entrepreneurship : Innovation & Job News

They are starting small, first with tee shirts declaring their mission, and then a book group, but Arlena Hines and Krista Robinson are on the move to make the Interior Design Department at Lansing Community College an example for their industry as well as for their campus.

Hines and Robinson have integrated the work of William McDonough and Michael Braungart, captured in their 2002 book, “Cradle to Cradle,” into every class in the 250-student program.

McDonough is like the father of green, says Hines, lead faculty for interior design and fashion technology. But making the text required reading not only for design students as well as a faculty book group is just one step of many.

Throughout the summer, Hines and her staff reviewed all their courses and changed the descriptions to include green outcomes. Now integrated into every course are the considerations of sustainable methods and systems of ecology, economy and equity.
 
In the cradle-to-cradle scheme, materials are designed to make landfilling unnecessary, says Robinson. “No longer can you just think about how something functions. You have to consider its life cycle.”

Every aspect should be weighed including how workers and the community are treated in selecting a product, Robinson says.

Thanks to Hines' and Robinson’s efforts, LCC is fielding a team to design the interior of a home for a Greater Lansing Housing Coalition competition. Armed with $300, the team will furnish a kitchen and dining area, living room and master bedroom suite while adhering to its cradle-to-cradle ethos. They will do it by adding little that is new.

Source: Arlena Hines, Lansing Community College

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Tucked between the fresh squash and cucumbers at the Lansing City Market is a booth featuring "found" objects-turned-art.
 
Picture a dish formed of the remains of a smashed windshield; a wine bottle melted almost to oblivion but captured in time to become a serving dish; or an eagle with wings of silver knives and tail feathers of butter spreaders.
 
Such is the market space of Riverside Studios, operated by Kevin and Karen Nichols of Dimondale, two artists raising four children, ages 10 to 16, and eeking out a living with their art.

Karen is the glass worker; Kevin the silver guy. Most of his supplies have come from the places of castoffs, like Volunteers of America or Goodwill.

Kevin made hundreds of bracelets out of spoon handles, but he was never quite able to dispose of the remaining bowl parts of the spoons, so he had a mountain of them.

One day he noticed that when held together just so, the bowls resembled a tulip. However, making them stick was another matter. Ordinary lead solder wouldn’t work, and a soldering iron tended to melt the silver before fusing it.

So he began experimenting with a combination of solder and ice water. Twenty hours later, he had a silver tulip, complete with fork-tine stamens. Now he makes entire bouquets of flowers.

The Nichols family is a Harley-Davidson motorcycle family, so Kevin is working on a replica of their pastime, made entirely of spoons.

He manages the City Market booth, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Karen runs the household, cares for the children, and works at home.

Source: Kevin Nichols, Riverside Studios

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

People seem to think experts have to come from out of town. But in fact, the Capital region is exporting  experts around the globe, says Brad Williams, founder of Architectural Solutions, Ltd. in Lansing.

While Williams is proud of his own 17-year-old company’s 50 percent growth in business in the last year, he’s sure other companies in the region are doing as well.

“Architects in Lansing are very good, but it’s human nature to look outside the area,” he says.

His own company is doing well because of seeds planted ten years ago when he started looking for business beyond the city and landed a job at Detroit’s new McNamara Airport. Work for Duty Free Americas led to other spaces in other airports. A job with Schiphol-Amsterdam, which owns airports around the world, brought him clients in Cleveland.
 
Technology is what has helped the six-member team stay competitive, and allows one of the team to work from Australia.

Architectural Solutions’ Francis Wilmore, who recently acquired his M.A. in architecture from the University of Michigan (UM), says the list of his capabilities in software programs is a half page long and includes animation, video, music, Sketch Up, Maxwell, and Revit. No one program can do everything, he says.

Williams adds, “You either keep up or get out of the way.”

The team is competing now for a San Francisco Airport project to build seven by seven foot pods where travelers can shut themselves away with a swipe of a credit card for some peace and a nap. The pods would be constructed in the Capital region and shipped across the country.

“We have the work force here within the auto industry, and production facilities within an hour of Lansing,” says Williams. While he’s working with a team of consultants from California, Denver and London, most of the experts are right here, he says.

Source: Brad Willliams, Architectural Solutions

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

A consortium of Michigan healthcare providers has received a new website design from East Lansing-based GreenLite Web Solutions, valued at $15,000.

To celebrate its first birthday, GreenLite invited groups from the area to submit reasons why they deserved GreenLite’s donated skills. Michigan Primary Care Consortium (MPCC) won the contest; its new site will be launched before the end of  September.

“The goal of the contest was to help our local economy,” says Jeff Pompliano, GreenLite’s e-business manager.

MPCC, the winner, is coordinating an effort with more than 70 groups. They range from nurses and doctors’ organizations, to insurers and the Michigan Department of Community Health. Their goal is to create a statewide patient-centered health system, with many services delivered through health centers such as Willow Plaza, Otto and Cedar Community Health Centers, and the Ingham County Health Center at Sparrow, all in Lansing.

Since MPCC’s paid staff is to be cut later this year when state funding is reduced, it will need a strong website to recruit more volunteers and to showcase achievements while quickly delivering information, says Pompliano.

“Durng our first year in existence, the GreenLite web site has been our most successful marketing tool," says Brian Azar, GreenLite Web vice-president. "We are looking forward to replicating this success for our winning candidate as well.”

Source: Jeff Pompliano, GreenLite Web

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

The residential housing market has changed dramatically, but one thing has remained the same.

“Experts still agree that making investments in kitchens and bathrooms is generally a good value for homeowners,” says Barry Noora, The Kitchen Shop’s regional manager.

Numbers supplied by Michigan Kitchen Distributors (MKD) and its partner company, The Kitchen Shop, support that. Sales of Whirlpool kitchen equipment put the five-location company in the top sales spot nationally this year.

Based out of Marshall, Michigan, the family-run business has shops in Lansing at 5320 S. Pennsylvania, in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Jackson and Marshall. The company specializes in creating custom countertops for individual homeowners.  But it also supplies wholesale cabinets and appliances.

The Kitchen Shop stores and MKD “continue to exceed sales projections for our Whilrpool, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air and Kitchen Aid brands,” says Scott Ramsay, Whilrpool national sales manager. Furthermore, the stores’ sales are up more than 50 percent for the Jenn-Air brand this year.

“With the housing market where it is, homeowners are choosing to stay in their homes and make improvements for the long haul,” says Noora.

Source: Barry Noora, The Kitchen Shop

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Lansing-based ACD.net has added new network facilities in Livingston County.

The new Howell-based operation will add jobs to the company, which is headquartered ion Lansing just north of Old Town, says company president Kevin Schoen.

He and his brother, Steve, are graduates of Howell High School, making the installation of new phone and Internet capability there especially sweet.

Among the residential offerings will be the new Max Speed Phone and Internet Bundle, allowing download speed up to 20Mbps, faster than any competition, says Steve Schoen, vice-president.
 
The company offers business and residential customers telephone, fiber, Ethernet, DSL and private network services.

“To compete in a global marketplace, communities must have state-of-the-art infrastructure and a variety of broadband options. Affordable access is vital to a region,” says Kevin Schoen.

Little by little ACD.net is spreading across lower Michigan, with facilities in West Bloomfield, Springfield, Saginaw, and Detroit in addition to Lansing.

Source: Kevin Schoen, ACD.net

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

Dave Muylle, the Eastside developer, and Shane Hagadorn, the documentarian, have matched their skills to produce a film dedicated to the restoration of a former drug house on Lansing’s Eastside.

According to Muylle, “Craftsman Style: The Movie,” is as much about respect for our built environment as it is for the skills of  local carpenters, tile layers, stained glass workers and others.

The 55-minute color film has been shown at the Muskegon Film Festival and awaits acceptance into others. But Capital region movie and house lovers can catch its local premier at Lansing Community College’s (LCC) Dart Auditorium Sept. 18 at a fundraiser for the Allen Neighborhood Center.

Muylle has won numerous historic preservation awards and Hagadorn won an award for a local feature-length film, “Fairview St.” that he co-produced. The two met when Hagardorn moved next door to 124 Regent St., the so-called drug house, and Muylle was working on a house across the street. Muylle bought the problem property and the two set out to create a tribute to craftsmanship and sustainability.

Muylle breaks the term sustainability into three componenets: craftsmanship, restoration and community.

Craftsmanship refers to using the best quality materials installed in the best way possible. The result is a level of quality that is easy to maintain and will outlast the cheap stuff, he says. It also involves careful design and thinking about how material selections impact the environment.

Restoration relates to saving the embedded energy in a house by refurbishing and reusing the original parts.  He explains:  When it comes to our homes, fashion and style often dictate that we throw out the old and install the new. Then the original energy it took to build the old part, a window for instance, is tossed in the dump. The energy it took to cut down the tree, transport it to the mill, run the saw, and then transport the window to the site is known as embedded energy, and it has value.

Muylle says that sustainability relies on the interest and energy of people who together value buildings and places enough to properly care for them, so that future generations can use them.

It is those messages he hopes will be transmitted through the film.

See more about the renovation project here.

Source: Dave Muylle

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Tiffany Dowling is using her own company, Motion Marketing Media (M3), to teach corporations in the Capital region how to stay relevant. She and her 14-member staff have invested $30,000 in re-branding the seven-year-old Downtown Lansing public relations and marketing firm.

The entire redesign of M3’s corporate image — from the new mascot, “Aha,” to new logo, letterhead and website — represents an effort to integrate the concept of a conversation between the company and its clients, be they members of the media, corporate customers or the general public.
 
The use of social media is integral to the campaign, launched Aug. 12, which will include personal visits from staff with gift bags for as many as 40 current clients throughout the week. They will receive special cookies with M3’s new logo, a copy of the company’s new newsletter, and a personalized card from the staff member who works on their account.

Within the web site is a page for “Aha moments” to be logged in by anyone, a blog that all M3’s employees will be contributing to, and a Twitter account.
 
“Social media has become a significant player in public relations and marketing and is a key part of communication transparency,” says Emily Wenstrom, of M3.
 
The site will also be constantly updated with information about M3 clients through the interactive newsroom, which will include all news and press releases for clients. 
Information will be sortable by client and the site will offer subscriptions by RSS feed or e-mail, Dowling says.

“Our job is to stay abreast of the trends,” says Dowling.

Source: Tiffany Dowling, M3 Group

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

It’s been a year since Lilian Chavira launched her dessert business, Gellocake, and she is celebrating her successes. Having invested $20,000 in putting a commercial kitchen in the basement of her Okemos home, she’s strived to remain flexible with her products.

“A year ago, it was just my friends who were my customers. Now I’m getting referrals,” she says.

Chavira’s prior experience as a graphic designer in the corporate world is apparent in the desserts she creates.

“I’m all about color,” the mother of two elementary-school-aged children says with enthusiasm.

Big sellers currently are children’s special event cakes, incorporating toys into tableaux:  “Kids can eat the cake, then play with the toys,” she laughs.

In addition to custom cakes designed for almost any occasion, she makes fancied-up flan, the Mexican caramel-topped custard of her childhood. Chavira’s father was a chef and a general manager of hotels and prestigious restaurants in Mexico, and he and her mother owned bakeries.

“With my dessert business, I am able to keep my parents close through distance,” she says.

Various gelatins are on her menu as well, including those for corporate functions that match the colors of company logos. She can use sugar-free Jello, layered with evaporated milk in pineapple Jello, creating a dessert with few calories appropriate for people with diabetes, as well as those watching the scale in general.

Source:  Lilian Chavira, Gellocake

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

The folks at Liquid Web are already the talk of the Capital region’s online social media world, but the Lansing-based web hosting company has caught the eye of the MTV producers as a potential candidate for their new weekly show, “Pranked,” to launch at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 27.

What started with Liquid Web’s infrastructure director, Chris Strandt, covering everything in the maintenance team’s office with aluminum foil, ended with a videoed payback posted on YouTube.

While Strandt was on vacation, the maintenance team drywalled over the door to his office, obliterating its entrance. The video had already grabbed 1,500 views. That’s the episode that MTV inquired about.
 
But there are more on the Liquid Web site, including the flying Ford truck, and the 500, three-inch Hero mascot dolls in a Domino maneuver. The dolls are named after the company’s service sector, called Hero Support.

The videos capture the relaxed environment at Liquid Web, says Travis Stoliker, spokesperson.

“This is where business is going," he says. "The stuffy culture is going away.”

To wit, three-inch Hero dolls have been mailed to Liquid Web’s customers with a note asking them to Tweet a picture. The little muscled guy is already captured standing on the shoulder of a statue of what appears to be Bill Cosby. He has 9,771 followers.

Source: Travis Stoliker, Liquid Web

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here. 

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

Ellen Ernst Kossek, professor at MSU’s School of Labor and Industrial Relations, has joined with a colleague from Portland to create a training program for supervisors to help them improve worker health. The scientific-based program is featured in the upcoming August edition of the Journal of Management.

Now, the pair have won a $4.1 million federal grant to refine and expand the program. The grant is part of a $30 million initiative of the Work, Family and Health Network. It is jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) to examine how company policies affect the health and well-being of employees and their families.

The new training program outlines measures for supervisors including emotional support, assistance with day to day needs such as scheduling flexibility, and team approaches such as cross-training within and between departments to enhance flexibility.

“Businesses are searching for new ways to manage in a tough economy,” says Kossek. “Our study shows that just teaching managers to be more supportive can have cost savings for turnover and lower stress, which affects the bottom line.

“Managing in a more supportive way that recognizes how important flexibility is to today’s work force is a win-win economic proposition that benefits employers, workers and families,” Kossek says.

“Employees no longer leave their family needs at the company doorstep.”

Source: MSU

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.

Haslett-based Inventure Enterprises has launched a suite of tools called idView that could streamline the way government and private industry conduct background checks.

Inventure Enterprises doesn’t conduct background checks, but it enables organizations that do, such as school districts and government,to electronically access multiple databases — state police records, FBI records and state and federal data — to cross check potential employees. It also helps these entities comply with state and federal legislative mandates.

These checks are generally conducted manually, which can take up to three months. But with idView, it can take as little as 45 minutes.

“All of the information is gathered and accessed in one place,” says Robert Fulk, president of Inventure Enterprises.

Companies or government entities using this system have potential employees fill out an informational form. Once the form is filled out and the data entered, a check is run through several databases. Many times, these databases catch criminal records, preventing the firm from spending more money and time on fingerprint-based background checks.

The idView system was inspired by a FederalDHHS seven state pilot program designed to improve background checkprocesses for long-term care providers. The Michigan economic developmentcommunities are providing support from the for the company and the idViewprogram.

During the 18-month pilot, the system denied approximately 6,000 of the 150,000 people screened based on existing records.

The system saves money by reducing the amount of manpower needed to run checks, the cost of fingerprinting checks and criminal costs. Fulk estimates the state pilot saved the State of Michigan $37 million.

“Not only can this protect vulnerable populations, it can also give people who should have jobs access to those jobs faster,” says Fulk.

Fulk and Inventure Vice President Susanna Tellschow estimate the company will need to hire about 20 people within the next two years.

Source: Robert Fulk, Inventure Enterprises

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.

The inaugural Lansing Fall Film Exhibition (LFFE) is set to launch from 8 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26 at Celebration Cinema in Lansing.

LFFE Founder and Director Autumn “Bri” Lloyd says this is the first 90 minute Michigan and Lansing-based film exhibition in the Capital region.

“We just came up with this idea because there’s so many filmmakers between here and Detroit and they’re trying to get their foot in the door, and it would be nice to showcase Michigan filmmakers,” she says.

The Capital region has other film fests that draw on local talent, but also include international talent.

So far, Lloyd’s nailed down an underwriter and received four entries that include an eight-minute science fiction short and an 18-minute comedy/drama. Each submission must be less than 20 minutes. Lloyd says she still needs about 40-50 minutes of film and is hoping to fill all 270 seats at Celebration Cinema by the time the festival opens.

“One of my friends said we need to make Lansing weird, that we need to make it more like Austin,” she says. “Austin has a huge film festival and this is just one step closer to making Lansing weird.”

Lloyd is working with local t-shirt printers and other local suppliers to keep the project as home grown as possible.

Source: Bri Lloyd, LFFE

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.