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What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?
"Thinking up innovative new products was the smartest thing we did last year. Innovative products and services are what drive new business and the necessary job growth in our local and national economy."
"The latest addition to our company is our H.R. division of products and services. This is where the insurance business is going and we want to get there before everyone else. We now offer small Milwaukee-area employers an H.R. Hotline for $99 per month, where employers can have unlimited access to a seasoned H.R. professional to make all those nasty H.R. problems and compliance issues go away. We also offer full outsourced H.R. managers for a little more money. If you're a business owner and don't have a professional doing your H.R., or cannot afford one, this is the answer for you. Waiting until you have a lawsuit or big fine is too late."
Do you plan to hire any additional staff or make any significant capital investments in your company in the next year?
"Yes. We continue to grow profitably and numerically. It's a reflection of the wonderful staff we have and the products and services they build and deliver to a hungry employer audience."
What will be your company's main challenges in the next year?
"Hiring the right people to drive the bus and to sit in the right seats on the bus for optimal conversation and collaborative thinking."
What's the hottest trend in your industry?
"The tectonic plate movement is making traditional insurance and nontraditional human resource management and delivery collide into one."
Do you have a business mantra?
"Voltaire said that "No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking." All problem resolution and good business starts with sustained creative thinking."
From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?
"I like Howard Schultz. He took a mature industry – coffee – and rebranded it, created an experience around it and built a huge new business around those basic ideas."
What was the best advice you ever received?
"Don't get above your raisin'"
What do you like to do in your free time?
"I immensely enjoy my teaching and mentoring responsibilities as a member of the faculty at the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I love to create. I love to write my monthly column and interact with my readers in Employee Benefit Adviser magazine. I love to play guitar. I love mentoring younger people not as far down the road as me and helping them avoid some of the pitfalls that someone else did not show me when I stepped in it."
