ColoradoBiz articles from March 2007

ColoradoBiz archives from March 2007

Ritter's veto is the right move.(Bill Ritter)(Column)
March 1, 2007... Gov. Bill Ritter's veto of an amendment to the Colorado Labor Peace Act last month seems a fitting subject for my last column as editor of ColoradoBiz. Exactly 6 1/2 years ago, I opened the October issue with an introductory column...

How to find and keep good people: he who ignores the growth of his employees will wonder where the customers went.(Column)
March 1, 2007... [Part IV in a series on the startup challenges of Wiesner Publishing] Good people! We all know that they are the key to having a good or great company. Over the last 25 years we have had our share and managed to keep many of them for a...

Protecting a valuable asset: your reputation.(Column)
March 1, 2007... A company's reputation is part of its brand--a precious asset that is strongly linked to its success. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Research has shown that customers prefer to shop and invest in organizations that operate in socially...

Sharing joy, baseball with Suplizio.(READERS RESPOND)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... Thanks for your wonderful piece about Sam Suplizio ("Grand Junction giant in business, baseball," Mike Taylor, February). It brought back some great memories. In the 1980s, I headed the City of Denver's efforts to secure a Major League...

Point on racism incomplete.(READERS RESPOND)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... Your article's statement ("Racism still a workplace problem," Robert Schwab, February) that Colorado "does not track the number of contracts it signs with minority-owned or women-owned businesses" combined with your comment "it doesn't want to...

ColoradoBiz today.(READERS RESPOND)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... READERS RESPOND @ Mortgage turmoil: (Response to "Fraud, foreclosures give lending industry a black eye," Jeanie Stokes, February magazine): Fischdog - 2/5/2007 3:47:01 PM I was a Mortgage Broker for 3+ years. I saw the good...

Executive edge: Darrick Brown: bank VP still moonlights as musician.(Biography)
March 1, 2007... Denver native Darrick Brown will never forget the Manual High School choir director who would forever change his life. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "We had the best music program in the city, and if it hadn't been for Dr. Joyce Davis I'm not...

The state of higher ed: in a Q&A, CSU President Larry Penley weighs in on funding new governor's 'promise'.(Colorado State University )(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Colorado State University President Larry Penley knows the political fire is hot for reform of higher-education funding, and he knows the coffers for the state's colleges and universities, despite passage of Referendum C in 2005, are still...

Guidance for the tour guide: Adventure Central gives niche tour operators an e-commerce assist.(Company overview)
March 1, 2007... People who run adventure-tour companies know how to steer baby boomers down the Yangtze River in China, how to guide a family up a mountain, and how to find the right spot for helicopter skiing. But they don't know how to set up websites that...

Tech startup of the month.(Solix)
March 1, 2007... INITIAL LIGHTBULB Near the end of 2004, serial entrepreneur Jim Sears was pondering an increasingly common problem. "I asked myself, 'What's going to happen as we run out of fuels?'" he said. "It's like this big elephant in the room." ...

Climate change: Colorado companies are taking the lead in making today's business world a place where profit and planet co-exist.
March 1, 2007... While meeting with the staff of the Alpine Bank at Snowmass Village three years ago, a long-time employee asked Dave Scruby a question he couldn't answer: "Why aren't we environmentally minded?" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "As I drove back...

Givers in good company: businesses look for causes that complement their mission.
March 1, 2007... Giving away money seems like it would be the easiest job in the world, but business leaders often find charitable giving to be a formidable task. "Successful businesses always have an objective they are trying to achieve, but it takes some...

15th Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance Awards: winners prove commitment over long haul.(Planet-profit ethos: Ethics Award)(Company overview)
March 1, 2007... ETHICS IN BUSINESS AWARD REPUBLIC FINANCIAL CORP. IN contrast to the spotlight that bad business behavior attracts, running a business the right way tends to be a quiet, daily, largely unnoticed undertaking. And perhaps that's as it...

2nd opinion: Malik Hasan's HMO model drove down medical costs once, and the former Pueblo doctor believes he has a remedy for what ails health care now.
March 1, 2007... Malik Hasan, the Pueblo doctor who built QualMed Health Inc. into one of the largest health-maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the nation, and who along the way became one of America's most lauded--and loathed--health-care executives, has...

Homes on the range: growing up in the shadow of DIA, Green Valley Ranch could be home to 40,000.(Denver International Airport)
March 1, 2007... Most drivers heading to Denver International Airport round the first big turn going north on Pena Boulevard, hit the gas and zip past the exit sign that says "Green Valley Ranch Boulevard." But around that sign, especially to its east,...

Vintage John Sutcliffe: his Southwest Colorado wines have garnered national interest and no doubt heightened respect for the region's vineyards, but this transplanted Englishman has been more a critic than a supporter of the state's wine industry.(Biography)
March 1, 2007... Close your eyes while listening to John Sutcliffe speak and your mind might very well place him in a gentleman's club in London. So it is somewhat of a shock, with your eyes open, to see this rugged outdoorsman on his ranch and vineyard in a...

Guinness, schmuinness: this is St. Paddy's Day--drink local.
March 1, 2007... OK, this is the month when seemingly all of America raises glasses of Guinness Stout to the patron saint of Ireland. But while you're toasting Saint Patrick on March 17, Brian Dunn will be raising a glass to a different holy Emerald Isle icon:...

A mix of Colorado varietals.(Product/service evaluation)
March 1, 2007... VERSO CELLARS, COLORADO CABERNET SAUVIGNON, 2003 WINE EVALUATION: Almost a year after I first tasted this wine we are trying it again. It clearly has reached a point that it needs to be drunk; I would not cellar this wine any more. Tannins...

Whole Foods reaches out to local growers.(Whole Foods Market Inc.)
March 1, 2007... Whole Foods Market is a bit too expensive for my taste, and yet seemingly by osmosis the natural-foods retailer has raised my interest in natural products--mainly because I have friends who shop there and are constantly telling me what a...

Captain Spongefoot sauces.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... After losing his feet to frostbite in 1974, Paul DiBello's prosthetic foam replacements distinctively squished as he ran his sailing business on Lake Granby, earning him the nickname Captain Sponge-foot. The seven-time world championship skier...

Old Chub Stick.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... "We're constantly looking for something outside the box," said Oskar Blues Brewery founder Dale Katechis of the Old Chub Stick, the world's first beer-infused lip balm. "And it made us laugh a great deal." With an assist from an unguent "mad...

Be Present yoga duds.(Be Present)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... After a post-college stint in Aspen, Amy Lopatin Dobrin decided to go into the women's ski clothing business, but detoured into the yoga niche after her brother Ian Lopatin segued from L.A. entertainment attorney to Phoenix yoga magnate....

DadGear.(DadGear LLC)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... In 2003, following significant globetrotting for his construction-management career, Scott Shoemaker was ready for a change. The then-new dad had beers with then-soon-to-be dad John Brosseau, a corporate IT trainer and a buddy "since fourth...

Planning his approach.(Bruno Event Team)
March 1, 2007... The U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor East golf course in Colorado Springs won't take place until the summer of 2008. Which is exactly why Douglas Habgood already is operating on red alert. Habgood is a professional worrier. He gets paid to...

Unintended consequences.
March 1, 2007... This is the time of year that my business thinking turns to the subject of ethics, as this magazine co-sponsors the annual Colorado Ethics in Business Awards, which will be bestowed at an event March 8. We helped launch this effort back in the...