American free enterprise capitalism was founded on the model of local small businesses and their owners being a vital and integral part of the community. American business has grown and changed dramatically in the past 200 years and today we live in a world economy where the food we eat might have been produced and processed thousands of miles away and we might be working for a formerly local company that may be owned by a German or Chinese conglomerate.
That being said, local ownership still survives, albeit in a much more competitive environment, and is no less vital to the health of a community today than it was in the early years of our nation. Not only do homegrown businesses provide employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, their owners and managers often have a profound understanding of their customers and are better able to respond to their needs than any global corporation.
Over the past four decades, many local businesses have taken on an additional role in our communities; beyond producing a good or service at a profit and creating decent jobs, they also try to change their community and the world they exist in. During that same period, new concepts entered the economic literature such as “socially responsible businesses” and “dual bottom lines,” where, in addition to the traditional bottom line, businesses have created a second metric, a social bottom line. This dual bottom line and all of the social good created by these socially responsible businesses is what the Shepherd’s InBiz Awards want to celebrate.
Obviously there are many other business awards given by business publications, accounting firms or business associations. The awards are usually based on a company’s growth, either the top-line growth or the bottom-line growth, both of which are important, as every business owner will quickly agree. Corporate America is built almost exclusively on that one metric, the rate of growth of either the top and/or bottom lines.
The problem is that these metrics do not give the full and rich picture of the role played by our local business community.
The Shepherd Express, with the assistance of a panel of prominent civic and business leaders in our community, developed eight categories celebrating various examples of how businesses and various nonprofit organizations go above and beyond to make Milwaukee a much better place to live and work. The Shepherd then asked our readers to nominate businesses in any one or two or all eight categories. Then our panel sat around a table and debated the merits of each nominee, understanding that only one can win in each category this year, and made their final decisions.
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At the Oct. 20 InBiz Awards ceremony at Potawatomi Bingo Casino’s Woodland Dreams Ballroom, Louis Fortis, Shepherd publisher and former economics professor, described the objectives of InBiz: “The metric of growth and profitability doesn’t give a full sense of what is happening in the community,” he said. “Growth in the top and bottom lines doesn’t give us a complete picture of what the economy is all about.”
The heart and soul of a local economy can be just as valuable as growth and profits. “There are people who go into business, for example, to improve the local environment or help to revitalize a particular neighborhood,” Fortis continued. “There are quirky independent businesses that give our city its character. That’s what we’re here to celebrate.” We are proud to present the first set of winners of the Shepherd Express’ InBiz Awards.
Community Champion: Urban Ecology Center
The Community Champion Award honors a business that promotes everything unique about Milwaukee or a business that embodies what makes Milwaukee, or its own neighborhood, so special. The much-loved Urban Ecology Center (UEC) started in a trailer in the 1990s along the Milwaukee River in Riverside Park. This nonprofit eco-education center has grown to three sites—Riverside Park, Washington Park and Menomonee Valley—and offers a model for other urban communities around the country. UEC Executive Director Ken Leinbach asked each audience member to invite over for dinner a Milwaukeean who is not of their age, race or economic standing so that we can build a stronger community. “We don’t have a true community until we all communicate together,” Leinbach said.
Diversity Devotee: Rockwell Automation
The Diversity Devotee Award recognizes a business that creates a nondiscriminatory, welcoming workplace or supports equality in the community. The Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation was honored for its commitment to developing a workplace environment with a culture of inclusion. The company supports ten employee resource groups, including ROKout LGBT & Allies, which supports and encourages all without regard to gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.
“The importance of encouraging more youth to become engineers, regardless of their sexuality, is so they can spur diversity and subsequently innovation,” Ed Seaberg, vice president of information technology and ROKout executive sponsor, told the Shepherd.
Economic Energizer: WWBIC
The Economic Energizer Award recognizes the local entities that provide support to local businesses and organizations to enable them to develop and grow. The first winner of this award is Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), which provides business and financial education as well as mentoring and access to loans. It focuses on clients who are underserved by the traditional banking industry, such as women, minorities and low-income entrepreneurs. Since its establishment in 1987, this statewide economic energizer has loaned $34.4 million to 3,500 business owners. As a result of WWBIC’s efforts to help business owners launch, grow or expand their businesses, an estimated 8,000 jobs have been created or retained.
President and CVO Wendy Baumann told the InBiz crowd that WWBIC’s staff gets up every day thinking about how they can help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.
“This work is in our hearts and our hearts are in this work,” Baumann said.
Green Guru: Outpost Natural Foods
The Green Guru Award is given to a local business that makes a positive contribution to our air, earth and water and allows us to enjoy our precious natural resources in Milwaukee.
Outpost Natural Foods won this award for its commitment to local and organic farming and its sustainable business practices, such as encouraging recycling, relying on green materials, and supporting clean, renewable energy sources. Sustainability Manager Jessy Servi explained to the InBiz audience that Outpost conducts sustainability reporting annually to ensure that the co-op is focused on its triple bottom line—the social, environmental and financial impacts on its business and the community. In 2013, Outpost began an organized effort to compost its food waste and its newest store, in Mequon, is a LEED Gold certified facility.
Made in Milwaukee: Lakefront Brewery
The Made in Milwaukee Award recognizes a local business that utilizes products or services made in southeastern Wisconsin. The iconic Lakefront Brewery was honored for its role in the local economy.
Founder Russ Klisch stressed the importance of local business owners joining forces through membership in Local First Milwaukee as well as buying locally. He cited the fact that 69 cents of every dollar spent in a locally owned business stays in the local economy, while 41 cents spent at a local chain is kept in the community.
“The community needs that support,” Klisch said. “The more money we keep here, the more jobs we’ll have.”
Klisch added that Lakefront’s Wisconsinite beer is crafted from ingredients sourced only from Wisconsin and that the brewery strives to hire from within the community.
New Biz on the Block: Bublr Bikes
The New Biz on the Block Award honors a new, locally owned business or an established local business with innovative products or services previously unknown to Milwaukee. This year’s New Biz on the Block went to Bublr Bikes, the just-launched bike-sharing service of the City of Milwaukee and the nonprofit Midwest BikeShare Inc. “Bike sharing is here to stay as a form of urban mass transportation,” said Bublr Bikes’ Kevin Hardman upon accepting the award. Why is that important in Milwaukee? “We have this great, wonderful, beautiful, vibrant, interesting city,” Hardman said. “What bike sharing does is make it easier for people who live here and visit here to get around and experience what we know and what we want more and more people to know.”
Social Spirit: Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee
The Social Spirit Award highlights a business that looks beyond the bottom line to foster social justice to improve lives and create a better community in which to live, work and do business.
Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee won the inaugural Social Spirit Award for its 33-year history of organizing workplace-giving campaigns. Through employee contributions, Community Shares’ members support social justice, animal welfare and environmental nonprofits. John Jansen, Community Shares’ executive director, said his organization helps to build trust between nonprofits and for-profit companies, which ultimately builds a better community. “This is an important award for us, because social justice is what we do,” Jansen said. “The spirit of this award is something that we live day by day, day in and day out.”
Tech Trailblazer: Green4Keeps
The Tech Trailblazer award honors an innovator who promotes digital literacy in our community. Green4Keeps, which seeks to achieve sustainability through art, education and technology, won this inaugural award. Owner Jessa Green provides IT consulting services but also upcycles and repurposes materials to create art. Green said part of her job is to help her clients with their IT concerns. “I can speak to you in human terms,” she said with a laugh. But the other side of her enterprise aims to save the environment. “I have a whole other side that creates art out of sustainable materials and keeps everything out of the landfill that can be kept out,” Green said.
