Trevor Lee has recently joined Gage Area Growth Enterprise (NGage) as its Executive Director.  As an organization, NGage seeks to improve the communities in Gage County by retaining and growing our local businesses, increasing and improving a skilled workforce, and attracting new businesses to the area. As the Executive Director...Continue Reading

It’s almost always good news when an industrial manufacturer needs to find a new plant site. It means business is growing, new markets are emerging, and financials are healthy. However, this is the point of time in the business cycle when decisions about next steps need to be made carefully...Continue Reading

The coronavirus pandemic has caused more economic disruption than the U.S. has seen since the Great Depression. No one can say for sure what the landscape will look like as the economy recovers, but it’s clear that a lot of puzzle pieces won’t snap back into the same places a...Continue Reading

COVID-19 has significantly altered the landscape for businesses globally that will reverberate well beyond and into the future. Manufacturing and supply chain decisions for corporations have had to make adaptations due to the massive disruption from this pandemic. Understanding and implementing the new norms will be quintessential to success i...Continue Reading

This annual report is usually a celebratory recognition of some of the world’s best performing economies, especially those most successful at attracting investment and creating jobs. And we’ll still do that. But it’s impossible to highlight last year’s successes as populations and economies in every corner of the world ar...Continue Reading

The turnover rate for hourly employees has always been, and continues to be, extremely high. Retail, for example, has a turnover rate of around 60 percent, and other sectors can be even higher than that. This is a real problem for businesses since replacing an employee costs on average $4,969, according to a 201...Continue Reading

At a time when more people are working from home but business deliverables and deadlines remain the same, managers are seeking tangible ways to make remote work function just as well as the usual methods for employees they support. Below are four tangible steps that managers can take to combat communicatio...Continue Reading

Organizations should recognize that if you take care of culture, then the customer experience and profits will take care of themselves. Putting your people at the center of your thinking and decision-making will never steer you in the wrong direction. Culture is experienced in every employee’s actions, 365 days of th...Continue Reading

LINCOLN – Governor Pete Ricketts announced the appointment of Dr. Theo W. Freye to lead the Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s new office in Germany. The office will be known as the Nebraska Center Germany. “With his track record of success leading CLAAS North America in Omaha, Theo Freye has invaluable experienc...Continue Reading

BEATRICE - The coronavirus may have closed off business and government buildings for a time this year, but exterior projects go on. The Gage County Courthouse is getting a touch-up …this time on the southeast corner of the historic structure built in 1891. Gage County Building and Grounds Supervisor Dave Jone...Continue Reading

With so many school districts around the country working feverishly to implement distance learning programs, there is no better time to talk about the digital divide and a student’s right to education. While the term "digital divide" can be used to describe many instances in which marginalized kids and those tha...Continue Reading

LINCOLN, Neb. — A business survey taken by over 4,500 businesses in Nebraska provided feedback regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their operations. The Nebraska Business Response Survey was taken between April 15-24. The survey showed 87 percent of respondents have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus. Read full article.Continue Reading

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the U.S. spread in March, leading to shelter-in-place orders in most states and a rapid slowdown of the national economy, businesses have started adopting Baker Tilly’s “now, next, later” framework in dealing with the pandemic challenges: “Now” is focused on the first 30 days...Continue Reading

I've been fortunate to have some great conversations with economic developers over the past few weeks, with many questions on the pandemic's impact on site location decisions for the food and beverage Industry. While nothing is certain, I've read and attached links to some important insights which I would lik...Continue Reading

Top Site Selection Concerns for Heavy Manufacturing Companies When you think of heavy manufacturing, utilities and transportation logistics infrastructure is key for those operations. So, for example, you have operations with demands in the 400 megawatt or the 200 megawatts range. Some smaller heavy-industrial operations require 10 to 20 megawatts &ndash...Continue Reading

For Magdalah R. Silva, joining Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) was a game changer right from the start. As co-founder, CEO, and president of DMS International—an information and technology services company for the Federal government and the private sector—Magdalah attended the 2019 DWEN Summit in Singapore along with other global women entrepreneurs, investors...Continue Reading

LINCOLN, Neb. (KMTV) — The University of Nebraska System announced that students from families in the low to middle income brackets will be able to attend the University of Nebraska tuition-free moving forward. Called "Nebraska Promise", the program allows any Nebraska student with an annual family income of $60K, the state'...Continue Reading

OMAHA — Business owners in Nebraska are starting to plan their comeback, now that the governor has unveiled his plan to ease coronavirus restrictions. Gov. Pete Ricketts said Friday that he will relax restrictions in 59 counties, including those in the Omaha area. The new orders, effective until May 31, allow restaurant...Continue Reading

Gage County residents! We need your help to increase our census participation numbers. In April, Nebraska was in 4th place for state-level participation with a 61.9% response rate. Gage County is still in 15th place in Nebraska with a 62.8% response rate, ahead of the state average. You can hel...Continue Reading

Over extended and overly risky supply chains are no longer tolerable. Coronavirus is providing new and forceful momentum for the reshoring of manufacturing investment back to the U.S. from China and elsewhere. Our nation’s medical devices and biopharma sector — now dangerously concentrated in China — must be the firs...Continue Reading

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the vulnerabilities of the United States’ reliance on imported medical supplies and equipment. Global manufacturers of these much-needed products have had capacities curtailed due to shutdowns, social distancing, and travel restrictions. At the same time more than 50 countries around the world have embargoe...Continue Reading

We knew sitting all day was not a healthy lifestyle choice, even before the coronavirus hit. Now, however, without commutes to get us walking, or the ability to stroll down office hallways to see a colleague or join a meeting, it’s even easier to spend all day in one chair...Continue Reading

The million-dollar question in the past two months has been: How do I stay productive during these hard times? When so much is weighing on our hearts and minds — the developing news, fear of what’s to come, and, let’s be honest, cabin fever — it can be difficult to find our groov...Continue Reading

LINCOLN – Governor Pete Ricketts announced the formation of a business task force to restore growth to Nebraska’s economy. Nebraska Department of Economic Development Director Tony Goins will chair the task force. He joined the Governor at a press briefing to talk about the mission of the task force. Additionally, Gov. Ricketts gav...Continue Reading