Ideas

Menomonee Falls-based Actuant Corp. has recently implemented a management development program for its new employees.

Shouldn’t mission statements be exciting and compelling? Isn’t a mission all about heart and emotion, about caring and helping, about being human?

Congress has given many business owners an incredible tax bonus by increasing the lifetime gift tax exemption amount to more than $5 million, but only until the end of this year. Barring additional legislative action, that exemption will expire and be reduced to only $1 million. This gift tax exemption level provides many business owners an unprecedented opportunity to pass on the family business free of exposure to wealth transfer taxes.

Author Ritch Eich has recognized that motivation and direction from company leaders has become the next victim to the economic recession.

Question:

"What do you think about this situation? An executive received notification of his bonus based on his company's 2011 performance. Angered and upset that it was so small, he sent an e-mail to his wife complaining bitterly about how hard he had worked, how under-appreciated he is, etc. The coup de grace is the 'paltry' bonus was 'only' $300,000! To make a long story, short, the executive hit 'reply all' and sent the message to a bunch of people he didn't mean to and is now under criticism for his greed and insensitivity. The company has lost money the past few years and is currently downsizing and restructuring."

I recently attended the American Heart Association's Heart Ball, and asked my ballroom dance partner to be my guest. I thought with the Eddie Butts Band playing, how much more fun could it be than to dance all night long?

The Milwaukee Job Corps Center celebrated its first class of graduates in January, just one year after the school began accepting students.

Bob Wills is committed to the local food movement in Milwaukee, which is why he decided to open his new cheesemaking facility right in the heart of the city.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's Council of Small Business Executives will launch a campaign this week to raise $75,000 for Second Chance Partners for Education's new education center.

The pace of growth for manufacturing in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois slowed in March, according to the latest Institute of Supply Management (ISM)-Marquette University Monthly Survey on Manufacturing Activity.