Features

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Inspired Technologies

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He was a natural-born, one-in-a-million businessman, and nearly everything he touched turned from thin air to glittering gold. The company Wagner had co-founded, Inspired Technologies—and for that matter, most of the other companies he had co-founded over the years, including Lake Prairie Egg, Pharmacist’s Ultimate Health, and Geo Mask—had been or were widely acclaimed business success stories.

Feature Story, Features, News, Profiles

15 Years – Special Section

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Learn what’s new with more than 75 people featured on our cover.

In September 1996, we began our current format of in-depth cover story interviews by featuring U.S. Reps. David Minge and Gil Gutknecht. In part, we changed formats because of earnestly believing most readers would prefer learning about people rather than products or issues, which had dominated our magazine’s early content. Business, after all—and anyone having been in business knows—consists primarily of people in relationship to others.

In addition, we believed a business was best discovered through its leader’s mind and heart. Business culture always begins at the top and filters down. It’s the leader that really makes a business beat and with whom people really need to “connect.” Businesses are unique only because their leaders have been unique, and that uniqueness usually arises from a leader’s upbringing, character, response to failure and success, taste for risk, and adaptability.

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Dale Brenke – Runner Up

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In 1971, 22-year-old Dale Brenke had wrapped up his accounting training at Mankato Commercial College and was wiping windshields and pumping petrol part-time for Bernie’s One Stop service station on Front Street across from Hubbard Milling. The $1.10 an hour pay helped—somewhat. He was actively searching for a better job, but his search had been impeded by a pesky U.S. recession affecting Mankato.

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Madelia Optometric

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In an era of big-box stores and impersonal service, Dr. Viktoria L. Davis enjoys providing individualized eye care to patients who recognize her as a fellow resident of Madelia, population about 2,200. Her patients see her with her family in the grocery store or at Madelia Public Library. In addition to her professional website, there’s a personal website loaded with family photos and only one picture of the optometry office. Her patients are eager for this glimpse into the life of Viktoria Davis, wife and mother. It’s obvious, too, which website she values more.

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Closing The Gap

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“I’ve told the story of our business many times,” says Megan Turek, sales manager and managing editor of Henderson-based Closing The Gap, her animated dialogue somersaulting forward and off her pursed lips as an Olympic gymnast from a balance beam to a floor mat. “It’s a very personal story. It’s a family business.”

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