Batteries have not only kept pace with the rapid advancement of other technologies but have also played a vital role in enabling them. It wasn’t long ago that everyday devices like smartphones, laptop computers, radios, music players, cordless power tools, and electric vehicles were considered the stuff of science fiction. Single-use and rechargeable batteries have not only made these items portable but have also liberated us from the constraints of power cords and cables, transforming the way we live and work.

Energy revolution
One of the earliest known energy storage devices was the ‘Baghdad Battery,’ dating back over 2,000 years. This ancient artifact is believed to have been used for electroplating, with vinegar or wine serving as the rudimentary electrolyte. Centuries later, in 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the ‘voltaic pile,’ considered the first true battery. This invention would lay the groundwork for the modern electric battery.

Following Volta’s groundbreaking work, other inventors continued to build upon his discoveries. French chemist Georges Leclanché created the ‘Leclanché cell’ in the 1860s, and in the late 1880s, German physician Carl Gassner improved upon this with the development of the ‘dry cell’ battery, which could be used in a wider range of applications. Around the same time, Swedish engineer Waldemar Jungner invented the nickel-cadmium battery, which would play a significant role in powering early portable electronics.

In 1900, Thomas Edison, a legendary American inventor, advanced battery technology by creating the ‘Edison battery.’ Recognizing the shortcomings of lead-acid batteries—namely their weight, bulk, and susceptibility to corrosion—Edison spent eight years and nearly a million dollars conducting experiments to find an alternative. He eventually developed a more practical solution, replacing the acid used in traditional batteries with an alkaline solution and using nickel flake and hydrate combined with potassium and lithium hydroxides. Even today, over 125 years later, modern batteries are still based on Edison’s pioneering principles.

Powering everyday needs
Batteries are more than just a convenience; they make our lives easier, safer, and more efficient. Consider the many situations in which we rely on battery-powered devices. When the power goes out, we reach for a flashlight and tune into portable radios for news updates. In the event of a fire, battery-powered smoke detectors alert us to potential danger. In the realm of healthcare, life-saving devices like pacemakers and Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) rely on batteries that last five to seven years, keeping patients alive every day. In short, batteries are essential to modern existence.

As Henry R. Schlesinger writes in his insightful book, The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution, “The fact is, batteries not only power our current technologically advanced and portable age, but are also largely responsible for virtually all of the early basic scientific research that made today’s gadgets and gizmos possible. Batteries quite literally powered much of the basic science that led to the consumer technology they power today. Without batteries, not only would our cell phones and other gadgets not work; in all likelihood, the technology on which they are based would not exist.”

Major economic player
The global battery industry is not just large—it is enormous. According to Statista, the battery market is projected to grow more than fourfold between 2021 and 2030, from nearly $112 billion to $424 billion. The dominant segment of this market will remain lithium-ion batteries, which have become the standard in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage.

For most consumers, the term ‘battery’ brings to mind common household items like AA or 9-volt alkaline cells for TV remote controls, smoke detectors, and other small devices. Duracell is the top-selling battery brand in the United States, followed by competitors like Energizer, Rayovac, and emerging private label products like Amazon Basics. While these standard batteries still dominate the market, the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) has led to a surge in demand for rechargeable EV batteries, which now constitutes one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the industry.

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) currently leads the EV battery market, holding a 38.8 percent market share. Other key players in the sector include BYD (15.8 percent) and LG Energy Solutions (12.9 percent), while global brands like Samsung SDI (4.5 percent) and Panasonic (4.4 percent) also contribute significantly. As electric vehicles become increasingly popular, home backup batteries—used to store off-peak or renewable energy—are helping many consumers lower their carbon footprints, further driving demand for advanced battery technologies.

The next generation
Battery technology continues to innovate and evolve. While traditional alkaline, nickel-cadmium, and lithium-ion batteries still play critical roles in powering everything from toys to smartphones, new battery technologies are emerging that promise even greater performance, efficiency, and sustainability. Among these, zinc-sulfur (Zn-S) batteries are gaining attention as a potentially game-changing technology for energy storage.

Zn-S batteries are already being hailed as a significant step forward in the pursuit of sustainable energy solutions. These batteries use zinc and sulfur—materials that are abundant, non-toxic, and relatively inexpensive—making them far less environmentally harmful than traditional lithium-ion batteries. In addition to their sustainability advantages, Zn-S batteries also exhibit impressive durability, high safety standards, and greater anodic capacity. Unlike other battery technologies like lithium-sulfur, Zn-S batteries are less affected by air conditions, offering more stable performance over time.

“The ample supply and accessibility of these elements [zinc and sulfur] ensure a stable and cost-effective foundation for large-scale battery production,” state the authors of The Zinc-Sulfur Battery: The Next Frontier in Energy Storage Technology. This cost-effectiveness, combined with Zn-S batteries’ strong performance and safety features, positions them as a promising option for large-scale energy storage applications in the future.

In addition to Zn-S, research into other types of next-generation batteries, such as solid-state batteries and even biological batteries, is rapidly advancing. These technologies could eventually lead to batteries that are lighter, safer, longer lasting, and more sustainable. For instance, solid-state batteries are expected to have higher energy densities, which would allow devices to run longer on a single charge, and they are considered safer than traditional lithium-ion batteries, as they are less likely to catch fire.

Batteries, yesterday and tomorrow
As we look to the future, the role of batteries will only continue to expand. From their humble beginnings as simple devices used for energy storage to the sophisticated power sources we depend on today, batteries have revolutionized the way we live and interact with technology. Today, they power everything from portable electronics and electric vehicles to life-saving medical devices and renewable energy storage systems.

Even as new battery technologies emerge, one thing remains clear: batteries will continue to be one of the greatest inventions of all time. Their ability to store energy and convert it into electricity has transformed our world, enabling scientific progress, driving technological innovation, and powering everyday life. As the industry continues to evolve, batteries will remain at the heart of many of the most exciting developments in energy, sustainability, and technology.

The post The Power of Batteries<p class="company">Innovation Driving Global Technological Progress</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

From local mom-and-pop shops to well-established brands like Walmart, the largest family-owned business in the U.S., the products and services on offer can differ, but there are key strategies and approaches that can be implemented to better secure success for a family business long into the future. This is good news given that family-owned businesses, when profitable, have a resounding economic impact which extends beyond the family to include their employees and the communities and economies they are a part of.

Economic snapshot
A Business Initiative article shows that there are 32.4 million family-owned businesses in the U.S., representing 87 percent of all business tax returns, employing 59 percent of the private sector workforce, and contributing 54 percent to private sector GDP. In Canada, data from Family Enterprise Canada shows that family-owned businesses represent 63.1 percent of all private sector firms, employ 6.9 million people, and collectively generate 48.9 percent of the country’s private sector GDP at $574.6 billion.

On a global scale, McKinsey and Company found that family businesses represent 70 percent of GDP and 60 percent of global employment, numbers which have resounding effects that ripple well beyond the families themselves. But success in this realm requires a strong operational structure, a culture that is homed in, and a personal commitment that can be far greater than that which comes with going to work for someone else.

A strong structure
A family-owned business is one that is owned and operated by family members, each contributing time and capacity to the business and the decision-making process. They can be owner-operators, partnerships, distributed, nested, and public offerings.

A Science Direct Management article outlines the four main strategic, organizational, and leadership priorities that are paramount to a successful family-owned business. Referred to as “the 4 Cs”—continuity, community, connections, and command—there are several ways to achieve these ends, most of which are centred around a comprehensive plan, a clear and unified vision, established roles and responsibilities, a system of accountability, and a well-defined operational structure. This is true of all companies, but when it comes to family-owned and operated companies, there is also a need to have a proven system of conflict resolution to preserve relationships that persist after clocking out at the end of the day.

Where these elements are in place, there is a greater likelihood that the business will be able to withstand downturns. In fact, there is strong evidence to show that the return on investment is greater for family businesses than their non-family counterparts.

Family-owned businesses tend to operate with purpose beyond profitability, which means that there is patient capital and leaders who are willing to reinvest their own funds and pause dividend payments in the interest of the company’s success, offering the stability and flexibility needed to weather economic storms.

One of the greatest storms these families can face is generational transitions. Knowing that only 30 percent of family-owned businesses survive the transition to second-generation ownership—a figure that is reduced to12 percent for third-generation transitions—a strong succession plan and adequate training must be in place to ensure the next generation has the necessary skills and institutional memory to preserve the family and company legacy.

Questions of culture
Many people start businesses with family because of the work-life balance it can afford, not only from the perspective of having the ability to set your own schedule, but also to be able to focus on one’s passion, working with loved ones and having a positive impact through this work.

From a cultural standpoint, family businesses often extend that sense of family beyond their own relations to include employees and the broader community. There is typically a strong sense of loyalty and trust earned through the longstanding relationships that have been formed.

Built upon deeply rooted knowledge and connection to the products and services offered, particularly in multi-generational operations, family businesses enjoy a longevity in leadership that promotes a sense of steadfastness. It must be noted, however, that longevity can also stifle innovation where there is an unwillingness to adapt to current business practices and technologies. While tried and true approaches serve family-owned and operated companies well, they also require a certain level of agility and adaptability to remain competitive.

The same is true of the ability to build success on shared values and visions. When these factors align, it is serendipitous, but there is also the propensity to fall too deeply into groupthink, which creates a culture of exclusion. Families must also be conscious of nepotism, which does the same. Luckily, these issues can be managed or mitigated through strong leadership and well-established policies.

While there are certainly rewards to be reaped from being a family business, there is also the potential for drawbacks, especially on a personal level. Career stunting is a very real concern, as career advancement opportunities are fewer and farther between in a family operation. The work can also tend to be repetitive, and fatigue is likely, often exacerbated by personal and familial pressures and the need to manage a viable and profitable business.

A great deal of personal effort and sacrifice goes into a successful business, and when family relationships and well-being are at stake, even more work goes into maintaining and protecting relationships. Work often goes home with you, and sometimes if feels like more time is spent at work than at home, which is why it is important to find time for rest, regeneration, and spending time with family outside of work.

The backing of a community
When it comes to family businesses, when they work together harmoniously to achieve shared success, the rewards are sweet and even sweeter when shared and celebrated with loved ones as well as the local communities they call home. Even when a brand is global, many of the benefits remain local because the families don’t forget where they come from. Many amateur sports leagues and local charities, for instance, have come to depend on local family businesses for contributions that enable them to operate and enrich the community. These are the teams that owners’ own kids and grandkids play on, so they see the value of these investments firsthand.

And engaging with the community in this way garners a great deal of support. Statistics show that people are more likely to support a family-owned business than their non-family-owned counterparts, especially when they know the benefits of their spend will stay local. This is especially true of Gen Z and Millennials who show great enthusiasm for doing so.

Data from Business Dasher shows that 80 percent of people buy from local businesses to support their community, while 40 percent do so because they believe there is better service offered. 30 percent feel that local businesses offer better products, and 25 percent of respondents appreciate local businesses for the convenience of local delivery and accessibility.

Findings from online marketplace Faire show that of the 1,000 people surveyed, consumers were willing to spend nearly $2,000 more in 2024 to help local shops continue to thrive. Nearly 80 percent of these consumers believe that their Main Streets are stable or growing when compared to pre-pandemic years and more than 65 percent will visit multiple times a month.

Whatever the reason is for support, family businesses are an undeniable economic driver and a pillar of the community. At the heart of it, they are composed of people like you and me who are subject to family dynamics of their own that are being managed in the collective interest of the many beneficiaries of their success.

The post A Lot at Stake<p class="company">The Dynamics and Impacts of Family-Owned Businesses</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Established in 1947, MOA was founded with the goal of fostering understanding and appreciation of world cultures, with a particular focus on the artistic and cultural traditions of Indigenous peoples in British Columbia and beyond. The museum’s collection has grown significantly over the decades, now housing more than 50,000 ethnographic objects. Its distinctive architecture, designed by renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson in 1976, was inspired by traditional Northwest Coast Indigenous structures, creating a space that honours and respects the cultural heritage held within.

MOA has become a global leader in the study and preservation of Indigenous artifacts and cultural expressions, supporting connections between historical traditions and contemporary Indigenous voices. Over the years, the museum has also expanded its role as an educational institution, working with researchers, students, and community members to deepen the understanding of cultural heritage and anthropology. Through innovative exhibitions, research initiatives, and extensive collaborations, MOA continues to redefine what it means to be a modern museum.

In addition to its educational efforts, the museum frequently hosts workshops, artist talks, and community-driven events that engage visitors in meaningful dialogue about cultural heritage and contemporary issues facing Indigenous peoples. At the heart of its mission is a deep and enduring commitment to working with Indigenous peoples and other global communities, ensuring that their voices and perspectives are not only heard but shape the museum’s very identity.

MOA is situated on the unceded, ancestral lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking Musqueam people. Recognizing this, the museum has long prioritized engagement with Indigenous communities, working together to develop collections, exhibitions, and programs that reflect the values and needs of the people whose heritage they represent.

“Musqueam has always reached out to this museum,” says Susan Rowley, Director at MOA. “They’ve been incredibly generous in asking us to be self-reflective and self-critical. They challenge us with questions like, ‘Why do you do that? What is the purpose of that? Who are you to speak for Indigenous peoples?’ These conversations are essential in keeping us accountable.”

This ongoing dialogue has led to significant transformations at MOA, including the recent reimagining of the permanent Pacific Northwest galleries. The process involved working closely with an Indigenous advisory committee and rights and title holders to ensure the exhibits accurately reflect Indigenous perspectives. “There are poles and other cultural belongings here that are living entities for families,” Rowley explains. “So, working with communities to discuss what can be shared and how it should be shared is crucial.”

Beyond public exhibitions, the museum fosters meaningful engagement through programs like the Indigenous Internship Program, which provides training for Indigenous community members interested in cultural heritage work, and a Collections Access Program, which facilitates Indigenous people to spend time with belongings housed at the museum or bring them back to their communities for ceremonial or research purposes.

Additionally, MOA has been expanding its efforts to recruit more Indigenous staff members and develop collaborative research projects and reciprocal learning opportunities that support Indigenous scholars and artists to contribute their knowledge and perspectives. Through these partnerships, the museum is supporting Indigenous people’s rights to shape the narratives that are shared with the public and working with them to preserve heritage.

MOA also recognizes that reconciliation is an ongoing process. The museum actively works with Indigenous groups to ensure repatriation efforts are conducted respectfully and appropriately. Recent efforts have focused on returning cultural belongings to their rightful communities, reinforcing the museum’s role as a facilitator of cultural justice.

In addition to its work with Indigenous communities, MOA has recently undergone significant seismic upgrades to protect the collections housed at the museum. The project was prompted by a university-wide seismic scan that identified the museum’s Great Hall, home to massive totem poles and carvings, as particularly vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake.

“The question became: how could you stabilize that space?” Rowley recalls. “The works in that hall breathe in that space. The architecture, designed by Arthur Erickson, is strong and meaningful. Anything invasive, like a steel substructure, would have disrupted that.”

Ultimately, the solution was to dismantle and completely rebuild the structure using base isolation technology, which allows the building to absorb seismic movement. While the process required MOA to close to the public for 18 months, it provided a unique opportunity to redesign the Pacific Northwest galleries in collaboration with Indigenous communities. “People have a deep connection to the belongings in that space,” Rowley shares. “These are not just artifacts—they are connected to living peoples, their ancestors, and their futures. Protecting them was paramount.”

The base isolation system, which allows the building to move independently of the ground motion, ensures that in the event of an earthquake, the structure will remain intact, its invaluable artifacts safeguarded. This extensive project also included upgrading the museum’s environmental controls, reinforcing other structural elements, and enhancing visitor safety measures.

For 2025, MOA is preparing a diverse slate of exhibitions that will showcase a range of cultural and artistic expressions. Among them is Rebecca Belmore’s Value, set to open in May. Belmore, a celebrated Anishinaabe artist, is known for her powerful works that address themes of colonialism, resistance, and identity. This exhibition will feature a selection of her installations and performances that challenge conventional narratives about Indigenous experiences in Canada.

Additionally, Ellen Neel’s Kakaso’las exhibition will honor the life and work of the groundbreaking Kwakwaka’wakw artist. This exhibit, curated by fourth-year Museum Studies students at UBC, will run from May to Thanksgiving weekend.

Later in the year, Entangled Territories will explore Tibet’s cultural and political landscape through art and material culture, while Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother will examine contemporary weaving practices and the intersection of traditional and digital techniques, featuring the work of weaver Meghann O’Brien.

“These exhibitions, typical of the kinds MOA is known for, highlight and showcase diverse artistic traditions,” Rowley says. “We are honored to provide a platform for these important stories.”

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC stands as a testament to the power of cultural preservation, community collaboration, and ongoing learning. Through its dedicated work with Indigenous communities, extensive seismic upgrades, and diverse exhibitions, MOA exemplifies what a modern museum can and should be.

As museums worldwide grapple with questions of representation, reconciliation, and sustainability, MOA offers a model of how institutions can remain relevant and responsive. By continually evolving and listening to the voices of those whose histories it preserves, the museum ensures that its impact extends far beyond its walls.

For those seeking to understand the depth and richness of Indigenous cultures, as well as the evolving role of museums in today’s society, MOA provides an unparalleled experience. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a longtime supporter, a trip to the Museum of Anthropology is not just a journey through history; it is an invitation to engage with the living narratives of the past and present, shaping a more inclusive future for all.

The post A Journey of Cultural Collaboration<p class="company">The Museum of Anthropology at UBC</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“We want people to know that Sioux Falls is a thriving community,” he says. “The city may not be as well-known as others or on someone’s radar, so we want people to know this is a great place to do business and raise a family.”

The area was once inhabited by the Lakota and Dakota peoples, who hunted bison. The cascades on the Big Sioux River (aka The Falls) attracted the notice of early explorers, including Lewis and Clark. Settlement began in the 1850s, and the community grew to 593 residents by 1873. Railroads led to explosive expansion, as the population soared from 2,164 residents in 1880 to over 10,000 within a decade. The arrival of interstate highways in the 1960s continued to drive growth, with the population topping 100,000 people by 1990.

Located in southeast South Dakota near several major transportation routes, the city today enjoys low unemployment, affordable housing, strong public, private, and post-secondary education systems, and a comprehensive healthcare network. The biggest city in South Dakota, it has around 220,000 residents—while the Sioux Falls Metro area has a population of over 316,000—and is growing at a rate of 4,000 to 6,000 people per year.

Sioux Falls is “a big city with a smalltown feel,” says Mundt. “We attract businesses and people here because of the quality of life paired with our cost of living and the safety component that we have. Companies can thrive here. We have a hard-working [labor force] that’s willing to put in the time to be successful.”

Indeed, the city has recently experienced a surge of economic, residential, and commercial growth. Foundation Park, for instance, is a 980-acre industrial zone established in 2015 near rail lines and interstate highways. Billed as “South Dakota’s first mega-site,” by the SFDF, Foundation Park counts Amazon, FedEx, and a range of manufacturers, warehousing operations, and other businesses as tenants. Sites are still available for companies looking to locate here.

The lure of plentiful, shovel-ready land—Foundation Park features well-established utilities infrastructure—is just one of the city’s attractions. The Sioux Falls Development Foundation offers negotiated pricing on its industrial land, while the city and state offer incentives and competitive utility rates. State-level initiatives include the South Dakota Reinvestment Payment Program, which gives reinvestment payments to companies that initiate projects valued at over $20 million or make equipment upgrades of at least $2 million. South Dakota is also a right-to-work state, meaning it is illegal to compel workers to join a union or deny employment to someone based on their membership or non-membership in a union. There is also no personal or corporate state income tax.

Sioux Falls is conveniently located at the crossroads of two interstates, I-29 and I-90, enabling easy north/south and east/west travel, respectively. Average commuting time is under 20 minutes. The Sioux Falls Regional Airport, already the largest in the state, might get even bigger in the near future. “We’re looking, in the next five to 10 years, at expanding our airport, expanding the capacity we have for both passenger air and also freight,” Mundt tells us.

As for what kinds of companies the city aims to attract, “We are targeting high-tech manufacturing,” he says. “We’re also targeting warehousing and distribution and looking at bio-tech industries, specifically [agricultural bio], areas of genetic engineering, biopharmaceuticals… We’re also looking most currently at cyber and cyber-security.”

Above all, Sioux Falls wants to work with businesses offering high-quality, high-paying positions. “If you’re looking to come here and pay people in the $12 to $13 an hour range, you’re not going to attract enough workers to fill your jobs,” says Mundt. “We make sure they understand they’re going to have to pay what it takes to get people.” Median family income in the Metro Sioux Falls area was $103,464 in 2023, while the per capita income was $46,368, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.

Coupled with good wages is affordability. The city scored 91.0 on a cost-of-living comparison published by the Council for Community & Economic Research that tabulated and contrasted average food, housing, transportation, health, and utilities expenses in various cities. Denver, Colorado scored 108.6, Madison, Wisconsin scored 104.7, and Minneapolis, Minnesota came in at 93.6. Sioux Falls also boasts an abundance of new housing, as $6 billion worth of residential construction has taken place here since 2020, with over 15,000 new housing units built. The median home price in 2024 was roughly $330,000.

Over the past decade, the city’s labor force has grown by 14 percent, with unemployment in 2024 standing at a very low 1.8 percent. The city’s two major medical systems—Sanford Health and Avera Health—are also its top employers. Other leading employers include Amazon, Smithfield Foods, Wells Fargo, and Walmart/Sam’s Club. Thanks to its strategic location, Sioux Falls can draw workers from three states: South Dakota and neighboring Minnesota and Iowa.

Foundation Park is not the only big development here; Cherapa Place and the Steel District are two high-profile projects in recent years that have transformed the downtown core. “We’ve taken areas that were once industrial, downtown by the river, and transformed them into cities within the city,” explains Mundt.

Cherapa Place is a mixed residential, commercial, and office neighborhood featuring large building complexes and condominiums, while the Steel District, whose name pays homage to the area’s industrial roots, is a “live-work space, with commercial development, residential development, and high-end condos,” as well as the Canopy by Hilton Sioux Falls Downtown, a hotel with over 200 rooms.

In addition to the two large healthcare systems, the city hosts specialty hospitals and facilities focused on hearts, bones, and ophthalmology. “We get a lot of retirees—seniors that come here because of our healthcare system,” notes Mundt. In fact, the state of South Dakota was ranked number six amongst the best places to retire in America in 2025 by the website Seniorly.com, while earlier this year, WalletHub.com included Sioux Falls on its list of the top 25 safest cities in the U.S. based on crime rates, financial safety, and a limited potential for natural disasters.

The city is rich in educational opportunity, with the University of Sioux Falls and Augustana University, both private, based in the city, along with Southeast Technical College. The city is within an hour’s drive of three other major universities: The University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota State University in Brookings, and Dakota State University in Madison.

Cold winters and warm summers are the norm in Sioux Falls. January features a mean temperature of 17.9°F (-8°C), while the July mean is 74.4°F (23°C). The average annual temperature stands at 46°F (7.6°C) with an average annual snowfall of 42.5 inches. “If people move here from California or Southern states, certainly that first winter here is eye-opening to them,” Mundt shares.

But for all that, “we embrace our climate. We live in the upper Midwest, and we know we’re going to have four seasons, and that’s what we appreciate about being here. We know that spring, summer, and fall are kind of our ‘make hay’ months outside, if you will. We really do a lot of stuff during those months. [But we also] have tremendous winter activities. Some are outside; some are inside. We want to make sure that this is a year-round community,” he adds.

In winter, downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and tubing are hugely popular. During the warmer months, hiking, mountain biking, hunting, kayaking, fishing, and all manner of sports are big draws. The area boasts over 80 parks, 17 golf courses, four minor league sports teams—hockey, baseball, basketball, and soccer—three state parks, and four recreation areas.

The city also features an impressive zoo and Falls Park, which features the city’s famous waterfalls and is “kind of our signature area,” says Mundt. Levitt at the Falls offers free concerts throughout the summer and hosts other arts events throughout the year. “If you need something to do on a weekend and you can’t find something, you’re not looking very hard,” Mundt laughs.

In terms of getting the city’s name out, Experience Sioux Falls, the city’s convention and visitors bureau, “does a really good job,” promoting the area to tourists, visitors, and convention goers, he says. The SFDF, meanwhile, is responsible for highlighting business opportunities for companies and job opportunities for individuals. The Foundation achieves this through a robust social media presence and by attending trade shows.

Looking to the future, city officials want Sioux Falls to continue growing—but in a responsible way, says Mundt. This means making plans for future infrastructure and services to accommodate new residents and businesses.

Within a few years, he would like to see Sioux Falls “in that 300,000 to 350,000-person range. We’d love to have more advanced manufacturing companies here creating high-quality jobs.” We look forward to seeing where this city’s evolution takes it next.

The post Big Developments in a Growing Upper Midwest City<p class="company">City of Sioux Falls, South Dakota</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In working with the EDC for about a decade before coming on board as president and CEO in 2012, Clifton had polished his knowledge of business retention, workforce development, strategic planning, grants and incentives, policies, and other key tactics. “I was familiar with what they do, and traveled with them a lot,” he shares. The law firm he was with represented the CCEDC as well as the airport and several cities in the county, and when his predecessor left, the chairman of the EDC suggested Clifton apply. “I had a lot of economic development experience on the law side,” he says, “and I was ready for a change.”

Top state for business
Located in rural south Alabama, Covington County is near the Florida border and has a population of about 38,000. Andalusia serves as the county seat for Covington, which encompasses 1,034 square miles and has 10 incorporated towns.

For many years, one of the area’s major businesses was Alabama Textile Products Corporation (ALATEX). Founded over 100 years ago as the ANDALA Co., it served as a contract manufacturer for legendary clothing company Arrow Shirts.

Cementing its reputation early on as an ideal place to do business, Alabama was named one of the Top States for Doing Business by Area Development magazine last October. “Certain states just have the right ingredients for attracting and nurturing business growth,” enthused the publication. “The 2024 Top States for Doing Business rankings are in, and guess what? The Southern states are shining bright once again.”

Some reasons for this recognition include the state’s business-friendly policies, workforce development, competitive tax rates, and incentives, which together create an ideal climate for growth and investment. Being a right-to-work state also means that Alabama fosters a lower overall cost of doing business.

Unmatched training offerings
“The report credits two main reasons for Alabama’s success: a favorable property tax structure and strong investments in workforce development,” says the CCEDC website. “AIDT (Alabama Industrial Development Training), a division of the Alabama Department of Commerce, continues to provide new services and customized technical training programs at no cost to both employers and trainees.”

This training encompasses everything from trainee recruitment and screening to continuous improvement, safety assistance, process improvement assessments, and leadership training programs.

Training is conducted through AIDT staff or contracted instructors, and delivered via classrooms or one of 38 Mobile Training Units (MTUs). These MTUs can be customized for individual company needs, and even set up directly on employer sites.

“In terms of incentives and what we try to do, Alabama Industrial Development Training is our biggest incentive,” says Clifton. AIDT is consistently ranked as one of America’s top industrial training organizations, and Clifton and the CCEDC are impressed with how streamlined qualifying projects and Requests for Information (RFI) are.

“The AIDT will come in, develop a training program, recruit and train people,” he explains. This includes trainers being sent by auto manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Hyundai from Germany, Japan, and South Korea respectively, with workers being screened and placed, all at no cost. “They will pay your people to train your people,” says Clifton. “That can really make a difference when you’re going after a project… the cost to you is zero.”

At present, Hyundai has a training facility in Alabama’s capital city, Montgomery, where its plant is located.

“Many businesses already know that Alabama—and especially Covington County—offers ample space, favorable taxes, and low utility costs,” adds Clifton on the CCEDC website. “However, fewer companies know just how much Alabama is investing in workforce development. Our goal is to make staffing one of the easiest parts of moving your operations to the state.”

Strong leadership
Rick Clifton works alongside CCEDC Vice President Jacob Morgan, various public and private partners, and a board comprising bankers, businesspeople, an airport director, and a community college president.

“We’ve got a very diverse board with a lot of business leaders, and our biggest employer, Shaw Industries, is on our board,” says Clifton. “It’s a very good group.” The executive committee includes the head of electricity producer PowerSouth Energy Cooperative along with the head of Covington Electric Cooperative, the local electricity distributor, and the president of Southeast Gas Co-op.

Indeed, many businesses remain faithful to Covington County, including Shaw Industries. “You wouldn’t think of aviation in rural South Alabama,” says Clifton of Shaw. A leader in flooring and surface solutions, Shaw is a wholly owned Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. subsidiary with over $6 billion in annual sales. The company recently completed a $300 million upgrade and renovation project for its local plant, furthering its commitment to Covington. “It’s the largest renovation in the company’s history, and we’re proud of that.”

Covington County continues to attract and retain many top manufacturers and businesses. According to the CCEDC, Alabama has been responsible for $18.82 billion in manufactured goods exports in 2019.

A rich business landscape
With an abundance of available land, Alabama and Covington County are home to many diverse sectors, including agribusiness and food production, automotive, aviation/aerospace, metal manufacturing, and many more. And with the second-largest timberland base in the United States at almost 23 million acres, Alabama is ideal for forestry-related products and manufacturing. Covington County itself is home to species including pine, elm, beech, oak, poplar, and hickory, as well as several historic mills.

Covington County is also home to the North American headquarters of McDermott Aviation, Australia’s largest Heli-Aviation company, with helicopters made by McDermott sent worldwide to fight fires. The area is also home to a massive, 70,000-square-foot twin hangar aviation complex. Supporting fixed and rotary aircraft OEM, repair, modification, and overhaul, the complex will become available this July.

Earlier this year, legendary sausage-making business Conecuh Sausage announced an $80 million processing facility in the area, which will create dozens of new jobs. The new facility is set to open in May. Other recent initiatives include a large landscaping, timber, rock, and mulch company announcing the creation of an $18 million facility in Florala, a town along the Alabama-Florida state line.

On the energy side, a solar farm will soon be constructed in the southern part of Covington County. The area is already home to several prominent engineering firms, along with PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, Southeast Gas, and Covington Electric Cooperative. Other businesses recently opening in the county include mulch, soil, and landscape rock company Sims Bark and agribusiness giant Simplot.

These companies join many others with a presence in Covington, including chemical and applications company Arclin, global packaging solutions experts Sonoco, Molded Fiber Glass Alabama, and Andalusia Distributing Co., to name a few.

“We fill a void,” says Clifton. “When the co-op system for rural electric services was built, Covington was the center. It made sense for utilities to make Covington their headquarters.” He jokes that the county is “90 miles from everything—90 miles from Montgomery, 90 miles from Dauphin, 90 miles to Mobile, and 90 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.”

Shovel-ready industrial parks
For Clifton and his team at the Covington County Economic Development Commission, nothing happens by chance. Everything is planned and thought out long in advance, including the area’s industrial parks. These include shovel-ready industrial parks, with expedited permitting, in both Andalusia and Opp.

“We have Advantage Sites that are pre-qualified and independently certified as shovel-ready. The Opp Industrial Park and Sutton Road Industrial Park are both Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) Certified Advantage Sites. Since the program was created in 2008, it has grown to 60 active Advantage Sites across Alabama.

What this means for new tenants is that all utilities are on site. All necessary studies—cultural, environmental, geophysical/soil, and even ensuring there are no endangered species—have been pre-completed, so businesses are comfortable knowing they can get up and running quickly.

“Alabama is business-friendly,” comments Clifton. One website he often directs people to is Made in Alabama, at www.madeinalabama.com. The comment he often hears is, ‘What’s made in Alabama?’ His response: ‘Everything.’ This encompasses aerospace, automotive, bioscience, chemicals, operations, logistics, metal and advanced materials, and much more, all backed by a business-friendly climate, great incentives, solid infrastructure, and a motivated workforce.

As a rural community, one challenge is getting companies to come to the area to experience for themselves all that Covington County has to offer. One time, Clifton worked on attracting a retail client for years. “When they finally came, they said, ‘We didn’t know you had all this.’ So if we can get them here, we can show them what we’ve got, and how you get from A to B,” he says.

Along with fostering a business-friendly environment, one of Covington’s biggest assets is its outstanding quality of life. It’s a genuine community where locals are friendly, helpful, and don’t lock their doors. “One phrase I use a lot is, ‘We do business with professional hospitality.’ You’ve heard of Southern hospitality, and we’ve taken a twist on that, and tell people we do it with professional hospitality,” says Clifton. “We have a lot of things going on, and when we get people to come and look, they like what they see.”

The post Where Business and Southern Hospitality Meet<p class="company">Covington County Economic Development Commission</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The American aboveground storage tank industry was immediately impacted. “Once that happened, all of the storage facilities across the United States were under scrutiny,” Alderson says. “Rules started to come into place as far as how someone could store something properly, how they could operate those types of storage facilities. And on the heels of that, there was a rule that came out that a specific type of tank had to have an extra layer of protection, which was a secondary seal on their floating roofs.”

HMT stepped up to accommodate those urgent, emerging needs. “Our company started to solve that problem for customers,” Alderson says. “They came out with a product that customers could install to be able to meet that regulation. And our company has built its foundation on solving problems for customers and helping them meet those compliance needs and put themselves in positions to be able to stay within the standard and not experience fines and fees.”

The company has grown steadily ever since, covering even more customer needs. “It started with this suite of products to be able to help customers meet this regulation, then we started helping customers with repairing their tanks themselves if they were experiencing corrosion or something that would potentially allow for anything to leak out of the tanks,” Alderson explains. HMT then moved into the inspection space “because there weren’t enough providers to be able to help our customers evaluate the tanks themselves.” New tank construction came next. “As customers were starting to get a foothold, and they were looking to expand their facilities, we started building tanks for customers and buying different companies to be able to support this along the way.”

Environmental protection continues to be a driving goal for the company to this day. “We are one of the few [companies] that have someone specifically in charge of focusing on sustainable practices and coming up with different ways for us to be able to support our customers to be able to achieve their ESG or sustainability goals,” says Alderson. “Things like making sure that we’re looking at the best ways for us to be able to track greenhouse gases in the future. Understanding what the potential scope 1 and scope 2 emissions might be that we would need to be reporting within the next five years. We’re looking at different ways to be able to look at the different materials, the different types of vehicles that we have on the road to reduce the impact that our company has specifically on the environment.”

The company also focuses on quality, delivering premium products to “make sure that they’re going to last for as long as they can, reduce the number of times that a customer might have to unexpectedly take a tank out of service, and minimize the potential for small leaks to take place while it’s actually in service,” Alderson explains. “Lots of effort is put into those different areas of being proactive and solution-based.”

HMT is still known for the proprietary emission reduction devices that first gave the company its foothold in the marketplace. “We’ve got a suite of products,” Alderson says. Available in different materials at different price points, these emission reduction devices “have gone through rigorous testing and a proven history that we’ve got some of the best products in the business to be able to keep your tank in service for as long as possible.”

Of course, safety is always a priority at HMT, and the company’s robust safety division works hard to prevent incidents, rather than just reacting to them. “We gather a lot of data and are constantly receiving information from the field. We can be proactive, and we can start seeing trends in near misses or in first aid, then we put ourselves in a position to be able to get on top of some of the more potentially catastrophic failures or safety issues that we might experience. So I’m really excited with the fact that we’re a more proactive program, and we’ve got a more mature safety department than you’re going to see across the majority of the industry.”

This safety division is especially focused on workers who are out on the jobsite. “The biggest safety risks are always going to be out in the field,” says Alderson. “It’s making sure that those workers not only get to the job safely, but leave the job safely with a little bit more money in their pocket to be able to support their families. That’s why we do what we do,” she says.

“We do a tremendous amount of training to make sure that our people are prepared for things,” she continues. “We’re seeing more and more people that are going out to these different sites and, especially the younger generation, they like to know what they’re going to experience before they’re even on site. And so we’ve been doing a lot more work and a lot of R&D with virtual reality to help give these guys an understanding of what they’re going to experience whenever they get out to the job site. What are the ways that they need to position themselves to make sure that they’re going to stay out of harm’s way? Even just the most basic actions; we back into parking spots to ensure that if someone needs a car to be moved quickly, that we position it in a way that is very simple for someone to be able to do that without putting others in harm.”

Now, after nearly half a century in business, HMT is eager to keep moving forward. “We’re always looking at the different ways that we can expand our markets and, most importantly, solve additional problems for customers,” Alderson says. “Whether it’s a gap in the market or a gap in our suite of products that we offer, or a gap in a service that a customer needs to reduce the friction to be able to do their jobs, we’re always looking for things to be able to [add] onto our business to be able to do that.”

This strategy has led to very intentional recent growth. “Within the last couple of years, we made a couple of acquisitions,” Alderson says, enabling the company to expand its offerings to a fuller suite of solutions. “We’ve gotten into the water market from an engineering and inspection standpoint for water tanks and water towers. We’re looking at different ways for customers to be able to use drones and to understand better OGI, optical gas imaging devices, to be able to evaluate how effectively something is [functioning]. We’re getting more involved in regulations every day to make sure that we stay on the front end of compliance for our customers.”

This approach means that the company will continue to be a trusted resource “to help customers stay in compliance.” In the future, the team will be keeping up with “what’s happening in the industry, what’s happening with our customers, and helping with them. And then, ultimately, just making sure that we’ve got good processes and a good culture in place to not only facilitate a good working relationship with our customers externally, but to make sure that we’re also looking at our internal customers—which are our employees—to ensure that this is a business that they’re proud to work for.”

With 47 years of industry-leading history, this team certainly has a lot to be proud of as it continues to grow, protect the environment, and exceed customer expectations.

The post Solving Problems, Sustainably<p class="company">HMT</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Founded in 1947 following World War II during a time of genuine resolve for peace, morality, and humanitarianism, the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) evolved from the demand for a group of experts to represent the industry while embracing diversity, inclusiveness, social responsibility, excellence, and creativity. The number of experts have since grown, along with the number of museums across the country, providing unity and representation for Canadian museums.

Supporting everything from tiny, volunteer-run groups to beloved national institutions, the CMA works for Canada’s thriving museum community and the millions of Canadians whose lives are enhanced by museums. In order to support and maintain these vital spaces, the organization creates and encourages connections, develops professional skills, and pushes for public policies and assistance.

“We were created in response to this required need to bring museums together, to have a voice on a national level, to focus on the importance of museums, advocate for policies and support and also professionalize the sector,” explains Janis Kahentóktha Bomberry, Executive Director and CEO. This has included building skills, creating networking opportunities, and strengthening connections in order to sustain museums moving forward. “The CMA was, at that time, very instrumental in ensuring there was what would become a national museum policy in the country.”

To that end, the CMA does a great deal of advocacy work, aimed not only at government relations but also at ensuring the Canadian public as well as local regions across the country are able to advocate for the importance of museums and why they’re crucial to Canada’s cultural fabric.

“Museums play such a pivotal role in communities,” stresses Bomberry. “They’re centres and hubs where a community can come together to learn about not only our past, but our contemporary realities, and hear stories of diverse voices. We’re really trying to inform our government officials of their importance.” In nearly every riding across this country there is a museum to be found, she adds, and it is the responsibility of MPs (Members of Parliament) to be familiar with these outstanding places of learning.

“Museums really do provide a benefit to Canadians,” Bomberry says. “Studies like the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) study in 2019 show for every dollar spent, the museum actually produces $4 in value from an economic sense. We see that people who visit and go to museums are one of the tourism drivers in every community. They are really places to gather.”

While there is support for the continuing presence of museums across the country, Bomberry finds she still needs to convey their importance on an ongoing basis. “Every time we talk to someone, they’re very aware of and understand the importance of museums, but they’re always looking for that data piece,” she says. “They want to know more data.”

This data could include museum benefits, the number of museum visitors a year across the country, the various types of programs offered, and the different types of exhibitions. All this information is essential to future success and the CMA strives to capture as much as it can.

Data can also illuminate the role museums play in educating the public via the pieces, artifacts, exhibits, and programs available. “From studies we’ve seen recently, Canadians do trust museums as places of learning and places of information, but I think museums aren’t totally immune to that mistrust factor,” adds Bomberry. “We’re very aware that we hold the trust, but that that can easily be taken away from us. We try to advocate with our government as well that most Canadians do trust museums and they trust the information being provided to them.”

Unfortunately, a current culture of wariness has been on the rise for a variety of reasons, subsequently raising concerns across the industry as a whole. “I think we’re in an era where there are a lot of questions around mistrust,” Bomberry says. “I think it was not something we would have considered five years ago, but it’s something museums are very conscious of now. We want to still be those centres of trust.”

EDIA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) is another area the CMA strives to continually advance. “We look at how to embed these into our governance and operation structures within museums,” says Bomberry. “Not necessarily taking it as a separate lens, but looking at how to provide equitable workspaces, places that are accessible to all community members, and ensuring there’s inclusiveness within not only operations, but governance.”

With the number of changes taking place in the United States right now, including the dismantling of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in particular, is CMA worried about that affecting how the organization functions both now and in the future?

“I think if you don’t make it a separate thing and if you have it as part of every day, it’s worked into your organizational values and mission,” says Bomberry. “As long as it’s not a separate piece, it just will be part of the way in which we work. If it can be taken out so easily, it means it wasn’t ingrained within the institution’s values.”

In addition to EDIA, Truth and Reconciliation is another area of great care and concern within the CMA. During the 1950s, when the public relations sector was gaining traction, there came a greater emphasis on the necessity of expertly presenting artifacts, leading to display concerns that persist to this day. Exhibitions were pushed to change their character and museum designers needed to learn new abilities, resulting in the art of exhibition recently gaining prominence in the national discourse.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #67 in 2015 called on the CMA to submit a report and recommendations as part of a nationwide review of museum policies and their alignment with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Since their inception, museums have been a component of the colonial endeavour and today strive to address how to showcase their work as community institutions while simultaneously acknowledging that fact and embracing the chance to support Indigenous self-determination.

“In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call up to action #67, we were named to review policies around museums, looking at what that means and what changes need to happen,” Bomberry says.

Museums are colonial by nature in most instances, she adds. The Move to Action report outlined 30 recommendations and 10 standards for how to support Indigenous self-determination within a museum that can be achieved through governance, operations, and engagement with Indigenous communities, looking at it through repatriation specifically. “We really tried to break it down so people could digest the different pieces of how to do this work—it’s a lot of work. It’s not easy, but we were able to produce a number of toolkits,” Bomberry shares.

This includes a toolkit for small museums that addresses how to progressively look at reconciliation, how to assess governance, how to produce a report card on status when it comes to supporting Indigenous self-determination within governance structures, and how to conduct community engagement work.

Along with the number of toolkits and resources on its website—including an international repatriation guide launched last fall—the CMA also provides a successful seven-week web course now going into its third iteration in the spring. This course offers an intake of about 60 museum professionals from across the country that has seen participation of not only staff, but also board members, a crucial component in ensuring changes are made within the industry. “It was really very heartwarming to see as many board members as we had in the course last year,” says Bomberry.

Additionally, the CMA aims to provide professional development pieces every year, bringing people together, with this year’s symposium taking place in Victoria, BC and a national conference happening in 2026. “We do a lot of these learning opportunities from a national lens, and we try to take it across the country.”

As the organization strives to educate and inform, one of its biggest challenges remains the uncertainty around funding. Federally, funding is project-based, so museums can’t necessarily apply for operating funds, and with only one program available, it’s difficult to sustain operations under a project-to-project funding model.

“We’re also in a time where there are a lot of pressures on keeping up with the changing society around us,” Bomberry adds. “How do we remain relevant in the eyes of a very fast-changing society? Even with levels of uncertainty, though, I think a lot of museums are able to be very pragmatic and can pivot when required. And we’ve seen that. We’ve seen evolutions within museums.”

This evolution includes more community engagement, audience development, looking at issues through a different lens, and digitization, all of which happened during COVID when many museums, even though they had to shut their doors, were still able to deliver programming virtually, options still available today.

“We’re seeing people return to going in-person, but maybe not in the same numbers as before COVID or spending in the same way,” says Bomberry. “That’s a concern, obviously. We’ve also seen drops in levels of sponsorship and donations since COVID, but that’s maybe generally across the not-for-profit sector.”

Regardless of these challenges, the CMA continues to envision stronger museums through engaged citizens, along with organizational boldness, courage, accountability, and professionalism.

Bomberry adds that CMA is seeing “very interesting exhibitions” coming out of museums, all of which require intensive research that isn’t always realized by patrons. “A lot of people see the exhibitions and don’t understand the amount of research that goes into the creation of the work seen on the walls in the museum,” she says. “The research happening is just as crucial, and maybe we don’t share that enough about how much time and effort it takes, but it’s interesting to see. Museums are doing some outstanding collaborative and partnership work and it’s really wonderful to see.”

The post Champion, Support, Connect, Elevate: Valuing Collaboration and Community<p class="company">Canadian Museums Association</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

With a population of almost 75,000 and growing, Blaine is so much more than a commuter city. Through intentional placemaking and strategic investments, it has established itself as a full-service community with a character and economy of its own.

“We’re not just a suburban community that has large single-family homes. We have apartments; we have single-level villas for seniors; we have single-family homes for growing families; and everything in between. Our existing housing stock offers different price points to enter the market as well,” says Blaine’s Community Development Director, Erik Thorvig.

From Thorvig’s perspective, Blaine is a real draw. “Between location, cost, and the other amenities that we have here, it’s a very attractive place for builders to look at and a place where people want to locate.” The city’s leadership continues to do everything it can to enhance the quality of life that’s so appealing to residents and visitors alike.

Investing in the community
To sustain its present growth, several infrastructure investments are being made to strengthen the access and connectivity offered in Blaine via Interstate 35W, State Highways 65 and 610, and US State Highway 10, infrastructure that is critical to growth.

“When you talk about infrastructure, one of the biggest challenges we’ve had in Blaine is Highway 65, which is a major north-south corridor that runs right through the middle of our community,” says Thorvig of the state-owned highway that is traveled by over 55,000 vehicles every day.

Highway 65 actually carries the same volume of traffic as Interstate 35W but, unlike the interstate, has signals and other traffic restrictions that can lead to congestion and safety challenges. Fortunately, Blaine has received more than $100 million from the state and federal governments to invest in that corridor, and while Thorvig expects the work to cause some disruptions, “it will help our existing residents and drive other economic development activity as well.”

This investment has reinforced the State of Minnesota’s decision to relocate its new State of Emergency Operations Center in Blaine, moving existing operations away from downtown Saint Paul to take advantage of this connectivity.

Blaine is also investing in the community through the designation of redevelopment areas. The Northtown Mall, like many other shopping centers built in the 1970s, would benefit from a refresh and is envisioned to become a mixed-use destination of choice. One project injecting new life into this property is Asia Village, a 130,000-square-foot space that will feature an Asian grocery store, food court, retailers, and event venue. This is a model that has had success in other communities and will add life and culture to the area.

This is also true of the 105^th Redevelopment Area. A sports entertainment district, the 60-acre mixed-use redevelopment will bring new restaurants, hospitality, entertainment, and residential to the area surrounding the National Sports Center (NSC), which has been a beacon for development since the 1990s. The neighborhood is designed to be walkable and will boast a unique character of its own playing to the area’s many strengths, particularly its sports-tourism draw.

The draw of sports
From a development standpoint, sports tourism driven by the National Sports Center has been a pillar of the surrounding community. The world’s largest amateur sports facility, it offers over 100 unique sports programs and events including countless national and international competitions that draw more than four million visitors to the city each year.

“It has turned into a sports entertainment hub in the Twin Cities metro area and the primary driver originally for that was the National Sports Center,” says Thorvig of the 600-acre sports campus.

As the most visited sports facility in the state, it is revered by visitors and locals alike, as 90 percent of participants are from the state of Minnesota. This generates over $70 million in annual visitor economic impact—an impact that just keeps growing.

The NSC plays host to the Target USA Cup, one of the largest amateur soccer tournaments in the world, which draws countless individuals and families to the area, and since ice rinks were added in the early 2000s, the community impact of the complex has continued to grow. Now, the world’s largest indoor ice arena of its kind, with eight sheets of ice under one roof, is home to the USA Women’s Olympic Hockey Team and serves as a training facility for athletes of all skill levels.

In total, the facility features 17 artificial turf fields and more than 30 grass fields as well as the M Health Fairview Dome, which, at 110 feet tall, is the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It has the space to house two full-size soccer fields and two full-size baseball diamonds. There is also a 58,000-square-foot NSC Sports Hall and a 5,000-seat stadium that hosts countless events.

Blaine is also home to Victory Links Golf Course, an 18-hole championship golf course and the only PGA-Tour designed course open to the public in Minnesota. It welcomes the best golfers in the world each July. The course hosts the qualifying round for the 3M Open held the same week at the TPC Twin Cities.

Room to grow
As a growing community, Blaine is fortunate to have the space to expand. Over the last several years, there has been a great deal of industrial investment, a testament to the pro-business climate, the forward-thinking leadership, and the growth plan that is successfully being implemented.

As Economic Development Specialist Ruth Tucker notes, “We’ve had about 600,000 square feet of new industrial space come online over the last three or four years and a lot of it is filling quite quickly. We’ve had one building that was completely leased before it was even built and two or three others that were fully leased shortly after,” she says.

“A lot of those spaces are attracting businesses that each bring in a hundred jobs or more to the city, and there are three, sometimes four, companies in each building, so we have a lot of growth from our industrial sector—specifically manufacturing.”

Despite the low industrial vacancy rate, all eyes continue to be on Blaine. With strong software and MedTech sectors, the city is taking full advantage of its location in the Minnesota Technology Corridor along Interstate 35 to become a hub of its own, attractive to educated professionals and skilled talent who value the quality of life it has to offer.

The community is projected to grow by 21.4 percent through 2040, which is reflected in not only population growth but economic growth as well. At full build-out, which is anticipated for 2040, Blaine is expected to have 87,000 residents, but the additional population should not place any strain on the services and amenities on offer.

“Some suburbs grow too fast, and they can’t manage that growth, but our growth has been metered to a point that we’re not getting in over our head or out in front of our skis,” explains Thorvig. “Fortunately, for us, primary functions like our water and sewer systems already exist and can handle the growth that we’re expecting.”

Loving the lifestyle
That’s just what the lucky residents of Blaine have come to expect—the necessary services and amenities, a strategic plan, and a continued focus on elevating their quality of life.

This Minnesota city’s leadership continues to purposefully curate economic opportunities and timely investments in infrastructure and capacity, adding to the economy and lifestyle so loved by its residents and the many individuals who cross the state, country, and world to visit and take in all that Blaine has to offer.

The post A Destination for Business, Sports, Entertainment, and So Much More<p class="company">City of Blaine, Minnesota</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

One recent initiative that CBICC has used to promote these ends is still underway. Since late 2023, Centre County has rolled out its EDSP (Economic Development Strategic Plan), described as a forward-thinking road map designed to support business expansion and retention.

“The launch of a county-wide strategic plan, after months of collaborating with just about everyone in the Centre County business community, was a transformative moment for us,” Scott shares. “We had businesses and townships stepping forward and signing resolutions and letters of support for the plan’s efforts to boost our economy by leveraging our strengths and focusing on our collective goals to grow and support businesses.”

The EDSP also seeks to promote better alignment with the county’s educational partners by targeting specific growth industries, as well as identifying infrastructure needs and challenges within them and how to grow the area while maintaining its strong quality of life.

“What we want to do,” Dolbin says, “is to identify and outline tangible actions that impact businesses [of all sizes],” so that everyone from major employers to smaller entrepreneurs can benefit from all that CBICC has to offer.

The roll-out of the EDSP coincides with the state of Pennsylvania enacting its own economic plan through its Department of Economic and Community Development. In many respects, Centre County’s plan seeks to act in alignment with the state’s. For example, one clustered industry segment identified in both the county and the state as having a strong competitive advantage is the sensor technology sector, which includes spectroscopy, ultrasound, and chromatography, as well as sustainable energy research through The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). From there, both entities are looking to pull businesses in the industry together and amplify their strengths to put both Centre County and Pennsylvania overall on the map as sensor hubs and go-to locations for work in material sciences and research, rare earth minerals, and more.

Most recently, the CBICC is involved with new projects, including an early-stage concierge service wherein it is working with different industry partners to help grow nascent entrepreneurial businesses. This affords these businesses the help needed to navigate the resources available in the economic ecosystem, which Dolbin says can be a daunting and confusing process at times for those unfamiliar. This help includes sharing information for easier hand-offs, as well as securing workforce, locations, financing, or funding when needed. Centre County also maintains links to the ag/ag tech sector, a rapidly evolving industry that is always coming up with new technologies to help drive efficiencies.

One of the county’s major employers is the aforementioned Penn State, which boasts an incredible wealth of resources that can be accessed by Centre County’s business community. The Chamber makes sure that the university is part of the important decisions made for growing the county, believing that educational institutions are important in creating a pipeline to the Centre County workforce for skilled labor, professionals, and partnerships, so that local graduates have immediate business connections upon graduation.

The university has also enabled advanced manufacturing and technological innovation to become a core part of the county’s workforce. As Penn State is a global leader in research and development, a lot of early-stage businesses and new concepts are emerging from it, which are in turn the businesses that the Chamber wants to grow and retain in the area. Five university research labs also work with growing businesses and aim to bring additional opportunities home.

But life in Centre County is not just about work; Dolbin and Scott say that the county’s high quality of life is one of its trademark strengths. “We have small-town charm but significant and sizable amenities,” he shares. These include a strong outdoor recreation offering, with activities ranging from biking, hiking, skiing, and kayaking to just about anything else accessible outdoors. Along with its many business upsides, Penn State also draws a strong arts, entertainment, and cultural presence. Furthermore, the university sports a nationally recognized football program that brings in over 200,000 visitors every home weekend in the fall.

Centre County is also a more affordable area compared to other larger cities, and boasts a plethora of community activities and events, making it ideal for incoming or existing workers to settle down and raise a family.

All of these advantages combine to help CBICC and the county continue to prosper even through challenging times. Pennsylvania is currently seeing a low unemployment rate, which Scott says can be seen as both positive and negative. When it comes to growth, a low rate of around three percent (the state’s current rate) can be challenging, so one of the Chamber’s solutions is to partner closely with Penn State such that students build more direct contact with local businesses. This way, there’s a stronger likelihood of retaining these students after their graduation, thereby growing the local workforce further. Talent retention is a big focus of the community, as well as the importance of affordable housing, the latter also being an ongoing issue at the national level. Part of the plan to address housing locally for CBICC is developing more opportunities for a wide range of income levels, so that area employers can attract outside talent and give workers a place to stay and lay down roots.

As 2025 unfolds, CBICC will be focusing on growing the state’s sensor technology industry, as well as focusing on infrastructure. Notably with infrastructure, Scott says that work will be done to help grow State College’s Airport so as to increase flights and other travel opportunities, along with general county accessibility, to support a growing population. Partner organization Penn State is currently pursuing a sizable federal grant in partnership with Westinghouse Electric Company to develop micro nuclear reactors, ones that are small enough to transport by truck and provide power to remote sites for over eight years. If successful, Penn State will be one of the first universities in America to develop this technology, another potential feather in the cap for Centre County.

Looking further ahead, Dolbin and Scott say that CBICC will look to strengthen its workforce development initiatives and partnerships with its local education providers, from high schools to universities and beyond. Business attraction will also stay top of mind, as the Chamber looks to attract new types of businesses to the area while building on its existing strengths (i.e. the sensor technology industry). This will be supported through targeted expansion programs and recurring meetings with major employers to keep them engaged in the Centre County community.

Finally, the Chamber will continue to emphasize the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation by working with startup companies. “[Startups] are the next major anchor employers, if we can grow them and have them become a major asset in our community,” says Dolbin. There is no shortage of opportunities waiting for new and innovative business ventures in Centre County, especially with the CBICC ever ready to support its burgeoning workforce and prosperous community.

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Since we previously spoke in 2022, the last two-and-a-half years have brought consistent growth for Hanover Logistics. This growth is due to its considerable customer base on the warehousing side and is also related to the onboarding of new business. The Hanover Pennsylvania community and region have seen overall growth, too, as manufacturers and shippers in South Central Pennsylvania increase their supply holdings closer to manufacturing bases in the area while still providing ease of access to the busy Port of Baltimore. Hanover is within a one-day drive from 40 percent of the U.S. population and 60 percent of the Canadian population.

In response to its expansion, Hanover Logistics recently introduced its new building, on which construction began in early 2024 and was completed by year’s end. It is the first company build made with pre-cast concrete, boasting 82,000 square feet in total, seven docks and one drive-in, and ceiling heights of up to 38 feet. This site was last built on through the 1980s and ’90s as the business grew. With the growth trajectory of the company and area, founder and President Kurt Dietrich decided to move to the next phase of development of the site at 201 Center St. in Hanover with the construction of this new class A facility. Hanover Logistics Director of Operations, Charlie Fowler, says that the intention is to fully rack the space and to obtain height lift equipment to allow staff to easily add or remove stock. In an energy-conscious move, Hanover Logistics recently upgraded the lighting in all its facilities to LED lights as well. As Fowler explains, the move was done for the company to do its part for energy conservation.

The company also upgraded its equipment with a mix of electric forklifts, heavier weight dock levelers, and heavy weight lift trucks, which have improved its capabilities to support a wide variety of products, from roll stock paper to palletized consumer goods and raw materials for manufacturing.

The company’s position as a warehousing and logistics provider continues to provide advantages to its market. Hanover often handles the entire end-to-end supply chain for its clients, which in turn helps them better serve their clients and concentrate on other core business development strategies. “We work closely with our customers to provide a full-service supply chain partnership which is also a key differentiator in our business model,” the Director of Operations says. This includes managing e-commerce solutions for shippers and distributors, as well as traditional truck movement both in and out of state.

As an early adopter of e-commerce and pick-and-pack operations, Hanover has positioned itself as a uniquely capable and dependable provider. With its long-standing customer focused mindset, Hanover has helped its clients grow, creating organic growth for Hanover as well.

Beyond its customer-based services, the company’s dedication and appreciation for its workforce reinforces the people-first focus that is at the heart of the women- and family-owned business. The company proudly puts its people first and gives them leadership of their own teams and processes. This allows the workforce to take pride in their work, an attitude which is passed along to customers. Hanover’s facilities are supported by site-specific leadership who build their own team and benchmarks to incentivize the crew to find success and better serve customers.

Hanover maintains its own safety committee comprising key contributors from all different sites at every level of staff. The committee meets monthly for site walks to identify potential risks, which are efficiently submitted into work and repair orders and monthly reports to executive leadership for accountability. The team also participates in fun and engaging practices to encourage safety, where employees can win prizes each day without a documented safety incident. Similar incentives are available to drivers on the trucking side, with bonuses awarded for safe miles driven and for passing Department of Transportation inspections. “Our people, safety, and customers are our highest priorities,” Fowler adds.

Employees’ health and wellness is also paramount, with the goal of supporting employees in healthy lifestyle choices, whether through offering a new fitness center to staff and their families or by featuring group health insurance benefits that encourage regular wellness appointments. Hanover Logistics stays at the forefront of both safety and service by hiring and continually training a skilled workforce, offering competitive compensation, and providing work that fits team members’ unique lifestyles. Hanover wants its employees to enjoy coming to work feeling appreciated and to aspire to be good teammates.

The leadership team is always eager to support and celebrate the success of its workforce, which garnered several awards in 2024 for their hard work in trucking collectively and individually. These include Safe Driver competitions where the company’s safest drivers compete with other national trucking companies in various driving, written, and pre-check competitions. RHC’s drivers and team have scored top awards and have supported the first-place finishers in competing at the national level. And Food Logistics has named Hanover Logistics to its top 3PL & Cold Storage Providers List year after year. The company has also updated its facilities’ food grade certifications to BRCGS accreditation.

During our last feature, Hanover Logistics was still in adaptation mode following the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of which were still being dealt with worldwide. While the company has made its way out of the tumultuous time, the pandemic highlighted potential flaws in the just-in-time shipping approach because manufacturers had a hard time getting materials from overseas; as a result, more businesses began to think about holding raw materials closer to manufacturing hubs to avoid it getting bottlenecked in transit.

This trend away from the just-in-time model will likely persist as Hanover Logistics navigates other industry challenges. According to Hanover’s Director of Logistics, Kevin Davis, space availability will be a big priority going into 2025, as warehouse and storage space will be tight in certain markets while abundant in other areas. Over the last couple of years, he notes that there has been a big push to build more warehouses, leading to a flood in the market. The continuation of this push will depend on location and what the state of importing will look like over the next four years of the new administration.

Davis believes that automation will continue to find a stronger foothold within the logistics industry as well, with new manufacturing buildings and factories being constructed with automation in mind for the long term. While many within these spaces are a bit leery of fully embracing it, several manufacturing outfits in Hanover, Pennsylvania are resilient (especially considering that Hanover is considered the snack food capital of the world) to changing economies, so the region is in a good position to retain its high occupancy rating even amongst potentially disruptive market shifts and trends.

Trucking, Davis says, has been a bit depressed in the last few years as a decline in freight demand coupled with higher interest rates is slowing the trucking economy. Hanover Logistics hopes to see more of an increase going forward; if anything, trucking is seeing a rebalancing after a large post-COVID spike, so things should level off to a more typical volume in time, he believes.

The years to come will see Hanover Logistics continue to grow its presence in warehousing with the support of its transportation arm, investigating potential opportunities outside of the Hanover region. The company aims to grow in a smart and measured way. “We plan to work with our key customers in pursuit of that growth and in regions that we see opportunity,” Davis concludes. We look forward to seeing where that growth takes the company next.

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