News of the first round of
Enterprise Minnesota's Pathways to Business Growth program in late January highlighted the numbers: a $515,000 federal grant (out of a pool of more than $9 million) aimed at improving manufacturing companies.
Those numbers belie the rigors of the program, particularly the investments in time and money by the ten participating companies, each of which put up $20,000 for what Enterprise Minnesota President and CEO Bob Kill calls a "two-year journey" that he likened to a graduate course.
"People tend to think of grants as free money," says Kill. "We find that, with free money, nobody stays the course. There has to be a commitment."
On-site Enterprise Minnesota consultants will work with the companies on a variety of growth strategies, including strategic planning, marketing, purchasing, innovation, and leadership and business development.
Each company begins with a business assessment, but the program differs for each, based on need and the level of maturity and development, according to Kill.
For example, North Minneapolis-based
Absolute Quality--the only round-one participant from the state's two largest cities--has "done a lot of work on the inside with management, lean, employee development," says Kill. "They have a good management team, they want to grow, they're committed, [and] they're large enough to put the resources into it," he says.
Through the program, Kill says, the company will focus on need areas like middle-level leadership and making a "strong marketing push" to introduce its products and technologies to new markets.
Enterprise Minnesota tracks participants' progress twice a year with an independent survey of sales, revenue, and other measures of growth.
For their investment, companies receive "significantly more in the amount of services," says Kill. The program boasts an ambitious goal of a 20-to-1 return on investment in the form of "top-line growth or bottom-line savings," he says.
Source: Bob Kill, Enterprise Minnesota
Writer: Jeremy Stratton