Category: Business/Technology

The eight-county region around Madison now has its own brand name: Thrive.
Business and government leaders hope the brand name will make entrepreneurs and high-tech professionals think of south central Wisconsin as the place to be. UW-Madison and private enterprises will benefit as the word is spread that Dane and seven surrounding counties are desirable career and quality-of-life destinations.

Madison, Wis. – The stock slide on Wall Street, the fallout in the housing market, and the surge in oil prices earlier this year painted a gloomy outlook – even possible recession – for 2008, but the outlook in Dane County is considerably brighter, especially the technology sector, according to the fifth annual First Business Bank Economic Survey of Dane County.

The survey, conducted by the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, queried 544 businesses between September and November of 2007. The survey was sent to CEOs, CFOs, presidents or owners of Dane County businesses with five or more employees.

MADISON â?? Area businesses are heading into 2008 with some trepidation and caution, according to a business survey released by the UW-Madison School of Business this morning.

The report, sponsored by First Business Bank and the business school, said most companies in the county were profitable this year, in spite of concern over the stock slide on Wall Street, rising gas prices and a troubled housing market.

Obituaries of Frances L. Murphy, publisher emeritus of the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States, who died Nov. 21 at 85, have mentioned she earned a journalism degree at UW-Madison in 1944.

Murphy’s grandfather founded the paper, the Afro-American, in Baltimore in 1892; her father later served as publisher, and Frances â?? known as Frankie Lou â?? became publisher in 1971.

In a lengthy interview with the Washington Press Club Foundation in 1992, Murphy provided a sobering account of what it was like to be black in Madison in the early 1940s.

The next consultant, Ann Kinkade, is director of the Family Business Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Kinkade, 45, is most troubled by Kirsh’s habit of setting goals, such as more efficiently using his workforce, then failing to follow through and coach managers on their performance. That’s a sign that the owners are too complacent, she says. “You ask why you’re in the red, but there’s no fire in the belly,” she notes. “You’re saying, ‘We’ve got to make the best of this for ten years until we sell the business.’ Your employees sense it, and feel comfortable too.”

A year and a half after opening the ambitious Brink Lounge on East Washington Avenue, Curt Brink and his son, Matt, are dedicating themselves to an even bigger project, a $4 million restaurant and entertainment venue called the Field Pass, which they plan to debut in the redeveloped University Square building next summer.

Local cops were in hot pursuit of breakfast early Saturday morning as a tipsy thief tried but failed to make off with treats from the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Co.

….When the truck driver noticed his truck of goodies was gone, he phoned police, with University of Wisconsin and city of Madison squads in hot pursuit.

Weâ??re all well aware of the naming-rights phenomenon at colleges and universities: Donors give big gifts and get their names on big buildings.

When it comes to giving and rewards, size matters.

So imagine the consternation that ensued at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when the dean of the business school proposed soliciting donors who would pledge not to have their names on a building.

Call it fundraising unplugged.

Local retailers have helped the idea grow in Madison, and now University of Wisconsin-Madison is adopting fair trade apparel.

Madison-based Centrose and the University of Wisconsin-Madison jointly received $150,000 of funding from the National Science Foundation to continue working on a proprietary drug discovery method that uses sugar chemistry to enhance drugs and reinvigorate failed ones. (Second item)

The cultural shift from Wall Street to Willy Street can make it difficult to recruit top-notch management talent for Madison companies, Shawn Guse, TomoTherapy’s vice president and general counsel told a gathering of entrepreneurs and investors on Tuesday.

UW-Madison is a lure for scientific talent, but “recruiting commercial talent into Madison is a challenge,” said David Snyder, Nimblegen’s vice president and chief financial officer.

Twenty-one companies that will pitch their stories to investors from at least three states Wednesday at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium in Madison’s Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.

LONDON, England (CNN) — It is a common way for business schools to secure their future: In exchange for a substantial bequest from a former student or other benefactor the school is re-named in their honor.

Big checks were written — but the Wisconsin School’s donors did not want a name change.

However, in a unique twist to this practice, the Wisconsin School of Business has just been given $85 million by a group of alumni on one condition — it keeps its name exactly the same.

After standing unused for years, the site of Josie’s Spaghetti House has been sold and is poised for redevelopment, but it’s still unclear what will end up on the well-trafficked corner.

Real estate developer Tom Degen bought five parcels of land, including the two sites where Josie’s sits (the parking lot and the restaurant at 906 Regent St.), for $2 million in June, according to public records. The three additional sites are homes on College Court, and are adjacent to the Josie’s properties.

There are many inaccuracies in Jason Smathersâ?? â??opinionâ? piece (â??Labor Scandal at Wisconsin Union?â?) published in The Badger Herald Nov. 7.

The Wisconsin Union denied two employeesâ?? accusations of mistreating illegal immigrant workers Wednesday.