Neal St. Anthony/On Business: Want to get rich? Then have a better reason for going into business

Four Twin Cities entrepreneurs spent 90 minutes the other night talking about their respective visions, strategies, pratfalls and successes in building businesses that today employ hundreds of Minnesotans.

They share drive, the willingness to share credit for their success with others and a gritty determination that led them to quit corporate jobs and spend nights working on the books or the factory floor or otherwise putting it on the line.

One other thing -- not one of them mentioned getting rich as their goal.

That doesn't surprise Dan Carr, chief executive of The Collaborative, the entrepreneur-network agency that sponsored the forum.

"The best companies come from those entrepreneurs who have a vision to better the world, not to make money," said Carr, who distinguishes between the get-rich-quick crowd and the business builders after 20 years in public accounting and running his own business. "There are those entrepreneurs who have made money and the reward of entrepreneurship is a splendid thing ... But if that's your goal in setting out to become an entrepreneur, your chances of success are diminished substantially."

True business builders have nothing against making a buck. It just doesn't take center stage for them compared with making better widgets.

Barbara King started Landscape Structures, a Delano-based playground equipment maker for schools and parks, with her husband, Steve, a landscape architect, and $1,000 in 1971. The business employs 350 people and has revenue of $85 million.

"Our business is to enhance the lives of children," she said.

To do that and make an increasing payroll, her company every year has to make more products than the competition and make them better and safer.

For King, leadership is about being "risk tolerant" and visionary, understanding kids, parents, parks and schools -- the customers. It's about showing up to work the third shift in the factory bearing pies for break time, and listening to line workers, some of whom have been around nearly as long as the CEO.

"Employees have to see us lead by example," she said.

Bob Fayfield, chief executive of 34-year-old Banner Technologies, which makes photo-electronic sensors (electric eyes) for use in factories, employs 600 folks who generate sales of more than $100 million around the world.

"You create the culture whether you like it or not," he said. "You want an honorable, ethical company. So the most important thing you do is pick the people who thrive in that culture. But don't just surround yourself with people like you."

That's critical, added Brian Sullivan, a co-founder of Recovery Engineering, the publicly held water-filter company that was sold to Procter and Gamble last year for $265 million.

The company, after years of modest success, hit its stride several years ago with a focused strategy built around consumer water filters, competing successfully against bigger, diversified conglomerates.

"Ignorance truly is bliss," Sullivan said about founding the company at age 24 in 1986. "I didn't know what I didn't know at 24.

"Hire people who know more than you. It took me a while to realize ... that leadership was helping connect the dots, not just getting up the hill fastest."

Kevin Cashman, the founder of LeaderSource, a consulting firm, and the author of "Leadership for the Inside Out," agreed that employees can smell a phony. They look for fairness, consistency and direction.

"The leader is the person who figures out which wall to put the ladder against," he said. "The manager counts the rungs going up.

"The leader needs a passion about customers and employees. That's the model that's sustainable."

One more thing. Each entrepreneur described companywide philanthropic and community service projects that enhanced corporate culture.

Banner focuses dollars and employee time on science education at neighboring Benilde-St. Margaret's High School and elsewhere.

"We started out with paper airplane contests," Fayfield recalled. "Now that school has kids at MIT on scholarship. Their success is shared by our people."

Is Stockwalk ready to run?

It's been a wild 14 months for Chief Executive Eldon Miller and the folks at Stockwalk.com Group.

The parent company of Stockwalk.com and full-service brokerage Miller Johnson & Kuehn went public last year, launched an online strategy, raised more than $20 million in additional capital and this year completed the acquisitions of rivals Arnold Securities, R.J. Steichen & Co. and Kinnard Investments.

Miller & Co. now run an enterprise that had consolidated pre-tax earnings of $9.2 million on revenue of $185 million in 1999 and about 13,000 active clients.

The market is taking a wait-and-see attitude on whether Stockwalk can pull it all together into a consolidated machine that works well in delivering financial products over the Internet and through traditional retail channels, as well as corporate finance.

Stockwalk's price has slid from a 52-week high of $17 last spring, at the top of Internet hype, to $4.25 per share recently.

Miller told shareholders this week that the company soon will begin combining some backshop functions, resulting in big cost savings. And it's continuing to expand online-trading relationships with banks and other businesses that can deliver customers. It's too early to say when or if the various firms will be merged and what will be the surviving name.

"Today, we are a vastly different, significantly larger and stronger company than the one you knew just one year ago," Miller said. "I expect to announce even more progress and changes the next time we get together at our [2001] annual shareholder meeting."

Dain in the game

The stock of Dain Rauscher Corp., one of the last of the independent securities firms off Wall Street, has been hitting all-time highs lately amid speculation generated by the latest round of financial service firm mergers.

Dain topped $85 per share this week, up from $42 in January.

The company has been having a strong year in its retail brokerage and corporate finance businesses. The stock trades at 12 times trailing earnings per share.

-- Neal St. Anthony reports on companies, people and trends in the Twin Cities business community. His column appears Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 612-673-7144 or Nstanthony@startribune.com.