Ideas

Would you accept an offer to become president of a company whose revenue ranks second to last in the industry, whose buildings and equipment are pretty much obsolete, and whose prospective clients often select other suppliers who have a better value proposition?

Wisconsin has emerged as No. 2 in the United States in its “mid-market” business sector in the inaugural Dun & Bradstreet/American Express Power Index survey of 19 million American businesses released last month, outshining entrepreneurial superstars New York, California and Texas. This may be particularly surprising in light of past reports that Wisconsin fares poorly among such measures as number of startups and access to venture capital (although Wisconsin is not bad; high in private equity). In fact, ranking so high in mid-market companies is a likely leading indicator of growth that impacts the wider Wisconsin community, and bodes well for Wisconsin's entrepreneurs, business owners and labor force.

In the one-year period since Milwaukee-based contract manufacturer Tower Machining began in April 2014, it has doubled in revenue and tripled its customer base.

Those of you grew up with Sesame Street may recall that each episode was brought to you by a different letter of the alphabet. I experienced my own version of this phenomenon three years ago, when much of my job suddenly became all about the letter “S”—or more accurately five of them.

Milwaukee-based Prolitec Inc., which manufactures ambient scenting and odor remediation solutions, promoted Matthew Ansley from chief engineer to vice...

Pressure washer manufacturer FNA Group Inc. recently announced that it is relocating its corporate headquarters from Elk Grove Village, Ill., to Pleasant Prairie.

Mircea Dobre, vice president of equity research at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., says the worst may be over for the mining sector.

Midwest Refrigerated Services, a frozen and refrigerated logistics and distribution services company serving the food industry, plans to consolidate its Pleasant Prairie operations into a new facility.

Waukesha-based Telkonet Inc. reported a first quarter net loss of $744,078, compared with $778,208 in the first quarter of 2014.

The Water Council has named Matt Howard as the first director of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, North America.