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.
COVER STORY :: UPSIZE FORECAST
Quarterly goal meetings
are one result from Kocina
Marketing staffer?s ideas
by Sarah Brouillard
AT 30, JENNIFER FLIGGE has already put her stamp on Burnsville-based Kocina Marketing Cos. In just a decade, she has ascended though the ranks from receptionist to member of the executive team.
Her growing positive influence over the development and direction of Kocina Marketing Cos. is one reason that Kocina?s co-owner calls Fligge her lifeline.
?She?s an amazing young woman,? says Robin Kocina, co-owner and chief operating officer. ?I can?t wait to see where she?ll go because I don?t think there?s much that can stop her.?
Recently Fligge, an account manager with Checkerboard Strategic Web Development (part of Kocina Marketing Cos.), provided the impetus for deep changes at the companies, beginning with a chance book recommendation. Fligge introduced Now Discover Your Strengths to her bosses and peers at a company book club in 2004.
?We always get something good from the books? the company?s staffers read, says Kocina. ?But this has had much more impact than any other.?
The book encourages employers to assess workers by their innate strengths ? not weaknesses ? and suggests they overhaul their views on employee morale and management.
Kocina says that message resonated with her, and inspired her to revamp the company?s style for conducting employee reviews.
For her part, Fligge says she was initially drawn to the book because ?I gravitate toward figuring people out.? She discovered the title while researching topics on Amazon.com, but had no idea her selection would make such an impact on her boss and her company.
Everyone at the company now posts at their individual cubicles a list of their top five strengths, generated by an online assessment tied to the book. The list acts as a daily reminder of each employee?s talents, and as a guide for how to assign employees to projects.
Fligge?s strengths, for example, are adaptability, harmony, empathy, individualization and relating, says Kocina.
And in place of quarterly or yearly reviews, Kocina has implemented ?goal meetings,? where she convenes with her management staff every six weeks to determine the direction for the company, and outline specific goals. Managers, in turn, meet regularly with their teams to discuss those company goals ? but also career and personal ones.
?It?s really a more ? casual doesn?t seem the right word, but that?s the word I?m going to use ? casual approach to management styles,? says Fligge, herself a manager. ?You?re more taking interest in that person and what they?re trying to accomplish, than your daily ?I need you to do this, I need you to do this? task orientation.
?As a manager, it helps me understand the unique personalities in each of my employees and appreciate them differently, assign different tasks to them, and manage them overall to get them producing at their maximum effectiveness.?
Accountability still exists. But morale is higher than ever before, Kocina says.
?There was a definite change,? says Kocina. ?If somebody has a weakness, we don?t pay that much attention to it. What we try to do is look at where they?d be a better fit instead of trying to fix that weakness.
She adds about employees: ?It makes it so they?re happy, they love their job, they stay longer ? As a result, clients are happy. It?s a win-win.?
[contact] Jennifer Fligge, Checkerboard Strategic Web Development: 612.798.7254; ad***@**********rd.com; www.checkerboard.com. Robin Kocina, Kocina Marketing Cos.: 612.798.7204; ro***@************ns.com; www.publicity.com.
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.’”
