Innovation + Job News

By: Dan Calabrese

Surgeons and radiologists at Spectrum Health are able to develop diagnoses with vastly enhanced images thanks to technology acquired in fall 2008 from MRIx Technologies – a company owned by an Illinois-based researcher of magnetic resonance imaging.

The MRIx technology provides surgeons with precise information for neurosurgery by brings together functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with stereotactic image guidance studies. Using these images during surgery helps guide physicians and avoids impact on vital language, motor and cognitive centers in the brain.

Because of the MRIx system, it is now possible to generate very precise image of brain activity using a non-invasive method. Previously, the best surgeons and radiologists could do was to settle for a theoretical location of function.

Steve Zomberg, Spectrum’s clinical applications coordinator for Neuro MRI, says the new technology allows surgeons and radiologists to do much more with the images the system produces.

“We had been developing the program, and were able to produce somewhat functional maps off our scanner,” Zomberg said. “But this system really kick-started our program.”

The MRIx system, developed by Dr. Keith Thulborn of the University of Illinois Chicago, produces more functional image maps with more robust activation. The new images interact at a high level with the “stimulus packages” that occur during functional MRIs, such as when a patient is asked to squeeze his or her hand while the system measures the corresponding brain activity.

By: Dan Calabrese

The city of Norton Shores has approved a 12-year, 50 percent tax abatement for Noble Co. – a move that helps Noble proceed with a facilities expansion that will add three-to-five jobs to the company’s existing employment base of 27.

Noble’s expansion will add 31,000 square feet to the company’s facility at 7300 Enterprise. Founded in 1937, Noble formulates hydronic and fire protection fluids and manufactures accessory products for plumbing and tile industries.

Richard Maher, community development director for Norton Shores, said the city’s action is consistent with its overall policy of working to facilitate local business expansion.

“The city council has always been proactive when it comes to our local businesses,” Maher says. “We appreciate businesses that are expanding and growing in our community, and especially in these tough economic times. And Noble has been a good corporate citizen, and we’re happy to support the expansion.”

The value of the tax break for Noble is estimated at $26,047 for all taxing units in the first year, including $3,556 for the city of Norton Shores.

Source: Richard Maher, city of Norton Shores

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Dan Calabrese

An Ada Township firm that provides online currency trading services expects to add 105 local jobs over the next five years – thanks in part to a new location it will occupy with the help of high-tech tax breaks approved on Tuesday, March 17.

Global Forex Trading, which operates under the name GFT, will move from its long-time world headquarters in Ada to the former Mazda Great Lakes facility at 618 Kenmoor SE in Grand Rapids Township. GFT, which will invest $13.8 million in the facility, received $1.3 million in tax credits – over seven years – from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA).

MEGA coordinated with local officials in Grand Rapids Township and Right Place, Inc. to finalize the deal.

George Bosnjak, a business development manager for Right Place, Inc., said GFT is an example of the sort of company that can help build a more “knowledge-based” economy in the area.

“These people are not exporting a good or a particular automobile,” Bosnjak says. “It’s their ideas, their knowledge. They do all of their own programming, all of their own software development. They have a full in-studio marketing operation. They film all their own TV ads. So they’re very vertically integrated. What they sell is a knowledge-based service.”

GFT offers users accounts through which they can trade various currencies in real-time throughout the world, day and night. Traders use software and systems custom-developed by GFT to access world financial markets.

Source: George Bosnjak, Right Place, Inc.

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Ivy Hughes

Emergency vehicle product provider SoundOff Signal, is investing $6.1 million over the next seven years to expand its Jamestown Charter Township facility.

The expansion will accommodate SoundOff Signal’s new project, which involves the production of Hilux LED lighting systems. SoundOff Signal plans to provide Hilux for parking lights, streetlights and municipal lights, among other markets.

“Our experience with emergency vehicles and LED technology combined with our experience in design lighting, propelled us into this new area of green lighting,” says Mark Litke, president and CEO of SoundOff Signal.

SoundOff Signal plans to add 100 jobs over the next seven years to accommodate the new project. The state approved a $1.4 million tax credit over seven years to help SoundOff Signal defray project costs. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) will also provide a $25,000 job-training grant.

“I would say the talent here is good,” says Thomas Roe, SoundOff Signal CFO. “It’s an emerging industry so we’re doing things people haven’t done.”

Roe says SoundOff Signal was looking to move to China.

“We’re trying to launch a product quickly and it helps using in house talent to do that,” Roe says about SoundOff Signal’s decision to stay in the state.

Source: Chelsea Nimiac, DP Company

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains, a sister publication of Rapid Growth covering growth in Lansing, Michigan.

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Highland Group, a full service advertising agency at 645 Cherry SE in Grand Rapids’ East Hills neighborhood, aims to fill six newly created jobs. The new positions, a result of the company’s 24 percent revenue growth last year, have proven to be harder to fill than company leaders expected.

“If I could find the right people, I’d hire them yesterday,” says Scott Crowley, a company partner. “We’ve been actively interviewing since the beginning of the year. They have to fit into our “family”. Getting that out of people during the interview process is hard because everyone wants a job right now. We’ve got recruiters working for us, and we’re on the cusp of hiring one person but we don’t know if they’re going to accept.”

The positions include account executives, senior level directors and planners, conceptual designers, graphic designers, and frontend and backend developers.

Crowley says Highland Group swept the West Michigan Addy Awards, walking off with 18 gold and silver Addys, two judges choice awards and best of show. The winning projects include advertising for the Grand Rapids Kids’ Marathon, Steelcase Green Giants and Holland Hospital.

Source: Scott Crowley, Highland Group

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has invited The Rapid’s CEO Peter Varga to testify this morning on “green” transportation. The focus of the hearing is “Constructing a Green Transportation Policy: Transit Modes and Infrastructure” as the committee prepares to consider legislation that will determine the nation’s first green policies on public transit.

The Rapid is recognized nationally for its sustainability practices: using electric hybrid buses to reduce energy consumption and constructing the country’s first LEED-certified public transit station (2004), as well as incorporating daily energy efficient practices such as conducting energy audits and using energy efficient light bulbs. Last year the Sierra Club identified Grand Rapids as one of three U.S. “cool cities” for public transportation.

“I’ve been asked to address two questions,” Varga says. “How can Congress support local and regional public transit, and how can public transportation reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions from the overall transit system?”

At the time of this writing, Varga planned to talk about green transportation practices small cities have in place and to present some federal statistics on autos versus buses in regard to greenhouse gas reductions.

One study Varga planned to cite indicated in 2007 that, in a two car household, if one driver switches to public transit for a daily 20-mile commute, it reduces greenhouse gases for the whole household by 10 percent.

“If congress wants to know the answers to their questions it means they’re looking at solutions and benefits,” Varga says. “We’re in the good business of saving the environment and saving money. What better way to do that than suggesting that public transit should have more financial support?

“We’re part of the solution. When people are faced with less income and higher fuel costs they can reduce their transportation costs with public transit.”

Source: Peter Varga, The Rapid

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

The Zeeland Board of Public Works (BPW) will invest nearly $1.5 million in its quest to meet the new Michigan Renewable Portfolio Standard mandate of obtaining 10 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2015. The money pays for the two commercial grade wind turbines installed last week and three miles of electric lines to connect the Autumn Hills Landfill to the city’s power grid.

The landfill, owned by waste management, produces methane gas; North American Natural Resources buys the gas wholesale and resells it to the BPW. The first gas will be available June 1 when all the construction is complete.

“We’ll get about 1.6 megawatts on June 1, but by 2015 we’ll be getting four megawatts,” says Don Muller, BPW electric operations manager. “Between the biomass and the turbines, it will bring us up to the 10 ten percent we need.”

Kent Power installed the two 120-foot turbines with 25-foot-diameter blades last week at Helder Park in Holland Township. Muller expects the turbines to generate enough electricity to power 20 to 24 typical homes.

“They add a little bit of power to the system, which goes toward the renewable portfolio, but these produce less than one-half percent,” Muller adds. “It’s mostly a pilot project to study and see how the wind does out here. We’ll monitor them and if it seems feasible and we need the green power we’ll add more.”

The BPW is part of an energy optimization program to help residents make their homes and business more energy efficient, Muller says. The state hopes the effort will delay the need to build more power plants. For every energy efficient light bulb purchased from the BPW, buyers receive two more at no cost.

Source: Don Muller, Zeeland Board of Public Works; Abigail deRoo, City of Zeeland

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Every five years throughout its 25-year existence, Right Place Inc. sets a five-year strategic plan outlining goals for regional economic development and jobs retention/creation. The Strategic Plan 2009-2013 unveiled recently, if successful, will establish unprecedented capital investment in West Michigan and create thousands more jobs.

Here are the measurable accomplishments of the most recent strategic plan that wrapped up in 2008:

• Capital investment, goal $340 million. Actual: $467 million.
• New-payroll, goal $75 million. Actual: $228 million.
• Jobs created/retained, goal 4,500. Actual: 8,366.
• Companies assisted, goal 2,000. Actual: 2,332.

The 2009-2013 strategic plan (A.K.A. the West Michigan Action Plan) sets the bar even higher with new five-year targets:

• $500 million in new capital investment
• 5,000 new/retained jobs
• $175 million in new payroll
• Right Place assistance to 7,500 companies.

“We have to be very agile to stay ahead of the competition, we’re going into new businesses like life sciences and aerospace, and we’re looking at clusters where we think we have strategic advantage,” says Birgit Klohs, executive director. “We’re already working on diversification plans with 25 companies straight off the Automotive Diversification Summit held February 18^th.”

The strategic priorities for the next five years are to:

1. Lead West Michigan business development efforts to retain and expand existing businesses; attract new businesses from global and national markets; and promote sustainable land and building use.
2. Identify and develop emerging growth opportunities, including life sciences with special emphasis on medical devices and biotechnology; advanced manufacturing; sustainable practices including renewable products, services and technologies; renewable energy sources and suppliers of solar, wind and biomass power; aerospace and defense.
3. Strengthen the global competitiveness and innovation of our existing regional manufacturers by supporting commercialization of regional, national and international intellectual property; develop and implement innovative products and services to support best-in-class manufacturing.

Source: Birgit Klohs, Right Place, Inc.

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

As health care becomes more competitive and patients have more choices, the 90-year-old North Ottawa Community Health System (NOCHS) will use a newly created position to help strengthen community awareness of the hospital’s services. Jen VanSkiver is NOCHS’ first-ever chief communications officer and director of external affairs, charged with developing growth strategies and strengthening the system’s core competencies.

NOCHS employs 750 throughout the system: the 81-bed hospital at 1309 Sheldon Road in Grand Haven, the attached Harbor Dunes professional building, nearby Heartwood Lodge with its 8-bed Hospice Care center, an urgent care center downtown, and labs and physical rehabilitation sites throughout the area.

“Our talent and services are competitive with not only lakeshore hospitals, but larger health systems in surrounding cities,” says Shelleye Yaklin, president and CEO. “Bringing communications leadership to North Ottawa enables us to tell our story at the same level and with the same intensity as our competitors.”

To support NOCHS’ focus on effective communications, a new user-friendly web site helps patients find answers to their health related questions and become leaders of their personal health care plan.

“We have to be communicating regularly with new information; it’s absolutely a critical tool in patient care,” VanSkiver says. “Hospitals are looked to as portals of information, centers of technology. The web has influenced that and patients looks at themselves as the leaders of their health care. There are more choices than ever before, so for a neighborhood hospital that was founded based on proximity, we have to evolve.

“Putting marketing and communications in the room when decisions are being made recognizes that communications is a key component of health care,” she adds.

Source: Shelleye Yaklin, Jen VanSkiver, North Ottawa Community Health System

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Surveys conducted in the last two quarters of 2008 revealed that 20 manufacturers assisted by the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center-West (MMTC) in the previous year improved their bottom lines a total of some $33 million and created 51 new jobs. In addition, the MMTC assistance helped those manufacturers retain 123 existing jobs.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology hired an outside company to conduct the surveys measuring the effectiveness of the MMTC programs.

“The mission of the MMTC is to increase the competitiveness of Michigan manufacturers,” says Brian Walquist, outreach manager of MMTC-West at Right Place Inc. “We can bring them the expertise they need to compete in this incredibly difficult market we’re in. We might have five to 15 companies that we work with each quarter.”

The programs can include customized projects to teach manufacturers how to implement lean manufacturing techniques, diversify their manufacturing, or obtain quality systems certification for ISO and other standards required for specific industries (aerospace, medical device manufacturing). Some programs help them reduce their environmental footprint and costs.

MMTC programs show manufacturers ways to increase and retain sales and create and retain jobs, Walquist adds. Specific processes can help them determine if new equipment is really needed, or if, by running the plant more efficiently, they can operate with existing equipment.

“More often than not we’re helping manufacturers compete against companies across the U.S., Mexico and even China.” says Walquist. “It benefits West Michigan because more competitive manufacturers can create new jobs that employ the people who support the economy by buying and spending here in West Michigan.”

Source: Brian Walquist, Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center-West at Right Place, Inc.

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

NuVescor Group, a Grand Rapids merger and acquisition advisory firm formed two years ago, has already tripled its staff in that time and logged some $125 million in acquisitions volume last year. In the past eight months, the firm added four managing directors and a marketing director. As a result of the growth, company leaders plan to add two administrative assistants, including an executive-level position.

NuVescor, located in Bridgewater Place, works with both buyers and sellers of businesses that post annual revenues between $5 million and $200 million. The firm’s highest concentration of manufacturing clients is in the Midwest, in industries including aerospace, technology, automotive, construction and medical devices and suppliers.

“We fly under the radar because sellers don’t want the open market to know their businesses are for sale,” says Kevin Hirdes, managing partner. “The owners are about to make the largest transaction of their lifetimes and they want to be certain that transaction is placed in the hands of a company that can handle it well and confidentially. It sounds old fashioned, but our mission is integrity, confidentiality and timely results.”

Because of that trust level, Hirdes says the character quality of a potential employee takes precedence over an impressive resume. That said, many of the people on staff are former CFOs and VPs, and have previous experience at Chicago accounting firms and the U.S. Treasury.

Hirdes says the company is considering in-state and out-of-state locations with populations of 250,000 or more as a possible hub for a second office location.

Source: Kevin Hirdes, NuVescor Group

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

The Drawing Board, a web-based startup company that recently relocated from Chicago to downtown Grand Rapids, is looking to fill five web research and development positions in the next couple of weeks. As the firm grows, another 40-50 full-time and contract positions could open up.

After the firm launches its web site which will incorporate new ways of using technology to centralize all e-commerce, company leaders expect to pay a dozen or more average citizens each week to test the site, give feedback, and help create new e-commerce avenues. The test users will engage in the e-commerce activities they already do at home: playing video games, shopping online and searching for specific items to purchase.

“On the web there are tens of millions of sites to go to,” says Dan Kalleward, founder, who has launched the business with Chris Mwakasisi and Jay Harnish. “Our research shows that consumers like to do research on the web, but the information is confusing because it’s scattered. We want to try to centralize all e-commerce and bring it together in one place.”

The five R&D technicians will research innovative ways to bring in more technical functionality and gather information on human psychology regarding e-commerce and web sites, including what people expect out of an e-commerce site, what they respond to and the best colors to use.

“The site will provide user with the information they need to buy wisely,” says Kalleward, 23. “More importantly, we plan to give 50 percent of the gross we make to charity. Users will vote on which charities to give the money to.”

Source: Dan Kalleward, The Drawing Board

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Cascade Engineering said this week that sales of the Swift Rooftop Wind Turbine have doubled every month since its launch last October. The numbers are still small with 32 sold to-date, but the company expects March sales to number between 20 and 30 units, installed.

The Swift is a small, super quiet model designed for rooftop mounting on houses, commercial buildings and light industrial plants. On average, the turbines can generate 1,680 watts of instantaneous power at any one point. With an average 12 mph wind speed the turbines can produce 20 percent of an average home’s electricity.

The expected sales increase is partly due to warmer weather, and partly due to a 30 percent federal tax credit.

“The credit is 30 percent off the total project including installation costs, whether it’s one turbine, 10 turbines, or whatever,” says Jessica Lehti of Cascade Engineering’s renewable energy division. “We do direct sales and installation in West Michigan, and we’re creating partnerships with dealers in the U.S. and Canada who also install at the customer’s location.”

“For every one kilowatt we don’t have to purchase from a utility company, we save 2.4 kilowatts that don’t have to be generated to convert coal, natural gas and nuclear energy to electricity.”

Cascade Engineering manufactures the 7-foot-diameter blade assembly in Grand Rapids, pairs it with the rest of the components that are manufactured in Scotland, and creates kits here. The kits sell for $8,500. Completely installed and connected the price tag runs between $10,000 and $12,000.

“Sometimes customers look at the cost and they’re a bit taken aback,” Lehti says. “But the cost of wind energy isn’t going to change once you install the turbine, where cost of the utility is only going to increase.”

Source: Jessica Lehti, Cascade Engineering; Amanda Passage, Lambert Edwards & Associates

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Guiding people through dire economic circumstances is not what Grand Rapids-based ENCOMPASS LLC was founded to do, but since adding the consulting service a few months ago the company has increased its business 10 percent.

The company was spun off eight years ago from Spectrum Health as a separate business, providing assistance services to employers and their employees in areas ranging from change management to counseling employees through difficult family issues or marriage problems. The employee received face-to-face counseling to help them deal with the problems and regain their ability to perform their job.

The $1.3 million company has 20 employees at its Grand Rapids headquarters and operates locations throughout the United States. The staff consists of masters-level social workers, counselors, psychologists, and also psychiatrists and doctoral-level psychologists, as needed.

“In 2004 we decided to offer real-time online consult, instead of just face-to-face appointments,” says founder Dr. Alison Brown. “Problems aren’t always severe enough to warrant a face-to-face consult. Maybe a parent learns their child can’t pay attention in school. The parent can access our web site from their desk, tap into the online real-time consult with one of our service providers and get the information they need in about 20 minutes. And everything remains confidential.”

The technology piece accounts for about 20 percent of the company’s contacts.

“Now we’ve diversified to offer consults on debt, debt consolidation, foreclosure, economic hardship and we have specific tools and financial/legal experts to help with that,” Dr. Brown says. “That problem area started to jump up a few months ago and now about ten percent of all our business is in that area.”

Dr. Brown says the company is on track to post revenues of $1.5 million this year.

Source: Dr. Alison Brown, ENCOMPASS LLC

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

The recently formed Green Materials and Chemicals Users Group is working to reduce or eliminate harmful chemicals in West Michigan manufacturing processes and products. Last year the adoption of the BIFMA  E3 Sustainability Standard for furniture manufacturing encouraged the formation of the group by identifying the chemicals most harmful to humans and the environment.

Bill Stough and Clinton Boyd of Grand Rapids-based Sustainable Research Group (SRG) led the charge on the development of the BIFMA E3. Now they’re leading the green materials users group, which is a partnership between the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) and Right Place Inc.

“We want to move away from petroleum-based products as fast as we can,” Stough says. “Our goal is that, at the end of a product’s life, it should be able to be reused for something else because it contains no hazardous chemicals, or it can be composted and used to grow plants to produce new raw materials.”

The group is just beginning to market itself with the aim of attracting product designers, design for the environment specialists, materials purchasers, and chemists from a wide spectrum of industries.

“This group will give West Michigan a head start in the marketplace on offering environmentally safer products to their customers,” Stough says. “This whole evolving area of green chemistry affects all of us; whatever you do during a day, you’re interacting with purposefully designed chemistry—your keyboard, your phone, your office furniture. We’re sure our work will lead to innovation and new products.”

Source: Bill Stough, Sustainable Research Group; Brian Walquist, Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.