Summer's over -- Time to get back to work This isn’t Europe and we don’t take off the entire month of August for “holiday” but, that being said, there does seem to be something that occurs in America during the summer months where we do take a bit of a breather and try to slow down. Labor Day signals the start of school and business as usual. The Business Ledger’s business events calendar starts expanding again. Our calendars begin to get full, meetings are scheduled for 7:30 a.m. and number crunching starts in earnest for 2009 budgets. Between Sept. 1 and the end of the year our company has nine events in which we are involved. We will be attending four business expos, hosting two Business Ledger Newsmakers’ Forum (September and December) and conducting two recognition events (September and November). Oh well, at least summer comes around once each year. We also have the pleasure of welcoming two additions to our staff. Michael James, long-time advertising sales manager at Suburban Life Newspapers and its successor ownerships (Liberty Suburban Chicago Newspapers and Gatehouse Newspapers), came on board in late August as a senior account executive. Michael is well known throughout our suburban business community. Sherri Dauskurdas completes a circle in her career when she joins us this month as Associate Editor with responsibility for editorial research as well as covering the education and non-profit industry beats. Sherri was one of the original employees of The Business Ledger when we first launched in 1993. She had just graduated from Southern Illinois University. This term is probably politically incorrect to use today but she was our “girl Friday” who did a little bit of everything. Sherri continued her career at Benedictine University and then Suburban Life Newspapers before having her family. She has been able to free lance for us while raising her little ones, so it’s fun to welcome her back. Of our six original employees, four are still with us almost 16 years later. One of our other original employees stayed with us until his retirement two years ago while the sixth employee actually worked for us twice before moving on to other career opportunities. Another sign of the changing seasons and the “new start” is that this issue—Sept. 1—marks the debut of our new design. Just like a house that needs to be repainted, or a retail store that needs to change its sign, colors and logo, a newspaper needs to be refreshed every now and then. Give the new look a few issues and then let us know what you think of it. ## Since I mentioned “logo” above, I have to comment on what I think is the most successful logo in the history of world commerce. It has to be the Nike Swoosh. As I have watched the Olympics I realized how the swoosh seems to be everywhere without shouting out “Buy Nike.” It doesn’t need any words. It’s just there. I went to buy new athletic shoes recently. I don’t have a brand preference. I don’t know Adidas from Champion from Reebok. I’m sure they are all products equal to Nike. But, without realizing it until later I was just drawn to the Nike products. That’s what I ended up buying...and feeling good about buying. Don’t we all wish we could have that same recognition and impact with our logos? ## Thomas Interior Systems of Bloomingdale has twice been named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois through a statewide competition hosted by The Business Ledger. Tom Klobucher, founder and CEO, told me recently, “What we love about this program is that it fits with what we are all about in our business, creating great places to work for our clients, as well as for our own company.” With that in mind, Tom has invited representatives from all the companies that have made the list during the past three years to join him at the Thomas Interior Systems offices on Sept. 17 for a working lunch and an opportunity to discuss how to move the concept of creating best places work environments forward. If you have an interest in knowing more about the conference contact Tom at 630-980-4200 or e-mail him at tomk@thomasinterior.com. Contact publisher Jim Elsener at 630-428-8788 or at jelsener@thebusinessledger.com

Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 (Archive on Monday, September 01, 2008) Posted by jstoltz  Contributed by jstoltz

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