Business Connection April 2013

A publication of

april 2013

inside: Chamber award winners

Crafted with pride

Furniture maker Rob Weaver opts for quality over quantity

Contents

Also inside Community Service Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Mark McNulty column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

On the cover

Rob Weaver, owner of Weaver Fine Furniture and Cabinets.

Photo by Greg Jones.

Story page 8.

Chamber Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Around the Watercooler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Volunteer of the Year page 4

Business leads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 On the Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Older workers, new entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . 20 Morton Marcus column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Agility in the workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Company of the Year page 5

2 The Business Connection April 2013

Project of the Year page 6

Comments should be sent to Doug Showalter, The Republic, 333 Second St., Columbus, IN 47201 or call 812-379-5625 or dshowalter@therepublic. com. Advertising information: Call 812-379-5652. Š2013 by Home News Enterprises All rights reserved. Reproduction of stories, photographs and advertisements without permission is prohibited.

Community Service award Rick Johnson continues family tradition of civic involvement

By Doug Showalter

T

he Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s Community Service Award recognizes outstanding service and leadership in a broad range of community affairs. This year’s recipient, Rick Johnson, fits the bill nicely.

For example, he led the community’s branding effort that resulted in the “Unexpected and Unforgettable” brand. He also led the development of a new brand for The Commons.

He is a former chairman of the board of Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County and has served on the Columbus Economic Development Board.

He’s involved in education, serving on the board of the Community Education Coalition.

Johnson’s involvement goes beyond the boundaries of Bartholomew County. He currently sits on the Kelley School of Business Dean’s Council at Indiana University and also is a member of the Indiana University Foundation Board of Directors.

He and his family have been strong supporters of the natural environment through work with the Sycamore Land Trust, Nature Conservancy of Indiana and the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department.

He also has a “day job” as president of Johnson Ventures, a company he started with his late father, Dick Johnson, the winner of the Community Service Award in 1998.

“I’m not sure I had a choice,” Johnson said during a recent interview, referring to the example of community service set by his father and also his mother, Ruth. “They, among others, were wonderful examples.

“I can remember back when we had Johnson Oil, one of the thoughts was, if we don’t help, who will? That’s a good thought. There are a lot of other people, but it takes everybody contributing. No few individuals can really do it.”

Johnson is honored to join his father and the others who have received the Community Service Award. “There are a lot of people in

photo by Doug Showalter

that group who we would aspire to,” he said, “though none of us is exactly like any of those people.

“But I think that’s all part of celebrating a grand tradition in Columbus of so many people who contribute in so many different ways that are individual to them to make this a better place.”

Columbus, he said, has been lucky over the years to have no shortage of capable people willing to contribute.

“They have to pick someone for the award, I guess, but there probably wasn’t anybody in that room who isn’t part of that tradition.”

Though he calls himself “a bit of a handson guy,” when it comes to running Johnson

Ventures, Johnson says he’s lucky that his job allows him time for his non-business pursuits, on which he spends “at least a day a week, probably more. To spend maybe a fourth of your time on other things is a luxury.”

Understandably, a lot of people would love to have Johnson on their team, whatever the project. When deciding when and where to get involved, he said, he looks for the chance to make a difference.

“I try to spend time in areas where my input can produce different outcomes. If I think somehow I’m a great candidate to be that difference maker, I’ll say yes. If there are a lot of people who can play that role, I’m more inclined to say no, although I rarely say no. I usually say yes in some form.”

For example, if he doesn’t feel he’s uniquely fit to serve the purpose, he might suggest someone else or even help recruit the right person.

“I like progress,” he said. “So if there’s a noble goal to be achieved, I’m more interested in that.” He cited his work on the Columbus branding project as a good example.

“That was an opportunity to take a place with a great heritage and make sure we maintain that great heritage.”

Johnson is just like everyone else in one respect: His day is only 24 hours long.

“You can’t do everything, as my wife reminded me just this morning,” he said.

He and wife Alice are the parents of Annie, 18, and Ricky, 14, so family time is always a priority.

When asked if he would ever consider leaving Columbus, he quickly replies, “On weekends. I think I’m pretty firmly planted here.”

That’s good news for Columbus, Bartholomew County and the many projects still to benefit from the involvement of the latest winner of the Community Service Award.

He’s looking forward to it.

“The award is a recognition,” he said. “The real honor is to be able to serve.”

ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 3

Volunteer of the Year Many benefit from time and talents of Sarah Gehring

By Barney Quick

W

hen Sarah Gehring, the 2012 recipient of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s Volunteer of the Year Award, was a young adult embarking on her career in public relations, she discovered an activity that became a passion. She caught the civic involvement bug, and it’s been central to her life ever since.

Occupationally, the Columbus native is public relations director for Reising Radio Partners, which operates the QMIX, MOJO and KORN radio stations, but that barely begins to describe the breadth of her activities. Her contributions to the chamber and other community organizations make for a lengthy list indeed.

Gehring loves a challenge. Take, for instance, the Spend the Holidays with Us campaign, a chamber project that most in the organization had considered to be moribund.

“People told me it wasn’t worth spending my time on,” she says. “That was all I needed to hear. I enlisted businesses around town, even told them they needed to contribute $45 each, so they’d have some skin in the game. My team made sure it was marketed properly. We ended up getting double the receipts from the year before.”

Her role in organizing the 2012 Women’s Professional Development Conference consisted of helping to choose Love Chapel as the group that made a presentation to attendees, choosing a keynote speaker and ensuring that logistics went smoothly. “They had me going all over the place,” she says.

“Going all over the place” is often her style when serving on boards and committees. “Many chamber members 4 The Business Connection April 2013

photo by Doug Showalter

are professional people whose schedules make their attendance at meetings a bit sporadic,” she explains. “The nature of my job allows me to be at all meetings and take on various roles.”

Besides those projects and serving on the chamber’s Membership and Professional Development Committee, she is a presence in many of Columbus’ other volunteer groups. She is on United Way’s Community Impact Review Team and Corporate Volunteer Council. She is a Book Buddy through the Literacy Task Force. In that capacity, she meets with local students during lunch hour to coach them as they read to her.

“Through third grade, people learn to read, and read to learn from then on,” she says. “If a child’s reading ability isn’t

up to par by then, he or she is at a real disadvantage.”

She also serves on the board of Route 21, an organization that mentors pregnant and parenting teens, as well as focusing on teen fathers’ accountability.

She was a Firemen’s Cheer Fund board member from 2010 to 2012. She served as a volunteer for the five previous years.

When asked if she had always had such a zeal for volunteerism, she replies, “Not really. The CEO of our company, Keith Reising, has made giving back to the community a big part of our organizational culture. So I started finding ways to get involved and found I loved it.”

Some of the rewards are personal, she says. “One day, my Book Buddy told me, ‘You always smell so nice. My mother doesn’t smell like that.’ How sweet is that?”

She does balance work and volunteerism with some leisure. Vacations to “anywhere with a beach” are important to her. She’s an avid reader. Her tastes run to “blood and guts” mysteries as well as personal growth books.

The Columbus North High School graduate (2000) has an associate degree in business, with a concentration in management, from Ivy Tech’s Columbus campus. The original reason she chose to stay in her hometown for college was to be near a special-needs nephew who was predicted by medical experts not to live past early childhood. “I’m pleased to report that we still have him around at age 12,” she beams.

Since then, she’s come to a view of Columbus as unique and a perfect spot for what she wants to do. “There’s no better place to make a difference.”

Company of the Year Service is central component of Centra Credit Union

By Barney Quick

N

oteworthy growth happens to a business when its organizational culture is centered on a passion for service. Such is the case with Centra Credit Union, the institution named Company of the Year by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. That passion is palpable when members deal with various staff people in any situation.

“The credit union philosophy is people helping people,” according to President Douglas Harris.

“The enjoyment of working for a company that assists people with financing a car, buying a home, or consolidating bills to make monthly payments more reasonable or helping a member save funds for their retirement, college education, or a down payment on a home is contagious.”

Putting some numbers on that growth gives an indication of its magnitude. Centra was founded in 1940 with $337.63 in assets as a credit union for Cummins employees. The company recently passed the $1 billion mark.

That’s a milestone only approximately 2 percent of credit unions in America have achieved.

The current tone of Centra’s leadership was established during the tenure of former President Loretta Burd, who had been with the company since 1965 and became CEO in 1987. She expanded the notion of excellent service to encompass community contribution, setting an example by serving on numerous boards. She

Submitted photo

Last November the newly formed Centra Foundation presented an oversized check, symbolizing the first portion of a $50,000 grant, to the Columbus Park Foundation for the People Trails. From left are Sherry Stark, Centra Foundation executive director; Al Degner, Centra Foundation board president; Dave Hayward, Columbus Park Foundation president; Rick Johnson, People Trails Campaign major gifts chairman; and Ben Wagner, Columbus Parks and Recreation director.

was the first woman to chair the board of the Columbus chamber.

In 1995, the name was changed from Cummins Employees Federal Credit Union to Centra to convey the expanded scope of those it wanted to serve.

Harris, who began his banking career in Muncie and, over its course, gained experience in consumer lending, branch management, commercial credit management, accounting, finance, shareholder relations and investor services, joined the Centra team in 2001 as chief financial officer.

“I could not have picked a company that aligns more perfectly with what I wanted to accomplish,” he says. “It’s large enough

to be efficient, but yet it’s not too large, so it can implement change quickly. Centra’s culture is focused on rewarding its members through financial products and services priced to benefit them, which is very important to me.”

He notes that “our growth has greatly exceeded national averages. We have broadened our product lines and have placed new branches in locations that have led to strong growth, and we’ve recently added smartphone loan applications, mobile banking apps (Apple and Android) and a more robust commercial deposit product line.”

The forms that Centra’s community contributions take

are numerous. It awards three $1,000 higher education scholarships every year. It sponsors the annual Economic Outlook Breakfast, hosted by the chamber and IUPUC, at which a panel of IU Kelley School of Business faculty offers global, national, state and local forecasts. Some of Centra’s other associations include the Tri-County Business Expo, the Volunteers in Medicine Reverse Raffle, kidscommons, Dancing with the Stars Columbus Style, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic Strings in the Schools and March of Dimes. This summary by no means exhausts the entire list of its involvement.

One area that is particularly important to Centra is promoting financial literacy. “Especially for the youth of the communities we serve, it’s a natural fit for us,” says Harris. “We feel strongly that teaching individuals strong financial management skills improves their quality of life, which in turn benefits their communities.”

This activity takes a number of forms. Centra is associated with MoneySmart Week, which includes events such as Mad City Money.

Centra volunteers participated in Reality Store, an event for middle school students. It has provided free financial literacy materials to schools, including the elementaryappropriate Saving With Mandy and Randy program, and Making the Right Money Moves for high school students.

It conducts a financial mansee centra on page 7 ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 5

Project of the Year Arts District encourages discussion within community

By Brenda Showalter

C

ity leaders and volunteers have successfully refocused attention on some of Columbus’ greatest strengths. The Columbus Arts District, an effort to highlight and develop arts, architecture, culture and entertainment downtown, earned the official designation as a cultural district by the Indiana Arts Commission in December.

Only four other Hoosier communities have received the honor — Nashville, Bloomington, Carmel and Lafayette/West Lafayette.

In February, the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce recognized the accomplishment at its annual meeting where the Columbus Arts District was named Project of the Year.

The award recognizes excellence in projects that embody public-private partnerships working for the greater good and improving the overall welfare of people.

As city leaders and volunteers prepared the application for the state arts commission, they identified and categorized the city’s vast cultural assets. They also created the outline of a plan to further drive the expansion of arts in Columbus.

“Art and architecture can feed the soul and minds of people of all ages, cultures, ethnicities and walks of life,” said Tracy Souza, president and chief executive officer of The Heritage Fund: The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, in presenting the award at the chamber meeting.

“They also can be an engine that drives investment in education, retail, housing and entertainment. They can provide a welcoming and creative environment that unites a community, draws tourists and boosts tax revenue.”

Leaders saw the Arts District designation as a way to bring about positive changes in the community and enhance quality of life for children to seniors.

“We have a pretty incredible foundation to work from,” said Mayor Kristen Brown. “And ultimately, the entire community will benefit.”

6 The Business Connection April 2013

The Republic file photo

The crowd cheers for The Debuteens and Music Men of Columbus North High School inside the Crump Theatre prior to John Mellencamp taking the stage in 2008. Those involved with the Columbus Arts District hope to revive the old theater as a performance space.

Brown said work will continue to focus on making the arts affordable, accessible and appealing to all.

Karen Shrode, executive director of the Columbus Area Arts Council, said she is thrilled that the Arts District designation has encouraged an ongoing community discussion about art.

“I couldn’t ask for better timing with the

engagement in the arts,” Shrode said.

And even if not everyone agrees about art, Shrode added, she is thrilled that residents can begin having a dialogue about such topics as public sculptures, murals and architecture.

Helping guide work of the Arts District is a newly formed 11-member coalition representing city, arts, community and downtown see arts on page 7

The Republic file photo

Redesigning the Custer-Nugent Amphitheatre at Mill Race Park is one area of study for the Columbus Arts District.

arts continued from page 6 organizations. The group has been meeting since January, with smaller subgroups gathering more frequently.

The coalition, led by chairwoman Sherry Stark, has been divided into four teams: Public Art and Programming, led by Shrode; Commerce and Tourism, Lynn Lucas, executive director of the Columbus Visitors Center; Design and Architecture, Jayne Farber, Arts District consultant; and Education, T. Kelly Wilson, director of the Indiana University Center for Art and Design.

Brown said the group has identified several areas to study, but will gather cost information and public input before proceeding. Areas include: • Renovating The Crump Theatre.

• Reviving a summer concert similar to the former Popfest on the library plaza.

• Supporting current arts activities, such as August’s downtown ArtFest.

• Establishing a downtown arts center.

• Expanding the number of retail shops downtown.

• Redesigning the Custer-Nugent Amphitheatre in Mill Race Park to allow for more programming.

Brown said it was a tremendous honor for the Arts District to be named the Project of the Year by the chamber.

“That’s a high bar in this community,” Brown said, adding that a large number of people worked to attain the designation.

Many others will be involved to keep the work going.

centra continued from page 5 agement seminar for WorkOne Clients, a series of six such seminars for Human Services, and seminars for its own members.

It bestows a Financial Educator Award on a teacher in an area elementary, middle or high school who excels at imparting knowledge about such matters as checkbook balancing and maintaining good credit. The award comes with $1,000 to be used on classroom resources.

The company has grown beyond Indiana to include branches in Jamestown, N.Y., and Whitakers,

N.C. It maintains a strong relationship with Cummins Inc., and these expansions are a reflection of that. Harris says that the character of the company remains the same even as its area of service grows.

“We will continue moving forward with technology, branches and service initiatives,” he asserts.

“The successful Centra Credit Union of today is a function of strong management, visionary leadership, solid board and supervisory committee oversight, concrete communities and magnificent members.”

ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 7

Above: Rob Weaver trims a piece of wood in the workshop next to his home.

Opposite page: These templates, created for various jobs, are kept in case they can be used again.

One at a time Woodworker Rob Weaver crafts heirloom-quality furniture and custom cabinets

S

By Barney Quick n photos by Greg Jones

ometimes a small business owner is aware that not everyone with an interest in his general product line will make a suitable customer. If his product involves a meticulous craft, and his standards are such that his price points are above the average, those who buy his wares will be seeking a special level of quality and service.

Such is the case with Rob Weaver, owner of Weaver Fine Furniture and Cabinets. He readily admits that what he produces is high-end. Still, a discerning clientele has kept him productive and prosperous since 1999, when he started his shop.

“I try to convey to the customer that the quality difference between what I offer and a mass-produced product is great,” says Weaver. He’s well aware that his signature is on every aspect of what he delivers, from

8 The Business Connection April 2013

design through construction and finish to installation. “I like to do everything in-house so I have complete quality control.”

Bureaucracy certainly isn’t an issue at Weaver Fine Furniture and Cabinets. The entire organization consists of Rob, his wife, DeAnne, who handles bookkeeping and marketing, and one employee, Tim McKain, a cabinet builder with extensive experience.

The business’s office and shop are on Georgetown Road, in the wooded hills west of Columbus. The Weavers’ house is next door.

Weaver had aspired to an architecture career in his youth, but he went to work for Carl Fox Cabinets after finishing school and realized he’d found his calling, as well as a mentor. “Carl was more like a grandfather than a boss,” he says. “He was a great man. I gave him six

months’ notice when I decided to go on my own, and he was completely supportive.”

His customer base mostly comes from Columbus and Nashville, with one job in his portfolio for a Florida resident. Because a given job generally entails a couple of design trips, a trip for final measuring and one more for installation, he doesn’t seek work that will incur great transportation costs.

Marketing is mostly word-of-mouth. “DeAnne does watch for new home permits,” says Weaver. “She sends our literature to likely customers.”

He concedes that the years from 2009 to 2011 were slow. “We rode it out pretty well. Repeat customers kept us rolling.” Apparently so: Wood & Wood Products magazine ranked Weaver No. 5 in North America for growth in its August 2009 issue.

The business recently shared a booth with a granite company at the Indianapolis Home Show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It was the first time for such a project.

“A very small percentage of the people walking those aisles are our customers,” Weaver asserts. “We’ll have to

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Regarding the bidding process, he says, “It varies.

Some people don’t have any specific idea what they want. You look around their homes to get a sense of their tastes. I draw everything by hand and determine time and materials. Occasionally, a designer is involved.”

He works in a variety of woods. “Cherry’s still very popular. It sands and finishes well. I use a lot of quartersawn oak. It has a totally different look from basic oak.”

He notes that glazed finishes are often requested and candidly acknowledges that they are a challenge. “I took my lumps in the finish room,” he says. “Now I feel like I’m pretty knowledgeable.”

His shop is a rather densely packed collection of equipment, such as drill presses, saws, hand tools, a shaper, a large belt sander and a spraying room. One prized piece is his lathe. “I do quite a bit of turning,” he says. “I work that into a design whenever I can.”

His suppliers include Frank Miller Lumber in Salem and Hood Distribution in Louisville. For items such see weaver on page 11

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812.522.3800 Located at the corner of 4th Street & Burkhart 1239 East 4th Street, Seymour ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 9

coach’s corner

Mark McNulty

Creating an incredible customer experience When I ask business owners what sets them apart from their competition, about 90 percent of the time I get one of two answers, either “I don’t have any competition” or “our great customer service.”

The first answer is one I will address in a future article, and the second one is, well, almost laughable. Thirty years ago, when customer service was usually an afterthought, great, even good customer service could set you apart. In 2013, good customer service is the minimum acceptable level, and great is the norm.

What I am saying is that the bar has been raised 10-fold or more in the last 30 years, and what used to be great customer service is now just the minimum acceptable. When I ask owners what’s so great about their customer service, they usually can’t tell me.

The first thing I explain to my clients and anyone else who will listen is that it is no longer about great customer service, it is about a great customer experience. The difference is that we give service, but our customers receive the experience. It is all about perspective, and the only one that matters is the customer’s.

In his book “Take It To The MAX,” author and speaker Jeff Peden explains the need to create an incredible customer experience as a way to differentiate yourself in today’s competitive marketplace. Peden sums up his customer experience philosophy in one simple statement: Always do what is in the best interest of the customer. He identifies the following five questions that custom-

10 The Business Connection April 2013

ers ask themselves about you every time they consider doing business with you.

1. Can I trust you? Your customers want to know that doing business with you is safe and reliable. When they know they can trust you, they are more than willing to take your recommendations and to do more business with you. Think about the difference between your regular car mechanic and the oil change shop at the corner of a busy intersection. They are both likely to make the same recommendations, yet you are more likely to follow through with your mechanic’s suggestions than the ones from the quick service company, even though they are probably the same recommendation. The difference is trust.

2. Do you care about me? You can get customers to answer “yes” to this question only if you have demonstrated care for them. What are you doing to look out for your customers’ best interests, to put their needs ahead of yours?

Caring for your customers is like making deposits in their emotional bank accounts, which you can draw upon later. Remember that the No. 1 reason (68 percent) you lose customers is “perceived indifference.” This means that they don’t think you care, so neither do they.

3. Can I depend on you? Or in other words, will you do what you say? Do you call people back when you tell them you will? Do you send them that sample promptly or respond to the quote request in the time frame you promised?

Your customers want a partner they can

rely on to serve their needs in a timely and consistent fashion.

4. Am I important to you? Do you take the time to get to know your customers? If they have a business, do you understand how their business model works? Do you understand their needs well enough to proactively meet them?

How well do you know your retail clients? Do you call your best clients when a new product line comes in to let them see it first? What are you doing to let your customers know they are important to you?

5. Are you telling me the truth? Your customers want to know that you will always tell them the truth. This means that sometimes you will tell them the bad news, not just the good news.

Don’t tell them you will get it to them

by Friday when you know you can’t.

Tell them when you really can get it to them, learn why they feel they need it

by Friday and look at alternate ways to meet their needs on Friday and beyond.

So how would your customers answer if you asked them these five questions?

What would you score? If you don’t know, you could be missing the greatest opportunity to set yourself apart from your competitors, and you may be letting current and future business walk out the door.

What are you doing to create an incredible customer experience?

Mark McNulty is a business coach with ActionCoach Business Coaching. He can be reached at 372-7377 or mark@ coachmark.biz.

weaver continued from page 9

Tim McKain, left, works with Weaver in the shop.

as hinges and door slides he uses Courter Co. in Indianapolis. He purchases his finishes locally.

The most rewarding aspect of his work is the positive feedback. “Customers will never know what that means to us.”

Diane Ward enlisted Weaver to provide a bar in her basement, a fireplace mantel and a home-entertainment components cabinet. “I had no idea what I really wanted,” she recalls. “He led us through the process.

He must have measured five or six times before he was happy, and he stayed in touch with us until he was sure we were happy.”

For Melissa Rose, he built kitchen cabinets and part of a countertop. “He talked to us about the sink’s placement under the window. He thought it might be important to have it centered, so we made a few design adjustments per his recommendation.”

Kris and Ron Sibert hired Weaver to build a quarter-sawn oak bar for the lower level of a house they purchased in 2010. “He’s not just a craftsman, he’s an artist,” says Kris. “He focuses on the high-end market, but his work could go into any level of residence.”

“The key to success for us is making sure that the product’s going to work for years down the road,” says Weaver. “There’s no phase of this that I take lightly.”

ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 11

chamberc APRIL 2013

Monthly publication of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerc

Cooney to lead membership

Cindy Frey new pr

I am Tim Cooney, your new membership director. I want to thank everyone for the warm response regarding my appointment to the Chamber. I also want to thank all of our members who attended the annual meeting recently.

Our keynote speaker, Peter Kageyama, hit a chord with me regarding our community and the love of our city. I think it resonates with our Chamber as well. I have been in many conversations in the last several weeks with members asking how they can get more engaged and make a difference in their Chamber. To that I say bravo.

My most important challenge for 2013 is to increase member engagement.

What does this mean? To me, as your membership director, it means creating a community of members who enthusiastically embrace other members through the programming and events the Chamber provides. Embracing and celebrating new members at ribbon cuttings and new member receptions. Volunteering and becoming involved in the committee work that is so important to the membership.

In essence, raising your participation at least one notch on the bar.

New members will be thankful and appreciative of the warmer welcome. Unengaged members will notice the energy and hopefully step up in a positive way. It will not happen without the support and help of you. For the love of your Chamber, I ask for your energy and support of our great Chamber community.

Cindy Frey is the new chamber more than 25 years of experienc and economic development initia bus Visitors Center, the Commu tion, Leadership Bartholomew Co Main Street Program.

“We looked for someone with and communication skills, a track a pro-business approach and a passion for this co lie Farber, who chairs the Chamber’s Board of Dir committee. “Our new president possesses all of “I intend to build upon the Chamber’s successf innovative business environment and a world-cl said. “It is the Columbus way to continue to find I will seek out and listen to input from key stake how to further expand and improve our program Frey recently served as the global communica mins Inc.’s Corporate Responsibility group. Prior associate director of the Columbus Visitors Cen years with responsibility for special projects, o vertising and public relations. As an engaged she has served in board leadership roles at Foun lumbus Area Arts Council, kidscommons, Colum Women’s Giving Circle at the Heritage Fund.

“With its committed board, capable staff, hard and 600 member organizations, the Chamber on a path toward excellence,” Farber said. “Und the future of the Columbus Area Chamber of C bright.”

During the transition, Tim Cooney served as t keeping the Chamber moving forward during t director. The board expresses its gratitude to C for keeping the momentum going. Cooney has membership director.

Leadership simulcast event Do you want to have a breakthrough in growing as a leader? Pause, take a step back and make plans to take several steps forward at Leadercast 2013, to be held May 10 at First Christian Church, 531 Fifth St. Get ready for an unforgettable day of inspiration, learning, networking and more. Chick-fil-A Leadercast is one of the largest events of its kind, broadcasting world-renowned content to hundreds of locations around the world.

For questions about the event, contact Al White at FCC at 379-4491. For more information on the conference, visit www.chick-fil-aleadercast.com. For tickets to the local simulcast, visit www.fccoc.org. Chamber members: call the Chamber for a promo code for a special price.

12 The Business Connection April 2013

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h strong management k record of innovation, ommunity,” said Charrectors and the search these qualities.” ful efforts to foster an lass community,” Frey d ways to improve, so eholders to determine ms.” ations leader for Cumr to that, she was the nter for more than six online strategies, adcommunity member, ndation for Youth, Combus in Bloom and the

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Calendar April 1, 8, 15 and 22 — Third House Sessions, 7:30 a.m., City Hall. Open forum with our state legislators. Free and open to the public.

April 9 — (d) design Symposium Session 1, 5 p.m., Kelley School of Business – Bloomington. (d) design symposium is hosted by IUCA+D. It will explore how to plan, create, shape and adapt innovation.

April 10 — (d) design Symposium Session 2, 9:30 a.m., IUCA+D, 310 Jackson St. This event will feature leaders in design thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship with the community at large.

April 12 — April TEN Talk, 8 a.m., Visitors Center

Get Connected Take the “work” out of networking.

Join The Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce and The Partnership (Columbus Area Multi-Ethnic Organization, Columbus Young Professionals and Leadership Bartholomew County) for a fun and engaging evening of networking.

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ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 13

Around the WATERCOOLER Foundation introduces new name

Columbus Regional Hospital Foundation is now Columbus Regional Health Foundation.

“The name change reflects what the foundation’s mission has been for more than 18 years: to improve the health of the people in southeastern Indiana by actively raising charitable contributions to support Columbus Regional Hospital health care initiatives and to provide financial support and promote advocacy for REACH Healthy Communities and Volunteers in Medicine clinic through public awareness, philanthropy and stewardship,” said Columbus Regional Health Foundation President Julie Abedian.

The name change comes a year after Columbus Regional Hospital introduced the Columbus Regional Health name to define the community-wide health system Columbus Regional has become.

“This is the right time for us to make this change, and we hope it increases community awareness that we have and always will be committed to supporting health both in and outside the walls of Columbus Regional Hospital,” said Abedian.

Columbus insurance company honored

Johnson-Witkemper Insurance Services has been named one of Society’s Best for 2012 by Society 14 The Business Connection April 2013

Insurance, a mutual insurance company in Fond du Lac, Wis. The Society’s Best program, implemented in 2007, was created to recognize exceptional performance in Society’s top 25 agencies.

In order to earn the Society’s Best designation, Johnson-Witkemper Insurance Services competed with more than 300 independent agencies representing Society Insurance across a four-state territory.

Founded in 1987 by Steve Johnson and Bill Witkemper, Johnson-Witkemper Insurance Services later became a member of the Marvin Johnson Insurance Group. Today, Johnson-Witkemper is wholly owned by Marvin Johnson & Associates, providing personal and business coverage to southern Indiana.

This is the first year that Johnson-Witkemper Insurance Services has earned recognition as a Society’s Best agency.

IMA cuts staff by 11 percent

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Museum of Art has eliminated 29 jobs as part of a cost-cutting move designed to reduce the museum’s reliance on its endowment for financial stability.

Nineteen full-time and two parttime employees were dismissed March 4. Eight open positions won’t be filled.The cuts affect all departments and represent 11 percent of the museum’s staff.

Museum CEO Charles Venable

has said he wants to cut annual spending by $2 million and find ways to reduce the amount the museum must draw from its endowment to cover operating expenses.

The endowment was valued at $326 million last June, but only $203 million was available for operating expenses.

State seeks more military dollars

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana officials are starting an effort to attract more military spending to the state at the same time the Defense Department is facing billions of dollars in automatic federal budget cuts.

Duane Embree, a longtime civilian executive at southern Indiana’s Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, will lead the state’s new Office of Defense Development that Gov. Mike Pence created by executive order in January.

The defense development office will be small and based in Bloomington to be near Crane and the National Guard’s Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck Center.

Vuteq expansion

PRINCETON — Auto parts company Vuteq USA announced it will spend $4.3 million on new equipment for its factory near Princeton. The company says it expects to add about 90 workers by the end of this year at the plant that now employs about 450

workers.

The Vuteq factory supplies parts to Toyota, which has some 4,000 workers at its factory about a mile away. Vuteq also has plants in Illinois and Kentucky.

BioTown still depends on grid

REYNOLDS — The northern Indiana town of Reynolds is no longer trying to be BioTown USA. Eight years after then-Gov. Mitch Daniels set a goal of Reynolds becoming energy self-sufficient, it is as dependent on the grid as ever.

And likely will be even more so in the future.

Magnetation, a Grand Rapids, Minn.-based company, announced in November it was planning to build an iron ore pellet plant costing up to $350 million at the site where construction of a VeraSun Energy Corp. ethanol plant was suspended five years ago.

Daniels said jobs are jobs. He says he’s glad Reynolds tried to become energy self-sufficient, even though it didn’t work out.

Festival loses sponsor

CHESTERTON — A group that has sponsored a Wizard of Oz Festival in northern Indiana the past four years says it won’t be doing so again this year.

Machelle Blount of the Duneland Business Initiative Group has told officials with the town of Chesterton that it would no longer plan and host the event

that celebrated its 31st year in September.

Blount says the business group is ending its affiliation with the festival because of dwindling staff, fewer volunteers and a lack of resources.

Duneland Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Heather Ennis says the chamber would support a group or sponsor that comes forward.

Court exempts company from birth control rule

INDIANAPOLIS — A federal court has barred the government from enforcing the birth control mandate in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul against an Indiana company that raised religious objections.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago voted 2-1 Feb. 12 to grant a temporary injunction preventing the government from fining Madison-based Grote Industries $100 a day for violating the Affordable Care Act. The decision reversed a lower court ruling.

The Grote family say their Catholic beliefs will not allow them to offer contraception to their employees. Many U.S. business owners are filing similar lawsuits, claiming a violation of their religious beliefs. The lawsuits are yielding conflicting rulings in appeals courts around the country.

Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner dissented, saying the religious beliefs were the Grotes’, not the company’s.

Lakeshore gets shuttle service funding

CHESTERTON — The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is set to receive $193,400 from the Federal Transit Administration for a shuttle service to connect visitors traveling by commuter rail to the park along Lake Michigan’s southern shore.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced a total of $12.5 million in funding to improve access to national parks,

forests and wildlife refuges across the country. The funding comes from the Paul Sarbanes Transit in Parks program.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore will be able to buy new transit vehicles and create a shuttle service for those traveling from Chicago and South Bend by rail to the park.

2 Indy health care providers form partnership

INDIANAPOLIS — Two Indianapolis health care providers are forming a partnership aimed at providing greater access to care for low-income patients.

Wishard-Eskenazi Health and Community Health Network announced the partnership, saying it was neither a merger nor an acquisition. They said the partnership will put them in better position for upcoming health reform.

Leaders of the two providers say they complement each other because many of Wishard’s largest health centers and its hospital are downtown or on the city’s westside and Community has more facilities on the eastside and its main hospital is in the city’s northeast area. Community President Bryan Mills says the two also have little duplication in services.

there is a good chance of the market dropping three or four days later.

Daniels will serve as co-chairman of the committee through June 30, 2014.

Daniels to co-chair panel reviewing space program

Centaur completes purchase of Indiana Grand

WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue University President Mitch Daniels has joined a panel that will make recommendations about the future of the nation’s space program.

The Committee on Human Spaceflight is part of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. Its purpose is to review the space program’s long-term goals and direction and suggest ways to sustain it.

Daniels says Purdue has a long history with the space program and that he’s honored to serve on the panel. Purdue’s alumni include astronauts Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom, Roger Chaffee, Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan. Armstrong was the first man on the moon, and Cernan was the last.

see watercooler on page 17

Divisions in Bloomington, Jeffersonville & Columbus

IU professor receives patent

BLOOMINGTON — An Indiana University professor has received a patent for his software that analyzes millions of tweets to predict where the stock market is headed. Associate professor Johan Bollen and his fellow researchers spent years working on the software. Financial institutions and retailers have expressed interest in it.

The software sorts and scans a half-billion tweets per day to measure the country’s collective mood. Bollen said the software picks up the most important topics, reads the tweet and assigns values to them.

IU researchers have found that when people get more anxious,

ANDERSON — The Indiana Gaming and Horse Racing commissions have given final approval of the sale of the bankrupt Indiana Grand and Downs in Shelbyville to the owner of the Hoosier Park racino in Anderson, allowing the two sides to complete the deal.

A Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the deal in November, allowing Centaur to seek state and federal regulatory approval to complete the purchase. Centaur bought the facility in Shelbyville for $500 million. The commissions signed off Feb. 21.

Centaur has announced it plans major improvements at both casinos and racetracks, including a

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Business Indicators for Bartholomew County Percent changes

JAN 13/ JAN 13/ Description JAN 13 DEC 12 JAN 12 DEC 12 JAN 12 Labor Force

41,447

41,406

41,266

0.1

0.4

Household Employment

38,240

38,638

38,403

-1.0

-0.4

Unemployment Rate (pct)

7.7

6.7

6.9

—

—

— Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University 16 The Business Connection April 2013

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watercooler continued from page 15 1,500-person music venue in Anderson. Centaur also has proposed building 300 more stalls at the track in Shelbyville and is considering an entertainment complex and additional slot machines there.

The two parks will continue to operate under their respective names, Centaur’s president and chief operating officer Jim Brown said. Centaur also said it plans to run thoroughbred and quarter horses at Indiana Downs and standardbreds for Hoosier Park.

Union votes to take severance

GOSHEN — Union workers at a northern Indiana trailerhitch manufacturer have voted to forgo arbitration and accept a severance agreement.

Most of the 350 United Steelworkers Local 9550 work-

ers at Cequent Performance Products in Goshen supported the package.

Cequent, a subsidiary of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based TriMas Corp., announced in November it would move operations from the 450-employee plant 25 miles southeast of South Bend to Reynosa, Mexico, to lower shipping costs.

Workers with less than a year’s seniority will receive $500, while those with 30 years or more will receive $36,000.

Workers also will receive company health benefits for at least a month after they are laid off.

The total severance package is worth more than $3.5 million.

More than half the employees are scheduled to remain on the job through the end of June, with the last due to be let go in December.

— Staff and Wire Reports

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on the move Elizabeth (Betsy) Free has joined Edward Jones as a financial adviser in the office of her father, Ken Free. She is a graduate of Columbus North High School and majored in finance at Indiana University. She was previously employed

by Pro Trans International in Indianapolis.

Free

Vanderkolk

Columbus native Stacey Poynter has been named deputy district director of the U.S. Small Business Administration Indiana District Office.

His responsibilities include expanding delivery of SBA’s loan programs and business counseling and training throughout the state’s 92 counties.

He will continue to serve as lead lender relations specialist for Indiana. In this position, he oversees 133 financial institutions providing SBA guaranteed loans to small businesses. Prior to joining the SBA in 2008, he had 15 years of financial services experience, including consumer and commercial lending across southern Indiana.

He is a graduate of Purdue University.

Brett Vanderkolk has joined Centra Credit Union as chief financial officer. He has extensive background in banking and corporate finance for both financial and commercial organizations, having spent over 20 years in various treasury and financial management roles, most recently as director-treasury strategy for Cummins Inc. He is a graduate of DePauw University with a B.A. in economics and of the University of Chicago with an M.B.A. in finance.

Taskey

Brinkman

Dugan

Wanda McGaha and Stella Herr have been re-elected to serve three-year terms on the board of directors of Business Industrial Federal Credit Union. Election of officers was held during the company’s 53rd annual meeting in late January.

Century 21 Breeden Realtors and many of its individual agents recently won 2012 Century 21 awards in several categories.

The office, at 700 Washington St., was honored with the Per Person Productivity Award, the Double Centurion Award, the President’s Office Award and the Quality Service Pinnacle Award.

18 The Business Connection April 2013

Scott Taskey was recognized as the No. 1 agent in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky in 2012 and also received the Double Centurion Producer Award.

He was No. 1 in closed residential production and No. 1 in selling production.

Jan Brinkman also received the Double Centurion Producer Award, and Karen Dugan, Karen Abel and Tracie Hawes received the Centurion Producer Award.

Karen Abel and Tracie Hawes received the President’s Producer Award, and the Masters Diamond Producer Award was awarded to Holly Downey and Jane Kennedy. The Masters Ruby Producer Award was awarded to Vicki Gardner, Jane Mellinger and Kassie Reynolds. Peggy Dell was recognized for receiving the Masters Emerald Producer Award.

Several agents were recognized with the Quality Service Pinnacle Producer Award: Karen Abel, Tracie Hawes, Candi Hester, Jane Kennedy, Linda Mackey, Jane Mellinger and Kassie Reynolds.

Agents who received the Quality Service Producer Award were Joan Baker, Jan Brinkman, Peggy Dell, Holly Downey, Judie King, Nora Noblitt and Michelle Walls.

Holly Downey was recognized as the No. 1 agent in outgoing referrals, and Karen Dugan as No. 1 agent for listing production.

On the team level, Dan and Laura Davis received the Quality Service Pinnacle Award, and Bev and Dave Roberts received the Quality Service Award. The Wischmeier team received the Masters Team Award and was honored as the No. 1 team in listing production and selling production.

Karen Browning of Seymour has been made a director at Thirty-One Gifts, a direct-selling company of fashion accessories, totes and organizing items.

Kromphardt

David Kromphardt has joined JCB as vice president and area executive in Bartholomew County. With more than 30 years of banking experience, he most recently was president and

CEO at Spring Valley City Bank in Spring Valley, Ill. His office will be at the JCB downtown Columbus location, 400 Washington St. He will coordinate and direct total market development for Bartholomew, Johnson and Decatur counties.

Kromphardt is a graduate of Concordia University in River Forest, Ill., the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, Wis., and the American Bankers Association Lending School in Norman, Okla.

Felsten

Trout-Cummins

Cynthia L. Felsten has been appointed assistant director of development at Indiana University Purdue University Columbus. An IUPUC alumna, she is now responsible for a comprehensive annual giving program to increase the number of annual gifts from various sources and will also oversee alumni relations and will plan, direct and coordinate activities of the campus alumni association and work actively with the student alumni association.

She is former resource development coordinator for Columbus Parks and Recreation Department.

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Diane Trout-Cummins has joined SourceLink, a privately held direct marketing services company, as a strategic relationship manager. She will work with existing financial institution clients, on-board new clients, enhance relationships and improve overall campaign performance. She has more than 20 years of bank marketing experience, most recently as assistant vice president for marketing and online strategies for Indiana Bank and Trust Co. (now Old National Bank) in Columbus. A longtime member of the American Bankers Bank Marketing Association, she is a former president of the Indiana Chapter Bank Marketing Association and former chairwoman of the Bank Marketing Association Chapter Leadership Board. She also was a member of the Indiana Bankers Association Marketing Committee.

Dan Arnold has been named commercial loan officer in business services at Centra Credit Union. He has broad experience in insurance, investments, retail banking and commercial lending, having served in various financial services roles, most recently with Key Bank in Indianapolis. He has a B.S. degree in tourism management from Indiana University.

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Older entrepreneurs call shots after long careers

associated press photos

At age 52, Tony Uzzi, shown above and at right, accepted a buyout from his former company and went into business for himself with a Nurse Next Door franchise.

Ditching the boss comes with a cost, but new entrepreneurs over 50 say it’s worth it

By Joyce M. Rosenberg The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Calling the shots isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. But for people above 50, it’s become a more popular choice.

Tony Uzzi knows all about that. After 30 years in traditional jobs, at age 52, he accepted a buyout from a pharmaceutical company and went into business for himself. Now, instead of having a fairly predictable schedule as a pharmaceutical salesman, work can interrupt just about anything — even dinners out.

On one occasion, Uzzi was sitting in a restaurant with his wife and their bottle of wine was being uncorked. The next minute, he was dashing off to make sure an elderly client of his Nurse Next Door senior care franchise was OK. “It’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Uzzi says. “It’s a challenge.”

For most Americans, exiting the rat race to start their own business is a passing thought.

And then, as people get older, building a pension or a 401(k) plan with an employer match is too comfortable to let go. During the reces20 The Business Connection April 2013

sion and its aftermath, however, the number of people over 50 who started their own companies grew. Often it was because of the stiff job market. Sometimes family or personal circumstances necessitated a change to something more flexible. Almost always, running a business after decades of working for someone else, is turning out to be an adjustment.

Uzzi’s Nurse Next Door franchise is the second business he started after taking the buyout in 2010. Uzzi first launched an executive coaching business that drew on his experience as a manager. But he was bored and not making the money he wanted. He began looking for a franchise and settled on Nurse Next Door because of his background in health care.

Interruptions aren’t the only challenge he encounters. Running the franchise comes with a myriad of duties: Drumming up sales and hiring among them.

“The constant drive to get clients, the constant sales calls. It’s finding good caregivers,” says Uzzi, who runs the franchise in Orange County, Calif. He is continually looking for new contacts — local attorneys and churches, for example — who can refer clients to him. He has 15 clients and is hoping for more.

Many people over 50 are making the same adjustments as Uzzi. Research by the Kauffman Foundation, which studies trends in entrepreneurship, shows that more people ages 55 to 64 turned to business ownership during and

after the recession. The foundation’s index of entrepreneurial activity among people in that age group rose from 2007 to 2009 and logged a scant decline in 2010.

Some older entrepreneurs keep working in the industry where they’ve spent their entire careers. That was a big confidence booster for Lori Ames, who started her public relations company, The PR Freelancer, in 2010.

“Being 53 and having enough work and life experience made me go into this in a smart way,” says Ames, who launched her business after her 22-year-old son was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. She decided that running her own company would give her the flexibility to care for her son and allow her to work near her Babylon, N.Y., home.

She wasn’t worried about getting clients after having done book publicity and other public relations in Manhattan for more than see entrepreneurs on page 21

Eye on the pie

Morton Marcus

GDP, the DNA of MSA economies The nation’s 366 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) accounted for 89 percent of the $13.3 trillion United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011. After the polluted language we’ve heard from legislators in Washington and Indianapolis, doesn’t that sentence give you a nice, clean feeling?

It’s a fact, not a self-serving political statement. As relief from the axis of irrelevancy that runs through Washington and Indianapolis, let’s enjoy some facts for a change.

GDP measures the market value of goods and services produced. It is not a measure of income, but of output.

Metro areas are imperfect statistical entities. For example, Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana are subsumed under the Chicago MSA. Indiana counties in southern and southeastern

parts of the state are lumped in with Louisville and Cincinnati.

Nonetheless, we have some interesting data to work with.

2011 was the year when the nation’s 366 metro areas together exceeded their previous GDP high point in 2007. That fact hides the truth. As ever, the aggregate disguises the detail. Only 164 of the MSAs had higher GDP values in 2011 than they did in 2007. Over 55 percent of metro areas were still below their 2007 peaks in 2011.

Among those that had cleared the recession were Columbus, Lafayette and Bloomington MSAs. The remaining 13 MSAs that include Indiana counties were still in recession in 2011. Kokomo and Elkhart-Goshen still had production valued below 2007 levels and ranked at the bottom of all MSAs in the U.S. for recovery.

However, to quote the U.S.

Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Kokomo, IN and Columbus, IN were two of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in 2011, with overall real GDP growth of 7.1 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.”

What is going on here?

Columbus had the best record of growth in the state from 2007 to 2011 and also from 2010 to 2011.

Kokomo had the second-best rate of growth from 2010 to 2011, but still trailed all MSAs in growth from 2007 to 2011 because of the particularly hard hit it took in the recession of 2008 and 2009.

Recently there is good news out of the Kokomo MSA with announcements from Chrysler of new facilities and employment opportunities. When the data for 2012 and subsequent years are released, Kokomo may well be among the national leaders in

growth again.

Indiana is not a homogeneous state. Politicians and economists are on shaky ground making broad generalizations about our economic conditions. Individual large companies have major effects in selected communities. One firm going through a crisis can throw off the data for an entire metro area.

Our metro areas do not all change in the same way at the same time. Yes, manufacturing continues to be a common element of most local Hoosier economies.

Nevertheless, careful analysis finds important county or regional differences that should make analysts more cautious and elected officials less dogmatic about economic affairs.

Morton Marcus is an independent economist, writer and speaker.

Contact him at mortonjmarcus@ yahoo.com.

entrepreneurs continued from page 20 20 years. What was daunting was the prospect of becoming an employer for the first time.

Ames’ business grew so much that nine months after she started the company she was able to hire the first of her two staffers. That was great news, but the responsibility that comes with being responsible for someone else’s salary was stressful.

“That was more nerve-racking than starting a business,” she says.

A lot of older entrepreneurs turn to franchises. They appeal to them because they can start making money sooner than they would by building a company from the ground up.

Another benefit: Franchises come with a readymade business and marketing plan — and often a well-known name like Subway — the popular sandwich shops — or Lawn Doctor lawn-care businesses. Uzzi spent $100,000 to buy and set

up his franchise, a far cry he says from what it would take to establish a new business. “I didn’t have $20 million to dump into establishing a brand,” he says.

The Nurse Next Door company notes that it is attracting older franchisees. In the last six to nine months, the average age of new Nurse Next Door franchisees is 56, up from 45. CEO John DeHart says the company is getting more inquiries from older prospective franchisees than in the past.

Starting a company while still working for someone else is another route. William Ryan has a job as a salesman for a consumer products company in the Boston area. But last month, at the age of 52, he also opened a franchise — a Lapels dry cleaning business. His goal is to help pay for college for his two children. He’s also concerned about the job market.

“I have a friend who’s worked for a company for 30 years and just got a layoff notice,” he says. “I’m doing this as a safety net and as a financial security blanket.”

Ryan works on the business before and after his regular job. He’s in the store on weekends.

During the week, it’s staffed by two part-time workers.

Owning a company for the first time has a learning curve. Ryan is dealing with payroll, insurance and other aspects of running a business. The process of opening the store required a lot of paperwork.

“I bet I’ve gone through 300 pieces of paper just setting things up,” he says.

But the work that goes into running his own business is worth it, he says.

“I’ve got that fire in me,” Ryan says. “This is something I always wanted to do.”

ApRil 2013 The Business Connection 21

in the workplace Rex Huppke

Agility vital for modern workers, employers I’ve read about how important it is to be agile in today’s workplace. So I tried typing that first sentence with my toes while balancing on one arm atop a cubicle wall. I fell twice and sprained my ankle.

Fortunately, that’s not the kind of agility that matters.

Being agile in the working world means being adaptable, managing change, trying to keep pace with technology and consumers’ ever-evolving needs and desires.

This is not something most American companies — and many employees, for that matter — do well. We tend to get stuck in our ways, locked in the classic conversation: “Why do we do things this way?”

“Because that’s the way we’ve always done them.”

A new survey by the workforce research firm I4CP, or the Institute for Corporate Productivity, found that companies consider the top two “critical issues for 2013” to be “managing/coping with change” and “managing organizational change.” And yet the study found that only 35 percent of the best-performing organizations are effective at managing change.

“When it comes to the leadership properties in a lot of companies, they remain status quo,” said Kevin Martin, chief research and marketing officer at I4CP. “You have to have agile leaders. The mantra should be, ‘We need to change internally as fast or faster than the market is changing externally.’”

In many companies, implementing change is like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier. Projects often become months-long endeavors where team members cannot make decisions without clearance from multiple rungs of management.

The argument here is that companies should function more like youthful gymnasts than arthritic octogenarians. Steve Denning, author of “The Leader’s Guide to 22 The Business Connection April 2013

Radical Management,” said businesses that can’t continually innovate have short life expectancies.

He gave me several principles for a company to become more agile: • Instead of focusing on making money, focus on delivering value to and delighting customers.

• Instead of having managers controlling individuals in teams, let the teams selforganize.

• Have teams that work in short cycles, with managers whose main role is to remove things that might get in the way of their work. At the end of each cycle, review what has been done and move on to the project’s next step, learning from any mistakes that were made.

• Keep communication horizontal, not vertical. Rather than receiving vague directions from on high, have face-to-face conversations, make sure everyone understands a directive and then get to work.

I particularly like the idea of projects being done in segments that don’t eat up too much time. How often have you seen a work project drag on — and lead to something feeble? The agile approach empowers the team members working on the project, giving them the freedom to be innovative and smart, while reviewing the work piece by piece so it succeeds.

“Companies like Apple and Amazon and others, they’re all using this type of management and crushing the competition,” Denning said. “It’s a transformation. It’s under way, and it’s happening on a large scale.”

Derek Wade, president of Kumido Adaptive Strategies and a board member of a national group called the Agile Leadership Network, said agile companies are “trying to amplify the characteristics of humanity as opposed to trying to mechanize them.”

“As an agile leader, you say, ‘I’ve got people. I know that they do good work, and I’m going to give them this problem, and they get days or weeks to work on it and show me what they’ve achieved,’ ” Wade said.

“The responsibility is among the people to figure out how they’re going to organize to get the job done. It’s a framework that enables rapid group learning.”

And it also makes it easier for companies to shift as market demands change.

“It comes down to tapping our own basic, evolved ability for adaptation and change, which is often driven out of most organizations by traditional management structures,” Wade said.

There are plenty of workers who would function well in this kind of a system. My sense is that more often than not, traditional management structures keep employees from reaching their full potential.

So what do you do if you’re an agile worker at a company that isn’t agile?

“It’s always important for the employee to go to the boss,” Martin said. “If they’re not clear on where the business is going, then they need to meet with their boss and get it figured out. You need to ask yourself a question: Are you in a position where you can influence where the company is going?

If you’re not, then it sounds like that might be an opportunity for someone to find a new opportunity.”

For some companies, particularly in manufacturing, this approach may not be the best fit. But for most others, it’s a wave that’s likely to grow.

Better to hop on the wave now and learn how to balance. A skill I could have used while repeatedly falling off the cubicle wall.

Rex Huppke writes for the Chicago Tribune.

Send him questions by email at rhuppke@ tribune.com.

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24 The Business Connection April 2013