Business Story Archives - Page 5 of 5 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Industry Says Students Need Soft Skills to Succeed

More than 42,000 West Virginians are employed by the manufacturing industry and state lawmakers were told that number is expected to grow in the coming years, but industry leaders say the state needs to focus on educating those workers now.

President of the West Virginia Manufacturer’s Association Karen Price said the problem with the state’s manufacturing industry is not a job shortage, but a labor shortage.

Price said Armstrong, a flooring company located in Randolph County, was recently looking to expand and add more than 150 jobs, but couldn’t find the workforce to fill the positions.

She told lawmakers during an education committee meeting instead, the company is pulling the expansion.

“The average wage in the manufacturing industry is about $45,000 a year,” Price said Tuesday, “and in the chemical industry it’s about $75,000 a year so those are pretty good paying jobs.”

Price said lawmakers need to focus on integrating soft skills like work ethic and communication into the education system and to start introducing kids to the field in middle school to promote the industry.

Parkersburg Area Plant Closing on Proposed Cracker Plant Land

A plastics manufacturer that employs 130 workers in Wood County is closing the plant on land where a Brazilian petrochemical giant is exploring the possibility of building several facilities.

SABIC Innovative Plastics informed employees at its Washington facility on Thursday.

That news came shortly before Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced Odebrecht had chosen the same site to explore the possible location of an ethane cracker plant and three polyethlene plants.

Plant manager Scott Dansey says SABIC is consolidating U.S. operations involving a type of thermoplastic resin. Some production will be transferred to plants in Ottawa, Ill., and Bay St. Louis, Miss., in 2015.

Dansey says employees will continue to work at the Washington site over the next 18 months to assist with the transition.

ChannelNet founder and Marshall Alumna lays out plan for success

A Marshall graduate recently visited Huntington to share a story of motivation. The alumna now owns a company that specializes in using technology for marketing campaigns.

Paula Tompkins spoke to college students and alumni last week at the Marshall University Foundation Hall. The native Huntingtonian and alum of Marshall had a complex, but simple message. To succeed in the business world entrepreneurs have to be persistent, focused and find an idea that’s not already addressed.

“Dive into the deep end of the pool, you’ve just got to go. You’ve got to pull up your socks, you’ve got to write your idea down and you’ve got to take it to as many people as will listen to you,” Tompkins said.

“When I came up with the idea for my company I took it to some of my friends in Silicon Valley and they all told me it’s the dumbest idea they had ever heard of, seriously.”

Tompkins ideas led her from an early career with 3M and General Electric to starting her own business, ChannelNet in 1985. The company is based on using new technologies in sales and marketing ideas.

ChannelNet is based in San Francisco and has worked with companies such as Ford, BMW, IBM, Intel, Macy’s and Coca Cola. ChannelNet started just as the popularity of personal computers was on the rise. She used those computers and software to create unheard of marketing campaigns. Tompkins said technology is the key and something companies have to stay ahead of.

“Its quicksand, the technology evolves and you have to evolve with it and keep up and it moves at lightning speed, but the concepts and the kinds of things we’re trying to do really has remained the same. The way people used technology then to shop for a car using a PC and a diskette, today they’re doing the same things online,” Tompkins said.

Tompkins said it can be tough to be the leader of a company because the business world is never steady, it’s up and down continuously.

“Ups and downs are absolutely wrenching, you know recession hits the first time and you haven’t been through it, you’ve got all these employees and money is getting tight and you’re worried about whether you’re going to meet the payroll and in 28 years I’ve never missed a payroll,” Tompkins said.

Tompkins said in the world of technology and business, there has to be a marriage. Meaning IT people shouldn’t be the ones selling the products, they need to work with sales people closely.

“It takes all kinds and all disciplines, in my business today its art and creative people and copywriters, sales people, marketing people, I mean there is a whole range of people that come together and it isn’t just all about IT,” Tompkins said.

Aaron Davis is a student in game development and digital forensics. He said her speech inspired him.

“Well one thing that hit me the most was, if you have an idea, the second step drive is something that I need to start incorporating more, that really hit hard and so motivation wise, that’s where a lot of us fall short,” Davis said.

Brandon Slone is an Integrated Science and Technology major. He said he never thought about the fact that entrepreneurs need more than IT knowledge.

“Like she said you have to combine the arts and the IST programs because I’m fairly good with computers, but when it comes to making graphics and some of the things that my sister does I have no clue and what she was showing was a combination of the two,” Slone said.

Tompkins still has family that lives in Huntington.

How tough is it to start your own business in WV?

The West Virginia Small Business Development Center showed a crowd of entrepreneurs and business owners how technology can help tackle small business needs.

In the third of five planned workshops throughout the state, the West Virginia Small Business Development Center walked entrepreneurs through the process of beginning their own business. This workshop focused on the necessity of technology to make it in today’s market. Justin Gaull is the Technology Commercialization manager for the Center.

“An SBDC business coach works to serve as a connector so we help the entrepreneurs in West Virginia find resources that they can use to move the businesses or their ideas forward. We also serve as a coach and help them through the leadership and strategy issues of their business and also on a personal level is business right for me,” Gaull said.

Gaull said begin the tackling the tasks of starting a business. Last week’s session focused on everything from the early stages of development justification for innovation, how to analyze the market for the product and how to get to the level they want to attain. Gaull said the process can look like a mountain to climb at the beginning.

"It sometimes appears daunting to try to get in and try to commercialize some new product or technology and what we try to do is walk them through that visionary process that is sometimes negated in the very beginning," Gaull said.

“It sometimes appears daunting to try to get in and try to commercialize some new product or technology and what we try to do is walk them through that visionary process that is sometimes negated in the very beginning. Someone has a great idea and they bring that prototype into the office and they’re ready to move forward from that point and sometimes that’s not the best thing and sometimes that’s not the best move, sometimes they need to back up and ask those key questions,” Gaull said.

Pryce Haynes of Huntington attended the conference with the idea of using college logos on different kinds of merchandise. He said it definitely seems like a larger undertaking.

“I think right now we’re opening a can of worms if you will, you look at the business model and maybe there are five steps or however many steps there are to it, well each step contains 30 more steps, so on and so forth. So there are a lot of angles and things to consider along each step of the way,” Haynes said.

Tom Minnich is the Director of Special Projects and Business Development with the Robert C. Byrd Institute in Huntington. RCBI is a non-profit training service that provides small businesses access to what they need to continue developing their business. The institute serves as co-sponsor of the workshops. He says the workshops are essential because many people that come to them with ideas aren’t prepared.

“There is people out there that did not do their homework and did not do their searches, they have an idea, but the sister product is already out there on the street and then some people come in with a real realistic idea, but they don’t know how to get to the next level with it, it’s still in their head and not reality,” Minnich said.

Previous workshops were held in Bridgeport and Charleston and the next two will be held in the eastern panhandle and once again in Bridgeport.

Innovators, entrepreneurs, policy experts meet at economic conference

With coal industry jobs dwindling and many young people leaving the state to find work, speakers at the Bright Economic Future for the Mountain State Conference in Charleston outlined many of the challenges for the state’s economy. Even despite these obstacles, many entrepreneurs, policy experts and grassroots organizations who gathered at the conference said they see plenty of opportunity.

“What I’m learning is that people really, really are interested in having this conversation about what our future looks like. I think that people—I think we see really strong support for the idea of diversifying our economy,” said Jeremy Richardson, a Fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Although his organization usually focuses on issues related to climate change and renewable energy, Richardson noticed the need to apply those issues to the state’s economy and helped organize the Bright Economic Future Conference.

West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy Executive Director Ted Boettner says a diverse, healthy economy ultimately comes down to a healthy and financially stable workforce. But, he said, the state has struggled with that in recent decades.

The graph shows the average wages for West Virginia workers from 1969 to 2011.

“Back in the late ‘70s there was a time when middle-class families were fairing pretty well. Our wages were a little higher, more people had benefits, you could raise a family on one income. Those times have dramatically changed,” Boettner said.

“Now you need both people in the workforce, you’re making less, and you’re working more hours. At the same time you are unable to afford some pretty basic expenses like healthcare.”

During a panel focused on the potential of moving the economy forward, Kent Spellman of the West Virginia Community Development Hub noted that his organization believes that working directly with people in small communities is the key to improving the economic picture.

“We really believe, frankly, that economic transition—this is a great group of people—but, for it to work, we have to get out in our communities and we have to listen. The Hub and the work we do with smaller, rural communities—and we mostly work with smaller, rural communities—focuses on wealth creation, not job creation. We want to see communities create opportunities—economic opportunities—that are locally based, that are placed based, that keep the wealth in the community,” Spellman said.

Both Richardson and Boettner echoed Spellman’s call for a grassroots-oriented, localized push for the diversification of the state’s economy. Richardson said that means it’s up to each community to play a part in deciding how they can contribute to the state’s economic future.

“I think it depends on where you are. We were just listening to one of the commissioners of Fayette County who was talking about all of the wonderful opportunities they have taken advantage of there,” he said.

Richardson also pointed to business projects in unlikely places, such as Sustainable Williamson in Mingo County—right in the heart of an area known as the Billion Dollar Coalfield.

“I think it depends on your location to some extent. The message that I’m trying to get out there is that we need to expand peoples’ idea of what’s even possible,” he explained.

Other presentations at the conference included Richardson’s discussion of sustainable economic development, a lecture from Boettner on the proposed state Future Fund, and a screening and discussion of the interactive film Hollow, directed by McDowell County native filmmaker Elaine McMillion.