editor’sNOTE

PUBLISHER Jamie Dlugosch

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Carl Gillen
CHIEF FINANCIAL O F F I C E R Marcel Gyswyt

EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF Drew Wood
COPY E D I T O R Judy Arginteanu
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT THIS JOB is the
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
people I meet. The same could probably be said about any job, really, Holly Dolezalek, Stephen Dupont, Eric Isberg, Beth LaBreche,
Elizabeth Millard, John P. Palen, Steven Schussler
but what’s particularly cool about this one is that one day I could be
EDITORIAL INTERNS
having coffee with a laidback ad guy, the next day I could be at a lun- Sunny Thao
cheon with a room full of patent attorneys, the next I could be talking ADVERTISING
politics (hopefully with a politician) and the next I could be visiting ADVERTISING SALES

a start-up getting the low-down on why their new widget is the best Carl Gillen, carl.gillen@tigeroak.com
Ryan Molstad, ryan.molstad@tigeroak.com
new widget (the answer, btw, usually has more to do with the people
than the widget). ART
ART DIRECTOR Dana Oelfke
The sheer variety is enough to make my days, weeks and months LEAD STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Tate Carlson
dynamic, but the reason I love it owes to more than simply variety STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS
Emily J. Davis, Marshall Franklin Long
adding spice to my working life. The other day I had lunch with an
entire PR agency (five people total, to be honest), and they were asking PRODUCTION
PROJECT DIRECTOR Dianne Talmage
great questions. They were genuinely curious, not just about how the P R O J E C T C O O R D I N A T O R Dana Oelfke
magazine picks stories, but about what sorts of things, as the editor, G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R Emily Bretzel

I’m surprised to learn on a daily basis. Their questions got me think- CIRCULATION
ing outside of my usual PR spiel, and one truth it led me to is that I don’t, as of right now, know everything that CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jeremy Wieland
N E W S S T A N D M A N A G E R Kelley Wood
I’m interested in. There are plenty of things I am interested in, but that list is evolving daily. Which is where CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES
the variety of people I’m fortunate to meet comes into play. Valerie Asante, Sam Campell
When I first started here I knew, for instance, that I was innately interested in advertising and marketing, so FULFILLMENT MANAGER
Kasey Taube
it wasn’t surprising that I enjoyed meeting people who worked in that realm. What was surprising was when
ADMINISTRATION
I interviewed Bill Bojan, the founder of Integrated Governance Solutions, a corporate governance think tank, C R E D I T M A N A G E R April McCauley
and discovered that I was really intrigued by the work he was doing. Had you asked me even two days before A C C O U N T A N T Pat Schossow

if I thought corporate governance was even a tad interesting, I likely would have rolled my eyes. Seriously. MARKETING & PROMOTIONS
That’s the greatest thing about each meeting I take: I never know which one is going to be the one that sparks EVENTS & PROMOTIONS MANAGER Amanda Peterson
E V E N T S C O O R D I N A T O R Dahlia Brue
my imagination and pulls me down its rabbit hole into a brand-new area of total fascination. It could be a
lawyer, it could be a banker, heck, it could be a priest … and it’s not even the beginning of a joke. WEB
WEB DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Sandy Powell
I guess I bring it up because this month I had the privilege of sitting down with one of the more genuine
and thoughtful people in the Twin Cities, Lars Leafblad. We’ve talked about Lars often of late, and rightfully EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Brian Adams, Jacquie Berglund, Andrew E. Brehm,
so. In case you’re one of the 10 people in town who doesn’t know Lars, he’s a principal at executive search Amanda Brinkman, Kim Brown, Betsy Buckley,
firm Keystone Search and the founder of the monthly networking newsletter Pollen (which you can read at Andrew Eklund, Jim Hansen, Bill Monson,
Randy McPherson, Anita Patel
minnpost.com). More than that, though, he’s one of the area’s most tireless and selfless connectors. I’ve never
once come away from a meeting with Lars without at least one more meeting on the books with someone
whom he thinks I should connect with. That’s just the kind of guy he is. Aside from promoting a guy who
Tiger Oak Media
refuses to promote himself, I bring up Lars because we talked about how content we Minnesotans, Twin One Tiger Oak Plaza
900 South Third Street
Citians in particular, are with our standing in the world. When any sort of national ranking is released and Minneapolis, MN 55415
we crack the top 20, we’re stoked. And, yeah, that recognition is great, but the problem is, we’re perpetually 612.548.3180
content with being just good enough. We’re No. 10 on the list of the nation’s best coffee cities? YES! We’ve REPRINTS: For high-quality reprints of 500
or more call Jeremy Wieland 612.548.3868
cracked the top 20 coolest cities in the nation? GREAT! (So did Fargo, fyi.) What Lars and I were saying is,
We occasionally make our subscriber names available to companies
yeah, that’s nice, but why the heck aren’t we trying to be No. 1 on these lists? We’re like a perpetual 5 to 10 whose products or services should be of interest to you. If you prefer not
to be included, you may request that your name be removed from our special
and, honestly, if we’re as splendid as we think we are, that’s not good enough. promotions lists. Write to Minnesota Business Magazine, Circulation
Department, 900 South Third Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55415.
Maybe Lars put it best in a recent installment of Pollen: “0 MN companies make @fastcompany World’s 50 © Copyright 2011 Tiger Oak Media. All rights reserved.
Most Innovative Companies.” That, by the way, was filed under “Ideas/Inspiration.” The opinions of columnists are their own.

MINNESOTABUSINESS.COM
Minnesota Business Magazine (ISSN 15396452) is published monthly by
Tiger Oak Publications, 900 S. Third St., Minneapolis, MN 55415. Phone:
612-548-3180. Fax: 612-548-3181. Subscription rates $24 for 12 issues,
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Minnesota Business Magazine

4 MINNESOTA BUSINESS April 2011