In this episode of One Take CEO Interviews presented by Platinum Group, Kari Rihm, owner, president and CEO of South St. Paul-based Rihm Family Companies (RFC), discusses what it’s been like this year leading her fourth-generation family-owned business that employs more than 350 people in 21 locations. Challenges ranged from ‘fixing leaking pipes’ and quickly adjusting to extreme changes […]
During this One Take CEO Interview presented by Platinum Group, Aleesha Webb, vice chair and president of Blaine, MN-based Village Bank, advises business owners to take advantage of low interest rates if they haven’t done so already, and to be strategic while thinking outside the box. Her second-generation family owned community bank has 69 employees, about […]
We soon end the strangest year most of us have experienced, one in which uncertainty as individuals, families, organizations, communities, states and a nation reached its highest point since World War II. Some did well, some remain in limbo, some were severely affected. We all face continued uncertainty for at least the next six months, […]
Liz Diedrich, founder and CEO of Diedrich RPM (research propelled marketing), provides a variety of helpful perspectives in this One Take CEO Interview. One pertains to what’s working best in marketing today. “We’re seeing very dramatic shifts in terms of what is working digitally: Retargeting—the ads that follow you around— has produced huge conversions in […]
Kottke Trucking Co. Co-Owner and CEO Kyle Kottke shares during this on-site video interview how his Buffalo Lake, MN-based trucking business has adapted in many ways since Covid-19 began to affect the economy back in March. This includes helping truckers find places to stop for gas and to stay overnight, when most locations shut down […]
Tastefully Simple Founder and CEO Jill Blashak Strahan shares during in a brief interview what it was like to grow her 1995 startup into a $143 million-a-year business, and then lead through seven consecutive years of losses before Covid-19 hit. Ironically those recent tough times forced her organization to return to being scrappy like it […]
Founder and CEO Bob Schafer created a highly successful bakery supply business from scratch all from operating cash flow; no debt. Mixing and/or distributing 150 million pounds a year of ingredients to food manufacturers, this Minnesota Family Business Award-winning company has weathered three recessions since its founding in 1991. Thus far it is handing the […]
U.S. commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings through September outpaced the number filed in all of 2019. And the 747 filings made that month represented a 77 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to AACER court data. Yet Minnesota’s economy appears to be rebounding quite well from the depths of the Covid-19 […]
These issues and more are explored in this week’s One Take CEO Interview with Jim Snoxell, CEO and chair of the business law and nonprofits department at the law firm Henningson & Snoxell. “It took me a while to realize this but there’s no question the ongoing Covid-19 [pandemic] and all the social unrest and political discomfort going […]
In this brief interview, Bobby Tarnowski shares how he’s trying to avoid raising prices due to increasing costs and other challenges. His approach includes packaging service offerings and providing financing options. Such constructive problem solving makes sense given Tarnowski’s a math enthusiast who owns a 10-location, 65-employee Mathnasium franchise serving about 600 students in the […]