Milwaukee Biz Blog

Wouldn't you like to know what's going through Jeffrey Immelt's mind these days? You remember Immelt, who used to oversee General Electric Co.'s Healthcare division in Waukesha.

Immelt became legendary Jack Welch's hand-picked successor to be the chief executive officer of GE in 2001.

Since then, Immelt and GE have navigated through some good times and some not-so-good times.

Welch pretty much threw his boy under the bus in April, when Welch curtly remarked on CNBC's Squawk Box, "I'd be shocked beyond belief and I'd get a gun out and shoot him (Immelt) if he doesn't make what he promised now. Just deliver the earnings. Tell them you're going to grow 12 percent and deliver 12 percent … Here's the screw up: You made a promise that you'd deliver this and you missed three weeks later. Jeff has a credibility issue. He's getting his ass kicked."

Nice. Thanks for nothing, Jack.

Welch can talk big because he presided over GE when the company - and the economy - were booming. Welch took his golden parachute and skipped out of Fairfield, Conn., just as the wind was letting up behind the economy's sails.

Timing is everything. And it isn't getting any easier for Immelt. GE's stock recently fell to its lowest level since 1996, trading at around $16 per share.

Immelt temporarily stopped the bleeding by announcing that GE would apply to participate in the new temporary liquidity-guarantee program operated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), backing up $139 billion in GE Capital debt. (Keep a wary eye on any company with a credit division these days.)

To his credit, Immelt has kept a cool public persona, even when Fox News' Bill O'Reilly directed one of his producers to ambush him with a microphone and a camera at a posh restaurant, as O'Reilly sought revenge for comments made by lefty commentator Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. Remember, GE owns both MSNBC and CNBC.

Once again, Immelt was caught in a crossfire, through no deeds of his own.

Immelt must have found some relief on Nov. 4. MSNBC dominated Fox in Nielsen ratings during election week.

Furthemore, Immelt isn't flinching. He had the audacity to purchase 50,000 shares of GE stock on Nov. 13 to show his confidence in the company. Hey, even legendary investor Warren Buffet is buying GE shares these days.

So, Immelt, 52, will try to ride out the storm, at least until GE holds its 2009 annual meeting of shareowners on April 22, 2009, in Orlando, Fla. GE gathers shareowners in a different city each year. The company employs more than 18,000 people at 14 sites across Florida, where GE Energy Infrastructure, Technology Infrastructure, Capital, Industrial and NBC Universal each operate facilities.

Hey, Jeff. Wisconsin must seem like light years away in your rearview mirror right now. But hang in there. And presuming you're still at the helm, how about bringing GE's 2010 annual shareholder meeting to Milwaukee? We promise not to ambush you at a restaurant.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

 A few days before he willingly stepped down as president and chief executive officer of the alternative energy company he helped to launch, Eric Apfelbach told a crowd of entrepreneurs they were probably a little bit crazy.

Coming from someone who confesses to being more than a bit crazy, that's a compliment.

"Early stage entrepreneurship and start-ups are incredibly difficult to do. If you stand back and analyze it, you would probably have to be crazy to start a high-tech company because there's probably 90 ways to get killed doing it," Apfelbach said during a speech to this month's Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium. "But entrepreneurs do very important work, for this nation and for Wisconsin. So, we can all be glad they are a little crazy."

Celebrating the engrained insanity of entrepreneurship has finally come into vogue. There was a time when people who called themselves "entrepreneurs" were assumed to be (a) unemployed or (b) working on a cold fusion reactor in their garage. This week, however, entrepreneurs will get a measure of respect the world over.

It's Global Entrepreneurship Week, in case you missed it on your calendar, a time to shine a light on how the Eric Apfelbachs among us create value, jobs and wealth from ideas, hard work and calculated risk.
In Wisconsin, Global Entrepreneurship Week is being marked by a governor's proclamation, high-school competitions, academic lectures and more. Mostly, however, the week is being marked by thousands of entrepreneurs trying to make the next sale or attract the next investor. Those who succeed often create fast-growing companies - and a whole new generation of jobs for others.

Entrepreneur, translated from its French roots, means "one who undertakes." The term refers to anyone who undertakes the organization and management of an enterprise involving independence and risk, as well as the opportunity for profit.

Entrepreneurs tend to share common traits. They're usually driven by a vision of what can be, and that vision may rest on an interlocking set of facts and ideas not yet known or accepted by the marketplace. Entrepreneurs take prudent, not rash, risks. They assess costs, market needs and other factors; they often write business plans to guide them. But they also recognize the plan may be thrown out the window if changing market conditions or other circumstances dictate a new direction. They are decision-makers, but usually make the best decisions when they consult others along the way.

How does society benefit from having entrepreneurs? Simply put, they re-energize the economy. They develop new markets, bring new resources to bear, mobilize capital and introduce new technologies, industries and products. Most important in today's slumping economy: They create jobs. Small businesses in the United States provide the vast majority of new jobs, and often grow into tomorrow's major companies.

Janesville native Apfelbach is a ready example. He stepped down as CEO and president of Virent Energy Systems Inc. - not because the company was failing - but because it was succeeding. Some analysts believe Madison-based Virent can become a billion-dollar company by supplying renewable "green" gasoline and jet fuel - fuel created through a chemical conversion process using the inedible sugars contained in plants such as sugarcane and sorghum.

Apfelbach helped bring the company to where it is today because he's skilled at running startups, a talent that includes persuading others to finance his ideas. Throughout his career, Apfelbach has raised about $80 million in venture capital for Wisconsin-based start-up companies, and tens of millions more in other funding, such as grants, loans and conventional bank financing. That money has already been put to work in the Wisconsin economy, and it will pay even larger dividends if Virent hits it big.

But Apfelbach understood that in order for Virent to grow, it needed a CEO with hands-on experience in global energy markets. That's why the company hired Lee Edwards, most recently president and CEO of BP Solar, a global solar technology provider with 2,200 employees and $1 billion in sales.  (So much for the myth that Wisconsin startups cannot attract first-class managers.)

What happens to Apfelbach? Don't worry: He won't be standing in a soup line. Apfelbach might become an investor himself, or he might join another start-up company. Either way, he'll be back in the start-up game, doing what entrepreneurs like him do best.

Wisconsin needs more Eric Apfelbachs (in addition to the one it already has). The state economy's best chance to grow rests with hundreds of emerging small companies replacing those larger firms culled by a brutally efficient marketplace.

That may sound crazy to some people, but not to entrepreneurs and those who stand by them.
To learn more about Global Entreprenership Week, visit http://unleashingideas.org or http://www.ocr.wisc.edu.

Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

Spam, simply put, is unsolicited e-mail. Most of us get spam in our e-mail boxes on a regular basis. In an effort to stay on top of the spam game, I have e-mail boxes set up specifically to catch spam, and I get about 10,000 per month, complete with viruses, phishing scams and the regular barrage of those irritating types of spam.

Generally, spam is only a nuisance, but the viruses and phishing scams they carry are dangerous.
How to avoid spam in the first place

Once you put your e-mail address online, in searchable text format, you become a spam target. Scammers send search bots out to crawl the Internet searching for text that has e-mail formatting, (e.g.; someone@isp.com) collect those e-mail addresses and add them to their spam distribution lists. One way to avoid spam and still get your e-mail address on your web site is to embed it as picture on the page. Pictures are not searchable for their purposes. 

Spam often contains attachments. These are the infected files that can hurt your machine and can eventually disrupt your entire network. Usually, you will see them in .zip format. Zipped files are, under most circumstances, not able to be scanned by most A-V software programs or firewalls when they come in with e-mails. That happens when they are unzipped, (an automatic process with new operating systems) but that is too late. It is important to NOT open attached files without scanning them with your anti-virus program. Most anti-virus programs will automatically put their service on the right-click dropdown menu on PC’s. This allows you to save the file to your desktop, right-click the file and click the menu item that is your anti-virus program. You may also open your A-V program and browse for the file and scan it that way. Common files types of attachments to avoid: .zip, .scr, .exe, .dll

Other spam will try to entice you to click a link to update an account, verify information or other tricks to lure you into giving them your personal information. Those links, while looking legitimate, the actual hyperlink behind the text is not the same as the link you are seeing. The website you will wind up on is not where the link says. If you click the link, you will find yourself on an unfamiliar website that immediately infects your machine. You may not even notice you are being infected. Once the virus or malware hits your machine, even the best software, while notifying you and even stopping the spread of the attack, will not clean it from your system and that virus will continue to propagate itself under specific circumstances.

Just because you have a Paypal, FedEx, Bank of America or UPS account does not mean every e-mail you get from such an e-mail address is legitimate. In fact, most of the time, they are not. Do not pay attention to the return address, as those can be spoofed.

So far today, in an Outlook box with spam filtering, I received eight spams with attached zip files from a total of 213 spams. In another box, without SPAM filtering, I had 515 spams, with 207 of them containing an attachment of some sort. The subject lines varied dramatically from "We have kidnapped your baby" to something as benign as "Get a FREE gift card from WAL-MART." The link in the latter mail was coded to take me to a phishing site. I get enough spam already. If I were to fill out the form on that site, even though it might not infect my computer, I will certainly find a lot more spam from their various partners and spam distribution lists.

As long as spam can be sent for free, it will not stop. Since 2002, there have been suggestions to charge for e-mails to put a stop to spam. Just one penny per e-mail would make it cost-ineffective to send spam.

Chuck Benedon is a computer safety expert at Brookfield-based Vanguard Computers Inc.

Solar and wind energy may become primary components of our nation's alternative energy sources in the future. But how do we use this energy efficiently? What happens to the energy that is generated during non-peak usage periods?

For example, wind power generated at non-peak hours such as 3 a.m. can be wasted unless an efficient storage system is used. Conversely, solar energy is obviously not generated at night, yet some level of energy is still required to power homes and businesses. How do we store that energy so that it can be used when the sun isn't generating power?

The answer is energy storage systems which are available right now to commercial and even consumer usage. In fact, state-of the-art energy storage systems are currently on display at the Future House USA exhibit at the Beijing Olympics.

To think that we can effectively use solar and wind energy without some sort of energy storage is inconsistent with the purpose of renewable energy. The question, then, is how to use these alternative energy sources efficiently, allowing energy to be stored for use when it is most needed. That's where energy storage comes in to the picture.

Energy storage systems enable users to use energy when they most need it, while avoiding waste during off-peak hours when it is generated. This maximizes the use of wind and solar power and other alternative energy sources.

But energy storage has applications beyond the use of solar and wind power.

In electric utility applications, energy storage systems can be used to reduce the load on sub-station transformers and even fossil fueled generating stations that are working at maximum capacity during times of peak demand. This enables the utility to defer costly capital upgrades by charging the energy storage device at night and using that stored energy during these peak times and thereby reducing the work load on both the sub-station and generating stations. 

If current discussion is correct on the estimated $1 trillion that will need to be spent to upgrade the transmission and distribution infrastructure in the United States to be able to support the growing demand for energy and to accommodate proposed renewable energy generation, then the need for energy storage is even more urgent and compelling.

Energy storage can also have household implications. The Future House USA project currently on display at the Beijing Olympics is a Zero Net Energy structure, meaning it generates its own energy off-grid. The project uses a zinc bromide energy storage system to store solar energy generated during the day for use when the sun is not available to generate power.

Future House USA incorporates five elements: energy efficiency, indoor air quality, water consumption, storm water management and construction recycling in order to achieve a design to maximize the homes energy efficiency, environmental compatibility and sustainability. This design has achieved a ZNE home, generating and utilizing all of its own energy. Energy storage is a key element in achieving ZNE.

Our nation's energy independence will require renewable, green energy sources. But without the ability to store that energy, much of it will be wasted.

We simply can't afford that waste, particularly when there are viable solutions available today.

Rob Parry is the chief executive officer of ZBB Energy Corp. of Menomonee Falls.

Is it any wonder that Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl and the Senate are looking into the disturbing Google-Yahoo deal that basically puts all online search advertising in the hands of Google?

That level of consolidation should be a concern to every businessperson in Wisconsin.  We should all stand as one in opposing this effort designed to wipe out competition.

Google already dominates 70 percent or more of online search advertising and has now swooped in to create a questionable alliance with Yahoo.

This deal takes the No. 1 and No. 2 internet search providers and puts all the control into one company. And apparently, the two have $800 million worth of profitable reasons to want this deal to stick.

Basic economics tell us wiping out competition is not good for consumers. Prices will likely rise for the product. Online advertisers in this case are then forced to pass along increases to consumers.

There are reasons for concern here, especially regarding antitrust issues. Just because a company has a recognizable name, doesn’t mean it should get a free pass on any business dealing - real world or virtual.

Ruben Hopkins is president and chief executive officer of The Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce Inc. Additional information is available at www.twbcc.com.

The last 50 years have witnessed an unprecedented development of technology. The future often conjures up images of a highly automated robotic society. Yet, we ignore the most important technology of them all - the technology of our mind. Better thinking, not bigger machines are the answer to the world's problems.

An idea is the most powerful tool of them all. An idea that is shared and communicated can produce a response that reshapes the world almost overnight. It acquires a life of its own and cannot be contained or owned.

The person recognized for the idea can become tremendously successful. The minds of those exposed to an idea are forever changed.

Albert Einstein rightly pointed out that we cannot solve the problems that are facing the world today by applying the same level of thinking that was used to create those problems in the first place.

Technology is a magnifier of our efforts. It is the leverage to help us achieve things. It is wiser to thoughtfully apply a little leverage than to thoughtlessly apply the entire brunt of our energy. It is not enough for us to successfully develop and adopt the latest technology gizmos. We must change the way we think and perceive the world.

It is not remarkable that the most significant developments in manufacturing over the last 50 years deal with concepts that require no high technology at all. Mass customization thrives on the concepts of rapid product development, continuous process improvement, lean manufacturing, rapid changeovers and cellular flow.

Such methodologies as SMED, 5S, SPC, Balanced Scorecard, Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), Kaizen, kanban, autonomation, value stream mapping, visual controls, Poka-Yoke, total productive maintenance, etc. are all conceptual tools that could be easily executed in a carpenter's shop of three millennia ago and would have revolutionized that shop more so than any of the modern power tools.

Every single one of those concepts can be executed using a writing tool and a writing surface, with no use of electronics at all.

Thinking tools are more important in revolutionizing our life than electricity, computers, cell phones and all other high technology tools combined. This is in part because they enable us to develop all the other high technology tools, and, just as importantly, they often give us a simpler solution that does not require their development.

To quote Einstein: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."

To be sure, we need high technology. I am ecstatic about living in the world of indoor plumbing and antibiotics. Screens are getting flatter and computers can now fit in the palm of a hand. These are signs of the future in which I want to live. I eagerly look toward the day when nanotechnology, for example, becomes every day part of our life.

The promise of nanotechnology would give us the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular scales. It may mean anything from being able to have nanobots fixing cancerous cells, to creating entirely new types of weapons of mass destruction. It may mean cell phones that are inside our brain (what in the olden days was called telepathy) or objects appearing when we desire them (nanobots instantly assembling an apple in my hand out of molecules in the air).

All these new developments will only make the technology of the mind, thinking technology, all the more important. The indoor plumbing did not require a vastly improved machinery or equipment, rather a vastly improved understanding of our world.

Ditto for aspirin and antibiotics. As technology becomes more advanced, the controls of that technology become more and more important. The actual technology can get small and sometimes even disappear altogether.

As technology progresses, we gain the power to reshape the world around us. Many visions of the future show technology as being predominant. Yet, the most important technology of the future is not a big robot, but rather better thinking. Many new thinking approaches are already here. They are just waiting for their adoption. It is the organizations that are quicker in adopting better thinking practices that have the best opportunity to prosper, whether they are high tech or low tech.

Thinking is always the Right Technology.

Oleg Tumarkin is the owner of FutureWorks Business Expert, a private business training company in Menomonee Falls. He is an adjunct professor of business at Lakeland College, an adjunct instructor of business at Concordia University Wisconsin and adjunct instructor of business and technology at ITT TECH Institute. He writes regularly at www.FutureWorks-Expert.com on various business topics.

We have been hearing for years that stress is bad for your heart. Not only is that intuitive, but there has been ample evidence piling up in the medical literature over the last ten years or so that confirms this.

And it's not just your heart - many chronic illnesses are now linked to stress and the way we live our lives.

What's actually happening here? Oddly enough, there's a huge paradox at work. The human stress response was wired into us from the beginning. About 200,000 years ago, when we first inhabited this big ball, there were frequent threats to our physical survival.

Faster and meaner animals made short order out of us. Our nervous systems were programmed to quickly spill chemicals like adrenaline into our bloodstreams, allowing blood pressure and heart rate to increase and deliver more blood to our muscles so we could run fast and escape danger.

In addition, hormones like cortisol were released in the event that the tiger might catch us. Cortisol raises blood sugar, amongst other things. Blood sugar (glucose) is needed to run all the machinery of the body. We now know that there are over 1,400 biochemical reactions in the stress response, and they are linked to our survival.

The problem, of course, is that there are no more tigers. We live in an environment with very few threats to our physical well-being. But our stress buttons are being pushed by hundreds of aggravations that have nothing to do with our survival. Budgets, taxes, traffic jams, family issues, gasoline prices - all these things create negative emotional states and spill hormones into our system every day.

It's no surprise that high blood pressure, high blood sugar (diabetes) and obesity are combining to create the No. 1 killer in the United States: heart disease.

Some fascinating research now shows that the heart is intimately involved in signaling the brain, a concept that seems upside down. Quite apart from our paradigm of how things work, the Institute of HeartMath, a research organization in Boulder Creek, Calif., (www.heartmath.org) has found that the electromagnetic signal of the heart is approximately 50 times the amplitude of the brain signals. It can be measured eight feet outside the body. In addition, there turns out to be much more information going north from heart to brain than the other way around.

This has allowed a simple set of easily learned tools to be developed using technology that has been around for about 40 years, called Heart Rate Variability. Realizing that the heart signals were so powerful, researchers at the Institute of HeartMath experimented with techniques to change these signals. What they found was that the brain, especially the cognitive part that serves many higher order functions like perception, analysis and judgment, could be significantly influenced by the pattern of signals from the heart.

These tools have now been used in seminars in education, health care, Fortune 500 companies, all four branches of the military and athletics at the highest levels. Since cognitive function, and hence performance, are directly impacted by stress, using the much more powerful heart signal to change performance made a lot of sense. And it worked.

While companies were able to demonstrate that job satisfaction, customer satisfaction, absenteeism and health care costs all improved, professional golfers noted less tension in their swings and lower scores. School children with test anxiety enjoyed significant increases in their scores. Kids were able to come off their ADHD medications. Less industrial errors were made. High blood pressure was reduced, sometimes allowing patients to come off their drugs, or lower the doses. Corporate climates changed.

Many people reading this blog might feel that a certain amount of stress is productive.  Some of you may even consider yourselves "stress athletes." Stress, as we now know it, is really our body's reaction - physically, mentally and emotionally - to an external event.

It's not the event itself. We can, as it turns out, learn quite easily how to change this automatic response. And we should. It's not only killing us, but making us less efficient.

We can achieve "the zone" in a way that is measurable and reproducible. What's even more surprising is how easily that is accomplished. Five-year-olds, police officers, nurses, factory workers and CEOs all have the capacity to learn these tools in minutes.

In the long run, the energy drain that is avoided makes for higher performance at lower cost. You cannot only take that to the bank, but to your doctor.

Dr. Bruce Wilson is a Mequon cardiologist and medical director for HeartMath. He is the founder and chief executive officer of HeartMatters.MD, a company that provides seminars on stress reduction and enhanced performance to individual clients and corporations worldwide. More information is available at www.heartmatters.md.

Generally speaking, when giant corporations square off on a national level, consumers - be they here in Wisconsin or elsewhere - often find themselves quietly standing by the side, waiting for the dust to clear.

Such may be the case with Microsoft's recent bid for Yahoo. A seemingly good stock offer was turned down by the No. 2 Internet giant and Microsoft pulled back.

You might be wondering why anyone in Wisconsin should care. 

For businesses, a Microsoft-Yahoo merger represented a chance to provide some real competition with the Internet's No. 1 giant - Google. You don't have to search long in Milwaukee to find business leaders who say competition is a good thing when it comes to keeping costs low, preserving jobs and helping the economy.

Having both mega-Internet search providers duking it out for customers daily would also have helped provide consumers with a choice and not threaten online advertising. The merger would also have allowed Microsoft-Yahoo to check the market leader's ever-growing dominance of and control over the Internet.

But that was not to be, so now consumers in Wisconsin and across the globe have something else to think about. The potential for a Google-Yahoo merger. A pairing of the No. 1 and No. 2 search engine providers could create a monopoly that would dominate online advertising dollars and control the majority of all Internet search activities. And don't doubt for a second that the associated increase in business costs would be passed onto consumers here in the Midwest and elsewhere.

There are also those who have raised concerns with Google's gathering of user information. They will likely have even more privacy questions if Yahoo falls under the influence of Google. Will Yahoo join Google's information gathering practices and what voice will consumers here or elsewhere have in that matter? These giants joining forces will also likely raise serious anti-trust concerns and will need to be thoroughly reviewed and examined by Congress and the Senate.

In life, we all choose whether to get involved or stand on the side and wait for the dust to clear. In the Internet debate, our legislators in Washington need to clearly hear the consumer and business voices who believe in competition, be that here on the ground or in the virtual world of the Internet.

Protecting existing jobs, maintaining fairness in online advertising for our business community and preserving consumer choice is important to our economy. Leaving the door open to creating a monopoly is not.

Alderman Tony Zielinski represents Milwaukee's 14th District.

When I recently wrote a Milwaukee Biz Blog to suggest the Darwin E. Smith Awards for people, organizations and government entities who made it difficult for companies to business Wisconsin, I had no idea Steve Roell, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Controls Inc., would step forward as a nominee.

Johnson Controls reports annual revenues of $35 million this year with a pre-tax profit of $2.6 billion.  It is the largest corporation in the state of Wisconsin. The company employs 140,000 people. A model corporate citizen.
It is a company of which Darwin Smith, the CEO of Kimberly-Clark who moved his company's corporate headquarters out of Wisconsin because of high taxes and excessive regulation, might have suggested considering removing itself from the Wisconsin corporate gene pool - by relocating to another state or perhaps, another country. 

So why is Steve Roell supporting the state hospital tax?

Let's connect the dots.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and the Senate Democrats included the $400 million hospital tax in their budget repair bill. The idea was to add an "assessment" to all hospital bills. This assessment would be a tax - a 0.7-percent sales tax - on every patient who paid his or her hospital bill, either through private insurance or out of his or her own pocket. Hospitals throughout the state would collect the tax from their paying patients and send it to the governor.

The governor agreed to pay an extra $275 million to the state Medicaid health program to repay hospitals a portion of the bill for people who are unable to pay their medical bills.  The federal government matches the state's additional contribution. Under this socialized reimbursement plan, hospitals with the highest percentage of Medicaid patients would see their reimbursement rates increase the most. 

Doing the math, the governor gets to keep $125 million, under a provision in the bill called "the skim." The skim is analogous to the "grease" a bettor pays a bookmaker for placing and winning a bet. The bookie earns the grease for facilitating the transaction. In this case, because the grease goes to the general fund, Doyle gets to spend the skimmed tax money any way that pleases him and his constituents.

At this point, the proponents of the "sales tax on people who pay their own hospital bills either through private insurance or out their own pockets" claim that the matching funds coming back from Washington, D.C., is free money. Wisconsin does not receive its fair share of the federal largess, they say. Twenty other states have cooked up similar schemes.

The free money from Washington isn't free. It is, more appropriately, money that has been extracted from ordinary, everyday people. Not corporations. Not hospitals. Real people, like the folks who send some of their earned income withheld from every paycheck to Washington every week.   

So why would really smart guys like Steve Roell, Jim Haney (president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce) and Tim Sheehy (president of Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce) support such a scam?

The deception is even more interesting considering the primary beneficiaries of the arrangement. Besides Doyle, the hospital systems that stand to gain the most under the proposed socialized hospital tax solution appear to be Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and Aurora Health Care - two of, arguably, the most profitable, "nonprofit" hospital systems of the planet. San Aurora serves poor patients in Milwaukee, while Children's substantial niche in health care for kids, attracts everyone, rich and poor.

We all love and admire Children's Hospital for the incredible work they do. But Aurora? Why are the big businesses and outstanding companies like Johnson Controls, with the support of WMC and MMAC, supporting, the 800-pound gorilla?

Connect the dots.

Doyle is creating on a $1 billion project on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called the Wisconsin Research Institute. Stem cell research. Cancer research. Cures for all manor of diseases. A worthy cause, no doubt.

Consider the Wisconsin corporations that would benefit from the construction and operation of the Wisconsin Research Institute? On a billion dollar laboratory project, how much would Johnson Controls "climate control group" and "facilities management divisions" stand to gain? $50 million?  $100 million? Run the numbers over the lifetime of the facility, if you like. I trust Johnson Controls has a pretty good idea. 

Next, consider how many companies represented on the WMC and MMAC boards of directors stand to benefit directly and indirectly from the construction and management of this $1 billion expenditure? Google the lists of their directors. Make your own evaluation.

For me, it took a fair amount of time and research to connect the dots. Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-Onalaska) has his heels so dug in on this one that the sales tax on people who pay their hospital bills is unlikely to pass the Assembly.

The question is why would smart, big business leaders go along with something that they know is wrong?
One of the reasons local business leaders join business associations, such as MMAC and WMC, to help sort through the almost incomprehensible machinations of government, particularly at the state and local government levels. They let us down on this one. They ought to know better. They thought we would not connect the dots.
 
Dennis Ellmaurer is a principal of Globe National Corp., a Milwaukee firm working exclusively with sellers of small businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. Ellmaurer also is a chairman of The Executive Committee, facilitating three CEO groups in southeastern Wisconsin.

Over the past weekend, 65 teams began their quest for the NCAA Basketball Championship, while countless among us breathlessly chart the progress of our "brackets." As an avid sports fan, I am following right along with everyone else, but I do so with cheers from an equally important contest still ringing in my ears, providing a reminder that athletics viewed in its proper context is merely part of the overall education and formative process for young people. 

As the new CEO of Discovery World, I was asked to take part as a first-time judge at the FIRST Robotics Wisconsin Regional Competition last weekend. I witnessed a thrilling competition that inspires young people to pursue careers as scientists and engineers and promotes a spirit of "gracious professionalism" that is too often lost in society's focus on sports. FIRST Robotics (www.usfirst.org), launched 15 years ago by inventors and engineers, challenges high school students to build a robot for competition from a standard "kit" of parts over a six-week period.

Most teams work year round, preparing for the rigors of the intense spring competition, often receiving high school credit. Adult mentors, parents, teachers and corporations contribute skills, time and financial resources to these students, who represent all racial, social and ethnic backgrounds.

I had a front row seat as 60 teams - most from the Midwest, but one hailing from as far away as Hawaii - competed at the US Cellular Arena. Ingenuity, elegant design and competitive performance were rewarded throughout the weekend, but other awards, including the highest honor, were bestowed on teams exhibiting spirit, inspiration and "gracious professionalism" - an ideal central to FIRST which encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.

Each team cherishes success, but they know that success can mean much more than mere triumph on a scoreboard.

The competition began with 80 round-robin matches, after which the top eight teams formed three team alliances and battled for the champion's trophy. The finals provided a level of excitement that rivaled any sporting event at the high school or collegiate levels, with thousands of screaming fans looking on. The eventual winning alliance included a seasoned group of Waukesha area students, a group of students from several Platteville high schools and a rookie team composed of students from an inner city Minneapolis public school.

But winning was not restricted to those who prevailed in the final match. Consider just a few of scenes I witnessed: a young man confined to a wheel chair who served as the "driver" for his team, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by maneuvering his robot to heave a ball over a six-foot tall obstacle in the waning seconds of a match. The celebration by this young man - and his teammates who mobbed him - was something to behold.

During another match, I saw another team use their robot's "arms" to reach down and rescue an opposing robot which had been knocked over and disabled, expressing more interest in fair play than in scoring points in that single game. Events like these were common, providing this viewer with ample evidence that these young people are getting life lessons that will make them winners for years to come.

When the points from weekend matches were totaled, MORE Robotics did not place in the top 40.  However, this team of Milwaukee area high school students received the Regional Chairman's Award, the weekend's most prestigious honor, and a chance to compete at the National Finals in Atlanta because they exemplify "gracious professionalism" at every turn. These young people and their mentors devote time and talent to other teams, sponsor youth Lego teams, and expand math and science education and career possibilities to hundreds of other students and families throughout the year.

As we gather round televisions to watch young athletes compete in the NCAA tournament and lavish attention on society's "heroes," we should also remember that groups like FIRST Robotics and competitions like those held recently in Milwaukee are critically important for shaping careers, providing future leaders and solidifying our local and national economy for years to come.

In the 21st Century, smarts and innovation can be as "cool" as a reverse dunk.

Joel Brennan is the chief executive officer of Discovery World in Milwaukee.