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.
One day last December Mark McGowan, who owns McGowan Development in Minneapolis, sat in his car between appointments and decided the Lake Harriet Bandshell needed a paint job. On September 19, he threw a huge free party with concerts to celebrate a complete restoration of the Minneapolis landmark, all with corporate donations and volunteer labor.
He reflects on the beauty of community spirit, and tells how this success provides a stark contrast to what until now was his biggest claim to local fame: the failed attempt to build a controversial outdoor amphitheater in Burnsville, which ended last August and caused a bitter family feud.
“My Jeep was parked in the same spot as it is now. It was December. I’m doing paperwork, making calls. I looked at the sides of the bandshell and you could see the moss growing.
I own three companies. One is a contracting company. I got out to look. What happens with cedar, the cedar shakes begin to wick. Once they do that you get buildup and the only solution is to replace the shingles. Probably Parks & Rec was a few years away from having to replace all of this at taxpayer expense. That easily would have been 150 grand.
I went back and called Public Works. I asked him if there was a bid out to paint the bandshell. He said, ‘We’re out of money. We’re laying off cops and teachers. And by the way, the city doesn’t own this. Call Parks & Rec.’
I called Parks & Rec, the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board. She put me on the schedule. She said you have three minutes, and she was serious. Any citizen can get three minutes, but that’s it. Even George Bush would get three minutes.
Before the meeting, I approached Home Depot, the Bloomington store. I had been trying to get a Minnesota company as a paint supplier, but they totally blew me off. The business plan that I had was to establish exclusive vertical markets, in supplies, in music, in painters, in everything.
I stopped at Hirshfield’s and got little paint cans and I bought cheap brushes. I painted ‘Lake Harriet Bandshell Restoration’ on each one, one for each commissioner.
I’m driving down to this meeting with Parks & Rec, and Home Depot called en route to say they’re in. I thought that was a great omen. I had dreams of just McGowan up there painting, up there scraping, to fulfill my commitment.
I get to Parks & Rec, to their palatial offices. The head of the board, Bob Fine, he knew me from the amphitheater project in Burnsville. He saw me coming in with this basket. He said, Mr. McGowan, do you have something for us? I just slapped down a paint can in front of each one of the 12 commissioners. They started laughing, they started talking.
Beforehand I called a buddy, to ask if it was Tom or Huck who got everyone together to paint that fence. I told the commissioners, it didn’t matter if it was Tom or Huck. They all got together and they all did something good. I proposed an early Christmas gift to the community, an all-volunteer, free restoration of the Lake Harriet Bandshell.
I just outlined the plan, and this was conceptual — entirely — at the time. And it all came true. All of it.
I’m Irish, so I knew if we worked this out we’d have a party. In January, I called Mick Sterling, the musician and concert organizer, and said at the end I’d like to do a big concert and have him put it together. He said, ‘Sign me up.’
Why did people donate to this? I have a bias because I conceived of the idea. They understood that this was a noble cause. It’s rare to put your hands on a public landmark. From a business standpoint, I’m not naïve enough to assume they’ll arbitrarily donate without some return. That would be fiscally irresponsible. I established a three-year deal with the business partners, so they’d have longevity, and exclusivity. And they have full access to all the media.
Home Depot’s contribution was $12,000. How much has that generated in media coverage? Five times that. Harmon Glass replaced the windows, for $100,000. I just talked to their CEO and they’re thrilled. You can’t create this media attention.
Have I done anything this big before? I worked for Honeywell, and we took complicated products to market. It took the same type of working together. I worked for a company out of Chicago as VP of marketing. There were hundreds of competitors. It was always a challenge to differentiate yourself.
The Burnsville amphitheater was the most similar project. I spent 2 1/2 years of my life to get all the permits, and Dick McGowan, the landowner and my father, reneged on the land deal and that was the end of the project. But you can’t control family.
I’m going to build an amphitheater on another location. I will do it. One of the people I met through this project may have access to a piece of land.
I have a strong faith. We didn’t exchange those views about faith because I’m a business man. But I’ll give you an example. We’d scheduled a week for pressure washing, five days. Graco donated the pressure washing. They had it done in 2 1/2 days. When you pressure wash, it blasts everything off, and it adheres to another area. You just have to paint over it. That Wednesday afternoon, from the northwest, a front came through with a downpour and washed the building. We stood on the stage and laughed.
The experience I took away is, it is possible to experience what we experienced as children, when doors were left open, when people borrowed milk to each other. It might have been the CEO of Graco giving a check on stage, but it was a neighbor helping a neighbor.
There are valuable lessons here. There really are, about business, about trust, about it all.”
Mark McGowan, McGowan Development: 612.282.4839; mj*******@*tt.net; www.lakeharrietlive.com
— Interview by Beth Ewen
The use of fractional executives — those hired by companies on contract to work a fraction of the hours at less cost than full-time hires — has been on the rise for years. That accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. John Arms, co-founder of Voyageur U, helped establish the organization to help educate free agents on what it takes to make it as a fractional executive. He’s now put that knowledge into print, recently releasing the book “Consult Your Way to a Full-Time Job.” Arms joined Upsize Minnesota Editor Andrew Tellijohn to talk about how the book can help potential fractional executives carve their new paths.
Branding expert Kate DiLeo wrote a book about how branding agencies need to do less storytelling and more listening to better meet their clients’ needs.
