BusinessWest

Carla and Tom Cosenzi Are Carrying On a Proud Legacy

Carla and Tom Cosenzi both say they were destined for careers in the auto industry — although she briefly flirted with thoughts of doing something else. However, they found themselves leading the Tommy Car Corp. far sooner than they could have imagined following their father’s valiant but unsuccessful fight against brain cancer. They endured an extreme trial by fire — the Great Recession and its profound impact on this sector — and emerged from it with confidence and plans for future expansion.

Carla Cosenzi remembers, as a youngster, watching and listening to the TV and radio commercials for her grandfather’s car dealerships — and grimacing.
Indeed, what she remembers most about the spots, usually featuring sales-oriented banter between her grandfather, Thomas A. Cosenzi, and his wife, Sandy, is that they weren’t very good — at least from an artistic-quality standpoint — in her estimation.
“They were a little obnoxious; they stood out, let’s put it that way, and people still remember them all these years later,” Cosenzi told BusinessWest. “Sandy was always saying things like, ‘take the deal, Tom!’”
Today, it’s Carla’s voice and face being featured in ads for Country Nissan in Hadley; Country Hyundai in Greenfield; and Patriot Pontiac, Buick, GMC in Charleton, dealerships she manages with her brother, Thomas M. Cosenzi, who doesn’t want anything to do with cameras and microphones. She believes these ads are of much better quality — although there are still large amounts of that car-selling hype and hyperbole, and phrases like ‘it’s cheaper in Charleton’ — than those from two generations ago, and she knows they generate results.
But she also believes there’s much more to the ongoing success of the emerging auto group known as Tommy Car Corp., which she serves as president, than her proficiency as a pitchperson.
Having the right cars, especially Hyundai, which is experiencing an explosion in popularity, at the right time, and in the right places — Route 9 in Hadley has worked for the Nissan store since it moved there in 2007, but Greenfield has been an effective location for Hyundai — certainly helps, she explained. As do an experienced workforce and considerable improvement in the market since the unprecedented turmoil of 2008 and 2009.
But there are also the vast sums of experience, instinct, and entrepreneurial drive handed down from the preceding generations, and especially from her father, Thomas E. Cosenzi. He groomed the third generation, and, more specifically, coaxed Carla into the business after she earned degrees in clinical psychology from Northeastern and Columbia and entertained thoughts about pursuing that field in some way. And he provided both inspiration and invaluable lessons in life and business as he waged and ultimately lost a battle with brain cancer.
“I fought it for a little while, thinking I was going to do something on my own,” Carla, 31, said of the car industry and her career options. “But the more time I spent in the business, the more I fell in love with it. And it’s a great opportunity to carry on my dad’s legacy.”
The brother-sister tandem is doing this legacy work at an intriguing time for the industry, and, in fact, they really started running things just before the auto industry — and the rest of the economy, for that matter — was turned upside down by the Great Recession, when buyers stayed away and many dealerships went dark.
Living through that ultra-rugged indoctrination — and actually doing much better than merely surviving — gave the Consenzis a large dose of confidence that has played a factor in their current success, said Carla, adding that cutting their teeth in such fashion has steeled them against adversity and positioned them for the better times.
“That’s all we know of the business, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” she said of taking the helm at the business during arguably the most trying period in the history of the auto industry. “We think it’s a good thing, because we feel that, if we were this successful in a bad economic period, then it can only get better for us.”
And while the current picture is appealing for the Tommy Car group, the Cosenzis  have one eye on the future and a likely course of expansion.
“We’ve finished our settling-in period; we’re young, aggressive, and we want to grow,” said Carla, noting that an informal five-year plan calls for adding more dealerships to the group.
But Tom, just 26, stressed that growth will be of the controlled variety, and that expansion will come where, when, and how it makes good business sense.
“We want to make sure, when we take advantage of an opportunity, that it’s the right opportunity,” he explained, adding that expansion could occur inside the 413 area code, outside, or perhaps both.
For this issue and its focus on auto sales, BusinessWest looks at an emerging success story within the local car market, one that appears to be hitting on all cylinders.

It’s All Relative
Like many second- or third-generation dealership managers, the Consenzis have been around cars for as long as they can remember, and they learned the business from the bottom up, inside and out.
“We worked during the summers, especially when we were home from college,” Carla recalled. “And if we worked for our dad … he was very strict with us. He worked us like we weren’t family; ‘you worked like everyone else, or you didn’t work for me,’ that was his motto.”
Tracing the family history in the auto industry, Carla said her father and grandfather were both in the business, but not together.
Thomas A. Cosenzi eventually had several dealerships in the region, including Springfield Lincoln Mercury, Country Jeep Eagle in Agawam, and Country Nissan in Greenfield, which he sold to his son, who managed to forge his own identity in the business.
“My dad started reconditioning cars and then buying and selling cars at auction,” said Carla. “He opened a small used-car dealership in Agawam, and then got an opportunity to get a Chrysler dealership, and then he just grew from there.
“He had seven or eight franchises at one point,” she continued, noting that the group stretched across Western Mass.. “He was known for seizing on opportunities whenever the timing was right.”
He also brought the third-generation into the business, an assignment that was much easier with his son, who knew early on that he wanted to make cars his career.
Meanwhile, Carla, once brought back into dealership management not long after earning her master’s from Columbia in 2004, put aside thoughts of pursuing clinical psychology and focused instead on helping her father expand the Tommy Group.
However, the management-succession process was tragically hastened by her father’s illness and death two years ago.
Indeed, Thomas M. Cosenzi, who was in college when his father’s brain tumor was detected in early 2007, returned home to help run the business, and over the course of the next few years, the helm was slowly transferred.
And for the most part, it was a very smooth transition.
“Surprisingly, it was a relatively easy process,” Carla explained. “We work very well together and split all the responsibilities; we consult each other on any major decisions we’re making. Some people are shocked at how easy a transition it was and how well we function as brother and sister.”
But while the transition was smooth, the seas they transitioned into were quite rough. Carla said the Tommy Group navigated through them by essentially focusing on the horizon and not getting too caught up in the difficult moment.
“We kept ourselves in a bubble, stayed focused, and didn’t let what was going on outside the stores affect how we were running the business,” she explained. “And it paid off; we’re doubled our Nissan sales, and our Hyundai franchise is doing great.
“We stayed positive throughout the dealerships, and especially in the sales department,” she continued, “and came up with creative methods to get people through the doors.”

Staging a Coupe
One of those methods was more aggressive marketing, part of an overall rebranding effort, said Tom, noting that Carla’s omnipresence on the airways starting a few years ago has helped build greater awareness of the Country name in the Western Mass. marketplace.
“It’s definitely helped get our name out there,” he explained. “People know Country, and they know Carla.”
Indeed, like other area dealership managers with a strong media presence, Carla said the messages help build connections that often translate into trust — and sales.
“I think they work because people hear me, and then when they come in the showroom they can see me — I’m there, on the floor,” she said, adding that that there are more people coming into the dealerships these days, even if traffic is still off considerably from the days before the recession.
There are some lingering effects from the downturn and other recent events, such as the March tsunami in Japan, which have challenged some dealers (see related story, page 22), but Tommy Car Corp. is having a solid 2011, she noted, and the outlook for the future is bright.
There are a number of factors that go into the current performance as well as that forecast, said Tom, listing everything from the locations of the dealerships to the success of the car brands, especially Hyundai, to those aforementioned marketing efforts.
Elaborating, he said that the move from a much smaller location on Colrain Road in Greenfield to the site on Route 9, only a few miles from both Amherst and Northampton, has benefited the dealership, giving it those highly valued qualities known as access and visibility.
And with the five colleges so near, the Cosenzis are expecting that they will undoubtedly see a great deal of interest in Nissan’s Leaf, an electric vehicle. For now, though, and for probably some time, all interested parties can do is test-drive the vehicle at the dealership and order one from Nissan.
“It’s an exciting development — this is the only all-electric car,” said Tom. “This is going to spark interest in Nissan again, and we think we’re going to be in the right place to sell the Leaf.”
Meanwhile, Greenfield remains an effective location for the Hyundai dealership, said Carla, drawing customers from Hampshire County in Massachusetts and both Southern Vermont and Southern New Hampshire.
“Greenfield is a great community, and our location is right off the highway,” Carla explained. “So it’s easily accessible from Keene and Brattleboro. And while some people say that people don’t drive north, we don’t see that; we see that customers will drive from Hadley, Northampton, Amherst, and even Springfield.”
However, Hyundai has been so successful in recent years that maintaining adequate inventory has been a challenge, said Carla.
“We get an Elantra in, it hits the ground, and we sell it,” she said of the carmaker’s compact, gas-sipping model. “We sell it before the service department even has a chance to go through it because people really want them. Elantras, Accents, Sonatas … you can’t get your hands on them. We’ve learned to survive on a much shorter supply.”
As for possible expansion, the Cosenzis say they will emulate their father and seize opportunities when, where, and if the situation is right.
“We’re very careful to make sure that the stores we have are running the way we want them to run, that they’re profitable and properly staffed,” said Carla. “And we think we’re at that point. We’ll look at any opportunity that comes our way.”

On the Spot
When BusinessWest sought out some pictures of the Cozenzis, Tom deferred to his sister at first. “She’s the one who gets in front of the camera,” he explained.
Eventually, he acquiesced. After all, these siblings are most definitely a team, one that has withstood challenges of many different kinds, emerging stronger and more confident in the process.
And with radio and television commercials that stand out — in this case, for the right reasons.

George O’Brien can be reached at obrien@businesswest.com

Car Dealers Report That Sales Volume Has Been Picking Up Speed

Jeb Balise was born on Oct. 31, 1957.
Aside from that milestone event in local business history, that date is significant for another reason — although Balise, president of Balise Motor Sales, is a little sketchy on the exact details.
That was the day that Chevrolet rolled out a new model — he believes it was the Belair — to considerable fanfare. In fact, there was so much hype attached to this grand unveiling that James Balise, general manager of a Chevrolet franchise at that time, never made it to the hospital for the birth of his son.
“He didn’t see me until I came home; I think that tells you a lot about what it is was like in those days,” said Jeb, referring not only to then-accepted attitudes regarding fathers and maternity wards, but also to especially the secrecy, anticipation, and sheer drama that accompanied new-model rollouts or even yearly changes to nameplates that came each fall decades ago.
Much has changed since then, obviously, on both fronts. Regarding automobiles, it’s nearly impossible to keep anything secret anymore, and new models are rolled out at different times during the year. But late summer and early fall is still a heady, opportunity-laden time for car dealers, as they look to rid themselves of leftovers, welcome the new year’s offerings, and serve consumers settling back into their lives after the idle months of summer.
And this year, there is even more to look forward to as the auto industry continues to battle its way back from the unprecedented turmoil that came with the Great Recession. Dealers we spoke with, including Balise, said 2011 has brought improved sales volume over last year, and projections for the last quarter are solid.

“We still have a long way to go before we get back to where we were in 2007, but business is definitely better,” said Kevin Schechterle, general manager of BMW of West Springfield, who projected an increase of between 8% and 12% for 2011 over last year. “People are returning to the dealerships in bigger numbers, and more are ready to buy.”
But in many respects, dealers are operating in a changed landscape, said Balise, who used some simple math to explain. In the years preceding the economic collapse, total sales volume nationally was something on the order of 17 million cars, with Balise selling perhaps 18,000 or 19,000 across its many dealerships in Western Mass., Cape Cod, and Rhode Island. Last year, the volume nationally was just over 12 million, he continued, and Balise’s total was just north of 22,000. And for 2011, the current projections are for about 26,000 — a healthy, double-digit increase.
“There are fewer dealerships than there were a few years ago,” he explained, adding that this thinning of the herd, coupled with other factors, has resulted in increases of total volume at Balise. “Our sales are up, and part of that is the changed landscape, and the other part is that we’re blessed with great franchises, great locations, and great facilities.”
Overall, this is a good time for consumers to be buying, said Don Pion, general manager of Bob Pion Buick GMC in Chicopee, adding that, if people have the confidence in the economy to venture into the showrooms, they’ll find some attractive conditions.
“Credit is more readily available than it was at still-historically low rates,” he explained. “The value of used cars has held extremely well, there are incentives … this is the right time to buy.”
Meanwhile, some dealers have been coping with a challenge they couldn’t have imagined in the fall of 2008 — not having enough inventory.
Indeed, the tsunami in Japan impacted dealers handling nearly all makes from that country, said Balise, adding that things are slowly returning to normal in that regard.
However, keeping the lot filled remains a huge challenge for Gary Rome, who said the Hyundai dealerships in Holyoke and Enfield that bear his name, like most others the country, are coping with huge demand and not enough supply.
“A lot of people have told me it’s a good problem to have,” said Rome. “It’s better than having a 180-day supply of cars, but the reality is it’s a terrible problem to have; there’s nothing more frustrating than not having enough of a product you can sell.”
For this issue and its focus on auto sales, BusinessWest goes inside area dealerships to get a barometric read on the current auto market and a forecast for the near future.

Super Models
As he talked with BusinessWest in his auto group’s new Lexus facility on Riverdale Street in West Springfield, which opened a year ago, Balise said that, while new models and ‘refreshes,’ as they’re called, are rolled out seemingly year-round, there’s always a lot going on in the fall. And this one is no exception.
At Lexus, much of the anticipation was centered on the completely reworked GS model, said Balise, adding that a new Passat was due to arrive at the group’s Volkswagen store in Rhode Island, a retooled Camry was creating a buzz for Toyota, and some new Ford models were stirring interest in that brand. At Gary Rome Hyundai, meanwhile, much of the talk concerns the new Veloster, and at BMW, the 5 and 7 series of cars are generating strong interest, said Schecterle.
If these new models, refreshed nameplates, and leftovers can create a solid fourth quarter, that would put a nice cap on what has been a decent but not spectacular year for most dealers, who have had to contend with a still-slugging economy, inventory issues (mostly from the tsunami), and some local weather phenomena, especially the tornado, which have distracted consumers and kept some from the showrooms.
Overall, the outlook is positive, said Balise, because the recovery is underway, as slow and sluggish as it is, and there is a good deal of pent-up demand caused by several years of hesitancy on the part of consumers.
“People have been putting off buying new cars just like they’ve been putting off getting new appliances and other products,” he explained. “But you can only put them off for so long; people want fuel economy, they want safety, and they want to enjoy what they’re driving.”
Schechterle sees the same trend. He said the sour economy and the general uncertainty it caused prompted many consumers to hang onto a car for a year or several years longer than they might have during better times. “People were putting off purchases while waiting to see what was going to happen with the economy,” he explained. “Things still aren’t great, but overall, people are more confident, and they’re coming back to the showroom in bigger numbers.”
When they get there, they’re finding some new models, said Pion, citing the new Buick Regal as one example in his dealership, as well as ample financing, plenty of incentives, good trade-in value, and attractive interest rates that, in many cases, make it less expensive to buy certain models now than it was a few years ago.
But in some cases, visitors to the showroom have found limited quantities of some models, and often lengthy waits for what they’re looking for.
The tsunami certainly took a toll on many Japanese car makers, noted Balise, adding that Subaru, Honda, Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, and (to a lesser extent) Nissan had production issues as a result of the calamity.
Balise said his auto group was fortunate in that it took on additional inventory across the board just prior to the tsunami — in an obvious show of confidence regarding the state of the market — and this helped it avoid the shortages that other dealerships experienced.
“It’s better to be lucky than smart sometimes,” he said of this bit of good fortune, which enabled sales at Balise dealerships with Japanese models to remain flat or improve slightly over last year, and not drop, as happened elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Rome’s inventory problems at Hyundai stem from another factor — strong interest in the Korean company’s products across the board.
He said there’s talk of ramping up production and building another plant, but relief is probably at least a few years away. In the meantime, the current laws of supply and demand have created long wait times for some models, but also a dramatic surge in interest in Hyundai used cars, which has helped make 2012 a solid year for Rome, who also owns a Kia store in Enfield.
He said his auto group has seen about a 9% increase in sales over last year, a number that would be doubled, he believes, if he had the cars to sell.
“The good news is that people are waiting on these cars,” he said, referring to both Hyundai and Kia, which is having less-dramatic inventory issues. “That’s because they’re getting a car with more quality and a better warranty.”

The Bottom Line
Jeb Balise says the days when someone would miss a birth because a new car model was being introduced are long gone and not coming back — which is a good thing.
There is less hype, secrecy, and anticipation each autumn now, he continued, adding that people can go on the Internet and find out everything they need to know about a new offering months before it hits the showroom floor.
But fall will always be an important time for dealers, and this one is certainly no exception. Economic conditions are improving slowly but surely, and, as Schechterle said, people are returning the showrooms.
And in many cases, they’re finding the confidence, incentives, and products to drive deals.

George O’Brien can be reached at obrien@businesswest.com

A list of auto dealers in Western Mass.

Click here:
AutoDealers BW0911a

New Initiative Strives to Identify and Develop Regional Leaders

Recognizing the need to identify and cultivate young leaders, area civic and economic development leaders have created an initiative called Leadership Pioneer Valley. As the name suggests, this is a regional program — covering Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties — crafted to take emerging and existing leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, immerse them in a program to build leadership skills and educate them on the Valley, and then provide them with opportunities to put what they’re learned to work. This is a program, said its recently appointed director, that will have benefits for participants and the region as a whole.

In 2004, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Plan for Progress, initially created a decade earlier, was overhauled, with 13 new strategic goals identified as “critical for growing the people, companies, and communities that grow the region.”
Lora Wondolowski is now working out of a small office just down the hall from PVPC Executive Director Timothy Brennan because of what’s known colloquially as Action Item 7: “Recruit and train a new generation of regional leaders.”
Indeed, Wondoloski, hired in April, is program director of an initiative known as Leadership Pioneer Valley, which operates with a simple core mission: “To identify, develop, and connect diverse leaders to strengthen the Pioneer Valley.” As she talked with BusinessWest about her new assignment, she conveyed the message that each word in that mission statement was chosen carefully, and it’s her job to sharply define each one.
That starts with ‘identify.’ Wondoloski is now in the process of recruiting the first class of 40 to 50 emerging and existing leaders (ages 25-45) from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to participate. “These are mid-career professionals, people who have been identified as having potential for leadership within their own company or organization,” she explained, “or people who have gotten involved locally somehow; we’re not looking for recent college graduates, and we’re not looking for CEOs ready to retire next year. For employers, these are people they want to keep around, people they want to root in the community.”
‘Develop’ is the next key word in the mission statement, and it will be addressed through a 10-month curriculum (one day per month) that will include a balanced combination of retreats, day-long seminars, and small-group activity, and is still a work in progress, with several weeks remaining before the start of the first planned program in October.
Which brings us to ‘connect’ — once the leaders have been identified and developed, they will be connected to the communities in ways designed to utilize the skills and knowledge they have acquired to benefit the region and specific communities and agencies as program alumni — and ‘diverse.’ Wondoloski said those chosen will, as a group, accurately reflect this region’s changing demographics and, in the process, develop leaders from several different ethnic groups. But it will be diverse in other respects as well, including industry representation.
As for Pioneer Valley, this is a truly regional concept, involving all of Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, she explained, which separates LPV, as it’s called, from some other leadership programs created in Springfield and Northampton. Meanwhile, one of the goals of the curriculum is to familiarize participants with the whole of the Valley and the specific challenges and assets of specific areas and communities.
“We want participants to get a deep understanding of the Valley and the communities that make up this region,” she explained. “A lot of people don’t leave their communities — people from Springfield don’t often get up to Franklin County, and vice versa; we want to get people out of their silos.”
For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Wondolowski to gain some perspective on Leadership Pioneer Valley, it’s goals and emerging strategies for meeting them, and the reasons why it has become the embodiment of Action Item 7.

A Leadership Position
Since starting her new assignment, Wondolowski, formerly the founding executive director of the Mass. League of Environmental Voters, has been working with a 27-member steering committee on several components of that aforementioned mission statement, from curriculum development to the multi-faceted task of recruitment.
For example, she was in attendance at BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty gala on June 23 at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, meeting with several potential members of the first class of leaders. She’s also been finalizing the application form for those desiring to be members of the first class — it now appears on the recently launched Web site www.leadershippv.org — and meeting with area business and civic leaders to gauge what they want and need to see result from this initiative.
The broad yet simple goal is developing leadership, she continued, adding that this has been identified as one of the more critical economic-development priorities in the region for some time. And to achieve that goal, the PVPC, the Community Foundation of Western Mass., and several area businesses are collaborating to create a program modeled after several local, regional, and national initiatives, said Wondolowski.
As examples, she cited a one-year pilot program created six years ago by the Northampton Chamber of Commerce and the United Way called Leadership County, an effort launched nearly 30 years ago called Leadership Greater Hartford — administrators there have served as consultants for LPV — and an initiative in the nation’s capital called Leadership Greater Washington.
LGW, as the Washington-area program is called, was created in 1986, put together by six area chambers of commerce and three economic-development-related organizations — the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, and the Junior League. The linchpin of the program is its so-called Effective Leadership Institute, which provides one-day-per-month coursework focusing on communication, team building, emotional intelligence, and diversity.
“We’re taking the lessons learned from Hampshire County and applying them to a region-wide leadership program, and the Hartford team has helped put together a business plan for us,” said Wondoloski. “We’re taking best practices from a number of different models.”
Hiring a director and assembling a steering committee were the first real steps in the process of getting LPV off the ground, said Wondolowski, adding that recruitment and curriculum development are the next matters in the to-do list, and there has been significant progress with both.
The recruiting process will be highly competitive, she told BusinessWest, adding that she expects the volume of applications to far exceed the number of seats in the classroom. But more important than the quantity of applicants is the quality, she went on, noting that is why she’s working hard to get the word out to individuals and constituencies like the 40 Under Forty Class of 2011 and those that preceded it, as well as the area’s young-professionals organizations.
Meanwhile, she’s reaching out to LPV sponsors, which include MassMutual, Baystate Health, PeoplesBank, United Bank, Westfield Bank, and others — who are each contributing $5,000 to $10,000 toward the program’s $257,000 annual budget — to help recruit candidates.
Diversity is also a key factor in finalization of the first class, she said, adding that there will be targets established for specific ethnic groups, and to reach them, organizers will reach out to groups like the Latino Chamber of Commerce and others like it that serve a specific constituency.

Course of Action
While recruitment work continues, Wondoloski and the steering committee are also finalizing the curriculum for the 10-month program, the cost of which will vary according to a sliding scale. For participants from large companies, the price tag will be roughly $2,500, while those from the smallest nonprofits will pay $850. Participants will be asked to contribute $300 themselves, and scholarships will be available.
Most of the components are in place, she told BusinessWest, adding that they include:
• A retreat, to be staged in September, which will focus on self-assessment of leadership skills, an introduction to the region, and selection of group projects;
• Challenge days, or day-long seminars, held monthly, that will focus on leadership skills and significant challenges facing the region such as education, sustainability, transportation, and the regional economy;
• Field experience in the shape of day-long workshops, also held monthly, at locations around the region to introduce participants to local leaders, the diversity of the region, and an area’s challenges, assets, and potential; and
• Leadership learning labs. Each class will work in small teams to devise strategies to address one of the themes or challenges identified in the PVPC’s Plan for Progress. The teams will have time to meet on training days, but will also meet independently between the monthly sessions.
The seminars will be held at venues across the region, said Wondoloski, listing the Springfield Museums, Greenfield Community College, and Yankee Candle as examples of potential sites chosen to connect participants with the businesses and institutions that shape the Valley.
Meanwhile, to provide what she called a 360-degree view of the region, the field experiences will be staged at locations chosen to broaden participants’ knowledge of the entire Valley. Details have not been finalized, she said, but there will likely be a Springfield Day; a Five College Day to familiarize the class with the Amherst-Northampton area; a day in Holyoke, Chicopee, and perhaps South Hadley to gain perspective on that area; and a Hilltowns and Franklin County Day.
The sum of these curriculum elements will provide participants with opportunities to refine their personal and public leadership skills, said Wondolowski, while also developing diverse contacts and an effective communication network, receiving recognition for themselves and their organization, and gaining opportunities for taking an active and effective role in addressing community needs.
In short, participants will be gaining and honing leadership skills, while also getting a comprehensive education in the region as a whole, but also its specific areas and communities — and then opportunities to apply what they’ve learned.
Looking down the road, Wondoloski said that some of the programs that LPV is modeled after have developed some measures for quantifying the success of their initiatives. These include everything from the percentage of participants gaining promotions in their firms to the number of nonprofit board seats filled by individuals who have taken part in the training regimens.
Ultimately, though, success will more likely be qualified, and the indicators will be quality of life, overall vibrancy, and greater diversity in the business sector, government, and other realms.

Class Act
Graduates of the LPV program will receive a certificate of some sort identifying them as a participant and perhaps some course credits, said Wondoloski, adding that these are some of the details still being worked out.
But they’ll get much more than a piece of paper, she told BusinessWest, adding that they’ll gain not only additional leadership skills, a new network, and a broad education on the Valley, but also, and more importantly, motivation and opportunities to put what they’ve learned to work.
In that respect, they will be helping to address Action Item 7, but also address the critical need for leadership across the region.

George O’Brien can be reached at obrien@businesswest.com

Forget Time Management … Are You Managing Your Energy?

Phrases like ‘manage your time’ and ‘do more with less’ have become buzzwords for this decade. The idea is that, if you can manage your time well, you’ll be more productive in all areas of life.
The only flaw in this thinking is that time is finite. In other words, you can manage time all you want and continually push yourself to get more done. But all this managing and pushing tires your brain, drains your spirit, and disengages your soul. That’s when mistakes occur and burnout ensues. The key, then, is not simply to manage your time, but also to manage your energy.
Unlike time, energy is restorable. And when you manage your energy well, you’ll have more energy for your priorities, whether they are personal or professional in nature. If you don’t manage your energy, you can’t manage your time. Sure, you can think about all the things you need to do, and you can even schedule them, but if you don’t have the energy to do the tasks, you won’t be able to accomplish them appropriately.
Realize, too, that managing your energy goes beyond work/life balance. While many people talk about work/life balance (devoting ample time to all areas of your life), few address those things that make life rich and fun.
With so many things competing for your attention daily, you need to give attention to energy replenishment so you can devote time your life’s priorities demand. This is why it’s important to manage your energy before you manage your time.
Keeping your energy in check means giving attention to your brain, your spirit, and your soul. Think of it like a three-legged stool. For the stool to be useful, you need all three legs. Remove one leg from the equation, and the stool topples over and is useless. The same is true for your energy. Therefore, to keep your energy replenished, implement the following suggestions into your daily life.

Stimulate Your Brain
The human brain likes control and certainty, and it’s very good at predicting the next thing that is likely to happen based on the information it has. That’s why you often feel better when you perceive you have control over a situation and feel stressed if you think you have no control over events.
Additionally, the brain is programmed to fear. This is a good thing, though, because the inborn fear is what has allowed our species to evolve. The only drawback to this natural fear is that the brain will take three pieces of information and make a story out of it — usually a negative one. This negative story becomes your reality until you get another piece of data. Talk about an energy drain on your brain!
In order to replenish your brain’s energy, do the following:
• Since your brain is part of your body, it needs to be fed the right food for optimum health. Eat three nutritious meals a day, exercise to increase the oxygen flow to your brain, and drink plenty of water to keep hydrated.
• Reconstruct your stories. You have to purposefully stop the story and seek out the missing pieces of information. For example, if you get an e-mail from your boss telling you not to take part in a task you volunteered for, with no explanation why, you would likely think your boss doesn’t believe you’re capable of the task. In reality, your boss may need you for another task, he or she may think the task is not challenging enough for you, or your boss may simply not need any assistance on the task any longer. But you’ll never know (and never stop the negative story) until you ask.
• Analyze what helps and hurts your thinking ability. For instance, do 200 e-mails staring at you first thing in the morning make you exhausted before you even start the day? If so, then don’t do that task first thing. Do the most important things when you’re alert and at your best, as those tasks will actually energize you so you’re able to handle the stressful tasks later.
• Give yourself two hours a day for focused attention on a key project — the earlier in the day, the better. No multi-tasking during this time! Whether you are a night person or a morning person, the fact is that your brain is rested after you sleep, so this is the key time for focused attention and productivity.

Awaken Your Spirit
The human spirit yearns to soar. The spirit enjoys lofty goals and challenging tasks to accomplish. How spirited someone is often relates to how purposeful he or she is. In fact, it’s common that, when people lose their purpose in life, they feel deflated and even depressed. Hence the phrase ‘her spirit was broken.’
An energized spirit is what catapults you out of the mundane and into a new and exciting endeavor. In order to replenish your spirit’s energy, do the following:
• Do one thing every day that makes your spirit soar. Whether it’s reading poetry or listening to music, if you feel your spirit is fed by that, do it.
• Think about what you want to do in your life. Dream big! Give planned time to your future in order to nurture your spirit.
• Read things that stretch your mind. Your spirit wants to reach for the next best thing. Unleash the power of your spirit by exposing your mind to new things — even things that you feel are impossible to accomplish right now.
• Take time each day to think and concentrate. Many people are in knowledge-oriented jobs and need some degree of quiet time. So even though a particular task must get done, that task often requires planning and thinking. Your spirit can’t gain energy to tackle big goals unless it has some quiet time to prepare. So let people know that you require quiet thinking time, and actually put this time in your schedule. If others know your needs and intentions, they will respect them.

Feed Your Soul
The human soul likes the familiar, the deep, and the poignant. The soul likes ritual, doing the same thing at the same time every day. It also enjoys the simple things in life, beauty, and nature. The soul is what connects you to life and to what is deeply meaningful to you.
In order to replenish your soul’s energy, do the following:
• Clarify your intentions and plan what you want your tomorrow to be like before you go to bed. This allows your subconscious to work on your challenges and big decisions while you sleep.
• Take time for enchantment. Linger through a museum. Enjoy preparing a simple, elegant meal. Go outside regularly and really look at nature. Your soul loves beauty and wants a connection with the earth.
• Experience the present fully. Focus on the things around you — the colors and textures. Be mindful of your current surroundings and activities rather than always trying to multi-task. Really engage in life in the moment. Feel yourself breathe.
• Build rituals for yourself and your family. Even something as simple as eating dinner at the same time every day is a ritual. Both your soul and your brain crave ritual and gain energy from it.

Energize!
By focusing on these three areas of your life — your brain, your spirit, and your soul — you’ll gain the much-needed energy to tackle life with enthusiasm and zest. With your energy fully replenished, time will no longer be an issue. You’ll feel ready to handle anything that comes your way with ease … and you’ll do it much faster.
So make it a habit to stimulate your brain, awaken your spirit, and feed your soul. It’s one investment in yourself you can’t afford not to make.

Jean Kelley, industrial sociologist and founder of Jean Kelley Leadership Consulting, has personally interviewed more than 20,000 people.  She is the author of Get a Job; Keep a Job and Dear Jean: What They Don’t Teach You at the Water Cooler; www.jeankelley.com.

Making Comfortable Retirement Reality, Not a Dream

The current statistics on how much people have put away for retirement are, in a word, alarming. Experts say they show a lack of urgency, unrealistic beliefs that Social Security will be enough, and simple ignorance about how much they’ll need to live comfortably into their 80s and 90s. Their advice is simple and direct: start saving early!

The most recent data from the national Retirement Confidence Survey shows that Americans’ confidence in their ability to retire comfortably has plunged to an all-time low.
The majority of people in their 40s who have been saving for five to 10 years have $49,000 on average in their 401(k) plans, while people in their 50s average about $54,000. Retirement has been reduced to a simple fact — pay now in terms of savings, or pay later in a price exacted in shattered hopes, dreams, and expectations.
“People need to think about the lifestyle they want in retirement, because it will impact the amount of money they need to save,” said James Healey, vice president and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Springfield. “Unless people put money away religiously and begin when they are young, the likelihood of their retiring diminishes.”

Timothy Suffish agrees. “The amount the average American has saved for retirement is totally inadequate,” said the senior vice president of equity markets at St. Germain Investment Management in Springfield. “The chances are that people will outlive their savings.”
Most people know they should put money aside, but lack the self-discipline to do so. A study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) in Washington, D.C. shows that only 39.8 % of U.S. workers participated in an employer-sponsored retirement plan in 2009, and 56% say the total value of their household’s savings and investments — excluding the value of their home and any defined pension benefit — is less than $25,000.
“By and large, most Americans have never saved enough,” said Kate Kane, manager/director of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Springfield. “We have a spending affliction. But for the first time in history, things are turning around. Since the downturn in the economy, people are saving more. But most people don’t know enough about how to make their money work for them or how to use it as a leverage tool.”
This increase in savings bodes well for people in their 20s or 30s because they can benefit from compound interest. The picture is bleak, however, for almost half of the nation’s Baby Boomers. “About 45% of Baby Boomers will run short of funds in retirement; they do not have sufficient assets to last the rest of their lives,” said EBRI Director Jack VanDerhei.

Taking Stock

Years ago, retirement savings translated into a pension. But the trend began to change in the early ’80s, Suffish said, as companies pulled back and the tax code changed to allow employees to set money aside for retirement without paying tax on it.
Today, many employers leave the responsibility, as well as the investment risk, up to individuals, which makes saving critical.
“People need to start early, because the more they save, the better off they will be,” Suffish said.
He gave this simplified example, which has some variables. If someone earns $40,000 at their first job at age 22 and invests 10% each year, by the time they are 65, they could have $2 million in savings.
“But if they wait until they are 27, they will have $1.2 million, which is a huge difference,” Suffish said. “So the sooner a person makes the sacrifice and puts money into retirement savings instead of enjoying it today, the better off they will be. The numbers are very, very stunning.”
Suffish says the place to save is a 401(k) or individual retirement account, especially since many employers match a portion of 401(k) contributions. “If you put in $1 and your employer puts in 25 cents, it’s like getting a 25% return,” Suffish said, taking it down to a simple equation.
But Healey says many individuals make the mistake of relying on Social Security as their only means of retirement income. And unfortunately, those who do save often fail to consider the return on investment they are getting on their money. “Some people put a lot of money in the bank,” Healy said, adding that the rule of thumb is to keep six to 12 months of income in a savings account for emergencies. “People should become educated about their investments and know what they are investing in,” he said.
A financial advisor can be helpful, but even people who have one should review their account on an annual basis, Healey added.
VanDerhei agrees, and says it can be difficult to determine the amount people need to save to retire comfortably. “There is no magic number as to how much someone will need, despite what people read in the news,” he said.
Online calculators take into account a number of variables, including the desired age of retirement, and VanDerhei says most people can do the calculations if they use a spreadsheet. But given the complexity and the projections required, “unless someone has a lot of training, they will need professional advice to do their retirement planning. And it more than pays for itself.”
When it comes time to withdraw money from retirement savings, the rule of thumb is to withdraw 4% to 5% of the total each year. “If you do that, the chances are the money will last until you are in your late ’80s,” Suffish said. But for someone with $50,000, that translates to less than $2,500 a year.

Saving Grace
The answer is for people to start saving as soon as they get their first full-time job.
“I see young people who don’t take advantage of their company’s retirement plans,” Kane said, adding that, if they wait until they reach their 30s and 40s, they miss out on years of compound interest. One reason many fail to make the commitment is because they don’t plan on staying with their current company.
“What they don’t realize is that, if they start saving and change jobs, they can roll their savings over into an IRA. Instead, they say, ‘I will wait until I feel more stable,’” Kane said. “They don’t understand how compound interest works. It’s a powerful tool that can work in their favor or become a detriment.”
Congress is taking measures that would require employers to automatically enroll full-time workers in a retirement plan. Financial experts support the idea, and VanDerhei says studies show that, when people are automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan, 85% continue to put money into it.
“The number of young workers participating in 401(k) plans has increased substantially over the past few years due to automatic enrollment. This compares to the 40% who participated with the older type of plans,” he said, explaining that, since the Personal Protection Act of 2007 was implemented, more employers have adopted the automatic enrollment system.
Many people don’t bother to save because they can afford to put away only a small amount. But Kane said saving as little as $10 a week is important, because it establishes a habit.
And the ability to save can be as simple as understanding the difference between want versus need. “A lot of people could re-evaluate how much they spend on different luxury items and shift some of that into savings. Anything that is not a necessity is a luxury,” VanDerhei said.
Kane advises people to write down everything they purchase, because the exercise forces them to come to terms with how they are spending their money. “People don’t realize the long-term implications of impulse purchases,” she said. “None of us has willpower, but some of us have better strategies.”
It is also helpful for people on salary to determine their hourly rate, Kane said. When they want to buy something, they can compare the cost of the item to the number of hours it takes to earn that amount of money and ask themselves if it really worth it.
However, the returns on investment in the market over the past 10 years have shaken many people’s confidence in investing.
“There were so many losses — the dot-com bubble burst, there was 9/11, then the housing boom and bust, which is still ongoing, the credit crisis and the recession in 2008, which have all really rattled consumer confidence,” Suffish said. “The average person wonders whether to spend their money, put it in their home, or live for today because of all these issues.”
Although fear is understandable and interest rates are very low, the market always comes back, and usually at a higher rate, he said.
One way to free up money is to refinance a home mortgage to take advantage of today’s low interest rates. “If people refinance a loan from 6% to 4%, it could free up a lot of funds on a monthly basis that could go into retirement,” Suffish said.

Looming Horizon
Baby Boomers whose nest egg is insufficient don’t have a lot of options, said those we spoke with.
“The only thing they can do is increase their savings while they are still working and defer their retirement for a few years,” Venderhei said, adding that, for some, these measures may be enough to make up the difference.
But other strategies can make retirement more affordable. Healy said people should think about the cost of living in the place they plan to spend their golden years. “Some areas of the U.S. have lower state taxes and more affordable communities,” he said. “Florida attracts a lot of retirees because there is no state income tax.”
Suffish says Boomers who have fallen behind need to take a hard look at their budgets. “It’s something very few of us do, but the exercise can be illuminating,” he noted. “The average person wastes about $3,000 a year on little things that they won’t miss. We think we all have a handle on it, but until people have a job loss or something that really spooks them, they don’t track where their money goes. Most people will find that 5% to 10% of their spending can easily be eliminated, and the funds can be put to better use either in a rainy-day fund or toward their retirement savings.”
When it comes to computations, many make the mistake of overestimating their needs in retirement. “The first tier of retirement is from age 65 to 80,” Kane said. “Those tend to be the active years when people go on trips and spend time with their grandkids,” she said. But after that, people tend to stay at home and don’t need as much money.
“Trying to save the same amount for all your retirement years and inflating that figure will drive the amount you need up to a very high number. It can cause people to throw up their hands and give up, which is the worst thing they can do,” she added.
Although retirement may not be possible for everyone, Healey said, many people enjoy working and choose to continue because they enjoy what they are doing.
In the end, it all comes down to self-discipline and choices.
“If you want to travel extensively and have a vacation home, it will determine the amount of discipline you need to have,” Healey said. “People need to think about what the word ‘retirement’ means to them.”