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February 2010 Issue
Cover Story
The Rocky Road to Recovery
By GRANT RUESCH
As we look forward to the 2010 Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference in March, the famous phrase coined by Clinton campaign strategist James Carville, - “It’s the economy, stupid” - seems more apropos than ever.
Over the past two years, the global economy has experienced the most vexing confluence of economic problems at any time since the end of World War II. The U.S. economy - both Main Street and the financial system - remain under severe stress, as does most of the world. The long-term impact on U.S. households and the business environment is...
Articles
Succession in a Recession
By Mike Taylor
Competition Headwear clan: owner Larry Polner and wife June, along with children Michael and Rachel
Editor’s note: see the complete list of Top 50 Family-Owned Businesses here.
On April 25, 2006, Michael Van Gilder took over as CEO of Van Gilder Insurance Corp. In doing so, he succeeded his father, who succeeded Michael’s grandfather, who succeeded Michael’s great-grandfather, who started the Denver firm back in 1905.
Michael Van Gilder, 42, has seen the studies and appreciates how rare this is. Fewer than 30 percent of family businesses make it to the second...
Eco-Products Corn-fed for Success
By David Lewis
Eco-Products Inc. won the 2009 ACG Emerging Company Growth Award by emerging from its roots, then quickly rocketing toward the heights.
The company got its start as recently as 1990 yet already seems to have collected its share of historic highs. In 1990, Kent Savage, then chairman of the board of Boulder-based Eco-Cycle, went on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park with his son Steve Savage, who had just graduated from the University of Kansas.
The recycling business consists of three phases, Kent Savage explained: collection, sale to manufacturers and wholesale...
Baxa Sees Boom Times Ahead for Medical Device and Software Business
By David Lewis
Greg Baldwin, CEO and chairman of Baxa Corp., doesn’t shy from a challenge.
“We’re probably going to try to raise our profitability, our EBITDA, about 50 percent (this) year,” he says without the trace of a boast.
Baxa is a Douglas County-based medical device and software firm with annual sales of about $145 million that has been growing steadily in the annual 11 percent to 14 percent range.
Baldwin gratefully acknowledges the 2009 ACG Corporate Growth Award “celebrating a leading company with steady growth and annual sales exceeding $100 million,” a description that...
Tough Times Help Us Succeed in the Long Term: A Conversation with Keith McFarland
Keith McFarland
BY JENNIFER SHERMER
I recently had the opportunity to have a conversation with New York Times bestselling author and business strategist Keith McFarland, one of three keynote speakers slated for ACG’s March conference.
I wanted to tap into his deep insight and experience into surviving tough economic times and get his thoughts on how he has used those tough times to succeed in the long term. He shared his views on surviving the current economy, positioning our businesses to prosper as we emerge from this recession, and the lessons we can take away...
No Clouds in his Coffee: an Interview with Howard Behar
BY GRANT RUESCH
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks and keynote speaker at the 2010 Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference. I had been told by those who know him that Howard is an interesting, engaging and great guy, and they were right. After just a few minutes with him, I realized this wasn’t going to be an interview at all; rather, it was a discussion with a person who felt like a friend. Howard was an engaged listener, interactive in his responses and able to communicate his ideas in simple ways. Let me...
Fair and Balanced Leadership: StarTek’s Larry Jones
BY DOROTHY DONNELLY
I tried to get Larry Jones to talk about himself, to brag a little. After all, he has every right to pat himself on the back. In a brutal economy when most businesses are feeling bruised and battered, StarTek posted third-quarter profits of $3.5 million. What does speak loudly about Larry are the many people who follow him wherever he leads.
StarTek provides business process outsourcing services, primarily call center support for telecom, retail and technology companies. In speaking about what factors contribute to the StarTek’s success, Larry...
Smallbiz: Forecast from the trenches—slight uptick in 2010
By Mike TaylorTerry Drahota saw revenues at his Fort Collins general contracting firm drop 50 percent in 2009, but he hasn’t lasted 37 years in commercial development without a sense of optimism - or at least an ability to project it.
“The good news for us is we’re a little versatile, in that we have a mountain office and then we have a Front Range office,” said the 62-year-old founder of Drahota Commercial LLC, a firm with annual revenues of $70 million at its height. “Usually one or the other is happening. We’re looking for 2010 to be a better year than 2009, which is kind of...
The Economist
By Tucker Hart AdamsThere are a lot of confusing, indeed conflicting, economic data released by various organizations and reported with breathless headlines in the popular press. One of the most confusing, even to economists, is the monthly data on housing prices.
Pick a month - say September, when we read that prices fell 7.1 percent, rose 0.2 percent, fell 3.8 percent, rose 1.8 percent and fell 8.9 percent. Did home prices rise or fall? Can both be true?
In a sense, the answer is yes. The problem is various methodologies covering different components of the housing market.
The simplest...
State of the state: Government
By Mike CoteOn the eve of Colorado’s legislative session in January, George Clooney got a couple of free plugs for his latest movie from both sides of the political aisle. If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree upon it’s the pain that comes from losing your job.
In “Up in the Air,” Clooney plays a jet-bound envoy companies deploy to handle the uncomfortable task of laying off their workers. It’s hardly the feel-good movie of the year, but the story rings true in 2010.
While Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper stood outside the steps of the Capitol to announce he was...
Higher ed: Cash course
By Nora Caley
The cuts in state funding for Colorado’s colleges and universities present the schools with an opportunity, not just a temporary setback. At least that’s how the leaders of these public institutions of higher education are trying to view the cuts.
These decision makers say they are finding new ways to generate revenue, raise productivity and plan for the future. They also say that although they might seem more self-sufficient, they are not headed toward privatization.
“We are simply embracing a new reality,” says Kay Norton, president of the University of Northern...
Sports Biz: Aspen’s better man
By Stewart SchleyKlaus Obermeyer, who lives, works and skis in Aspen, wasn’t supposed to end up in Colorado, making clothes for a living. Educated in pre-war Germany as an aeronautical engineer, Obermeyer was supposed to spend his professional life huddling over drafting tables as he puzzled over propulsion theories and celestial mechanics.
But when he came to the U.S. in 1947, the airplane business, post-war and pre-Boeing 707, was in a slump. The only engineers getting hired were rocket scientists.
“I was out of work,” Obermeyer remembers. “And I thought, ‘Well, I can always be a...
State of the state: Networking
Is there a science to schmoozing? Adrienne Zoble must think so. The Schmoozing Calendar by the Fort Collins marketing executive is now in its fourth year.
Designed as an aid for cultivating new clients and retaining old ones, the 2010 version includes a script for each month and recommendations for meeting with clients. There are weekly suggestions of who you might invite to breakfast, lunch or coffee to strengthen relationships and build business.
“People take their existing business for granted,” says Zoble, president of Adrienne Zoble Associates Inc. “You have to...
Finding my Dream Team: An Interview with Zach Neumeyer
BY GRANT RUESCH
When you are tasked with finding dynamic and compelling panelists for a conference, it’s helpful to have contacts such as Martin Dubin from RHR International to point you in the right direction. That direction led me to lunch with Zachary Neumeyer, who, at the time of our meeting, had already agreed to be a panelist for a session titled, “CEO Retrospective: What Tested Your Mettle During The Recession?”
As I approached the effort of forming a panel, it occurred to me that the best CEOs to entertain the notion of participating were those with three...
Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight—A Motto for Life
By Sherry LawOnce told by her boss that she was going nowhere, best-selling author and international speaker Fawn Germer knows how to pick herself up, brush off her self-esteem and never look back. Since getting up that first time, Fawn has earned four Pulitzer nominations for journalism, interviewed hundreds of America’s most famous leaders and trailblazers, written five books and won praise from Oprah - solid ground for sharing her stories, strategies and optimism.
You’ve talked to a lot of successful women. What impressed you most?
I always say that I get a million dollars...
Executive Edge: Sue Allon
By Lynn Bronikowski
Sue Allon sympathizes with people stung by foreclosure and the mortgage industry meltdown.
“If you grew up the way I did, you’d be motivated to not be poor, so I can sympathize with people who lose their homes,” says Allon, 51, who last year founded Denver-based Allonhill, a financial services firm that brings oversight to the mortgage industry by digging deep to review loans for such diverse segments as major banking institutions, government agencies, hedge funds, institutional and private investors. “We didn’t even have a home to lose, but we did get evicted a lot....
Clean-Tech Entrepreneurs: It takes green to make green
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The NREL Industry Growth Forum is about connecting the billions of dollars available in the capital markets with business talent worthy of investment. It is about connecting that business talent with the legal expertise needed to tap into federal and state incentive funds. And it is about leveraging intellectual property, human capital, financing and public policy to drive the nascent clean technology economy.
The November forum, presented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, selected a winner and two additional companies to receive up to $10,000 plus...
State of the state: Technology
For Colorado’s clean-tech sector, life is good but could be better. A report called the Colorado Cleantech Cluster Analysis found that even in a recessionary economy, 70 percent of the companies participating in the analysis added employees.
“I see real opportunity here,” said report author Jane Evenson.
The Cleantech Cluster Analysis contains a 10-point action agenda. As have others before, the report calls for better funding of public education. The Colorado Constitution kinks the public funding process with various and sometimes contradictory funding mandates.
Who Owns Colorado: ‘Double’ Eagle takes a breather
By David Lewis
To understand the recent history of the town of Eagle, Colo., most of what you need to know is contained in two sets of two numbers.
The first is that, in the year 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 3,032 Eagle residents. In mid-2008 it estimated 5,897 people lived there, a 94.5 percent increase.
“We doubled our number of housing units and doubled our population between 2003 and 2007,” says town manager and interim town planner William Powell.
The town’s master plan was written in 1997 and now is being updated. Meantime, what kind of growth is Eagle anticipating?
...On Management: Job interviews picking up? Part II
By Pat WiesnerWhat makes a boss say, “I really like this person, I want him/her working here,” after just 20 minutes or so? What makes an interviewer who has prepared a list of 15 questions for you forget those questions and begin to tell you how much you are going to like working at this company? What characteristic is perhaps more meaningful when it comes to getting a job than any skill you might have?
Attitude!
A positive “I like life” can-do, team-player attitude that rings true and leaves no doubt about work ethic is hard to find. When a boss searching for just the right...
Cote’s Colorado: Going nuclear for clean water
By Mike CoteA couple of years ago, the ultra-liberal magazine Mother Jones made local headlines when publisher Jay Harris endorsed nuclear power during a panel talk at the World Affairs Conference in Boulder. Lucifer wrapped a scarf around his freezing neck, and a pig flapped its wings.
The “poison power” that inspired the “No Nukes” concert 30 years ago featuring such mainstream rockers as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Doobie Brothers is now considered part of the solution to reducing carbon emissions.
But if liberals want to truly show their support for nuclear power...
Guest Column: Expanding into China in 2010
By Jill Brehm and Tina ChengAs the Chinese economy develops, more Colorado businesses are looking to China’s large population and friendly business environment as a market to grow their sales. In fact, China is currently Colorado’s third-largest export market, with Colorado businesses exporting $508 million of products to China in 2008.
While a large portion of Colorado exports to China are by the state’s largest and best-known businesses, smaller companies can also benefit from expanding into the China market.
“Now that numerous multinational companies have established successful operations, we...
Rundles Wrap-Up: Pinheads
By Jeff RundlesJu
st about everyone I know these days, when asked how work is going, shrugs that they are “hanging in there” or simply says, “It’s a job.”
I know a broad range of people - professionals, executives, trades people, salespeople and worker bees of all stripes. This cannot be a good sign for overall productivity. While nearly everyone reports working harder - more hours, more tasks, more responsibilities - and says their personal productivity is way up, with trimmed-back staffs and open positions not being filled, they also say their companies and endeavors are not only...
Taxed By Confusion
By David Lewis
CPAs and financial advisers have these three words of wisdom for taxpayers this year: Duck and cover.
Seldom if ever has U.S. tax policy, present and future, seemed more confusing and burdensome to the average taxpayer - and the exceptional taxpayer, as well.
“It is complicated this year, more than ever, to say the least,” says Doris Martinez, president of Lakewood-based Taxpayer Defense, a firm that specializes in aiding taxpayers through audits and the like. “Things are hard; things are terribly difficult right now.”
This is an especially poignant moment for...
Tech Startup: Gevo Inc.
By Eric Peterson
INITIAL LIGHT BULB: A professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Frances Arnold gave a presentation about her work with the biofuel butanol in 2005. Afterward, Vinod Khosla, honcho of Menlo Park, Calif.-based green energy fund Khosla Ventures, approached her about commercializing the technology. With Khosla’s Series A investment in hand, Arnold co-founded the company with colleagues Peter Meinhold and Matthew Peters, and James Liao from UCLA.
Now more than 50 employees strong, the company relocated to Colorado in early 2008 and last year was one...
State of the state: Awards
Twenty-eight finalists have been selected by the Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance for its annual awards. CEBA honors ethical role models in business and nonprofit organizations.
The finalists, which include 13 companies, eight nonprofits and seven individuals, represent a wide range of industries and community organizations, including hospitals, youth agencies, law firms and financial institutions. Several finalists hail from the Denver metro area but the list also includes Grand Junction, Pagosa Springs, Boulder and Parker.
Since its formation in 1991, CEBA, a...
State of the state: Labor
By Mike Cote
While promoting her book, “Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America,” Denver journalist Helen Thorpe says businesspeople have shared their thoughts on illegal immigration and the conflicting ideals of compassion and compliance they’ve struggled with as employees.
At one event, a woman in the food service industry whom Thorpe described as “very conservative” was moved to tears.
“She didn’t want to hire illegal immigrants,” Thorpe said. “But she had people on her payroll who turned out to have names that didn’t match their Social...
Colorado coolstuff
By Eric Peterson
TIM’S CUSTOM POKER TABLES
Aircraft mechanic and pilot Tim Hebert found himself behind a desk too often, but still “liked using his hands,” so he made a poker table a couple of years ago and sold it right away. He’s since made 20 more custom tables, offering a selection of cloth, wood, base and other features.
He also likes to offer advice to people building their own tables and even gives away free plans on his website. “I just enjoy the heck out of it,” says Hebert, who plays poker with the same group of friends every Saturday night. “Seven-card draw is my favorite...
