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March 2010 Issue
Cover Story
Joint Venture: Too legit to quit?
By Lisa Ryckman
Ralph Morgan of Evergreen Apothecary
On a sunny Saturday in January, 72 people paid $250 each to hear Dana May - aka “Professor Marijuana” - divulge the secrets of successful cannabis cultivation.
The self-proclaimed best grower on the planet, May tells the group he can produce in 43 days what typically takes four to five months, from start to finish, seed to weed. He has three rules, and the first of which - and possibly most important - is the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
“Less is more,” May says. “And define your goals. If you give this plant what it...
Articles
The Economist: What’s the Fed up to?
By Tucker Hart AdamsThe Federal Reserve took several actions in the first quarter that reversed programs begun more than a year ago to get credit flowing to families and businesses.
They raised the discount rate from 0.50 percent to 0.75 percent, closed two commercial paper funding facilities and the primary dealers and term securities lending facilities, allowed temporary swap arrangements with foreign central banks to expire and began winding down the term auction and term asset-backed securities loan facilities.
What is the Fed up to?
I wrote an article for ColoradoBiz more than a...
Choices and more choices
By Nora Caley
For many workers, it might be time to go back to school. Colorado secondary institutions are responding by updating or expanding programs and by making it easier for students to attend classes. New programs include sustainable energy certificates, fast-track master of business administration degrees, and online learning.
Here are brief summaries of what some local business schools offer. These are just highlights, so be sure to visit the schools’ websites for more information on admissions, tuition and start dates.
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
The three MBA programs at...
Executive edge: Barry Cooper
By Lynn Bronikowski
Barry Cooper, founder and CEO of Cooper Tea Co., traces his 40-year passion for the tea industry to his childhood in Kenya, East Africa - a place that tugs so deep at his heart that today he refers to himself as “a white African American.”
That may sound politically incorrect, he admits, but “Africa gets in your blood; it’s home,” he says of the tea-producing highlands where he grew up.
“Tea always struck me as a very elegant and gentlemanly profession,” Cooper said while pouring hot tea from a porcelain teapot in his office at Cooper Tea’s Boulder-based...
Rundles Wrap-up: Too Progressive
By Jeff Rundles
After the debacle of 2009, I had high hopes for 2010. Rather than the rebound and recovery I had expected, or at least was hoping for, this year, as it turns out, is becoming one of recalcitration.
All my life I have known people whose basic métier was being an expert on what is wrong with everything, but they were the exception - crabs and complainers, but at least in the minority. Now being in opposition - and only opposition - has been elevated not only to majority status, but bathed in holiness, or at least holier-than-thou-ness.
I want to be for things, but...
2010 Sustainability Champion: Colorado Medication Take-Back Pilot Project
By Mike CoteYou see them pile up in your medicine chest: old prescriptions that for one reason or another you didn’t use up entirely. Now that they’re long expired or that you no longer have a use for them, how do you safely get rid of them?
That’s a problem the state Department of Public Health and Environment aims to resolve through the Colorado Medication Take-back pilot project, the recipient of one of six 2010 Sustainability Champion Awards.
The awards are a program of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Environmental Partnership...
2010 Sustainability Champion Awards
By Mike CoteAs sustainability becomes mainstream, it’s a tougher task to honor people, companies and organizations that transcend business as usual.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Environmental Partnership have partnered with Connected Organizations for a Responsible Economy (CORE), and ColoradoBiz to present the 2010 Sustainability Champion Awards. The program is sponsored by PAETEC, a New York-based telecom company that delivers data and voice services in 84 metro markets including Denver.
This year’s winners are comprised of three...
Tech Startup: Techpubs Global
By Eric Peterson 
COMPANY: TECHPUBS GLOBAL
INITIAL LIGHT BULB: A group of JetBlue pilots saw an opportunity for a startup to fill the vacuum for electronic documentation for the airline industry and launched the company in 2005. With a new XML-based data standard mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration, the time was ripe for a content-management provider to digitally centralize electronic versions of flight books and other required documents.
While the founders remain consultants, David Williams, a longtime IBM veteran, joined the company as CEO in 2008. The regulatory...
2010 Sustainability Champion Awards: Coolerado Corp.
By Mike CoteCoolerado can rightly tout that it’s cool to be green. The Denver-based company manufactures and sells air conditioners that use one fifth or less of the energy required by the most efficient conventional systems.
“If we can get a large percentage of the population to move to this air conditioner, we can save a substantial amount of coal or whatever the source of power generation is,” said Rick Gillan, whose brothers Lee and Rick also work for the Denver company. “Essentially you can cool a building for the amount of power that you would normally use to just run...
Executive Edge: Michael Gass
By Lynn Bronikowski
As Michael Gass prepares this month to witness United Launch Alliance’s 38th rocket launch in three years, he reflects on the first space shot he ever saw - as a second-grader watching on a grainy 19-inch TV in a school gymnasium of his native New York.
“John Glenn went up, came back and everybody was really excited about the start of the space age,” recalls Gass, 53, who on that day went home and told his grandma he wanted to be in the rocket industry. “And she said in her thick Eastern European accent, ‘You have to be an engineer.’ Growing up in New York, I had...
State of the state: Conventions
By Eric Peterson
More than 18,000 people descended on Denver for the SnowSports Industry America (SIA) Snow Show in late January, with a corresponding “Demo Days” at Winter Park in early February. The convention - the biggest in the industry - was in Denver after a long tenure in Las Vegas.
This year’s event represents the first show in an 11-year deal - unusually long for the convention biz.
With an exhibit hall segmented into skis, snowboards, accessories, fashion, retail services and destinations, the show did not disappoint, featuring everything from Teflon-based Zardoz ski wax...
18th Annual Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance Awards
By Mike TaylorThe reward for practicing good ethics is being able to sleep at night knowing you did the right thing. But it also leads to the long-term success of a business, organization or individual. This year’s winners of the Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance Awards offer strong examples.
Mountain Crest Mortgage, which earned an Ethics in Business Award this year, steered clear of the subprime loans and adjustable rate mortgages that had such a huge role in the near collapse of the financial system. That decision has helped the Denver company earn the loyalty of its...
2010 Sustainability Champion: Mariner Kemper, CEO UMB Financial Corp.
By Mike Cote
UMB CEO Mariner Kemper says one of the best things about winning the 2010 Sustainability Champion Award is that it gives him another platform to talk about sustainability.
“For me, it’s very equally split between being good for business and being good for the planet,” says Kemper, whose company’s banking subsidiaries operate banking centers through Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Arizona.
“The planet doesn’t get any bigger, and we add more people to it every year,” he says. “People are living longer lives. If we don’t ultimately start caring...
On Small Biz: Eco-politan picks up where modern mommy gear left off
By Mike TaylorWith crying babies creating an apt soundtrack for a store specializing in “eco-friendly gear for the modern mom,” eco-POLITAN owner Robin Morris held court from behind the cash register the last Sunday in January, expounding on the merits of cloth diapers versus the disposable variety.
“I’m going to try to it,” one young woman said, gathering her goods and heading toward the door.
“Call me if you have any questions about washing them,” Morris said.
When I last talked to Robin Morris for a small-biz column in March 2009, she had left her corporate job with a telecom...
Cote’s Colorado: the last record store in town
By Mike CoteAndy Schneidkraut’s MySpace page lists him as “100 years old.” The owner of Albums on the Hill is only a little more than halfway there, but it takes a lot out of you to run a record store in the digital age.
With the closure of Bart’s CD Cellar near the Pearl Street Mall in February, Albums on the Hill has the distinction of being the only retail store in Boulder dedicated to selling compact discs. That the small basement shop he has owned for 22 years is the last one standing brings Schneidkraut little solace.
“Right now I have a patient landlord who thinks I’m...
Q1 Real Estate: Downscaling but not out
By David Lewis
Rendering of Union Station project in Denver, courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
1.jpg "Q1RealEstate_(Credit_Skidmore_Owens__Merrill)1.jpg")
Real estate’s Big Slump is far from over, despite cheery GDP numbers. Yet real estate developers and experts in sustainability persist in seeing sunrise amid the gloom.
Observers note that sustainable building has taken its knocks like every other part of the economy. But all argue, often passionately, that the recession adds up to not much more than a pause in sustainability’s remarkable growth.
Assessing the impact of the downturn on the sustainability movement seems to be “one...
On Management: Jobs
By Pat WiesnerA lot is being said about jobs these days, ranging from “How do I keep mine?” to “How do I get one?”
“The Snowball” refers to a book by that title about Warren Buffett. The snowball represents the little bit he started with that slowly became one of the world’s largest fortunes.
Not many jobs will come out of complaining about the government, banks or companies. Actually, companies that have jobs are looking for people who have a positive attitude, people who know there are problems but choose to attack them from an optimistic angle that brings along a team of people....
2010 golf planner’s guide: Greening of the greens
By Gary Baines
Mary Ann Bonnell doesn’t play golf, though you’d never know it by the amount of time she spends on courses. And it wasn’t long ago that she viewed golf courses as the enemy.
“I grew up in a household where courses were considered an abomination of nature,” Bonnell said.
That was before Bonnell was hired as senior natural resources specialist for the city of Aurora 4½ years ago, and Saddle Rock Golf Course superintendent Joe McCleary invited her out for a visit. After observing the plant life, wildlife and considerable native area set aside at the course, Bonnell...
2010 Sustainability Champion: Shahnaz Jaffari
By Mike Cote
A native of Iran, Shahnaz Jaffari has studied structures in the Middle East that are 2,500 years old. Stretching the lifespan of buildings to a century doesn’t sound unusual to her.
Jaffari, RMMI’s sustainability director for the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute, has worked for five years to change how architects look at construction practices.
The nonprofit trade association represents more than 110 companies throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
“We need to build buildings that will be our cultural heritage for the next generation just like the previous...
Taking stock in Colorado’s biofuels industry
By Michael MillerThe biofuels industry is faring better in Colorado than elsewhere, but bolder and more sustained actions are required if the state’s vision of becoming the clean-tech version of Silicon Valley is to be realized.
The biofuels industry is evolving rapidly. At last count, there are at least 17 different process technologies under development nationally, many of which have a presence in Colorado. Four key challenges exist: legislative, work force, capital markets and public awareness.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Conditions promoting long-term growth are needed at both national...
Sports Biz: Remembering to share
By Stewart SchleyAs Pat Bowlen and his 31 fellow National Football League team owners contemplate a player lockout that could sack the 2011 NFL season, you’re going to hear plenty about a key contention point: what share of the league’s revenue should go to players.
More so than salary caps, adjustments to health benefits or controls on rookie compensation, the percentage of revenue to be devoted to players is the 300-pound gorilla - or in this case the 300-pound left tackle - that overshadows all.
The rest is details. But determining what percentage of the league’s roughly $8.5...
Taking it to the bridge
By Allen BestIf politics makes for strange bedfellows, check out what the elixir of surprisingly abundant supplies of natural gas has done. Environmental organizations and natural gas drillers have gotten almost gooey-eyed with visions of gas backing up renewables and displacing coal in electrical generation. Throw in T. Boone Pickens, with his claim that natural gas can secure American independence from imported oil, and you have quite the ménage à trois.
It’s a tempting vision, this idea that natural gas can play a much larger role in the economy of Colorado and the nation....
Guest Column: About the Business of Charity
By David MillerCharitable organizations teach us how change can occur through generosity and dedication to a mission. But while generosity of spirit certainly drives the work of charities, nonprofit organizations also apply principles of business excellence every day. While it is often noted that charities can learn from businesses, individual investors can learn from the investment management practices of large charitable organizations.
Founded in 1925, with more than $500 million in assets today, The Denver Foundation is the oldest and largest community foundation in the Rocky...
2010 Sustainability Champion: Ann Livingston, Boulder County Sustainability Coordinator
By Mike Cote
Any entity considering creating a position called “sustainability coordinator” might want to check with Boulder County for a job description: Ann Livingston, one of six winners in the 2010 Sustainability Champion Awards, has set the bar pretty high for that title.
Livingston developed and implemented the city’s ClimateSmart Loan Program, which enables homeowners and business owners to invest in efficiency and renewable energy through a financing program tied to property taxes. The program led to investment of $10 million countywide in its first year.
“What we’re...
State of the state: Culture
By Maria Cote
The list of reasons to support cultural organizations is as vast as the sky in a painting by Rembrandt. Arts organizations add vitality to a community. Imagine Colorado without its many arts museums, the Colorado Ballet or the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Education and entertainment are essential to those who live in the state, as well as our visitors.
Deborah Jordy, executive director for the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, would add one more plug for the arts: economic vitality.
The organization, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary at a...
The Economist
By Tucker Hart AdamsI’ve spent the last several months doing an in-depth study of the Pueblo economy for the Business School at Colorado State University-Pueblo. The last time I did such an analysis was more than 25 years ago, and it has been fascinating to document how Pueblo has changed.
Back in 1982, Pueblo’s unemployment rate peaked at 19.7 percent, well over twice the Colorado and national levels. CF&I Steel, the city’s major employer, accounting for 30 percent of the city’s payroll, announced it was discontinuing basic steel-making operations. Four blast furnaces were idled, 2,800...
Colorado Cool Stuff
By Eric Peterson
VUKA ENERGY DRINKS
Transplants from South Africa, Vuka’s husband-and-wife co-CEOs - Darian and Alexia Bregman - “spent four years working back-to-back in a home office” before deciding to go into the energy drink business in 2007, Alexia says. After an acquisition collapsed, they launched Vuka on the premise that “people needed different energy for different occasions,” she says.
Thus, Vuka’s four all-natural flavors are Awaken (non-carbonated orange), Renew (mango-peach), Think (pomegranate-lychee), and Workout (berry-lemonade). Each variety has plenty of vitamins...
State of the state: Legislation
By Jay Dedrick 
For Colorado craft brewers, the January gathering of state lawmakers at the Capitol has come to signal an annual battle to maintain their livelihood, not to mention the Centennial State’s status as center of the beer universe.
Once again, state representatives have introduced legislation that would allow grocery and/or convenience stores to sell full-strength beer, not just the 3.2 product they currently stock. The past two years, such measures never made it past committee deliberation. What’s different this year is that separate bills - one representing grocery...
