New North - Patti Habeck, President and CEO

This Week Mary Rhode and Terry Pinch talk to the new CEO of New North, learning more about the organization's continuing work creating and facilitating business and talent development in Northeast Wisconsin.

Resources Mentioned:

• New North: thenewnorth.com
• SCORE Northeast Wisconsin: score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support of BizTalk with SCORE:

• Heling & Associates LLC: hhttps://www.helingandassociates.com/
• Johnson Financial Group: https://www.johnsonfinancialgroup.com
• Community First Credit Union: https://www.communityfirstcu.org
• Baird: https://geenengroup.bairdwealth.com/ 

Transcript

BizTalk Welcome

WHBY: SCORE Northeast Wisconsin and WHBY are pleased to bring you BizTalk, a chance for you to hear from entrepreneurs and professionals as they share their experiences. From starting to sustaining growth, learn the skills needed for your business to be successful. If you miss anything, you can catch the BizTalk podcast at score.org/northeastwisconsin.

And now, from the Miron Construction Studio, it's BizTalk on WHBY 

Terry Pinch: Hello, and a good Saturday morning, everybody. I hope you're having a great weekend. My name is Terry Pinch and I'm one of the co-hosts this week of BizTalk. Joining me as co-host is Mary Rohde. Mary, how are you? 

 Mary Rhode: I am great, Terry. It's wonderful to be with you.

Terry Pinch: Great to have you. 

Meet Patty Habek

Terry Pinch: This week we've got a special guest, Patty Habek, who is the president of New North, and we're really appreciative of having her here. The New North is a really important organization in this area, and they've done a lot of good things. So Patty, welcome to the show. 

Patti Habeck: Thank you.

Thank you for having me. 

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Patti Career Pivots

Terry Pinch: So to get started, first could you just tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you got to this role? 

Patti Habeck: Sure. I had a... like many people, by the time you get further along in your career, you have a lot of experiences along the way that cause pivots.

So mine is a story full of pivots, but, I landed here seven months ago with New North. It was something that I love this region and I was very, very happy and lucky to find, the opportunity to work, regionally in Northeast Wisconsin. Prior to this, I spent 14 years, working at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, where I was the CEO, and in many ways that had a startup, feature to it.

We, I worked to build and establish the organization in Eastern Wisconsin and ultimately to become the largest hunger relief organization in the state. But the road to even get to Feeding America, was roundabout. I, you know, Terry, I was supposed to be a dentist so my background is not at all in any of these areas.

But you find yourself, you know, taking pivots along the way and in a roundabout way I get to come here and represent New North and the Northern, Northeast Wisconsin region. I'm, I'm thrilled. 

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Why New North

Terry Pinch: And as, as you joined New North, why? What attracted you to this organization? 

Patti Habeck: Yes. My professional journey really has always been, economic development, but I'd never really recognized it a- as formal economic development, because I always worked more on the community side of things.

And I at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, I spent a lot of time working regionally. At that time it was across 36 counties, so it was a little bit different. But regional work is something, very unique and different. What you're trying to do is to take, pieces and parts that exist over a large geography, find those common, challenges or opportunities, put them together, and then work collaboratively and in partnership to find, larger solutions, larger impacts, so that it impacts the whole region.

And I had been doing that Through, but in a unique way. When I was working in hunger relief, the better I could do my job, the more food I could provide, the more solutions I could provide to hunger, I was actually connecting more people to the economy. When I started thinking about taking on a new role I was thinking about it was time for me to step on from Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.

I had achieved everything that I wanted to do there, and it was time for the organization to have some new eyes and new vision. So I was trying to think, "How can I find a role that would connect me to, economic development more in a formal way so that I can more broadly, have impacts on our community and on our region and connect more people to the economy and, and to create an economy where we could support Northeast Wisconsin in a very vibrant way?"

So it's kind of how I landed in that role. 

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

What New North Does

Terry Pinch: So let's step back then and start with what is the New North? 

Patti Habeck: Yes. So that's actually a question I get a lot, and I, I, quite honestly, I had to ask it a lot in the very first days when I recognized the opportunity. New North really is the economic development organization for the 18 counties of Northeast Wisconsin.

And in that way, we operate somewhat, traditionally in economic development, which is composed of a number of different pillars. But for us, it is business, both attraction, retention, and innovation and startup. It's really working around our, our workforce, helping making sure that people have the skills that they need for the jobs that are in the region, but also in talent attraction, trying to attract, new talent to our area to make sure that we have, fresh, new, varied talent here, and also enough of it.

We also work i- as a marketing arm to help market the region and get people excited about Northeast Wisconsin. And so you can see that's a lot of work for an organization that only has six staff, seven staff really. And so we we have to work in partnership with all the other economic development organizations, community organizations, and municipalities to make sure that we're really being co- comprehensive.

So New North does a lot of convening, a lot of conversations, and a whole lot of collaboration. 

Origin Story

Terry Pinch: So how did it start then? What created... Why did the people come together in this region and say, "Let's create the New North"? 

Patti Habeck: You know, it's interesting. There's a lot of origin story to, what New North was, but what really they were...

The, the catalyst at the time, this is going back to about 21 years ago, the catalyst really was that our business leaders started to look at the region and say, we were heavily focused on a number, a small number of sectors as our major employers. So things like paper. And when you start to think about going back 20 years ago, you were starting to recognize that things like the paper industry was changing, and th- that was really going to impact the region.

So the business leaders from around the region started saying, "Well, what are we going to do to make sure that we change faster than, than, these, these jobs were changing so we can keep our companies, our people, our businesses really fresh?" So it really started with our business leaders coming together trying to solve a problem.

What do we do after the paper industry is no longer our largest industry? And that led to an evolution of so many things, and ultimately, it, it led to the formal New North collaboration. 

Terry Pinch: All right. 

Funding Model

Terry Pinch: So first thing, as you're building on that, first of all, tell us, our listeners, how is New North funded?

Where does the money come from to run New North? 

Patti Habeck: Yeah. Largely, we, have investor dollars, which is the support from the businesses who, provide dollars, and they join as an investor into New North. That's our largest source of, of funding. We also get funding from an entity called WEDC, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and they are the state economic development organization.

They are not a government entity, but they are a state organization, and they recognized that there are different regions in Wisconsin that they want to make sure are robust. And for us, it is the Northeast Wisconsin region, and so we get some funding from them. Grants are a small piece of the puzzle.

Recently, we received the Ignite Grant from WEDC, which is around innovation. We have a talent recruitment grant. So we get some grants from different sources also. So for the most part it's private funding, though. It's investor funding. 

Small Team Big Reach

Terry Pinch: Okay, then to take that money and turn it into programs, the investments into programs, you mentioned you only have a staff of about six people.

Patti Habeck: Mm-hmm. 

Terry Pinch: How do you do that then with only six people? 

Patti Habeck: Yeah, it's really about, leveraging. So how do we leverage, there's so much work to be done, and there's so many different, ways to address the opportunities in our region that we need to have an enormous network of partners and volunteers, collaborators.

And so what we do is we, as I mentioned, do a lot of convening. So we take all the, localized economic development entities, and we pull them together. We also pull together into, alliances different sectors. So we bring in people from the healthcare sector or construction sector or, the, the public colleges and universities, and we, we pull them together, and that is so that we can leverage the work that we are all doing so that we can actually, , have more hands i- in the mix to get things done.

Terry Pinch: Okay. And so those many of those people are the investors. 

Patti Habeck: Mm-hmm. 

Terry Pinch: In addition to j- I mean, they are donating to, an organization to help development, but what do they bring to your organization that's different? 

Patti Habeck: So the idea with our investors really is you know, like, like every good, partnership, there's always a, a give and a get in this whole thing.

So our investors are joining into New North because they recognize not only the collective impact we have on workforce or business, the conditions around which make our region vital and, and prosperous. They do recognize that, but they also recognize that money isn't the solution to that.

So, the dollars are what's able to help us offset our costs so that we can do the work. But we also use our investors as our volunteers, so they are contributing a lot of thought leadership. And that's one of the biggest things. When we have a challenge in a regional area, I can, I can pull together, our, our investors, our business, and our volunteers and say, "How are we going to address this issue?"

And then it's really through their thought leadership and, and their, the volunteerism that access... helps us get a lot of, of the work done. 

Workforce Talent Challenge

Terry Pinch: So as we mentioned or we talked before the show started taping one of the issues in the region is obviously there's a very low unemployment rate and finding people, bringing in new talent.

Those businesses have to see the value of getting together and the work you do to try and bring in talent because as good a job as you've done, and you guys have done a lot of things, unemployment is still very low in this area. 

Patti Habeck: You know, and that's actually universally one of the biggest challenges we have.

When I work with so many different investors, very often I'm hearing common themes as well as specific niches of need from our investors. But it's those common themes that I, I really think about. And workforce, our low unemployment rate the ability to have enough workers to do the jobs to make sure that they're the workers that are trained in the right way for the right jobs that are open, is a big deal.

And so not only do we have to work with the, the folks that are in the area now to make sure that everybody is connected to the workforce, that they are trained, um, and upskilled and, or skilled in a way that we need them to be, but a big part of our work is attracting talent from outside the region and bringing them into the region.

The challenge to that is that's the problem that's happening all over the country. Everybody's having this problem, that they need more people to come into their region, so we're competing, for talent across the nation. And so it's, it's a big, it's a big job but we have been very, very successful as a region to attract talent, and we're one of the few areas that are seeing a, a nice increase in, in net, net migration rather than a decrease.

Terry Pinch: One, one story I'll just tell you is since the beginning of 2025, we've had either three or four guests who are people who relocated from California to Wisconsin, for whatever reason. Now, that was something I don't think I ever expected to hear, but they did, and were never going to move back. So they all set up businesses and were all doing really well, but it was something that, that I found pretty unique, somebody, three or four people coming from California here and being really happy here.

Patti Habeck: It's funny that you say that, 'cause that's a story that I hear quite a bit is, and it always does surprise me when I hear that coming from a comfortable climate like California, at least in most parts to be able to come here, and then to survive their first winter and say they wanna still stay.

I, I, really get excited when I hear that. But we do have talent coming in from all over the place. But California is one of those areas that we've been attracting. But when we do our work, we are really, looking at, at people who want to come to the area for the opportunity and to match the skillsets of the jobs that we're open for.

And, and so it's, it's, it's a really fun matchmaking game, and, and we're excited to, to, be engaged in this space. 

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Break And SCORE Intro

Terry Pinch: That's a, it's a great story of how an ar- or an area region has to adapt and adjust, and we'll talk more about that in our next segment. Uh, you're listening to Biz Talk with SCORE on WHBY.

We're gonna take our first break. We'll talk to you again after these messages.

 Mary Rhode: And welcome back to Biz Talk with SCORE here on WHBY. I hope you're all having a wonderful Saturday morning. Uh, joined here today by my co-host, Teri Pinch, and we are just thrilled to have a special guest this morning, Patti Habeck with The New North. 

SCORE Mentoring Resources

 Mary Rhode: But before we get back to that conversation with Patty, I'd like to take a moment here to tell you a little bit about SCORE Northeast Wisconsin.

SCORE Northeast Wisconsin serves an 18-county region in Northeast Wisconsin, plus the county of Menominee in Michigan. We have over 50 volunteers, each an expert in their field, offering entrepreneurs no-cost and confidential mentoring. Those areas of expertise include IT, social media, marketing, cashflow, accounting, strategic planning, workflow, HR, retail, best practices, and so many others.

In order to register for a no-cost confidential mentoring session and/or to learn more about SCORE Northeast Wisconsin, we encourage you to visit our website at score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin. You can learn more about how the SCORE chapter can assist you with starting and/or growing your business, and you can complete an application for a mentoring session.

Simply complete the online form and submit it to SCORE. Within just a few days, a SCORE mentor will be contacting you to set up a meeting. Remember, SCORE is a no-cost and offers experts who can offer you assistance in many different areas. To get started, visit our website at score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin.

To support small business people, SCORE Northeast Wisconsin is always looking for new mentors. If you have experience that you would like to share with others, we'd love to talk to you. We welcome volunteers with experience in all aspects of business. Small business owners need your help, and your experience can make a real difference to their success.

Go to score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin, click on the volunteer button and fill out the short application and we'll get back to you to explain more. And finally, this reminder about the Biz Talk with SCORE podcast. The Biz Talk with SCORE podcast brings you the same real-world information and insights from experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders, just like Biz Talk with SCORE here on WHBY.

However, the Biz Talk with SCORE podcast is available when and where you are, so listen and subscribe today, tomorrow, or whenever you want. It's available on most podcatchers and podcast apps. All right, and now back to our conversation with Patty. 

Industry Alliances Explained

 Mary Rhode: Patti, one of the topics we, ran out of time to touch on in segment number one, but certainly want to, have you explain a little bit more about, you know, you talked and touched on, I loved what you said about your investors are your thought leaders.

They're not just writing a check to you. They are a part- Of your mission and your strategy to help you better serve everyone here in Northeast Wisconsin, that 18 county region. Another big player though in your, your mission and your strategy are those alliances that you formed, those industry alliances.

So let's talk a little bit about kind of the purpose of those alliances. But really more so why they matter, why they need to exist and, and how do they function? 

Patti Habeck: Thank you for asking that. Our industry alliances are one of New North's most valuable tools for our regional collaboration and how we do our work.

When you think about the industries and the sectors that we have it makes sense that very often the challenges that our, our businesses are facing from individual business to individual business, there's some similarities there. And you can try to solve them in a one-off fashion, or we can pull together the sector and say, "What are the common challenges that we're having, and how do we address this in a common way?"

Very, very, very often it comes down to a workforce challenge. It might be a shortage, it might be a skill gap, it might be that we need a certain training program that we don't have locally that we need to stand up. But whatever those are, they first have to-- whatever the challenges are, they first have to be identified, and they have to be identified in in a way that they're specific to, the sector that's really experiencing this across any one individual business.

So by pulling together an alliance, what we're doing is we're saying let's come together," kind of our, our like businesses. "Let's come together, let's communicate and say what are our challenges, what are the things that are holding us back from being very, very, growing or, or being vital in a certain space, and then how do we solve that at scale?"

And so that's what an alliance will do. So for example our newest alliance that, that is being stood up as we speak it's, it's been in, u- in place since November formally, but really just getting its feet underneath them, is our healthcare alliance. And what that really is, was designed around the largest issue, which is that we have a shortage of certain he- in certain areas of healthcare employment, and we need to solve that at scale.

It is going to require us to work across sectors. We need to convene the educational training entities with our business, with our healthcare, with... and put this all together and, and sometimes even it's a funding issue. So when we do that end to end, we can make these solutions at at sc- at scale.

And so that's really what our alliances do. And so, New North has the Construction Alliance, we have a Digital Alliance, we have a Healthcare Alliance but we also work very closely with another alliance that isn't ours, but we are in partnership with, and that's the New Manufacturing Alliance, which is separate, but very very much a collaborator and a partner with New North.

You see these bubbling up largely because of the workforce issue, but some of the other issues that come out of it might not be a workforce issue, but at least now we're connected both with each other and then across, and can use these as a way to leverage solutions. 

Coopetition In Action

 Mary Rhode: So quickly here before we head into our next break it has to be so rewarding, those alliances to, to...

for you or for anyone else really, to be in the room with individuals that work at companies who are used to competing with each other, and all of a sudden they're joining forces to solve that common problem. Can you just high level kind of answer what it's like to be in that room? 

Patti Habeck: Yes. It... I mean, that's, that's really the beauty of this whole thing is in the end, we come together around the things that are holding us back from being from excelling, from going forward.

And we recognize that while it might not be that I might not have the solution as one business, we recognize that when we put the power of our Northeast Wisconsin region together, we can really solve this. It is so exciting to be in that room and to listen to like you s- like you said, individuals from different companies that might be competitors communicating with each other, sharing ideas, sharing best practices with the idea that we're lifting up all boats in Northeast Wisconsin as we do this.

I kind of think of, the idea of coopetition where you are looking at what is our common challenge, and we're gonna work on that together. And then when, once we have that solved, we're gonna go back to, being in our, our spaces and trying to be the best we can as a, as a ingle- single organization.

It is a beautiful model that is exciting to see, and I, I'm super proud of the work, but both that New North does with our alliances, but also with the other alliances that exist in Northeast Wisconsin for that, for that reason. 

 Mary Rhode: I love that word, coopetition. I'm gonna- I'm gonna use- I'm gonna coin it

I'm gonna use that in a sentence. 

Patti Habeck: Yeah. I stole that from, um, I stole that from actually from the auto industry. 

 Mary Rhode: So. I love that. All right. Well, we're gonna take our next break here. You're listening to Biz Talk with SCORE on WHBY. We'll be right back after these messages. 

Terry Pinch: Okay.

Break And SCORE Learning

Terry Pinch: Welcome back to Biz Talk with SCORE. I'm one of the co-hosts this week, Terry Pinch. Joining me as co-host is Mary Rhody, and we're talking to Patty Hobick, the president and CEO of New North. Before we get back to Patty I wanted to mention something about SCORE and some of the changes we're making around education.

If you go to our website at score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin, you will find a brand new webpage, and at the top of the page there is a segment called learning. You go within that segment, and we've made a quite a few changes to what we're offering. SCORE has made a decision we have to rely less on government funding in the future, like many organizations, so we're significantly increasing our efforts to raise money, and one of those ways is through some of our education courses.

But we're also trying to make sure we can be, one, reasonable cost, and also have many programs that are free too so people don't have to spend too much. But I'll give you two examples. We have a course coming up that's free called Get Your Business Lender Ready: How to Improve Your Funding Readiness, and that's at July 28th at 12:00.

And again, it's free, but that's one of the biggest issues we, questions we get from people in SCORE is, "How do I get money? How do I get the banks to lend me money?" And this is a great opportunity to learn about that. But if you go on that website, you also ne- see a new feature, which is premium online courses, and those are series of courses that you can take in areas where you need more expertise, and they're typically presented by a national expert.

And so there's things like artificial intelligence for small business, marketing strategies, and the one I'll mention is grant writing. So for both non-profits and for-profits, grant writing is really important. So they've brought in an expert to run a self-paced program for you, so you can go through the program at your pace.

It's $99, but you can use those materials to help you learn how to write grants. So again, it's just something SCORE is doing now to raise money. Some educational programs will have fees, m- most others won't, but you'll see that as you go to the website and look at the learning site. So with that, we're gonna turn back to Patti.

Why Community Work

Terry Pinch: And Patty, as we talk about you and the organization New North, one of the things that it was pretty obvious immediately was that both of the roles, your last two roles, have focused on critical community issues. Why? Why is that so important to you to take roles that are so critical to what's happening where you live?

Patti Habeck: Thank you. I told you before we started on the show that I actually was supposed to be a dentist, so my undergrad is in biochemistry. I did not study to, really become an expert and understand how community operates and how do we create vital communities for the good of, of the region.

But I also, I am from... I was born in Wisconsin, but I chose... or I grew up on the East Coast, and I chose to return to this area. I had never been in Northeast Wisconsin. And I moved here in '97 with my family, and I fell in love with the area, and I just knew that, that community building, I wanted a great place to raise my family.

I wanted a great place to have a career. And so I, I got into the nonprofit sector early. It was kind of, accidental at first, but what I really found was that passion around the idea that you can elevate a community, and all of the community members benefit from that. You know, even prior to working at, at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, I worked at the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley region, on the philanthropy side.

And the idea really is that all of these things are showing that by engaging in our communities we create a better place for us all to live. We create businesses that thrive. So at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, really looking at a very specific niche. It was, it was food security. And so I did that.

We had a lot of really innovative, creative ways to address that at scale how to engage across the region, and I learned a lot. New North is different. New North was a switch from a very specific sector where it was very tangible. I could... I, I knew what to do related to food. This is a little bit less clear in the sense that there's a lot of different ways to impact community from an economic development perspective.

Which ways do we choose? How do we make the best choices? And keeping in mind that this is a regional approach, not a local approach, so we have to do something that's at a, at scale, and, and it's just a, a puzzle I like to work on. 

Setting Strategy Priorities

Terry Pinch: And that's actually leads very well into the next topic. It's really about how do you set the direction?

So I know there's a plan of work. How's that plan of work develop, and how do you then make sure your organization's delivering against it? 

Patti Habeck: You know, with any organization, there's a fundamental reason why it exists, and so you honor the fundamental reason why it exists. You have to also understand the history and how it got there.

It doesn't mean that, that what we've done in the past is what we're gonna do in the future necessarily, but it all connects. You can't have a disjointed organization and be a healthy organization. So really it starts with understanding why we exist, how we got here, what are the key components, what motivates the investors to invest, what challenges are we working to solve for our, our business community and the business lens that we use and approach.

But in the end it comes down to people. Economic development sounds like it should have this, this magical or this, this, this, very specific thing to it, but it... when it comes down to it, it's people. It's people in business, it's people who are living in the region, and how do you connect the people into the issues?

And so that's, that's how we look at the organization. And then from that framework, what do we choose to work on? You know, if everything could be economic development, and it somewhat is because everything somehow affects the, the economy, the lotter- larger economy, we can't do it all. Like I said to you, we have a very, very small team, so we have to make choices.

So we do that by listening to our investors, listening to our community, but also understanding how what is behind the community, what are the, who are the people? How do they connect? What are their challenges? 'Cause what the people's challenges are going to be are also the business challenges, such as workforce or childcare.

If you can't have good childcare, you don't have enough workers to go into the workforce, you know, that's a problem. So we start identifying what these all are, and then we have to prioritize and, and that's the point we're in right now as we start, hashing out our new strategic plan, which will be launched sometime this fall.

Terry Pinch: All right. 

Lead Partner Support Framework

Terry Pinch: So part of that setting a strategic plan is saying no to some really good ideas, and killing maybe some programs that have already... that have, have been underway. How do you as a leader approach making those types of decisions? 

Patti Habeck: Yeah. You know, and that's a really hard thing, because coming in new with fresh eyes, I'm bringing something new to the organization.

I'm seeing something. So as I start to ask a lot of questions to learn about the organization, to learn what the team is working on, to learn what's important to the investors, I'm also listening to where are the opportunities to consider something differently or to pull something together. So specifically I use a framework called lead partner support, in a situation like this.

So where do we need to show up to lead? Because it, it's something that covers all 18 counties, and if we didn't get involved in it, it might not exist anymore. So that, that would be in the lead. Partner is we play a critical role in it as an organization, but we're really partnering with somebody else who's, who's leading it, and we might be an important piece of it, but we don't have to lead it.

So then we have to know how to step back and really, um, partner with that other organization to make them successful at what they're doing from a partner perspective. And support is really that role where we might not have a critical piece of it, but it's just important that we're engaged in the space.

When we... so we, we actually did an exercise where we put everything on the whiteboard and said, "This is all the stuff that we do. In what areas do we need to lead, partner, or support?" That started pulling out what are our priorities. But I think the other thing is really, um, being disciplined around the fact that we are a regional organization.

So we have to be careful not to be programmatic or localized. I- we have to be able to say, you know, we're coming together and we need to l- operate at a regional perspective. It's tempting to operate on things that are fun and localized or in our backyard, but we exist to operate at the regional level.

So being disciplined is, is the next thing. But you asked if you have to say no to something. I actually turn that around in a different way. Instead of saying no to something which feels like it could, somebody who's really attached to that, it might not make them feel good, I use a different framework called how do you get to yes?

If you study how you would get to yes, if you say, "Okay, let's talk about this. Tell me all about it," and then we start talking about it as if we're moving to yes, let's do it, you start to identify where are the resource gaps, what would it take to get there? And in doing that c- that piece, you're starting to identify whether you should or shouldn't do it.

And it's probably less about saying no than it is to saying, "Let's figure out where there's a better home," or, "Let's set it aside for now because we don't need to be approaching that right now. It's not critical." And what remains are the things that we have to say yes to and the work that we have to do.

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Managing Team Change

Terry Pinch: As you manage all of these programs and look at the things that are changing for the businesses and investors that you have in this region, it also means your team has to adapt and change. How do you manage that? 

Patti Habeck: Yeah. Well, one thing is I came in here and discovered that I have an exceptionally talented team.

And they are, they are really, really good at the areas they're responsible for. So that made things a lot easier. But then bringing them in and, and making a change, I mean, they... the former CEO had been with us for seven years had a certain way of doing things, and I'm looking at it with new eyes and asking them to look at it with new eyes.

It's really about a lot of communication, a lot of have- listening, having them say, you know, what is the things that are important to them, why do they do it a certain way, what do they see as the priorities, and hearing all that before I lead in with, areas that I wanna either change or, or adjust in some way.

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Region Strengths And Resilience

Terry Pinch: So building on that whole idea of change, I just look back. I lived here in '93 and '94, and then came back at geez, would've been 2003, late 2003. Yeah. So about almost 10 years. And it was a dramatically different place. Some downtowns that were dying had started to revive. It was still a place where manufacturing and agriculture were very important, and run by people who'd started the businesses.

What we've seen in the last 20 years is some pretty dramatic changes in the way manufacturing has to work- Mm-hmm ... or agriculture has to work. How all these people need new technologies and new services, and they're now being offered. What do you see as you look from both of your roles as how this region has managed change, and what it needs to do to be even better at it in the future?

Patti Habeck: Yeah. First of all, I've lived all over the United States, and this is a unique, unique place where we are absolutely connected and collaborative with each other. Whether it is from the nonprofit sector, the funding, philanthropy sector, businesses, we're willing to engage with each other, and that doesn't exist everywhere, which means you have the start of a really strong platform.

That's something that that other areas are working to build, and here we have it. So we have a good place to start. You know, agriculture is our, it's our roots, it's our heritage, and you can see that in our manufacturing that we've built up around it. It's largely around things like food. And food and agriculture.

You can see our, you know, processing, food packaging, our logistics, our cold storage, and all of these things we do really well. And I see that continuing to grow in the future. I, I call food a primary color. It's something that It's so basic, and here we are with a heritage, a long-standing heritage, an expertise in food and agriculture.

And you know, as we look forward, that's something that I'll be building into strongly, for Northeast Wisconsin. When you look at creativity, this area is resilient. It can act boldly when we come together. Milwaukee has scale and density, and Madison has research and innovation. We are all about collaboration and partnership and, and pulling together and getting in alignment, and that's where our success really comes in.

So that's what I see changing is from the '90s until now is, is that we're just living deeper into that, and that means we are getting better at pivoting getting stronger at being resilient 

Serving 18 Counties

 Mary Rhode: Patty, you talked about some of those characteristics of our region that I think we all feel and know every single day, and we're proud that we are such a collaborative region.

But, you know, you also t- you also mentioned earlier, too, about the complexities of having such a large coverage area, right? Your organization oversees 18 counties, and ensuring that the, the offerings that you have as an organization are not so hyper-local. So how do you as a team kinda help bridge that gap between, and ensure you're covering, both the, the rural and urban parts of that 18 county region?

And certainly, feel free to mention, we already talked about some of the alliances, but, you have the New North Summit, which is just a true event destination for so many people. It's such a wonderful event every single year. But feel free to mention some of those other examples as well, but, but what does that truly look like?

Patti Habeck: Yeah. One is keeping in mind, our territories every single day. So we have maps all over the place to remind us that even though we're operating out of a business site that's located in Green Bay, I happen to live in Appleton, and you know, others live all around, that we are aware that we are an 18 county organization.

So we talk about it. We talk about the challenges. We are imperfect in making sure that, that everything we do all the time cover, touches 18 counties, but it is something that we are aware of and thinking about all the time, and getting better at. Things like making sure that there's access to the information.

When we hold meetings to convene the other economic development organizations, we make sure that we have the representation from all the counties that we serve, and that their voices are a part of the work. And that does actually inform where New North is going. I've been out visiting since I've started seven months ago.

I've been out visiting in our areas and in our farther parts of our region particularly. I did that at my former job when I worked regionally, and I do that here so that I'm actually understanding what places look like. So, it's not just saying, "Oh, we have these counties," but I can actually say what they look like.

Our board representation, we have 42 board members. That's an extraordinarily large board. But it is intentional by design so that we can represent the sectors and the geography, of who we serve, and that's intentional. And that's a big part of it, 'cause now we have voices, at our decision-making tables.

And the the activities that we do, we try to move them around. We move our board meetings around to the different parts of the region and we don't actually ever have board meetings at our office. They go all over the place. Activities that we do when we get outreach from site selectors, we make sure that we are- aware of what our whole region has to offer and that we're lifting those up if they're matching the criteria.

And then events like our summit and, some of the other work that we do. We make sure that the invites are received all around. And even though it might take longer for people to travel we do wanna make sure that we are always operating as an 18-county entity, and not taking the shortcuts of saying, you know, "We're located in the metro area, we cover the metro area."

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Seven Month Reflections

Terry Pinch: So as we wrap up this segment as you look back on your first seven months, has it been everything you expected? 

Patti Habeck: More. I knew that it would be an exciting challenge, and it certainly has been an exciting challenge. I have been reinforced. My optimism in the region has been strongly reinforced as I started moving into this new sector, and seeing things from the business lens.

I'm so much more optimistic than I was even, when I led Feeding America. So it is everything that I expected, and I'm so, so grateful to have this opportunity to lead New North particularly following very strong leader that came before me, and I'm, I wanna honor her legacy as well. 

Terry Pinch: Okay. We're at the point where we're gonna take our final break.

You're listening to Biz Talk with Score on WHBY, and we'll be right back after these messages 

Final Break Sponsors

 Mary Rhode: And welcome back to Biz Talk with SCORE. I'm here today with co-host Terry Pinch, and our guest today is Patti Habeck from The New North. And before we close out the episode here today, we always like to take just a moment to thank our generous sponsors for without them, Biz Talk with SCORE here on WHBY would not happen.

So, first off here is Haley & Associates. Haley & Associates helps small businesses and individuals not just prepare tax returns, but plan for the future. Haley & Associates, personal connection, positive results. Next is Johnson Financial Group. Wherever you are in life or the life of your business, Johnson Financial Group works to match the banking and wealth services needed to help you complete your mission.

Thank you to the Business News for promoting our program in their biweekly business newspaper serving Northeast Wisconsin with the latest business news and topics for the region. We are grateful for the support of Community First Credit Union. At its core, Community First Credit Union is a community of member owners where people work together to improve their financial wellbeing and help one another.

Thank you to The New North, the regional marketing and economic development corporation that is an active supporter of SCORE. The New North facilitates economic growth and helps people in this region live their best lives. And lastly is Baird. Since 1919, Baird has guided families through investment, trust, estate, and tax planning ser- advice.

So no matter what the future brings, you can be confident when you're ready, because your family is Baird's focus. So Patty, thank you again to The New North for being a supporter of Biz Talk with SCORE. 

How To Get Involved

 Mary Rhode: And how, if someone is interested in getting involved in some way, shape, or form with The New North, your mission, your new direction here as brand new president and and CEO of the organization, how can people find you?

Patti Habeck: Absolutely. The easiest way, the fastest way is really just finding us online under, www.thenewnorth.com, and that's usually the easiest. There's a contact us on there. My contact's on there, and I hope people do reach out because, all hands, and we can do a lot more things together, so I appreciate that.

 Mary Rhode: Wonderful. Terry, any last questions here?

Future Focus Areas

Terry Pinch: As you look at where you're going now after seven months, little early, but what do you see for the future? 

Patti Habeck: I'm really excited about the future, and it's, like I said, it's, it's about building on what we've done to this point, and then, now it's about, looking at doing a few things, a few less things but picking a few lanes and going deeper to really drive some of that impact over a longer horizon.

So what decisions we make today are gonna matter in three or five years. I am particularly interested in that workforce, challenge that we have. We're gonna go deeper into that workforce issue. I'm standing up, a, a specific cluster around food, ag, nutrition technology. I'm calling it FanTech, a play on Fintech.

FanTech is gonna be a big part knowing our history here. Entrepreneurship and innovation is extremely important. Our business, traction will still be a big deal and also technology. Technology, tech infrastructure, the things that go around technology, because that plays a big part in our, our future.

Terry Pinch: Okay. And it is really, something to see how much businesses had to change and will continue to have to change, and we are very appreciative. I am especially, but I know most people are, and they look around, see what New North is doing. We wouldn't be where we are without that decision 21 years ago to start putting this together.

It's great to see what you guys have done, and we really wanna thank you for that. 

Patti Habeck: Thank you. I appreciate you saying that, and, it's just been our pleasure, so I, I'm so glad to work in this space. 

Terry Pinch: Okay. 

Closing Thanks

Terry Pinch: And for listeners, you've been listening to Biz Talk with SCORE. We really appreciate you listening to us both on WHBY and to the podcast when you have a chance.

We have on the podcast, various podcatchers, and on our website we've got three years of shows that we keep out there so people can go back and listen. There's a lot of good ones. We have been on the air for 25 years. We are really appreciative of WHBY for putting up with us for all that time. It's, they've been really great and really supportive.

We went from being live on the air on Saturday mornings through a pandemic to now being recorded, and as an aside, being recorded is a lot easier than being live, so we do like that. But thank you to everybody for continuing to listen for 25 years. We're really appreciative, and we'll talk to you again next week.

Have a great week, everybody.