May 2011

May 2, 2011

Karen West

Lynn Hannah still has the antiquated telex machine she once used to monitor her companys first shipments of spinach to Japan in the early 1970s, even though her family-run company, Pacific Valley Foods, long ago entered the computer age and now exports 90 percent of its food products to just about every corner of the…

  • May 2011

May 2, 2011

Karen West

Boosting Trade: Recent advances in facilitating international trade in the U.S. and Washington. >> The presidents newly appointed Export Council, an advisory committee on international trade chaired by Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, is taking credit for an 18 percent increase in U.S. exports as a result of renewed trade promotion. The council currently hosts New…

  • May 2011

April 29, 2011By Seattle Business Magazine

Welcome, readers, to another edition of Modest Proposals, an irregular feature of Seattle Business magazine in which we offer bold, visionary, forward-looking solutions to the pressing problems of the day here in the Jet City. Today, we tackle the ongoing question: Seattle: Ready for Self-Governance? As you may have read, Seattles current mayor, Mike McGinn,…

  • May 2011

April 28, 2011

Stuart Glascock

Its the ease with which you can surf the web or check your email that has made the smartphone such a popular gadget. And, while corporate giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple get well-deserved credit for providing the basic operating systems that power these magical devices, there are plenty of other software providers that play…

  • May 2011

April 28, 2011

Leslie D. Helm

Although Gubby Barlows family had lived in South Africa for several generations, Barlow felt uncomfortable with his countrys apartheid policy. So, in 1987, he asked his employer, Deloitte Touche, to transfer him to the United States. From accounting, he went to various management positions in health-care companies before joining Mountlake Terracebased Premera Blue Cross in…

  • May 2011

April 28, 2011

Anthony Adragna

The renaissance sweeping the food worldyou know, the shunning of large-scale, industrialized, global brands in favor of hyperlocal, small-scale, artisanal productshas claimed another beachhead in the smaller is better assault: beer. Of course, microbreweries, which produce less than 15,000 barrels of beer annually, have already taken a big share of the market from national brands…

  • May 2011

April 28, 2011

Anthony Adragna

Working from a small office in Seattles South Lake Union neighborhood, TeachStreet founder Dave Schappell and his small staff believe their online directory of classes and teachers can create a dedicated community of lifelong learners. Thanks to a business model unusual among service sites and an impressive array of partnerships, they might be right. Since…

  • May 2011

April 28, 2011

Julia Anderson

After enduring a two-year slowdown marked by furloughs and other painful cutbacks, southwest Washingtons electronics industry is coming back. Semiconductor fabrication operations and related businesses in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., have shifted from running well below capacity to operating at maximum levels; theyre bringing back furloughed employees or hiring new workers and even considering…

  • May 2011

April 28, 2011

Bill Virgin

The news that Seattle Bank found an investor group to recapitalize the institution with $50 millionmaking it much more likely to be one of the survivors of the industrys financial debacleis fascinating on multiple fronts. First is the fact that Seattle Bank will be one of only a few small, troubled Washington banks overloaded with…

  • May 2011

April 8, 2011

Michael A. Stusser

In order to save on labor costs, companies have been outsourcing jobs and entire production facilities to other countries for decades. Boeing, for example, contracts with dozens of foreign firms to design and build major sections of its airplanes (then those businesses apparently subcontract the work to nearby toymakers). Boeing finishes the assembly (i.e., painting)…

  • May 2011