Category: Business/Technology

THE DAY before Jennifer Connor was officially going to enter the mustard business, her partner put her in a pickle.

At the time – 2004 – Connor was in Chicago, back from Hollywood, looking to buy a mustard line named for a longtime Madison retail clothier.

….Connor was a UW-Madison freshman eating a cheeseburger at Stillwater’s on State Street when she had her first heavenly bite of Rendall’s mustard. Talking to Connor, you soon learn she does not suffer from an enthusiasm deficit – especially when it comes to Rendall’s mustard.

How do you stop a herd of rampaging elephants?

A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison business students recently learned that the answer lies in learning to think from a different point of view.

A group of 10 master’s of business administration students visited the impoverished African nation of Malawi in early January. The journey was one of several trips abroad the MBA program has been adding in an effort to give their students a more worldly outlook.

Think of Madison’s State Street. Or Monroe Street. Or Willy Street. A distinct character comes to mind in a split second.

Now think of Regent Street, another renowned Madison thoroughfare – the stretch bracketed by Camp Randall and the Kohl Center and visited by tens of thousands of Badger fans every year.

MADISON – Wisconsin’s second-largest newspaper is letting readers help decide what to put on the front page.

The endowments of U.S. colleges and universities earned decent returns in 2005, although most did not match the level of success they had in 2004.

Higher-education endowments earned an average 9.3 percent in the 2005 fiscal year, compared with the average 15.1 percent posted in the 2004 fiscal year, which ended on June 30 for most institutions.

Richard Florida, the best-selling author, consultant and professor at Geaorge Mason University submits to a Q & A interview in which he says: “We need to massively, massively invest in our universities and colleges. For every University of Wisconsin, there is a state that doesn’t have one.” Florida says Madison is a “beacon,” partly because of the university.

UW’s Business School will see the first graduates of its new specialized MBA program go into the job market in 2006, its first chance to see how the new program works for employers and graduates.

“It is our expectation that these men and women will be extremely attractive candidates for jobs in their chosen field,” Michael Knetter said.

The specialty MBA program allows students to choose from among more than a dozen career specialties before starting the program.

TomoTherapy, one of Madison’s fastest growing businesses, has raised an additional $14 million in investor financing.

It might seem odd that a long-haired hippie fresh out of University of Wisconsin-Madison would set aside his diplomas in business management and sociology, hop into a beat-up Corolla and head for Seattle, just to learn everything there is to know about coffee.

Up to 185 companies would leave Madison – taking with them nearly $21 million in property tax revenues – if the city enacts a proposal requiring employers to give workers paid sick days, according to a study to be released today by business advocates.

It’s been nearly six months since Mithridion Inc., a Madison company developing drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, won the top prize in the Governor’s Business Plan Contest. And the impact of its victory continues.

“It has raised awareness. People know who we are and know something about what we’re trying to do, which is always very helpful,” said Trevor Twose, Mithridion’s chief executive officer.

Twose, who co-founded the company with UW-Madison associate professor Jeff Johnson, is in the midst of raising money from angel investors to help Mithridion take the technology from UW to the next stage: developing a drug candidate.

Madison may have no trouble tooting its own horn, but it hasn’t done much with its flag. Unbeknown to many, the city has had an official flag since 1962.

….John Taylor, local philanthropist and owner of J Taylor’s Rare Maps, Notable Books and Antiquities on North Carroll Street, said he had city flags made because he wanted to display one in front of his store, which he opened about eight months ago. The flags are now for sale at Taylor’s store…. Taylor said he donates a portion of all store proceeds to the History of Cartography project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Trotting out Madison’s official flag is but one of the ways the city intends to honor its 150th birthday.

Kristin Kent, a second year UW-Madison student in the university’s Master of Business Adminstration program, would like to see businesses make more socially responsible choices.
“Right now it is very easy and cheap to waste – natural resources, people, ecosystems, land are all disposable,” Kent said.

UW-Madison and its technology transfer organization, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, received more than $47.5 million in 2004 in licensing revenues, or fees paid to use the patents the university holds for inventions and discoveries made by campus faculty and researchers. That’s the third highest in the nation, according to the Association of University Technology Managers, behind the University of California System and New York University. It’s also $10 million more than the $37.5 million in licensing revenues the university collected in 2003, when it ranked 6th in the nation.

TomoTherapy has an enviable problem: how to fill more than 50 job openings.

� The controversial new power plant on the west side of the UW-Madison campus finally fired up in 2005 and began lighting and cooling area buildings in May.
â��� Cellular Dynamics, the company formed by UW- Madison stem-cell pioneer James Thomson, received $2 million in grants and loans from the state.

….In the garment industry, Steve & Barry’s fits into an emerging category of “extreme-value retailers who go to off-the-beaten-track marketplaces like Madagascar where they can really get tremendous deals,” said Lois Huff of Retail Forward, a consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio.

They cater to tightfisted customers “looking for something that’s ‘good enough’ – decent quality at a great price,” Huff said. “There’s a huge shift in many consumers toward that kind of a mind-set.”