Lessons for Leaders: The accidental art dealer featuring Bill Kieger with Art Force written July 2014 by John P. Palen for Minnesota Business Magazine

Posted By John P. Palen, CEO & Founder of Allied Executives

How both personal and business experiences can lead to successful endeavors

Bill Kieger knows how to manage money and people, but a corporate art program? Well, he figured that out, too.

Kieger is the CEO of Art Force, a subsidiary of General Finance & Development (GFD), both based in Minneapolis. If you ask him, he might say his foray into the art business happened quite by accident.

Kieger spent the bulk of his early career at American Express Financial Advisors, now Ameriprise, where he ran his own division overseeing 12 offices, 200 financial advisors and more than $4 billion in financial assets.

The time came, however, when he decided he wanted more time and freedom and decided to leave to run his own company. He departed Ameriprise on good terms and took over GFD, a micro-cap holding company then involved in developing medical technologies. Shortly after Kieger sold one of GFD's companies, a business broker brought a struggling corporate art consulting business to his attention.

"I did not know or want to be in the art business," he recalls.

But sometimes life is all about timing and experiences. At Ameriprise, Kieger had purchased art for their offices from the same company the broker was presenting to him, so he was familiar with the business.

"When I left Ameriprise, I sold the art I bought for the office and I made money on it," he says. "I eventually started looking at art as an asset."

In 2009, GFD (listed as GFDV on the OTC Markets) purchased the assets of the aforementioned art consultancy, and formed Corporate Art Force, rebranded to Art Force in 2014.

Kieger knew he had to do things differently in order to be successful. So his first step was relocating the company to where the Twin Cities artists congregate: the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.

His next move? Focusing on how to go to market. "We knew we had a business model that was not profitable and not working."

Art Force revamped the entire business model by introducing new roles and processes to improve their efficiencies and to better position themselves in the market.

For instance, he created a professional development and certification program for the art consultants, who previously had no formalized training or structured consulting process. Then, he created a sales and marketing department focused on market intelligence, marketing campaigns, lead generation, and business development. This freed the art consultants to focus more on what they do best – managing projects and working with clients to customize art to best reflect their culture and brand. After all, it doesn't make sense for a hospital to have art on the walls that does not consider the patient experience and outcomes.

"This intrinsic value of art cannot be overlooked," said Kieger.

But perhaps the biggest change they implemented was an "art as a service" model. In the past, the company sold the art outright to the end-user, which limited the company's growth potential. So Kieger and his team revamped their entire pricing model and initiated the "Smart Art Program," which is a recurring program for both the customer and for Art Force.

For a monthly fee, customers get original artwork that can be rotated out every six months. That means new art on the walls twice a year. The program provides Art Force with recurring revenues from each client. And let's not forget about the artists supported and promoted by Art Force.

What's more, Art Force invested in a web-based platform that has improved the company's ordering and fulfillment process, as well as their efficiencies. "This program simplifies the business for our customers, community of artists and our new business model," says Kieger. "It's a win-win-win."

And, while it took four years to develop and implement, the new business model seems to be working. From its humble origins in Minnesota, Art Force's now projects having art installations in 40 states in 2014.

Tips

1. Sometimes experiences from your personal life can apply to new ways to run your company.
2. Borrow processes from other industries and apply them to yours, if applicable.
3. Saying "No" at first can often open up reasons to say "Yes" later.
4. Looking for the "everybody wins" strategies often results in everybody winning.

Ripe for Change featuring Dale Klein with Parallel Technologies, Inc. written June 2014 by John P. Palen for Minnesota Business Magazine

Posted By John P. Palen, CEO & Founder of Allied Executives
They say the early bird catches the worm. In the case of innovation, sometimes the worm puts up a fight.
Markets aren't always ready for a new product or process just because it's better. Entrepreneurs may spend millions on research and development, but they must also prepare for loyalty to inefficiency, a learning curve among decision makers and slow market adoption.
Dale Klein had a vision in 2005 to develop a company that unified technology infrastructures for both facilities management and information technology. He sold a system software integration firm in 2004 and was in the market to acquire an IT managed services business. He purchased Parallel Technologies, a struggling cabling installer. The company had been around since 1983 and had a few data center customers for new construction and upgrades, but it needed a turnaround.
As the company's new CEO, Klein had to assess the current talent and ended up reducing the workforce in order to hire talent beyond cabling installations. He had to improve the cash flow by cleaning up slow-to-pay customers and collecting long outstanding receivables, some more than a year old. He also focused on building a sales team and internal processes and controls to help the business run more efficiently.
Still, for about three years the company continued to serve cabling customers, building revenues from $5 million to about $21 million. Then in 2008, construction took a dive with the recession and only bottom-dollar firms were winning the new projects. "We were priced for quality and expertise," Klein said. "Our new projects dried up."
The timing was finally right. Parallel Technologies shifted focus to infrastructure solutions and data center consulting. By improving cash flow and efficiencies while recruiting stronger IT engineering talent early on, Klein had the foundational people and processes in place to take new solutions to market. He made a conscious decision to halt bottom-line growth in the interests of shifting the business model to support his original vision.
Today, Parallel Technologies attributes 65 percent of its business to designing and building infrastructure solutions, such as data centers and just 35 percent to field services and installation. The company is recognized as one of the fastest growing private businesses in the Twin Cities. Klein is still waiting to unroll the rest of his vision, which is to help his clients use the data across the enterprise infrastructure they’ve collected to support more timely and smarter business decisions. The company's new building is a physical tour of what customers can do with smart technologies and infrastructure.
"I grossly underestimated how long it would take to reach this stage, but we are now there," he said.
The moral of this company success story is to have a vision, certainly, but make sure you're prepared financially and strategically to ride out the lean times until the market catches up to your big ideas.
Tips for Timing Innovation to Market Demand

1. Identify unmet customer needs that you can deliver better than competitors.
2. Set your vision, prove the sales model and hire the talent you'll need to deliver it well.
3. Keep your bread and butter work as you transition to new products or services.
4. Bankroll your transition with good cash flow and efficient processes.
5. Retain customers by educating and upselling on your vision to match their goals.