in July 2006, he found himself along the side of the road on the fringe of the Alps in southeastern France. “He was lying in the middle of the road and seizing,” recalled Randy Chilcote, describing the convulsions that stem from a concussion. Chilcote, a Grand Rapids emergency room physician and part of the bike group, estimated it took 20 minutes for doctors to arrive by helicopter. He nervously watched as they tended to Kennedy for what he estimated was an additional 30 minutes, spending considerable time trying to reset his humerus. Kennedy spent a week in intensive care in France and two weeks in a Swiss hospital before coming home. Knowing her husband, Nancy Kennedy was hardly surprised when he declared his intent to get back on the bike as soon as he recovered. She works for NN as a quality auditor. “I certainly encouraged him to be careful,” she said, “but there was no question he would get back into road biking.”

Surviving other crashes That attitude defines Kennedy’s tenure at Autocam, where he led the company through prosperity and recession and bought it back when it verged on bankruptcy. By 1991, Autodie was making enough money to go public. The stock offering helped Kennedy pay down the company’s debt. Eight years later, Kennedy sold Autocam to a private equity firm but retained about 30 percent of the company. In 2004, the owners of the firm sold Autocam to the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs with Penske Corp. as a partner. By 2009, with the auto industry having collapsed, Autocam was saddled with $120 million in debt and a bleak financial future. Kennedy invested all his personal assets along with those of other investors in a deal that purchased the debt at 40 cents on the dollar and converted it into equity in the firm. Kennedy did so on the condition he would have control of the company once again. Had Autocam foundered, Kennedy said, he could have lost everything. But with the gradual return of the auto industry and its debt significantly reduced, Autocam regained its footing. Then last year, it was sold to publicly held NN Inc. for just over $300 million in a deal that encompassed $244.5 million in cash, $25 million in stock and the assumption of $30.5 million in debt. Kennedy, subsequently appointed to NN’s board of directors, remains a significant shareholder. But he is not just about commerce and equity. He’s unafraid of controversy, particularly when his religious faith stirs him to action. In 2012, Kennedy filed suit against the federal government, challenging its mandate under Obamacare that employers such as Autocam are required to furnish free birth control to employees. He lost the first round

in federal court and said he would drop the suit on behalf of Autocam Corp. with its purchase by NN. Then last month, Kennedy won the suit on behalf of Autocam Medical. Judge Robert Jonker of U.S. District Court reversed himself after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that craft firm Hobby Lobby did not have to furnish such coverage to employees. Kennedy makes no apologies for fighting for convictions that he said stem from his faith. “I’m not going to knowingly pay for something that I am taught to believe is not the way we are supposed to do that,” he said. That’s not his only recent political jousting match. In 2012, in the heat of the presi-

dential campaign, Kennedy bristled at the assertion by President Barack Obama that success belonged not to the individual but to collective effort: “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” In a column for MLive, referring to the launch of Autocam Corp., Kennedy shot back: “No one else gave a second mortgage to the bank to finance the business or guarantee personally all of its debts. No one else worked the hundred-hour weeks my wife and I worked at the start.” But Kennedy said his greater concern is the implicit message he sees in Obama’s comment, one he thinks discourages the kind of

risk-taking that builds a nation. “In my mind, he’s sending the worst possible message to a young person,” Kennedy said.

Building again The NN deal allowed Kennedy to concentrate on building Autocam subsidiary Autocam Medical, where he is CEO and primary shareholder. The company was not part of the NN purchase. In 2011, Autocam Medical had 23 employees and sales of $4.5 million. It now employs 100 in Kentwood and just over 200 in plants in Massachusetts, California and Tennessee. It posted sales of $80 million in 2014, and Kennedy projects that will

reach $100 million this year. “I think we are in position to be a $200 million business five years from now,” said Kennedy, whose oldest son, John, is a product manager at Autocam Medical. Kennedy is still cycling, returning to France in the summer of 2013. He recalled that he and his brother-in-law departed together at the summit of one mountain pass, headed for the valley floor several thousand vertical feet and eight or 10 miles below. He took his time. “I was stopping, taking in the scenery, enjoying the ride down,” Kennedy said. “He got down about 15 minutes before I did, and that’s all OK.”

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February 9, 2015

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS

Hello, expats: West Michigan group aims to bring you back BY ROD KACKLEY SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS

A 2010 survey by the Kalamazoobased W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research determined that a third of the open jobs in West Michigan through 2025 would have to be filled by employees who currently don’t live there. Many potentially could be people who grew up in the region. To try to woo them back home, Hello West Michigan is going where these expats live now. The organization — dedicated to

attracting talent to a region bounded by Big Rapids to the north, Kalamazoo to the south, Battle Creek to the east and Holland-Grand Haven to the west — started an outbound marketing campaign in 2014 through Facebook and Google ads seen where the expats are: cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio. Buffalo, N.Y., and Pittsburgh will be targeted next. The reason for the looming shortage of talent local colleges and universities are not graduating enough people to meet demand. The short-

age is not limited to college graduates. It runs all the way from doctorates to skilled manufacturing personnel. One of the founding members of Hello West Michigan Harten is Ann Harten, vice president of global human resources at Holland-based office furniture company Haworth Inc. “I quickly discovered the rich-

ness of the region after moving here from Chicago in 2005,” Harten said. “I also quickly realized we were not doing a great job of packaging the region as an entity sufficient to compete” with similar-size markets. Harten does not expect West Michigan to be able to compete with a market the size of Chicago, but “we sure should be able to compete with Milwaukee or Indianapolis.” The problem, she said, is that recruiters have been focused on helping individual companies or communities rather than selling a

region of 1.6 million people. “I suggested that we would be much stronger if we put together an entity called ‘West Michigan’ and gave candidates a way to look at the region as a whole, instead of Holland versus Grand Rapids versus Muskegon,” Harten said. The conversation involving Harten and fellow members of a business roundtable began in 2007. Hello West Michigan was the result. It began with the launch of hellowestmichigan.com in 2010. That website serves as a hub of information — neighborhoods, schools, churches, things to do after 5 p.m. and other topics that would be of interest to the young professionals. Hello West Michigan has since advanced into social media advertising, selecting a target market for Google and Facebook ads that encompasses only people with a Michigan connection. “People put that information in their Facebook profiles so we can target the campaign specifically to people who have a hometown connection to Michigan or went to a Michigan college or university,” said Rachel Bartels, Hello West Michigan’s program manager. It is also a good bet that those people will be coming back for the holidays if they have family in the region. Hello West Michigan has been offering events the night before Thanksgiving to sell expats on the idea of returning. Bartels declined to comment specifically on the budget for the campaign and admitted it is hard to measure how well it is working. But she said the Facebook page just passed its 3,000th “like.” “There isn’t just one thing that affects a person’s decision to move to a new community. It is the sum of a lot of things,” Bartels said. “If we can tell them about something that piques their interest or tell them about a job opportunity, we consider that a success as well.” Haworth’s Harten said recruiters in the region continue to find it difficult to attract the talent their companies require. When the sought-after talent is not a single person, the situation becomes more complicated. If the husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend who is part of the picture wants to find a job, it is not hard to believe they could find one in a market the size of Chicago or Los Angeles, but West Michigan? Harten said even a single person being recruited might want to know that if the job doesn’t work out, he or she would be able to find a similar position without moving. Again, it is easier to believe that would be possible in a major market rather than West Michigan. “When you are looking at a loosely woven entity like West Michigan, we have to help them answer those questions,” she said. While Hello West Michigan’s work is not finished, Harten said its impact is being felt by recruiters like herself. “Here at Haworth, we have reduced significantly the number of days it takes to fill a position,” she said. “So we would say it is still difficult, but it is getting easier. It certainly is getting faster.”

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February 9, 2015

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France

WHERE MICHIGAN DOES BUSINESS Autoliv Inc. Based: Auburn Hills Operations: Office in Paris, tech center in Gournay-en-Bray and seven plants throughout France Employees: 3,100 Products: Airbags, seatbelts, steering wheels, micro gas generators, passive safety electronics Clients: Audi, Bentley, BMW, Citroën, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Rolls Royce, Scania, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo Top executive: Jonas Nilsson, president of Autoliv Europe

ith a $2.739 trillion GDP for 2013, France gets one of its biggest ongoing economic boosts from foreign tourists. Nearly 82 million tourists visit each year, according to the CIA World Factbook. Manufacturing products are another big part of the French economy. Major exports include machinery, plastics, chemicals, transportation equipment, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel. France’s biggest export partners are Germany (16.7 percent), Belgium (7.5 percent), Italy (7.5 percent) and Spain (6.9 percent). France’s major imports include crude oil, vehicles, plastics, chemicals, machinery and equipment.

Each World Watch features a different country. If you know of a Michigan company that exports, manufactures abroad or has facilities abroad, email Jennette Smith, managing editor, at jhsmith@crain.com.

COMING UP March: Egypt April: Russia

Metaldyne employs 190 in two cities.

Metaldyne LLC Boulogne

Esson Nanterre

Creutzwald

Paris

Lillebonne

Belfor Holdings employs 115 in France.

Rennes

FRANCE

Belfor Holdings Inc. Based: Birmingham Operations: 20 branches covering six regions, including Paris, East, South-East, South-West, North, Rhône-Alpes and Brittany Employees: 115 Services: Building restoration for fire and water damage, property restoration, machinery restoration, document drying and restoration, electronics and machinery restoration, asbestos remediation, leak detection and mold remediation Top executive: Léonore Boulte, managing director

Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. Based: Novi Operations: Manufacturing facilities in Creutzwald, Lillebonne and manufacturing and technical facilities in Vitré and Rennes Employees: 1,615 Products: Fluid transfer systems, fuel and brake delivery systems, sealing and trim systems and anti-vibration systems Clients: PSA (Citroën, Peugeot), Tata, Ford, Geely, Volkswagen, Renault/Nissan, Mecaplast, Plastic Omnium, Toyota, Daimler, Magna, Faurecia, Gestamp Automoción, Webasto, I.A.C., Delphi, Gecam, Benteler, Trèves, Trakya Cam Sanayii A.S., Plastal, Leoni Top executive: Sylvain Broux, vice president for France

Domino’s Pizza Inc. Based: Ann Arbor Operations: 239 pizza delivery and carryout stores Employees: 3,200 Products: Pizza and side items Top executive: Andrew Rennie, president of Domino’s Pizza Enterprises-Europe

Dow Corning Corp. Based: Midland Operations: A wholly owned subsidiary of Multibase, which makes thermoplastics compounds, with one research and develop-

Based: Plymouth Operations: Manufacturing, engineering, and commercial operations in Lyon area and manufacturing facility in DécinesCharpieu Employees: 190 Products: Isolation pulleys, engine crankshaft dampers Top executive: Ivan Martinez, managing director for Crankshaft Dampers Europe Customers: BMW, Renault, PSA (Citroën, Peugeot), Ford, Jaguar, GM Opel More information: Metaldyne’s operations in France designs, tests and manufactures advanced isolation pulleys and crankshaft dampers.

MSX International Inc. Lyon

ment facility in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Employees: 100 Products: Enriching, reinforcing and modifying technical polymers, including portable electronics and packaging applications. Top executive: Jean-Alain Pypops, site manager

TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.

Federal-Mogul Corp. Based: Southfield Operations: Manufacturing facilities in Chazelles-sur-Lyon, Garennes-sur-Eure, Noyon Cedex, Saint Priest Cedex, Crépy-enValois and Saint-Jean de la Ruelle; one office in Paris; a distribution center in Beauvais Employees: 1,600 Products: Piston rings and liners, engine bearings, sealing and systems protection products, ignition products, friction products, Top executive: Emmanuel Couturier, managing director

Inteva Products LLC Based: Troy Operations: Four manufacturing plants and tech centers located in Esson, Saint-Dié and two in Sully-sur-Loire Employees: 958 Products: Motors, latches, window regulators and door modules Clients: PSA, Nissan, Renault, BMW, Toyota,

Based: Detroit Operations: Headquarters in Nanterre Employees: 550 Products: Retail Network Solutions, providing parts and accessories sales programs, dealer standards and process improvements, training, technical support services and warranty solutions to vehicle manufacturers Top executives: Olivier Campanello, managing director; and Eric Menoret, RNS regional vice president Clients: BMW, CNH Industrial, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Nissan, Peugeot Citroën, Volkswagen, Volvo and Yamaha

Inteva Products employs 958 throughout France.

Volkswagen, Ford, Hyundai Top executive: Pierre Blanchard, executive director of motors and electronics

Kelly Services Based: Troy Operations: Headquarters in Clichy with 65 branches across the country including Versailles, Clichy Cedex, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Villepinte, Lyon, Marseille, Annecy, Grenoble and Nice Employees: 280 Services: Temporary work and permanent placement in fields such as science, finance, insurance, IT, health care, office, manufacturing and logistics. Top executives: Franck Teboul, country general manager; Natalia Shuman, senior vice president and general manager and COO for North Asia

Based: Livonia Operations: Manufacturing facilities in Bonneval, Ingwiller and Bouzonville; sales and distribution center in La Défense Cedex; plant in Brest; sales office in Paris Employees: 1,000 Products: Braking systems, suspension components, radar systems, engineered fasteners and components, shock absorbers and aftermarket components and systems Top executive: Thierry Metais, global account director

Visteon Corp. Based: Van Buren Township Operations: Engineering and technical center in Cergy; manufacturing plant in La Ferté-Bernard; software development facility in Sophia Antipolis Employees: 755 Products/services: Audio, body and security, infotainment and controls, driver information, displays, clusters, dials, body controller module, head-up displays, telematics and connectivity Top executive: Martin Thall, executive vice president and president of electronics — Compiled by Natalie Broda

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

CRAIN'S LIST: LARGEST GREATER MICHIGAN EMPLOYERS Ranked by outstate full-time employees Company Address Rank Phone; website

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February 9, 2015

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CALENDAR WEDNESDAY

preneur Week 2015.”

7th Annual Homegrown Local Food Summit. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 15. Slow

FEB. 11 Under the Dome: An Evening with Michigan’s Female Leaders. 3-7:30 p.m. Inforum and Dome magazine. Tour the state Capitol and meet women from Michigan’s 98th Legislature plus department heads and dignitaries. Michigan State Capitol and Radisson Hotel, Lansing. $35 Inforum members, $50 nonmembers. Contact: Linda Morrell, (313) 567-0287; email: lmorrell@inforummichigan.org; website: inforummichigan.org.

THURSDAY FEB. 12 Leaders & Innovators Series: Attracting & Retaining Talent. 7:30-9 a.m. Flagstar Bank

and

WWJ

Newsradio

Food Huron Valley. This year’s theme, “Food Love,” promotes the local food movement. Keynote speaker is Judy Wicks, author and founder of Philadelphia’s White Dog Café. Poet and musician William Copeland from the Eastern Michigan Environmental Action Council also hosts a local food story slam. University of Michigan Central Campus, Ann Arbor. $50 ticket includes breakfast, brunch and snacks. Contact: Sarah Reinhardt, sarahlreinhardt@gmail.com; website: localfoodsummit.org. Breakfast of Champions. 7:30-9 a.m. Feb. 18. Leadership Oakland. Jennifer Korman, community relations, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, moderates a panel of young professionals

who will talk about what it means to be a leader. MSU Management Education Center, Troy. $25 members, $36 nonmembers. Contact: (248) 952-6880; email: info@leadershipoakland.com; website: leadershipoakland.com.

Leading Nonprofit Organizations: Training for Executive Directors and Boards. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 25. Michigan Nonprofit Association. Regina Funkhouser, executive director of the Nonprofit Network, facilitates a program designed to help nonprofit board members and executive directors better understand legal and fiduciary responsibilities and more effectively raise funds. Nonprofit Center at the Armory, Lansing. $60 MNA members, $80 nonmembers, $30 for additional members from the same organization. Contact: (517) 796-4750; website: nonprofnetwork.org.

2014 NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR Who made news in 2014? Find out at the Crain’s Detroit Business Newsmaker of the Year luncheon. It takes place Feb. 25 from 11:30 a.m.1:30 p.m. Hear the dramatic details from key players involved in Detroit’s historic bankruptcy as Crain’s honors the city’s former emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, and Judge Steven Rhodes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Gerald Rosen, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, who also acted as chief bankruptcy mediator, will moderate. Also, 2014’s Best-Managed Nonprofit winner will be honored. The event will be at MotorCity Casino Hotel, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit. Individual tickets are $70, a reserved table of 10 is $750, and student tickets are $60. Preregistration closes Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. If available, walk-in registration will be $90 per person. For more information or to register, contact Kacey Anderson at (313) 4460300 or cdbevents@crain.com, or visit crainsdetroit.com/section/CrainsEventsUpcoming. Join the conversation with #crainsnewsmaker.

950.

WWJ/Fox 2 Business Editor Murray Feldman emcees this interactive panel discussion featuring Stephanie Comai, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and Jocelyn Lincoln, vice president of Americas recruiting, Kelly Services. Lawrence Technological University – UTLC Gallery, Southfield. Free. Contact: Erin Mclin, (248) 430-5855; email: erin@apacc.net; website: apacc.net.

Automation Alley’s Technology Industry Outlook. 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Luncheon features a presentation meant to help the business community promote Southeast Michigan as a center of cuttingedge companies and skilled workers. Anderson Economic Group will unveil a regional economic forecast. Colony Club, Detroit. $40 members, $50 nonmembers. Contact: (800) 427-5100; email: info@automationaalley.com; website: automationalley.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS Small Business Legal Academy. 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 14. Miller, Canfield,

Give your employees the duck. Anything else is just chicken.

Paddock & Stone. To cap off 2015 Detroit Entrepreneur Week (Feb. 10-13 at Hope Center for Advanced Technologies, Detroit), area entrepreneurs and startups can attend panel discussions on intellectual property, marketing, funding, social entrepreneurship, nonprofits and more, plus get advice at “Ask a Lawyer” sessions. Representatives from Miller Canfield, Bodman PLC, Dykema Gossett PLLC, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, General Motors Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC, Sadek Bonahoom PLC, Wayne Alumni Law Group, Michigan Community Resources and more will be in attendance. Wayne State University Law School, Detroit. Free; advance registration is recommended. Website: dew15.eventbrite.com or visit Facebook and search for “Detroit Entre-

Almost 60 percent of employees wish their employers offered voluntary insurance1. The question is, who will you choose? You could opt for a voluntary option from your medical carrier, or you could offer coverage from the number one voluntary provider2: Aﬂac. There’s no direct cost to you for offering it, and getting started is as simple as adding a payroll deduction. That’s why business owners like you have chosen Aﬂac for nearly 60 years. It’s also

JOIN CHINESE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION FOR GALA Join the Detroit Chinese Business Association — and a roster of government and industry leaders headed by Gov. Rick Snyder — in the 19th annual Chinese New Year Gala, 5-11 p.m. Feb. 27 at MotorCity Casino Hotel. The gala, ushering in the Chinese Year of the Sheep, will include a reception, drinks, dinner, networking and entertainment. Among the speakers is Snyder, who will keynote. The DCBA is a nonprofit that has been operating since 1995, primarily to foster beneficial relationships between Chinese and American businesses. Tickets are $250 each; seating is limited. Register online at www.dcba.com or call (248) 9180391. For more information, email Milan Stevanovich at milan@dcba.com or Cathy Cui at cathy@dcba.com.

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

BUSINESS DIARY ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS Interior Partnership Group, Clawson, a design, construction, brand, architectural products and building maintenance services company, has merged with NBS Commercial Interiors, Troy, and changed its name to NBS Construction Solutions, a division of NBS Commercial Interiors. The firm will remain in Clawson and is expanding services to help businesses with cleaning needs. Website: yournbs.com. Penske Automotive Group Inc., Bloomfield Hills, a transportation services company, announced the acquisition of a Land Rover dealership in Darien, Conn. Website: penskeautomotive.com.

CONTRACTS ArborMetrix Inc., Ann Arbor, a provider of cloud-based health care analytics, announced that Health Care Improvement Foundation, Philadelphia, will use its cloud-based RegistryMetrix analytics platform to improve physician learning, quality-of-care and patient outcomes for the Pennsylvania Urology Regional Collaborative, a quality improvement initiative in southeastern Pennsylvania. It also announced that

the Urology Department of the Universi-

ty of North Carolina School of Medicine is using RegistryMetrix. Website: arbormetrix.com. Aria Group, Irvine, Calif., a rapid prototyping and manufacturing firm, has purchased one node-lock seat for machining and a virtual machine from Tebis America Inc., Troy, a software company specializing in CAD/CAM systems for design and manufacturing servicing the tool, die, mold, aerospace and automotive manufacturing industries. Websites: aria-group.com, tebis.com. Ash Stevens Inc., Riverview, a provider of global contract pharmaceutical drug substance development and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing services, announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved ASI’s manufacture of Amotosalen, the API in intercept blood system. Website: ashstevens.com. Autocom Associates, Bloomfield Hills, has been named by Emissions Analytics Ltd., Winchester, Hampshire, U.K., an automotive data-acquisition firm, as its North American public relations agency of record. Websites: emissions analytics.com, usautocom.com. Henkel Corp., Madison Heights, an-

nounced Henkel Adhesive Technologies has added Almond Products Inc., Spring Lake, as a licensed process center. Almond will apply Henkel’s oatings to magnesium and aluminum structural parts and powertrain components for automakers. Websites: henkelna.com, almondproducts.com. Michigan Stars Football Club, an amateur club that competes in the National Premier Soccer League’s Midwest Region’s Great Lakes Conference, has signed an agreement making Pontiac’s Wisner Stadium the Stars’ home field for the 2015 season. Sister club The Motor City Football Club, part of the Women’s Premiere Soccer League, also will play at Wisner. Both teams are owned by Dearborn Sports Enterprise, which is moving operations from Dearborn Heights to Pontiac. Website: michiganstarsfc.com.

EXPANSIONS American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a nonprofit founded by the University of Michigan, Ohio State University and Edison Welding Institute, Columbus, Ohio, opened its new innovation accel-

eration center, 1400 Rosa Parks Blvd., Detroit. Website: lift.technology. North, a casual dining restaurant, has opened at Detroit Metro Airport Marriott, 30559 Flynn Drive, Romulus. Telephone: (734) 729-7555. Website: marriott.com/dtwrm.

MOVES Blue River Financial Group Inc., a middle-market merger, acquisition and valuation advisory firm, has moved its headquarters from 8445 S. Saginaw St., Suite 200, Grand Blanc, to 1668 S. Telegraph Road, Suite 250, Bloomfield Hills. Telephone: (248) 309-3730. Website: goblueriver.com.

NEW PRODUCTS Better Business Bureau of Detroit and Eastern Michigan, Southfield, is offering the BBB Auto Resource Center to more easily deliver information to customers deciding about maintaining, buying, selling and insuring their vehicles. Website: bbb.org/detroit/get-con sumer-help/bbb-auto-resource-center.

NEW SERVICES Duo Security Inc., Ann Arbor, a

Request for Proposals for General Counsel for the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit

Responses are due on March 2, 2015 by 3 p.m. EST. For all correspondence and inquiries concerning this RFP, contact: David Cetlinski, Assistant Executive Director, dcetlinski@rscd.org.

Expanding? Locate your business at MDC in Troy and beneﬁt from the synergy of 30+ luxury showrooms all under one roof!

ARCHITECTURE Kathy Neirynck to senior associate, Grissim Metz Andriese Associates PC, Northville, from associate. Also to senior associate from associate: Scott Black and Steve Endres.

FINANCE Kathy Crockett and Jeff Solis to senior manager, UHY LLP, Sterling Heights, from manager. Also, Emily Cody, Lori DiLisio, Ryan Fletcher and Marta Mikolajczak to manager, from senior accountant/consultant, and Nick Junttila to manager, Farmington Hills, from senior accountant/consultant. Elizabeth Ottaway to executive director, Pointe Capital Management LLC, Grosse Pointe Farms, from senior investment manager, Munder Capital Management Inc., Birmingham. Eric Slutzky to vice president of real estate, Kaufman Financial Group, Farmington Hills, from director, leasing and asset management, Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions, Farmington Hills.

GOVERNMENT Michael Manion to acting community relations director, City of Southfield, from community relations manager. Linda Williams to economic and community engagement supervisor, City of MadiManion son Heights, from economic development coordinator.

HEALTH CARE Bechara Choucair, M.D., to

DIARY GUIDELINES Email news releases for Business Diary to cdbdepartments@ crain.com or mail to Departments, Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 482072997. Use any Business Diary item as a model for your release, and look for the appropriate category. Without complete information, your item will not run. Photos are welcome, but we cannot guarantee they will be used.

PEOPLE

The Trustees of the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit are seeking proposals for General Counsel Services. Individuals or rms are invited to submit a proposal. The request for proposal will be available on Feb. 9, 2015. The RFP will be posted on the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit’s web site at www.pfrsdetroit.org. The RFP will be on the PFRS home page.

provider of secure, cloud-based authentication services for companies, added electronic health record software by Epic Systems Corp., Verona, Wis., to its list of applications natively supported by two-factor authentication. Website: duosecurity/epic. FordDirect, Dearborn, a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its franchise dealers, announced the launch of DealerConnection Elite Plus, which provides a highly customizable website tailored for Ford and Lincoln dealers. Website: forddirect.com.

Choucair

senior vice president for safety net transformation and community benefit, Trinity Health, Livonia, from commissioner, Department of Public Health, City of Chicago.

NONPROFITS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Angela Hospice has named Margot Parr its president and CEO. For the past eight years, Parr has taken on leadership roles for Evangelical Homes of Michigan in Farmington Hills, most recently as senior executive director. She also was Parr operations consultant with Trinity Continuing Care Services, executive director for Jewish Home & Aging Services (now Jewish Senior Life) and director of operations for Mercy Services for Aging (now Trinity Continuing Care Services). Parr, 62, replaces Mary Beth Moning, the organization’s interim president and CEO since March 2014 and is returning to her role as executive director of Farmington Hills-based Angela Hospice. Parr completed coursework toward a master’s degree in hospice and palliative care studies from Madonna University. She has a bachelor’s in health services administration from Lockyear College in Indianapolis, a certification in fundraising management from The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and is a state of Michigan-licensed nursing home administrator. Gasiorek, Morgan, Greco, McCauley & Kotzian PC, Farmington Hills, from managing member, David A. Kotzian PLLC, Farmington Hills. Matthew Mrkonic to partner, litigation department, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Detroit, from associate, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Century City, Calif.

MARKETING John Mozena to account director,

LAW

Franco Public Relations Group, De-

Geoffrey Brown to partner, Collins Einhorn Farrell PC, Southfield, from associate. Also to partner, from associate:

Trent Collier, Katherine Crowley, Melissa Graves and Julie Nichols. David Kotzian to shareholder,

Mozena

troit, from account director, Mort Crim Communications Inc., Detroit.

Sanders

Dobbins

Brittany Sanders to program manager, Challenge Detroit, Detroit, from founder, The Amber Agency, Detroit. Also, Caroline Dobbins to events and operations manager, from outreach specialist, Digerati Inc., Detroit. Ryan Ambrozaitis to chief development officer, Vista Maria, Dearborn Heights, from executive director, Henry Ford Village Foundation, Dearborn.

REAL ESTATE Jason Hempel to vice president, Farbman Group/NAI Farbman, Southfield, from investment sales associate. John Salsberry to senior vice president/principal of advisory services, Signature Associates Inc., Southfield, from director of asset services, CBRE Inc., Indianapolis.

SERVICES Erin Castro to consumer advocate, United Shore Financial Services LLC, Troy, from deputy general counsel.

TECHNOLOGY Amy Jalili to director of marketing for iRule and On Controls, iRule LLC, Detroit, from director of marketing, Farbman Group, Southfield.

PEOPLE GUIDELINES Announcements are limited to management positions. Email them to cdbdepartments@crain.com or mail notices to Departments, Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 482072997. Releases must contain the person’s name, new title, company, city in which the person will work, former title, former company (if not promoted from within) and former city in which the person worked. Photos are welcome, but we cannot guarantee they will be used.

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Hemingwrite: But will it appeal to the old man in the C-suite? â&#x2013; From Page 3

Leeb said they are still assembling their full-production manufacturing plan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still looking at our options. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just not sure,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It could be done here, it could be at (a) contract manufacturer, and it could be overseas. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re most interested in trying to keep it close to maintain high quality.â&#x20AC;? The primary components are the screen, the keyboard switches and caps, electronic boards and chips, the battery and a custom housing. The retail price is driven by the cost of the screen and the keyboard, Leeb said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those two are the most important, considering itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a writing tool,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trying to use highquality, long-lasting components.â&#x20AC;? While he declined to disclose how much each machine will cost to manufacture, Leeb said the company will make â&#x20AC;&#x153;less of a margin than our advisers are telling us to do.â&#x20AC;? The immediate pitfall Leeb and Paul face is getting the Hemingwrite delivered on time, said Ethan Mollick, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvaniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wharton School who specializes in crowdfunding and entrepreneurship. About 85 percent of large crowdfunded projects deliver late, he said. Leeb and Paul have acknowledged that September is an aggressive timeline. On the positive side, Mollick

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The duo doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t yet have a sophisticated marketing plan, instead relying on trade shows â&#x20AC;&#x201D; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have a booth at Aprilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, and they were at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and word of mouth. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The biggest thing for us is for the community of writers weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve interacted with so much, building that community and letting them do our evangelizing for us,â&#x20AC;? Leeb said. He noted that â&#x20AC;&#x153;tens of thousandsâ&#x20AC;? of people have signed up for the Hemingwrite newsletter, and the device has generated news coverage from tech blogs and traditional media outlets. Leeb and Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s distribution plan at this point is direct sales. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for a national or international retailer as well and are interested in selling at specialty retail shops such as Shinola. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It would have to be within a specific niche,â&#x20AC;? Leeb said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather have our products sold at a store like Shinola. They are the model for how to do that.â&#x20AC;?

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The Hemingwrite was born after Leeb and Paul, working on unrelated projects, began chatting about writing without distractions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Patrick and I were both working in same co-working space. He used distraction-free writing software. As we started talking about it and learning about it more, it no longer seemed hokey,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a real need for machines to be better designed for a purpose.â&#x20AC;? Leeb said Paul is a prolific journal writer, and he himself wants to write more often. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the reasons that attracted me to this project,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It seemed like a way to remove some of the friction of writing.â&#x20AC;? And thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where Hemingway comes in. Leeb and Paul played around with various names, but settled on the Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. For writers, Hemingway can fuel fantasies of writing blockbuster stories in the woods of northern Michigan, among the six-toed cats of tropical Key West, or in the street cafes of 1920s Paris â&#x20AC;&#x201D; very saleable romantic notions for Leeb and Paul. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed,â&#x20AC;? Hemingway once said. And perhaps pay $499 to bleed without distractions. Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626, bshea@crain.com. Twitter: @bill_shea19

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said his research into crowdfunding indicates that campaigns that raise $5,000 or more turn into an ongoing business more than 90 percent of the time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The size of their success is pretty rare,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quirky, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very specialized need.â&#x20AC;?

B Y

The prototypes created by Leeb and Paul thus far are reminiscent of vintage typewriters, the early laptop TRS 80 Model 100 and the electronic typewriters of the 1990s. So who would use the child of those three parents? â&#x20AC;&#x153;We initially envisioned creative writers as our target market, people who enjoy the process of writing,â&#x20AC;? Leeb said. Specifically, he said, Hemingwrite is aimed at journalists, novelists, screenplay writers, songwriters and bloggers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve backed their interest with orders. The modern e-ink screen, keyboard and ability to cloud sync ap-

Production

The device

peal to creative writers, and advances the dormant electronic typewriter category. The device can store up to a million pages internally, and can be synchronized to cloud storage. It will work with documents from platforms such as Google Docs, DropBox, Evernote and iCloud. The machine has a four- to sixweek battery life, and recharges via a USB cable, which also can be used to upload files. The 6-inch screenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s e-ink is the same used in e-readers such as the Kindle. The Hemingwrite uses a grayscale screen, and it mimics the appearance of ink on paper. Two simple dials that flank the screen toggle between folders and turn on the wireless connection. The mechanical keyboard â&#x20AC;&#x201D; what you find on a typical modern computer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is the popular Cherry MX from ZF Electronics GmbH. The housing is aluminum and the entire machine weighs about 4 pounds. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 8 inches long, 10 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. It has a fold-down handle for carrying. Channeling Henry Ford, Leeb said the Hemingwrite comes in â&#x20AC;&#x153;any color as long as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s black.â&#x20AC;? Other languages supported include German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Turkish, Korean, Swedish, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Japanese and Greek. The Hemingwrite also will include an open software development kit to customize devices.

That translated into more than 1,000 Hemingwrite orders, which Leeb and Paul have promised to deliver by September, when they also plan to begin public retail sales. Pre-orders at the full retail price of $499 are scheduled to begin today. Kickstarter backers got a discount, with more than 500 buying at $369. In the meantime, Leeb and Paul are seeking to hire mechanical and electrical engineers and people experienced in launching startups to aid their two-man operation that works now out of a small space in TechTown. Leeb, 29, is a mechanical engineer and Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, while Paul, 25, is a software developer who graduated from Michigan State University.

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Bob Paul after Compuware: VC, running … beer B

ob Paul, 52, the former CEO of Compuware Corp., is finally starting to decompress after a stress-filled two years. First, he had to fend off a hostile takeover from Elliott Management, a New York City hedge fund that officially put the Detroit-based computer services company in its crosshairs in December 2012. That required orchestrating a drastic makeover in Compuware’s board of directors, selling off noncore business units and launching a major cost cutting that meant layoffs and buyouts. In 2013, Paul was embroiled in a public feud with company cofounder Peter Karmanos Jr., which led to Karmanos losing the lucrative consultant contract he got when he retired and, in turn, a lawsuit by him that led to arbitration now underway. More than a year ago, Paul told the board and fellow C-suite executives at Compuware that his wish list for 2014 was to distribute all the stock Compuware held in Covisint Corp. to shareholders, split Compuware into two business units or even two separate companies, and sell its iconic headquarters building at Campus Martius. All of that came to pass last year, as well as one other important piece of business: Compuware was taken private when it was sold for $2.4 billion to Thoma Bravo LLC, a Chicagobased private equity firm in a deal that closed in December. Thoma Bravo offered $10.92 a share, about an 8 percent premium to Compuware’s average stock price. It closed at $10.75 a share. Paul left Compuware at the end of December. During January and early February, Paul had a series of conversations with Crain’s reporter Tom Henderson about the sale of Compuware and what’s next for him. New goals include getting involved in the local venture capital community, becoming a craft beer entrepreneur, training for a triathlon and running the Free Press marathon this October. The latter two involve a return to the playing field, of sorts, for Paul, who was an All-State soccer player at Detroit Catholic Central High School in 1980 and an all-Midwest region soccer player at Aquinas College his sophomore year before transferring to the University of Michigan, where he played on the

frame businesses, investments being made in too many diffuse areas and a bloated cost structure. The combination of investing and acquiring businesses in a concentrated category (application performance management) where we had some competitive positioning, selling off noncore businesses and reducing the cost structure were all part of the solution. Reducing the cost structure meant some layoffs. Any of those as a result of the acquisition by Thoma Bravo? None of the layoffs LARRY PEPLIN we did last year had Former Compuware Corp. CEO Bob Paul: “Whatever I do next, I want to have fun.” Fun, in Paul’s anything to do with case, might be working with local microbreweries. the sale. When I took over, our general and school’s club team. And I’d like to join a local venture administrative expense was double Here are highlights of Paul’s in- capital firm in some capacity. I’m that of our peers. We had to bring interested in what’s going on in De- that into line. The series of layoffs terviews: troit, but Ann Arbor makes more last year was part of the plan that You’ve had a month to decompress sense for me. My wife went to Michi- we earlier announced to analysts to and spend some time golfing in Flori- gan, I went there, my two daughters cut $120 million in costs. We did sevwent there, and my son is going erance packages well above and beda. Anything in the works? I’m having a lot of fun getting there next year. yond what was required. We had a into the next phase. I’m crazy human resources consultant, TowYou’ve got an entrepreneurial interbusy right now. I’m getting ers Watson, and we went beyond plugged into the Ann Arbor ven- est in beer, too, eh? their recommendations for indusJoe Angileri (former Comture capital community, I’m guest try standards. lecturing at the Ross School (of Busi- puware president and COO) is takToday, the company is in better ness at the University of Michigan) ing the point on that. He’s on some and I’m taking on a project with sort of Michigan beer board. We shape than it has been in a decade. some New York City Wall Street want to do a roll-up of local micro- Since the glory days of Y2K. The last folks. I’d been in discussions with breweries. I don’t want to name six quarters, we beat Wall Street exa few Wall Street firms about their any names yet, but he’s talked to a pectations, and that hadn’t hapexecutive-in-residence programs, couple of microbreweries locally. pened since Y2K. But I don’t want which basically is sitting on They know how to make really this looking like I’m taking all the boards and helping them manage good beer, but they could use our credit. Credit goes to the leadership their portfolio companies. help running a business, and they team, which includes Joe Angileri, could (use) investment capital to Lisa Elkin, John Van Siclen, Chris Tell me more about your interest in increase production and distribu- O’Malley and Denise Starr. (See rethe venture capital. tion. Whatever I do next, I want to lated story about the plans Van I’m plugging into the Ann Arbor have fun, and that would be fun. Siclen and O’Malley have for the venture capital community. I was Compuware business units they are asked to be a judge at Michigan You told me once that Compuware running.) Business Challenge at the Zell was on a slow death spiral when you It wasn’t just Elliott ManageLurie Institute. That was fantastic. took over as CEO in June 2011. Can ment and Thoma Bravo who had Companies were making pitches, you elaborate? an interest in us. We probably had and some of them were so exciting. Compuware was most likely 18 strategic and private equity I think I’ll end up making a person- heading out of business or for a companies looking to buy the comal investment in a startup compa- discounted sale. We had a decade pany. We never put the company ny. I think I have a knack for help- of declining revenues, not enough up for sale. But we agreed to look ing businesses find their way. growth coming from the non-main- at any inbound interest in the com-

pany, and there was a lot. You told the board a year ago that you wanted to split Compuware into two businesses. Why? Splitting up Compuware, APM from mainframe, made sense for the following reasons. The mainframe business was a declining business with very high margins, and the APM business was fastgrowth but with narrow margins. They attracted different investors. They needed different management styles and needed to be managed by different metrics. Left together, the APM business would deflate the mainframe business’ margins, and mainframe would deflate APM’s growth numbers so the company would appear stalled. By separating the two companies, our modeling showed that we could increase shareholder value by 25-30 percent. There was a public rift between and you and company co-founder Peter Karmanos after he retired in 2013. He was vocal in criticizing you for allegedly not standing up to Elliott Management. You then terminated his consulting contract, and it ended up going to arbitration. Where does that stand? It’s ongoing. I hope it will be over shortly, in weeks rather than months. I don’t suppose the result will be made public. My guess is we’ll be locked down by court order and terms won’t be made public. When you left Compuware, according to public filings you left with a socalled golden parachute of $6.7 million in a combination of cash and equity and more than $13 million from the stock and options you’d accrued after joining Compuware when it bought Covisint in 2004. How do you respond to critics who might say you had a vested interest in selling the company to Thoma Bravo? I would tell them, No. 1, that the remaining parts of what we had to do are a lot easier to do as a private company. No. 2, this was not a CEO decision. A CEO doesn’t make that decision. It was a decision by the board and by investors. If we hadn’t taken this deal, we would have been in trouble for not taking it because of the premium on the share price.

Compuware: A key to revenue revival: More new products ■ From Page 1

long been a shrinking market. The APM business has narrow margins, but high growth. The mainframe business retained the Compuware name and its Detroit headquarters. The business unit overseeing the APM business was renamed as Dynatrace and moved its headquarters to Waltham, Mass. In a filing in November with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Compuware said the mainframe business was expected to see a decline in revenue of about 7 per-

cent between 2014 and 2016 to about $246.6 million, while Dynatrace would see an increase of 13 percent to about $420 million. Both Van Siclen and O’Malley say they plan to beat those numbers.

Mainframes still relevant. Really. Contrary to the SEC filing, O’Malley says he thinks he can grow the business and will not only avoid layoffs but is adding employees and plans a regular release of new products and upgrades.

“In three years, we’re going to have flat to modest growth, at least,” he said. “We can bring new products to market that can lead to meaningful growth. Are there people out there who will buy new mainframe products if they are good ones? Yes.” O’Malley said the key to stopping a decline in revenue is to provide new products that companies see as relevant, while, perhaps more important, convincing what he calls new age chief information officers that they underestimate the power

and value of mainframes. “There’s a mindset that the mainframe business is less dedicated to innovation, and we’re going to change that,” said O’Malley, a 27year veteran of CA Technologies Inc. of New York City who was recruited by Paul last July to run the mainframe business and assume the roles of president and CEO when it was split off. Thanks to a return of a former customer, a large insurance company he declined to name, O’Malley said revenue for the mainframe

business was up 22 percent for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared to the same quarter a year earlier. And in early January, Compuware released its first new product since 1999, Topaz, which was designed with intuitive graphic interfaces to help newer IT employees unfamiliar with mainframes get up to speed and start replacing the aging workforce that now runs industry mainframes. “You have to make aggressive See Next Page

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promises to the market and then live up to them,” said O’Malley, who told industry analysts and customers soon after joining Compuware last summer that he would have a new product on the market in early January. Alan Radding, a tech industry journalist and popular IT blogger, gave Topaz a good review, saying it is a tool that will allow younger IT professionals “to immediately start doing meaningful work with both distributed and mainframe systems and do it in a way they immediately grasp.” New Hampshire-based Ptak Associates LLC, which provides analysis of the IT industry, praised both Topaz and the spinning out of Compuware as a private business focusing strictly on mainframes. In a report issued after Topaz’s release, Ptak said that “a newly privatized Compuware is setting out to significantly impact the mainframe marketplace,” and that Topaz “establishes a brand new direction for mainframe product vendors” whose strength is allowing “nonexperts to improve the operational efficiency and performance of mainframe applications without becoming experts in the intricacies of mainframe functioning.” O’Malley said that while the return of former customers can’t be counted on to consistently boost quarterly numbers, a steady stream of newer, more nimble products to help mainframes perform better should help him meet his goal of not just stopping revenue declines as companies do more with PCs and cloud-based computing, but actually growing them. To do that, he said, the company must communicate better with the newer generation of CIOs, and the best way is through its new, integrated social media strategy. “New age CIOs know the cloud, they know mobile, they know analytics. But they have been prejudiced against the mainframe platform,” said O’Malley. “We need to educate these CIOs that mainframes can be agile and powerful, and that they need to embrace them. “A social strategy can get us better awareness in the market than we could ever afford,” he said. “We’re already measuring a significantly better connection to customers. LinkedIn has been a valuable tool for us. Every person in this company uses LinkedIn daily. I blog a lot, including microblogs on Twitter. People in the industry are shocked that we have the scale of social presence we do.” O’Malley declined to give specific employee numbers, “but we have more employees now than when we were sold,” he said. “We’re hiring. We’re adding to our sales team. We’re hiring a new worldwide sales manager, and we’ve hired sales managers for the U.S., South American and European markets.”

Dynatrace beefing up The announcement in December that the Dynatrace business was moving to the Boston area had less meaning than it might have seemed.

Dynatrace had been located in Waltham and run by Van Siclen before it was bought in 2011 as part of Compuware’s efforts to diversify. Van Siclen was retained by Paul to manage the business after it was bought and renamed as Compuware APM, and he and a large team stayed in Massachusetts. The APM unit reclaimed its former name and its former headquarters when it was split off from the mainframe business in December. And layoffs in January were a one-time event to get administrative costs in line, said Van Siclen. He said the company has begun hiring sales staff to fuel what is expected to be a sharp increase in revenue over the next 18 months. Compuware’s SEC filing in November projected Dynatrace revenue would hit $420 million in 2016. Van Siclen says he expects it to hit $500 million in the next 18 months and to grow another $250 million in the two years after that. “Thoma Bravo sees Dynatrace as their next growth engine,” he said. Those numbers are projections for organic growth. Van Siclen said further growth through acquisition is likely. Van Siclen acknowledges that Dynatrace did a one-time round of layoffs in January, which included about 75 in Detroit, 100 in Boston and 50 in Europe, but he said that was a move to focus the company more on sales while trimming support staff. He said the layoffs included human resources, administration and finance departments. “The layoffs should have been done earlier. None of what we cut was muscle,” he said. “Our G&A (general and administrative) costs were too high, and we had to cut them down. We had too many support staff and not enough salespeople for what we think are great products in hot markets. “We have streamlined our business, moving from a legacy data center, legacy back-office applications and antiquated processes to a modern cloud-based application infrastructure and business processes,” he said. Van Siclen said the company has added about 20 to its sales staff in North America in the past 90 days and will be hiring another 20 in the next six months, with a major expansion planned for software development teams in Poland and Austria. He said no further layoffs are planned. Currently, the company employs about 1,400, he said, including about 250 each in Detroit and Boston. “Detroit has had and will continue to have a very important role to play,” he said. In November, the research firm Gartner gave the unit then called Compuware IPM Dynatrace what it calls its magic-quadrant rating for top performance, making it the only APM software vendor to get the top rating five years in a row. According to a report last August by International Data Corp., a market intelligence firm, Dynatrace ranked No. 3 for APM market share in 2013, its 12 percent trailing the 13.6 percent for CA Technologies and the 15.2 percent for IBM. Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337, thenderson@crain.com. Twitter: @tomhenderson2

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Endeavor: Getting startups to next level ■ From Page 3

New Economy Initiative, which receives some of its funding from the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “Alberto (Ibargüen), the CEO of Knight, says, ‘You have to see this program we’re bringing into Miami,’ ” said Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative and president and CEO of the Hudson-Webber Foundation. “He tells me, ‘I’m finding self-made entrepreneurs who are taking leadership positions in our community and I don’t know them — and I pride myself on knowing.’ ” So Egner and others started talking with Endeavor brass and were impressed by what they saw, and the results. In 2013, Endeavor-supported companies generated $6.8 billion in revenue; firms grow by an average of 68 percent after their first year, and 400,000 jobs have been created since 1997. As a result, NEI invested $1 million to bring the program to Detroit, and the Grand Rapids-based Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation invested another $500,000. “Nobody is filling this gap in the market,” Egner said. “We’re doing startup work and corporate support very well in the state, but nobody is focused on high-growth potential, those $10 million to $15 million gross revenue companies that can blow it out to $200 million. If we get this right, the job growth will come on quickly.” And, in fact, Endeavor’s research shows that the average high-growth company employs eight times as many people as the average nonhigh-growth firm and 35 times as many as the average startup. To launch the program, Endeavor hired a local director: Antonio Luck, the former director of business acceleration at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. It also formed a local board of directors. Cindy Pasky, founder, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions, will serve as chairman. Joining her on the board, in addition to Egner, are: 䡲 Thomas Groos, partner, New York City-based City Light Capital and board member of Endeavor Detroit and Marysville, Mich.-based Heartland Automation 䡲 Nate Lowery, co-founder and CEO, Royal Oak-based TM3 Systems Inc., and board member of the DeVos Family Foundation 䡲 Raj Vattikuti, founder, Southfield-based Altimetrik and the Vattikuti Foundation 䡲 Steven White, chairman and CEO, Detroit Renewable Energy, and board member of Downtown Detroit Partnership. One of the key challenges the board faces in metro Detroit is a scale-up gap. The number of highgrowth firms — those at least 3 years old with at least 20 percent annual employment growth over the past three years — declined by 50 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to Endeavor research. To lose half of these types of firms in five years is critical for a city where the December unemployment rate was 12.2 percent, the metro area’s was 7.5 percent and the state came in 6.3 percent. The nationwide rate was 5.6 percent. Still, Endeavor has identified a strong pool of potential participant businesses. It is looking at firms

that are least 3 years old and typically have $2 million to $5 million in annual revenue. They can be in any industry, but must be poised for high growth and at a point where mentoring and training can make an impact. “Lifestyle businesses are important, but they are not what Endeavor is looking for,” said Joanna Harries, Endeavor vice president for U.S. and Canada. “We want firms where growing their company is really a mission for them. We want people who light up at being able to make their business huge.” Interested firms will go through a screening process and then advance through local and global selection panels and interviews. “Imagine a cross between ‘Shark Tank’ and ‘12 Angry Men,’ ” said Harries. Endeavor expects to select six to eight firms for the first year. Each will have an advisory board to help with growth challenges and a custom-designed program. “There is no formula or cookie cutter,” Egner said. “I see Endeavor as the ultimate connector. If a

firm is an immediate export candidate and they need to connect into a country, the can use Endeavor network to find a company. They have capital connections. It is very much based on finding the best-inclass talent to connect with these companies so they can grow as fast as possible.” Pasky also sees Endeavor as an opportunity to grow her leadership team and that of other area businesses. She may mentor some Endeavor firms when appropriate, but she is more excited to give her team a chance to become mentors. “It’s a really good time for us to help them grow,” she said. “Strategic Staffing has this great young leadership team, so what better way to help them mature and grow to the next level than by having them mentor a company?” And once a company leaves the program, it is expected to participate in mentoring the new cohort. To find out more about Endeavor Detroit, email Detroit@endeavor.org. Amy Haimerl: (313) 446-0416, ahaimerl@crain.com. Twitter: @haimerlad

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Blaker: TTi chief built up the family business, builds up people ■ From Page 3

From the ground up Rochester Hills-based TTi Global started as S&J Tech Data Service Co., launched in 1976 by Blaker’s father and mother, John and Shirley Brzezinski. Blaker joined the company three years later as its first employee, after taking accounting and business management classes at Oakland Community College and Oakland University. At first, she proofed the automotive service manuals written by her father, an aerospace electrical engineer. She didn’t know the first thing about cars — but she was interested. And she saw the job as a good opportunity because she could bring her infant son to work. As she gained technical knowledge, Blaker moved up in the service manual department and then took on oversight of accounting. It was hard working for family, Blaker said, recalling a tough climb and numerous confrontations with her father. “My dad ... never gave you any opportunities,” she said. “You had to grab them and run with them.” Her father had established Technical Training Inc. as a division of S&J in 1984, to assist dealerships in training their service technicians. And, in 1990, the same year she divorced, Blaker had her eye on serving as its president. But she didn’t feel her dad would promote her, so she resigned. Her father countered by asking her what she ultimately wanted, and when she told him “your job,” he said that was fair. But he wasn’t going to just hand it to her. “If I thought he was a difficult boss before that, he was even worse after,” Blaker said, pushing her harder and questioning every decision she made. It wasn’t until her father’s sudden death in 1992 that she realized his tough approach was by design. She’d learned to think carefully about decisions and look at situations from all angles. “You just think that’s your dad being critical,” she said. “Really, it’s your dad making sure you’re prepared and can handle any situation.”

A new challenge A year after her father’s death, Blaker’s mother named her CEO. Blaker finally got a pay raise and was able to quit her second job. Though the new role was challenging, she enjoyed the interaction with customers, employees and people in the training programs. “I felt I was using my talents in the best way possible (and) loved getting up for work,” Blaker said. Still, it was tough to lead the company and be a single mom to three boys ages 5-12. At times, she felt certain her sons hated her for not being home. She still made lunches when she could and baked cookies on the weekends. But at one point, one of her sons asked her why she couldn’t just be like other moms — home every night for dinner. “They had to get through that and (see) that ... we didn’t have to be a ‘normal’ family,” Blaker said. Following her father’s death, Blaker closed the money-losing S&J service manual business.

She changed the company’sname to TTi the following year. And by about 2011, it became TTi Global to reflect its international presence.

Gender hurdles Staffing services and training development was starting to take off in the mid-’90s, and Technical Training was positioned to grow with it, Blaker said. The company provided vehicle technology service and repair instructors and course development for Ford and Chrysler Corp.’s training centers. After years of working on service manuals, Blaker said, she could hold a conversation on vehicle technologies and see opportunities to help customers. Being as knowledgeable as possible is something that also helped Cindy Pasky, founder and CEO of Detroit-based Strategic Staffing Solutions. “My personal approach was always to be overprepared, so that when you walked into a room, you create respect immediPasky ately,” she said. Pasky launched her company, today a $260 million international business, by focusing on the talent needs of customers in the finance and utilities industries. “A good company, no matter how small, no matter who owned it, if you could bring (finance and utilities customers) the talent, you had the chance to do business with them,” she said. But there were few women in the automotive industry in the early ’90s, Blaker said. At times, she was humiliated by men acting as if she knew nothing or by making advances. Through it all, Blaker said, she focused on the strengths she could bring. “Sometimes I think women are (more) patient in trying to understand, looking at customers’ organizations and understanding their needs, anticipating them,” she said.

Going global – with a baby TTi had been sending instructors to China for a month at a time to provide technical training for fleet customers of Ford Export. Blaker proposed to Ford that her family’s company establish a training program covering sales, parts and service for its Chinese dealerships. Ford agreed. Once again, Blaker found herself facing a challenge. She’d remarried late in 1992 and had another son, John. The only way to balance her roles as mother and CEO was to take him with her to China in 1994 — along with baby food, diapers and a list of other baby gear and items that weren’t yet available there. She’d take her 6-month-old to work when she could, amusing clients who loved babies, especially boys. Other days, she left him with her Chinese housekeeper, asking her bilingual secretary to translate instructions for the day. As TTi expanded, Blaker took John with her all over the world until he started kindergarten.

“I wasn’t going to let anything stop me,” she said. By 1999, she had divorced again. Work-life balance was a challenge that Beth Chappell, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Club, also has faced. Her position as global services vice president for AT&T in the early ’90s required her to travel around the U.S. After her twin sons were born in 1991, Chappell, a single mom at the time, began taking them and, a couple of years later, their little Chappell sister, on trips with her with the help from an au pair. She didn’t ask her employer for permission to take her kids. She just did what she thought was right, she said. “There were a lot of people who just thought I was a terrible mother,” Chappell, now 57, said. But the kids were “great travelers and never got sick until they were in preschool.” When she was on business trips, Chappell said, she was very careful to focus on the work that needed to be done. “The upside was that when the work was done, I could read bedtime stories.” To maintain that balance between her personal and professional lives, Chappell said she left AT&T and changed careers when her sons started school.

Still expanding As she juggled single parenthood again, Blaker continued to expand TTi globally, eventually into 25 countries. The Ford work expanded as TTi also took over all technical training for Ford in Brazil. Starting in 1996, it also established offices in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela. In 2008, it added regional offices in Europe and later expanded into India and the Middle East. In 2010, TTi Global made its first acquisition, England-based Lorien Connect, a market research and customer service training vendor for automakers. The company’s revenue has increased from about $5 million in 1992 to a projected $110 million for 2014. TTi now employs 2,000 people globally, 300 of them in Michigan. The company provides training services, staffing and recruitment for training, technical services/ support, office, call center and engineering positions and market research, primarily for automotive customers but also for clients in telecommunications, financial and other industries. It counts large global companies including Ford, FCA US LLC, Volkswagen AG, Jaguar Land Rover and Navistar International Corp. as its primary customers. Revenue was down from $118.5 million in 2013, Blaker said, due to the ending of several contracts, a down year for automotive in Latin America, and a slowdown in China. But Blaker isn’t yet done growing

the company. In March, TTi plans to open a workforce development training site in Afghanistan under its first government-backed contract. The center will train men in automotive service and women to run automotive service businesses. The company is investing $150,000 to open the site and the hope is that it will lead to contracts from the U.S. government and governments in emerging markets around the globe to train people in skilled trades. This year, TTi also plans to launch software that helps companies gauge skills gaps in employees and train them. The software gives TTi products it can sell multiple times and provides an opportunity for recurring revenue, she said. “That’s major for a service company like ours.” TTi expects to add 25 jobs to start at its headquarters to help support the new programs. Blaker said she expects the new programs to help TTi achieve 1020 percent growth within 12-18 months if the contracts come through as expected.

Achieving critical mass TTi is doing a good job of taking advantage of some of the same opportunities that MSX International Inc. sees in providing training and related services to dealerships, said MSX President and CEO Fred Minturn. The challenge for smaller competitors like TTi is the need to create the critical mass to be truly global, with the ability to provide customers with the same consistent quality services in each country, Minturn said. TTi has a smaller customer list and global footprint than MSX, “but I do admire that they are working hard to try and amass as many countries as they can ... in an attempt to deliver the services global companies require,” he said.

Family legacy Blaker’s four boys are now in their 20s and 30s. Her middle two sons, Brendan and Kevin Dever, work at TTi. They are aided by a broader view of the world and cultural awareness they gained as they traveled with their mother to TTi’s operations, Blaker said. Brendan, 34, was regional coordinator-Asia Pacific in TTi’s Thailand office from 2009-2011 and over the past four years has served as managing director of first India and then the Middle East. He returned home in December to serve as a headquartersbased financial analyst for the company. Kevin Dever, 30, has held marketing and client service roles for TTi since 2009 and today is global marketing manager. Blaker’s oldest son, Justin Dever, who already graduated from a culinary school, is now pursuing a degree in environmental research. Her youngest, John Blaker, is attending college.

Advocate for women Blaker has parlayed her life experiences into serving as an advocate for women’s rights. She helped form a metro Detroit chapter of the U.S. National Committee for UN Women a year ago to focus on gender-equality issues for women in order to stop global violence against women. The group takes on specific issues like human trafficking — something that’s not only an issue overseas but also in Metro Detroit. She also signed the United Nations Global Compact CEO agreement, which lists actions to support women’s empowerment. Blaker mentors girls at East Detroit High School through the Detroit chapter of Women of Tomorrow, talking with the students on anger management and taking them on field trips to places like the Wayne County jail to not only explore law enforcement careers — but also to see what can happen if they make one bad decision. Overseas, Blaker speaks to women about her path to achieving business success. Those addresses have been at times, “kind of scary,” she said. During one speaking engagement with women in rural India — an area with frequent reports of violence against women — men walked back and forth outside the open doorway of the building, straining to hear. She felt intimidated by their presence, and so did her country manager, who moved to sit next to her as she addressed the women, Blaker said. She is now working with a local Jesuit priest and some of those same women to get them trained in tailoring skills. Once they are trained, she plans to pay for sewing machines to help them launch in-home businesses.

Finding a balance Blaker may have felt work-life balance eluded her for years, but she seems to have finally found it. When she isn’t busy with TTi, speaking or volunteering, she and her significant other can be found on their Metamora farm, tending to the thoroughbred horses they breed. While the girls she mentors in metro Detroit are most impressed with the level she’s achieved in running her own international company, for the women overseas, the fact that she simply has a job is impressive, Blaker said. Seeing an example of a woman who works outside the home, and is successful and independent, is very powerful for them, she said. In addition to working with the women from Bangalore, India, to launch tailoring businesses, Blaker has funded a vocational program for Indian girls who didn’t finish high school. The program is teaching them to assemble lamps as a means of bringing in a small income. “The more we empower these women ... they empower their children (and) make sure their kids get an education,” Blaker said. “When you empower a woman, especially in a country like that, you empower a whole nation.” Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694, swelch@crain.com. Twitter: @sherriwelch

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Beer: From one beer lover (Stroh’s), to many others ■ From Page 1

Michigan craft beer accounted for only 6 percent of beer sold in the state in 2013, but it is growing at a clip that’s forced the industry to mature, has attracted financiers and is ripe for expansion and consolidation. Beer giants Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and MillerCoors LLC continue to dominate beer sales in the U.S., with a 75 percent market share, but craft brewers cut into that margin every year. Sales of craft beer grew 16 percent in 2014, compared to a 1.7 percent decline for the biggest U.S. beer brands, according to researcher Symphony IRI Group. Sales of Bud Light fell by 1.3 percent, and Miller Lite plummeted 4.4 percent in 2014, Bloomberg reported in January. Brewers like Detroit-based Atwater Brewing are cutting into the big players and looking to cut deeper. Atwater is in the midst of a nearly $25 million expansion plan, pushing toward producing 300,000 barrels of beer by 2020 compared to 40,000 barrels in 2014. One barrel includes 31 gallons of beer. Atwater generated $7 million in revenue last year and is expecting a 55 percent growth rate in 2015 and more than 100 percent in 2016. Mark Reith, president and CEO, said the expanding beer market has opened up room for smaller players, and abundant financing is opening the door to new markets. Atwater is finishing a build out of its Detroit brewery to expand capacity to 100,000 barrels of beer and is investing $9 million in a similar facility in Austin, Texas, and in North Carolina. It also recently received licenses to produce hard cider and distill liquor. “I remember when Stroh’s was the brewery in Detroit and the Midwest,” Reith said. “Now that market has proliferated and you see breweries continuing to innovate, appealing to different people, and it’s resonating.”

How Stroh fell Debt burden is what sunk Stroh. The company, which drew its legacy back to brewing in Germany in the mid-1800s, bought a majority stake in Schlitz Brewing Co. in 1982 in an effort to go big because the middle ground for brewers was disappearing. The move made Stroh the thirdlargest brewer in the U.S., with revenue of $1.4 billion in 1984. But the debt decimated its ability to reinvest and it quickly began losing market share to AnheuserBusch, Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing Co. A price war in 1998 sent Stroh sales and margins plummeting and the family sold its labels to Pabst Brewing Co. and Miller in 1999, in deals estimated at $400 million, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report. In today’s market, the business would have been worth $9 billion, according to a July 2014 Forbes report. Peter Stroh was named Crain’s Detroit Business’s first Newsmaker of the Year in 1986, just a few months after the brewery closed — not for the beer company, but for the $200 million development of Stroh River Place.

market is for small breweries and neighborhood pubs.” Last year, Infante represented a couple of Michigan Technological University graduates when they opened Tripel Root Brewing in Zeeland, a city that reversed a 100-year ban on alcohol sales in 2006. Infante said the neighborhood brewery is an underserved market that banks are eager to finance. “Can you think of an industry that sees this kind of growth, 40 percent, 100 percent year-over-year growth?” Infante said. “It’s amazing.”

Friend or foe

GLENN TRIEST

“I remember when Stroh’s was the brewery in Detroit and the Midwest,” said Mark Reith, CEO of Atwater Brewing. Now the beer market has more of a taste for smaller breweries, such as Atwater.

Peter Stroh died in 2002 at the age of 74. His lasting legacy is passionate championship of the riverfront and the idea that it should be open to the public. He is memorialized along the downtown RiverWalk with a bust and marker.

Bigger beer business Today, Michigan is one of the top craft beer producers in the country. There were 158 craft breweries in the state in 2014, up from 131 in 2013, according to the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association. Michigan craft breweries created an economic impact of more than $1 billion in 2012, a number that is expected to rise, said Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association. Watson said Michigan’s new breed of brewers took advantage of the public’s culture shift toward more quality products. “Stroh’s went out of business because they had the same business model as Anheuser and Coors; they couldn’t compete,” Watson said. “What we’re seeing from small independent brewers is an ability to differentiate; they have different products and style, that has appeal. Even though the barrelage is significantly lower, the economic impact is greater to each state because these breweries are able to charge a premium for what they are making.” Anheuser-Busch produces more than 150 million barrels of beer in the U.S., Watson said. Conversely, Michigan craft brewers produced nearly 600,000 barrels in 2013 and only 10.6 million barrels for the total craft beer producers in the U.S. in 2014. But with the expansion of several of the state’s largest craft brewers — Bell’s, Battle Creek-based Arcadia Brewing Co., Atwater, Grand Rapids-based Founders Brewing Co. — barrels produced could surpass 1 million this year. Arcadia completed a $7 million expansion in Kalamazoo in May 2014, expanding barrel production

to 26,000 annually. Founders is planning a $40.4 million expansion in Grand Rapids, which is expected to boost production to 900,000 barrels in the next few years. Dexter-based Northern United Brewing Co., which operates North Peak Brewing in Traverse City and Jolly Pumpkin in Ann Arbor and Traverse City, is expanding to Midtown Detroit this year. But for Northern United, the process is slower as it bootstraps its own expansion efforts. Tony Grant said that while revenue is up 40 percent year over year, slow and steady growth is key to the brewer’s survival. “We get jealous when we see people that get to invest millions and millions of dollars,” Grant said. “I think a lot of people in small business, ultimately they’d like to do things perfectly, but there’s also a real pride in the struggle.” Northern United sold 7,500 barrels of beer in 2014 and generated revenue of $10 million. Craft brewing is big business in Michigan, and funding rapid expansion efforts is new funding sources. Founders sold a 30 percent stake to Mahou-San Miguel Group in December to help fuel its expansion. San Miguel is the largest craft brewer in Spain, founded in 1890. Atwater raised its funds through available debt financing and reinvestment of profits, Reith said. Joseph Infante, an attorney for Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC in Grand Rapids who leads the firm’s alcoholic beverage regulation team, said despite the state’s rapid growth, the market has plenty of room for growth. “The industry is growing in two directions: Brewers like Atwater, Founders and Bell’s are growing, seizing that growth at the top end, but there’s still plenty of new brewers hitting the market every year,” Infante said. “Everyone thought the bubble was going to burst, but it hasn’t. The big guys are going to keep getting bigger, but the hot

But that growth presents risk, said Bell, who operates the largest craft brewery east of Colorado. “The big money is flowing, private equity, investors, etc., is flowing into the industry, and there’s too much access to money right now,” Bell said. “It’s rapidly changing the feel of the industry, and there’s going to be a plateau; when the music stops and you don’t have a chair, it gets dicey and a bank or brewer is going to get burned.” Grant said the “mom and pop mentality” of brewing is dying as the business of brewing matures and those without business acumen are setting themselves up for failure. “With everything that’s happening in the industry, brewers need to make decisions on who and what they want to be in this business.” Grant said. “We are viewed as competitors by the mega brewers, so while people are making great beer, the need to run the business with a keen financial eye has never been greater.” Last month, Anheuser-Busch agreed to acquire Seattle-based craft brewer Elysian Brewing Co., its fourth craft brewer acquisition in recent years. The mega brewer bought its first craft brewer in 2011, buying Chicago-based Goose Island for $38.8 million. Last year, it bought Patchogue, N.Y.-based Blue Point Brewing Co. and Bend, Ore.-based 10 Barrel. Bell said acquisitions will continue as consolidation takes hold of the craft brewing industry. “Small brewers will continue to grow, but at the top, it’s going to consolidate,” Bell said. “AnheuserBusch isn’t happy about losing market share, and those of us who were at the beginning of the craft brewing industry, we’re looking for exit strategies.” Bell’s will eventually be run by his children, he said. He, Grant and Reith believe Michigan’s brewers will be less interested in selling to mega brewers. “Competition is out there and things are getting stickier, but in Michigan, this industry developed during some tough times,” Bell said. “Michiganders take pride in the beer produced in this state, and that’s been a great asset to brewers.” Reith agrees. “We sell to educated consumers, and they want the most innovative and best beer possible,” Reith said. “The Michigan beer brand is valuable, and no one wants to give that up.” Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042, dwalsh@crain.com. Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

RUMBLINGS

WEEK ON THE WEB FROM WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM, WEEK OF JAN. 31-FEB. 6

$5MVC backs quality control data collection uality control for the factory floor has been a buzz phrase since W. Edwards Deming began training American industry on statistical process control during World War II. After 70 years of refinement, is there still a market for better quality-control equipment and processes? A group of local venture capitalists hopes so, having helped raise a funding round of $5 million for Sight Machine Inc., which stores data from cameras and sensors on the factory floor to provide realtime cloud-based data on processes. Sight Machine was founded in Ann Arbor in 2011, is headquartered in San Francisco and about to ramp up operations in a new facility in Livonia. Investors include the Houston-based Mercury Fund, which opened an Ann Arbor office in October; Ann Arbor-based Michigan eLab; Ann Arborbased Huron River Ventures; and Bloomfield Hills-based Orfin Ventures. Sight Machine wants to double its Michigan staff from nine over the next year. So far, the company is in 10 factories collecting data.

first feature-length movie project, “Old Fashioned,” in limited release Friday. The film is expected to open locally at theaters in Sterling Heights and Livonia this weekend. The faith-based romance story, set in a small college town in Ohio, was set to open in theaters last fall, until the owners learned the much earthier “Fifty Shades of Grey” film was set for its own big screen release Feb. 13. “Old Fashioned” will debut on about 200 screens nationwide. The company chose the new opening in part for the Valentine’s Day weekend, and for a chance to go head-to-head with “Fifty Shades.” The Toerings co-own Skoche, incorporated in 2007, with filmmaker Rik Swartzwelder. Toering described the story as one of romance, second chances and personal healing with some faithbased elements and some mainstream appeal. Incidentally, Toering isn’t the only one with a day job as a lawyer in his family; Toering’s brother is Doug Toering of the Toering Law Firm PLLC in Troy.

Film company taking on ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

The ‘dad jeans’ end zone?

Whether it’s holding out for true love, or looking for the financing and marketing window to propel an indie film to success, Gordon Toering believes good things can come from waiting. Toering, 51, an alumnus of the University of Michigan Law School and a partner practicing business contracts and bankruptcy and insolvency law at Warner Norcross & Judd LLP in Grand Rapids, and his wife, Sue, own 50 percent of Skoche Films, which rolled out its

The increasing array of sports-themed merchandise — including items emblazoned with the logos of the Detroit professional teams — sometimes yields some amusing finds. Crain’s sports reporter Bill Shea opined in his blog last week on the phenomenon of National Football League merchandise of the denim variety. Yep, we’re talking about men’s “Gridiron Classic Jeans.” They retail for $23.99 on NFLShop.com, a steep discount from the original list price of $58.95.

COURTESY OF SKOCHE FILMS

Gordon Toering (seated at far right) watches on the set of “Old Fashioned” during shooting in Ohio.

These cotton men’s blue jeans are stone-washed, have a team-colored ribbon stitched on the hem of the right leg, and a team logo patch above a rear pocket where the brand-name patch normally would be located. And they are popular; at the moment, Lions jeans are sold out. Don’t worry, ladies, the NFL would never forget to market to you. For the same price, you can get “Ladies Bootcut Cheerleader Jeans.” They’re 98 percent cotton and 2 percent Spandex, just like Jim Schwartz’s ego. We know of no plans for NFL jorts, but it may only be a matter of time.

Tap room on tap A public house and eatery that the owners say will have the largest number of craft beers on tap in Oakland County is set to open next month in Rochester Hills. Rochester Tap Room is to open March 12 in the Papa Joe’s Gourmet Marketplace plaza at 6870 N. Rochester Road, in the site of the former Luca’s Chophouse. Owner Missy Markevics, 48, former part-owner of Penny Black in downtown Rochester, said Rochester Tap Room will have 60 taps for craft beer and sparkling wine. Markevics’ partners include Mike LaBranche, 48, former manager of Clinton Township-based Great Baraboo Brewing Co., and Travis Waynick, 37, former executive chef for Matt Prentice Restaurant Group and Andiamo Restaurant Group. The 6,000-square-foot restaurant also will offer a menu of throwback cocktails and pub foods.

$25,000 donation helps push for rape kit testing The campaign that launched last month to raise $10 million for testing of roughly 11,000 unopened rape kits in Detroit recently got a surprise gift from unlikely donors. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and her husband, Dave Goldberg, CEO of webbased survey provider SurveyMonkey, made a $25,000 donation to the Enough SAID (Sexual Assault in Detroit) campaign. National publicity for the campaign attracted the attention of the couple, said Peg Tallet, chief community engagement officer for the Michigan Women’s Foundation, which is leading the campaign. More than $825,000 has been contributed to the public-private campaign raising funds to test the rape kits, which were found unopened in a Detroit Police Department storage unit.

Takata airbag case headed for Fla. court court case consolidating dozens of potential class-action lawsuits against Takata Corp. and others for defective airbags will go forward in Florida, not in Detroit nor in Pittsburgh, as several automotive OEMs had hoped. The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the Takata products cases to go to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Tokyo-based Takata’s North American subsidiary TK Holdings Inc. is based in Auburn Hills, and a former engineer has told a congressional committee that the design originated from Automotive Systems Laboratories, Takata’s research and development unit in Livonia.

ON THE MOVE 䡲 Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc. named Jeffrey Brown as CEO, succeeding Michael Carpenter, who is retiring. Brown, 41, was president and CEO of Ally Dealer Financial Services. Carpenter, 67, had been CEO since 2009. 䡲 Livonia-based battery maker A123 Systems LLC named Brad Frederick as CFO. Frederick, formerly CFO at Southfield-based Chassix Inc., replaced John Patel, who left the company. 䡲 Omar Khan, M.D., was appointed CEO of Wayne State University Physician Group, replacing Robert Frank, M.D., who was asked to leave in November for unspecified reasons. Khan is chairman of the Wayne State School of Medicine’s department of neurology. Mark Juzych, M.D., WSU ophthalmology department chair and Kresge Eye Institute director, was named UPG’s chief medical officer. 䡲 Delphi Automotive plc announced several board changes, including the retirement of its chairman, John Krol, effective March 1. Krol, former CEO of DuPont Co., will be replaced by Rajiv Gupta, a current board member and former CEO of Rohm and Haas Co. Kevin Clark, who will succeed the retiring Rodney O’Neal as Delphi CEO on March 1, also will join the Troy-based auto supplier’s board of directors, as will Tim Manganello, former CEO of BorgWarner Inc. 䡲 Genelle Allen, a former interim CEO and deputy CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, was named a Wayne County assistant executive. She was a vice

president at Ypsilanti transportation planning firm Jacobsen/Daniels Associates LLC. 䡲 Detroit-based General Motors Co. added Linda Gooden, a former executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Corp., as a director, giving the board a fifth woman and second black member.

COMPANY NEWS 䡲 Burroughs Inc., the Ply-

mouth-based financial services technology provider, said it acquired Pendum LLC, a Chicago-based provider of ATM services and equipment for financial institutions. Terms were not disclosed. 䡲 The board of Ann Arbor-based Advanced Photonix Inc. agreed to merge with Blacksburg, Va.-based Luna Innovations Inc. The combined firm will keep the Luna name and be headquartered in Virginia. 䡲 San Francisco-based activist investor Marcato Capital Management LLC is urging Southfield-based supplier Lear Corp. to split its two divisions — electrical and seating — into separate companies for better shareholder value. 䡲 The U.S. Marine Corps re-enlisted its 67-year-old advertising relationship with New York City-based J. Walter Thompson, but the parent U.S. Navy had yet to decide on the future of its long relationship with Detroit ad agency Lowe Campbell Ewald. LCE has had the Navy’s recruiting ad contract since 2000; it was last renewed for five years in 2009. 䡲 Waterford Townshipbased Premier Creative Group, a dba of Premier Entities Inc., was acquired by Orlando, Fla.-based Entertainment Technology Partners. Terms of the deal, which closed Dec. 31, were not released; the local company is now operating as Premier Event Technology. 䡲 Detroit-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has taken steps to investigate whether its members’ personal information was breached in a cyberattack of Indianapolis affiliate Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. 䡲 Detroit-based FutureNet Group Inc. could land as much as $135 million of new government perimeter security and software business in India over the next few years, after signing an agreement with the state of Gujarat.

OTHER NEWS 䡲 The Ann Arbor City

Council approved plans with Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. for a roughly 14acre solar farm at Ann Arbor Municipal Airport in Pittsfield Township, AP report-

ed. The project requires approvals from the township, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Michigan Department of Transportation. 䡲 U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said the U.S. and Canada are close to a deal for financing the New International Trade Crossing, the planned $2.1 billion bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, according to AP. 䡲 In his State of the County address, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said he will forward a resolution to the county board asking for a 0.15-mill property tax reduction over the next 17 months. The county’s current property tax rate is 4.19 mills. 䡲 The U.S. economy can grow faster by unshackling government burdens on business, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told the Detroit Economic Club in his first major economic speech as a 2016 Republican presidential prospect. 䡲 Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said the county general fund “is in trouble” and could run out of money in 2016 unless cuts are made, AP reported. 䡲 The Affordable Care Act has directed $489 million to Michigan over the last five years, ranking the state 14th-highest in receiving funds, a study issued by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation shows. 䡲 Detroit moved up two spots last year to No. 27 in the Hotels.com annual ranking of the top 50 U.S. travel destinations. Las Vegas led the ranking. 䡲 The Michigan Department of Financial and Insurance Services suspended the licenses of Alia Bahoora and her four Assurity Insurance agencies in Harper Woods and Royal Oak for state law violations. It also issued cease-and-desist orders against two other agents for lacking proper education and licensure. 䡲 Detroit Tigers slugger Victor Martinez was scheduled for surgery on his left knee after injuring it during his offseason workout program, AP reported. Martinez missed the 2012 season after injuring the same knee.

OBITUARIES 䡲 Daniel Krichbaum, former executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and former president of the Livonia-based Citizens Research Council of Michigan, died Feb. 3. He was 72. 䡲 Ken Mason, a partner and director of project management for Southfield-based real estate firm Plante Moran Cresa LLC, died Jan. 25. He was 42.

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NOMINATIONS 12: 23(1 To make a nomination, please visit crainsdetroit.com/nominate Healthiest Employers

Crain’s 20 in their 20s

NOMINATION DEADLINE: FEB. 16

NOMINATION DEADLINE: FEB. 13

Publish date: June

Hurry! Closing soon.

Publish date: June 1

Is your workplace the healthiest in Michigan? This award takes a look at the best practices used by employers across the state toward the goal of creating a healthy workplace.

Do you know a 20-something who is someone to watch? Crain’s 20 in their 20s recognition program seeks young professionals who are making their marks in the region. This awards program is a great way to recognize the hard work of local rising stars, and at the same time further propel their careers.

It’s free to enter.

Crain’s 20 in their 20s

Winners will have their wellness efforts recognized as part of a print supplement to run in Crain’s in June. They will also be featured in a video series as well as honored at an event on Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at Henry Ford West BloomÀeld Hospital in BloomÀeld Hills.

Crain’s General and In-House Counsel Awards

NOMINATION DEADLINE: MARCH 9 Publish date: May 25

Award categories include: CFO of the Year - This award is open to those with the title of CFO or executives who hold duties generally considered to be those handled by a CFO. Recognition categories will include public, private and government/ nonproÀt and will be segmented by revenue size.

NOMINATION DEADLINE: FEB. 16 Publish date: April 27 Crain’s General and In-House Counsel Awards will honor the best legal minds working inside public, private, nonproÀt and government organizations throughout Michigan.

Rising Star – This award will recognize up-and-coming Ànancial executives. CFOs are not eligible, but others in the Ànance department are. Eligibility includes positions that report to a CFO such as analysts, managers and vice presidents who oversee Ànancial matters – and will likely be a CFO someday.

Award categories include: General Counsel of the Year, Rising Star and Pro Bono.

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