Minnesota Headhunter

Best Places To Work In Minnesota: Business Journal Survey

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's Best Places to Work survey results are out. They are recognizing 30 small-companies, 15 medium-size companies and 10 large companies.

Here are the top 5 in each category:

Small Companies (10-100 full-time Minnesota employees)

1. CureIS Healthcare Inc.

2. First Financial USA

3. Travel Beyond

4. Reside

5. BERG Professional Staffing

Medium companies (101-1,000 Minnesota Employees)

1. Sierra Bravo Corp.

2. Winthrop & Weinstine

3.Periscope Inc.

6 Minnesota Companies In The 2010 Inc. 500 | 83 In the Inc. 5000

The 2010 Inc 500 | 5000 has been released with the fastest growing privately held Minnesota companies.

Minnesota had been very consistent with the number of companies in the Inc 500/5000 but this year, noticeably fewer companies. From 106-166 to 83.

Hmm…

Here are the last three years lists:

• 13 Minnesota Companies In The 2009 Inc. 500 | 106 In the Inc. 5000
• 5 Minnesota Companies In The 2008 Inc. 500 | 106 Minnesota Companies In The 2008 Inc. 5000
• 10 Minnesota Companies In The 2007 Inc. 500 | 116 Minnesota Companies In The 2007 Inc. 5000

Here are the companies in the 2010 Inc 500 | 5000 list from Minnesota:

State Rank | 2010 Inc. 500 rank and link to Inc. listing | Company name and link to company site

Minnesota Cup Announces 2010 Division Finalists

 

The Minnesota Cup has announced finalists for it’s sixth annual event.

Click About the Competition to learn more about this very cool program and Meet the Review Board and Meet the Partners to check out the list of volunteers, sponsors and hosts.

August 31st the division finalists present and September 1st division winners are announced.

On September 13th the division winners present to a review board and that evening the grand prize winner will be announced at an event held at the McNamara Center on the University of Minnesota campus.

Here is what the Division and Grand Prize winner receive:

Minneapolis Ranks #1 In Medical Device & Minnesota #6 In Quality Of Life

Business Facilities magazine (July/August 2010) ranks cities and states on a number of different categories.

We missed on a few I thought we should be on and a few we need to get better with so we can be ranked.

From the 2010 Business Facilities Rankings Report:
Metro Rankings

Top 10 Metro – Medical Devices and Equipment

#1 Minneapolis, Minnesota

#2 New Haven, Connecticut

#3 Salt Lake City, Utah

#4 San Jose, California

#5 Madison, Wisconsin

Texas #1 In CNBC Top States For Doing Business 2010, Minnesota Ties for #8

CNBC has announced its America’s Top States For Doing Business 2010 with Texas finishing in first place.

Rounding out the Top 5:

• #2 Virginia
• #3 Colorado
• #4 North Carolina
• #5 Massachusetts

#8 is Minnesota tied with Utah.

Our neighbors:

• Iowa (#6)
• South Dakota (#7)
• North Dakota (#12)
• Wisconsin (#29)

3 Minnesota Companies Listed In Computerworld 100 Best Places To Work In IT

General Mills (#4), Securian Financial Group (#9) and Medtronic (#28) are listed in the Computerworld 100 Best Places To Work In IT.

Highlights for each (links to their results):

General Mills:

• No. 3 for retention
• No. 3 for benefits
• No. 2 for career development
• 90% intern-to-full-timer conversion rate
• Onboarding survey measures new employee opinions after six months and again after 36 months
• Total percentage of women within IT – 36%

Securian Financial Group:

• No. 9 for career development
• A philosophy of hiring entry-level workers and promoting from within
• Reimburses employees for tuition costs for degree and certificate programs and the costs of attending conferences

Hennepin County Implements ROWE

KARE 11 TV (Minneapolis & St Paul NBC affiliate) has this story Hennepin County: 'Goodbye land of cubicles' about how Hennepin County is implementing ROWE or Results Oriented Workforce Environment.

Here is the video:

Minnesota Start Up Culture Roundtable

The Minnesota Tech Start Up conversation continues on and thanks to Thomas Knoll (@thomasknoll) we will take it from online (Tweets, podcasts, email and blog posts) to the in person.

Thomas started the conversation Startup culture roundtable before I posted Minnesota Startup Community: The Time Has Come For Less Talk and More Walk on Minnov8. Some of what Thomas wanted to talk about has been aired in one form or another so now we are going to talk about action steps.

Thomas is getting a group of interested folks together February 5^th from 8 – 10 AM for the (click this link) MN Startup Culture Roundtable

Thomas and I had a great conversation over the weekend and I look forward to seeing him and continuing the conversation.

More Thoughts On The Minnesota Start Up Scene

I am not exactly sure how to start this and many readers of the blog may need to be caught up on this topic.

The short version of a long story is a I wrote a blog post that my friends at Minnov8 posted last Friday. It was an honest assessment of what I think about where we are as a tech community. I am a bit of an outsider but have a perspective that needed to be shared.

I was really shocked at the reaction to the post which you can find by clicking Minnesota Startup Community: The Time Has Come For Less Talk and More Walk

Lots of comments, Tweets and quite a few one on one and small group email.

A lot of people are saying, “Way to go Paul!!!”. Well, I appreciate the acknowledgement but I already knew others were thinking this too. It just happens that I was the one to say it out loud at the right time and the guys at Minnov8 trusted me enough to post it.

Coworking Opportunities And Locations In Minneapolis And St. Paul

There is a really interesting movement going on around the country that has found its way to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and it is called Coworking.

Coworking as a concept is a bit new to me. For all but the last two of my twelve years I have had office space. I am one of those people who know he does not get more done at home and that it can be HIGHLY overrated. It is cool in the beginning or now and again but full time from home, not for this guy.

But when the recession started knocking on the door I dumped my office space to work from home. I had to, it was a business call.

I miss not seeing people and the interaction of office neighbors. Or showering every day. Yeah I said it. There have been 3 day stretches when I have not ventured out of my place. Not that I go 3 days without a shower, anyway, I got off track (again)...