You can’t be one of the nation’s #1 wholesale lender without having some fun too! United Shore specializes in fun and, for the third year in a row, “took over” the Birmingham Village Fair to treat its 1,500+ team members and their families to an evening of unlimited rides and free food, drinks and games.
After Daymond John started his internationally known fashion brand FUBU in the basement of his mother’s house, she took a loan on her house to help scale his business. And she was the biggest believer that he could grow a hip-hop brand to greatness.
John, a keynote speaker at this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, credits his mentors in hip hop, on “Shark Tank” and among his family for helping create his entrepreneurial spirit. He shared a variety of tips in his wide-ranging talk, which included everything from an impression of LL Cool J to Gap ads to insights on the Kardashian phenomenon.
On Thursday morning John shared some of what he has learned about music, customer service, advertising and believing in yourself and your products through FUBU, his book and his television appearances.
• Your customers are part of your company’s ecosystem. Create trust with the people who buy your products and make them invest in you and your business. Their belief in what you do will result in returns beyond imagination.
• Investing in your staff is the best dividend. As a boss you don’t have to be mean or cruel. Rather, you need to learn about them as individuals, inspire them with your own hard work and encourage them to try to contribute to the company’s overall success.
• Don’t rank your success in terms of money. John’s mother, who divorced and had three jobs to support the family, was happy despite the family’s financial challenges. “Money just drives you up to your problems in a limousine,” John said.
• Look around you for inspiration. When John attended hip-hop concerts he noticed that everyone seemed to have a uniform of sorts on when they attended. But companies, including one famous shoe company, wasn’t interested in this market. FUBU grew about of John’s love of this culture and every culture.
• Don’t buy from others when you can make it yourself. His mom told him he could spend the same money on a bolt of fabric and make his own products. Eventually, FUBU had to scale up, but John still listened to others and kept his ideas and fabrication true to those early roots.
• You have to be local. LL Cool J told John that if he was going to wear the FUBU brand, that had to mean something to him because he represented his hometown and the people living there. You need to lift your community up first and then it will lift you up as well.
• You have to love what you do. “The day you stop loving what you do, stop doing it,” John said. And even if you fail, keep at it. That 1 percent of the time that you have success, you’ll likely knock it out of the park.
• Be relatable. One thing that makes Kris Jenner so bright in terms of how she markets the Kardashian women is that she looks at how each one relates to the female marketplace. Each woman has a way that engages her audience, and that works for their brand.
Researching, studying and understanding Detroit’s history to move the city forward is part of the mission of the Detroit Historical Society. So why is Bob Bury, its Executive Director and CEO, on Mackinac Island this week for the Mackinac Policy Conference?
Bury is here in part to discuss and promote the Detroit 67: Looking Back to MOVE FORWARD project, a community engagement program of the Detroit Historical Society that aims to “bring together diverse voices and communities around the effects of an historic crisis to find their place in the present and inspire the future.”
“With the 50-year commemoration of 1967 approaching next year, it just seemed like the perfect timing and opportunity, and we were honored to be invited to be participate,” said Bury. “It’s a great forum for having the honest and often difficult conversations we need to have – followed by commitments to take action by the leaders of our community.”
The Detroit 67: Looking Back to MOVE FORWARD project is unlike anything the Detroit Historical Society has ever done in its nearly 100-year history, Bury said.
“While a comprehensive, balanced and experiential exhibition [opening in Spring 2017] is at the heart of it, we are breaking new ground for how a cultural institution works collaboratively with local and national scholars, experts and community members – and that includes the business and community leaders who gather at the Mackinac Policy Conference.”
Bury said the project, which includes a variety of Detroiters across generations, has resulted in many surprises along the way.
“There are many myths out there and significant misinformation about what happened and why. We will be bringing the facts to light in a balanced, fair and comprehensive way, which, in my opinion, is critical,” Bury said. “Second, on a more positive and encouraging note, in the vast majority of cases people are ready to talk about it—what we have done right and where we have fallen short—and are ready to take action to move forward. Detroiters are resilient and ready to build upon the positive momentum that Detroit is finally beginning to experience.”
He hopes the project – and his role as part of this year’s Conference – will give people new insights on the city and the region.
“Most people would agree that the challenges, achievements and success of our past can provide important lessons for our future. Using the 50-year commemoration of the summer of 1967 as point of reflection really makes that point,” Bury said. “When we began this project, we called it Detroit 1967 with a primary focus on the actual disturbance that took place during July of that year. We quickly realized, however, that to fully understand and learn from 1967, we had to take much broader and comprehensive view.
“We renamed the project Detroit 67: Looking Back to MOVE FORWARD. The project now has a 150-year scope, covering the 100 years from 1917-2017, but also forward to 2067. Most would agree much remains to be done to realize our full potential as a region, and if we know our history we can create a better future.”
Talk about bragging rights: Michigan can boast that it has the largest model tire, picnic table and, recently, hotdog sculpture.
A 63-foot hotdog atop a diner called Wienerlicious in Mackinaw City is attracting all kinds of attention from people passing through on I-75. While the steel, spray foam (SPF) insulation, and fiberglass sculpture is awaiting the word from the Guinness World Records folks about being the “World’s Largest,” locals and travelers are pulling off to see the oversized roadside oddity at the base of the famous Mackinaw Bridge.
“Michigan boasts the ‘World’s Largest’ model tire, cherry pie, weathervane, picnic table, and working rifle, so where better to build a giant weenie?” says Henry Behling, a representative for Great Lakes Roofing and Insulation, the Sault Ste. Marie company chosen to provide the spray polyurethane foam to create the sculpture. “The artist insisted on SPF foam, and we’re experts at spraying foam in this Michigan climate, so it worked out great.”
When the Wienerlicious owners, Frank N Stuff Inc., wanted a giant hotdog atop their new building, they didn’t have far to look for the guy to make it happen. They chose the same artist who created a 30-foot tall grizzly bear just up the street in Mackinaw City, Ron Berman of Berman Studios, Inc.
“I’m a urethane man,” says Berman, whose studio is located in Clearwater, Fla. “I spent years working for Disney where everything is Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), but when I got out on my own I met Tim Kearns, the grandfather of spray polyurethane foam (SPF). He taught me all about the machines, the chemical process, and how to spray the polyurethane foam, and I fell in love with it. It’s an ideal product for sculptures like this hotdog. Since then I’ve developed my own system of design, fabrication, and SPF use that gives me real flexibility, and saves the customer anywhere from 40–80 percent on materials and production time.”
Berman says he was impressed by Behling and Great Lakes Insulation, “Their knowledge and spraying skill level were really impressive. And that brand of SPF they used was amazingly consistent. Worked great in the fluctuating climate in which we worked.”
Behling agrees about the brand of foam, “We used NCFI’s InsulStar closed-cell foam because it’s the best on the market. It’s clean, trouble free, and always provides the same yield. We ended up using about five sets of InsulStar to do the hotdog, a bit of touch up, and the mustard and jalapenos.”
According to Berman, the hotdog is 63 feet long, 15 feet, 2 inches high, 12 feet wide, and weighs approximately 2.4 tons. “Our design and finished sculpt actually exceeded the wind loads of the permitting.”
While he won’t divulge his proprietary process, Berman says he starts with sketches, then 3-D modeling, then creates the exoskeleton by bending a pencil rod steel wire frame—which in the case of the hotdog was done by a 13-year-old apprentice—then Great Lakes sprayed 2 inches of InsulStar. “Once the spray foam cures, we sculpt it. Again, my process saves the customer because we can use laborers instead of artists to do the shaving. Next we touch-up the foam where it needs it and seal it all with fiberglass. I usually use polyurea, but the customer wanted fiberglass, so we used it. Then we paint it.”
When asked about his obvious pride in the success of the sculpt, Berman said, “I mean, it’s a hotdog. It’s not Rodin’s Thinker. It’s a giant weenie. But, it’s a gorgeous giant weenie.”
Detroit, for all of its focus on technology and automation, is a city steeped in history. One Motor City tradition is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and a huge weekend of events to honor the 2016 UAW-GM Spirit of Detroit Hydrofest is coming together nicely, organizers say.
Event organizers Detroit Riverfront Events Inc. are putting together a full roster of family-friendly activities, races and historic retrospectives in honor of Detroit’s 100th year of boat racing, said Mark Weber, President of DREI.
This year’s UAW-GM Spirit of Detroit Hydrofest featuring the APBA Gold Cup will run August 26 thru 28. UAW-GM’s title sponsorship ensures all general admission parks will remain free to the public on Saturday and Sunday.
The UAW-GM Spirit of Detroit HydroFest is the longest continuously running unlimited hydroplane race on the H1 Unlimited circuit. The H1 Unlimited hydroplanes are the fastest and most powerful, closed-course racing boats in the world.
The first sanctioned hydroplane race took place on the Detroit River in 1916, and has been a Detroit tradition ever since. Detroit Riverfront Events is working closely with west coast-based H1 Unlimited to make the Detroit race bigger and better than ever.
In addition to “Free Friday,” plans are underway for more activities, attractions and events leading up to this year’s HydroFest. For example, there will be a bevy of memorabilia, videos as well as antique and classic boats used throughout the history of the races on site for people to dive into, Weber said.
“We are actively coordinating efforts to make this a memorable event fitting for our 100th anniversary and look forward to making a series of announcements in the next few months,” said Weber.
To that end, DREI added former University of Michigan football tailback Jamie Morris to its evolving team as Corporate Sponsor and Hospitality Sales Manager for this year’s event. Morris spent eight years with U-M Athletics in marketing, sales and development, and then began his own consulting business named “Catch 23” that specializes in these areas.
“As our organization continues to grow, we felt it was important to bring someone, like Jamie, with a sales and hospitality background on board to help us bring additional awareness and corporate involvement to the event,” said Weber.
Morris said he appreciates the event’s history and has been impressed with the water views, the racers and the event’s organization.
“Rarely do you get the opportunity to be part of such a monumental anniversary,” Morris said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to work with this team. It’s like Coach Schembechler said: ‘If you’re not learning as you’re living, you’ll grow old and you’ll die.’ I wanted to be a part of this.”
Morris set numerous U-M career and season records for rushing and offensive production including career most yards rushing playing for legendary college coach Bo Schembechler. He was named First-team All-Big Ten running back and Fiesta Bowl Co-MVP in 1987 and named the Hall of Fame Most Valuable Player in 1988. After leaving the Wolverines, Morris went on to play three years for the Washington Redskins in the National Football League, where he still holds the record for single-game rushes.
At Good Life Advisors many of us spend more time together than we do with our families, so building a great environment is crucial to company morale. Our executive team treats everyone as equals. Whether in the office or on a team building event, we have each other’s back.
The workplace is renowned for holding conventional team sales meetings wherein performance, achievement and sales numbers are publicly touted. When sales numbers are met and quotas exceeded, bells ring, horns blow, trumpets play and even obtuse exercises are ritually and merrily performed. Key individuals are buoyed by the recognition, accolades and affirmations which are great but always short-lived, as reaching the next sales quota is always looming. Pressures are real and tensions run high, especially for competitive peers.
When sales goals are NOT met, and public affirmations turn to personal insults, disparaging remarks and character defamation in front of peers, managers need to recognize that this method of “motivation” is counter-productive and can be demoralizing. Criticizing a worker publicly for performance deficiency, unless done lightly with tasteful humor, is unprofessional and disrespectful, an approach that can negatively affect worker’s attitudes toward their work, their regard for management and firm’s overall reputation.
A healthy working relationship is based on mutual respect. Managers possess the opportunity to encourage and inspire and have a responsibility to lead and motivate. Managers do not have the right to bully. If there is an issue, managers should privately communicate concerns and seek to understand, i.e. personal issues that may be affecting work performance. But it’s best to keep this conversation brief and not get too involved in worker’s personal affairs.
Public humiliation and fear do not motivate workers or generate good will. Rather it only serves to feed stress and embarrassment, disenfranchise workers and breed ill-will while depleting team spirit. Public humiliation is not a healthy modus operandi for any company. Showing respect, use of humor and engaging the individual privately to discuss the issue is advised.
Managers: Believe in your people. Treat them with respect and demonstrate support.
Sales professionals: Have a thicker skin. Know you are “in the valley” … everything in life is cyclical and your numbers will come around again. Acknowledge deficiencies. Have an Action Plan. Be prepared to outline how you plan to change numbers going forward and exhibit “Grace Under Pressure.” When you display confidence and don’t cave … when you exude the positive persona, “this too shall pass” … you allay managers’ fears and help avert public displays of angst.
As a sales person myself, I can say, no one is more aware of their performance and numbers than someone in that role. Bullying … and public humiliation is not inspirational, respectful or professional.
What if your top executives are recruited away to another firm? What if your CEO becomes ill? Do you have the next generation of leaders ready to fill those roles? If not, you may end up with an empty C- suite – or worse, underqualified people moving into leadership roles because there is no one better to take over.
According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2014, in fact, more than half of business leaders indicate they do not have confidence in their direct reports’ ability to become part of the C-suite. With the looming retirement of millions of baby boomers who are currently employed full-time; many of them in leadership/management roles, the effect of inadequate or lost leadership could be devastating if your organization is unprepared.
The best way to reduce the impact of lost leadership is through a strong succession planning program – one which requires more than just an organizational chart showing who holds what job. Best practice organizations use succession planning to develop and maintain strong leadership, to ensure that they address all the skills and competencies required for today’s business environment, and to serve as a powerful tool in motivating and retaining top leadership.
Succession planning is an ongoing, dynamic process that helps an organization keep pace with changes in the business, industry, and overall marketplace. To achieve outstanding results, requires an effective and highly focused strategy that centers on organizational excellence. Despite this reality, companies frequently make many mistakes when it comes to succession planning.
Following these key steps can help organizations avoiding pitfalls:
Set your strategic direction. Start with your current mission. Is your bank able to achieve its stated goals and objectives with your current team? Consider carefully your one-, three- and five-year plan and assess the talent you have on board in light of those plans. Although products and services are very important to any business, in the financial services arena, human capital is the key to success.
Start at the top with the CEO succession plan, and then move to the next level down, usually the executive vice president, senior loan officer or chief financial officer – all of the positions that constitute the senior management team. Keep in mind that in this new age of regulation, most regulators want to know that you have a written plan for multiple layers, not just senior management
Review your organizational chart. Begin with the positions at the senior management level, defining the profile for each role. Factor in everything that influences success in the position: education, licenses, experience, competencies. In the case of your CFO, for example, determine what is really important for the role: MBA/CPA License; strong financial and accounting experience; M & A experience. If department leadership wishes to conduct a broader succession planning initiative, you may go a step further by including mid-managers.
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your current organization, including the available talent pool. Put in place a formal evaluation process that allows all levels to communicate their interests, strengths and areas that need improvement. This will help you to understand your bench strength – or lack of it. In order to gauge bench strength, determine whether critical leadership positions have one or more persons ready to successfully assume the role and responsibility of each position. With this knowledge you can focus on strategy development and measurement where it is needed.
Strengthen your talent pool. Once you have determined the status of your bench strength, you can go about enlarging your talent pool, internally or externally, or a combination of both. Ideally, talent from the outside or inside would be balanced and the combination of possible successors would be high; unfortunately, talent management is not such an easy process.
Each path has its own pros and cons. Internally, there are generally fewer corporate conflicts and, since you already know them, clearer track records of candidates’ strength and weaknesses. Promoting from within also sends a positive message to your employees and promotes morale. On the other hand, the cost of developing talent can be high, and the tendency to think within the current corporate culture can be limiting.
Seeking external candidates encourages fresh perspectives, fosters diversity, and often brings intimate competitor knowledge, including best practices, to your organization. The downside includes the risk of corporate culture conflicts, a lack of clear indicators of strengths and weaknesses, and the cost of recruitment.
Develop your employees for advancement. Even if your immediate needs require the hiring of external candidates, you must design and implement career development strategies for the employees you want to retain and promote. It is critical to the development of your infrastructure and to keep your “A” and “B” employees on the right track. Components of your plan should include cross-training, professional development and leadership training. It should also stress participation – in projects and on teams, task forces and committees.
Further development activities should feature input from external providers, attending work-related conferences, membership in professional organization, coaching and self-study. A mentoring system also helps by having positive people promote your positive culture.
Monitor and evaluate your talent. Succession planning has the overall goal of providing the right leadership at the right place, at the right time, with the right skills. To ensure that this happens, at a minimum, annually assess each person’s successes and failures so that you can make changes to the organizational structure if needed. Look back the last 12 months and determine what positive moves were made and what still needs to be accomplished. Make adjustments accordingly or execute contingency plans for unexpected surprises and fine tune your written plan.
Determine your external needs. If you do not have any viable internal candidates for your key roles, you probably do not have the appropriate bench strength. You may have to look beyond the organization to find qualified talent. In that case, develop job descriptions, network and post to targeted job boards. Engaging with a search firm that specializes in your niche will give you access to their roster of potential candidates and to passive candidates you cannot easily reach on your own.
Demand changes over time and today’s marketplace is increasingly candidate-driven. Talent may not be readily available so you have to be prepared to compete for the best people. Scrutinize your current hiring practices and procedures and overhaul them if they are cumbersome and prolong the process. Most candidates have multiple job offers today and you will lose out if your process is too lengthy.
The confidence that comes with succession planning is worth the time and effort. Once the systems are in place, updating them is typically an easy task. It is implementing the systems and making sure the organization is relying on them that make employee transitions less stressful. Succession planning done right sets the growth course. It aligns with talent processes, mends gaps and develops future leaders for success. True planning for the workforce of the future – for the success of the future – means addressing succession planning today.
It probably comes as no surprise that 83 percent of Americans find at least one aspect of their job to be extremely stressful. Not only is this crazy amount of stress no fun, but it can be costly to your health and overall happiness. Eight hours at a job can take a toll on a person, and only 36 percent of American workers said that their organizations provide resources for managing work-related stress. If you are one that is not privileged with the resources, here are seven ways to cope with workplace stress.
Shorten your to-do list
Basically, prioritize your priorities. Set, small realistic goals each day. What should go on your to-do list that will actually help you reach these goals? Create a balanced schedule by considering your deadlines and what can wait. It makes no sense to try and tackle 30 things before even allowing yourself a morning cup of coffee.
Calm down
Get some perspective. Is this self-induced stress? Is it really the end of the world if your deadline is reached a day later? Don’t lose sleep over it, and don’t make your problems seem larger than they really are. Just stay in the moment and don’t worry about what the work day tomorrow will bring. There are some things that you simply can’t change or control, so communicate them with your team.
Be real
We all know that smiling and trying to win the unspoken friendliest co-worker on a daily basis is exhausting. Get rid of the distractions. Although the social aspect of the workplace is important for productivity and work culture, being busy may mean blocking out the distractors is necessary. Tackle what you need to. Others can read your stress, which in copious amounts can lead to unhealthy work relationships. And if you do have an issue with a co-worker, address it rather than letting it linger.
Try meditating
This practice seems ridiculous to some, but works on many. Take a deep breath. Take a few minutes to focus on your mind (guided meditations are all over the internet). This will help get rid of stress and help you focus.
Become self-aware
Recognizing what causes your stress can actually help you to problem solve better. Where were you, what was said, and who was there? Finding patterns of what causes you stress and your reactions is a useful strategy to manage stress.
Ask for help
Sometimes, the stress can become too much to self-manage. Consult with other employees or an employer with an issue that needs to be solved. If you are given an unrealistic deadline, tell your adviser or ask another employee for help. Believe it or not, asking others for help makes them feel desired and reiterates their abilities in the workplace. Everyone is happy.
If you ignore all of your stressors, you could be leading down a long road of unhealthy coping. Your stress can be the main contribution to addictive habits and your overall unhappiness. If your stress gets to be too much, even with these tips, it is always a good idea to ask a professional for help.
At the new Hutchinson Innovation Center in Grand Rapids, its first in North America, customers, colleagues and collaborators can peer inside an acrylic jet engine and see the components made by Hutchinson. They can watch prototypes and plans on a 12-by-five foot video wall made of Christie MicroTiles and brainstorm using a full wall, custom interactive light board made of architectural glass panels edge-lit with LED.
They can tour active labs and experience the whisper-quiet effect of Hutchinson-made acoustic insulation for jets and helicopters in a simulator and conference with folks in Paris, Suzhou, China, and other Hutchinson offices worldwide.
These are some of the technological innovations that bring presentations, conversations and products literally to life. This is the new world of product showcasing, an effort to bring together global divisions and partners, customer groups and trade tours, and share what one company is doing for the benefit of everyone.
Unveiled early this year with a grand opening celebration, Hutchinson’s North American Innovation Center is a strategic step in this global company’s goal of expanding, serving and, frankly, innovating in a way that pushes the definition of what is currently known in business circles.
To build an innovation center is one thing; to locate it in Grand Rapids, Mich., is another, a strategic step in a city on the rise, where a company like Hutchinson can rapidly emerge as a major player on the global scene.
In a recent report, Forbes ranked Grand Rapids number 18 among U.S. cities most likely to prosper in the next few decades. The iconic business magazine looked at the 53 largest metropolitan statistical areas and ranked them on social, educational and economic factors including birth rate, migration and job growth, and identified Grand Rapids in the top tier. In comparison, Detroit came in as number 31.
Grand Rapids is a city devoted to its upward trajectory. It was also the site of Hutchinson’s first U.S. location; the company had been there for 30 years, when it purchased Corduroy Rubber Co. The 13,400-square-foot Innovation Center is known as 616 Fab House and occupies the renovated third floor of Hutchinson’s 30-acre campus at 460 Fuller Avenue.
“We’ve always had very good support from the city,” says Cedric Duclos, Hutchinson North America president and CEO. “You want to be in a [place] where you feel like you are wanted. This positive economic context is important.”
Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss echoes that sentiment.
“Hutchinson’s innovation and dedication to advancing research and development are exactly what the city of Grand Rapids needs to be a leader in this country,” Bliss says. “Everyone needs to be at the table – and be an active participant – for economic development to occur in a sustainable manner.
“Business breeds business, and business breeds vibrancy and empowerment,” she adds. “This ripple effect of opportunity ripples across a community. Economic development done right [has] an emphasis on community, collaboration, inclusion, opportunity and empowerment.”
Grand Rapids is big on workforce development initiatives like the city’s Great Housing Strategies, which offers incentives for employer-assisted housing and live-work spaces, among other ideas. Plus, the lower cost of living on the west side of the state versus southeast Michigan offers more bang for the business buck, attracting companies to innovate in creative ways, much like Hutchinson is doing.
Hutchinson’s life story
In 1853 Hiram Hutchinson opened his first plant in France, making rubber cover cloth for a wide range of applications. The company’s products have been important ingredients in some of the momentous inventions of history. Several dirigibles used for reconnaissance by the French Army were made of Hutchinson cloth. So were the wings of Nieuport planes used by l’Escadrille Lafayette, the first American volunteer aviators who fought alongside the French Army before and after the United States entered World War I.
As the company grew, it remained committed to its rubbery roots while expanding to how it’s known today, as a system developer and material science specialist. The majority of its products are made of rubber, in addition to component material, structural plastics and more.
The global company reported 2015 revenues of 3.5 billion Euros, operating in 100 sites worldwide in 23 countries and employing some 35,000 people.
Hutchinson is a supplier to most automakers (its most robust sector), the company also serves oil and gas, aerospace, defense and industry.
Innovation is clearly central to the company’s character, it having created fire protective products for the aerospace industry, as well as rubber and glass encapsulation for cars, and the standard hydraulic engine mount to name just a few.
In Grand Rapids, Hutchinson occupies an industrial site with six interconnected buildings. This Innovation Center is not the company’s first; its precursor, 507 Fab House, is in the company’s Montargis headquarters in France, which was constructed by the legendary Gustave Eiffel on the exact historic site where Hiram Hutchinson started the company in 1853, a 90-minute drive southwest of Paris.
In addition to being committed to its 30-year relationship with the city of Grand Rapids, the company chose to locate its second Innovation Center in Grand Rapids due to its central location to major clients and vendors.
Collaboration and trust
The key difference between creativity and innovation is execution, according to a 2013 Harvard Business Review article titled “The Five Characteristics of Successful Innovators.”
But more than that, innovative companies must support the individual, and their team, in taking the risk to innovate. Innovation expert Jeffrey Baumgartner wrote, in an article on the seven essential traits of innovative companies, that “an environment of trust” is one of those core tenets behind organizational innovation.
The person and their team must be supported by a culture of innovation, and encouraged by leaders who allow failure as an option and risk as a key detail in day-to-day operations.
Hutchinson’s North American Innovation Center occupies a former industrial work space in a building that dates back more than a century. Original wood floors were kept, sanded but still showing the impressions of tools that dropped and hit the planks during various manufacturing processes, giving the space a true sense of history.
Before this, the space served as a storage area. Construction took a quick eight months, led by Pinnacle Construction and R.O.I. Design. There remains 10,000 square feet of unused space on the third floor, with intentions for future expansion.
The new space includes a mix of meeting rooms, videoconferencing technology, product and robotic displays, and banquet facilities. Some of the highlights are its interactive product showroom and its fabrication lab and 3D printer center.
Employing 300 people, the Grand Rapids Hutchinson campus focuses on developing, engineering and manufacturing NVH (Noise/Vibration/Harshness) systems for the automotive industry. 616 Fab House is intended to serve all five of Hutchinson’s global divisions.
A lot of players had a hand in making this center into a reality, says Chuck Aman, NVH lab manager. Hutchinson partnered with Custer, Inc. on technical, using LG, Samsung and Christie products; Modern Office Interiors and Steelcase blend old and new in the space, showing what is possible in modern business environments.
This collaboration between local companies to build a center of innovation was an essential process for the center to contain a culture of creativity, say Vette and Aman. The project was guided by an unspoken universal truth that the more narrowly you focus your story, the more local you make something, the more widely applicable its message.
West Michigan musing
Grand Rapids is uniquely positioned to support Hutchinson’s new Innovation Center – and invites other companies to follow suit, says Mayor Bliss.
She’s proud that Hutchinson not only has a decades-long connection to the second largest city in the state; moves like this she says keep Grand Rapids in the public eye as a home for development and growth.
Larger cities seem like the natural place to locate a big company. But slightly smaller cities – with vibrant local cultures and verdant entrepreneurship – are even better locales for innovation. Grand Rapids is a rising star on the nation’s destination list, the who-knew-it-was-so-cool locale where hard-working, kind people see endless possibility.
In a place like that, which is also home to what Bliss says is one of the strongest economies in the nation, a skilled workforce and a business-friendly environment, a company can’t help but succeed.
Grand Rapids is home to 22 colleges and universities, all of which combine to help build a robust talent pool. Bliss says it’s the place you never thought you’d go but are so glad you did. “Most often, innovation is as simple as finding the place that supports forward-thinking and provides the talented workforce to get it done.”
Hutchinson’s Innovation Center is likely to set up a domino effect of innovation throughout the region, says Bliss. “When one business sets up shop or expands and succeeds, it creates an environment for other businesses to flourish. Business brings economic development to the community – and that success means greater wealth and empowerment for workers and neighborhoods.”
Like Grand Rapids, other communities need to be committed to retaining and fostering employment opportunities, she adds. “This can be done by continuously looking for ways to strengthen the business environment and encourage sustainable business development. In Grand Rapids, we do this by facilitating greater levels of economic prosperity through innovation, collaboration and the linking and leveraging of resources.”
In short, she’s “very proud” to have a long-term commitment from a forward-thinking company like Hutchinson invest in the city. “We welcome this new and exciting chapter in the company’s 30-year history here in Grand Rapids, and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Hutchinson.”
Innovation requires open eyes
Most employees of large, multinational corporations have little to no understanding of what goes on company-wide. By virtue of job focus, they stick to what they know, the job in front of them, the tasks assigned to their division. Hutchinson is no different.
In fact, says Aman, who oversaw the day-to-day construction of the new Innovation Center, this development “allows you to have a big picture understanding of our individual segments, and be able to draw from our knowledge of each other and share resources, to move forward together.”
A great example of that is a lab that has started doing additional testing for other product lines that may not otherwise have come to mind, says Aman. “We’re able to share customer vision as well as equipment to make sure the group has a better opportunity to move forward.”
Additional growth opportunities are anticipated as groups visit from Europe and elsewhere in North America, says Michele Vette, purchasing manager. “We’ll hold customer days here. Going through this, we met a lot of people who said, ‘I really didn’t know what you guys did. I didn’t realize how big you were.’”
Hutchinson is doing what it can to accentuate its diversity of products.
“Typically when companies showcase their products, they just [use] a glass case,” Vette says. “Ours is different. We have a mock vehicle, and everything is acrylic, to show our parts sitting in the spot where they would sit in the vehicle.”
This is a place with open spaces, the better to bring in the open mind required for innovation, says Duclos. Displays explain all the products, and the engineering behind them, and a robotic room is used to train engineers and demonstrate for customers.
“It’s a source of pride for our employees,” adds Duclos. “It’s important to reward our employees who do a fantastic job on a daily basis.”
It’s also something of a “permanent tech day” for customers to visit, conduct technical reviews, meet specific needs and put conversations into play.
But more than that, building this center, says Duclos, is “our contribution to the effort of making our state great, and also to attract young talent. It’s a great tool to show them who we are and what we can do and the type of careers that are offered, the possibilities with this company.”
Building the center also speaks in a way that’s culturally significant, says Duclos.
“We’re very pragmatic people and we’re also oriented toward innovation. We have a global R&D center which focuses on advanced research and feeds all the divisions. We have a very strong tool when it comes to research and development and innovation, that allows us to be very fast to develop new products. The fact that you are supported that much, when it comes to making things happen, is really a strong motivator for a lot of people, including myself.”
OK, you gave yourself plenty of time to get to the airport and gate and everything is on schedule. Enter I-94 (or many other busy freeways), backups, construction – and *#!**!!!!! OMG!
All of a sudden you are out of time and need to maximize every move you make. You are also famished because you were counting on sitting down at an airport eatery, catching up with e-mails and social media – and relaxing.
Here is a time saver. And it’s free. Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) just joined a growing group of airports nationwide that have restaurants on Grab, a mobile app.
Download Grab, which is available for Android or iPhone, and you can order up, pre-paying your meal or snack, which will be ready when you swing by. Once you grab the order, it’s back to your scurrying down the concourse.
The participating food venues even have VIP pickup lanes for Grab order customers. The app also tells you the terminals and locations of the food venues, and you can filter for cuisine types. Terminal maps and gate-to-gate navigation are among many other services on the site. It’s pretty cool.
Already listed on DTW are Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Coffee Beanery, Hockeytown Café, Popeyes, TGI Fridays, Le Petite Bistro and Thee Irish/Guinness Pub.
Grab offers directories at more than 40 airports nationwide and is rapidly expanding its base, with over 1,000 airport restaurant and retail concepts signed up to join the platform—including the addition of some 45 restaurants in May alone. Grab’s launch partner is Delaware North, one of the world’s largest privately held hospitality and food service companies.
For more on Grab or to download the app, visit www.grabmobileapp.com.
Every industry has its honors – singers receive Grammys, actors covet Oscars. And gardeners? They hope to become members of The Garden Club of America.
Recently, Robert E. Grese, Theodore Roosevelt Chair of Ecosystem Management at the University of Michigan and director of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, was named an honorary member of The Garden Club of America, one of its highest accolades. Grese was recognized during a presentation at the GCA’s annual meeting.
Maura Campbell, President of The Garden Club of Michigan, noted how special this designation truly is. Since The Garden Club of Michigan was founded in 1911, this is the first time someone the Club nominated has become an GCA member. The Michigan club is one of the original member clubs of the GCA, helping to found it in 1913.
“Bob has been a great friend to our club and is a great resource for our new native perennial garden project on Belle Isle, graciously sharing his extensive knowledge to help us realize our vision for Sunset Point – the most western tip of the island,” Campbell said.
Honorary members of the GCA are men and women of distinction in in fields such as horticulture and conservation who are not, nor ever have been, members of a GCA club. Honorary membership is limited to 95 individuals, and a maximum of four are selected each year. The Garden Club of Michigan nominated Grese for honorary membership.
Named along with Grese were Kris S. Jarantoski, executive vice president and director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, and Douglas W. Tallamy, professor and chair, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware.
Grese’s research and teaching revolve around ecologically based landscape design and management sensitive to a region’s cultural and natural history. In honoring Grese, the GCA hailed him as an “extraordinary leader, designer, researcher, teacher and guide, a true Renaissance man in his field.”
Grese’s particular focus has been on restoring urban wilds, specifically prairie and oak savanna ecosystems, integrating and connecting people to nature and fostering volunteer stewardship. Grese has documented the work of early designers Jens Jensen and O.C. Simonds, who pioneered the prairie style of landscape architecture and advocated the use of native plants.
A leading authority on Jensen, Grese demonstrated how Jensen’s early work directly contributed to the fields of restoration ecology and conservation biology. His book, “Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens,” is regarded as the seminal scholarly work on this important landscape designer. A second book, “The Native Landscape Reader,” is a collection of writings by early American conservation leaders, landscape designers and horticulturists.
As a practical extension of his interest in historic ecological landscape design, Grese is considered a leader in documenting Midwestern landscapes and has helped develop national landmark nominations for both the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House and the Henry Ford estate, Fair Lane.
Grese is a prolific author and speaker and has held positions on numerous local and national boards and committees, including serving as an honorary director of the Wild Ones, an adviser to the Library of American Landscape History and a member of the Natural Areas Technical Advisory Committee for the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission.
The GCA is a nonprofit national organization composed of 200 clubs with some 18,000 members who devote energy and expertise to projects in their communities and across the United States. Founded in 1913, the GCA is a leader in horticulture, conservation and civic improvement.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans work in sales. But if you ask the people who operate the Art Van Selling Institute, we all are salespeople throughout every aspect of our lives.
As Art Van Elslander says, “Regardless of your career, from the time your feet hit the floor each morning, you are selling something.”
Because this skill is so important and can contribute to an individual’s personal success, Art Van Elslander in 2015 created the Art Van Selling Institute to foster sales education for young adults and aspiring sales professionals of all ages. Its goal, organizers said, is to inspire the next generation of sales personnel to build this valuable life skill.
The Art Van Selling Institute recently celebrated the graduation of its first class of 40 students, in a special event at the Detroit Yacht Club. Students received a certificate and heard from Art Van Furniture CEO Kim Yost.
The Art Van Selling Institute offers its course offered through high schools, colleges and our fully interactive online website. The goal of the Art Van Selling Institute is to educate individuals about selling as a fundamental life skill, inspire new generations to choose sales as a career and provide a unique educational program that utilizes the latest learning technologies.
Art of Selling Institute at its core is a personal legacy project created by Art Van Elslander, founder and chairman of Art Van Furniture. The program is under the leadership of Edward Foxworth III, an entrepreneur, author, consultant, corporate diversity coach and sought after national speaker. Foxworth, who has a passion for education, served on the faculty of University of Phoenix from which he holds double Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Adult Education. He previously served as Executive Director of the Detroit Police Athletic League.
Art Van Furniture is the Midwest’s largest furniture retailer and America’s largest independent furniture retailer. The company operates 89 stores throughout Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana, including freestanding Art Van PureSleep mattress stores, Art Van Flooring stores, and Art Van Furniture franchise locations as well as a full service e-commerce website. Founded in 1959, the company is family owned and headquartered in Warren.
One thing that Michigan leaders agree on wholeheartedly is the need for a skilled, educated workforce in the state. Having facilities and educational partners that are intuitive, high tech and working with local businesses to develop appropriate curriculum is key to that workforce coming together.
That is why the addition and renovation at Walsh College in Troy is worth examining further. The 55,000-square-foot expansion features new and updated learning and collaboration spaces aimed at furthering business education here and, as graduates enter new jobs, statewide and nationwide.
Included are additional classroom spaces; more areas for pre-class gatherings; more electrical access for smartphones, tablets, and laptops; as well as enhanced student tutoring services and a new computer lab. The $15 million investment adds a modern vibe to Walsh College, originally founded by accountant Mervyn Walsh in Detroit in 1922 and operating in Troy since 1970.
“Students and employers expect high quality from our programs. These outstanding facilities reflect that quality,” said Stephanie Bergeron, president and CEO, Walsh College. “We look forward to building our legacy for excellence well into our second century.”
Founded in 1922, Walsh College is an all-business, private, independent, not-for-profit, fully accredited college. It offers 20 undergraduate and graduate business and information technology degrees, as well as certificate programs. One of the region’s largest business schools and one of Michigan’s top three graduate business schools, Walsh has locations in Troy, Novi, Clinton Township, and Port Huron, as well as online.
Walsh degree programs include accounting, finance, information technology, management, marketing, taxation, and other fields. The faculty integrates theory and application to prepare graduates for successful careers. It includes four Fulbright Scholars, the most of any business school in the state of Michigan. There are about 27,000 alumni, most of whom live or work in Michigan.
While the two-story Success Center, geared to business communications skills, provides the academic foundation for the addition, there are many other features available to students, alumni, and staff:
Student Services. A “one-stop” center for students that houses departments ranging from admissions to career services, providing efficient service and increased privacy for students’ meeting with Walsh advisors.
Success Center. Enhances students’ potential and supports skill development through evaluation and coaching services on written communication, public speaking, and executive presence.
Alumni Room and the Student Organization Room. Both areas provide space for facilitating connections among the 27,000 Walsh alumni and the 10 student organizations mentored by Student Life.
Fireside Student Lounge. A long gas fireplace promotes spontaneous and prearranged interactions for professional discussions and networking.
10 New Student Study Rooms. Face-to-face conversations with fellow students keep ideas flowing. Silence and privacy can be helpful as well. These rooms are available for individual and group study, as well as casual and structured networking opportunities.
Space for Corporate Recruiters. Finding a great job is critical for students, and finding well-prepared graduates is important to area employers. These spaces more closely replicate an executive experience and underscore the value Walsh College places on recruitment.
40-Seat Auditorium. This room offers tiered seating for presentations and lectures, complementing a 135-seat auditorium in the College’s Barry Center. Video conferencing connects the Troy and Novi campuses.
Frankel Lobby/Refreshed Classrooms. In addition to the new space, the midsection of the Troy campus building includes refurbished areas to emulate a corporate reception area, and features conference space as well.
Contemporary Cafe. With most Walsh students attending evening classes, the updated café provides a welcome space to grab a snack or collaborate before class.
Other rooms are devoted to specific needs and specialized interests. They include:
Cyber Lab. The Cyber Lab supports the growing importance of Information Technology and Cybersecurity programs at Walsh. Walsh College is a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE/CD), and aligns with two additional external standards: Department of Defense 8570 and the Department of Homeland Security NICE framework.
Testing Center. When schedule conflicts or other circumstances require students to take examinations outside the classroom, this center offers a defined quiet space for proctored or placement examinations for Walsh students or other area colleges.
Mother’s Room. Students and staff caring for infants and their needs have a private space.
Veteran’s Room. A meeting area devoted to students and alumni who are serving or have served in the U.S. military. Walsh has received “Best for Vets: Business Schools 2016” listing from Military Times and “Military Friendly School” for 2016 honors from G.I. Jobs.
What happens when you combine an idea for a home show with a growing community that takes huge pride in its rehab efforts? It becomes the first Metro Detroit Home Expo.
Presented by Rehabbed & Ready along with the 8 Mile Boulevard Association, the Metro Detroit Home Expo is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Joe Dumars Fieldhouse at the State Fairgrounds on 8 Mile Road. The goal, organizers said, is to gather the local home improvement and decor industry under one roof for one day to connect with the legions of homeowners, building owners and investors working hard to rehab, improve and happily dwell in the region’s spectacular housing stock.
Organizers, including Trish White from the 8 Mile Association, wanted it to be affordable, so they kept the ticket prices for visitors low (it is $5) and inexpensive for vendors to participate (only $50). They included small businesses and startup companies to support the local economy. They added government agencies, a collection of non-profit organization and just plain old good people who want to make better neighborhoods.
There are citizen seminars. There is a DIY workshop corner. (Example: A session on how to preserve your windows or, if all else fails, replace them with the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, Building Hugger and Renewal by Anderson of Detroit.) And, because White isn’t busy enough, she added a skilled trades jobs fair. White, a Detroit Revitalization Fellow, moved here last July and immediately realize the need for such an event.
“I noticed two things” going on in Detroit, White said. There was “sooo much rebuilding, renovation going on everywhere from family homes to commercial. And as business development director for 8MBA, I noticed a lot of independent, family owned home improvement businesses and suppliers. Why not get them together under one roof for one day?” White said.
“That helps the rehabbers find resources AND supports the local economy. And then I was reading so much about the growing need for skilled trades but seeing the high unemployment so I added a skilled trades job fair too!” White said.
Among my favorite features is the healthy mix of vendors. There are more than 70 large and small businesses, all with strong ties in the metropolitan area to support the local economy. Evidence of Detroit’s strong entrepreneur community, the Expo features several incubator graduates such as Building Hugger (Motor City Match), Glass Block Professionals (Goldman Sachs 10KSB) and Motor City Popcorn (Build Institute).
Another great feature is what White calls “The Neighborhood Toolbox.” The Expo will also feature a collection of 20-plus community organizations, government agencies and experts that help citizens build the bonds of healthy neighborhoods. One great participant is Habitat for Humanity; the group will be be selling stuff from its ReStore at the Expo.
Finally, to address an issue that many Detroit-area businesses are facing, there is the skilled trades jobs fair. Southeast Michigan suffers from a shortage of skilled trade professionals, a growing demand for the trades, and staggering double digit unemployment. To address this perfect storm, career seekers can meet local employers, unions, apprenticeships and training programs.
The past year has been monumental for Grand Rapids-based Essence Restaurant Group: It celebrated its 20th anniversary, announced it was adding a fourth property to its roster and dived deeply into its longtime commitment to sustainability. After all, this is a company that proudly brags it was “Green Before Green Was Cool.”
The icing on the cake was receiving in January 2016 its B Corporation certification, a widely respected and acknowledged criterion for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. To receive
this designation is a challenge and then some. To be a Certified B Corp, a
company must meet high standards as set by the non-profit B Lab, including meeting a certain score on the B Impact Assessment, which measures a company’s impact on its workers, community and environment.
Accomplishing the B Corp certification was just the first step, says Essence Restaurant Group sustainability director Lauren Jaenicke. Now, the real work begins. Finding new ways to engage its employees in its sustainable practices, developing new programs and advancing others to push its B Corp score even higher, as well as helping other businesses follow this path, are the tasks Jaenicke and Essence owners James Berg, Patrick Wise, Jeff Gottlieb and Jeff Gietzen have set for themselves for this year and those to come.
“B Corp certification has its perks for us as a company,” Jaenicke says. “One of the most important is differentiating us from our competitors. We live in an incredible community full of fantastic artisans, markets and restaurants. Saying we completed our certification makes us a bit different and gives us a competitive advantage.
“But what’s even more important to us is that there is strength in numbers,” Jaenicke adds. “Our ultimate goal, along with that of the other B Corp companies, is to get more people in that community. It’s right there in the B Corp philosophy: Business as a force for good. That statement couldn’t be more true. Historically, the modern environmental movement has seen business as the bad guy. The other side always was the environmentalists, and they’re always seen as butting heads. Instead, we’re saying we can do this together.”
Having passed the rigorous certification process, Essence Restaurant Group joins a select group of nearly 1,500 companies worldwide and one of only 11 in Michigan committed to redefining success in business. Some well-known Michigan B Corps include Cascade Engineering, Brewery Vivant, Bazzani Building Co. and Catalyst Partners LLC. There are B Corporations from more than 120 industries and nearly 50 countries; a great deal of the certification’s new growth is happening internationally, according to Katie Holcomb, director of Communications for B Lab in Wayne, Pa.
Why does a B Corp designation matter? One reason is that it can play an important role in hiring, marketing and advertising. A 2014 study by Nielsen found that more than half of global online consumers would pay more for products and services provided by companies that are committed to positive social and environmental action. And a recent Harvard Business Review study noted that some 70 percent of millennials want to work for a company where they feel like they’re making a difference.
There is a complementary yet separate designation known as Benefit Corporation. To legally become a Benefit Corporation, a company needs to make sure its home state acknowledges it as a valid business structure. While some 30 states and the District of Columbia now recognize benefit corporation status, Michigan’s legislation has stalled.
Companies of any size, structure, or location may be certified as B Corporations. But gaining traction has become easier with the addition of iconic brands like Eileen Fisher, Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s, all of which use their B Corp status as a platform for collective leadership in striving toward industry-wide and systemic change, B Lab officials say. Its vision is that one day all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world and “as a result society will enjoy a more shared and durable prosperity,” according to its website.
The first B Corp was certified in 2007, one year after the group started. Holcomb said the types of companies receiving certification are becoming more complex in recent years, a sign to B Lab that the designation has gained ground both with businesses and with the public in terms of understanding how this label has deeper meaning. It is, as Holcomb says, the “Gold Star” of certification.
“We’re seeing larger companies, more well-known companies, as well as companies on the public market joining the B Corp movement,” Holcomb says. “Ultimately, our goal isn’t necessarily to have every company certified or to have all business try to be certified. It’s about making a larger culture change and changing institutions so all companies look at success in a different way. It’s more than just profit. It’s making a positive impact.”
To understand how Essence Restaurant Group feels about its recent B Corp certification, a food analogy may help. For a company that was founded on the basis of sustainability, the triple bottom line and accountability to its communities, having a B Corp designation is better than sliced bread, says Essence Restaurant Group sustainability director Jaenicke.
Essence Restaurant Group properties in Grand Rapids include two on Cherry Street SE —The Green Well and Grove—and a third, Bistro Bella Vita, which is downtown at 44 Grandville SW, next to Van Andel Arena. Last summer Essence announced its intention to build its fourth restaurant at 816 Monroe Ave. NW, in a 5,200-square-foot building under construction at the 616 Lofts on Monroe residential development project.
Jaenicke, who has worked for Essence since 2008, began there while deciding what she wanted to do with her undergraduate degree and where to go to school. She ultimately picked Aquinas, a small college in Grand Rapids, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Business. At that point, she says, she wanted to return to Essence because its values aligned closely with her own.
“(The owners) were always saying to me: ‘Why do we exist”—one of those big-picture questions. And the answer always was: ‘We exist to make people’s lives better’,” says Jaenicke. “James and our staff never lose focus on that. It’s always been about more than a great dining experience.”
She says Berger had a talk about the need for ways to measure, to make sure the restaurant group was doing the right thing.
“That is when we started talking about the B Corp idea,” she says, admitting that she thought at first it was an idea that was out of reach. “I thought only companies like Ben and Jerry’s and Patagonia can do that!”
But the owners persisted and Jaenicke went through an online assessment that B Lab offers on its website. The score was so positive that the process continued, a journey toward certification that Jaenicke says included a full nine-month assessment, a very detailed process that includes about 300 questions covering all of a company’s systems, from financial issues to corporate governance and employee engagement.
“I’m so thankful James and our staff supported the process,” says Jaenicke. “They were my cheerleaders. I truly believe that if a company’s leaders don’t have sustainability in mind, if they’re not invested, it won’t work. It has to come from that higher level place.”
The next steps for Essence Restaurant Group are simple, she adds.
“From an internal standpoint, we want to increase our score. We’re looking at these low hanging fruit opportunities; they’re quick and easy changes without big investment. If we can save money there, then we can use it toward larger opportunities,” Jaenicke says. “We’ve got a fourth restaurant on the way and we’re looking forward to the future. But that makes you ask: How does a fourth restaurant fit into all of this? To be honest, it makes me a little nervous. But I’m also excited to see what we can do from here.”
In the meantime, the company is now part of a committed group of Grand Rapids-area businesses that sought to have the B Corp status and to stay in touch with ways to maintain and build on that commitment, says Kris Spaulding, co-founder and director of Sustainability at Brewery Vivant, a brewery and restaurant known for its funeral-home location and a B Corp since 2014.
What makes Vivant unique is the way it approaches its craft and operates the business, the core of which can be found at the crossroads of three passions: a love of the tradition and artistic approach of the Belgian and French styles of beers; running the business according to the three pillars of sustainability – Environmental Integrity, Social Equity, and Economic Viability; and a focus on sharing the experience of how beer and food can be paired to uplift the enjoyment of both.
Since opening in 2010, Brewery Vivant has published an annual sustainability report—”Beer the Change”—which documents its progress toward 12 sustainability goals, including producing zero waste, 90 percent of its business done with local suppliers, 10 percent of profits to charities and 200 volunteer hours. Moreover, Brewery Vivant is said to be the first commercial brewery in the country to receive LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Spaulding says Brewery Vivant chose B Corp certification to protect its core mission of sustainability, to strive for continuous improvement in its commitment to the triple bottom line and to be connected to a network of like-minded organizations. As part of its company mission, its owners believe a great business exists because of the support of the community. “A business should be an active extension of the community and should strive to find meaningful ways to give back to it,” according to its B Corp statement.
Having a B Corp status has been beneficial in a myriad of ways, Spaulding says. She welcomes Essence Restaurant Group into the fold of area companies that have embraced this movement and how it affects their outlook.
“It’s about having access to other companies whose values align with ours,” Spaulding says. “We didn’t know to expect the networking piece. It has been amazing to have access to other businesses that have similar values that we do. We get together monthly, and we have access to the others globally through B Lab and its B Hive (a virtual gathering space for B Corp companies to discuss everything from hiring to certification to opportunities to connect).”
Spaulding says she also appreciates, as a business owner, the connection to other B Corps so she can ask questions, address concerns and find solutions to issues in every area of her business.
“It helps us focus on the next steps and best practices,” she says. “It’s a lot better than ‘Googling’ a question and searching through thousands of Web pages for an answer that might not be there. I can reach out to the other B Corp companies and ask anything. If I need a wellness program, I can ask for examples and how they handled it. It’s huge.”
It also dovetails with Brewery Vivant’s desire to have a continuous improvement model that goes along with the B Corp philosophy, Spaulding says, of an ongoing process that has rewards far beyond the initial
“I have seen the pride of our employees when they talk about the B Corp certification with patrons,” Spaulding says. “When you first receive certification, you have to bring people along on what it means. So it’s been great to see our employees embrace it and share it with others.”
I’ve never liked sales activity “point systems.” I’ve always looked at them as a crutch for management that couldn’t simply lay out a road map for salespeople to succeed. I still think I’m partially right, but I also think that the ever-changing world of sales may require my own viewpoint to evolve.
It is getting more challenging to get face time with good customers. That should have prompted a trend of salespeople getting better at prospecting and relationship building, and getting higher quality appointments with better prospects. Unfortunately I believe that the opposite is happening; salespeople are spending more of their time on meaningless, agenda-free sales calls on random prospects who can’t buy and who wouldn’t amount to much (in terms of the salesperson’s overall goals) if they could.
The reason that I don’t like point systems is that, the way they are typically constructed, they allow salespeople to amass points and pretend to have an acceptable level of activity when, in fact, they’re not accomplishing anything meaningful. For instance, most point systems put way too much weight on phone calls, and the more calls the salesperson logs, they can ‘fudge’ their level of activity.
After talking to a number of sales managers – who are struggling with managing the balance between great target accounts and smaller accounts that give regularity – maybe it’s time to think about a point system for sales activity. The conventional type of system counts simply activities, without thought as to WHO the customers are and WHAT is discussed. Let’s move beyond that and think about how we might put together a point system that works.
Calls: Zero points. I know, this goes against the whole philosophy of point systems – but what we’re trying to do is count meaningful activities that produce meaningful results. A phone call is the first activity of the sales funnel, and its only point is to get to someplace else. Genuine selling doesn’t start until the salesperson is face-to-face with a decision maker, so why give points here? The same goes for other activities such as emailing.
Face-to-Face Appointments: Here is where we’ll start giving points. I’m going to propose a scale that has a lot of different components to it. It’s going to seem very complex, and if you try to tabulate this manually, it will be. Instead, look for places where you can use sales statuses, contact titles, and other fields in your CRM to calculate these points automatically. What I’m suggesting has many moving parts, but the last thing I want is for you to spend time sitting in your office counting points instead of being out and working with your salespeople.
Base: 1 point per appointment. This is the minimum for appointments that don’t meet any of our ‘kickers’ that I’ll explain below.
First Appointment: 2 points. This appointment is one that initiates a sales cycle, and should be reserved either for new customers or reactivations (customers that have been inactive for 18 months or more).
Pre-set Agenda and Objective: Double points. For instance, a Base appointment would be worth 2 points with a pre-set Objective. A First Appointment would be worth 4 points. The idea is to stop the ‘agenda free’ type of sales call that we see so often nowadays.
Appointment With Your Target Contact Type: x5 points. Here is where you have to really manage the process and drive your sales activity. Too often, salespeople end up calling on mid- or low-level managers who couldn’t say “yes” if their lives depended on it. Those calls are, for the most part, pointless and result free. If you need to be calling on the C-suite in order to get a decision, why reward your people for calling on the stockroom manager? This measurement also takes into account the company that you’re calling on; your contact type should be one that is a meaningful piece of business.
The difference is stark – a First Appointment, with a pre-set agenda, with a target contact type, is worth 20 points. An agenda-free call with a non-target is worth 1 point.
Proposals: 5 points. A Proposal is a critical step in the sales process; done correctly, it signifies that you are on the lip of the cup of a sale. Hence, we should recognize a Proposal more than other activity. Of course, our variables need to come into play here, as well.
Qualified Proposal: A Qualified Proposal is one that meets the following checklist: The customer’s needs have been discovered and confirmed with the customer. A solution has been presented that is agreeable to the customer. And then a specific price for specific service is quoted. This data should be logged in your CRM. If all this is present, give double points.
Face-to Face-Presentation of a Proposal to a Target Contact Type: 5x points. Again, presentation to a decision maker for a target account is nearly priceless. Again, figuring based on our scale, a Qualified Proposal, presented face-to-face, to a target contact type, would be worth 50 points.
You might have other types of activity that you’d want to give points for – for instance, plant tours or in-house demonstrations might be worth points based on where they stand in the sales process. That’s okay; just make sure that you’re rewarding sales activity appropriately.
Finally is the question of where to put your weekly point quota. Well, that’s not something I can help you with – that depends on YOU. However, I would put it so that it’s nearly impossible without doing at least some target account activity every week – and then figure how much of the salesperson’s time you want to spend in those accounts. Set your target appropriately, then build in the variables to your CRM.
If you’re struggling with directing your salespeople where they need to be, a meaningful points program might be a solution.
The headlines are everywhere. Homejoy flopped after it failed to reconcile its own definition of “employee” with that of the tax code. Instacart and Postmates, which have achieved the popularity of becoming household names, have also come to find they cannot make subsidized transactions translate to profit.
It turns out that being the ‘Uber of [insert business here]’ is generally not a good idea. Many sharing-economy startups are finding out the hard way that physical, real-world logistics get in the way of margins. Companies that pull their heads out of the unicorn-infested clouds and examine the hard facts of their business—what people are willing to pay for, how they want to receive it and how to deliver it cost-effectively—will either pivot into a successful business model or find a reason to exit. Everyone else is simply drawing out the pain.
Internet economics vs. real-world business
Just as Pets.com characterized the first dotcom bubble, another yet-to-be-determined failure will characterize the modern slain unicorn.
Much VC money has been funneled into startups that approached their respective business models using ‘Internet economics’—a language that VCs can understand, but doesn’t translate to the real-world economics of sustainable business models. They are approaching real-world problems with rose-colored glasses: Land and expand and monetize later! Anything will work as a service! They pass off iron-clad logistics laws as trivial issues to be sorted out later.
Shipping and delivery, for example, is an industry that adheres strictly to the laws of physics, geography and time. Newly minted startups and VCs have largely ignored or simply don’t understand the economic complexities involved in moving physical objects from A to B and that’s why many startups are in the position they face today. A quick look at the past year for Instacart shows all the signs of a startup wrestling with reconciling its initial practices with reality—the company most recently cut pay to its contractors by more than 40 percent in some cases, and in preceding months raised customer delivery prices and subscription costs by more than 50 percent.
Even Amazon, a company that has invested heavily in the supply chain, has troubles matching delivery revenue with delivery costs. According to one article, Amazon’s outbound shipping costs rose 374 percent from 2011 to 2015, while its revenue failed to keep pace, rising just 320 percent. Unlike small sharing economy startups trying to compete in this realm, however, Amazon can do things like invest hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation aircraft to ensure those percentages grow near and eventually overlap in its favor. Even legacy companies like UPS and FedEx have had to raise prices recently to deal with the changing landscape of shipping, which has come to include larger than parcel items, with both nearly doubling the extra fee to deal with such items.
How to save a sharing economy startup
Without the basic fundamentals figured out and critical mass to support the economic model, venture dollars will only last so long. And that’s really what we’re seeing now: mostly on-demand, same-day delivery and sharing economy startups facing the challenge of severe burn rates.
So, what can a sharing economy startup do to bring its business model back to fundamentals and stay afloat as funding continues to dry up for the foreseeable future?
With delivery still being a crowded space, companies need to look at driving rapid growth through digital and offline marketing and enhancing their supply side. For example in delivery, find ways to reduce friction and create just as compelling a value proposition for the transporters providing the service as for the people doing the shipping.
As we watch things shake out, the companies that are going to make it will pay attention to the ins and outs of real-world logistics, while offering true innovation in terms of process, both for providers and consumers. In other words, those businesses will return to fundamentals, which can be broken down into three critical steps:
In the case of Amazon, for example, the breadth of products offered combined with a fast delivery time ensured by an Amazon Prime membership (which also offers streaming online media, among other perks), provides a strong value proposition. Uber, meanwhile, found an industry where latent demand far outpaced supply, and prices may have been artificially high, making it ripe for disruption.
To survive the shakeout, sharing economy startups need to take a similar approach and really focus on finding a product that the broader market is willing to pay for. You can’t scale a startup with a product that only a small segment of the population is willing to buy.
While Amazon and Uber may use economies of scale to provide nearly instantaneous delivery, when given the choice, consumers prefer slower, free delivery over paying for instant delivery – hands down. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research, 29 percent of respondents said they were interested in guaranteed same-day delivery, but analyst Brendan Witcher noted to the Chicago Tribune that “interested doesn’t mean they’re going to pay for it.” According to a separate poll from Deloitte LLP, 87 percent say free shipping is more important than fast shipping. What it all means is that it makes more sense to be efficient so free shipping is possible than delivering in 1-2 hours.
While Uber can rely on its fleet of more than 300,000 drivers to offer auxiliary services like parcel delivery, the average startup has to offer delivery at a loss in order to keep pace. In other words, don’t kowtow to the idea that you need to subsidize same-day, on-demand delivery with venture capital – recognize that consumers will gladly accept free delivery on a delay and create a business model that is sustainable and scalable over the long run.
With funding drying up in 2016, VCs will be looking for a number of key indicators when considering further investments – among them will be monthly recurring revenue and a minimal churn. In order to remain attractive during the lean times ahead, and not become sharing economy road kill, companies will need to focus on having a clear path for revenue growth, operational excellence, customer satisfaction and cost control. If delivery is involved, every entrepreneur must be able to answer to themselves and their investors: ‘How are you going to deliver cost-effectively?’
The reality is that the sharing economy is experiencing a collective shakeout. In the long run, this is healthy for both entrepreneurs and VCs. As an entrepreneur seeking to break into this competitive realm, you can’t be afraid to shoot a bad idea with a silver bullet— and start over.
Most people have heard of a television phenomenon called “Shark Tank,” a Mark Burnett reality show that matches investors with entrepreneurs. They pitch their ideas, and the “titans of industry” battle to see who will invest in the new business (if anyone takes the bait).
In Michigan, there is another version of this competition, sponsored by the Michigan Women’s Foundation. MWF in partnership with Springboard Enterprises is accepting submissions from Michigan-based, female entrepreneurs for its annual Entrepreneur YOU Business Plan & Pitch Competition known as the “Dolphin Tank.”
Selected finalists will compete in the 2016 Dolphin Tank, presenting their business plans to a panel of judges, to earn cash prizes and in-kind professional services to support their entrepreneurial vision.
Interested applicants must submit a two-page concept paper for consideration to be reviewed by a panel of business and industry professionals and accomplished entrepreneurs. From there, 20 finalists will be selected and matched with mentors/coaches who will help them hone their business plan and pitching skills before presenting to a final panel of judges in a “Dolphin Tank” (a gentler version of TV’s “Shark Tank”)-style presentation.
The final winner(s) will earn $2,500, $5,000 or $10,000. That’s better than being beat up by Daymond John or Mark Cuban.
Here are all of the important dates. Completed applications and concept papers submission are due by May 27. Finalists will be announced by June 20. The actual Dolphin Tank competition with Entrepreneur YOU in the Business Plan and Pitch Competition will happen in November.
Applications and two-page concept papers are now being accepted at https://miwf.fluidreview.com. A $10 application fee is due at time of application. Michigan-based businesses that are woman-owned (at least 51 percent) and/or woman-led (primary decision maker, e.g. CEO) at any stage of business in any industry are welcomed to apply.
The program is presented by MWF, in alignment with its mission of advancing the economic, professional and social well-being of women and girls in our state. A 501(c)(3) organization, MWF has been devoted to achieving social and economic equality for women and girls in Michigan for 30 years. MWF is supported financially and programmatically by many of the state’s top female executives and community volunteers through events like its annual Women of Achievement and Courage Awards and Power of 100 Women donor group.
Restaurants are notorious for being difficult businesses to start. They’re even more difficult to maintain, according to popular belief. That is why an anniversary is something to celebrate.
Happy’s Pizza will celebrate its 20th Anniversary in May by launching a new personal-sized hand-tossed pizza at all Happy’s Michigan locations.
The new personal pizza took its place on a menu that offers guests a variety of items ranging from pizza, to ribs, chicken, seafood, burgers, sandwiches, salads, desserts, and beverages.
Some history: The first Happy’s Pizza opened in 1996 on Detroit’s Northeast side on a busy corner and quickly became known for not only its pizza, but also its barbeque ribs, fried chicken and seafood. Happy’s Pizza soon turned into a household name in Michigan and has expanded into five other states.
One year later, the second location opened three miles west on 7 Mile and Conant. The original concept of Happy’s Pizza was to open 3 Miles away from each location, allowing them to deliver throughout the city of Detroit. In January, 2008, Happy’s Pizza opened their first location outside of Michigan in Toledo, Ohio. In 2012, Restaurant Business Magazine ranked Happy’s Pizza #10 in their Future 50 Fastest Growing Restaurant Chain.
One funny anecdote: The Original menu consisted of Pizza, Ribs, Chicken and Shrimp. The Menu now has more 100 different menu options. But that pizza is legendary – years ago, when Detroit Lions Wide Receiver Nate Burleson crashed his car while eating pizza, it was Happy’s Pizza that he was bringing home to his family. And, of course, Happy’s Pizza does not recommend eating pizza while driving.
“We’re thrilled to be celebrating this big anniversary with our customers,” said Happy’s Pizza CEO John Moran. “Giving away our brand new personal pizzas for free is a great way to thank our customers for their loyalty over the years, and introduce quality pizza to new customers. A lot has changed in the last 20 years, but our mission to provide fresh, delicious, high-quality meals at an affordable price for families, and to be charitable leaders in the community, will always be the gold standard for Happy’s Pizza.”
The franchise chain has become a charitable contributor in each of its communities, launching their “Happy to Help” motto for company initiatives like “Coats 4 Kids.” purchasing and distributing more than 2,500 coats each year to needy children in the greater Detroit area, helping to feed the homeless and hungry each month in Flint, Detroit and surrounding communities, providing Detroit’s Angel’s Night volunteers with hot meals and making donations to help pay tribute to Michigan’s special citizens in need.
