Chamber Investor Profiles
* Real Colorado Soccer Club
* South Denver Cardiology
* Neil McKenzie Photography and Center for Innovation, Metro State College Denver
* Best Buy Recycling
* CSU Global Campus
* United Launch Alliance
* Kaiser Permanente, Jean Baker
* Littleton Adventist Hospital, Ken Bacon
* CAP Logistics & ICOSA Magazine, Gayle Dendinger
* Whole Foods Market at The Streets of Southglenn
* Centennial Airport, Robert Olislagers
* Arapahoe County Water & Wastewater Authority
* Clifton Gunderson, John Hughes
* American Indian College Fund, Rick Williams
* Experience Pros, Eric Reamer & Angle Tuccy
Real Colorado Soccer Club: Empowering Children through Teamwork
Real Colorado is a dedicated soccer club, located in Douglas County, supporting youth through young adults in their passion for soccer. Utilizing the unparalleled strategic relationship building capabilities of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, Real Colorado is hosting a series of executive roundtable discussions, inviting feedback from high level chamber investors regarding the club’s capital campaign needed to build a six-field soccer complex and field house that the club can call home.
The mission of Real Colorado is to provide an excellent training program on the field as well as admirable role models off the field. Engaged youth can start at a recreational, initial skill building level and graduate to a competitive travel team level. Boys and girls from age three and a half through post-college are coached and nurtured growing their soccer abilities with the unsurpassed coaching and dedicated administrative staff. Real Colorado is about to explode with growth as they endeavor to build and provide the soccer complex for their patrons in Douglas County. The club trains soccer enthusiasts from across the state.
Jared Spires, Real Colorado’s Chief Administrative Officer, says, “Training needs to be fun and convenient…”, and by building this major new amenity for the south metro Denver area, they will be able to produce “…the best product we can in Colorado”. In addition to their year-round training, Real Colorado hosts two major annual soccer tournaments over Memorial Day Weekend: the Colorado Showcase and the Real Cup which draw 400 teams from all over the country.
Kari Anderson, Director of Business Development for the club, says that when former players return to the club offices to say “hi”, she is amazed with the quality of the individuals, and the success tracks that they are headed in. She said many of the U17 Real Colorado players are headed off on partial or full scholarships to four year universities and colleges across the country because of the superior coaching that they have received from the Real Colorado staff.
Jani Bielenberg of Bielenberg & Associates, expressed her support of the club’s plans: “As members of the community, we need to get behind Real Colorado and empower their success of bringing a state- of-the-art soccer facility/fields to Douglas County. Their mission touches the hearts of families and children alike who have a passion for the sport of soccer.”
More information on the Real Soccer Club can be found on their website: www.realcolorado.netSouth Denver Cardiology
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
A group of cardiologists rallying around the prospect of eliminating heart disease certainly classifies as a unique business model. But the team at South Denver Cardiology Associates had a vision to create something unique in its field, with a core value of promoting wellness with the same fervor that it treats the ill.
The results of that outside-the-box thinking can be seen at the group’s gleaning 65,000-square foot facility in the South Park business area of Littleton. The clinic at that location houses a team of 19 coordinated cardiac care experts along with a knowledgeable and experienced support staff that includes a psychologist, exercise physiologists and specialized registered nurses. All are devoted to morphing both clinical care and prevention models into an integrated approach.
Treatment of acute problems and the expertise associated with care remains a pillar of the practice. Averting cardiac episodes altogether, or avoiding a recurrence by taking a whole-body approach, is as fundamental. And when it comes right down to it, the reason that kind of synergy may work is the environment in which it’s applied.
“I often tell people that living in Colorado as a cardiologist is like being the Maytag repairman, because year after year we have one of the lowest rates of obesity and one of the lowest prevalence of heart disease – not that we’re short on patients right now,” said Dr. Karyl VanBenthuysen, South Denver Cardiology’s president.
“But there’s such an orientation towards prevention here, we realized it was an opportunity to meld those preventative and wellness services with a conventional cardiology practice.”
South Denver Cardiology was first incorporated in 1973; still it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that the bigger-picture thinking employed now took root. VanBenthuysen mapped out his original vision on a napkin and quickly had clinic CEO Brenda Lambert on board to build the state-of-the-art art center.
All-encompassing treatment would be the driving force behind the idea, but the thought process was driven, too, by a general lack of coordination in care. Patients could see one specialist here; get a test there; advice on weight management somewhere else. The one hand didn’t always know what the other was doing.
Now, most South Denver Cardiology clients can have diagnostic, prevention and lifestyle needs fulfilled within four walls. Risk factors such as hypertension, nutrition and stress management are aggressively included into the overall treatment philosophy.
Stress testing, electrophysiology, cardiac catherization, ambulatory monitoring, coronary intervention and other complicated services are intertwined with educational classes on cholesterol and weight management, support groups, a fitness center, yoga sessions, massage therapy and cooking demonstrations.
At its core, the facility sees itself as a healing place, often merging Eastern and Western approaches, to manage and discourage heart-related incidents and promote early disease detection. Part of its strategic plan is being community partners by offering education services and outreach not only to its patients but the entire community.
“When you look at this model across the country, I don’t think you’ll find anything of this magnitude as far as organization and the expertise of everyone in the same boat believing in prevention and wellness, combined with a traditional illness model,” said Dr. Richard Collins, known as the ‘Cooking Cardiologist’ and a key figure in the formation of the facility because of his international level of expertise on wellness and prevention.
“Most of those models fail or are actually hooked into larger institutions,” Collins added. “This is unique. This is a group of cardiologists who are not attached to any institutions defining a whole different model. And I think the way health care is going, that prevention model is really going to take off.”
Collins jokingly refers to himself as the “forest ranger” and the other cardiologists “firefighters” for his role in the deployment of care. Acute work is supported by his and others’ investigation and treatment of underlying causes of problems.
One key reason other models nationally may stumble is because clinical services support wellness services, which aren’t primary moneymakers. Still, it’s seen as a value-added component that won’t disappear anytime soon and is conducive to the level of integration to which South Denver Cardiology’s doctors and staff aspire.
“You make it happen by believing it to your core and trying to meet those needs,” Lambert said.
Those needs are also addressed through a laboratory system that is credentialed nationally, a unique designation among local cardiology groups. The group also has received Bridges to Excellence and National Committee for Quality Assurance labels. South Denver Cardiology also has a robust research program, giving patients options when new devices or medications beyond standard offerings emerge. Its doctors also are required to go through continuing education to maintain expertise.
Healthy patients interested in how their heart and lungs are functioning and potential early detection of future issues can pay for a comprehensive cardiology report card or get a Calcium Heart Score, designed to measure calcium levels in arteries. The value of much of the work being done by South Denver Cardiology Associates is underscored by its relationships with four local hospitals – Porter Adventist, Littleton Adventist, Sky Ridge and Swedish. The physicians are vital in the management of patient care in every aspect of cardiovascular care at those facilities.
As might be expected, those services include focusing upon avoiding recurrences of similar problems through the wellness and prevention efforts.
“Probably more than any group of cardiologists I’ve ever seen, they are truly a group. They make decisions based on science. And they all come together cohesively as a group,” Lambert said. “I don’t know of any other group you can find that would have such oneness in their thinking.
“And," she added, staring out a conference room at South Denver Cardiology’s facility, with the bustle of traffic on C-470 visible, "that’s what allowed this center to be created.”
The Art of Making Art a Profession
Almost everybody who has ever taken a photograph or painted a picture worthy of hanging on a wall has 
had the thought cross their mind: “Could I make a living doing this?” And many of these budding creative talents try it only to discover that the creative production of their work is only a part of actually making it a career.
Denver photographer Neil McKenzie is out to change that. With degrees in economics and an MBA, McKenzie was a founding faculty member of the Regis University MBA program and has mastered the art of commercial photography. Today, he is on the faculty at the Center for Innovation at Metropolitan State College Denver teaching a course called “Artrepreneurship.”
“This course is designed to give people in the arts the tools, techniques and resources to turn their passion for the arts into a thriving business. Special consideration is given to traditional approaches to marketing such as galleries, festivals, public venues and retail as well as emerging marketing channels such as
online direct sales, direct sales, business to business and social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter,” says McKenzie.
In the class, students are required to prepare a business/marketing plan in their particular area of interest as well as conducting research about other successful artists and entrepreneurs. Guest lecturers are brought in to give the students a firm grasp on what is expected in the real world. Basic business principles as well as real life experiences from entrepreneurial artisans form the core of the Artrepreneurship curriculum.
McKenzie is confident that “…upon completion of the course, students will have the basics to move forward with building a successful business in their chosen field of art.”
The Center for Innovation at Metropolitan State College Denver is a unique program which offers cutting-edge courses and programs to help students and the community at large realize their business and social entrepreneurial aspirations. Through completing the coursework, students can achieve a Certificate or Minor in Entrepreneurship. Besides McKenzie’s Artrepreneurship, courses include Creative Problem Solving, Ethics and Entrepreneurship, New Venture Feasibility, New Venture Creation and Internships. Further student involvement and support can be found through their Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization, a student-lead group set up to inform, support and inspire members on their road to entrepreneurship.
More information on Metro State’s Center for Innovation can be found at www. Metrostateinnovate.org and Neil McKenzie’s work and philosophy can be found at www.neilmckenziephotography.com.Best Buy Stores Make Recycling and Community a Priority
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
Tucked back in local Best Buy warehouses, away from shelves replete with Wiis, PlayStations and XBoxes, are oversized cardboard bins filled with entertainment gear from a different era.
It’s a place where old fax machines, analog televisions and, if you dig deeply enough, cassette tape-based stereo systems and maybe even an 8-track player or two go to die – and be reborn.
All these items will be recycled; perhaps even one day turned into part of something gleaming and new on the big-box giant’s showroom floors.
It’s also a way to ring out the old, ring in the new in a whole different way this holiday season.
“I can swear some of them are the things that I had in my living room growing up,” said Brett McCommons, human resources manager for the Best Buy district covering seven stores in the South Metro Denver service area. “They have great big dials and are in huge cabinets. It harkens me back to my childhood of deep orange shag carpet.”
Best Buy’s practice of recycling antiquated entertainment gear, and old appliances, started last February. Those efforts augment other environmental efforts at the chain’s front-door kiosks, where cellular phones, inkjet cartridges, CDs/DVDs, gift cards and batteries have for years been accepted for disposal in green fashion. The company tracks the parts to ensure the process is ecologically sound and that harmful or poisonous elements aren’t shipped to Third World countries, creating more environmental hardships.
So far, across the country in fiscal 2009, 30,000 tons of appliances and 14,000 tons of electronics have been recycled nationwide by Best Buy, which hosted or sponsored 45 ancillary community events in that same time frame.
Buy a new piece of electronics at one of its 1000-plus stores and feel confident that your old technology will be recycled. Depending on the circumstances the charge for recycling can range from nothing to as low as 10 dollars.
“I would say the current recycling of consumer goods is part of an overarching plan and our overall responsibility to the environment in our organization,” McCommons said.
It’s also part of Best Buy’s overall business model designed to provide services its customers want, while simultaneously aiding local areas.
Aside from those increased recycling efforts, and an emphasis on making individual stores more energy efficient, Best Buy in the south Denver area is involved in several community outreach initiatives, in large part aimed at seniors and teens.
The company nationally is large supporters of both the United Way and Boys and Girls Clubs. Employees raise funds for such entities as the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and March of Dimes by participating in charitable walks.
But Best Buy management also hands checks to local non-profits, last year giving about $20,000 in South Metro Denver to complement multiple local gifts to groups such as the Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain, North Star Academy, Grant Ranch School and the Leawood Elementary Parent Teacher association.
“It’s the stuff you don’t necessarily know about your local Best Buy store,” McCommons said. “Our brand awareness is strong, but most folks are somewhat surprised at the local activities their Best Buy store does.”
Its employees have gone to retirement communities to help with teaching new technologies, and this local team currently is formulating plans to teach parents child-safety courses regarding use of the Internet as a community service.
Then there’s Best Buy’s “@15 program”, which focuses on young adults and gives them a voice in how the company donates dollars while supporting that important age group within a social-change platform.
“It’s the right thing to do and from a raw business standpoint we’re a better and more successful organization when we’re actively involved in our communities,” McCommons said. “Most communities want more from their business, they want active participation. We take that seriously and strive to not only be the best place to stay current with the latest and greatest technology, but also make a positive difference in the communities we serve.”
The South Metro Denver Chamber has been beneficial in that regard by taking that altruistic mindset, connecting with Best Buys in its service area and helping facilitate the business vision of those individual stores.
“It’s that personal touch that you don’t get out of most Chambers,” McCommons said. “My experience with other Chambers has been while they may help you to make connections, they don’t generally figure out how they can help you with your business plan.
“The South Metro Denver Chamber has proven itself to be an active partner with us and has provided personal assistance to our stores.”
CSU Global Campus
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
Getting a leg up in an ever-changing economy may, in fact, lie at one’s fingertips.
Colorado State University-Global Campus, through its online organizational leadership program, is helping modern business leadership deal with the rapid speed of technology and economic globalization by teaching busy managers at all levels ways to effectively lead and manage for enhanced productivity.
CSU-Global Campus facts * With its own 40-person, part-time faculty and more than 1,000 registered students, the third ‘campus’ within the Colorado State system is a first-of-its-kind model in the western United States among large public research universities and one of the fastest growing online public universities in the world. * Accredited programs, geared towards adult learners, are designed to be career relevant and tailored to existing and emerging industry and occupational trends statewide. Bachelor of Science degrees in business management, applied social sciences, public management and organizational leadership are among the offerings. Master’s degrees also can be earned in various disciplines. * Courses are scheduled within a two-semester calendar, fall and spring, each containing three eight-week sessions. While there are no real-time meetings or activities required, there are course deadlines that must be met, typically built around a weekly schedule. * High-demand programs can be completed in as little as 20 months. |
One of several bachelor’s and master’s level degrees available through CSU’s next-generation teaching environment, the organizational leadership program itself represents an adaptation to real-world metamorphoses that have occurred in recent years. Business leadership a generation ago was conducted within rigid, hierarchical parameters, as various bosses ruled departments -- often with firm hands. The number of moving parts in companies, and in many cases, those entities’ worldwide reach, nowadays has required revamped ways of dealing with employees.
Thus, a Colorado State University organizational leadership curriculum historically framed towards religion and the public service areas began infusing approaches from the frontlines of the American boardroom as part of its highly adaptable online offshoot that officially launched in September 2008.
“It’s increasingly important that managers, particularly, understand the new dynamic of leading teams,” stressed Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker, CSU-Global Campus’ dean of academic affairs.
To a large degree, managers now are being taught that getting out of the way, and guiding gently, can contribute greatly to the betterment of the entire organization. It’s a management through leadership philosophy, using skills such as facilitating, analyzing and evaluating as guiding principles.
The task of superiors in the current economic landscape is to apply critical thinking to issues of broader scope, such as building relationships with foreign concerns, whether in China, India, Brazil or some other country seemingly on the other side of the Earth but now seemingly closer than ever due to the Internet era. At the same time, those same decision-makers must trust that the individual employees that were hired with unique skill sets are providing good information that augments their efforts.
“Middle managers and above can’t force employees to act effectively,” Takeda-Tinker maintained. “They need to empower their people. They need to guide them. But then they have to let them do their work and allow them to concentrate in the areas of their expertise so they can bring value-add … towards the overall vision of the manager or the organization.”
The curriculum at CSU-Global Campus is geared towards the adult learner and employs actual case studies from the workplace. Students learn theory and its applications in real-world settings and often are asked to apply those concepts to their own unique situations at their jobs.
Individuals within the online classroom can interact and exchange ideas, then submit their own ideas in written or virtual form to an instructor, who often possesses a unique industry acumen on top of a teaching background that includes an advanced degree in his or her area of expertise. Something as banal as personnel reviews can be the subject of intense dialogue and debate within the organizational leadership program.
In one recent classroom example, mid- to senior-level managers discussed whether creation of an employee performance management system, a task often times ascribed to the human resources area, is a duty better handled at the department level, since it may provide a clearer picture to management of employee contributions in the area where the impact is largely felt.
Students broached those topics within the leadership framework of their employment outside the virtual classroom and reported back on the reception at their workplace. Even some entrenched organizations have adapted new strategies after such outside discussions, Takeda-Tinker revealed.
“We’ve had some great success, even at the state level,” she added.
There have been lifestyle gains within the classroom, as well. The types of non-traditional learners that have made use of the organizational leadership program include a Boeing engineer being phased out of his position. He’s getting retrained with an eye towards leading teams in a global setting with the company’s financial support.
A longtime head of the technology management area of a local school district is finishing his Master’s of Science degree, which may ultimately serve as career ammunition after layoffs hit his department.
The South Metro Denver Chamber, through its partnership with CSU-Global Campus, has helped steer local banks towards providing tuition benefits for tellers with designs on management positions. The arrangement has allowed those bankers to learn on their own time, at an affordable cost, while their employer retains manpower that now has improved skills.
Other CSU-Global students are mid-level managers in their 40s or 50s working towards keeping jobs that will combat trends towards outsourcing and meet increasing global competition head on.
“The organizational leadership program applies not just to traditional corporations. We have a lot of law enforcement, public safety and government employees, and it’s a degree that’s applicable across all industries,” said Jenna Langer chief operating officer of CSU-Global Campus.
She emphasized that bachelors of science and masters level courses within the program can be paired with specialized classes in other areas that suit individual career needs.
“Having that diversity of students is what makes the program successful,” Langer added.
United Launch Alliance
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
It normally takes about six years for a satellite to be proposed, funded, built and launched. It then can take only the length of an average TV sitcom to completely undo all those millions of dollars and thousands of hours invested in the project, depending on any issues with the manufacturing, engineering, testing or deployment phases.
“From the development of the satellite to when it’s decommissioned on orbit, there’s a big spike in its risk coming in that half-hour when it’s sitting on top of the launch vehicle trying to fly out of the atmosphere,” explained Dan Collins, the chief operating officer of Centennial-based United Launch Alliance.
Apparently humongous rocket boosters catapulting payloads into orbit aren’t the only pressure-filled components within space exploration… That relentless, and necessary, pursuit of perfection -- every time, without fail -- underlies the firing of each rocket ULA engineers and manufactures.
It has led to 31 successful launches to date during ULA’s nearly three-year corporate existence and secured this relatively new company’s place among south metro Denver business giants. ULA has emerged as a top-10 employer in the area, with its 1,800 workers enhancing Colorado’s standing as the nation’s second-largest aerospace economy behind California.
The creation of the United Launch Alliance itself is an amalgam of the strong tech sectors in both of those states. Lockheed Martin Corporation and The Boeing Company, once bitter rivals, on May 2, 2005 announced they would embark on an unprecedented 50-50 joint venture that merged launch operations and streamlined resources. ULA would bring under one roof the production of Delta (Boeing) and Atlas (Lockheed Martin) expendable launch vehicles, launching weather telecommunications and national security payloads for the Air Force, NASA Reconnaissance Office and commercial customers.
But first, the company needed to find itself a permanent home. Economic forces were the biggest component in the initial decision to centralize operations in the Rocky Mountains since it was more feasible financially for its workers to relocate from California -- with its higher cost of living -- to Colorado than vice versa. The outdoor culture and diverse neighborhood settings here also were drawing points.
The South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce at the time played a vital initial role in helping families in the Orange County, Calif., area make their transitions to a new area. But the switch wasn’t entirely smooth.
“We finally closed this joint venture in December 2006, so it was January 2007 when the Chamber could really go to Huntington Beach and say, ‘Hey, the company’s for real. We’d love all of you to come.’” Collins recalled. “The story on the national news in January 2007 was helicopters dropping bales of hay on the plains of Colorado so the cattle didn’t starve in a monstrous blizzard. The people in L.A. were turning on their television sets and going, ‘Whoa …’ I think it ended up being the second-longest string of days with so many inches of snow on the ground in Denver. But despite that, the Chamber did a marvelous job of putting Denver’s best foot forward and answering folks’ questions.”
The lure of the south Denver area became so strong that Collins noted that in a typical restructuring at Boeing, his former employer, about 10 percent was an expected movement in previous worker relocation efforts. In the case of the ULA, more than 40 percent took the plunge.
The competitive history between the two companies initially made for an interesting dynamic, something akin to rabid fans of the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos operating within the same walls. Yet, “The rocket business typically throws you unexpected challenges, and all of a sudden there were more people to fight the challenges that arose,” Collins maintained. “I think that helped people bond and come together.”
The sheer numbers since have had a ripple effect on the economy, from the realtors that initially sold 20 properties to incoming residents, to the stores in which employees currently do business. ULA stands as the nation’s largest private employer of rocket scientists with an average salary, according to one economic study, exceeding $100,000.
“We’re proud of that,” Collins said of his company’s key role in the area. “But we also take it as a responsibility to the community.”
ULA has a multi-faceted corporate citizenship program that is centered on support of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming, volunteerism and support of the United Way. And soon, ULA could help the community in another direct way. It’s continuing to study the viability of building a new campus that would merge its three lease sites in Centennial and Littleton. The economic impact could boost the flagging construction industry, if the project gets green-lighted.
“There’s some team-building that can be done on a campus and some operational efficiencies and improvements made if we’re all together,” Collins said.
ULA currently houses 1,000 of its employees in its Waterton Canyon facility, with the other workers dispersed between its South Park and East Mineral sites.
“There’s an opportunity right now with the economy. It’s a little more affordable to do those types of things than three years ago when we were on the verge of starting United Launch Alliance. But there are a lot of pieces that have to play into it.”
The relatively recent move of ULA’s employees from California, the foundation that’s been established in the area and a desire to avoid long commutes that negatively impact the environment, make it highly unlikely the company would look outside of the south metro Denver area, he added.
“It’s a tough time and there aren’t a lot of people out there doing these types of things, so it’s natural it has piqued people’s interest,” Collins said.
Even with a decline in federal spending on space-based projects, ULA still managed in March to land a $600 million NASA contract to launch four science and communications missions and provide support services for those rockets beginning in 2011. In August, the 49th and final Air Force Delta II GPS satellite launch occurred at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Future GPS satellites are generally larger and will fly on bigger Delta IV and Atlas V rockets within the next several years.
The next launch for ULA is a WorldView-2 satellite, planned for Oct. 6 from Vandenburg (Calif.) Air Force Base. There’s also a buzz about ULA’s potential key role in the coming years associated with future manned space travel that could help transform the company.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Collins said in describing the challenges ahead. “I can remember a couple years back when we launched a probe called ‘gravity probe,’ studying Einstein’s theory of relativity and whether the Earth’s field will bend light and if so, will it warp the space-time continuum. Two days before the launch, they introduced me to the principle investigator and found out that he had been working on this particular satellite for over 40 years and he’s got one shot at this and if we don’t perform, we’ve literally taken his life’s work and ruined it. That is pressure, but its part of the excitement.
“Then two days later, when we put it in exactly the right place, there was a smile on his face. He was actually going to get to run his experiment. That’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Kaiser Permanente
Visit one of Kaiser Permanente’s 18 medical offices in the Denver metro area and you’ll encounter a one-stop shop for medical care, or in more technical terms, an integrated delivery system that merges such vital health services as clinical care, laboratory testing, pharmacy and radiology under one roof.
But there will be one item in short supply at those sites: reams of paper.
KP has long been an innovator in health-information technology, with the nation’s largest civilian electronic health record. The focus on innovation has not only helped save trees, and office space, but has significantly improved the quality of care and convenience for patients.
That expertise in health-IT, and the ability to leverage it among teams of doctors, nurses and pharmacists to coordinate care is a key reason Kaiser Permanente has landed a prominent place on President Barack Obama’s radar screen as he touts his health-care reform principles. Most recently, in TIME magazine, the president described KP as a model for efficient, team-based care when reflecting on his grandmother’s positive experience as a Kaiser Permanente patient.
In Colorado, where Kaiser Permanente boasts nearly 800 physicians, 5,400 health-plan staff and nearly a half-million members, an investment in health-IT means patients have 24-hour access to their medical information online. Through this system, unmatched in the market, patients have the ability to conduct ‘e-visits’ with their health care team. Patients opting for free virtual consults save time and money by avoiding office visit co-pays and transportation costs.
“By using the most advanced health information technology in the state, our teams of clinicians are delivering better and safer care, but just as important, they’re also engaging the patient,” said Jean Barker, Kaiser Permanente’s executive director of sales and account management in the Colorado region.
“Because of our electronic health record systems, patients can go online to e-mail their physician, check test results, order prescriptions and make an appointment. They can manage their health from the convenience of home or work, which is easier, much less stressful and best of all, free. The benefits go beyond the individual patient as well. Our employers love it too because it boosts productivity and reduces absenteeism.”
Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to computerized medical records in Colorado began more than a decade ago, making it among the earliest pioneers within that technology. Even today, the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that only four percent of physicians in the outpatient setting have fully functional health-IT systems designed to improve patient care, support more effective medical practices, improve workflow and contain costs.
Kaiser’s information systems have consistently been recognized this year for their effectiveness, winning numerous awards, including JD Power and Associates highest customer satisfaction for the second straight year; two US News and World Report citations for top-ranked commercial health plan and Medicare plan in the state; and Consumer Reports No. 1 health plan in Colorado.
Kaiser Permanente’s health-IT benefits extend to the physicians side of its business. The ability to use technology to manage care more efficiently and effectively lures many private practice physicians to KP.
“What drives excess costs in the health-care system is a lack of coordination and communication,” Barker said. “Our providers are sharing information. They can see what’s being done; see what tests have been scheduled, see the results of procedures in the emergency room or a medical office and use that information to inform treatment decisions.”
“Believe it or not, that isn’t exactly how it works everywhere,” she added.
This coordination, a hallmark of many reform discussions, improves care for the patient and it improves the physician career, an important factor given the national shortage of doctors.
Perhaps another reason Kaiser Permanente is well-positioned moving forward is that within the current economic landscape, the company has been viewed by many as an affordable choice among the multitude of market options.
“Here in Colorado we’ve been growing as people look around and ask where they can get the most value for their benefit dollar,” Barker said.
The South Metro Denver Chamber has helped serve as a bridge to employer groups both large and small for Kaiser Permanente during these difficult times, alerting the health provider to challenges facing its members from a coverage perspective.
It’s clear those obstacles only figure to become more complicated as the push for national health-care reform rams ahead. Kaiser Permanente is invested in that political process and envisions the value of interconnectivity not only among its own doctors but practitioners nationwide as it pertains to improving patient care.
The organization recently joined a group of like-minded partners seeking to add wellness language into the discussion and is on the forefront of discussions about delivery system reform.
“What I hope the future looks like, and what I hope the country can move towards, is that everyone has adequate health insurance coverage, that no one has to go without and that we have the infrastructure in the country to communicate and coordinate care and models of care that look very much like the Kaiser Permanente system does now,” Barker said.
“I also hope that people don’t lose an opportunity to choose what they feel is right for them when choosing their health care and we continue to involve the patient,” she added, “and that we have a population that’s healthier as a whole and more engaged in their health and medical care than they are now. No matter which side of the political spectrum, I think that’s something everyone can agree on: An engaged and informed patient is a healthier patient.”
Littleton Adventist Hospital, Ken Bacon
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber communication consultant
Change can do you good... and that’s certainly been the case for Littleton Adventist Hospital.
Since opening in 1989, the hospital has expanded from a single building with 82 beds to a sprawling 472,812 square foot complex capable of handling nearly three times as many patients, with technological and operating room enhancements that have mirrored that steep infrastructure expansion.
But with the health-care debate ramping up yet again, even veteran caregivers are unsure of what the future will bring -- other than perhaps an even greater transformation in the coming years. Count Littleton Adventist Hospital CEO and president Ken Bacon among that group.
“The transition will probably be the tough part, kind of like you see where you need to go on the journey but the road getting there can be a little uncertain,” Bacon maintained.
It’s a trip that’s necessary, though, if exceedingly complicated. Issues exist both on the employer and employee side, as well as caring for the uninsured. Pharmaceutical companies are engaged; so are physicians. There are government implications with Medicare and Medicaid. Hospitals have to consider their bottom lines.
The entire spectrum of who, what, where, why and how much likely will be in play in medical care in the coming months and years.
“What health care is going to look like five years from now much less 20 years from now is a huge unknown,” Bacon said. “But one thing I would say that, in my mind, is pretty certain is we need to move from a system that is designed for ‘sick care’ to a system designed for ‘health care’. Hospitals will always be there for those who are ill but part of the goal is to shift the thinking from how do we take care of the sick to how do we promote staying well. “
Those two seemingly divergent concepts – sick and health care -- already are a foundational piece of Littleton Adventist’s faith-based ideals, and by extension, that of the health care system to which it belongs, Centura Health. Part one of its mission statement addresses caring for the sick; part two, the nurturing of health in the communities it serves.
Educational and informational classes already in place within Centura Health address such issues as healthier lifestyles, prenatal care, weight loss and diabetes prevention. And more than just the dispensation of that knowledge has grown.
Littleton Adventist Hospital now has 231 beds. Capabilities have expanded along with the sheer size of the complex at the northeast corner of Broadway and Mineral.
The facility currently is designated a Level II trauma center capable of handling complex emergencies. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit provides critical care for babies. The hospital is designated as a Joint Commission Primary Stroke Center and a recipient of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines Silver Performance Achievement Award for stroke and heart failure care. It also holds a designation as a nationally accredited Chest Pain Center.
“The level of clinical service that we’re now providing has really grown in just 20 years and 20 years really isn’t that long,” Bacon said.
The hospital’s CEO was part of the beginning stages of Littleton Adventist’s initial growth, working in the finance department and in managed care from 1993-96. He returned in January 2007 to oversee daily operations. While the scope of services he witnessed back then have changed, he insisted the commitment to care is as strong as ever.
Bacon believes Littleton Adventist Hospital has been an integral part of the growth of the communities surrounding it and vice versa. "We've grown together."
Helping create that symbiotic relationship has been the hospital’s partnership with the Chamber. Each serves the south metro Denver community while seeking sustainable solutions to the health-care morass – the hospital through its commitment to its educational programs and continuing technological advances; the Chamber via its Healthcare Policy Taskforce designed to influence legislation.
“One of the things the Chamber does for us is it enhances our strong connection with the community and specifically the business community,” Bacon maintained. “Every one of those businesses is made up of customers and it’s a way to connect with them. … The stronger McDonald Automotive Group or Burt Network or Ralph Schomp is -- to use the auto dealers as an example, the stronger the mall or restaurants in the area are, the stronger we can be.”
And Littleton Adventist Hospital is going strong. For the fiscal year ending in June 2007, the hospital admitted 9,820 patients and had 38,607 emergency room visits. The numbers were similar last year: 9,768 and 38,221, respectively.
“I think we have enough in-patient beds to last us awhile,” Bacon said, revisiting his hospital’s future look. “Where I see us continuing to grow is in our outpatient services and our wellness services. Our commitment to nurturing the health of the people in our communities will only get stronger.”
CAP Logistics & ICOSA Magazine, Gayle Dendinger
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
It was a Utopian view, etched on an 8½ x 11 stationary, replete with flowers, streams, bunnies and butterflies. All that was seemingly missing was unicorns and rainbows. A famous message completed this Up-with-People scene, quoting American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead.
"Remember,” the etching said, “a handful of people dedicated to a cause can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Gayle Dendinger received this uplifting little note on his desk, penned by his then 16-year old daughter, when one of his employees at his Denver-based freight company, CAP Logistics, found it lying around the facility. The picture had been missing for more than five years when it suddenly reappeared on Sept. 10, 2001.
The world changed the next day, and so did Dendinger’s current mission to promote connection and collaboration through his side venture, a start-up magazine called ICOSA. Such big-picture ideas about inclusion and teamwork had interested him previously, via a course he’d taken at the University of Denver and through the discovery of nationwide ‘Roundtables’ that debated worldwide hot-button issues. His focus regarding the integration of ideas and a strong sense of building partnerships was sharpened, though, by one of recent history’s most divisive events, during which a common goal was realized, remarkably, through pure evil.
“It all started unraveling the next day, it’s getting worse and I’m sitting at my desk and there’s that piece of paper: ‘Remember, a handful of people dedicated to a cause can change the world …’” Dendinger recalled about watching horrific scenes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania unfold.
“I never realized that bad guys could do that, too. And I just sat in my chair for about a half-hour. I couldn’t move. It’s the heaviest my body has ever felt. And then I realized when people are pushed hard enough, they’ll do whatever it takes. And the real mark of courage, it seems, is what people can do when they’re not pushed, when they’re not desperate and still have free will and do things strictly out of guts, tenacity and fortitude. So that started me on a different path.”
Shortly after 9/11, Dendinger went to South Africa with business associate Jan Mazotti and distributed 30,000 pounds of books to 41 schools and libraries in six townships. On another subsequent trip to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic, 7,500 coats donated by Aspen and the National Ski Areas Association were distributed. Contacts were made. Goodwill was spread. And the idea of connecting people never seemed so real and effective.
“This was a deliberate plan once we got started. We had to figure out how we could make a world a better place and connect people,” he said.
A strong component was the launch of ICOSA, which only occurred after efforts to network with Colorado’s brain trust and come up with a viable business strategy for the state faltered.
“It was sort of an evolution,” Dendinger said. “Plan A didn’t work; so as entrepreneurs we went to Plan B.”
Relationships with national and international power brokers have enhanced the publication’s mission to emphasize the role of connection and collaboration in growing a vibrant global economy and solving pressing worldwide issues. The magazine in its first five issues has delved into such heavy topics as continuous improvement and innovation, corporate social responsibility, energy and the environment, education and workforce development, and global trade.
Dendinger’s own utopian vision is reflected by two pictures of John Lennon that grace his office wall at CAP Logistics, a company he started in 1982 and now has satellite offices in Houston, Chicago, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. A guitar from Peter Yarrow of the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary sitting in the corner completes a scene that would make his idealistic daughter proud.
“What we’re trying to do is try to pull together success stories from people on both sides of the aisle, from all around the world, to have people working together to make a difference,” Dendinger said. “And it seems like that’s something that people are crying for right now, to have a little bit of leadership and a little bit of hope.”
At first, the magazine was a tough sell to potential collaborators given the touchy, feely parameters of making the Earth a better place by sharing collaborative stories of the world’s best people, ideas and practices. The publication also seeks out and highlights dynamic cooperation, partnerships and assistance among individuals, businesses, communities, governmental bodies and educational organizations.
But the power of playing with ideas has germinated. Strong voices such as John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable that unites CEOs of leading U.S. corporations; United States Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk; U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez; and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are among the influential leaders already featured in ICOSA.
“It’s cool how we’re able to pull these different points of view together,” Dendinger said.
Dendinger and Mazotti are currently working with the University of Colorado to create case studies on ethics based leadership and collaborative corporate social responsibility. In a collaborative effort with Regis University, ICOSA is working to create a ‘do tank’ to share these high-minded concepts while creating strong alliances on important issues.
“My goal is to have Colorado be the epicenter of a collaborative area,” he said, mentioning the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland as a potential model. “We do have great universities and it’s a destination everyone will come to. Almost all the CEOs in the country have a home in Aspen, Vail, Telluride or the like. So everything is ripe for Colorado to be the center of pulling all the people together and seeing what you can get.”
One future magazine will work in concert with the Canadian government to highlight the latter’s Olympic efforts and its sensible approach to building facilities, conducting the 2010 Vancouver Games and dismantling/recycling infrastructure. Another future issue will document an upcoming trip to Afghanistan to help deliver relief supplies to help rebuild the country. “Each one’s a once in a lifetime project and we’ll be doing all of them in a six-month period,” Dendinger noted.
No wonder, then, that Dendinger is ebullient about the future, even while some of his CAP Logistics co-workers - he says mistakenly – believe he’s either entering his second childhood or a mid-life crisis. Whether it’s 9/11, the current financial landscape, or something else, his focus is on those people moving on through sometimes difficult circumstances to accomplish great things by finding creative, inclusive solutions to problems on a planet replete with complications.
Dendinger hopes in a small way his magazine demonstrates how connections and collaborations can function optimally, since the topic has a nebulous quality. At the same time, he’s attempting to spread another message that the ability to work in unified fashion is an omnipresent skill among successful people.
All that’s missing once again, it seems, are those unicorns and rainbows – and more idealists ready to join the cause.
“This thing – the magazine helps collaborative people work together in all the different aspects – it is going to work like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Dendinger insisted. “Some of the things that already happened have been remarkable.”
*Whole Foods Market, Streets of Southglenn
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
A significant part of the Whole Foods Market corporate philosophy centers around not just the tie between food and health, but giving back to the communities it serves. The organic grocer’s very presence at the southwest corner of South University Blvd and Arapahoe Road in Centennial in a roundabout fashion fits that latter mindset by helping SouthGlenn Mall restore its identity.
Not long ago, the retail complex was a hallmark of the area and identifiable center of commerce, with Sears, Dillard’s and Foley’s as anchors. The luster wore off in recent years, until a development project, near completion and re-imagined as ‘The Streets at SouthGlenn’ spruced-up existing storefronts, added a spate of new businesses and constructed ancillary office space and luxury apartments in an effort to restore the mall to prominence.
Whole Foods Market is among the companies planting roots at the sprawling complex, its 13th Colorado store. And by the steady stream of traffic in its parking lot since the supermarket’s June 15 soft opening, the public appears to have rediscovered this once-signature facility, now featuring a decidedly modern twist.
The grand opening of the entire project is Aug. 28-29.
“The mall was very vibrant back 15-20 years ago, a trade center. People knew this area through this mall,” said Will Paradise, Rocky Mountain regional president for Whole Foods Market. “And the fact that this was going to come back to life, it just seemed like it would do a lot not only for the businesses, but for the community and its revitalization. It would help grow this area. We wanted to be part of it.”
The company’s presence, though, isn’t confined to one local street corner but, given its inventory, instead spans Colorado. The SouthGlenn Whole Foods Market location features more than 100 produce and 1,800 grocery items grown and manufactured locally.
Among the suppliers are fish farms in Canon City (rainbow trout) and Buena Vista (tilapia) and a fruit orchard in Palisade, which provided the first seasonal cherries solely to the SouthGlenn location. The store is also the only one among Whole Foods 287 stores in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom to feature a line of Denver-based Oogave fountain beverage products, which are sweetened with agave nectar instead of high fructose corn syrup or sugar.
Allegro Coffee, processed and roasted locally, is the house brew. Kombucha Tea from High Country Kombucha in Eagle is available on tap, also a first for Whole Foods Market in this region.
Haystack Mountain Dairy in Longmont provides hand-crafted cheeses.
The work of local artists resides on the cafe walls, near service counters featuring pizza, burritos, sushi, sandwiches and Asian cuisine.
“A lot of the products that we carry might be in 2-3 stores from a small owner or farmer and people get excited about that,” Paradise said. “They love the story and buy those products like crazy.”
It’s also part of an overall strategy to help local businesses grow. The Whole Foods Market Local Loan Program--- whose goal is lend $10 million to support up and coming natural companies-- has provided more money to small businesses in the Rocky Mountain region than any other area in the company’s national map, with the hopes of expanding the reach of small dairies, growers or providers to perhaps become statewide or even national players.
Justin’s Nut Butters took that route and went from a Boulder farmer’s market to one Whole Foods Market store to a national provider with products available in hundreds of Starbucks locations.
Annual Growers Seminars held by Whole Foods Market work with smaller vendors to become similar success stories. Some of those same providers will be featured at the Local Farmer and Food Artisan event in the SouthGlenn parking lot September 12th, another community event on the company’s docket.
“I think the word of mouth is out there about Whole Foods Market SouthGlenn,” said Rob Plutt, Store Team Leader. “We had VIP preview tours prior to our store opening where we had 1,528 people coming through the store to see what we were offering, and we spent a lot of time walking through that and creating a level of excitement for us. The community response so far has been outstanding.”
Invaluable in creating that initial buzz was a partnership with the Chamber, which shares Whole Food Market’s mission to grow the local economy.
“It really helped spread the word about the store and drive traffic,” Leandra Lipson, marketing and community relations representative for Whole Foods Market, noted. “Part of what we do at Whole Foods Market is to partner with the community. And we’ve been introduced to tons of business partners through the Chamber. It’s a win-win.”
Plutt added that to date, there’s been a mix of new customers trying Whole Foods Market for the first time to a segment familiar with stores at Tamarac, Cherry Creek or nationally.
Yet for the first time, even diehard fans of Whole Foods Market will find something new at SouthGlenn, besides a renewed buzz of activity. There’s a bulk olive oil station with eight different flavors and the largest pet aisle in the region among the company’s stores, along with a rack-and-rail meat system designed to bring back the feel of an old-time butcher shop – a vibe predating even the old SouthGlenn Mall.
“We’ve exceeded our expectations in opening the store. The center’s not even finished and people are battling construction to get here,” Paradise said in early July. “So when this center takes off and the road construction’s done, we’re going to be even that much farther ahead.”
*Centennial Airport, Robert Olislagers
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber Communications Consultant
If Robert Olislagers’ office didn’t literally sit in the shadow of the Centennial Airport Tower, the various kitsch he’s assembled on his office walls immediately would give him away as the facility’s executive director: a framed photograph of flight pioneer Chuck Yeager; a shot of a fighter jet buzzing past his Englewood airstrip; a commemorative airport poster.
Look closer around the room and another passion project resides neatly on his desk.
A California company is considering relocating to the Denver area and Olislagers, in conjunction with the Chamber, is compiling a proposal as part of an overall economic development package the group hopes will sway the firm’s decision. The pitch centers on quality of life, an improved bottom line given cost discrepancies between states, Colorado’s educated market and the local region’s associated demographics, such as real-estate costs and availability.
For Olislagers, driving business is nearly as important as the flying and landing of planes. And those concepts all intersect.
“We are really the conduit to prosperity out here because the airport is the backbone to being able to do business,” Olislagers said, pointing to companies such as Jeppesen, Liberty Media, Re/Max International and Lockheed Martin whose headquarters surround Centennial Airport due, in part, to the need to compress scheduling for busy executives.
In fact, he calls the private jets coming and going from the airfield “really, time machines” for corporate leaders, even in the wake of criticism stemming from Big Three automobile executives recently flying to Washington D.C. in style to seek federal bailout funding.
“(Real-estate and magazine magnate) Malcolm Forbes painted ‘Capitalist Tool,’ on the side of his airplane and it seems like we’ve kind of gotten away from it,’” Olislagers noted. “That’s a real big piece of where we’d like to see the airport go, and that’s continuing to assist our community in prospering and creating jobs. That’s really the bottom line for us.”
Centennial Airport contributes about 90 percent of all corporate flight support services in the Denver area, moving CEOs, upper and mid-level management across the country and beyond. Typically, seven of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies use the facility on a regular basis to shuttle key employees. But if a broken part is halting an assembly line, the facility can help get production back on line, too, with its 24/7, 365-day access.
“We understand their business model,” Olislagers said of the clientele using his airport. “If we don’t perform we affect their performance. So we view ourselves as a value-added piece in a globally competitive market.”
Centennial Airport is the third-busiest general aviation airport in the United States, behind only Van Nuys, Calif., and Deer Valley, Ariz., and in the top-30 among all commercial facilities. Its total operations --- there were 319,000 landings and take-offs last year -- are on par with such hubs as New York’s John F. Kennedy, San Diego’s Lindbergh Field and San Francisco International.
Its central location allows for access to all points of the landlocked portion of the nation within a 3 1/2-hour window.
There are 24-hour U.S. Customs services on site to allow for world-wide travel any time. Seven air ambulances reside at the airfield, as well. And Centennial’s maintenance staff has previously received the highest rating of any U.S. airport in terms of snow removal, adding to the time management component.
But, in truth, there have been impediments to the facility’s growth. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 took a toll on all aspects of aviation. The recent collapse of the financial industries has spurred another change in mindset regarding travel by top executives. Negative sales have occurred for the first time in Olislagers’ nine years at Centennial Airport and have continued for three straight fiscal quarters as of June 2009. By comparison, the facility saw double-digit growth from 1995-2002 based on number of operations and fuel sales.
Regardless, the wheels of progress continue to turn.
A $5 million project funded by fuel-excise taxes is near completion that will rebuild the connectors between runways and taxiways, allowing traffic to exit more quickly. Another $4 million stimulus grant will be applied towards taxiway improvements, rehabilitating the top layer of asphalt to stay ahead of Federal Aviation Administration specifications.
“But our focus, really, for the next couple years is to see if we can reduce the amount of noise that the airport produces through the aircraft that take off and land here – reducing the impact on our surrounding communities,” he said.
The airport was built in what had been an isolated plot in 1968 but urban sprawl has since virtually encased the facility and quality of life in those subdivisions has been affected, particularly in the summer months. Altering current flight paths isn’t practical but there is increasing availability of more efficient bypass fan engines that are quieter and more fuel efficient. Olislagers said Centennial Airport has been involved in federal legislation designed to phase out over the next 3-5 years antiquated ‘Stage 2’ aircrafts that account for 10 percent of fleets but 60 percent of all noise complaints.
“It’s a real important piece for us to operate this airport but not at the same time, wake everybody up or keep them up or have a situation where they can’t hear TVs or have a conversation,” he explained.
But Olislagers is all too happy to spread the message about Centennial Airport merits, whether it’s about its commitment to safety, the massive undertaking that was security for the Democratic National Convention in 2008 or the close connection to the Chamber that allows airport tenants to increase their reach into the community and vice versa.
And with one aeronautical hero on his office wall in Yeager, it’s no wonder he also sprinkles Apollo 13 flight director Gene Kranz’s words into his conversations, too, in assessing part of his general approach to running the airfield.
“Failure,” he said, “is not an option.”
Centennial Airport's web site is www.centennialairport.com.
* Arapahoe County Water and Wastewater Authority
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber consultant
The Arapahoe Wastewater and Water Authority is open for business. And it’s taking a two-pronged approach to potentially facilitating that growth of commercial properties in its South Metro service area with the addition of two $30 million infrastructure projects.
ACWWA recently finished its rebuild of its wastewater treatment plant in conjunction with Inverness Water and Sanitation District. The project when fully completed at year’s end will produce a dual water system that is a national rarity, with only about 10 percent of districts having the ability to separate potable and non-potable waters through distinct pipelines.
The erection of a reverse osmosis water plant, in partnership with the Cottonwood Water and Sanitation District, opens in late spring of 2010 and will result in drinking water rivaled only by that purchased in bottled form at supermarkets, convenience stores and other such worldwide outlets.
“We have the hope that we’ve built it, now let’s come on in,” Gary Atkin, the ACWWA’s general manager, said.
Roughly 60 percent of land in ACWWA’s service area is undeveloped. That zone is bordered by Parker Road to the east, Havana Street to the west, County Line Road on the south and Cherry Creek State Park on the north, encompassing 5,000 acres that includes Centennial Airport. And with expansion on the Arapahoe Road corridor and Broncos Parkway on tap within those borders, along with private developers already building streets, curbs and gutter in many vacant areas, conditions are beneficial to the development of multi-family; light industrial; and, primarily, those sought-after commercial facilities.
“When you have capacity that’s not being fully utilized, the jar is only half full. We get economy of scale when we’re running with the jar full,” Atkin said.
The two water improvement projects provide not only immediately available capacity available for developers – ACWWA can facilitate on the wastewater side a 30 percent increase in its customer base with no infrastructure modifications and an even higher percentage with only slight changes--- but the added benefit that comes with high quality drinking water.
Currently, 90 percent of water in the service area comes from treated ground water that meets strict safety requirements but may largely fail two large tests – taste and smell. Building the joint water purification plant that will produce the reverse osmosis fluids rivaled in quality only by natural spring water was a direct response to the wishes of current South Metro customers, and could potentially be a dangling carrot for new businesses looking to relocate or get off the ground.
The only other two reverse osmosis plants in Colorado are in Brighton and La Junta.
“It’s something we wear proudly because we’re taking the cause of the consumer to heart,” Atkin said. “When you’re washing dishes, washing clothes or even washing your car with these ground waters, it’s a low quality source.”
There are multiple benefits associated with the wastewater facility, too. The dual pipeline design will separate reclaimed water from drinking water and carry them to properties, where they’ll be metered separately. So there are both elements of convenience and quality. But the foremost aspect is conservation.
“We’re diversifying and reclaiming every drop of water that we possibly can,” Atkin explained.
Currently, much of the ACWWA’s water drains into the Cherry Creek and South Platte reservoirs. That water is re-used through an augmentation program, for which the district is credited. But the direct benefit of the new wastewater plant is not only will ACWWA get direct, immediate credit for re-using that water, enhancing the water’s value, there will be less waste of a precious natural resource for irrigation needs.
The non-potable system will be finished later this year, utilizing the effluent for recycling and reuse.
“We’re now treating wastewater to an extremely high degree and we’re going to utilize that wastewater in a recycling program, which will make us the third largest user in the state of re-used, re-claimed water,” Atkin said.
Water-strapped areas such as Las Vegas and Orange County, Calif., have adopted similar technology by necessity on the fly, borne from extended droughts.
“We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve,” Atkin noted.
That nod to the future just may be the bedrock philosophy of ACWWA, which, during peak months, provides a combined seven million gallons a day for drinking water and irrigation use.
The authority already has been named a Bronze and Silver Award winner in just two years in a Colorado Environmental Management Systems program administered by the governor’s office that measures conservation by state businesses. The authority’s facility aggressively recycles metals, light bulbs, water and gas while limiting its power consumption to such a degree that ACWWA also was cited by Xcel Energy for reducing its carbon footprint.
Even the building in which ACWWA operates near Peoria Ave and Arapahoe Road has more of an appearance of a converted mobile home than a ritzy office building, after Atkin deemed a $2 million facility prohibitive, especially given the ongoing water projects that are affecting his tax-paying customers. A $100,000 re-design was instead chosen.
Atkin’s latest environmental crusade is nudging local officials to modify landscape requirements to allow for more water-saving plants and shrubs.
“We’re going to get it, with today’s environment and the cost associated with our product – water,” he said. “Although some xeriscaping methods aren’t necessarily cheap, in the long run your water bill is going to go down.”
The ACWWA’s ongoing projects so far have been received well by the community at large.
About 200 people attended Chamber-sponsored groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the two ongoing improvement projects.
The Chamber and ACWWA are working jointly to begin a series of tours involving corporate leaders to further spread the word that, as far as water and other amenities, there are 3,000 South Metro acres ready for development.
“We’ve got good water over here and we’ve got capacity,” Atkin said in explaining his message to prospective local tenants. “So if a moratorium is an issue or a lack of capacity, you need to come over to this area.”
* Clifton Gunderson, John Hughes
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber consultant
Back in 1973, John Hughes was preparing internal financial statements for a company distributing farm equipment in Commerce City while still feeling a nagging itch to get back into public accounting.
A newspaper advertisement led to a meeting with Denver accounting whiz Manny Levine and, later, a relationship with another local CPA, Steve Mithuen.
The three soon would unite in business and, over time, become partners. But Hughes shakes his head today at the fortitude necessary to get the company off the ground at that nascent stage of its development.
“I give Manny credit,” Hughes recalled recently. “We had three partners and a part-time secretary and enough to support 11/2 of us. But we had this dream of founding a firm and being successful.”
Levine, Hughes and Mithuen emerged as a niche operation that lasted more than three decades, specializing on for-profit firms, their business owners and high net worth individuals. During their time together, Levine often would repeat these words of wisdom to his staff: Never waste a breakfast or lunch.
“It was invigorating, stimulating, fun … ,” Hughes recalled of his 30-year trek working at his old firm. “We had a focus on investing ourselves in our clients’ businesses and helping them.”
Setting up books, tax planning and financial statement audits were part of the total package of accounting, tax and consulting services offered to their clients, totaling more than 500 strong. But even with deep-pocketed and emotionally invested clientele, the three partners through the years became cognizant of some limitations for their firm within a changing world economic landscape.
An October 2006 merger with CPA giant Clifton Gunderson would provide further avenues to benefit those who had placed their trust in Levine, Hughes and Mithuen for so many years. Size did matter in this case. And a shared vision and philosophy between the two companies made the new relationship seemingly work from the get-go.
“Strategically we had been looking for an opportunity that would give us a bigger presence for our commercial practices in the southeast corridor of the metro area,” said David Laundy, managing partner with Clifton Gunderson. “But having said that, it was important – critically important – if we were going to do any kind of combination, it had to be with a firm that really aligned with our mission statement.”
The Clifton Gunderson crede, in short, is: Growth of their people, growth of their clients, all else follows.
“Levine, Hughes and Mithuen totally aligned with us in that way,” Laundy added.
Now one of the nation’s largest CPA and consulting firms, Clifton Gunderson has about 185 employees in its three Front Range offices. Manny Levine retired in 1996. Hughes and Mithuen made the switch, as did key shareholders Lee Johnson, Steven Van Meter and Dennis Buelow.
“Clifton Gunderson had a culture that was very strongly aligned with our Levine, Hughes and Mithuen culture, along with a shared vision and synergy,” said Hughes, who remains a partner at Clifton Gunderson. “We were able to serve clients in a bigger arena, more sophisticated clients, larger clients, and clients making more of an impact.”
Even before the merger, Hughes made it clear his old firm’s longstanding ties with the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce needed to remain viable, even with ‘Clifton Gunderson’ now displayed on business cards. 
Hughes had originally served on the Chamber’s committee to select the area’s small business of the year 10 years ago and has been extremely active in the organization. He would eventually ascend to the Chamber’s board chairman and still has a seat on the board today. He’ll remain in the Economic Development group when his current board term ends this year.
“One of the advantages Clifton Gunderson saw in Levine, Hughes and Mithuen merging is we were better connected in the Southeast Metro business and political community – well connected and well thought of,” Hughes said. “We could extend that to Clifton Gunderson.”
Chamber relationships provided a great deal of those business and political connections, Hughes added. Thus, Clifton Gunderson jumped at the chance to become a strong Chamber partner itself, as Levine, Hughes and Mithuen had been.
“Being so involved in the Chamber really demonstrated that they were a presence here and did have the great reputation in the commercial world that we were looking for. It was really valuable to us,” Laundy said. “When you have that level of involvement in a Chamber like that and you’re on its committees, that’s a tangible representation that, in fact, you do share the values of growing people and growing clients and are passionate about serving clients. “
The holdover Clifton Gunderson staff since has benefitted from the networking opportunities and various educational events provided by the Chamber, Laundy added. “It is such a great vehicle on so many levels to us.”
And with the current economic downturn, forging stronger bonds with the business community at large may be more important than ever.
“There are successes,” Hughes said of working within today’s economic landscape. “I look at the South Metro Chamber and I see people looking for ways to turn things around. There’s an energy out there and the talent to fuel it. That to me is what’s exciting about Colorado as an entrepreneurial state. People don’t look at what they can’t do in this economy but what they can do.”
And Hughes still has some tricks up his sleeve to keep Clifton Gunderson’s business humming along, too.
Those myriad breakfasts and lunches to this day still include a full plate -- even some food.
More information about Clifton Gunderson can be found at www.cliftongunderson.com.
* American Indian College Fund, Rick Williams
By Lee Rasizer
Chamber consultant
Stephen Yellow Hawk may not have been working at the same Rapid City, S.D., car wash today that employed him before the Denver-based American Indian College Fund intervened in his life. But it’s safe to say he wouldn’t be receiving his college diploma, as he will this Father’s Day.
The degree represents more than a piece a paper to Yellow Hawk. It signifies his journey from a child raised early on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, to his morphing into an Americanized version of himself borne from years of his family shunning his rich heritage in Rapid City to the present – where he stands a proud Native American able to speak his Lakota tongue, sing his people’s songs and dance its tribal dances.
“It’s the biggest accomplishment of my life,” Yellow Hawk said of that journey, culminating at Oglala Lakota College, where he’ll graduate with a degree in Elementary Education. “To get my education, for me, is the beginning of possibilities and opportunities for me. I’ve always felt it’s more than just a diploma. It’s a ticket.”
And those ducats are earned not only from the commitment of dedicated students but the assistance of the American Indian College Fund, whose headquarters have been based locally for the past dozen years but whose leadership only recently began ramping up its community involvement through its relationship with the Chamber.
On June 4, the AICF held a Colorado Community Celebration, featuring, among other events, a speech by Yellow Hawk about his lifelong journey. There also was a silent auction, Northern and Southern Indian Plains dancers, a prominent Native American weaver, and, behind the scenes, the building of connections.
The Chamber co-sponsored the event.
“It’s created a whole different set of relationships for us,” Rick Williams, the Fund’s president and CEO, said of his organization’s link to the Chamber, which it joined about a year ago. “People we’ve interacted with through South Metro come to the events we have but it’s also a quid pro quo relationship because you really do start seeking business with those entities. (Chamber president) John Brackney is wonderful at creating those relationships. That really makes it worth our while.”
A mutually beneficial model is at the heart of the AICF. The money it raises support students like Yellow Hawk that likely wouldn’t have attended college; in turn, the future of the Native American people is being turned over to those new community leaders.
“There are hundreds of kids who show what we do, how we support people and how we change lives,” Williams explained. “Education is really the answer. The more opportunities we create for people, the bigger difference it makes in everybody’s lives.”
There are 33 tribal colleges funded by the American Indian College Fund serving more than 12 states, including Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana and Kansas in the Rocky Mountain region, encompassing 250 tribes throughout the country.
Last year, the AICF distributed 5,000 scholarships, which is near the annual average for the organization, which calls 8333 Greenwood Blvd in Denver its home after calling New York City its home for many years.
“One of the reasons we didn’t try to create a presence in Denver previously is because all of the schools we work with are out of state and it was really hard to make a business case to ask people to support our work if we weren’t really supporting a lot of students from Colorado and there wasn’t an impact in the Denver community,” Williams noted.
“I think over the years that is something that started to change,” he added. “And it started to change when we joined South Metro and really got involved on a regular basis.”
Williams called the Fund’s first wide-scale exposure to the area just the beginning. An October black-tie gala in support of AICF in the Seawell Grand Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts will be the centerpiece event in celebration of the Fund’s 20th anniversary. Singer Gladys Knight is tentatively scheduled as entertainment, which should bring added attention to the Fund’s mission.
But Williams also envisions smaller-scale exposure to the community that can educate locals about Native American culture, too.
“The thing we’re most interested in doing is getting people interested in getting to know about us,” he said. “Once people are comfortable, support comes from that.”
And that assistance directly helps people like Yellow Hawk. Following high school, he was working at the car wash when he heard a radio sermon about career paths and people straying away from what the Creator has in store for them. Not long after, he received a call about potentially joining a grant program to serve as a mentor for Native American youth in Rapid City and saw it as a sign. It inspired him for the first time to investigate college, where he could strengthen his leadership skills while reacquainting himself strongly with his people’s heritage.
Soon, Yellow Hawk will begin his new job as a culture specialist at General Beadle Elementary School in Rapid City. It’s his mission that the youth of today won’t be investigating or shunning its own identities down the line but the young children will embrace their people today.
“It’s beautiful,” Yellow Hawk said.
For more information on the American Indian College Fund go to www.aicf.org.
* Experience Pros
Imagine this: You’re right in the mix of things at your office—producing wonderful documents and printing them on your trusty inkjet printer when, all of a sudden, the unthinkable happens… your printer cartridge runs dry. Your day comes to a grinding halt, and you have but one overriding mission: must get a refi ll. This scenario happened for a couple of local business owners, and the story that follows is true.
Eric Reamer and Angel Tuccy, owners of Littleton-based Experience Pros, LLC headed straight to Cartridge World in Englewood. All they needed was a refill for their printer cartridge. What they got, instead, was a warm, friendly greeting by Ron Skinner, the business owner. He then proceeded to asked them leading questions that helped them better understand the whole world of remanufactured ink and toner cartridges, and even showed them how to keep their entire printing system running at optimal performance. They were given the red-carpet treatment and left his store feeling amazed at the level of genuine concern and interest Cartridge World had for their specific needs.
Another story: Jay Carpenter is a financial advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services who takes the time to really develop a relationship with his clients. Jay sends his customers birthday cards, follow up letters, and hand-written “thinking-of-you” notes several times a year. He brings people together not just for a sale – but also to demonstrate his appreciation for the relationships he develops with his clients. His kindness extends to making sure that you don’t have to go out of your way to meet with him – he will come to you. He’s more than likely to show up with a cup of your favorite coffee in hand, too… just because he knows you’ll appreciate it. And oh yeah… he’s great with managing your investments. What do these two independent businessmen have in common? They are both recipients of the Experience Pros Extreme Customer Service Award. They have been acknowledged among their peers and within their communities for having gone the extra mile to make a difference in the hearts and lives of their customers.
Experience Pros is a company that offers professional consultation and systemic training to service-industry businesses of all sizes. “We specialize in business development via extreme customer service and strategic relationship training”, says Reamer. “Simply put,” he says, “we put the relationship back into business by training our clients how to bring back the lost art of extreme customer service”. The pair are currently starting their "Experience Pros University" which is a 12 month program to improve a business' customer service skills as well as boost their marketing efforts.
“We aren’t just trainers,” says Tuccy. “We’re also consumers. We shop in our neighborhood, and do business in our community. There is a direct correlation between how a business’ customers are treated, and the overall health of the business.” This fact led the Experience Pros team to develop their award program which specifically looks for companies who not only understand the importance of, but also implement the execution of customer service that goes beyond what is expected.
The Extreme Customer Service (ECS) Award was designed to acknowledge the fact that just maintaining the status quo – isn’t enough. Businesses do not get “points” for meeting the needs of their customers. That is the basic expectation, and is considered the minimum level of effort in order to maintain a decent customer experience. In order to qualify for the ECS Award, businesses must demonstrate an exceptional level of customer-forward awareness, which translates into an overwhelmingly positive customer experience.
The award is always complemented with a presentation celebration, and press releases to local area media and chambers of commerce. Businesses may be nominated for consideration by way of the Experience Pros website, www.ExperiencePros.com. The team has also started a new 12 month business-building program titled Experience Pros University. One may also request a professional “secret shop” experience and free evaluation by contacting them either through their website or by calling their offices at 720-344-2446.
You can listen to Eric & Angel on their weekly radio webcast "The Experience Pros Radio Show" each Tuesday at 11:00 am. For more information follow this link.
Call the Chamber at 303-795-0142 for more information on any of our Investors or to join! or for an on-line application click HERE!
