Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Spring 2024

Business

Winter 2001

Beginning again

…attaining any worthwhile goal is really a matter of taking one small step at a time.

GEOFF GAMBLE, former interim provost at Washington State University and now president of Montana State University, once told me studies show that most people will have three different careers in their lifetimes. During that conversation, he revealed that he was on career number two, since he’d worked in insurance before becoming an academic.

According to a variety of sources, people may change careers as many as seven times during their working life. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports 67 percent of American workers don’t like their jobs, and … » More …

Winter 2001

State Economy: Across the new divide

Sooner than you think, you’re going to connect those dots and discover the whole state lit up.

THE VARIOUS PEOPLES OF Washington have successfully prevailed over many divides— mountain passes, raging rivers, ocean straits, even cultural differences— that separated comfort and prosperity from isolation and hard times. There were grim consequences to encounters with those divides, and sometimes stuff and people were jettisoned so a few could make it across. We wouldn’t be here at all if we had seriously miscalculated who had the right to survive.

Now, in a techno-economic system constantly challenged to be robust and resilient enough to meet the fiercest global … » More …

Winter 2002

Overseeing the Davenport Hotel with an appreciation for history

“It’s wonderful to be a part of an environment where all you have to do is make people happy and make them comfortable.”—Lynnelle Hull Caudill

Being part of something as elegant and historical as the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane adds extra excitement to Lynnelle Hull Caudill’s workplace. She joined the Davenport in October 2001 during the landmark hotel’s $30 million, two-year renovation. In April she became director of operations.

While overseeing the daily workings of the hotel, she enjoys the stories she hears from so many people with strong attachments to the building. For decades the Davenport served as a favorite Northwest site for … » More …

Winter 2002

Same dance, different tune

Buy low, sell high. Investors understand this basic goal of investing. This idea appeals to the intellectual side of our brain. However, it is the emotional, not the intellectual, side of our brain that usually motivates action. That is why advertisements and sales pitches appeal to our feelings more than our intelligence.

 Unfortunately, our emotions and psychological biases make buying low and selling high difficult. Consider the actions of many investors. The great bull market of the late 1990s brought millions of new investors into the stock market. The continual rise of the stock market was a trend that investors projected into the future. Assuming … » More …

Winter 2004

Prisons offer few economic benefits to small towns

Over the past three decades, many of the nation’s most depressed rural communities have vied to host new prisons, hoping that economic benefits would follow.

The trend grew in the early 1990s when an average of three 500-bed prisons opened around the country each week. Small towns courted new correctional facilities, sometimes offering free land or discounted municipal services to tempt them, believing they would get returns in new jobs and money.

But now they may be thinking differently about prisons, thanks to research led by Washington State University sociologist Gregory Hooks.

“We found no evidence that prison expansion has stimulated economic growth,” Hooks says … » More …

Winter 2004

The Circle of Life and the Farmer's Daughters

Determined that, contrary to popular assumption, bread flour could indeed be grown in the Inland Northwest, a few years ago Fred Fleming ’73 and Karl Kupers ’71 started growing Terra, a new variety of hard red spring wheat developed by Washington State University wheat breeder Kim Kidwell. They named their business Columbia Plateau Producers and their flour Shepherd’s Grain.

Visualize how a small operation under the big skies of eastern Washington moves into the full-court press of deep-pocketed global business activity. Farmers talking to millers, bakers, and consumers. Convivial conversations that put loaves of bread on the table and spread the message about soil health … » More …

Summer 2004

Toys, Games, and Unique Gifts: Entrepreneurial spirit drives Edmistons

Two niche markets-toys/games and a Web site for gifts-have taken husband-and-wife entrepreneurs into new territories.

Steve Edmiston is president of Seattle’s Front Porch Classics. The company creates retro-feel toys and games. Melody Wickline Edmiston has created a Web-based consumer retail site specializing in high-quality and hard-to-find gift ideas. The couple lives in Des Moines. Both are Washington State University alumni.

Before joining the game company, Steve had created a Dread Pirate game as a Christmas gift for their daughters, 12 and 8. The game eventually developed into one of Front Porch Classics’ leading products.

Melody (’84 Bus. Adm.) watched the marketing of that game, later … » More …

Summer 2004

Antique dealer can't ignore a bargain

I enjoy meeting people, doing things to feel the pulse of what’s going on in the world.”—Anita Busek ’49

 

The rumble of a passing train tells you that All Aboard Antique Co. in Puyallup is no ordinary antique shop. The store is located 12 feet from train tracks, looks like a red caboose on the outside, and has railroad items displayed throughout.

The trains shake the whole building. “No picture hangs straight for long, “says Anita Busek, 76, with a laugh. She’s one of three owners.

Perhaps it’s fitting that Busek went to college in a town named after George Pullman, inventor of the … » More …