Concentric Circle Around The Globe By Rod Kackley

Concentric Circle

Around The Globe

By Rod Kackley

“The Medical Mile (in Grand Rapids, Michigan) needs to be a concentric circle around the globe,” said one of the people I talked to in the research phase of writing Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community.

Jerry Callahan, Van Andel Institute’s director of business development, was making the point in his rapid-fire style that the institution’s on the Mile could not limit their vision to their campus, the city of Grand Rapids or the state of Michigan.

It is a global community in which we live. And it is much of the rest of the world where manufacturers find their greatest growth markets.

Keep that in mind when you learn that Whirlpool Corporation has entered into agreements to become a majority shareholder (51 percent) in Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. [600983: Shanghai], a leading home appliances manufacturer based in Hefei, China.

Through this transaction, a Whirlpool Corporation subsidiary will acquire all shares currently owned by Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and Sanyo Electric Co. (China) Ltd., and purchase new Hefei Sanyo shares via a private placement.

The transaction is subject to customary conditions, certain termination rights, Chinese regulatory approval, and Hefei Sanyo shareholders' approval.  After the transaction is approved, Whirlpool will acquire a majority stake in Hefei Sanyo for approximately RMB 3.4 billion/USD 552 million cash, based on the exchange rate as of August 9, 2013. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2014.  Whirlpool expects that this transaction will be accretive in the first full year of integration.

"Whirlpool has a strong presence in China's higher tier segments, this acquisition allows the company to build on, complement, and grow its position in the emerging Chinese market and to leverage our global enterprise for greater efficiencies," said Jeff Fettig, the chief executive officer and chairman of Whirlpool Corporation.  

At the same time, we are seeing a phenomenon that has come to be known as “reshoring.” 

That will be the subject of our next post on this blog.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids created a cluster of prosperity, Medical Mile, while the rest of Michigan was collapsing around them.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes, as well as on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center in downtown Grand Rapids.

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is a five-part ebook essay series that examines the collapse and rise of Michigan manufacturing. It begins with The Great Collapse and is available wherever ebooks are sold online, including Amazon and iTunes.

Quenching The Thirst, Chapter Three: The Entrepreneurs

Quenching The Thirst

Chapter Three: The Entrepreneurs

(An excerpt)

By Rod Kackley

Entrepreneurs are the dreamers who create a solution, or come up with a way to satisfy a demand, or dare I write it, a thirst.

It is only right that Michigan is growing so many new breweries, so many new craft beers and so many new entrepreneurs in this space. We like our beer. That is our history.
Detroit has Frederick Ams to thank for bringing lager to what would become the Motor City.

The German brewer moved to Detroit in 1848. He was followed by another German, Bernhard Stroh, who also established himself in Detroit. Anyone with any history in Michigan knows how important that name, Stroh, was to Michigan and especially to Detroit. The name “Stroh” was right up their with Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, and General Motors. Two more of their countrymen would follow and Detroit soon had four breweries.

For a couple of centuries beer had a better reputation than water in America. It was certainly safer to drink. Same thing was true for whiskey. Yet, beer did develop a bad name for years in Detroit, in Michigan and across the nation.  Same thing happened to whiskey and that was followed by Prohibition. However, once that legislative mistake was erased from the U.S. Constitution, the beer industry was soon flourishing again in Detroit.

Michigan’s 40 breweries were pumping out 3.25 million barrels of beer every year by 1940, with 15 of them operating  in Detroit.

Those good times did not last.

By 1962, only two breweries were left in Detroit thanks to a wave of consolidation, acquisition and failure. Soon that number would be down to one. Stroh’s—created by the family of Bernhard Stroh, was the last to fall.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community shows how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan created a cluster of prosperity while the rest of Michigan was crumbling around them.
Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold. 

For an autographed edition, click here





John Pannell, an Englishman, built the first brewery in Grand Rapids in 1836. Christopher Kusterer followed him in 1847 and he was followed by the Gottlieb brothers.

Grand Rapid Brewing Company—remember that name it will pop up again—was incorporated in 1892. Prohibition forced a name change and a new business direction for Grand Rapids Brewing Company in 1918. The new name: Grand Rapids Products Company. The new product: a soft drink called Silver Foam.

Furniture City Brewing, even though the name was anything but appetizing, was another of the early players that had to shift direction because of Prohibition selling a non-alcoholic beer known as Nu-Bru.  Petersen Brewing changed its name to Petersen Beverage, pushing a drink called Vita.

Just like in Detroit, when Prohibition ended in 1933, beer started flowing again in Grand Rapids and the brewers went back to work making what they loved. Furniture Brewing and Grand Rapids Brewing merged under the latter name, only to become part of Michigan Brewing Co. in 1936. 

Four years later, Michigan Brewing would be producing 500,000 to 600,000 barrels of beer a year.

~RTR~

Sixty years later, a new generation of craft-brewing entrepreneurs would bring new life to the tradition of making beer in Michigan. For a preview of that story, please click here.

Quenching The Thirst is the ebook essay in the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series that tells the stories of the new wave of entrepreneurs driving the creation of the craft brewing industry in Michigan.
You can download your copy of Quenching The Thirst for just 99-cents by clicking here.

Other excerpts are available on this blog, feel free to scroll through them, or at www.rodkackley.com.

See The USA In Your Chevrolet, GM Division Posts Sales Record

GM Tech Center, Warren, Michigan

DETROIT – Chevrolet sold a record 2.5 million vehicles around the world in the first six months of 2013, up 1.4 percent over the same period in 2012, and achieved its 11^th straight quarter of increased sales on the strength of new products like the Onix subcompact car in Brazil, Impala full-size sedan in the U.S. and Colorado midsize pickup in Southeast Asia.

Overall, General Motors Co. posted sales of more than 4.85 million vehicles in the first half of 2013, an increase of nearly 4 percent over the same period in 2012.

The top five Chevrolet sales markets in the first six months of 2013 were:

Market	First Half of 2013	% Change
United States	1.02 million	5.6
China	322,000	6.1
Brazil	305,000	5.1
Mexico	91,000	15.7
Russia	80,200	(16.1)

GM first half 2013 sales in North America were up nearly 8 percent and nearly 7 percent throughout its International Operations. GM achieved a sales record in China with a 10.6 percent increase to 1,567,392 units.

“Chevrolet is in the midst of the most aggressive new product roll-out in the brand’s history,” said Alan Batey, senior vice president of Global Chevrolet. “The continued sales growth around the world is a result of a focused effort to strengthen Chevrolet’s presence in developing markets as well as its relationship with consumers by offering the right products, technologies, and world-class customer service.”

In the U.S., Chevrolet’s small car lineup continues to attract new customers to the brand. Sales of theSonic, Spark, Cruze and Volt combined were up nearly 25 percent in the first half of 2013.  Full-size truck sales also increased 23 percent over the same period and dealers are delivering the all-newSilverado to eager consumers at a rapid pace, averaging only 10 days on dealer lots.

Chevrolet sales in China rose 6.1 percent to nearly 322,000 units, fueled by strong sales of the Sail, Cruze, Malibu and Captiva.

GM Renaissance Center, Detroit

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance is a five-part ebook essay series detailing the fall and rise of Michigan manufacturers, telling the stories of some of the new entrepreneurs who are driving growth in the twenty-first century.

For a preview of the first essay, The Great Collapse please click here.

July 18, 2013: Detroit, Michigan files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, trying to get out from under $20 billion in debt and 100,000 creditors. The Big Three: GM, Chrysler and Ford all issue statements of support.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan led by two of the richest families in the world, battled to keep their city from becoming the next Detroit.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press, as well as on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center

Personally autographed editions are available at www.rodkackley.com.

West Michigan Becomes "Beer Region USA"

Mayor George Heartwell

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell and his counterpart in Kalamazoo, Bobby Hopewell, have decided to brand West Michigan as “Beer Region USA.” They will celebrate that at the Founders Brewing Co. plant.

Grand Rapids took first-place in the Beer City USA contest this year. Kalamazoo finished in second-place. 

Heartwell and Hopewell are going to tour the Founders Brewing Co. plant on the southwest side of downtown Grand Rapids, July 23. The tour will include both brew houses, the original 30-barrel brewing system and the 2011 expansion of the facility that includes a KHS kegging line and a Krones Bottling line.

Craft brewing is the newest manufacturing industry to take hold in Michigan. New brewers are launching businesses across the state, including Grand Rapids, Kalmaazoo and Detroit.

The stories of these entrepreneurs are told in Quenching the Thirst, part of the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance ebook essay series.

For immediate downland,  please click here.

Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett Retires

James P. Hackett, the CEO of Steelcase Inc. is retiring. During the company’s annual shareholder meeting, July 17, Hackett said he will remain in his current position until February 28, 2014, the end of the company’s fiscal year, and then take a new position as vice chair for an additional year. He will also continue as a member of the board of directors.


“Jim Hackett helped change the conversation at Steelcase from merely selling office environments to providing insights about how spaces can impact performance,” said Rob Pew, Board Chair, Steelcase Inc. “He adopted design, and design thinking, as core beliefs and spread them throughout the company. In his 19 years as the CEO, Jim has led the company through some difficult times as well as periods of growth. We appreciate his calm hand on the tiller.”

Pew added, “With Jim continuing in his role for more than seven months, we are not naming a new CEO at this time but we have a succession process in place.”

Steelcase Gesture Chair

Hackett became CEO in December of 1994 after holding a variety of sales and leadership positions in the company. He helped to transform the company’s business model, expanded its global perspective and presence and championed life-long learning. He introduced the company’s current critical thinking model and personally taught the key principles of that model to hundreds of Steelcase leaders.

“I couldn’t be happier about what Steelcase has become and where we’re headed,” said Hackett. “But it’s time to provide opportunity to others, and time for me to pursue some other interests. While continuing to run the company with as much energy and excitement as I did when I took the role in 1994, I’ll also ready myself for the next chapter in my life.”

Hackett led Steelcase through some very tough years. When the economy collapse, the office furniture industry went down with it. He also took Steelcase into a new era of innovation as the company looked for new markets in healthcare and education.

The Steelcase story is an important part of the fabric of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as are all of the furniture companies and their founders. They are part of the Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, available wherever books are sold online, including Abbott Press.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available at West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall. 

Autographed editions are also available by clicking the Add to Cart button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com.

The Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance ebook essay series tells the story of the entrepreneurs leading Michigan into the twenty-first century in such diverse manufacturing endeavors as automotive, furniture, beer and food processing. 

Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance begins with The Great Collapse. For a free preview, please click here.

Stand Or Sit, You Don't Get To Decide

Given the importance of the office furniture industry in West Michigan, this seems important. Even if you don't care about Steelcase, Herman Miller or Haworth, haven't you been sitting long enough today?
                                             

New Survey: To Sit or Stand? Almost 70% of Full Time American Workers Hate Sitting, but They do it all Day Every Day

Simple Changes Can Make a Big Difference in Health and Productivity

ST. PAUL, Minn., July 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans have to sit all day at work and they despise it.  A new survey commissioned by Ergotron, a global manufacturer of digital display mounting, furniture, and mobility products including sit-stand desks, found that nearly 70 percent of full time American workers hate sitting, yet 86 percent do it all day, every day. When they do get up, more than half (56 percent) use getting food as an excuse.

On top of all of that sitting at work, and for meals and commuting, the respondents:

• Sit another 1-2 hours while watching TV (36 percent)
• Game another 1-2 hours (10 percent)
• Lounge for 1-2 hours for things such as reading (25 percent)
• Use their home computer for 1-2 hours (29 percent)

In total, Americans are sitting an average of 13 hours a day and sleeping an average of 8 hours resulting in a sedentary lifestyle of around 21 hours a day. While Americans know about the importance of exercise, only 31 percent go to the gym, and 56 percent devote less than $10 per month to staying active. However, 96 percent would be willing to stand more to improve their health or life expectancy, and 30 percent even responded that they would rather go without coffee for a week to stand.

The survey also found that the vast majority (93 percent) didn't know what "Sitting Disease" is, but 74 percent believe that sitting too much could lead to an early death. The term "Sitting Disease" has been coined by the scientific community and is commonly used when referring to metabolic syndrome and the ill-effects of an overly sedentary lifestyle. Just last month, the American Medical Association adopted a policy recognizing potential risks of prolonged sitting and encouraging employers, employees and others to make available alternatives to sitting.

"Research is showing links between sedentary lifestyles and diabetes, several types of cancer, obesity and cardiovascular disease," said Jane Payfer, an Ergotron spokesperson. "There is a significant opportunity for people to change their behavior in the workplace and for corporations to change their cultures. Standing increases energy, burns extra calories, tones muscles, improves posture, increases blood flow, reduces blood sugar levels and ramps up metabolism. Frequently overlooked, standing more is the simplest, easiest change someone can make."   

This is Ergotron's second survey in three years on the effects of sitting for office workers.  The 2010 survey can be found here.   

Resources:

• An Infographic illustrating the survey findings can be viewed at JustStand.org.
• 8 ways to stand more every day.
• Ergotron's  JustStand™ Index – Revisited annually, the Index will show the growth of awareness around the problems of sitting  and will quantify the following questions:

1. Do you know what sitting disease is?
2. Are you aware of sit/stand computing products?
3. Have you requested sit/stand products at work?

For more detail and analysis of the survey findings, the JustStand® Report by Ergotron is available athttp://www.juststand.org/portals/3/literature/SurveyIndexReport.pdf. The Survey and Index results are being presented at the 3^rd Annual JustStand Wellness Summit today, via live stream atJuststand.org/summit.

Did you know Steelcase was born out of the need to stop office fires? Too many men were flicking too many hot cigar ashes in the wooden waste baskets at their desks. Metal Office Furniture came to the rescue, and later would become Steelcase.

That is one of the stories told in Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, the story of how the people of Grand Rapids are changing the way the world sees their community.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press, and also on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee on Monroe Center.

Autographed copies are available by clicking the Add To Cart button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com

Grand Rapids: Beer City USA, Brewers Build On Relationships

Grand  Rapids Brewers 

Use Relationships

To Become Beer City USA

By Rod Kackley

Social media helped, too

Brewers in Grand Rapids, Michigan didn’t like the feeling of a tie, so they used a well-orchestrated local social media campaign, along with an old-fashioned retail political blitzkrieg of local celebrities and politicians to claim the top prize in Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian’s annual contest.
So, Grand Rapids is Beer City USA, one year after sharing the crown with Asheville, North Carolina launched a campaign to take over first place and leave no doubt in anyone’s mind which city in the USA is really Beer City.
How did this happen? Grand Rapids is not one of the largest cities in the USA. Just because of population, it would seem that Grand Rapids should have wound up in the middle of the pack.
Lets begin with the question, what does it mean to be Beer City USA?
The president of the Brewers Association, Charlie Papazian, created the contest about five years ago through his column on the Examiner.com website.
“The craft beer community gets inundated with so many statistical facts about volume and size and how many of this and per capita of that,” he said, “and they are useful tools, but I wanted to address a little bit more fundamentally what is really going in the relationships that brewers have with beer drinkers and beer drinkers have with breweries. That was at the core of things.”
Then he asked, just what is it that makes any city, a Beer City?

The 2013 Grand Rapids campaign began when Wob Wanhatalo, the head brewer at Mitten Brewing Company in Grand Rapids and one of the founders of the Grand Rapids Society of Brewers formed an alliance with Janet Korn, the vice president of marketing at the Experience Grand Rapids Convention & Visitors Bureau, the organization that has been leading the effort to market Grand Rapids as a beer-tourism destination.
The first phase was traditional. Experience Grand Rapids created T-shirts and billboards to celebrate the 2012 Beer City USA first-place tie.
Social media was to play an important part of the 2013 Beer City USA campaign in Grand Rapids just has it has for the city’s craft brewers because it is relatively inexpensive, simple to put together and is very flexible.
“Starting up a Facebook page is kind of a useful tool for them to use as a communication vehicle,” Korn said. “It is inexpensive of course and it gives them a place where they can bring this group of people together. The platform really works for building that audience.”
The marketing strategy included content specific to the beer industry to “tell the Grand Rapids beer story from an informational perspective and included pieces of content that people could take and share,” Korn said. “I think it was the sharing among the fan base that was part of the 27,000 votes for Grand Rapids.’"
For social media platforms, they chose the Experience Grand Rapids blog, Facebook and Twitter.
However, the campaign would not rely on social media. Some very traditional point-of-purchase elements were thrown into the mix.
Experience Grand Rapids made table coasters that read, “Vote Grand Rapids Beer City USA” that were handed out at all of breweries and beer bars in Grand Rapids.
Timing was important, too.
“We didn’t want to just cram it in people’s faces so we waited until about a week or a week-and-half before the voting started and then started handing out the coasters,” said Wanhatalo.
Then feet hit the street.
A grassroots, political style campaign was the final piece of the Beer City USA effort. MiBeers.com organized three “Tap The Vote” pub crawls featuring local celebrities, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell and other supporters who targeted the beer bars in the Grand Rapids area.
“We knew we had the breweries supporting us, so we went to all of the beer bars in town that served Grand Rapids or Michigan beer,” Wanhatalo said.
Social media still played a role. They used the hashtag#Beer City GR on Twitter during the pub crawls.
“We made sure people knew the voting was happening, and reminded them to vote, too.”
Of course, they didn’t forget the importance of beer. Wanhatalo said they decided to create some special for their customers.
The Grand Rapids brewers collaborated on four “project” beers which were brewed on a single idea or theme. The first was Beer City Pale Ale.
“The guys all pointed at me and said, ‘You come up with the recipe and we will brew it,’” said Wanhatalo.
After that they did the Grand Pumpkin beer. Brewers could do whatever they wanted for that one as long as the recipe included pumpkin.
“The way we look at it as brewers and owners is a shared celebration. We are all in this together,” Wanhatalo said. “The more cooperation, the better.”

Quenching The Thirst tells the story of how the communities of Grand Rapids and Detroit have rediscovered one of their oldest industries. For a preview, please click here.

Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids have changed the way the world sees their community and the way they see the world. For a preview, please click here.

Last Chance Mile autographed editions are available at Barnes & Noble Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music 28th Street and West Coast Coffee Monroe Center, Grand Rapids or by clicking the Add to Cart button on the Welcome Page of www.rodkackley.com.

Tell Your Grandkids You Were There When....

You can tell your grandchildren you were there when the world started to change. You were there when the world started throwing off the shackles of petroleum-based fuel, when the world started moving to fuel-efficient vehicles, FEVs, because it just made sense.

Ford Motor Company told us June 27, 2013 that fuel-efficient products were driving their sales growth.


"Strong demand on the coasts lifts Ford's U.S. market share nearly a full percentage point to 16.2 percent through May, outpacing all competitors," according to  Ford press release.

Ford's overall growth spanned the full vehicle lineup; through May, U.S. overall car sales are up 12 percent, utility vehicle sales are up 18 percent, and truck sales are up 11 percent.

The story of a city that fell in love with beer. 
Quenching The Thirst, one of the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series of ebook articles and essays now available by clicking here.

"Our gains for the Ford brand in the U.S. are driven by our new products," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of The Americas. "We are absolutely committed to continuing the aggressive introduction of new products throughout our showroom."

Since the introduction of the new Fiesta three years ago, the Ford brand has achieved the fastest retail share growth of any automotive brand on the west and east coasts combined – up almost 2.5 percentage points compared with 2008 – based on Polk retail registration data. This year, the growth is largely based on share gains for the Ford Escape small utility vehicle and Ford Fusion midsize sedan.

"Ford vehicle technologies are helping to attract new customers and drive growth," said Raj Nair, group vice president, Global Product Development. "SYNC and MyFord Touch are also helping to deliver higher customer satisfaction." 

But what about getting rid of our cars and trucks? Or at the very least, what about parking them much more than we do now. What if Ford, General Motors and Chrysler faded into the history e-books and holograms that were our fantasies in Star Wars but will be your grandchildren's reality in their classrooms, if they even have classrooms. 

Grand Rapids, Michigan is one of America's municipalities that want to be ready for bicycle commuters. There are hundreds now. Could be thousands before you know it.
Here's a link to a story I wrote about that for Crain's Detroit Business.

Grand Rapids is not the city it was when I bought my home here in 2000 and it is a long way from the city it was in 1990 when I moved into this West Michigan community. What happened? That's the story told in Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, available wherever books are sold including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Abbott Press.

Autographed editions are available at Schuler Books & Music and West Coast Coffee in Grand Rapids, or by going to www.rodkackley.com

The Charter Group Calls Furniture Industry A "Sellers' Market"

The Charter Group anticipates increasing M&A activity in the furniture sector in 2013 and 2014 based on pent up demand following the global economic downturn.

As an example, The Charter Group was enlisted to review a $12.5 million buyout proposal of a regional distribution company who had been approached by a national competitor.


Their valuation showed the company was worth significantly more, so The Charter Group pursued additional buyers, prompting five additional letters of intent and a final transaction value in excess of $18 million, 50 percent higher than the original offer.

The Charter Group has announced the formation of a dedicated Furniture Practice led by Andrew Williams. The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based merger and acquisition advisory firm said the move reflects growing activity and demand for buy, sell and capital raise transactions in the office furniture, residential furniture and home furnishings markets.

Charter made the announcement in Chicago at Neocon, North America's largest furniture and commercial interiors exposition featuring more than 700 showrooms and exhibitors.

Grand Rapids may be known around the world as "Furniture City," but it is also recognized as "Beer City USA." The story of this community's love affair with craft brewing is told in Quenching The Thirst, available for immediate download by clicking here.






The Charter Group has been serving clients from the office and contract furniture industry since 1989 and has closed furniture transactions spanning OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), component suppliers, and dealers ranging from small businesses to national manufacturers and leading brands. The Charter Gropu has also rolled out a comprehensive succession planning advisory package specifically designed to meet the needs of the office furniture dealer community.

"We've gained a solid benchmark on the value drivers of businesses in the furniture sector, and we have the expertise and relationships to maximize the fit and financial outcomes for our clients," said Andrew Williams, CM&AA and vice president, business and transaction management for The Charter Group. "The combination of our track record and the continuing uptick in the industry warrants this expansion into a full practice area, and we hope to continue to offer additional niche service lines in the future."


The Charter Group also served as exclusive merger and acquisition advisor to library and educational contract furniture manufacturer, The Worden Company of Holland, Mich., initiating, negotiating and closing the successful sale of the company.

"As the leading M&A advisory firm in the global headquarters of office furniture, Grand Rapids, Michigan, we have a unique breadth of experience," said John Kerschen, managing director of The Charter Group. "We look forward to the potential for our Furniture Practice and for other specialty areas as the M&A market improves and we continue to grow our reputation nationally."  


The Charter Group is a merger and acquisition advisory firm focused on buy, sell and capital raise transactions in the $10 million to $100 million value range. Founded in 1989, Charter is recognized as one of the Midwest's premier M&A advisory firms, with offices in Michigan and Indiana. Charter's track record of success delivering value for clients includes 400+ successful transactions for businesses ranging from $1 million to $100 million+ in revenue. For more information on The Charter Group, please visit www.charter-group.com.

The Charter Group has also been a part of the effort to change the way the world sees Grand Rapids, and as a result, the way Grand Rapids sees the world.

That story is told in Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, on sale wherever books are sold. For your hardcover, softcover or ebook edition, please click here.

Autographed editions of Last Chance Mile are available at Schuler Books & Music and West Coast Coffee in Grand Rapids, as well as at www.rodkackley.com

Herman Miller's Living Office Sweeps Best Of NeoCon 2013 Showroom Recognition

Herman Miller's Canvas Office Landscape w/Mirra Chair

Herman Miller's Living Office at NeoCon 2013, which the West Michigan company describes as a holistic approach to creating more natural and desirable workplaces, swept the Best of NeoCon showroom design awards. In addition, five of its new designs garnered Best of NeoCon recognition.

The Herman Miller showroom and its execution of a Living Office were recognized in both Best of Competition for overall Showroom and Booth Design, and Best Large Showroom.

The annual Best of NeoCon awards for product are judged by interior design and facility management professionals who reviewed more than 350 entries this year.

Herman Miller earned an Innovation Award for the second straight year with the introduction of a brand new material application, expanded polypropelene (EPP), with a new expression of furniture, Metaform Portfolio™. Designed by Studio 7.5 in Berlin, Metaform delineates space and creates diverse sets of Living Office settings with the use of lightweight and intuitive modular blocks that can be easily configured and reconfigured –in the moment- by the people who use them.

Farm to Fork, part of the Restore The Roar: Manufacturing Renaissance series of ebook essays by Rod Kackley tells the story of West Michigan agricultural and food processing entrepreneurs.

Farm to Fork is available for immediate download by clicking here.







Herman Miller Collection’s new Eames Molded Wood Side chair earned a gold award for Guest Seating, and Locale™ added a silver in the Furniture Benching category. Geiger was also acknowledged with a gold in Casegoods for Catalyst Phase II.

Herman Miller Healthcare continues to be recognized as a leader in healing spaces and furniture as Nemschoff’s Terra™ was awarded the Silver Award in the Healthcare Furniture category. This marked the fourth consecutive year Herman Miller Healthcare has received an award.

The best of NeoCon awards, now in their 24th year, are sponsored and organized by Contract magazine, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., The International Interior Design Association (IIDA), The International Facility Management Association, and the McMorrow Report.

The office furniture industry made Grand Rapids, Michigan the "Furniture City" and is still a part of the  West Michigan community. However, the people of Grand Rapids are trying to change the way the world sees their neighborhoods, and in the process are changing the way they see the world.
That story is told in Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, available in hardcover, softcover and ebook editions by clicking here.





A new player is coming on to the office furniture stage. This player has money and is ready to invest. That story will be post tomorrow, as the reinvention and renaissance of manufacturing continue in Michigan.

Detroit's Comeback Continues, Companies Plan To Hire

Detroit CFOs Report Third-Quarter Hiring Plans

Survey Finds Majority of Companies Optimistic About Business Growth During Quarter

DETROIT, June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Twelve percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) in the Detroit area expect to add new professional-level positions in the third quarter, according to the Detroit Professional Employment Forecast from Robert Half . Ten percent of respondents will not be hiring, even to fill an open position, and 7 percent plan to reduce staff levels. Another 70 percent said they will hire for roles that open during the next three months.

Most executives are optimistic about their business prospects for the third quarter. More than nine in 10 (93 percent) CFOs expressed confidence in their company's growth potential for the quarter, with 38 percent of respondents saying they are very confident.

The survey suggests, however, organizations looking to expand and add staff may face difficulties. The majority of the CFOs surveyed, 59 percent, said it is at least somewhat challenging to find skilled candidates for professional-level positions today.

Detroit is fighting its way out of the Decade From Hell, as former Governor Jennifer Granholm put it. The story begins in The Great Collapse by Rod Kackley

This ebook essay is available now for just 99 cents. Click here for immediate download.

"With business confidence high in the Detroit area, companies will need to add people to their teams as they grow," said Robin Ankton, regional vice president for Robert Half in Detroit. "The demand for skilled, professional-level talent is strong in Southeast Michigan, and only companies that offer the most competitive compensation and benefits packages, as well as career growth opportunities, will attract and win the best candidates."

The Professional Employment Forecast was developed by Robert Half, the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm, and conducted by an independent research firm. The local results reflect a two-quarter rolling average based on interviews with 200 CFOs from a stratified random sample of companies in the Detroit area with 20 or more employees.

CFOs were asked, "What are your company's hiring plans for full-time professional-level employees in the third quarter?" Their responses:

	Third Quarter	Second Quarter
Expanding -- adding new positions	12%	12%
Maintaining -- only filling vacated positions	70%	77%
Freezing -- not filling vacated positions or creating new ones	10%	8%
Reducing -- eliminating positions	7%	1%
Don't know/no answer	2%	2%
	101%*	100%
*Numbers do not total 100 percent due to rounding Grand Rapids, Michigan avoided the worst of the worst decade in Michigan's history. But it wasn't easy. The story of how the people of Grand Rapids are changing the way the world sees their community is told in Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community, available in  hardcover, softcover and ebook editions by clicking here. The hiring outlook may be improving in Detroit, but that does not mean the reinvention of this American community will be easy. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, told an audience Monday evening the city has to "break its addiction to debt." He also said that municipal bankruptcy is an option.