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.
BEST PRACTICES: TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
cutting edge
Customer response is key to finalists? innovation
FINALIST RUNDOWN
AppDev, technical training provider: launched KSource Online Learning, an online learning format, leading to an expected 300 percent increase in booked revenue in 2007.
Craig Jensen is president and CEO: 952.943.1363; cr****@****ev.com;
www.appdev.com
Innovative Tools & Technologies, products for auto body repair: created the SuperStand, the Parts Cart, and other products to ease auto body repairs.
Jason Cox is general manager: 651.415.0733; in**@*************ls.com;
www.innovativetools.com
Lighthouse1, software to manage consumer-driven health care plans: developed OnDemand, the first rules engine to simplify claim decisions for the consumer.
Jeff Fritz is CEO: 952.852.7099; jf****@*********e1.com; www.lighthouse1.com
Serotek Corp, software for computer and Internet accessibility: company was first to make Web 2.0 accessible to blind and visually impaired, among other firsts.
Mike Calvo is CEO: 866.202.0520; mi********@*****ek.com; www.serotek.com
Star Exhibits & Environments, trade show exhibits supplier: launched Startranet, an interactive Web-based program to support and manage any retail or trade show program.
Mark Johnson is CEO: 763.561.4655; mj******@**********ts.com; www.starexhibits.com
by Sarah Brouillard
How to foster innovation is a key issue for small companies, and the finalists for Best Practices in Technology & Innovation demonstrate there is no one way to go about it. Listening to the customer, and then adapting to those demands, is one common theme.
Waiting for bandwidth
While many technical learning providers began offering electronic learning as a solution to training needs several years ago, Eden Prairie-based AppDev resisted the temptation to join the pack, unwilling to sacrifice quality for what it perceived as an unproven format.
Instead, AppDev stuck to its traditional, tangible deployment tools ? CD-ROMs and printed courseware ? until bandwidth improved to the point that it could deliver and support the company?s rich content via the Internet.
?Bandwidth early on only allowed for text, Flash ? very thin content,? CEO Craig Jensen says.
While there was initially the temptation to ?jump into the latest cool, cutting edge technology,? the company chose to listen to its customers ? mostly high-end IT professionals,
As the name suggests, Owatonna-based Kamp Automation looks for customers with a process they’d like to automate. It could be a small, inconvenient, tiny part that people can’t assemble. It could be a high-volume product so needed that the customer can’t find enough labor to produce it in the necessary quantities. “We’ll work anywhere from medical device companies to the seed industry for corn and soybeans,” says Kent Patterson, co-founder, president and CEO. “We just jump all over wherever there is custom automation.” The company started in his garage. Patterson and his partners built a machine. The company started to grow to the point where now it has 48 employees — and had a bunch of people and stuff in different locations. “We went from a garage to a shop to a shop and just kept moving to new places and signing leases,” he says. “We got to a point where it’s like, OK, this is getting big enough and sustainable — we felt that we wanted to look for our own space.’”
