Be very methodical in growing your company
1305_ 11/12/12 - At the ACG Denver November meeting, Chris Pelley introduced us to our speaker, John Sullivan, Ph.D., President and CEO of Mesa Laboratories. Todd Roebken ACG Denver president, joined the discussion, asking Dr. Sullivan what was the greatest challenge facing him in trying to grow his company. Interestingly John said it was twofold. They've experienced a lot of growth in recent years "... and just reorganizing the company to deal with all that growth has really been a challenge. With new positions and recruiting the right people, getting the right infrastructure in place - things like that, that's been quite a challenge. The other is just continuing to go through acquisitions. We've had a lot of success in that regard. In the last few years several acquisitions have been completed. And, just finding the right company that fits in well with our culture, our product lines and financials has been a challenge. But so far so good, and we just hope to continue on in the future." Todd wondered about the success of finding talented people here in Colorado. John's response, "Absolutely. Quite a bit. We've gotten several people here in the Denver area. They've come on board with Mesa and we've gotten some good people here locally, absolutely!" If you're not familiar with Mesa Labs, John said, they make products for quality control applications, both instrumentation and consumable. They have several different product lines that came to them through acquisition in the past few years and they're all doing quite well. Another favorite question we put to Dr. Sullivan was what advice would he give to businesses here in Colorado for the next year? With a chuckle John said, "Be patient! You know we are very methodical in growing the company. We're very conservative and that patience has really paid off. We don't want to make any mistakes in our growth plan."
RELATED LINKS: Mesa Labs || ACG Denver || M&A || Jones Lang LaSalle || Capital Investment Management || Monthly Speaker: John Sullivan, Mesa Laboratories || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference March 20-21, 2013 || KEYWORDS: John Sullivan, Mesa Laboratories, Acquisitions, Quality Control Applications, Instrumentation, Consumable, ACG, Denver, Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, > bytes=2706184
LISTEN TO: John J. Sullivan, Ph.D., President & CEO, Mesa Laboratories

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The lending side is one, but it's also the capital side
1261_ 8/13/12 - We are talking with Rick Fort, the founder and former Chairman of Educational Sales Management (ESM), a provider of student lifecycle solutions to help schools enroll, graduate and place more students. Rick sold the company a year ago to Xerox. Here too is Dorothy Donnelly, National Marketing Director for Hein & Associates, a public accounting firm based here in Denver, and Dorothy is also a board member of ACG Denver. Dorothy pointed out that Rick Fort enrolled, by founding ESM, graduated by selling ESM to Xerox and now he is succeeding by investing into the community - a true entrepreneur who now heads up The Fort Knocks Company. Larry asked, "What are some of the biggest challenges for mid-sized companies today?" Rick said, "For mid-sized companies down to small companies as well, it is in part, finding the right people to help grow innovation, not getting stuck in where-you-are, constantly developing new ideas and bringing new change." Dorothy said, "What I’m hearing from folks is that it is still very difficult to get lending even though it's loosening up a bit. That being the commercial banks are at the will of the lenders and their organizations and not so much able to support business on their own without that stamp of approval." Rick agreed with that and added, "The lending side is one, but it's also the capital side. Now venture capital and the equity groups are starting to loosen up their pockets more and more, making good investments in companies. But there's a leverage that they have too, so it's not necessarily all it's made out to be." They then discussed the possibilities, potential advantages and strengths coming up this next year...Listen for more...
Related Links: ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || The Fort Knocks Company || Hein & Associates || Keywords: Rick Fort, Dorothy Donnelly, ACG Denver, Association for Corporate Growth, Educational Sales Management, ESM, Fort Knocks Company, Hein & Associates, Mid-sized Companies, Venture Capital, Equity Groups, bytes=4271023
LISTEN TO: Rick Fort, The Fort Knocks Co. & Dorothy Donnelly, Hein & Associates - ACG

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Innovating and motivating around the world
1193_ 4/9/12 - The monthly luncheon speaker at the Denver Association of Corporate Growth was George Godfrey, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Crestcom International, a leading international franchiser of management training programs. He joined Crestcom as its Chief Operating Officer in 2008, accepting his current position in March, 2009, when he also became President, CEO and Director of its parent, Crestcom Holdings, LLC. He had previously served as Senior Vice President of Sales for Phoenix American, a provider of insurance vehicle service contracts in Miami, Florida. Before joining that firm, George spent eleven years with General Electric, as a Regional Sales Manager and Senior Vice President. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served five years as an officer in the U.S. Army, where his final assignment was as Detachment Commander. Crestcom poses these questions (and has the answers). How are businesses learning to innovate and motivate in India and Germany? How are executives leading change in Asia? How are managers throughout Africa and the Middle East planning for tomorrow? And how are most admired firms in North and South America making a bottom-line difference through better negotiation and strategy?
In addition to our luncheon presentation, ACG Denver also awarded the annual David Sloan Scholarships as well as the ACG Cup. The Scholarship Program is named after one of our former board members, David Sloan. As a result of MS, David had to leave his job and his work on the ACG Denver Scholarship Program. David was recently featured in the Denver Post and has written a very inspiring book about his journey. Each attendee at the April luncheon received a copy of his book, 'One Day at a Time'...listen for more...
Related Links: Crestcom Home || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || One Day at a Time Book || Denver Post Article || Keywords: George Godfrey, Crestcom, ACG, Denver, Leadership, Training, Association for Corporate Growth, David Sloan, One Day at a Time, ACG Cup - bytes=3258726
LISTEN TO: George Godfrey, President/CEO, Crestcom International

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The dot bomb that became a worldwide winner
1181_ 3/19/12 - The Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference in Denver was kicked off with a great breakfast and as always smothered in comfortable, natural, awesome networking. No one was at a loss for words. Then the program began with the open fireside chat with guest, Joe Assell, Co-founder, CEO, President of Golf TEC. Larry interviewed Joe - 17 years in business & 148 locations. If you want to play better golf, you have come to the right place. For more than 15 years, GolfTEC has been helping golfers of all skill levels play better and enjoy the game more. Larry asked Joe to share some of his many experiences. "When you start up with an idea that's never been done before and you have to innovate along the way, there are trial and error and we certainly had a roller coaster in our business. The hardest part was the late 90's when we were navigating through the dot com days and we were really a service business, a golf lesson business, but all the investors wanted us to be a dot com. We tried to be a dot com but it led us to be a dot bomb. We ran into some severe problems and it was almost the end of our business. Joe was dating his future wife at the time and Joe told us she believed in him so much and encouraged him to stay with it, stating that she made enough to support both of them. In the meantime like so many startups have stated, Joe cleaned the bathrooms, gave golf lessons, did the marketing and anything else that was needed. "But we persevered and found the right partners and then from there road a really significant up where we partnered with a private equity fund. We partnered with Golf Smith to collocate and open our GolfTEC in their centers and we started franchising. Those three things... in 2007-08 we opened a new GolfTEC every nine days, 77 improvement centers in a two year period, and really cemented GolfTEC as the market leader in the United States for golf instruction." It took Joe/GolfTEC three years to hit their first million dollars. "Then it took another six or seven to do a million in a month. Then last year we did a million in a day. It's been fun to watch it grow" said Joe. Now they are in Mexico, Canada and...listen for more...
Related Links: GolfTEC || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Event Photos - Corporate Growth Conference 2012 || Keywords: Joe Assell, GolfTEC, Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, Denver, Golfer, ACG, Denver, Leading Resilient Growth, Association for Corporate Growth - bytes=2856649
LISTEN TO: Joe Assell, CEO/CoFounder, GolfTEC

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Winner of the Emerging Corporate Growth Award
1164_ 2/20/12 - For the past number of years we've covered an important conference here in Denver and we are looking forward again to the ACG Denver Corporate Growth Conference coming next month, March 13-14th. Larry corralled John Griffith, the founder and president of Alpine Waste and Recycling, recipient of the ACG Emerging Corporate Growth Award. Of course, it's great to be a winner but more than that, John tells us that they see it as a real validation for the investment in innovation and more than that the buy in of their employees in those innovations and their ability to implement those things. "So, in short, it's a real thrill for all of us at Alpine." Alpine was founded in 1999, a one-man, one-truck operation started with the premise of offering a better level of service than their competition. Since those early years they have grown to 60 collection vehicles, 108 employees, operating the second largest recycling facility in the state, they operate the only privately held landfill in the state and they also run a compost facility. They've had a lot of growth and breadth of services to offer their customers. Asked about his corporate strategy, John tells us that Alpine has never been hesitant to invest heavily in innovation and that's been the key to their growth. Investing $4.5 million...watch and listen for more interesting ideas...
Related Links: Alpine Waste & Recycling || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || CoBiz Article Alpine || Video on YouTube || Keywords: John Griffith, Alpine Waste & Recycling, ACG, Denver, Leading Resilient Growth Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, Association for Corporate Growth, Emerging Corporate Growth Award -
Video, Watch: John Griffith, Ceo/Founder, Alpine Waste & Recycling

Here’s what the US economy will look like in 2012
1144_ 1/16/12 - We're here at the ACG Denver opening luncheon for 2012 speaking with the returning keynote speaker Alan Beaulieu of ITR that's the Institute for Trend Research. When we interviewed Alan last year he told us that we would go through a mild recovery in 2011; slow job growth; housing market going nowhere in a hurry. We'll muddle along, but look a lot better than many other nations - so the dollar should be fine. Being right on is one thing, but Alan appreciated Larry's recall because, "as a forecaster, it's really nice when someone remembers - you don't get that a lot." Naturally Larry asked for some predictions and Alan is happy to do that, but he'll stay away from politics - see he really is a smart man. For the economy Alan tells us he thinks 2012 is actually going to be a little better than 2011. Businesses should continue to prosper, hiring will continue. It's not going to be great guns but it's still going to be moving forward. People who had really good revenues in 2011, good profits are going to have a little more so in 2012. More people will have their jobs, the housing market will begin to solidify even more so. Towards the end of the year a little rise will go on in housing starts. We've gone through the darkest part and now we're in a recovery that's going to last into 2013. Larry asked his signature challenge and opportunities question. Alan said, "Very interesting question. Challenges will come from overseas. Businesses that are tied to Europe, tied to China, I think, will be facing some pressures ...Inflationary problems from China and a lack of sales going into Europe. So others that are U.S. centric are really going to ignore a lot of that and firms that have their own cash flow and not dependent on outside financing from commercial banking are also going to find it's a better year. Because problems in Europe can bleed over into the U.S. commercial banking market and that would be a problem for heavily dependent firms, firms that need that equity outside of themselves. Opportunities will come...
Related Links: Institute for Trend Research || ITR Blog || ACG Denver || M&A Channel || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Event Photos || Keywords: Alan Beaulieu, Institute for Trend Research, ACG Denver, Association for Corporate Growth, Trends, Economic Recovery, M&A, Entrepreneurs, Europe, China, Canada, Latin America, > Bytes: 4765051
LISTEN to Alan Beaulieu, Institute for Trend Research

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Social Entrepreneurism focused on women
Connie Duckworth appearing December 4th, Annual Social Enterprice Event - Hosted by CIMCO and ACG Denver! Details Here
1295_ 10/15/12 - Social entrepreneur Connie Duckworth founded ARZU, (which means “hope” in Dari), in 2004, to empower destitute women weavers in rural Afghanistan. Connie serves pro bono as Chairman and CEO. Starting with 30 weavers, ARZU has transformed into a learning laboratory for holistic grassroots economic development —today employing some 700 women, providing access to education and basic healthcare, seeding multiple micro-business start-ups, building community centers, pre-schools and parks, and creating award-winning fair-labor rugs—all in a country ranked as “the world’s worst place to be a woman.” Ms. Duckworth retired in 2001 as a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, the first woman to be named a sales and trading partner in the firm’s history. She tells us she really wanted to rebalance how she spent her time. So she envisioned 1/3 business activities, 1/3 philanthropic activities and 1/3 family oriented activities. ARZU became the focus of her philanthropy. ARZU is an example of a 'for benefit corporation'. It uses private sector practices to create jobs in very remote rural villages in Afghanistan, and produces export quality products. Because of her business lens, Connie sees a social business as the way to empower people through employment. It seemed like a natural fit as Connie's passion has always been women's rights. To Connie, the shortest path is through economic advancement. The women in Afghanistan are truly among the most disadvantaged women in the world. Connie Duckworth is the Keynote Speaker at the CIMCO Annual Social Enterprise event at ACG Denver! Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: ARZU Studio Hope || CIMCO || Community Reach || Social Entrepreneurship || M&A Channel || ACG Denver || ACG Denver / CIMCO Annual Social Enterprise Event || Photos CU Boulder || ACG Denver/CIMCO Social Enterprise Event 2012 || KEYWORDS: Connie Duckworth, ARZU, Studio Hope, Social Entrepreneurship, Afghanistan, Women, Philanthropy, CIMCO, Community Reach, ACG Denver, bytes=5276215
LISTEN TO: Connie Duckworth, Founder/CEO, AZRU

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Networking Rules of Engagement, the do's and don'ts
1263_ 8/20/12 - Howard Potter, recovering attorney and CPA is here to talk about his favorite subject, networking. We're discussing his Networking Rules of Engagement, and then we'll talk about the 7th Annual Investment & Finance Cross-Networking Event on September 27th, 2012, hosted by Mr. Potter and sponsored by ACG Denver, w3w3.com and many others. Last year over 400 people attended this event and it has been sold out each of the last four years. The format is appreciated by all - there are no speakers, just a lot of time to network and make or renew your contacts. We asked him to talk about his networking best practices. Networking should be about 'How can I help you?' You walk into a meeting, the first thing you want to think is, 'What can I do to help these people in the room?' First, try to arrive a minimum of 15 minutes early. Those first minutes are the most important. You can get the ground work going, canvass the room, get a feeling for what's going on. I would also suggest, try to leave 15 minutes late, at the end of the networking time is some of the most valuable time that you spend. After the networking session is over you have to take the cards you've collected, make notes on the cards to remind yourself later of who you met. Talking about business cards - Never, Never, Never be without your business card. Howard goes so far to say if you are fishing or hunting - have a business card with you. The business card should be a card on which you can write and take notes so the people who meet you and you meet - you can make notes about who these people are and what their background is. Listen for more and be ready to take notes...
Related Links: Investment & Finance Cross-Networking Event || ACG Denver || M&A || w3w3.com Blog || Howard Potter || Keywords: Howard Potter, Investment & Finance Cross-Networking, ACG Denver, Networking Rules of Engagement, Business Cards, Brand Yourself, bytes=5760630
LISTEN TO: Howard Potter, Cross Networking 2012

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The focus is on networking, content and thought leadership
1175_ 3/9/12 - We're checking in at the ACG Denver's Sponsor Appreciation Dinner, a very special and lovely event as always. We managed to get ACG President, Todd Roebken, Managing Director of Jones Lang LaSalle and Norm Thiele, Managing Director/Founder, Emerging Global, to talk to us about the upcoming Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, being held next week, March 13th and 14th here at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center. This conference is the largest of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region. The conference focus is on networking, content and thought leadership for the mid market business community across all industries. Norm said they spoke with Carly Fiorina the keynote speaker, "Who is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and former senatorial candidate from California. Norm said he picked up a couple of things from the conversation, one she is a super nice lady but more importantly she's a very astute business woman, obviously." Her unparalleled record of hard work and success includes more than two decades at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she led the largest-of-its-time IPO of Lucent and became President of its largest business. In 1998, she was first named as Fortune magazine's most powerful female American executive and continued to top this list throughout her tenure at HP. Carly has led profound change and transition within her companies, and she will share her insights on how she was able to lead organizations that could capitalize on opportunities and always stay adaptable. Listen for the details...
Related Links: Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Jones Lang LaSalle || EMERGENT Global || ACG Denver || M&A || Keywords: ACG Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference, Carly Fiorina, Todd Roebken, Norm Thiele, Hewlett Packard, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, IPO
LISTEN to Todd Roebken & Norm Thiele, ACG Denver

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CEO Environment, Leadership in a Turbulent Economy
1189_ 4/2/12 - The Corporate Growth Conference in has been very exciting. Here we are talking with Bob Prince who just got off stage from the "CEO Roundtable - Leadership in a Turbulent Economy". We asked Bob for an overview of what his company does. Last February Bob came to Hyperion as it's new CEO and spent the last year changing the company, changing the direction, new leadership throughout the company. And, so today we changed the name to Gen4 Energy. What the company does, we're bring commercial, out of the Los Alamos Laboratory, a new type, more safe, nuclear power plant than has existed. It's really little, about the size of a Mini Cooper. It's a sealed unit and lasts for ten years for 24/7 power. We take it out sealed, we hook it up and you operate it for ten years. Ten years later, we'll come and get it and give you a new one. Larry said, "One of the things you referred to in your experiences along the line were the values established by your people." Bob said, "I think good companies just make money. Great companies make money and do a lot more. I think everybody wants to work for a great company. How do you do that, I think setting up a set of values and then adhering to them and driving them down into your procedures, your methods of operation, your performance appraisals and living those values makes the difference. We developed them over time and there came to be six values. The first was safety (handling radioactive material - they needed to),. The second one was people. You've got to believe in people and the key is what does that mean, how do you implement that and how do you drive that into your business? And how do you show that you value people, because they'll see right through it - if it's just a plaque to put on the wall, they will see that. 3.) Integrity is the next. Bob thinks that is the number one characteristic of a company or a leader.... Next is quality. You do it right because it's right and you want to be the best quality. If you're handling nuclear waste..."listen for more...
Related Links: Gen4 Energy || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Event Photos - Corporate Growth Conference 2012 || Keywords: Bob Prince, Gen4 Energy, Hyperion Power Module, ACG, Denver, Leading Resilient Growth, Association for Corporate Growth, Los Alamos Laboratory, - bytes=6225400
LISTEN TO: Bob Prince, President/CEO, Gen4 Energy

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Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference - 3/12-14/2012
1160/RR_ 2/6/12 - ACG Denver 2012 Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference is right around the corner - March 13 and 14th. Keynote Speaker - Carly Fiorina.
Her unparalleled record of hard work and success includes more than two decades at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she led the largest-of-its-time IPO of Lucent and became President of its largest business. In 1998, she was first named as Fortune magazine's most powerful female American executive and continued to top this list throughout her tenure at HP. Carly has led profound change and transition within her companies, and she will share her insights on how she was able to lead organizations that could capitalize on opportunities and always stay adaptable.

Winner of the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award
1165_ 2/20/12 - Today we're talking about Leading Resilient Growth. We are here with a winner whose being honored at the upcoming Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference. Schomp Automotive is receiving the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award at the conference, that is over $100M in annual sales. We here with Aaron Wallace, Owner of Schomp Automotive. We asked Aaron to tell us about their business. Aaron replied, "We are a family business, in the automotive industry - sales, service and parts. In May it will be our 71st year in business and we are fourth generation Colorado business, my great-grandfather, grandfather, mother and me and my siblings. Schomp is a Honda, BMW and Mini dealership. They also have nine lines of motorcycles - and that's who we are. When asked about corporate growth strategies for the next year, Aaron told us that they are focusing on the changes their customers have experienced in their lives. The customers behavior is different, they don't have as much time, they're busy and in between things. And people have more information, they're shopping online, when they come to the dealership we have to adjust to the changes the customer has made. Change is difficult." Larry asked, "With the turbulent economy we've experienced the past number of years, how do you prosper in times of uncertainty?" He said, "During the good times or bad times you have to know what you're doing is right. In the good times you can't do a bad job or make stupid decisions just because they're good times. You have to run during the good times knowing that..." Watch and listen for more...
Related Links: Schomp Automotive || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || CoBiz Article Schomp || Keywords: Aaron Wallace, Schomp Automotive, ACG, Denver, Leading Resilient Growth, Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, Association for Corporate Growth, Outstanding Corporate Growth Award,
Video Watch: Aaron Wallace, Owner, Schomp Automotive

The greatest challenge, close those deals, and it looks good
1162_ 2/13/12 - We are here at ACG Denver that's the Association for Corporate Growth and this month we're talking with Mike Gordon of Gordon Composites / Polystrand. Think economic recovery and you will understand that this audience is happy and excited to hear Mike today. Continuing in his father's entrepreneurial path, Mike, a second generation owner, is opening a new plant right here in Denver and his son will be running that plant. But wait until you hear, they are expanding a brand new thermo plastic composite business to a plant they're building in Centennial. One hundred and twenty-five thousand square feet with all new technology is coming to Denver. It is what they call a 'zero waste' plant. There is no waste - any production waste can be recycled and put into other products. Mike's son will be the vice president of operations at the new plant in Denver; he went to CU and also CSU - two degrees - so he's ready for his next assignment here. Currently he is running this part of the business in Montrose and will be expanding to his own plant here. Larry asked Mike what he thought the greatest challenges were for this year. Keeping his eye on the ball, Mike said, "The big challenge for us in this business is getting that plant going. It's a large expansion for our business, it's actually doubling the size of our business (square footage). We have a great demand for our new product. I think the greatest challenge is to close those deals and make sure that demand is there so we can meet our commitments that were made to build this plant. It looks very promising. We're opening that plant and it should be operating by August 1, 2012.
Related Links: Polystrand.com || Reinforced Plastics || ACG Denver || M&A Channel || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Keywords: Mike Gordon, Polystrand, Gordon Composites, Thermo Plastic Composite, Zero Waste Plant, ACG Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference - bytes=2812345
LISTEN TO: Mike Gordon, Gordon Composites/Polystrand

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