Minnesota Headhunter

Is Best Buy In Trouble?

Disclaimer:

• I am not an analyst.

• I have no inside info (although I was at Best Buy HQ’s yesterday)

• Best Buy is a frequent host of the Minnesota Recruiters group

Minnesota based Best Buy has been in the news the past two weeks and it is has not been pretty.

It started with the pre 2011 Christmas debacle of customers who placed orders online as early as Black Friday were notified that their gifts would not be shipped in time for the holiday.

Worse, they were not told until days before.

Today is the report of December 2011 same store sales being down. There was some good news in the report too but many headlines I have seen are focusing on the negative.

Earlier this week (and what has spread online very fast) is this article from Forbes Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually

Survey: Minneapolis #4 & St. Paul #29 America's Most Socially Networked City

Never one to be shy in promoting the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul (and seems like there have been a lot of surveys lately) this one warms my social media heart.

Men’s Health came up with Men's Health finds the most socially networked cities in America and has Minneapolis #4 with an A+ and St Paul #29 with a B-.

Here is the Top 10:

1 Washington, DC     A+
2 Atlanta, GA     A+
3 Denver, CO     A+
4 Minneapolis, MN     A+
5 Seattle, WA     A+
6 San Francisco, CA     A
7 Orlando, FL     A
8 Austin, TX     A
9 Boston, MA     A
10 Salt Lake City, UT     A-

I wonder if Minneapolis is ranked higher and St Paul lower because many of the folks across the river use Minneapolis as their location in their profiles.

I also wonder if they combined the Twin Cities if we would be #1.

But that’s just me being competitive.

 

Click Minnesota Business Scene for more posts on the topic, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

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Minnesota Layoffs 2011

While we continue to inch forward at a snails pace with this economic recovery we are still getting news of layoffs. Below are the Minnesota layoff announcements so far this year (2011).

For those looking for job search advice I have 2 links to help:

Be Your Own Headhunter (my job search and LinkedIn webinar)

Job Search Tips (200+ blog posts)

Announced layoffs:

Smead Manufacturing: 50

• About 50 Smead employees in Hastings to lose their jobs  (Hastings Star Gazette 3/9/11)

Hutchinson Technology: 700 to 900

• What's next for victims of Hutchinson layoffs? (MinnPost 3/8/11)

• Hutchinson Technology cuts hundreds of jobs (MPR 3/8/11)

• Hutchinson Technology Announces Manufacturing Consolidation & Restructuring Plan (Press Release 3/8/11)

• Hutchinson Technology to cut 30-40 percent of U.S. workforce (MSP Business Journal 3/8/11)

Wisconsin Is Open For Business

Caution: you are about see my competitive side come out much like my friends see when the Gophers play the Badgers in any sport…

On a number of border crossings with Minnesota and Illinois as one enters the “great” state of Wisconsin they will not only see “Wisconsin Welcomes You” but also “Open For Business”.

Well I am sure glad they cleared that up. I thought all they had was cheese curds, beer and football. Apparently they have something else to sell.

I get a bit snarky when it comes to our neighbors from the east. All I hear is how it is “God’s Country” and how great it is there. Funny, I hear that from people who live in Minnesota.

Yeah, ironic right?

Previous marketing for the State of Wisconsin was focused on tourism with “Escape to Wisconsin”.

The license plate says “America’s Dairyland”.

Which probably gets us to why new Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is making this push.

2 Minnesota Companies On Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For

Fortune has announced their 100 Best Companies To Work For and it includes 2 companies with headquarters in Minnesota:

#58 General Mills (#90 in 2010)

• General Mills web site

• General Mills jobs

#61 Mayo Clinic (#55 in 2010)

• Mayo Clinic web site

• Mayo Clinic jobs

Fortune gives you a number of ways to search the companies listed including job growth, child care and work life balance.

Quite a few of the companies listed have a presence in Minnesota.

Here is the Top 10:

#1 SAS

#2 Boston Consulting Group

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal 2010 Fast 50 companies

The Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal has announced their 2010 Fast 50 companies based on 3 year revenue growth.

Here is a link to their story MSPBJ announces 2010 Fast 50 companies

What follows is the list with a link to their company web site:

1 Calabrio Inc.

2 Jobs2Web

3 Quantum Retail Technology Inc.

4 Probus OneTouch

5 Horizontal Integration

6 Crave

7 BERG Professional Staffing

8 Tactile Systems Technology Inc.

9 NumberWorks

Minnesota Recruiters Hiring And Jobs Survey | Fall 2010

 

We just completed our 3^rd Minnesota Recruiters hiring survey and little did I know when I started doing these surveys how much more of an education I would get regarding employment, hiring and job creation leading into and coming out of a recession.

I have followed these kinds of statistics for my 13 years and being able to see this in “real time” is fascinating.

Let me get the disclaimers and details out of the way out of the way:

- This is not a scientific survey but it does give a good read on what is going on

- This is a blind survey and no one (me included) gets to know who participated and what their answers are

- 2,100 were sent the survey link and about 10% replied

- The survey was open from Oct 5^th to the 15^th

Between events, conferences, conversation and client feedback the survey results match what I have been seeing which is this:

The Great Recession put us into ICU. We have been upgraded to Critical, Serious and now Fair condition. I doubt we see Good condition until Q2 2011 and we may still be in the hospital much of 2011.

That while there are pockets of strength in hiring and the number of jobs open (and opening) will continue to grow it will do so at an anemic pace.

Minnesota Business Community Lacks Confidence

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has released their 7^th annual Minnesota Business Barometer Survey and to be honest, I am a bit shocked at the low level of confidence.

I would have that it would be a bit better, not great, but better than the numbers show:

• 30% said the state’s economy was improving
  
• Nearly the same number said
  
• 20 % said they were more profitable than last year
  
• 30 % said they were less profitable
  
• Just over 40% said Minnesota was emerging more slowly than other states from the recession

There is some good long term news:

• 79% said they were optimistic about Minnesota's economic future over the next 10 years
  
• 18% said they were pessimistic

3 Minnesota Companies Listed On 2010 Working Mother 100 Best Companies

WorkingMother.com has released their 2010 Working Mother 100 Best Companies and 3 Minnesota companies are on it (links to company web site):

• Carlson
  
• General Mills ranks in the Top 10
  
• McGladrey

WorkingMother,com gives a lot of background on why they like the companies and some statistics.

I like the “It’s a Fact” they do. Here are the links to each companies entry along with the fact:

• Carlson

Infants, toddlers and their parents can take baby sign language classes at Carlson Companies’ HQ childcare center.

• General Mills

In 2009, General Mills offered free career counseling to its employees’ unemployed family members.

• McGladrey

McGladrey’s free Coach-on-Call program offers employees access to sessions with a licensed coach to help them achieve their desired success.

Minneapolis & St. Paul Rank #48 As A Stressed City

Portfolio.com and Business Journals released an analysis of 10 data points and the 50 largest metropolitan areas and ranked the cities by those “most stressed”.

Click A Stress Test for America for more results.

The Top 10 most stressed cities are:

1- Detroit

2 - Los Angeles

3 - Cleveland

4 - Riverside, CA

5 - St Louis

6 - New York City

7 - New Orleans

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)...