Greater Charlotte Biz 2006.10

PokerTek • Mountain Funding • Wilson Air Center • 505th Engineer Combat Battalion in Iraq

october 2006

NASCAR’S Ruth Crowley President Motorsports Authentics, LLC

IDENTITY Keeping Motorsports Authentic

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How a team of heart specialists helped Hugh McColl make the best investment of his life.

When Hugh McColl, the man who changed American banking, learned he needed heart bypass surgery, he chose the team that has outpaced all others for years. He chose the Carolinas Heart Institute at Carolinas Medical Center and the Sanger Clinic’s Dr. Mark Stiegel.

Carolinas Heart Institute has a rich and storied history of groundbreaking innovations; some of the finest medical minds in

America, and the latest, most advanced technology available – including the new revolutionary 64 Slice CT Scanner.

Today, Hugh McColl is enjoying the success of his surgery with his usual zest for life. In fact, he calls his choice of care “one of the best investments I ever made.”

We know Mr. McColl could have gone anywhere in the world for cardiac treatment. He chose the region’s premier team.

www.carolinashealthcare.org

Mr. Hugh McColl and R. Mark Stiegel, MD

in this issue

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Motorsports Authentics, LLC A joint venture of International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports Incorporated, Motorsports Authentics comes from excellent gene stock.The company is responsible for acquiring, licensing, designing and bringing to market authentic driver merchandise. At the helm is Ruth Crowley, acquired from the merchandise division of HarleyDavidson, with a reputation for her refusal to compromise the integrity of the product.

The PokerPro electronic poker table is revolutionizing the way poker is being played. Designed to increase casino revenue and security, it shuffles, deals, splits pots and generates side pots instantly. It’s the fastest and most accurate dealer in the world and increases poker room revenue by dealing 50-60 percent more hands per hour than a manual table.

20 Mountain Funding As one of the largest private lenders in the country, this commercial real estate funding firm backs opportunistic – and potentially risky – transactions nationwide, specializing in funding transactions with “hair,” an industry term referring to complications involving distressed debt or partnership buyouts, bankruptcy issues, borrower background issues, or the need for a quick closing.

34 Wilson Air Center Word is spreading that there’s a new and improved FBO in Charlotte – one backed by a customer service philosophy developed by Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn, and enthusiastically carried on by his son, Bob. In just one year,Wilson Air Center has transformed the FBO into one of the best in the nation, ranking 23rd among the thousands of FBOs in the United States.

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cover story

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departments publisher’s post

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employers biz

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Legislative and Regulatory Highlights for Area Employers

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Smart Salvos, Select Strategies and Succinct Solutions

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bizview

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The Charlotte Region: The View from Another Perspective

executive homes

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Luxury Homes above $350,000 on the cover: Ruth Crowley President Motorsports Authentics, LLC

42 505th Engineer Combat Battalion A year after its citizen soldiers bid farewell to their families, and nearly 11 months into its deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the North Carolina Army National Guard’s 505th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) can look back on significant and lasting contributions throughout northern Iraq as the decisive engineer effort.

Photography by Wayne Morris.

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[publisher’spost] A Disturbing Absence of Business and Economic Leadership What disturbs me most about our current economic environment is the absence of significant economic and business leadership. At a recent meeting of the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club, I had the opportunity to hear Geoffrey Colvin, editorial director of Fortune magazine and formerly co-anchor of Wall Street Week on public television. As one of the pre-eminent business journalists, I took the opportunity to ask him to identify business or economic leaders that have a vision for the future of American business opportunities. He circumvented the question, concluding that there were many good thinkers and that the wisest course of action was to read or listen to several and to draw our own conclusions. Clearly, he could not or chose not to name one!

In the past, we might have named Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Tom Peters, Philip Kotler, Jack Welch, Jim Collins, Stephen Covey, Bill Gates or Rosabeth Moss Kantor. Yet, now, in the maelstrom of debate and focus on the War on Terrorism and the War in Iraq, we have little time for discussion about the state of our economy and we are paying far too little attention to domestic and economic issues that confront our nation.

The recent and dramatic declines of General Motors and Ford are overwhelming evidence that our economic future is in jeopardy. Even our Charlotte regional economy has witnessed the demise of the textile industry, furniture manufacturing, and tobacco growth over the past decade. While global competition plays an immense role in forcing change within our economy, Mr. Colvin stated “We are getting what we asked for. Our current economy is the direct result of the policy we adopted…free trade policies, but we are also experiencing the impact of economic growth in many more nations around the world that have adopted democracy and capitalism within their own countries.”

In last month’s issue, Erskine Bowles referenced a recent economic study by a collection of diverse business leaders entitled Rising above the Gathering Storm, that called for a renewed emphasis on education to prepare generations into the future for the competition they will face from more aggressive educational systems in many foreign countries that continually outperform students and schools in the U.S. Where is that same energy within our nation that awakened to compete with Russia in the race to the moon? Improving our school systems is certainly an important step towards improving our competitive position, but we must assemble a national movement that forges a cooperative and disciplined approach to educating students and helping them achieve their potential to keep America competitive. That is a longer term strategy.

In the meantime, even the politicians have been absent from the discussion of the economy. While they continue their concern that we are secure and safe as a nation, they must also come to grips with the internal trauma that is reconstituting our economic base. There is little doubt that Toyota will eventually become the number one automaker in the U.S. Politicians certainly have been quick to take credit for job creation in rising economies. They also know how to lay blame on others when jobs are lost. But there is virtually no political debate regarding the future of keeping jobs in the U.S., let alone a discussion of pension reform and health care financing as they impact our already higher-than-elsewhere wage levels.

Throughout our history, what has always been a significant advantage within the United States is our culture supporting and encouraging entrepreneurialism. American inventiveness and ingenuity have consistently contributed to our competitive advantage.

What is lacking is business and economic leadership! We need an articulated vision that provides a clear direction and a set of objectives that can be targeted by American entrepreneurs. Absent that vision, our economy flounders and falls further behind.

Businesses must adapt and evolve with the changing economic environment. The discourse begins with each of us. biz

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October 2006 Volume 7 • Issue 10 Publisher John Paul Galles jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com

Associate Publisher/Editor Maryl A. Lane maryl.a.lane@greatercharlottebiz.com

Creative Director Rebecca G. Fairchild rfairchild@greatercharlottebiz.com

Business Development Glenn Grant ggrant@greatercharlottebiz.com

Account Executives Michelle Killi mkilli@greatercharlottebiz.com

Janet Kropinak jkropinak@greatercharlottebiz.com

Mimi Zelman mzelman@greatercharlottebiz.com

Contributing Editor Susanne Deitzel Contributing Writers Ellison Clary Susanne Deitzel Lisa Hoffmann Casey Jacobus Contributing Photographer Wayne Morris Galles Communications Group, Inc. 5601 77 Center Drive • Suite 250 Charlotte, NC 28217-0736 704-676-5850 Phone • 704-676-5853 Fax www.greatercharlottebiz.com • Press releases and other news-related information, please fax to the attention of “Editor” or e-mail: editor@greatercharlottebiz.com.

• Editorial or advertising inquiries, please call or fax at the numbers above or e-mail: info@greatercharlottebiz.com.

• Subscription inquiries or change of address, please call or fax at the numbers above or visit our Web site: www.greatercharlottebiz.com. © Copyright 2006 by Galles Communications Group, Inc. All rights reserved.The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable.

However, Galles Communications Group, Inc. makes no warranty to the accuracy or reliability of this information.

Products named in these pages are trade names or trademarks of their respective companies.Views expressed herein are not necessarily those of Greater Charlotte Biz or Galles Communications Group, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. For reprints call 704-676-5850 x102.

Greater Charlotte Biz (ISSN 1554-6551) is published monthly by Galles Communications Group, Inc., 5601 77 Center Dr., Ste. 250, Charlotte, NC 28217-0736.

Telephone: 704-676-5850. Fax: 704-676-5853. Subscription rate is $24 for one year. Periodicals postage pending at Charlotte, N.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Greater Charlotte Biz, 5601 77 Center Dr., Ste. 250, Charlotte, NC 28217-0736.

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[employersbiz]

Legislative and Regulatory Highlights for Area Employers

M a n ag i n g t h e M u l t i ge n e r a t i o n a l Wo r k f o rc e : Balancing Baby boomers live to work, while Generation Xers work to live, and each generation regards the other with the same sort of unease as a grandfather peering across the dining-room table at his bluehaired, heavily tattooed and pierced granddaughter, according to experts in multigenerational employee management.

So how do employers manage employees of different generations? With kid gloves and boatloads of respect, according to these experts.

The current workforce includes four generations, defined by Robert W. Wendover, managing director of the Center for Generational Studies in Aurora, Colo., as: • Traditionals are those 61 years old and over who came of age in the Depression/World War II era. These workers generally value hard work and prudence and are comfortable in a hierarchical environment.

• Baby boomers, the bulk of whom are now in their 50s, are the proverbial “pig in the python” generation that is still shaping society because of its very size. The boomers grew up during an economic explosion that launched an era of consumerism combined with social unrest and upheaval.

• Generation X were born in the 1960s and 1970s and most are now in their 30s. They came of age in another era of social chaos and are generally skeptical of institutions and authority.

• Generation Y or Millennials are a large group, nearly as large as the boomers. They are just beginning to enter the workforce and show signs of more idealism than Xers and a phenomenal adeptness at technology.

Slackers and Workaholics All these groups have different attitudes toward work and may find each other maddening, Wendover says.

Traditionals, the oldest members of the workforce, matured in an age of global

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depression and world war, and came away from that with a need for conformity, respect for authority, and a bias toward prudence and economy, says Jonathan Armendariz, manager of the Dispute Resolution Program at the University of New Mexico. These workers are the ones “who will turn the file folders inside out” to re-use them, he says.

Boomers, for all their vaunted iconoclasm, are nearly as work-oriented as their elders but have a greater need to excel, Armendariz says. They also opened doors to gender and racial equality in ways the traditionalist generation never dreamed of, he says.

However, now that they are usually the bosses, boomers have become traditionalists in the sense of having in mind an “ideal” employee and “trying to make everyone clones” of that paragon, says Claire Raines, a Denverbased author who has written or coauthored seven books on multigenerational management.

And these boomers are now managing Generation Xers, who were also raised in an era of social upheaval, but not prosperity, Armendariz says. Many were children of single parents and became the latchkey generation. As a result they are pragmatic, suspicious of institutions, results oriented, and self-reliant, Armendariz says. While boomers live to work, Generation Xers view work as more of a contract and assume that “when I’ve done it, I can go home,” Wendover says.

The result is the boomer sees the Xer as a slacker, and the Xer sees the boomer as a workaholic, Raines says. This divergent view causes all kinds of problems in the workplace, she says. For example, a boomer boss who offers an Xer a promotion that means longer hours and more travel for higher pay and future growth may be stunned when the Xer refuses.

“Xers don’t define themselves as what they do,” Wendover says. “There’s less

commitment. The Xer will say ‘let me do it my way and when I finish, let me go home,’” Wendover says.

Millennials Adept at Technology Millennials are now entering the workforce with a set of unique expectations and behaviors, analysts says. They are also the first generation to enter the workforce that has been hooked up to the Internet virtually since birth. The result is that they are profoundly technologically adept and also dependent on technology.

The Millennials are more civic minded and community involved than Generation X, as well as collaborative and idealistic, Raines says. The downside of that is that, because they have always been taught that they were so special, they are easily discouraged, she says.

A recent survey of 6,809 Canadian and U.S. workers by Steelcase Inc., a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based office furniture company, shows that Millennials are three times more likely to work off-site or while traveling than other employees, formal meeting spaces are less important to them than their older co-workers, and they are less distracted by noise. They also are disproportionately likely to use technology in their work and lives.

So, if a Millennial employee “has his iPod in his ears, is text messaging his friends, and calling his mother while he’s working, ignore it,” Wendover advises.

“Otherwise they’ll leave.”

Managing Multiple Generations How does an employer keep workers of different generations from strangling each other? Or as Armendariz put it, “How do you build communities with this complexity?”

First of all, understanding each group’s predilections is fundamental, experts agree. While the various generations may grate on each other’s nerves, they can be amazingly productive when

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Access to EmployerProvided Health Promotion Benefits Is Increasing

Tr a d i t i o n a l s , B o o m e r s , X s a n d Y s working in teams, Armendariz says.

Some suggestions for getting the most out of a multigenerational workforce include building cross-generational project teams, letting Xers and Millennials mentor boomers and traditionals on technology, and having older generations instill younger employees with a sense of the living history of an organization, according to Armendariz.

All communication should be made without generational assumptions, Wendover says. For example, a boomer managing a clothing store may define himself by his job and obsess about making everything perfect and winning sales awards, while a Millennial he hires as a salesclerk may not even realize that if a garment falls off the rack, part of his job is to pick it up and rehang it, Wendover says. “They just don’t think of that,” he says.

The challenge in managing the younger generations in the workforce is to maintain their engagement, says Giselle Kovary and Adwoa Buahene, managing partners in Toronto-based n-gen People Performance Inc., which specializes in multigenerational performance management.

Engagement has been found in many studies to track productivity and can

keep an Xer or Millennial with an employer despite the current deterioration of worker loyalty, Kovary says.

Still, companies run by traditionalists and boomers may fail to understand the “what’s-in-it-for-me” mindset of younger workers and consequently make uninformed decisions about how to engage younger workers, Kovary says.

For example, Buahene says a bank client recently told her that their reward for employees staying a year with the company was a letter from the bank chairman and a tie clip with the corporate logo on it, a reward that might have appealed to the World War II generation, but not younger workers.

“My jaw just frankly hit the table,” she says.

Meanwhile, Raines says that familiarity with the vernacular of generational differences can assist HR and individual managers in distinguishing between generational conflicts and personal animosity.

“The key thing is to get people to accept that these differences are OK,” she says. “Generational analysis gives us new clues about human behavior, but it doesn’t let us off the hook on understanding people as individuals.”

(Bureau of National Affairs)

Workday Over 9 Hours Per Day Full-time American workers on an average weekday in 2005 spent 9.1 hours on the job and related travel, 7.6 hours sleeping, 3.0 hours engaging in leisure and sports activities, and 0.9 hour performing household chores, according to figures recently released by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The remaining 3.4 hours in the average workweek day were spent in various other activities, including caring for and helping children or other household members, shopping, and eating and drinking. The time spent on the

greater charlotte biz

daily commute to and from work was about equal to the time devoted to personal grooming (0.7 hour each).

(Bureau of National Affairs)

Time spent: On the Job Sleeping Leisure and Sports Household Chores Commuting Personal Grooming Other Activities * time with other household members, shopping, eating, drinking

Hours per Day

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The proportion of U.S. private sector workers with access to employer-provided health promotion benefits has increased substantially over the past six years, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

According to a recent BLS analysis, access rates for all three categories of health promotion benefits – employee assistance programs (EAPs), wellness programs, and fitness centers – increased from 1999 to 2005.

“In recent years, concern for preventive healthcare measures, such as smoking cessation and a more active lifestyle, has given rise to greater employee access to health promotion benefits,” says BLS economist Eli Stoltzfus.

EAPs were available to 40 percent of all workers in 2005, up from 33 percent in 1999. EAPs include access to referral or counseling services for problems such as alcohol and drug abuse and financial and legal difficulties, and are the most prevalent health promotion benefit available to workers according to the BLS. Access to wellness programs increased from 17 percent of workers in 1999 to 23 percent in 2005, offering help in areas such as stress management, nutrition education, and smoking cessation, according to the report.

Access to fitness centers, including both onsite facilities and employer-subsidized health club memberships, increased from nine percent of employees in 1999 to 13 percent in 2005.

(Bureau of National Affairs) biz The Employers Association is a nonprofit Charlotte organization providing comprehensive human resources and training services. Founded in 1958, the Association maintains a broadbased membership of over 700 companies from all industries in the greater Charlotte region.

The above excerpts were taken from The Management Report, the Association’s monthly newsletter. For more information, please call Laura Hampton at 704-522-8011 or visit the Web site at www.employersassoc.com.

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[ontop] Awards & Achievements Deborah Millhouse, president of CEO Inc., has been named to the faculty of The Presidents’ Forum of Charlotte, an invitational program for corporate leadDeborah Millhouse ership and has also been named a Charlotte Business Journal 2006 Women in Business Achievement Award winner.

Advertising & Media WFAE 90.7FM, Charlotte’s NPR News Source, and reporter Simone Orendain have received first place recognition in The Green Eyeshade Excellence Simone Orendain in Journalism Awards, covering 11 states in the Southeast.

Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence (MAME) has awarded Burke Communications two Gold Awards for projects from 2005.

89.9 WDAV, Classical Public Radio, has announced the appointment of Christopher Helfrich as director of development and Marty Cronin as corporate support representative.

Internet marketing agency WebsiteBiz has hired Meredith Ong as accounting manager.

Business & Professional Dixon Hughes PLLC has been rated as one of the most prestigious accounting firms in the United States according to the recently released third edition of the Vault Guide to the Top Accounting Firms.

John F. Baron has been named partnerin-charge of Alston & Bird’s Charlotte office. Mark Vasco has joined the firm as a partner in its litigation and trial practice group.

The Charlotte office of Daniel, Ratliff & Company has promoted Brian Huber and Larry Gerber to client service directors and Marya Goodnight, A.J. Negley, Pam Smith and Amy Johnson to senior client service providers. Martha

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XEROX

[ontop] D. Michael has become a shareholder in the firm.

Fluent Language Solutions has promoted vice president of sales and marketing Jim Pfeiffer to chief marketing officer and Cheryl Cheryl Pfeiffer Pfeiffer to director of interpreting and translating.

Heather N. Johnson has joined Nexsen Pruet Adams Kleemeier as an associate working in the Charlotte office’s real estate group.

The Bray Law Firm has hired Shannon Vandiver as an associate attorney in the firm’s litigation practice.

Construction & Design LandDesign, an urban planning, civil engineering and landscape architecture company, has hired new engineers for its Charlotte office: Patrick Bischoff, Matthew Bramwell, Joshua Carmichael, Erin Day, Bob Mainones, Marc Momsen, Adam Phillips, Crystal Scheip, Todd Gingerich and Julie Roberts.

Ecoscape Solutions Group has been ranked the 43rd largest fullservice landscape company in the country by Landscape Management magazine.

Bonsal American has named Dennis Bowman as Dennis Bowman director of engineering and hired Ken Walden as an area sales manager for South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ken Walden Delaware and Maryland.

BOYLE, a Carolina materials testing and monitoring firm, has promoted Todd Tamasy to operations manager and Ross Fletcher to construction services manager.

Education & Staffing Dr. Thomas M. Hassell has been appointed associate vice chancellor for research and dean for graduate studies at North Carolina Agricultural and

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[ontop] Technical State University. The university has named Marvin H. Watkins as interim senior vice chancellor for the division of Development and University Relations.

Queens University of Charlotte has promoted Susan Gary to vice president of finance and treasurer and has hired Bill Means as its new director of internships and career programs.

Moira Quinn, senior vice president of communication and chief operating officer for Charlotte Center City Partners Moira Quinn (CCCP), has been appointed president of Queens University of Charlotte’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Queens University of Charlotte has announced new faculty members: Dr. Mohammed el-Nawawy, Dr. Gary Powell, Dr. Daina Nathaniel, Dr. Janice Janken, Andrea Thelen, Dr. Steven Cox, Dr. Carrie DeJaco, Dr. Greg Pillar, and Peggy Patton, and the promotion of faculty members: Dr. Dimitra Acheson, Dr. Eric Lien, Dr. John Repede and Dr. R. Kent Rhodes for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Lee Hecht Harrison, a global human capital consulting company, has promoted Sarah Dollander to vice president of business Sarah Dollander development for the firm.

Teresa Dahlberg, an associate professor of computer science at UNCC, has received the Charlotte Business Journal’s Diversity Teresa Dahlberg in Business Award.

Brandon Gilliland has joined the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as controller.

Charlotte Preparatory School has hired Cordelia Anderson as director of marketing.

Paulette Ashlin has joined Coleman Lew & Associates, an executive search firm, as a partner; she is a recipient of the Paulette Ashlin

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[ontop] 2006 Charlotte Business Journal’s Women in Business Achievement Award.

Leigh Ann Loyd has joined CEO Inc. as account executive.

Engineering Gantt Huberman Architects has received the 2006 AIA North Carolina Firm Award, the highest honor the Chapter can bestow upon a firm that has consistently produced quality architecture.

Sepi Asefnia, president of SEPI Engineering Group, has hired Rick Baker as a project manager in the firm’s Site Development practice.

Stevyn Buie and Enrique “Rick” Fals have joined Peterson Associates as architects.

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Financial & Insurance Hinrichs Flanagan Financial, a Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company general agency in Charlotte, has been given the 2006 Mass Mutual Community Service Award accompanied by a $10,000 grant for Habitat for Humanity Charlotte.

Timothy C. Flanagan Jr., general agent for Hinrichs Flanagan Financial, has been named a 2006 International Management Tim Flanagan Award Diamond qualifier in GAMA International’s Distribution Management Awards program, and has been recognized with a listing in the 2006 Charlotte Business Journal 40 Under 40 list of young leaders. John Branstrom, also of the firm, has been named to the Million Dollar Round Table for the 32nd consecutive year.

Norris R. Woody Jr., a financial professional with AXA Advisors, LLC in Charlotte, has earned a Certificate in Retirement Planning from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

First Charter has promoted Jenna Wallerius, Community Bank Operations Services, to banking officer.

HomeBanc has promoted Erik Stephens to assistant vice president in the company’s Charlotte office.

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[ontop] Kyle Bruns has joined First Charter in Charlotte as an investment consultant.

Tiffany Callahan, Chris Reshetar and Melinda Rothwell have joined HomeServices Financial, the in-house mortgage lending partner for Prudential Carolinas Realty.

Government & Non-Profit United Way of Central Carolinas is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in the Charlotte community.

The Arts & Science Council (ASC) has announced that Jennifer Appleby, president and chief creative officer of Wray Ward Laseter, will serve as Board Chair for 2006-2007.

Junior Achievement of Central Carolinas has named Tamara F. Brainerd as vice president of development.

Herman Stone, president/CEO of Consolidated Theatres, has been reappointed to the North Carolina Film Council

by Governor Mike Easley.

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Health Care The Presbyterian Healthcare Board of Trustees has appointed Jim Palermo as its newest member.

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Brokering

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Real Estate Commercial/Residential Ameritrust Mortgage Company, LLC, a privately held residential mortgage lender headquartered in Charlotte, has been recognized in Inc. magazine’s 25th annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. The company has also been honored in Carolina Parent Magazine’s Family Friendly 40 companies for working families in the Carolinas.

Merit Properties has added former Family Dollar Stores’ real estate manager, Bryan Hartnett, to work in Multifamily and Retail Real Estate Bryan Hartnett projects in the greater Charlotte market.

Beacon Partners, developers of office and industrial space, has hired Eric

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[ontop] Ridlehoover to join its leasing team.

Larry Rutledge has been named director of training and development for Weichert, Realtors Rebhan & Associates.

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Our Philosophy We believe we are rewarded only to the extent that we add value to those we are privileged to serve. At Daniel, Ratliff & Company, we are here to serve you, to help your business achieve its goals. We do so by learning your business and the challenges you face, then working with you to guide you toward success.

“I think Daniel, Ratliff & Company has a real genuine interest in the success of our business. We have many different business entities, and we could not have managed them without Daniel, Ratliff & Company’s help.” ~ Wayne Kirby K & M Tire Company ©2006 Galles Communications Group, Inc.

Retail & Sports & Entertainment Greg Economou, NBA senior vice president of marketing and communications, has been named executive vice president and chief marketing officer Greg Economou for Bobcats Sports & Entertainment.

Madison Marquette has announced that Caroline Adams has joined the company as its director of marketing for Monroe Mall.

The Championships at the Palisades has announced Lynn Beck as its Co-Tournament Chairperson.

Maddi’s Gallery of Charlotte and Huntersville, has been named Best New Gallery at the NICHE Maddi’s Gallery Top Retailer Awards Ceremony from more than 18,000 craft artisans.

New Market Waste Solutions, a refuse and recycling management company, has added Dean W. Rank to its sales management team in Dean Rank its Charlotte headquarters.

Michelle Kennedy has been named new director of event services for Charlotte Arrangements.

trust+strategy+integrity+planning+insight+experience

At the lake:

Uptown office:

Daniel Ratliff & Company 107 Kilson Dr., Ste. 205, Mooresville, NC 28117

Daniel Ratliff & Company 301 S. McDowell St., Ste. 502, Charlotte, NC 28204

704.663.0193

704.371.5000

www.danielratliff.com

Technology Peak 10, an independent data center operator and managed services company, has been named to Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. biz To be considered for inclusion, please send your news releases and announcements in the body of an e-mail (only photos attached) to editor@greatercharlottebiz.com, or fax them to 704-676-5853, or post them to our business address – at least 30 days prior to our publication date.

greater charlotte biz

october 2006

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pictured (l to r): James Crawford, President; Lou White, CEO PokerTek, Inc.

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by ellison clary

Cards are dealt to hands and on the table. The players bet, raise and call. A full house beats two pair. After the winner gets an automated payoff, the poker hand has taken less than a minute and the players perform it all electronically. There is no dealer and the cards are electronic.

It is a demonstration hand of Texas Hold ’Em played in the Matthews, N.C., offices of PokerTek, Inc., on the company’s signature product, the PokerPro electronic poker table.

That table is designed to increase casino revenue and security while helping to reduce card room labor costs. The company says it also improves the gaming experience by cutting out dealer and player mistakes, eliminating the need for dealer tipping and providing additional data such as chip stack and pot greater charlotte biz

[bizprofile]

calculations. There’s also the option to view hands previously played.

In an 18,000-squarefoot office, three-year-old PokerTek assembles the 10-seat tables, then leases them to gaming venues such as casinos, cruise ships and card clubs.

The hand of poker described is being played by Lou White and James Crawford, PokerTek’s chief executive and president, respectively, with a visiting writer. All three chuckle at how the electronic table simulates card-playing action flawlessly while it eliminates the possibility of betting out of turn or a misdeal.

“Our chief technical officer says this is the only project he’s ever worked on that can make a grown man giggle,” says a smiling Crawford. ® october 2006

15

Now traded on NASDAQ, PokerTek has come a long way since August of 2003 when the idea for its inception was sparked by an off-hand remark.

Good friends since 1989, White was on sabbatical from his job as a national account executive with computer giant Dell and Crawford was tiring of running his area “FastSigns” franchise stores.

Marveling at the popularity of televised poker tournaments, they devised a plan to make card clubs – mainly a California phenomenon in this country – operate more efficiently.

White wangled a meeting for himself and Crawford with gaming legend Lyle Berman in Berman’s Las Vegas condo.

They discussed the White-Crawford business plan.

“Lyle looked up,” White remembers, “and he said, ‘You know, guys, in 25 years I don’t think there will be dealers in poker games.’ The second he said that, a light bulb flashed on and we took a lefthand turn in our business.”

That turn led to the formation of

“

PokerTek, with investments from Berman and others to fund White and Crawford’s efforts to devise an automated poker table. Berman assumed the chairmanship of the company, a move that White and Crawford call a huge vote of confidence.

After all, Berman had merged his Grand Casinos Inc. with Hilton Casinos to form the Lakes Gaming Corporation conglomerate in 1998. Then he created the World Poker Tour for The Travel Channel in 2001. That sparked the incredible rise of poker in the American leisure consciousness.

“Lyle is to gaming what Hugh McColl is to banking,” says White. By contrast, White is an occasional card player and Crawford doesn’t gamble often.

Outsiders Have the Advantage “One of the advantages we have is we are outsiders,” White explains. “If you look at poker, automated play makes a lot of sense. But there was this mental

block that it just wouldn’t work and players wouldn’t accept it. And James and I were too dumb to know that it wasn’t possible. That’s one of the reasons we got this thing off the ground.”

White and Crawford went to work in White’s southeast Charlotte basement. “I would come over after work and saw plywood,” Crawford remembers. “I was cutting holes for monitors and such.”

They were working on a prototype.

“We probably spent six months and a half million dollars to get there,” White reckons.

Completion on that first working model happened late one Saturday afternoon, but both men remember it wasn’t a big-bang moment.

“It was more like we had a system that would show hole cards,” White says. “That’s cool. Can we show chips?

Okay, that’s cool. It involved a lot of baby steps. But we sat there and we bet and we raised and we bluffed – it was poker.”

Crawford recalls their first game on the contraption they’d ®

A final phase is when it becomes the standard, when you would not have a poker room without some percentage of your tables being automated. We are working feverishly for that end game.

”

~ Lou White, CEO 16

october 2006

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players and dealers.

“What we’re running them on are things that dealers don’t mind not having to deal,” Funke says. “These tables are very efficient at running low-limit, single-table tournaments, and they’re not really affecting the dealers and their take-home pay.”

View of cards down as seen from the players seat.

created. “It was not on a table,” he smiles. “It was just a monitor here, a monitor there and we had a center monitor. We had it all hooked together.”

White insists he won that first hand, but it was truly only the beginning. It Confirmation screens help in eliminating the showed White and Crawford and their investors that they could create an auto- errors typical in traditional card play. mated table. They still had to prove that After an April 2006 test on a ship their finished product would do what sailing from Miami to the Caribbean, they claimed: speed up poker hands, Carnival Cruise Lines has ordered eliminate dealers and the need to tip PokerPro tables for 24 of its vessels. them, prevent human error, and help Hollywood Park Casino, based in novices pick up the game.

Los Angeles, is putting in six PokerPro “Fast forward two and a half years tables, and that stands out because and another $8 million,” White says.

California boasts a high concentration “Now we have a product that has perof card clubs. “Of the 7,000 poker fected the play of poker. Under the tables in the world,” White says, “1,300 hood of this table, we have all the are in California.” electrical and gaming-dictated elecBusiness is picking up internationaltronics that must be here to operate on ly, too. Australia’s Aristocrat, the world’s a casino floor.” second largest gaming firm, agreed to PokerTek has already placed in be PokerTek’s exclusive distributor outoperation 14 PokerPro tables, which it side the United States and Canada. leases for $6,000 a month. They estiFurther, it bought 10 percent of mate orders in the pipeline will take PokerTek. Meanwhile, Crown Casino of them to around 100 tables installed by Melbourne, Australia, the largest casino the end of 2006. Though the company in the Southern Hemisphere, has still isn’t breaking even, White and ordered 20 PokerPros.

Crawford foresee that happening someHalfway around the world, time in 2007 when they reckon they Aristocrat has helped PokerTek get regwill have between 150 and 200 tables ulatory approval from the British in various venues around the world.

Gaming Commission for the use of PokerPro in casinos and card rooms in Setting Milestones the United Kingdom.

Though young, the company has Dealing with different rules in various achieved some important milestones. locations has been a headache.

They’ve got two PokerPro tables in the “Regulatory hurdles involved in bringing Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino a product and a company like ours into in Tampa, Fla. Henry Funke, the casino’s different jurisdictions are a major part of poker room manager, told Gaming our business,” Crawford says shaking his News he’s seen the PokerPro tables head. “In the gaming industry, having a overcome early resistance from both license is not a right, it’s a privilege.”

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october 2006

White and Crawford believe the financial case for automated poker is solid. PokerPro streamlines poker to the point that players can complete 50 percent more hands in an hour than with a human dealer.

“If you go on the assumption that a PokerPro table generates an additional $300,000 of net income per table per year for the casino, which it does, then you’re looking at a collective profit pool of $2.1 billion that’s out there for the casinos to take advantage of whenever they’re ready,” White says.

He adds another thought. “Who will get the money that’s tipped to dealers this year?” he asks rhetorically? “That’s another $600 million to $700 million.

So we’ve got almost $3 billion annually of a profit pool that this technology will help capture. Those are some fairly stiff economic winds.”

Competition Is Welcome Competition is rising fast. There are automated poker companies in various parts of the world and one in Pennsylvania has sued PokerTek. It claims PokerTek’s pursuit of 33 patents amounts to a conspiracy to prevent competition.

White and Crawford shrug. Their competition, they believe, is where they

PokerTek, Inc. 1020 Crews Rd., Ste. J Matthews, N.C. 28106 Phone: 704-849-0860 or 1-800-785-0284 Principals: Lyle Berman, chairman; Lou White, chief executive officer; James Crawford, president Established: 2003 Employees: 54 NASDAQ: PTEK Business: Formed to develop and market the PokerPro system, an electronic poker table that provides a fully-automated poker room environment designed to increase casino revenue and security while helping reduce labor costs associated with poker rooms. Clients include tribal casinos, commercial casinos, cruise ships and card clubs. www.pokertek.com

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The large screen in the center of the table allows players to easily keep track of betting, pots and side pots for each hand.

were when they were experimenting in White’s basement. Ultimately, they say, competition can help them bring automated poker into the mainstream.

White compares automated poker to the progressive acceptance of automated teller machines.

“Any new technology goes through three stages,” White says. “The first phase is novelty, and that’s where we are now. But technologies that catch on get to the second stage that’s called acceptance. Then they go into the third stage that’s called the standard.”

White thinks automated poker will

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follow the lead of slot machines, which evolved from quarters poked in and coins cascading into a hopper to today’s tickets that players insert into electronic devices.

“We believe, based on player reactions we’ve seen, it’s a matter of time before this is no longer a novelty,” White says, “when a poker player can go into a room and see automated poker and accept it. A final phase is when it becomes the standard, when you would not have a poker room without some percentage of your tables being automated. We are working feverishly for that end game.”

Helping them are 54 employees who enjoy the company’s relaxed work atmosphere that allows them to wear casual clothes and encourages them to feel like an extended family.

“Every day at PokerTek is exciting because we have so much opportunity,” says Crawford, who grew up in Charlotte

and finished at Myers Park High. He’s pleased that 13 PokerTek workers are native Charlotteans.

Both Crawford and White, a North Carolina State University alumnus who was born in Texas and raised in Chicago, are adamant that the PokerTek headquarters will remain in the Charlotte area.

And they have other thoughts about the company’s future.

“We think not so much about numbers of tables,” White says, “but are we putting the tables in the right spots with the right customers. That will help us move from novelty to acceptance.”

If their PokerPro remains only a novelty, it could proliferate to between 500 and 700 tables in operation as a niche product. But if it moves from novelty to acceptance, as they are betting it will, they could have as many as 1,500 tables operating around the world by 2011.

“If you do the math on that,” White says, “it will be a very profitable business.” biz Ellison Clary is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

october 2006

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pictured (l to r) Arthur G. Nevid, Managing Director of Investment and Lending; Peter J. Fioretti, CEO Mountain Funding, L.L.C.

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by lisa hoffmann

[bizprofile]

Disciplined Deals for Opportunistic Real Estate Investments Mezzanine Debt Non-Recourse

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Mountain Funding Offers Unique Financing Alternatives for Commercial Investors Meeting Peter Fioretti, chief financial officer of Mountain Funding, L.L.C., one is immediately struck by his casual demeanor. If you were expecting an Armani suit and silk power tie, forget it. This fit and energetic guy turns out in crisp jeans and a polo shirt, albeit with a sharp crease ironed into each sleeve. His office in tawny Ballantyne Corporate Park is understated and efficient, the staff friendly and welcoming. But one look at his desk and you get a clear picture of how Fioretti functions. The polished wood desk is of the stand-up variety so that he can work, blue tooth-enabled wireless telephone headset carefully secured in place, while moving freely around his office.

Stacks of carefully arranged paperwork sit all along its u-shaped expanse. 速

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“I hardly ever sit down when I’m working,” Fioretti says, fidgeting even as he sits courteously across the conference table. That polo-shirted exterior and “call me Pete” demeanor belie a whirling powerhouse of financial fortitude leading a commercial real estate funding firm that backs opportunistic – and potentially risky – transactions nationwide as one of the largest private lenders in the country.

Fioretti has learned the art of self-discipline to an exquisite turn and it extends through everything he does.

The Low-Down on Hard Money Mountain Funding specializes in funding commercial real estate transactions with “hair,” an industry term referring to complications. “Hairy” predicaments might involve distressed debt or partnership buyouts, bankruptcy issues, borrower background issues, or, more often than not, simply the need for a quick – sometimes within two weeks – closing. Under-performing projects have the potential for significant value increases with management changes, renovation, expansion or conversion. Sometimes a developer has the opportunity to acquire property well below market value because he’s had it under option for a while, he’s dealing with a distressed seller, or he has an inside on the marketplace and was able to negotiate a deal before it went to market. In any of these cases the developer needs to move fast to secure the deal. But

hair will cost you. One-year term rates start at 10 percent, but are supported by above-average returns to the borrower because of the opportunistic situation.

Most times, the investor’s returns allow even the priciest terms to pay off.

“Oftentimes, opportunistic equals extremely profitable for developers,” Fioretti says. “The typical equity investor takes a large percentage of the profit off the back end. Rarely will they go in for a fixed return. Developers can keep more profits by capping out the return with us.”

Mountain Funding also provides shortterm capital requirements needed to bridge a gap. But here’s where discipline once again comes into play. Fioretti and his staff will not agree to any deal that doesn’t have a reasonably assured exit strategy built in. In hard money lending, risk assessment is the name of the game.

Being selective is the winning strategy.

Discipline, it’s all about discipline.

About 100 deals are presented for the firm’s consideration each week. Of those 100 deals, Fioretti and his team typically consider about five. Of those five deals,

the firm will sign on for only about one every other week. If an initial due diligence team determines the deal looks likely to close, Fioretti hops a plane and goes to see the property himself.

“We’ve been doing this a long time and we have a good gut feel for it,” Fioretti says. “I see the property, I meet the developer and I make the final decision as to whether we do the deal or not. My investors seem to really like that. I also have a great senior team, all of whom have a personal investment in the company and in the deals. Everyone has an extensive development or investment background.

This is not typical in the industry.”

If an investor has less than 30 days to close on a deal, needs $10 million or more and/or there’s a complicated story behind the deal, chances are he’s going to find his way to Mountain Funding or a similar firm. Sometimes the investor has already gone to a conventional bank at 60 to 90 days out but the bank came back and said, “No, it’s too risky, too high leverage, or too complicated.”

“Sometimes banks simply don’t understand what the risk is,” says Arthur Nevid, the firm’s managing director. “There may be an environmental problem on the property and the bank has a policy against environmental issues. But the problem may be very manageable.”

Mountain Funding offers flexible options such as mezzanine debt, where the lender provides the money that is above

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what is otherwise deemed conventional senior debt. For example, if a developer is buying a property for $20 million in an opportunistic situation, a typical lender might lend him 70 percent. A mezzanine lender might be willing to lend up to 90 percent, filling in the 20 percent left after 10 percent equity is left on the deal. That 20 percent is the “mezzanine.” This reduces the developer’s capital investment from $6 million to $2 million, which may be enough to help him close the deal. To make things easier, Mountain Funding also offers the whole 90 percent, not just the mezzanine debt piece, so that there’s one lender, one set of documents and one set of lawyers. These transactions have become industry standard on Wall Street, but not in private lending, according to Fioretti. Mezzanine financing gives developers the high leverage they love without giving up equity profits.

“Our reputation in the industry is that we deliver,” Fioretti explains. “So the developer is happy to pay us what he pays us because we close as promised and he’d rather have us than either not have a deal

at all or have an equity partner that controls him and takes a much larger piece of the profits.”

Charlotte By Way of Hoboken Fioretti worked in banking on Wall Street right out of college. Unable to afford a fancy Manhattan apartment, he rented a place in Hoboken, N.J., previously “a slum” before gentrification began by his description, but just a four-minute train ride from Manhattan. He noticed a lot of other suit-and-tie businessmen getting off at the Hoboken stop every night after work. He talked 12 college buddies into investing $5,000 each to buy the apartment building he was living in and then negotiated a joint venture deal with a local builder to do a condominium conversion.

“We made a heck of a profit on that deal,” Fioretti remembers. “Then my buddies’ dads began investing in subsequent real estate ventures. I quickly moved from banking into real estate.”

On his 25th birthday Fioretti quit Wall Street altogether. Within three years he built up a $150 million portfolio in

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Hoboken and Jersey City. But he grew dissatisfied with the amount of time he was spending managing his 100 employees, leaving little time for involvement in the real estate dealings themselves. He sold off the company’s assets in 1988, a great time to sell, and made enough to begin investing in other real estate developers.

Things went along swimmingly until about 1990, when the market began to decline. In the early ’90s he was left with a handful of investments with other developers, developers that couldn’t make good on their loans. As an investor he was involved with the workout negotiations. The banks were impressed with him and hired him as a real estate investment consultant.

“As a consultant I helped work out some of the deals where the developer and bank could agree on a deal but neither had the capital to invest in making it work,” Fioretti explains. “That’s when I decided to finance some of those deals. I contacted my old investor group and started Mountain Funding in 1993.”

The firm started by funding small local deals and within a year it had attracted ®

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institutional investors. In 1997 Arthur Nevid was hired to take the program national. Realizing that with a national company he could live anywhere, Fioretti searched for a place that was pro-business, had great growth potential, offered easy access for traveling that was in a moderate climate and had a young, family-friendly demographic. Charlotte fit the bill.

“Everyone’s been just great since I moved here,” Fioretti says. “From the business people who helped me meet the people I needed to know to the people who helped us get our two young children situated in school. We knew right away that we’d made the right choice.”

All that introducing around paid off in a big way a few years after Fioretti relocated. Wachovia became Mountain Funding’s largest institutional lender in the summer of 2002.

No Smoke, No Mirrors Okay, so Mountain Funding offers capital to investors taking advantage of highly opportunistic deals in the hopes of a big payday. One of the greatest advantages they offer is a quick closing with dependable delivery on the promised date. How do they do that?

To prevent “hair” from clogging up the works, Mountain Funding relies on a vast network of due diligence specialists,

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13860 Ballantyne Corporate Pl., Ste. 130 Charlotte, N.C. 28277 Phone: 704-540-7400 Principals: Peter J. Fioretti, CEO;Arthur G. Nevid, Managing Director of Investment and Lending Employees: 13 Established: 1993 Business: A direct lender that provides unique private financing alternatives to real estate developers and owners; offers one-stop, non-recourse financing best suited for opportunistic, undervalued or otherwise time-sensitive investment situations; projects include land acquisitions, land development, condo conversions; commercial and residential repositionings, expansions and improvements. www.mountainfunding.com

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made up of third-party national firms, that moves very quickly in a focused way to assess the risks of a deal, get through due diligence and get to closing. Rapidly moving through due diligence is expensive. To get an appraisal firm to produce an appraisal in a week or two, when it typically takes a month, requires the proper motivation.

“For an additional ten or twenty thousand dollars the developer can close on a $50 million deal in 30 days with us versus 90 days with someone else,” Fioretti says.

“By waiting 90 days he would have missed out on that deal.”

Quick, reliable closings are what help keep Mountain Funding ahead of the competition. Fioretti cites several national funding organizations as his biggest competitors but says he doesn’t lose sleep over the competition. The heads of each of these firms engage in friendly information sharing with the knowledge that there are plenty of opportunities to go around and that each firm has its strengths. It’s usually clear which firm is the best for a particular deal and if they want it, they get it. Competition isn’t Fioretti’s major concern. His focus is on staying disciplined for the next big thing in investing: waiting for the real estate bubble to burst.

“Every market is different, but there are places in Arizona, Florida and California where prices have appreciated 20 to 30 percent per annum,” Fioretti explains. “Those markets are in the midst of a downturn right now. Many people are still in denial, but it’s a fact. Those markets are going to take a short-term sharp decline in prices and absorption. I believe there will be a liquidity crisis for residential and land deals across the country, and we are poised to fund the types of deals that take advantage of that marketplace. There will be opportunities to purchase distressed debt and finance workouts. The trick is in the timing. We need to be disciplined, sit back and wait until the time is right to start dealing.”

Several times in the last decade there have been liquidity crunches in the market place. With each financial crisis investment money dries up, causing loan defaults and difficult deals. Mountain

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Funding has a distinct advantage in that it has had the same institutional equity partner since 1994, a partner that started with a $7 million fund and manages a $2 billion fund today. “It was a marriage made in heaven,” Fioretti says.

As luck would have it, lots of opportunistic situations arise when the market goes sideways. With a stable capital partner, Mountain Funding has been able to close profitable deals throughout each crisis. “Those were challenging times but also very good times that let

us go to the next step,” Fioretti says.

The formula is working. Four years ago, Mountain Funding’s annual capital investments were in the $25 million range.

Last year, they topped $400 million.

With the thought of an impending real estate crisis fresh in his mind, Fioretti can sit no longer. He jumps up, bids a polite goodbye and heads back to his office, speaking under his breath. “It’s time to go make some money today.” biz Lisa Hoffmann is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

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Ruth Crowley President Motorsports Authentics, LLC

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NASCAR’S IDENTITY Keeping Motorsports Authentic

Hearken, NASCAR fans. You are being watched!

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After all, there are 75 million NASCAR fans out there, and growing. And studies show that fans are passionate, hardworking, dedicated, have some money to burn, and are – yes, loyal.

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6301 Performance Drive Concord, N.C. 28027 Phone: 704-454-4000 or 1-888-855-8827 Principal: Ruth Crowley, President Established: 2005 Employees: 250 in headquarters, 250 at warehouse Additional Locations: Atlanta (merchandise staging warehouse) Joint Venture: Company is a 50-50 joint venture of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., a marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment and owner of six premier speedway facilities and the Performance Racing Network; and International Speedway Corporation, owner of several motorsports facilities, owner and operator of: MRN sports radio, the nation’s largest independent sports radio network; DAYTONA USA, the “Ultimate Motorsports Attraction” in Daytona Beach;Americrown Service Corporation, a provider of catering services, food and beverage concessions, and merchandise sales; and Motorsports International, a producer and marketer of motorsports-related merchandise.

Business: Licenses, manufactures, markets and promotes merchandise for the majority of NASCAR teams; major brands include Chase Authentics apparel,Action Performance,Team Caliber, goracing.com, Funline,Trevco, and Minichamps. www.motorsports-authentics.com www.action-performance.com

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and the NASCAR industry works hard to keep the spirit of NASCAR in the hands of the fans.

At the helm of Motorsports Authentics is former Dubliner Ruth Crowley. She came to the company from the merchandise division of Harley-Davidson, where she was in charge of design and development of all Harley-Davidson clothing, functional gear, gifts and collectibles and all licensing and distribution, as well as brand management and dealer development.

Crowley, who also spent time with Universal Studios, Host Marriott Corporation, Eddie Bauer, The Limited and May Company, came from Harley-Davidson with a certain reputation for her refusal to compromise the integrity of the product under any circumstance, which has earned her a lot of credit in the respect department.

She explains the heart of merchandising best: “Merchandise is what I believe to be a fan’s connection to the sport, what brings them close and makes them a part of it. In addition to hard dollars, there is a lot of emotional and psychological currency being spent to enhance the experience and memorialize these events.”

Crowley is an articulate and erudite marketer. But she is far from what fans might fear is becoming a number crunching, cell phone toting, suit-fest with the single goal of draining their wallets. In fact, she is a diminutive brunette with a lilted Irish brogue and a passion for the color purple, who also harbors absolutely no compunction about speaking her mind.

And honestly, she can’t afford to.

Crowley is responsible for managing and balancing the vested interests of team owners, drivers and teams, sponsors, track owners and NASCAR, to make sure everyone is satisfied with representation on the merchandise, as well as assuring that the products the company produces are, in her words, “relevant and authentic.”

It is a weighty responsibility to be highly creative and detail-oriented at the same time. Says Crowley, “Logistically, it can be a dance. Designing merchandise and maintaining the integrity of each key component in terms of team mark, driver’s number, main sponsor, secondary sponsors, event, and team colors on every piece is essential and must be executed perfectly. Every little ®

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spot on a car is a brand mark to one of the sponsors and teams - it is important that it be accurate. We have to handle it with care.”

Yet Crowley is driven to take it a step further. “We try to make sure that the identity of our drivers is translated into our merchandise. So much of the experience is based upon how the fan relates to the drivers – it becomes a personal relationship.”

Finding the heart and soul of an experience and translating that into a product that will crystallize that experience is Crowley’s forte. “Bottom line,” she says, “if you want a customer to connect with a product emotionally or otherwise, it has to be relevant and authentic – this has to be the base principle in all you do.”

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TELEMETRY A lot of racing has to do with strategy, and no less so in the business end of things.

Crowley says, “If there isn’t a plan, it isn’t going to get done.” However, with Motorsports Authentics, the aim is considerably more complicated than ‘turning left and going fast…’

NASCAR merchandising has quite a few tentacles, which extend to collectibles, trackside products, online stores, and the mass retail end seen at Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart and dollar stores. The product for each merchandise channel is differentiated and customized to the market to suit the fan it is in front of at any given time.

The mass retail brand of Motorsports Authentics is Winner’s Circle, which strives to accommodate the 50 percent of NASCAR fans who say that they shop at least once a month in a mass channel.

Comments Crowley, “For the customer at Wal-Mart, the product is just as authentic and collectible as the product at the track. It is just differently constructed and displayed to target different demographics. One demographic might favor bold driver graphics, another team colors or quieter suggestions of affiliation. It is all about the fan, their preferences and the priorities they have in a particular channel at a particular time.”

Another undeniable component of Motorsports Authentics’ strategy is the acquisition of several key brands of merchandise. In December, 2005, the company announced the high profile acquisition of Action Performance Companies, Inc.,

preceded by the purchase of Team Caliber in September 2005 and Chase Authentics, the authentic trackside apparel of NASCAR, in 1998. The company also stables goracing.com, Funline, Trevco, and Minichamps under its fulsome umbrella.

These brands represent the ‘Dream Team’ of NASCAR merchandise; Crowley sees it “as a demonstration of our commitment to building a sustainable model and an authentic experience for the racing fans.”

However, more than the marketing channels or the brands for delivery, Motorsports Authentics places a studied emphasis on the fans themselves. “We have taken research to deeper levels, and especially this year, we have a much heightened sensitivity to the individuality of the fan,” says Crowley. “One size doesn’t fit all. Not only do we need to reach out to all the fans, but we have to reach out to them in a way that is meaningful to them individually.”

For her part, Crowley and her team spend hours at the track, people watching.

She breaks each driver’s fan base into its constituencies, and then tries to go about “finding what the fan wants before they are even aware it exists.” While the level of attention may seem exhausting, Crowley says, “There is no room for complacency – we have to continuously look to find what I call ‘the next right answer’ in order to earn the trust of our stakeholders and maintain share of wallet with our fans. We have a lot of work yet to do!”

After all, there are not only hard-core fans of the type that Crowley says “identifies or aspires to some element they attribute to their favorite driver,” but also fans of corporate affiliation, which can be held concomitantly. The end result is a dizzying ®

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list of fan permutations based on both intuition and statistics.

Crowley specializes in the former, while enjoying great access to the latter. Her time at the track, for example, has enabled her to see that all drivers have distinct types of fan bases. Her talent comes in handy as a party trick: she can hold a brief conversation with a person and correctly guess their favorite driver.

DOWNFORCE! It is this human element that belies the true passion of the sport, and where Ms. Crowley’s talents are heroic. Driver characteristics such as driving styles, track behavior, comeliness or lack thereof, the underdog or the aggressor, and black hat-white hat personas, add drama to the torque.

But speed, like money, is a highly metriced value, and NASCAR is gauged by both. For all its insight and humanity, there is plenty of customer data driven by focus groups, sponsors, NASCAR, ISC and SMI, and other businesses that crunch fan stats this way and that. Comments Crowley, “One huge way that the industry has evolved is that everything has become an information source…you have to be a willing student and be ready for the next data pull.”

Yet, Crowley says that while all the data is extremely valuable, it also needs to be tempered by the situational knowledge acquired at the track and at retail. “There are loads of ideas that haven’t been tapped yet, and a lot of opportunities. We have to stay ahead of the game by being truly invested in the hearts and minds of the fans, in the passion of the drivers to win and in the investment of the race teams and their sponsors to excel.”

Crowley mentioned that up and comer Pablo Montoya will bring an exciting opportunity to customize merchandize for his personality and culture, and that Toyota’s initiation into NASCAR as well as the highly publicized Car of Tomorrow, will bring new products to the fore.

At the same time, Crowley insists that NASCAR will continue to sustain the traditional blue collar fan base. “The NASCAR story is a very human one. Drivers have good days and bad days just like all of us – as long as there is that human element that

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we can continue to relate to, I only see the fan base continuing to grow.”

Which should be quite a challenge for Motorsports Authentics. Walking a tightrope between its two customer bases – NASCAR fans of all shapes, sizes and colors on one side and NASCAR teams, sponsors and owners on the other, the company is poised with thousands of products and a paintbrush ready to do their bidding.

But Crowley is well equipped for the task. She enjoys widespread support from the industry and NASCAR’s leading families – the Frances and the Smiths, which also happen to be her bosses. She is also highly respected by race teams, sponsors and track owners. Her no-nonsense approach, considerable expertise, and penchant for intuiting the customer’s next thought is where the proverbial rubber hits the road.

Crowley attributes much of her success to building a good team and being a continuous learner. “I don’t have a problem with admitting I don’t know everything. I believe you have to continue to be curious to be creative. I am fortunate to gain support and work to earn it every day.”

She also continues to hammer the importance of relevance. “You must not only design quality and value into the product, but also substance and authenticity. You can be innovative, but you must keep it real.”

And perhaps one of Crowley’s most obvi-

ous tenets is the value of people. “Human equity and respect will eventually get you where you want to be. Our team here at Motorsports is awesome. For us, it is not just about product, but also valuing the passions, the time and the pocketbook of the customer that is our business. The legacy of this sport is in our hands….that is serious business.”

Of Motorsports Authentics’ parent companies Crowley comments, “SMI and ISC have a rich legacy in investment in this sport. I believe in their unique respects, SMI and ISC share common values and have always shown a nurturing yet protective approach to the sport, while also continuing to be progressive and evolutionary.

It is a great example of how authenticity can meld with innovation.”

“I believe successful business outcomes are a product of doing things right,” she says with finality.

Whether you are on the field, in the stands, on the couch, or someday visiting Charlotte’s new NASCAR Hall of Fame – Motorsports Authentics is everywhere NASCAR is.

And fortunately for Crowley and Motorsports Authentics, it is becoming more and more difficult to discern where NASCAR isn’t! biz Susanne Deitzel is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

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pictured (l to r) Bob Wilson, President; Vince Papke, General Manager Wilson Air Center – North Carolina, LLC

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by lisa hoffmann

[bizprofile]

Customer Service, Comfort, Convenience P

Wilson Air Goes Above and Beyond

Pilots talk to one another. That becomes evident when you search the Internet for recommendations on which Charlotte-area FBO to choose. FBO stands for “fixed-base operation” and is used to describe aviation service providers. Google “FBO Charlotte” and you’ll get a mixed bag of results. Anything from before early 2005 will more than likely reveal comments from dissatisfied customers disgusted with overpriced fuel and under-whelming service. Many recommended that private pilots opt for other nearby airports. But

greater charlotte biz

you’ll notice a distinct upturn in the comments made in or after the winter of 2005. Taken from www.airnav.com: “One of the finest FBOs in the Country… If ever an FBO wanted a role model this is it…Pilotfriendly…Courteous…Always a Pleasure.”

Yep, pilots talk. And the word is spreading that there’s a new and improved FBO in Charlotte – one backed by a customer service philosophy developed by Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn, and enthusiastically carried on by his son, Bob. ®

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35

Taking Off Kemmons Wilson flew missions in World War II, including the “Hump,” and had found great success in the Memphis real estate market after the war. Being charged a $2-perchild hotel surcharge (he had five children) while traveling on family vacation motivated him enough to start what eventually became the Holiday Inn chain. As founder and CEO of Holiday Inn, Wilson introduced comfortable and affordable family hotels with amenities that we take for granted today – air conditioning in every room, free parking, ice machines, by-the-room rates, and high cleanliness standards.

Two of Kemmons Wilson’s personal 20 Tips for Success are mounted and framed in the hallway of Wilson Air Center: “Work is the master key that opens the door to all opportunities” and “There are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree. One way is to sit on an acorn and wait. The other way is to climb it.”

Bob Wilson learned to fly sitting on his daddy’s lap and had his pilot’s license before he earned a driver’s license. After spending 30 years in the Tennessee Air National Guard (he retired a lieutenant colonel) he decided he loved flying so much he wanted to make a business out of it. He opened Wilson Air Center in Memphis in 1996, Charlotte in 2004, followed by an FBO at Houston-Hobby just last year. Running the FBOs under his father’s tenets has earned the Memphis facility the number one slot in Aviation International News’ annual survey seven years in a row.

When Wilson got word that Signature Flight Support’s 15-year lease at Charlotte Douglas International Airport was up and that

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Jerry Orr, the aviation director, was taking bids for a company to manage the FBO, he eagerly submitted a proposal. Fed up with complaints about the service and fuel prices, Orr campaigned to forego a typical lease agreement in favor of hiring a company to manage the operation so that the airport could retain more control. The selection team’s visit to Wilson Air Center in Memphis sealed the deal.

“We really wanted to move towards better customer service at the FBO and it didn’t take us long to see that Wilson puts an unusual focus on customer service,” Orr says. “It jumped right out at us and was clear even as we taxied up to the Memphis terminal.”

In October 2004, Wilson Air signed an annual management agreement with the city of Charlotte that pays Wilson Air $250,000 per year plus an incentive, based on profitability of the operation.

“Jerry Orr recognizes that we are Charlotte’s front door for a lot of wellknown personalities and decision-makers,” says Vince Papke, general manager for Wilson Air in Charlotte. “We know how important that first impression is and pride ourselves in having very high customer satisfaction levels.”

When NASCAR officials arrived at the FBO during their Hall of Fame site selection tour, their plane was guided onto the ramp by an official NASCAR pace car Wilson staff had secured. The ramp crew wore full “pit crew” uniforms and displayed checkered flags for directional signals. One of the search committee officials commented that Charlotte was the only city that had greeted them with such enthusiasm.

Leveling Out Today, Wilson Air Center offer services 24 hours a day on a 20-acre campus with a spacious ramp where virtually any size aircraft can taxi up to deliver or collect passengers.

The campus also offers more than 220,000 square feet of heated hangar space, 20 private T-hangars and 19 shade-ports for aircraft storage. State-of-the art security puts minds at ease and there is a separate terminal for private airline charter and sports team ground support services. Once arrivals step off the tarmac, they’re greeted by friendly customer service representatives in a newly renovated executive terminal even Kemmons Wilson would approve of.

The executive terminal lounge is filled with comfortable upholstered chairs, lush plants and tasteful table lamps emitting soft lighting. Classical music plays in the background as uniformed pilots help themselves

to coffee or a cold drink at a long beverage bar or watch business news on a large flatscreen television as they await clients. Tables and counter stools line the glass front, where a clear view of ramp activities reveals busy line service technicians, all neatly uniformed and outfitted in bright orange safety vests, busily marshalling planes in and out, chocking, fueling and towing as necessary.

Since FBO arrivals and departures are unscheduled, the Wilson ground crew staff must be ready for anything at any time. As a plane lands, staff members spring to action. A shiny courtesy bus which has a dedicated driver heads out to greet the passengers and transport them and their baggage back to the terminal. The courtesy bus, which the airport purchased, is just one of the things that set Wilson Air Center apart from other FBOs.®

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Wilson Air’s management agreement with the airport and the city of Charlotte means that the city funds all improvements.

Therefore, it is essential that key Wilson staff are on the “same page” as airport management.

“We make recommendations based on our expertise and the airport can either agree or disagree,” Wilson explains. “So far, they’ve been very supportive.”

Coming from a background steeped in both hospitality and aviation puts Wilson in a unique position to assess and implement customer service-focused features and practices. Wilson knows firsthand how easy it is for pilots to opt to land – and buy fuel – at other airports.

Fuel sales are an FBO’s biggest revenue stream and a good profitability indicator.

Wilson Air Center Charlotte finished its first year with a 17.2 percent increase in sales over the previous year.

“I fly to Charlotte a lot,” Wilson says.

“After a while I got so irritated with the fuel prices and service at the previous Charlotte FBO that I started landing in Concord. I know pilots can choose Concord or Monroe,

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even if they’re not as convenient, and I know what we have to do to keep them coming here.”

Building renovations include a few touches that may not stand out at first, but can mean the world to frequent travelers.

Since most people need to use the restroom immediately upon landing, Wilson located a bathroom right out front. He also eliminated doors from the bathroom in consideration of the briefcasecoat-and- coffee-toting businessperson.

A well-appointed private VIP lounge is accessible directly from the tarmac and is flanked by two private conference rooms, welcoming guests requiring heightened discretion and added security. The VIP lounge has played host to everyone from the Wachovia Championship players to Vice President Cheney.

“We’re equipped to handle anybody at any time,” Papke says. “The White House secret service detail was very happy with our facility, as it made their jobs easier.”

Wilson’s attention to detail extends to

5400 Airport Drive Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Phone: 704-359-0440 Principals: Bob Wilson, President;Vince Papke, General Manager Employees: 65 full-time, 15 part-time Established: (1996 – Wilson Air Center in Memphis) 2004 in Charlotte Award: Ranked 23rd among FBOs in the nation by Professional Pilot Magazine in 2006 Business: A customer-focused fixed based operator (FBO) for private aviation customers, handling small business jets to large airline-type aircraft, providing a comprehensive range of services ranging from fueling and short- and long-term aircraft storage to pilot lounges, conference rooms, and ground transportation arrangements. www.wilsonair.com

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every nook and cranny of the air center. A ramp concierge greets aircraft arrivals and a front-door valet greets people coming in off the street. Four courtesy cars are available to allow crew members who are in town for just a few hours to visit local restaurants and shops. Hertz rental cars are kept on-site and customer service representatives can reserve them with just a few clicks of the keyboard.

Pilot lounges and “snooze rooms” are equipped with new upholstered furniture, tables and TVs. The flight planning room has an Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) set up that allows pilots to assess current flight and airport conditions. A direct connection to the control tower lets them get cleared for takeoff from the terminal instead of waiting inside their aircraft, precious fuel burning, for clearance. A 32-inch flat screen monitor displays weather radar data. Wireless Internet is available throughout the building and three – soon to be four – Internet terminals are available for crew use.

Wilson and Papke are particularly proud of the dispatch area.

“We started out with the customer services reps doing the dispatch duties but quickly realized that wasn’t working to the best advantage of our customers,” Papke says.

“Now we have a full-time dispatcher here during the week and it really helps things run more smoothly.”

In just one year, Wilson Air Center has transformed the FBO into one of the best in the nation. It was ranked 23rd among the thousands of FBOs in the United States by Professional Pilot Magazine this year, marking the first time a Charlotte FBO has placed in the top 50 since the 1980s.

Clear Skies Ahead Making the switch from Signature to Wilson last February was as turbulent as flying through a thunderstorm. For starters, the main facility was sorely in need of renovations, forcing Wilson to manage its services from a temporary facility next door.

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Unfortunately, the facility wasn’t quite ready when the switch was flipped. Wilson staff, including Bob Wilson and his wife Susan, scrambled to clean up and refurnish the run-down building as Signature was closing up shop.

“We were slated to take over at midnight and were busy moving furniture in and covering holes in the wall with pictures,” Wilson says with a laugh. “Then right around four or five in the afternoon the Signature folks took off and we were left with an FBO to run.

There could be five jets taxiing up at any minute. That was interesting.”

“We finally sat down at about one in the morning to toast the new FBO,” Papke adds.

Wilson Air operations moved into the temporary facility a few weeks later and transferred everything again into the newly renovated building in March. A threestory addition is slated to begin construction soon, as is an arrivals canopy that will run along the length of the terminal to keep people out of the elements.

Ramp upgrades are also in the works and Wilson’s ten-year project plan includes adding hangar space. But all those plans take a backseat to cultivating superior personnel.

“I learned a long time ago that it’s the people that make or break a company’s success,” Wilson says. “We could run this facility on fewer employees but we couldn’t reach the level of service we’re achieving without everyone pitching in.”

All of Wilson’s employees undergo specialized customer service training during which they learn about the “Wilson Attitude,” an across-the-board expectation of courtesy and professionalism at all times. They also learn to remove one word from their vocabularies.

“Our staff is instructed never to say ‘no’ to a customer’s request,” Papke says. “If they can’t find a way to meet the customer’s needs they should seek out the advice of management.”

Wilson and Papke know happy employees mean happy customers and they find creative ways to show their appreciation for good

greater charlotte biz

work and to keep morale high. Each year a team of staff members is chosen to attend the National Business Aviation Association convention, which has been held in Orlando, Fla., for the past few years. It just so happens that Kemmons Wilson Companies owns a large and luxurious timeshare property in Orlando, so Wilson’s convention-goers stay in high style. On any given day, pilots taxiing in might be greeted by an impromptu employee barbecue or luau, things Papke arranges to keep things fun for employees and customers alike.

Watching the Wilson staff working together to provide top-notch service to everyone from a high-powered CEO headed to a big meeting to a family leaving for a little recreation, it’s clear the company has found a winning combination of service, amenities and low prices.

“Things are going absolutely great,” Orr says. “Wilson has met and exceeded our expectations. We used to get nothing but complaints and now we get nothing but compliments.” biz Lisa Hoffmann is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

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by captain chris gilbert and lieutenant colonel matt russo

Citizen Soldiers Deploy Their year Expertise later

1

OUR COMMUNITY B U I L D E R S A B R OA D ARE COMING HOME

“

Every citizen should be a soldier.

This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

”

~Thomas Jefferson

[bizprofile]

A year after its citizen soldiers bid farewell to their families,and nearly 11 months into its deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom,the North Carolina Army National Guard’s 505th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) could look back on significant and lasting contributions throughout northern Iraq as the decisive engineer effort for the 101st Airborne Division’s Task Force Band of Brothers.Attached to the Fort Lewis-based 555th Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement), the battalion completed the full spectrum of engineer missions across an area of operations nearly 300 kilometers in length during its year-long combat deployment.

Headquartered in Gastonia,North Carolina,the battalion draws from armories located in eleven different communities throughout central and western North Carolina. From the rolling foothills of North Wilkesboro, to the urban landscape of Charlotte, the battalion brought together soldiers from nearly every walk of life to answer the call to duty. After two months of intensive mobilization training at Fort Dix, New Jersey in early fall 2005, the 505th found itself conducting engineer operations in a combat zone for the first time in its 31-year history. Together, engineers representing four states helped shape the battlefield of northern Iraq,providing timely and reliable engineer support to Task Force Band of Brothers.

Editor’s Note: In July of 2005, we interviewed Chris Gilbert, associate director for the Charlotte Research Institute at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as he was looking to begin a year-long deployment in Iraq in the 505th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) of the Army National Guard. In this piece, Captain Gilbert and Lt. Col. Russo report on their troop’s accomplishments this past year. Look for further updates on the 505th’s homecoming and transition back into civilian life from Mike Drummond, an embedded reporter with The Charlotte Observer.

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A legacy combat heavy battalion, the 505th deployed into the battlespace in October 2005 with three line companies, each in the traditional configuration of two general construction platoons and one horizontal equipment platoon.

The Headquarters Support Company (HSC) provided an organic heavy equipment platoon to the fight as well as direct support mainten a n c e c a p a b i l i t y. I n addition to its normal complement of authorized equipment, the battalion received significant extra resources to accomplish its miss i o n . A r m o re d D 9 CSM James Frazier, command sergeant major of the 505th Engineer Combat Battalion, visits a B/505 soldier dozers, the most intim- making quality of life improvements for Georgian Army soldiers guarding a Tigris River float bridge crossing near Baqubah, Iraq. idating engineer assets on the battlefield, prooperations for its three line companies, every patrol and on several occasions vided the capability to push large amounts roughly mirroring the three key northdetaining anti-Iraqi forces. of dirt and support tactical operations in ern provinces of Diyala, Salah ah Din, After 11 months on the ground, the batnon-permissive areas. Crater repair teams and Nineveh; the utilities detachment talion had completed nearly 350 engineer utilized Huskies and Meerkats to sweep provided basic engineer support in the missions, averaging more than one per day. worksites for improvised explosive devices. eastern Kirkuk Province. Within each These missions ranged from basic utility A 40-ton crane provided the heavy lift AO, the companies utilized a “hub and repair to major construction projects with capability needed to construct and emplace spoke” methodology, deploying teams, direct strategic impact for Iraq. Priorities large concrete towers and barriers. squads, and platoons to mission sites for engineer effort included deliberate and Armored Heavy Equipment Transporters, from a centrally located forward operatemergency force protection, contingency normally reserved for transportation units, ing base. Out of operational necessity, response to assured mobility, base expanoffered the muscle to haul equipment that the HSC equipment platoon, doctrinally sion projects, base closure or turnover to exceeded the capability of M916 tractors. conceived to provide heavy support to Iraqi Army units, and quality of life And a fleet of factory-armored M1114 the line companies, operated as a standimprovements. Missions supported both HMMWV gun trucks escorted soldiers and alone equipment platoon. Travel was a coalition forces and Iraqi Security Forces equipment to and from jobsites and profact of life, as diverse missions and logis(ISF). The battalion also provided support vided onsite security. tics support required constant movement to tactical operations.

A vital resource from the start, the across the battlefield. The battalion comMany missions required quick response 505th Engineer Battalion jumped immepleted nearly 2,000 combat patrols and to emergency situations. The battalion rapdiately into the thick of engineer combat logistics patrols, covering thouidly gained recognition as a responsive, operations, at times managing dozens of sands of miles of roads, and fought flexible, and highly mobile engineer simultaneous missions. The battalion’s through over 70 combat engagements, resource. In most cases, 505th elements area of operations included virtually all primarily improvised explosive device reacted in hours or even minutes to emerof Northern Iraq, from Baqubah to Tall attacks. Utilizing superior equipment gency needs. These included clearing Afar, stretching to borders with Iran and and constantly evolving tactics, techdebris from blocked MSRs, conducting Syria. To tackle this large battlespace, the niques, and procedures, the soldiers hasty bridge repairs, constructing defensive battalion assigned geographic areas of performed well in combat, completing positions, recovering battle-damaged ➤

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Sign in Tikrit, Iraq welcoming visitors to the 505th Engineer Combat Battalion headquarters.

vehicles, and filling IED craters in roads that inhibited the movement of combat patrols.

All three line companies and the utilities detachment performed IED crater repair in their area of operations. From the streets of Samarra in the shadow of the Golden Mosque to remote stretches of rural highway, the crater repair teams labored tirelessly under constant threat of attack to assure coalition mobility.

Working exclusively at night, these teams filled nearly 1000 craters, most a result of IED attacks, on over 1000 kilometers of main and alternate supply routes. Doing so ensured the routes remained trafficable and prevented enemy exploitation. The battalion drafted and utilized techniques to fill the craters with steel and concrete to ensure the repairs were unique and difficult or impossible to replicate or be tampered with. IED crater repair was arguably one of the most dangerous missions in Iraq, requiring soldiers to dismount and work for long periods of time in the enemy’s favorite engagement area.

The battalion’s first and most significant effort to support tactical operations involved the complete circumvallation of two towns.

Working around the clock under the leadership of A/878, in early January 2006 soldiers and heavy equipment assets from every company in the battalion converged on two villages near the oil refinery city of Bayji to build a twelve kilometer, eight-foot high earthen berm in order to deter enemy activity within the villages. Within 72 hours of receipt of the mission, the plan for the As Siniyah berm had been finalized and blade assets from throughout northern Iraq were ready. The battalion’s determined equipment operators completed

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the berm in 48 hours, and four entry control points were constructed within the next 48 hours to control access to the towns at roadways. This great effort by North Carolina and Georgia Army National Guardsmen resulted in a significant reduction in the frequency and magnitude of direct and indirect fire attacks on US forces in the area.

The Castle Battalion’s largest off-base mission of the year, a project to erect force protection measures and basic life support at key oil pipeline canal crossing sites, held strategic importance for northern Iraq. The pipeline had been damaged at two canal crossings, disrupting the flow of oil from Kirkuk to Bayji refineries. In June 2006, the battalion converged again, this time near Hawijah under the leadership of B/505, to erect several kilometers of Hesco barriers and berm as well as construct guard towers and life support structures to enable contractors to safely repair the pipeline breaches. With support from Air Force engineers and an attached platoon from the active component’s 84th Engineer Battalion, this multi-component, multi-service task force worked day and night for two weeks in the summer heat, finishing the project several days ahead of schedule. Anti Iraqi Forces attacked the worksites relentlessly with small arms, RPGs, rockets and mortars; resupply convoys suffered IED attacks. The convoys got through, and the courageous soldiers of the 505th Engineer Combat Battalion pushed forward, completing the mission without a serious injury. The repair of these pipes enables 40 percent of Iraq’s crude oil production to once again flow directly to Bayji refineries, contributing to the nation’s wealth and ability to rebuild.

On large forward operating bases, the missions demanded expertise in virtually every type of engineer construction. The most extensive vertical projects involved constructing sets of wood-frame structures for office and living space. Dubbed “battalion sets,” the projects consisted typically of several 30x100, 20x50, or 44x88 buildings arranged in rows or around a common area. These projects, completed in Baqubah and Tikrit, provided superb project management training opportunities for platoon leaders, as well as exercising nearly all construction trades. Another recurring vertical mission was to design and build pole barn structures to support maintenance operations.

Soldiers accustomed to placing field expedient concrete during crater repair missions honed their masonry skills on culverts, helipads, and building foundations. Horizontal assets built roads, airfields for unmanned aerial vehicles, force protection barriers, drainage systems, entry control points, parking lots and trenches to support electrical and communications infrastructure. On smaller patrol bases, soldiers focused primarily on force protection and living condition improvements. Evidence of the battalion’s positive impact on soldier quality of life can be seen all over the battlefield and will continue to make a difference for future rotations.

505th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) Companies: Headquarters Support, Company A, Company B, Company C Facilities: Gastonia, N.C. Soldiers: 608 Reporting: Captain Chris Gilbert is the S3 of the 505th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy), Gastonia, North Carolina. He holds a bachelor of science in architecture from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Lieutenant Colonel Matt Russo is the commander of the 505th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy). He holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the United States Military Academy and a master of business administration from the University of Delaware.

Scheduled Deployment: August 5, 2005, to Ft. McCoy,Wis.; early Oct. 2005 to Iraq Term of Deployment: 12 months in theater www.nc.ngb.army.mil

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The 505th Engineer Combat Battalion also made significant contributions to support security and democracy in the new Iraq. Courageous engineers from C/505 worked day and night to harden and protect polling stations throughout Nineveh Province in preparation for Iraq’s first parliamentary elections. Squad and platoonsized elements from C/505 reinforced, renovated, and improved the living conditions of Iraqi Police stations and Iraqi Army outposts in and around the large, sprawling city of Mosul.

B/505 provided significant horizontal and vertical construction effort to facilitate coalition force timetables to turn over forward operating bases to Iraqi units throughout Diyala Province.

Horizontal assets from every company constructed range complexes and upgraded existing ranges for the new Iraqi Army in places like Irbil and Samarra, in addition to building roads and improving drainage for existing Iraqi Army bases.

A/878 made major improvements to the previously neglected Samarra berm, contributing to coalition and Iraqi force success in reducing this city’s volatility. 505th vertical engineers proudly renovated the Third Iraqi Army Division tactical operations center, providing a top-notch facility for tracking and managing operations.

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The return of the 505th Engineer Battalion to North Carolina marks the end of the era of the legacy combat heavy battalion for the Army engineer community, as the unit’s leadership turns its attention toward the reorganization that has already transformed the Army.

The 505th closes out this remarkable period in the history A combat patrol from the 505th Engineer Combat of the Engineer Regiment with Battalion encounters an IED (Improvised explosive device) pride and distinction. Providing while traveling south near Samarra, Iraq. Over the course of the year, soldiers from the Castle Battalion were attacked the decisive engineer effort for more than 70 times as they moved about the battlefield. the 101st Airborne Division, Task Force Band of Brothers meant continuous, fast-paced and full-spectrum engineer operaCaptain Chris Gilbert is the S3 of the 505th tions in combat over tens of thousands of square Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy), Gastonia, kilometers of battlespace, executed by the dedNorth Carolina. He holds a bachelor of science icated and courageous soldiers of the Castle in architecture from the University of North Battalion. After reliably completing hundreds Carolina at Charlotte. Lieutenant Colonel Matt of missions in every conceivable situation, this Russo is the commander of the 505th Engineer legacy battalion claims as its own legacy to have Combat Battalion (Heavy). He holds a bacheaccomplished more in one year than any other lor of science in mechanical engineering from combat heavy battalion in the history of the United States Military Academy and a masOperation Iraqi Freedom. Evidence to support ter of business administration from the this claim will exist in Iraq for years to come. biz University of Delaware.

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bizXperts: Smart Salvos, Select Strategies and Succinct Solutions

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“real” business succession planning

Succession Planning is a process for business owners to determine exactly how a business will continue after its current owners leave through either sale of the business, retirement, disability or death. The typical end result of Succession Planning is the identification of an exit strategy for current owners that satisfies their financial needs and a plan for the determination and implementation of the structure necessary for the business to survive and thrive independently of its current owners.

In almost 30 years of representing closely-held businesses, we have developed a Five Step Process for helping business owners create the “optimum” Succession Plan for their business which best meets their business and personal objectives.

Our Succession Planning Process.

Step 1:Assemble the Team, Determine the Goals, and Identify the Stakeholders. The first step of the process is to assemble the right team of advisors to assist the owner with the Succession Planning Process. You simply cannot develop the best plan unless you have a group of people who: a) understand the process; b) understand all the options available; and c) have an ability to work together to help the owners understand all available options.

The team normally includes the business’ accountant, life insurance agent, attorney, business consultant, and anyone else necessary to make certain that all areas are addressed.

The team should first establish the “corporate goals” of the Succession Planning Process. For instance, in a case where the business owner wishes to retire and ultimately transfer ownership, management and control to his key employees, the goals might be to establish a plan for ownership transition which: a) provides sellers (owners) with a reasonable financial return on their investment in the business, including reasonable retirement income; b) motivates potential internal buyers to become owners of the business by providing a reasonable price for ownership and establishing with buyers that the long term financial prospects of the business are excellent; and c) is perceived to be fair and is accepted by all stakeholders (current owners, potential owners, current non-owner key employees).

The team must also identify the stakeholders, i.e., every person who needs to “buy in” to this Succession Plan for it to be successful. They include current owners, key employees, potential future owners, spouses, and others.

Step 2: Due Diligence. The second step is to perform due diligence on the business to determine exactly what the current situation is for the business. Is it profitable? What is its current and projected future cash flow?

You must develop an intimate knowledge of every aspect of the business.

Our firm treats Succession Planning in the same manner as we would treat an acquisition of the business in terms of the due diligence required.

Step 3:Analysis of Interests and Objectives of Stakeholders. The third, and most important step, is identification and analysis of the interests and objectives of each stakeholder. Often, the owner tells the attorney what he

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would like to do and the attorney drafts the agreements necessary without any input from anyone else. We never cease to be amazed that the owners (and attorneys) are surprised when the key employees and other stakeholders show very little excitement about the plan.

Alternatively, the lawyer will have a meeting with the owner and all the key employees who are potential successors and discuss in a group setting what their interests and objectives are. This model invariably leads to failure as well. The reason is that stakeholders are not very likely to tell the owner or other key employees how they really feel in a group setting.

In our process, we separately interview each stakeholder and are careful to keep what he or she tells us confidential. This candid input is critical towards deriving a successful plan that everyone commits to.

The typical questions that should be asked of each stakeholder include: 1. When do the owners want to exit the business?

2. What do the owners need to secure their retirement financially?

3. What happens to the business after the owners’ exit?

4. What is the business worth?

5. Are the successors identified?

6. What are the successors willing to pay for the business and how will it be paid?

7. Are the successors able to operate the business profitably without the owner? What are their skills and talents? What additional training do they need?

8.What are the goals of the successors and owners? How different are these goals?

9. What percentage of the purchase price will be funded (cash) upon an owner’s exit? What part will be financed and on what terms?

10. Should the business be sold to a third party rather than being transferred to family or key employees?

Through this process you must continually address how to reconcile the needs and concerns of all stakeholders – including how to help the owners realize the full value of their investment in their business upon their retirement.

So, you’ve assembled a team of trusted advisors, determined the goals of the process, identified the stakeholders, performed your due diligence with respect to the business, and separately interviewed all stakeholders in order to identify their interests and objectives. What happens next?

In next month’s article we will discuss the remaining steps of our Succession Planning Process.

Robert Norris is managing partner of Wishart, Norris, Henninger & Pittman, P.A., a law firm which focuses on helping business owners define and achieve their business and personal objectives. Contact him at 704-364-0010 or www.wnhplaw.com.

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turn signals aren’t for the driver If you drive a car, you may find it irritating when someone around you turns without giving a signal. Why? Because the signal helps you to know how to plan for your next moves. It minimizes the chance of an accident because you know where the car in front of you is going next – so you don’t move blindly into his path.

The turn signal lever is there, not to help the driver himself, but others around him. The driver knows he’s going to turn, has probably known it for some time. It’s the other people who don’t know what’s going on.

There’s a business lesson here. How often do you change something in your company without a “turn signal”?

Do you introduce new rules, concepts, products, promotions and the like without giving your team some indication of what’s coming so they can plan their next moves? If not, you’re not using your business turn signal.

Most people understand the need for change and are willing to accept change. It’s sudden change that’s the problem. They want time to plan, consider, and assess the change and the impact it will have on them and their work. They can’t do

that effectively if the change is introduced too quickly. The result is too often a “wreck” of sorts as emotions run high, processes fall apart, and efficiency is compromised. With just a flick of a turn signal, much of the confusion could have been avoided.

Using a turn signal costs you, the driver, nothing. Not using it can cost you much. In the real driving world, if an accident occurs because you didn’t signal, you’ll get a ticket. In the business world, if an “accident” occurs, you may not get a ticket, but you’ll certainly pay a price.

Think about this the next time you’re considering a change in your company or department. What “turn signal” can you give the team to help them prepare?

Denise Altman is President of Altman Initiative Group, Inc. and the Business Success Institute. Learn more about these organizations at www.altmaninitiative.com and www.businesssuccess-institute.com or call 704-708-6700.

which do you take better care of – yourself or your car?

If you have a nice car, you’re probably very careful about what goes in it. You’re particular about the kind of oil and the kind of gasoline. You have it washed and waxed regularly and you make sure it’s serviced every 3,000 miles.

You do these things because you know that unless you take care of your car, you won’t be able to count on it when you need it to. You know that if you drove your car all day, everyday at 100 miles an hour without pause, it wouldn’t last very long.

But what about you? It says in the owner’s manual that you’re supposed to get eight hours of sleep a night, exercise three times a week and take at least one good vacation a year. So how’s your maintenance log looking? Would you feel good about selling yourself as a used car?

This is where the cries go up. “I’m just too busy.” “There aren’t enough hours in the day.” “If I don’t stay on it, it won’t get done.” And all those things are true. But it’s also true that

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if you run yourself all the time – fueling yourself on coffee and sugar and not letting your productive capacity recharge in exercise and sleep, you will break down.

Then none of those important things will get done.

Even a hair dryer is smart enough to shut off when it overheats.

But don’t take my word for it. The next time you are feeling particularly overwhelmed and under-energized, take a 15 minute walk. Don’t get on the cellphone. Just walk and breathe.

When you’re done, see if you feel better and think more clearly. See if that “unsolvable” problem seems a little more manageable. No matter how busy you are, you’ve got time to try this just once.

Mike Whitehead is president of Whitehead Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in leadership and culture development.

Contact him at 704-331-9091 or www.whiteheadassociates.com.

If you are interested in contributing to bizXperts, contact John Galles at 704-676-5850, ext. 102, or jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com. biz

october 2006

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[biznetwork] Thank you to our advertisers who make this publication and its distribution to over 100,000 readers possible! Enjoy their products and services as Charlotte’s leading business-to-business suppliers.

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Business Owners – Don’t miss it! October meeting – “All Hands on Deck” People are critical to your success. Get the right people aligned with the vision, train them to perform and set clear expectations, and you’ll be amazed at the outcome. We’ll give you tools to do just that.

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“BSI provides us with a regularly scheduled reason to work ON the business, not IN it.”

“Being a member of BSI saves me time and effort... The fact that I have continued to be a member for over 6 years is proof that they deliver!” ~ Laurie Leonard SUITE 1000

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~ Katharine Monk Lucas-Forman, Inc.

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Our meetings are packed with practical information you can use to improve your business and reach your goals. Join today and become part of this exciting and worthwhile group.

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For specific dates, times, locations and membership information visit www.business-success-institute.com or call Denise Altman at (704) 708-6700.

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Allen Tate Realtors allentate.com American Express corpamericanexpress.com/midsize Apple Rock Displays applerock.com ATCOM atcombts.com Atlantic Software Alliance atlanticsoftwarealliance.com Ballantyne Center for Dentistry ballantynedentistry.com Bank of America bankofamerica.com BasicsPlus Office Products basicsplus.net Business Success Institute business-success-institute.com Carolinas Healthcare System carolinashealthcare.org Carpenter Cammack & Associates ccainsurance.com Century 21 Hecht Realty - Commercial c21hecht.com/buy/commercial.asp C Group/Cline Farm clinefarm.com Charlotte Copy Data charlottecopydata.com Charlotte Regional Economic Dev. Guide greatercharlottebiz.com Charlotte Regional Economic Dev. Guide greatercharlottebiz.com Choice Translating choicetranslating.com College Foundation of NC cfnc.org/savings CPCC Corporate Training cpcctraining.org Daniel, Ratliff & Company danielratliff.com Employers Association employersassoc.com FieldStone Networking Services fieldstonenetworking.com Hood Hargett Breakfast Club charlottebca.com Integraphx integraphx.com Larner’s Office Furniture Outlet larnersoffice.com Mecklenburg County Health goforatmosphere.com New Way Media wampower.com Radisson Columbia radisson.com/columbiasc Randolph & Sons Builders randolphbuilders.com RBC Centura rbccentura.com Scott Insurance scottins.com Scott Jaguar jaguarusa.com Simon Malls - SouthPark simongiftcard.com Sloan Financial Group sloanfinancial.net Tathwell Printing tathwellprinting.com TimeWarner Cable - Business Class twcbc.com UNCC Belk College belkcollege.uncc.edu UNCC Continuing Education continuinged.uncc.edu/1day/biz UNCC Continuing Education continuinged.uncc.edu/corporate/biz VisionCor visioncor.com WynnCom wynncom.com

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Aerial, Architectural and Stock Photography Larry Harwell 704-334-7874

The Charlotte Region:The View from Another Perspective

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Lowe’s Motor Speedway was designed and built in 1959 by current chairman O. Bruton Smith and his then business partner, the late Curtis Turner, one of stock car racing’s earliest driving stars.Together, they built their dream of a 1.5-mile superspeedway on the outskirts of the Queen City and, on June 19, 1960, the first World 600 was run at the new facility.Throughout the years many improvements have been made including additional grandstand seating, infrastructure improvements, spectator amenities, track additions, and the development of the Speedway’s 2,000-plus adjacent land. Currently, the Speedway’s total seating capacity is 167,000.

Featuring Executive Homes in the Charlotte Region GLYNMOOR LAKES AT PIPER GLEN Charlotte, North Carolina A brilliant combination of location and luxury makes this custom home ideal for entertaining and everyday living. Built in 2000, it offers fine details throughout and features a main-level master suite and finished basement with guest suite or office. Enjoy views of the lake from many areas of the home, pool and spa. 5BRs/5.1BAs MLS# 613124 - $1,485,000 Property Address: 5120 Bevington Place

Connie Nuttall - 704-367-7249 www.allentate.com/connienuttall

TRADITIONAL EXCELLENCE Indian Trail, North Carolina A circular drive with fountain gives way to this impressive traditional residence. Boasting more than 6,000 square feet, the interior offers a fabulous gourmet kitchen, billiard room and state-of-theart home theater. The exterior features an in-ground pool, hot tub, waterfall and sand volleyball court, all surrounded by palm trees on nine lavish acres. 4BRs/3.2BAs MLS# 595168 - $1,500,000 Property Address: 401 Highway 218 West

Russell Wing - 704-291-8908 www.thewingteam.com

ELEGANT FIRETHORNE HOME Marvin, North Carolina Sophistication and relaxed elegance are the essence of this traditional Firethrone home. Inviting and open living spaces include a two-story great room, spacious kitchen and enchanting formal rooms. The bonus room, billiard room, wine cellar and Trex decking overlooking the horse pasture add to the overall value. 5BRs/4.1BAs MLS# 590522 - $895,000 Property Address: 1009 Medinah Court

Pam Rains - 704-291-8944 www.allentate.com/pamrains

AT HOME IN HEMBSTEAD Charlotte, North Carolina This outstanding home is situated on a lovely 0.99-acre lot, on a private driveway, in the Hembstead community. With an amazing 4,866 square feet, this home includes traditional living areas, plus fabulous game room and relaxing sunroom. The bonus room with adjacent full bath and back stairs could serve as second living quarters. 4BRs/4.1BAs MLS# 608155 - $844,900 Property Address: 2615 Oakmeade Drive

Ellen Watkins - 704-449-5833 www.contactellen.com

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Featuring Executive Homes in the Charlotte Region A NATURAL BEAUTY Charlotte, North Carolina The very nature of this home will appeal to your senses. From the inviting front porch, to the screened back porch and every room in between, this home offers both comfort and character. It is situated in a park-like setting that is a nature loverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dream.

5BRs/4BAs MLS# 588845 - $549,500 Property Address: 2124 Club Road

David Deal - 704-362-6386 www.allentate.com/daviddeal

WELCOME HOME Lake Wylie, North Carolina All the comforts of home are found at this sensational Lake Wylie address. This beautiful Shea home features a very open plan that is great for any occasion. It includes a new sunroom and extra-large, finished bonus. All of this is situated on a private lot, one of the largest in The Landing.

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Kay Grigsby - 803-322-7024 www.kaygrigsby.com

PROVIDENCE HILLS PERFECTION Charlotte, North Carolina Residing within the popular neighborhood of Providence Hills is a truly stunning home.The interior offers a fabulous kitchen, second-level master bedroom with retreat, library loft and finished third-level recreation room.The exterior features professionally landscaped and fenced grounds with a gorgeous screened porch, stone walkway, fire pit, pond and waterfall. 5BRs/4BAs MLS# 611827 - $499,900 Property Address: 3426 Savannah Hills Drive

Terry Alfero - 704-543-5907 www.terryalfero.com

DESIGNER MASTERPIECE Rock Hill, South Carolina This spectacular, Old World, European-designed residence features only the finest quality craftsmanship. The magnificent home includes almost 6,400 heated square feet and approximately 8,000 square feet under the roof. A tremendous screened porch with arches on three sides compliments the elegant, inground, heated pool. 5BRs/4.1BAs MLS# 1034184 - $1,950,000 Property Address: 2658 Claxton Drive

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