Doug McIntyre
Title: partner/co-founder
Company: Zero Base Advertising
Approximate/projected annual revenue: $23 million
Number of employees: approximately 35
Doug McIntyre has his work cut out for him this year.
The 43-year-old partner with Zero Base Advertising wants to become the oldest rookie in the NHL. McIntyre, a frequent amateur hockey player, also wants to “stop using expletives when talking to the media,” get more people to sign up to be organ donors, eliminate “boring” advertising and “learn to sleep more than three hours per night.”
“They say entrepreneurs sleep like a baby: Wake up every couple of hours and cry,” McIntyre jokes.
But he’s not really laughing. Lack of sleep isn’t healthy, his doctor has told him.
Maybe getting more rest will help McIntyre reach his goal of creating an advertising campaign “that becomes part of pop culture.” He says he’s thinking of national success along the lines of the Budweiser “Whazzup?” campaign.
“I didn’t want to go down the path of boring resolutions,” he says. “I think some of these are possible.”
Steve Sasser
Title: CEO
Company: Frontstep
Approximate annual revenue: $129 million
Number of employees: approximately 900
Another Columbus executive is resolving to make 2001 a fun year for himself and the employees of his 20-year-old company after coming off a year of transition.
“As you know, change is difficult sometimes,” says Steve Sasser, CEO of Frontstep — formerly Symix Systems. “We’re going to have more fun” in 2001.
Another bonus to the new year: “We’re glad we’ll never have to hear the word ‘Y2K’ again,” he says.
David Milenthal
Title: chairman
Company: HMS Partners
Capitalized billings: $200 million
Number of employees: approximately 200
When asked if he makes New Year’s resolutions, David Milenthal says, “none that I keep.”
The chairman of HMS Partners says he tends to focus more on goals in general than on resolutions made for the holiday.
One goal which doesn’t seem to disappear from his to-do list is to be more organized.
“It’s a goal that will always elude me,” he says.
Milenthal says he also wants to use his talents more “in the world of public affairs and the community,” to have more balance in his life and to be on time.
Jim Hopkins
Title: president
Company: Hopkins Printing
Approximate annual revenue: $13 million
Number of employees: approximately 100
Like Milenthal, Jim Hopkins is a goal-setter regardless of the time of year.
“Business people typically set goals,” he says. “New Year’s resolutions are not generally my style.”
Still, changing the name of his company is a 2001 resolution Hopkins already has accomplished. The business was known as J.F. Hopkins and Associates until the start of the year. It also has a new location in the CityGate Business Park off Steltzer Road.
Typically for Hopkins, however, instead of the first of the year, vacation time is when his mind most turns to goal-setting.
“I revisit things that I’m going to change when I get back,” Hopkins says. Vacation is a time for “reflective thinking” and looking for a “fresh perspective” for him.
“Most stories that you read about businesspeople — a high percentage of them have goals that they write down,” Hopkins says. He considers doing so “a guide for the subconscious life” and a means to keep track of things that are committed to oneself.
“Your internal thinking process just kind of takes control,” he says.
Hopkins looks to business-focused self-help books for guidance. Among his recent reads: “Living on the Fault Line: Managing for Shareholder Value in the Age of the Internet,” by Geoffrey A. Moore.
Cameron Mitchell
Title: president
Company: Cameron Mitchell Restaurants
Approximate annual revenue: $48 million
Number of employees: approximately 1,100
Similar to Hopkins, Cameron Mitchell is a goal-oriented person but isn’t much into making resolutions.
The president of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants in Columbus most likely, however, shares a resolution of sorts with many other Central Ohio business executives: Make 2001 another great year. C.J. Cross ([email protected]) is a free-lance writer for SBN.
