Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
By Beth Ewen and Jeff Amann
Business owners may face balky bankers and elusive customers, but that’s nothing compared with Ann Bancroft’s experience. The Twin Cities-based explorer who’s been to the North and South Poles recalled brutal temperatures and blasts of wind on the way to her goal.
“As a 30-year-old I set off to the North Pole with seven men and 49 male dogs,” Bancroft recalled. “I didn’t go to create a legacy. I went because I wanted to go to the top of the world.” She and her colleagues wrote in a journal. “At times there were tears of despair. At times we were overwhelmed by exhilaration. But most of all we just worked very hard.”
The group came to realize their expedition was connected to others. They developed “hope that other seemingly impossible goals can be met,” Bancroft said.
Bancroft was the keynote speaker at WomenVenture’s 25th anniversary bash. The St. Paul organization has helped 65,000 clients in its history move toward financial success, said President Tené Wells. In an interview, Wells said Bancroft is “a testament to not listening to people who say you can’t.”
Bonus: The Informer got to chat with U of M faculty as a guest of Debra Behrens, from the College of Liberal Arts. Thanks, Debra: 612.626.7642
Try to make it to: WomenVenture’s 25th anniversary Happy Hour Party is Dec. 4, 6 to 10 p.m. at the Radisson Plaza Ballroom in Minneapolis. The idea is to “honor the women in your life who have made you successful”: 651.646.3808, ext. 205; www.womenventure.org/events.cfm
Dale Olseth, chairman and CEO of SurModics in Eden Prairie, touted the benefits of Small Business Innovation Research grants, or SBIRs. He said he “stumbled” onto the grants in the early 1980s, and his companies have received 155 awards under the program, for nearly $27 million.
“That’s how we built our scientific and technical staff,” he said. Olseth was CEO of Medtronic Inc. and Tonka Corp. SurModics makes surface modification products for the medical device industry. Olseth said the creator of SBIRs “believed that innovation almost always comes out of smallness.”
The federal grants are straight cash, no strings attached, all peer review, Olseth said. “I’m hopeful that we can miniaturize that in Minnesota, to help companies get started, especially in health sciences.”
Olseth was part of a panel on the convergence of medical technology and biotech, at the 17th annual Minnesota Venture Finance Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The conference is hosted by The Collaborative and Minnesota Venture Capital Association.
Bonnie Baskin, another panelist, believes the two fields are merging. “It’s an evolution,” said the CEO of AppTec Laboratory Services in St. Paul. “The place where they really converge may be 10 years from now, when it would be hyphenated. They’re synergistic. Med-tech needs biotech and vice versa.”
Steve Oesterle, panelist and senior vice president of Medtronic Inc., said: “Medtronic could be the next U.S. Steel if we don’t participate in the promise of biotech.”
“There are very few things we do at Medtronic that cure. We do palliative” measures, to mitigate symptoms, he said. “When I think of biotech in terms of restoring health…The biotech promise will never be realized without the participation of med-tech.”
Try to make it to: Next year’s conference, or one of The Collaborative’s many educational programs throughout the year. Contact Dan Carr of The Collaborative: 612.338.3828; www.collaborative.net
“Employees are not motivated to increase stock prices,” said Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic Inc. in Fridley and now the author of “Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value.” Instead, he says, they want to be inspired by serving customers, and offering superior service.
“We need authentic leaders who believe with their hearts, not just their head,” George told a group of local business types at the tony Minneapolis Club in September.
Leadership is about “just being yourself,” not like someone else. It’s being aware of your strengths and weaknesses. “We connect at the heart through our weaknesses,” George said. And leadership is about developing yourself.
His said his book is for the next generation of leaders, to whom he issued this challenge: What will be your legacy? He hoped it would be the “difference you have made in this world. Money and power does not bring security or happiness,” George said.
Try to check out: Bill George’s book is published by Jossey-Bass and sells for $27.95: www.authenticleadership.org
We’ve all seen ’em, and many of us have probably created them: those awful PowerPoint presentations with hundreds of words jammed on one tiny slide, or with other sins of the ubiquitous presentation medium.
Joan Moser of Spoken Impact, a St. Louis Park company that helps people make better presentations, offered 12 tips for improving PowerPoint presentations. Among the pointers:
• Create a unique look. You don’t always need the company identity on every slide, Moser said. Instead, customize your presentation to your audience. For example, Spoken Impact did a PowerPoint presentation for a pitch to a scrapbooking company, and made the slides look like scrapbooks.
• Provide a recurring frame of reference. Show the audience where you are in your talk by returning to an overview slide before you move into each new section. For Moser’s talk, she used an egg-carton image with a dozen tips, projecting that image each time she moved to a new tip. She handed out hard-boiled eggs to everyone in the audience, and broke up the talk with egg-related trivia questions.
• Follow the six-by-six rule, which stands for a maximum of six lines down and six words across on each slide.
• Reduce list fatigue by changing the presentation. Put the items on a list on a clipboard, or in a circle, with each new item completing the circle.
Bonus: Attendees got to take home hard-boiled eggs, “freshly made yesterday.” And those who signed up for the afternoon workshop got hands-on practice in putting the tips to work.
Try to make it to: Spoken Impact offers regular “Lunch and Learn” sessions. The next one is about making persuasive presentations, scheduled for February. Contact Joan Moser: 952.697.3560; www.spokenimpact.com
