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.
“Like most entrepreneurs, you think you have all the answers,” said Richard Schulze, star of the show to dedicate the gorgeous new hall that bears his name at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.
He’s the chairman and founder of Best Buy Co. Inc., which started as one store in 1966 and is now an empire of electronics retailing.
“Early in the game it became clear that for my dream to materialize I would have to pay very close attention to the customers we serve,” he said. “It was down the road that I realized the people who know most about the customer is the employee. You have this wealth of information from the employees on the floor.”
Students of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship got to submit the questions at the dedication event in October, so the results were different from the usual that one hears from a business audience or from journalists. Like: What do you know now that you wished you’d known earlier?
Said Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, also on hand for the dedication: “One of the things I was most naïve about was talent. We had the theory that you should never have to work for someone who wasn’t smarter than you are. Learning to recognize the different abilities” necessary to operate a business was important. “We made a lot of mistakes about people.”
One student wanted to know the biggest mistake or controversial decision each business mogul made.
Schulze: “The most contentious move was, we took commission selling off the floor, and opened the floor up to the customers. This was unheard of” in the late 1980s. “At no time did you put the future of your company into the hands of what the customers wanted.
“When we decommissioned our associates and trained them to explain the products, it was like, Katie bar the door. We had an avalanche of business. Those were the tensest moments.”
And for Gates? “Letting Google get ahead on search and search advertising. We should have seen that early.”
Try to make it to: The Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and its $22 million new home, Schulze Hall, is open for visitors at 1000 LaSalle Ave. in Minneapolis: Christopher Puto, College of Business dean: 651.962.4201; cp****@******as.edu; www.stthomas.edu
The switch from analog to digital copiers and other office equipment has been a boon to Coordinated Business Systems Ltd., said President Jim Oricchio.
“We’ve been able to grow sales without adding many staff because the equipment is so much better,” he says, talking about the industry change that started in the late 1990s.
He was hosting his company’s 24th annual open house in October, a multi-floor space in Burnsville where they moved in February 2004.
The company employs about 55 people, including many long-timers such as the man hired as Technician No. 3 20 years ago and now in charge of networking. “I used to drive around with a handful of screwdrivers,” he said. “Now it’s a laptop and one screwdriver.”
The annual open house is a daylong event featuring equipment demonstrations, prizes and delicious food from Vescio’s (especially the stuffed mushrooms.) The most popular area was the large showroom where customers were checking out the latest color printers.
Try to make it to: This year’s open house will mark the firm’s 25th. Contact Jim Oricchio, Coordinated Business Systems Ltd.: 952.894.9460; ji**@*********ed.com; www.coordinated.com
Reatha Clark King recalls 1942 in Georgia, when she was four years old at a segregated school.
She remembers going to the University of Chicago to get an advanced degree in chemistry, because Georgia didn’t have any institutions she could attend because she’s black.
In Toronto at a board meeting in 1979, she remembers her fellow board members, white males, joining her in solidarity to enter the back door of their meeting site because blacks and women couldn’t use the front door.
“I just look the other way and keep on going,” says King, one of four panelists at the first Diversity Luncheon at the Woman’s Club in Minneapolis in October. Today she’s a member of prominent corporate boards including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Wells Fargo. She is former president and chair of the General Mills Foundation.
State Sen. Mee Moua thinks everyone should get talking. She’s an attorney and a founder of the Hmong Bar Association, and served as a panelist. “How can we cross the cultural divide? There has to be a personal commitment” to learning about communities different from yours.
“I’ve had to learn what it meant to be a woman living in America, to be Asian-American, to be a Midwesterner. Each one of us has to engage in that personal journey to become part of that community.
“Cheryl Burrell was the first African-American business director at 3M, and she’s now left to form Burrell Group LLC. “You have to expose yourself to differences,” she urges. “For instance, I had never had a friend that was a Native American. At 3M, I asked to be part of the Native American employee group.”
Try to make it to: This year’s Diversity Luncheon is set for Oct. 19. Contact Cathy Muldoon, founder of Top Talent Inc., who organized the forum and served as moderator: 612.872.2800; www.toptalentinc.com
Managing risk post-Katrina was the ominous topic of a seminar last fall, hosted by Minneapolis law firm Gray Plant Mooty. Attorneys and other speakers urged the audience to consider cheery thoughts like these:
“We’re in a 20-year cycle of hurricanes. What are the implications for my physical locations, my customers and suppliers, my transportation of inventory and goods, my industry outlook?”
They also recommended steps to take to be ready.
• Have you analyzed the “choke points” in your production and distribution? You may not think disasters halfway around the world affect you, but consider: Coffee beans from Sumatra couldn’t get here after Hurricane Katrina, and Dunn Bros.’ local stores had to raise prices.
•Have you planned for business contingencies resulting from major disasters?
•Have you developed a disaster recovery plan that includes your suppliers and customers? “From a risk management perspective it’s a mistake to limit suppliers, because if something happens to one it disrupts the supply chain,” said Nick Nierengarten, Gray Plant Mooty.
Try to make it to: Nick Nierengarten and Rick Kubler at Gray Plant Mooty say they’re happy to discuss insurance or risk management issues: 612.632.3000; ni*******************@****aw.com; ri*********@****aw.com; www.gpmlaw.com
