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From employee retention to artificial intelligence

Fourth annual Chamber CEO panel tackles top business issues

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce held its fourth annual CEO panel Thursday at Schell’s Brewery Bierhalle, where discussions spanned employee retention to the growing use of artificial intelligence across local businesses.

Danny Hawkins, vice-chair of the Chamber, hosted the panel and Ann Vote served as moderator.

On the panel were Mike Schwartz, regional president, Frandsen Bank & Trust; Carisa Buegler, president, New Ulm Medical Center; Sheryl Meshke, president and chief executive officer, Associated Milk Producers Inc.; John Gag, president, Gag Sheet Metal Inc and sisters Danielle Marti and Jessica Fischer-Hoffmann from Gallery 512.

Vote opened by asking the panelists to describe their business and current market conditions.

Schwartz said he has more than 35 years of experience in banking and lending and has been with Frandsen Bank & Trust for 23 years.

Schwartz said New Ulm’s economy is built on diversity of employers.

“We have a very strong economy, and it’s due to diversity,” Schwartz said.

He said the bank tracks 30 profit centers from the Iron Range to the metro.

He said New Ulm did not see the sharp rise and fall other markets saw during the Great Recession from 2008 to 2012.

“We’re just steadier, slower, not rapid growth. But sometimes rapid growth can lead to problems,” Schwartz said.

Meshke was next. She said AMPI is headquartered in a former grocery store in the middle of town and operates the butter plant in New Ulm.

“We have long had two locations in New Ulm, the infamous butter plant, and then that really humble building in the middle of town that used to be a grocery store,” Meshke said.

Meshke said she is the first woman to be named chief executive officer of a U.S. dairy cooperative.

Meshke said the company has nearly $2 billion in annual sales and about 1,000 employees system-wide, with 60 in New Ulm.

“We are 24/7, 365. The cows don’t know what day it is,” Meshke said.

CEO Gag said Gag Sheet Metal Inc. has been in business since 1904 and was founded by his great-grandfather George Gag as the Gag/Ranweiler Tin Shop.

He said the business grew from 4,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet across three city blocks. He said it now brings in more revenue weekly than the $350,000 it made annually when he started in 1986.

“I spent my first 35 years growing the business every year. Every year we got bigger,” Gag said. “I could have had more people every year.”

Gag said growth has been flat for five years.

“Up until about five years ago, we’re certainly making money, but we haven’t grown for five years. We got stuck,” Gag said. “People just aren’t confident spending money like they were.”

Buegler, who recently succeeded Toby Freier as president, said New Ulm Medical Center has about 700 care team members, with six new providers set to join by the end of the year.

Buegler said integration is central to how the medical center operates as part of Allina Health. She said recruiting requires selling the community.

She said she used the Chamber’s top 10 lists when recruiting a neurologist through a national portal where employers have four sentences to make a case.

“I’m trying to recruit a neurologist, so I signed up for this event and we were like speed dating,” Buegler said. “I had four sentences in order to grab their attention on why they would want to come not only practice in New Ulm but live here.”

Buegler said four of the six new providers signed leases in new apartment buildings. She said the previous process relied on an informal list of 25 rentals where availability was unclear.

Marti said Gallery 512 Boutique was established in 2013, adding that 85 percent of sales come from local or repeat customers.

“An online experience will never be the same as what you will get when you go into an actual brick-and-mortar store,” Marti said. “We’re very positive. We’re supportive of them. We’re encouraging,” Marti said of the store’s 12 part-time employees. “People support people, not businesses.”

Moderator Vote said the Leader Collaboratory program focuses on building a culture people want to stay in.

“How do we keep people? Well, we’ve got to help people grow so that they learn skills and feel valuable, so that they want to stay and continue serving this community,” Vote said.

Gag said he meets one-on-one with each of his 75 employees and said the company has about 75 different compensation packages.

“I don’t want you getting out of bed thinking, ‘Oh God, I have to go to work again today.’ If Gag Sheet Metal isn’t a good fit, let me try to find something for you that will work for you,” Gag said.

Gag said the company has not denied a paid time off request in years.

“We don’t anymore. We just sign them all. Literally, I haven’t rejected a PTO request in probably years,” Gag said.

Gag said 18 office employees have unlimited time off.

“Just go. But let me know you’re going to be gone. If you’re not getting your job done, then we have to talk about it,” Gag said.

Buegler said equity is a challenge when customizing schedules.

“You’re trying to be flexible, but the equity of it all is a real thing,” Buegler said.

Meshke said AMPI offers hybrid schedules with about three days in the office.

Schwartz said more housing development is underway than in recent years, which may allow seniors to move to apartment living and make single-family homes available. Meshke said spousal employment is a key factor in housing decisions.

“If that spouse can find employment in New Ulm, then housing falls in place. To drive thirty to sixty miles elsewhere, then they reconsider the location of the housing,” Meshke said.

Marti said the boutique uses ChatGPT and Gemini as virtual assistants.

“We’ve really trained it to know our voice, our business, our brand -- it knows everything about us,” Marti said. She said artificial intelligence categorized 12 months of purse sales by style in minutes. “It has to be assistant. It has to be something that makes your life easier because you still have to be authentic to your customer.”

Fischer-Hoffmann said, “You know the big distinction. Keeping it, it’s still us. You know, we use it as a tool.”

Meshke said AMPI uses AI to capture knowledge before veteran cheesemakers retire.

Buegler said the medical center uses AI to answer phones, transcribe clinic visits and read CT scans.

“Her name is Alli, and we don’t always love Alli,” Buegler said of the Allina Health AI phone agent. “Someone called the other day and asked for Carisa Buegler, and she said, ‘I don’t know who that is.’ We hung up on her.”

Buegler said AI helps reduce documentation burden. “When you’re in healthcare, you see your patients during the day and then you chart at night, and that’s not a great work-life balance.”

Gag said estimators use AI for emails and bids.

“I don’t see it replacing any plumbers,” Gag said.

Schwartz said financial technology cut back-office staff from more than 20 to about 12 while the bank grew.

“It’s not going to take jobs away, but it’ll make everybody more efficient,” Schwartz said.

Meshke said AMPI’s motto is, “Make food, give food.” She said the cooperative gives about $100,000 annually back to communities through monetary and food donations, including about 33,000 meals a year and about 730,000 cheese slices.

Gag said businesses give based on capacity.

“Originally, we just didn’t have a dime to give away,” Gag said. “Now we’re doing significantly better, and I think most people in town know that we are relatively generous with nonprofits because I just strongly believe that New Ulm has made us who we are, and we need to give back as we can afford to do so.”

Marti said time is a currency.

“There’s no dollar amount on your time. That’s a new currency as we get older,” Marti said. She noted that Gag stored the boutique’s turf without charge when the business needed storage space.

Schwartz said festivals like Bavarian Blast, Oktoberfest and Bockfest create a strong regional identity.

“We have an identity, and you know if it’s Schell’s Brewery beer, if it’s festivals, whatever that’s fine. It’s good,” Schwartz said.

During the CEO panel, Meshke referred to New Ulm as the “beer, brat and butter capital,” tying the city’s brewing heritage to its agricultural roots and downtown small business mix.