Page 12 - BusinessWest November 23, 2020

Editorial
DAoing Whatever It Takes
BusinessWest
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s the region pauses to celebrate Thanksgiving and start other perks.
the holiday season, many are counting down the days From what we hear, the 100 tickets sold in less than two minutes until this most painful of years comes to a close. once they officially went on sale.
For the business community especially, 2020 has been a year Realistically, $100,000 is a tiny fraction of the Big E’s annual bud-
of never-ending challenges, more uncertainty than anyone would ever want, and decisions that only come in two varieties — difficult and really difficult. Nothing has come easy.
And while none of this will magically end when the calendar gets flipped to 2021, it will be good to put this year in our collective rear-view mirror.
As we begin our work reflecting on this year — and there will be a lot of that, even as we brace for times that could be even more difficult, if that’s possible — it is easy to focus on all the negative. And we’ve done enough of that ourselves.
But we want to take another opportunity to recognize and applaud the fighting spirit of the region’s business community and the manner in which it has responded to all that has been thrown at it with imagination and true resolve.
And there really is a lot that has been thrown at our businesses — including draconian measures taken in the name of flattening the curve and ever-changing guidance and regulations that often make it so what you were doing last week is impossible to do this week. But, as we said, businesses have responded, and in creative, determined fashion.
We saw another example recently when the Big E, which has been continually hammered by state restrictions regarding large events, and had to cancel its annual 17-day fair, came up with a unique ‘golden-ticket’ promotion (see story on page 14).
Inspired by Willy Wonka, or so we’ve been told, the promotion involves $1,000 golden tickets that enable the purchaser and a companion lifetime entrance to the Big E, along with a number of
Editorial
get, and this promotion is not going to make a serious dent in the staggering losses the company has suffered this year. But it helps — in this trying year, every single dollar helps. And the golden ticket
is a perfect example of how companies have had to look beyond what they’ve done, look beyond what they know — and find ways to generate revenue and keep people employed until that day when the clouds will finally break.
But it’s just one example. There are plenty of others.
We’ve seen restaurants get creative and entrepreneurial in their efforts to use outdoor dining, delivery, and curbside service to somehow keep their doors open. We’ve seen event venues and pro- duction companies make the difficult adjustment to hybrid and virtual events. We’ve seen nonprofits pivot and use these virtual events to raise money so they can continue to carry out their mis- sions. We’ve seen manufacturers retool to one extent or another and shift to making PPE and other in-demand items. Getting back to the Big E, we’ve seen it tack and put its large indoor spaces to use as storage facilities for cars, boats, and other items.
There are countless other examples of companies taking a very bad situation and making something of it. And as the year draws to a close, we believe these stories can and must serve as inspiration for what it is to come — probably several more months of challeng- es and those difficult decisions.
Not that anything was ever easy, but we certainly won’t see any- thing approaching easy for a while yet.
Which means we’ll need to keep exercising our collective imagi- nations and coming up with our own golden tickets. v
OA Plot Twist with a Happy Ending
ver the past decade or so, one of “Maybe there’s a lesson An agreement that didn’t seem at all
the better stories to emerge in this
possible just 18 months ago.
region has been the development in all this — one about Maybe there’s a lesson in all this — one
of the Ludlow Mills complex in Ludlow. about communication and listening and
Acquired by Westmass Area Develop- ment Corp. in 2012, the mostly vacant
set of jute mills and storage buildings has become home to an eclectic mix of busi- nesses, and is now the site of a residential complex, a rehabilitation hospital (Encom- pass), and a host of small businesses that cross several sectors.
But this solid business story had been tempered somewhat by the very public, highly visible discord (there’s a diplomatic term) between Westmass and one of its more popular tenants, Iron Duke Brewing.
A disagreement over language in the lease eventually escalated into a bitter and protracted court fight, one that led to hard feelings, plans to relocate the business in Wilbraham, and a new and popular prod- uct — Eviction Notice IPA.
For a while, it looked like this court battle was going to end like so many before it — with no one really winning, despite how the ruling came down. It looked for all the world like both sides were going to be
communication and listening and getting to understand both sides of a disagreement.”
out perhaps hundreds of thousands in legal fees, Westmass would be out a good tenant, and Iron Duke would be saddled with the expense and challenge of essentially start- ing over in a new town and new brewery.
And then ... things changed. Not over- night, but as the story on page 6 recounts, they did change.
Amid the heavy baggage from the law- suit and the disagreement that led to it, the two sides agreed to sit down and talk. And from those talks came some progress and eventually a path to an agreement whereby Iron Duke would not only stay in its home at the mill — one of the century-old stock- houses that stored raw material — but expand within that site and perhaps own it someday.
getting to understand both sides of a dis- agreement, on the theory that the more people know and the more people talk, the better the odds they can work out their problems.
Maybe the lesson is to try to do that before egos take over and before the law- yers get involved because, after that hap- pens, it becomes that much harder.
We’re not sure about the lessons. We are sure that what was a good story for the region is now an even better story. Iron Duke will stay where it is, expand, and make the mill complex a better, stronger destination, one that might help attract more hospitality-related businesses like it.
Iron Duke will soon have to change its name to avoid another expensive lawsuit, this one from Duke University as it seeks to protect its brand. But that’s another story.
This story has what certainly appears to be a happy ending, after a plot twist as wel- come as it was — that’s was — unlikely. v
12 NOVEMBER 23, 2020
OPINION
BusinessWest