SavvySTRATEGIST

or all of the issues a manufacturer faces, Mary Connor has the experience to help. Time spent working on the floor of a major

computer manufacturer, rising from expediter to proposal manager? Check. Time spent managing the finances of a family-owned business? Check. Time spent as controller of a nonprofit institution? And time spent advising diverse companies on quality improvement, strategy, and leadership? Check, check, and check.

With this diverse range of experience, Connor views her role as an Enterprise Minnesota business growth consultant as a capstone to her rich, vibrant career. This experience also provides fodder for her consulting at the many businesses that have prospered thanks to her wise guidance.

Connor’s experience gives her the chops—and the conviction—to give unfettered advice to the C-suite and the ability to step in the middle of sometimes sticky dynamics at family-owned companies. It’s also why manufacturers across Minnesota request her assistance with their problem-solving and long-range planning.

Over the years Connor has become

well known to executives as a facilitator of Enterprise Minnesota’s CEO Peer Councils, making her a reliable, trusted resource for hashing out a multitude of issues. And when manufacturers want to examine the big picture and consider major shifts in strategy, Connor brings her time-tested proficiency and arsenal of skills to the table.

Connor is devoted to her work, loves what she does, and thrives on helping manufacturers change and grow. She knows she will complete her career in this role at Enterprise Minnesota. That understanding gives her the freedom to be candid with executives—who often aren’t used to being told the stark truth—and the commitment to continuing operating at a high level.

“This is my last gig. This is it,” says Connor. “This is my capstone work, and I treat it as such, and with respect. I want to go out with a lot of integrity.”

Even with 15 years under her belt at Enterprise Minnesota, Connor still is infectiously enthusiastic about her work and always is eager to dive into projects. “I just get excited when someone says, ‘I’ve got these issues. Can you help me

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FBusiness growth consultant Mary Connor sets her

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Connor views her role as an Enterprise Minnesota business growth consultant as a capstone to her rich, vibrant career.

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with them?’” she notes. “I’ll be honest, it’s always on my mind. I’m constantly thinking about these companies. I want to do the best for them, and I really care.”

That caring is apparent to Connor’s co-workers, clients, and the CEOs who belong to the peer councils she facilitates. John Connelly, director of consulting at Enterprise Minnesota, has worked with Connor since she came on board as a business specialist in 2000. He is continually taken with her ability to bring clarity to complicated problems and communicate effectively with clients.

Connor especially shines when working with manufacturers on strategy and their financial health. “Most companies know they should have a long-term view and organized set of thoughts, but they wrestle with how to pull it all together,” Connelly says. “Mary has been able to do that with smaller companies that might have shied away from having an organized effort.”

Around Enterprise Minnesota and with her clients, Connor is known for her ability to have frank but respectful conversations with key leaders, Connelly adds. Plus, “she’s energetic and she works hard at these things. She’s passionate about people’s businesses and their successes, and she’s engaging. Mary is good at asking hard questions and doing discovery. She’s good at digging into the complexities of these things and how people interact in them.”

BUILDING EXPERIENCE Connor has been observing and asking hard questions since her first day on the job at Univac, creator of some of the country’s first stored-program computers. After high school in Rush City, Minnesota, where she grew up on the family farm, Connor made her way to the big city for work. Her first position was on the factory floor, and her bosses quickly noticed that she was a high-potential employee. They kept giving her more and more opportunities to shine.

Connor took full advantage of Univac’s tuition reimbursement program, attending night school at the University of Minnesota while working full-time. With perseverance, Connor earned degrees in business administration and business education, while working her way up from expediter to cost accountant then proposal manager. “They wanted to see if I would float or sink, and I kept floating,” Connor says. “I learned a lot working at a large company and about manufacturing.

Ultimately I figured out that it was what I loved, and I wanted to get back into it.”

That took some time and other job experiences, though. When Connor and her husband had their son, she took maternity leave, and then took the opportunity to pursue an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the U. If that wasn’t enough to juggle, the couple had bought her childhood home and moved back to Rush City. So she was helping raise cattle on the farm and commuting to the Twin Cities on weekends for graduate school.

After finishing her MBA, Connor spent five years as controller of St. Catherine

University in St. Paul. The small, women’s college was a sharp contrast to the 10,000-employee Univac, but Connor found the mostly female atmosphere refreshing. Plus, she got to live vicariously through students’ more traditional college experience, and she enjoyed running the financial side of the institution.

Connor’s early years working on the shop floor—where she was one of few women—provided excellent training for her time working at another mostly male company. She oversaw the finances and pitched in where needed at the family-owned mechanical contracting business her husband started with a partner. At Midwest Fire Protection, Connor gained worlds of insight into the challenges and benefits of working at family-owned businesses. “There is a privilege that comes with owning

a company, and there is a huge sacrifice as well,” she notes. “There’s always a dichotomy between those two issues.”

The couple had planned to work for a few more years, then retire to northern Minnesota. But life had other plans. Her husband grew ill and died; Connor sold her share of the business to his partner. She then found an excellent match for her skills at Enterprise Minnesota in 2000. Connor started as a business specialist, gaining the opportunity to synthesize and share all of the knowledge and experience she gained throughout her career.

“I had worked in large manufacturing,

in a family-owned business, and at a not-for-profit, and I said to myself, ‘I have all that experience, so I can do it.’ You never know what your past prepares you for until you get there,” Connor says. “This job really uses my skills. I was able to bring my business acumen and a care for and understanding of family-owned businesses and manufacturing companies.”

SHARING EXPERIENCE When Connor isn’t consulting with companies on their strategic planning, she leads four CEO Peer Councils for Enterprise Minnesota. These groups meet monthly over the course of many years, providing executives with an opportunity to bond, build trust, and discuss problems affecting their companies. Connor also arranges speakers and broaches timely

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Connor is successful in engaging everyone from the C-suite to middle management and team members working on the shop floor.

topics that allow participants to learn from each other and tackle common challenges. The councils might address such issues as conflict with a sibling co-owner, health insurance, or pursuing a new sales channel.

Floe International President Don VanderMey met Connor when she led his peer council and was immediately impressed. “Even though she talked maybe 10 percent of the time, everything she said had a lot of merit and was important. Everyone had a lot of respect for her input and opinion,” he adds. “Mary has a pretty wide array of experience, especially in the financial area of business, so she’s got a good combination of understanding the numbers as well as the operations and the keys to leadership.”

VanderMey has seen Connor excel in other settings, including when Floe was implementing lean enterprise improvements. The McGregor, Minnesota–based company, with manufacturing in Hoyt Lakes, makes extruded aluminum products used primarily in the boating and recreation industries.

As VanderMey moved up from a sales and marketing role to president in 2006, Connor

led Floe through business review planning that helped him gain a big-picture view of the company. Two years later, Connor engaged Floe in lean enterprise programs that improved work processes, eliminated waste, and broke down silos between departments. Overall, the undertaking prepared the company to weather the recession while making huge improvements in its mediocre company culture.

Connor was successful in engaging everyone from the C-suite to middle management and team members working on the shop floor. “Everything we started to implement with lean led to a major culture shift that led to people liking their jobs more with very little turnover. We went from a place where people had to work to a place where people wanted to work. It really turned the culture around,” says VanderMey.

There are other perks to partnering with Connor. “When you’re working with Mary, you don’t feel like you’re in a grind. You’re having fun, exploring how to get to the future successful state,” he adds. “It’s low tension, she’s easy to work with, and she’s very witty. She’s always smiling, but nothing gets past her.”

Sarah Richards, president and CEO of family-owned Jones Metal in Mankato, also has benefitted greatly from working with Connor, turning to her several times for strategic planning guidance. When Richards and her two siblings bought the company from their mother, they retained Enterprise Minnesota and Connor to take a hard look at the future of Jones. Together, they dove deeply into the financial health, strengths, and weaknesses of the company, then devised a plan to help Jones soar into a pattern of growth.

“Mary gave us a lot of good advice, some of it not so easy to hear. That was the first time I realized Mary specifically speaks to the people running the company, and she has a way of connecting to leadership,” says Richards. “She has a very frank, honest, open style. Sometimes it’s sort of a punch, but most often it’s the punch or nudge you really need to be realistic about your company and where you are and where you’re going.”

The family also is majority owner of Advanced Coil Technology in Owatonna, which Jones supplies with its fabricated metal products. Another ownership group has a stake in the business, too. Connor recently led both groups through a planning process in which she interviewed key players from all corners and developed a strategic plan that everyone could support.

Based on these experiences, Richards doesn’t hesitate to turn to Connor for her knowledge, analytical abilities, and skill at developing successful strategies. Plus, her diverse experience in manufacturing, private business, and as a consultant shines through whenever Richards works with her, and she appreciates Connor’s honesty when analyzing the company’s financials and data.

“It’s very clear when you’re working with Mary that she is very credible. She really tells you what she sees and she’s asks a lot of questions. She digs deep, and then she’s going to advise you,” Richards says. “She has a no-back-down attitude, and if you say, ‘This is where I want to go,’ she’s going to help you accomplish your goals. She will deliver the tough messages you need to hear to stay on task.”

There are scores of companies and leaders of manufacturing business across the state who have benefitted from Connor’s experience and wise counsel. She might view her work as the capstone of her career, but she still has plenty more to offer.

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MARY CONNOR: A FULL CAREER• Fresh out of high school in Rush City, Minnesota,

Connor starts work at Univac in St. Paul, one arm of the computer giant

• Earns bachelor’s degrees in business administration and business education from the University of Minnesota, while working full time at Univac

• Rises from working on the manufacturing floor to proposal manager at Unisys

• Completes MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management while on maternity leave; commutes from northern Minnesota, where she and her husband raised cattle

• Becomes controller of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, where she works for five years

• Joins husband at Midwest Fire Protection, a family-owned business, overseeing its financial health; sells their share of the company when he dies

• Becomes a business specialist at Enterprise Minnesota in 2000, where she provides lean and leadership training

• Shifts gears to become a business growth consultant, a position she still holds today, working with manufacturers on strategy and advising executives on CEO Peer Councils

• Earns national honors as 2012 Practitioner of the Year from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership for her CEO Peer Council leadership