Connect Business Magazine

Business Person of the Year 2011 – Runner Up

Imagine 63-year-old Warren P. Smith right now as a household appliance plugged into a home electrical outlet. His talkative mouth whirrs like a Sunbeam Blender set on “puree” and his leg and arm appendages gyrate with nervous energy not unlike a Maytag clothes washer on spin cycle.

Business Person of the Year 2011 – Runner-Up

Imagine creating an official account of Trimont, Minn. movers and shakers. Darwin Anthony’s name will be on the first page. There will be mention of his long career in banking and insurance, his agricultural pursuits, his hands-on leadership…

80-employee St. Peter solid waste and recycling services company offers profitable alternatives to landfill dumping.
In writing To A Mouse, eighteenth century Scots poet Robert Burns penned, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” Perhaps a modern version of expressing this oft-quoted line: A person’s best plans often become fouled up.
And such was Larry Biederman in 1974.

Around 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday in September, Mitch Lewis settled back in the chair behind his desk and said he had most of the day for a Connect Business Magazine interview, at least until 3:00 p.m. At that time, he had to be home because his children, Carson and Brooklyn, would be out of school, and wife, Maria, was traveling on business.

This could be Greater Mankato’s most breathtaking and peaceful panorama of the Minnesota River Valley. Soothing classical music from Bach and Beethoven to Berlioz on KGAC-FM glides around workstations and faintly filters through hallways. Twelve employees—and the only sounds they create are whispers and feather-light keystrokes.

Shhh.

What if employees looked forward more enthusiastically to the start of the workweek than to weekends? What if “TGI Monday” became a national slogan? What if all workers looked forward to working 80,000 hours during their lifetime? If so, Sara Christiansen, founder and vice president of New Ulm-based Ideation Consulting, might have to develop a new career.