This site is about creating sustainable startups and growing emerging enterprises. It's about developing successful new products and innovating existing ones. Sustainable work means creating valuable solutions that fix real problems. Sustainable work means creating business processes that make you, your enterprise, and the world a better place. You can do it. Welcome.
My friend Laura Brown is the Community Development Specialist at the Center for Community & Economic Development at our University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.
She posed a question over on LinkedIn to the economic development professionals group that got me wondering. She asked: "If you could ask three questions to find out if a community is ready for economic development what would they be?"
I have always focused on creating customers and building an inclusive culture of entrepreneurship. Here's how I answered...
Is there a will to focus on creating new customers for your community?
Is there a will to invest the time (3-5 years) and budget to create a culture of entrepreneurship in your community?
Will you agree that whatever strategy is adopted, access to the tools and benefits of economic development should be available to the widest number of people in your community?
Without a 'yes' to all 3, you don't have many sustainable options.
Our Milwaukee region, and our state of Wisconsin, are globally relevant leaders in the world of safe, sustainable food processing.
We have global A-Game talent. We have the human networks and the physical infrastructure in place. We have an amazingly diverse agricultural capacity to grow, process and distribute an abundance of great foods.
Perhaps most important, we have the water resources, as well as the water science and engineering expertise in Wisconsin to make it all sustainable.
Here is a great quote from my friend Shelly Jurewicz, leader of our Milwaukee M7 Food and Beverage group:
"We truly have a wealth of companies in this industry, in this region," Jurewicz said. "Everyone from growers, makers, bakers, brewers, bottlers, educators, scientists, farmers, distributors, grocers and restaurateurs bring something to the table."
"There are currently 243 food and beverage manufacturers located in the seven-county Milwaukee region, employing 14,700 people. Seven of the world's 11 largest food manufacturers have a presence in the region, and Wisconsin has the greatest concentration of food industry workers in the nation."
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Wisconsin is a world leader in food based economic development. It's also a tremendous place to live and do business in the globally relevant world of safe, wholesome foods. Join us!
At the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen I have made many wonderful new friends.
Among my favorites are Karen and John, proprietors of The Elegant Vegan, a great new food products company I patronize and support.
Karen and John just sent out a short note (below) asking for community support (votes!) to support their application to Mission Small Business. Below is Karen's note:
"Dear Friend,
We write to ask you to vote for The Elegant Vegan by June 30 us to make us eligible for a grant from Mission Small Business.
As you may know, we started a vegan food product company about two and a half years ago. We wanted a broader selection of really good foods that we wanted to eat and found that many others shared our desire for tasty, healthy foods. You can get more information about our two food lines, The Elegant Vegan and Vegan Eats ‘N Treats from our two websites: The Elegant Vegan & Vegan Eats 'N Treats. You’ll see that we established a company that has a socially responsible aspect to it as we employ a non-profit owned commercial kitchen that has a licensed kitchen staff and hires people with disabilities to carry out non-technical tasks.
We also pledge to donate 2% of our net profits to organizations that promote social justice. You’ll see what people say about our products and you’ll also see photos and descriptions of some of our products. What you won’t see is that in a short period of time we’ve captured the interest of Whole Foods Markets in Madison, Milwaukee, Evanston, and Chicago, the Outpost in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, A Natural Harvest and KMT health food stores in Chicago, and Perelandra in Brooklyn, New York, all of which are in the process of placing orders or putting systems in place to order our products.
We are poised to grow and are applying for a grant from Mission Small Business that would provide needed resources to support this growth.
We therefore urge you to follow these steps to vote (takes about 3 minutes):
2. Click on Log in & Support, where you will need to log on with your Facebook account.
3. Enter The Elegant Vegan into the search box and it will take you to a place where you can vote for us (Maxey Lynn is our parent company and we are based in Wisconsin).
We would appreciate it if you would forward this message to members of your network and ask them to vote for us. We need to obtain 250 votes by June 30th.
We are really depending on your help as we don’t think we even know 250 people between us! If you have any questions or need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thanks so much!
Karen and John"
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This is a wonderful example of great people, great food and an outstanding small business all coming together to promote social good. Please follow the Mission Small Business link below and vote for my friends Karen and John at The Elegant Vegan. Best of luck friends!
Some final noes from The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup. In an earlier post I especially liked this quote: "The investments should follow rare entrepreneurs versus worldwide oversupply of innovation. Put another way, it's far better to invest in entrepreneurial people than in great ideas."
Here is some excerpts from a recent Forbes interview with Jim Clifton (emphasis added):
"How does a leader create more jobs than the competition?"
"By creating more customers. Almost no one knows this. Keep in mind that no business is trying to create jobs. They are all working all day and every weekend to create new customers. New customers are the real goal of a nation. Because jobs always follow customers. Too few leaders have this figured out... "
"Innovation is not scarce. Entrepreneurship is scarce. We are spending billions and wasting years of conversations on innovation and it isn’t paying off. Great business people are more valuable and rarer than great ideas."
"America has about six million active businesses. Ninety-nine percent of them are small businesses. An incalculably huge mistake leaders are making now is spending time, money, strategies, and especially policies for those who need “help” getting a job. A useful way to look at any citizen is this, “Can she herself create jobs or does she need a job created for her?” We are spending all our time on the cart and doing little or nothing on the horse."
"It is wrong thinking to imagine that Washington has solutions. Job creation is a city problem. There is great variation in job creation by city in the United States. San Francisco and the greater Valley keep pumping away while Detroit isn’t. Austin’s cart works while Albany’s doesn’t. Cities need to look inwardly and say, “What can I do to create great economic energy, to bring new customers for all existing companies and start-ups?"
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Create more customers... Bring new customers to your region... Rebuild regional economies. Sounds like a plan to me.
In an earlier post I wrote about elite young Chinese scholars visiting our Iowa County Area Economic Development work and the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen this summer. I am very excited to meet these new Chinese friends and welcome them to our work in creating safe, effective regional food systems.
The Environment and Public Health Network for Chinese Students and Scholars (ENCSS) began in 2006 and now connects friends in over 20 top American Universities with members in more than 60 disciplines, connecting 23 states in the U.S. with 27 Provinces in China.
The future President of China, Mr. Xi Jinping, first visited our area in 1985 on a visit to study agriculture in the Upper Midwest. He stayed in beautiful Muscatine, Iowa, just south of us on the Mississippi River. Our region was very honored to welcome Mr. Xi back earlier this year, in February, 2012.
Being able to celebrate Mr. Xi's understanding of our region, with the enthusiasm of these young Chinese scholars - likely visiting our area for the first time - seems like a great opportunity to build collaborative projects in the future. I am hoping we can inspire and enable sustainable agricultural enterprises in both countries through the economic development work we have pioneered in Iowa County at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.
The full schedule for this summer's visit will be completed and posted in the near future, but here is the growing list of friends - and those I want to get to know - who will host our visitors to make this a success. They include:
Northwestern University and the Northwestern University Center for Talent Development, Jack Palmer
The Field Museum, Kristin Willcutt
The Chicago Metropolitan Water District, John Robinson
Blackhawk College, Mary Shuda
Augustana College, Dane Rowley and Norm Moline
University of Iowa and the U of Iowa Mississippi River Station at Muscatine, Douglas Schnoebelen
Muscatine High School, Douglas Schnoebelen and Carol Kula
City of Muscatine, Mayor DeWayne Hopkins and Sarah Lande
Corps of Engineers, Angela Freyermuth
River Action, Kathy Wine
Quad Cities Chinese Association, Mary Shuda
Western Illinois University and the W. Illinois University Institute for Environmental Studies, Roger Viadero
Iowa Department of Natural Resources and its water program, Dave Bierman and Tammie Krausman
US Geological Survey and the Mississippi River lab, Yao Yin
Mississippi River National Museum and Aquarium, Ginger Sakas and Missie Wersinger Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, Rick Terrien
University of Wisconsin-Platteville and the Confucius Institute at the UW-Platteville, Marian Maciej-Hiner
University of Wisconsin-Madison Research Park, Mark Bugher
Aqua Most Technology, Todd Asmuth
Devils Lake State Park and Sauk Prairie School District, Mike Mossman
Ho Chunk Nation, Fremina Funmaker and Mark Thiel
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Norm Monson
Crave Farm, Norm Monson and Karl Gutknecht
Ripon College, Jack Christ
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Jeff Smoller
Horicon Marsh International Education Center, Elizabeth Herzmann
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Air Management Program, Bart Sponseller
International Crane Foundation, Cullie Shelton
Edgewood College, Ed Taylor and Melissa Hamer
Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Deborah Mahaffey
Youth Shakespeare Theater, Wendy Vardaman
Tesomas Boy Scout Camp, Scott Domino
Trees for Tomorrow, Jack Palmer
Fishing for the Future, Jack Palmer
Lawrence University, Marty Finkler
Milwaukee School of Engineering, Caleb Black
What a fun summer this will be for these young Chinese scholars. What an honor for those of us who have the opportunity to visit with them.
Wisconsin has an amazing tradition of making safe, wholesome foods and beverages. I love this history and momentum.
Our Milwaukee regional economic development group is M7 - for the 7 great counties that comprise their region. M7 has a vibrant food and beverage (FaB) network. We gathered last Tuesday for the M7 FaB / Grant Thornton Executive Food Forum.
I am honored to be involved as an M7 FaB Advisory Council member.
It was fun to catch up with old friends and make many new friends.
The Milwaukee region is an amazing, globally relevant, food processing resource. Celebrate. Join us.
This blog is about humankind entering the Renaissance age of entrepreneurship and how we create sustainable enterprises to meet and maximize this opportunity. This future is arriving faster and brighter every day.
Here is a Ted Talk is by Peter Diamandis, founder of the X PRIZE that celebrates this fact. Mr. Diamandis offers a realistic and positive perspective that builds on the vision of Dr. Buckminster Fuller, among many others, about where we are and where we are going. We are creating ever increasing abundance for ever more people at ever more more accessible costs. We are welcoming ever increasing numbers of people to participate in this global advance. We are creating economies that can support all of us. We are creating sustainable work globally. We are slaying dragons along the way. Sounds like a plan to me.
You can't watch Mr. Diamandis' and not get a sense of just how widespread this amazing global entrepreneurship opportunity is right now. The day and age of the DIY (Do It Yourself) Innovator is here - right now.
Mr. Diamandis' wrote about his Ted Talk for CNN:
The future is brighter than you think.
By Peter Diamandis, Special to CNN:
"...four emerging forces give us the potential to significantly raise global standards of living over the next two to three decades,
• exponentially growing technology,
• the DIY (Do It Yourself) Innovator,
• the new breed technophilanthropist and
• the rising billion, the poorest of the poor who are finally plugging into the global economy."
"Abundance for all is actually within our grasp."
Amen. Thank you Peter Diamandis. Forward. Everyone.
My friend Nick George is President of the Midwest Food Processors Association. Nick is featured in an article entitled 'Food for the World' in the May issue of Corporate Report Wisconsin.
Some great quotes from this article:
"But mankind does not live by cheese alone. While the dairy industry accounted for state exports of $231 million in 2011 (up from $213 million the year before), it is only the fourth largest food category export for Wisconsin. Cereal grains lead the way doing $380 million in business and beverages came in second with $318 million — not counting ethanol. Miscellaneous foods such as soups, sauces and the like are third with a $249 million export value in 2011, dairy is fourth and fifth is baking-related items (mixes and dough), reporting a value of $226 million."
"Food shipments out of Wisconsin have increased by 71.7 percent since 1997, according to the Midwest Food Processors Association. In 2010, that meant the state saw $35 billion in receipts."
"'It’s amazing what comes out of this state,' says Nick George, president of the processors association. 'I think the food industry everywhere just doesn’t get the credit it deserves.'"
"Wisconsin, he adds, is second in the nation behind California for total value of processed vegetable crops."
"George says Wisconsin food producers have a strong work ethic working in their favor. Regardless of the constant changes in the industry, the world knows the resourcefulness and resilience of the American Midwesterner."
'The challenges are amazing, but the industry adapts and keeps moving forward,' says George."
Thanks Nick and Corporate Report Wisconsin and to DATCP Secretary Ben Brancel for a great look at Wisconsin agriculture and regional business opportunities.
What jumps out at me is that specialty foods, such as soups and sauces, are ahead of dairy in total exports from Wisconsin. Amazing. Food processing facilities like the wonderful Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen can grow this story in many good directions. As we say in Wisconsin... Forward!
Senator Dale Schultz visited Iowa County today and some of us gathered for lunch at the Buzz Inn Cafe in Barneveld to talk about opportunities in our region.
I made a great new connection during this lunch with the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW Extension Dr. Ray Cross.
It was flat-out energizing to talk about regional food systems with Chancellor Cross. He has previously managed many of the issues we're dealing with in Iowa County and Wisconsin right now. Chancellor Cross understands the job creating opportunities in regional food systems are big and yet to be tapped wisely.
Dr. Ray has practical, hands-on experience with something Wisconsin needs. What fun to share stories today.
"Sector67 is happy to offer 2012 summer makerships to area youth (opportunity available to anyone 18 or younger)! A makership is a 4 month opportunity to use Sector67 with a free membership and $100 for project materials as well as a mentor to help you complete your project. We’ll be taking applications through June 18th, but early submission is encouraged so we’re able to find sponsors and mentors for projects"
Thank you Sector67 for creating opportunities for young and old. Forward!
