SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV), plans this spring to move its local office to a new, smaller facility in the Salina Meadows office park in Salina from its current home in the Galleries of Syracuse, a Travelers spokesman confirms. 

The employees will move to the new facility, located at 301 Plainfield Road in the office park, in May, says Matt Bordonaro, Travelers’ head of media relations, based in Hartford, Connecticut.

 “We are relocating to a nearby office building that better suits the employees,” he says. “We continue to be committed to the community there.”

The new office, which will have nearly 70 employees, will focus mainly on business insurance, Bordonaro says.

The move comes after Travelers reduced its Syracuse workforce — at the Galleries of Syracuse at 440 S. Warren St. — by about 70 percent in the last two years, eliminating about 160 local positions in its personal-insurance line of business, which includes auto coverage. The move, which was first announced in July 2013, was part of a broader effort to cut nearly 450 positions nationwide in personal insurance.

The company completed the last major portion of the Syracuse job reductions by September 2014, according to formal notices filed with the New York State Department of Labor.

“We made a decision to reduce expenses for personal insurance, including staffing at the location,” Bordonaro says,  “… [to] “improve our competitive position and pricing.”

He declines to provide square footage for the firm’s current and future offices.

The Travelers Companies on Jan. 22 reported total revenue of nearly $27.2 billion in 2014, up 4 percent from 2013. The insurer generated net income of nearly $3.7 billion last year, up 1 percent from 2013.        

SYRACUSE — The Central New York Sales & Marketing Executives (CNYSME) has chosen Robert Daino, president and CEO of WCNY, the area’s public broadcaster, as the 2015 recipient of the Crystal Ball Award. 

The organization annually bestows the award to a local businessperson who has contributed to the sales and marketing profession and has worked in community development and support.

CNYSME will present Daino with the Crystal Ball Award on April 16 at the 39th annual Crystal Ball and Sales & Marketing Excellence Awards (SMEA) ceremony at the Holiday Inn Syracuse-Liverpool on Electronics Parkway in Salina.

Michelle Fontaine, who serves as the co-chair of the Crystal Ball and SMEA ceremony, says CNYSME liked Daino’s investment in the Central New York community.

“He’s very engaged with the community,” she says.

Fontaine also cites WCNY’s education center, which includes Enterprise America, a “hands-on co-curricular program for middle-school students” in which they learn how to operate a city and its businesses.

Fontaine calls the student program “huge [from] a sales and marketing perspective.” 

Besides her role with CNYSME, Fontaine is also a sales coordinator for Visual Technologies at 1620 Burnett Ave. in Syracuse.

In an email message to CNYBJ, Daino said he is “personally humbled” that CNYSME selected him as the 2015 recipient of the Crystal Ball Award.

“But I am also proud to share this honor with past and future recipients, to be one of many who strive to make Central New York an outstanding community,” said Daino.

Daino has served as the top official at WCNY-TV/FM since June 1, 2005.

“It’s been energizing to be part of a community of people who consistently come together with commitment and passion, working together to create, revitalize, and reinvent the place we call home,” he added.

Daino will join a list of past Crystal Ball winners that includes the 2014 recipient, Howard Dolgon, owner, president, CEO, and team governor of the Syracuse Crunch minor league hockey team; and the 2013 winner, Peter Belyea, president of CXtec and TERACAI. 

Other past winners include Debbie Sydow, former president of Onondaga Community College in 2012; John Stage, founder and CEO of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in 2011; Peter Coleman, the publican of Coleman’s Authentic Irish Pub in 2010; and Edward (Ed) Levine, president and CEO of Galaxy Communications, LLC in Syracuse in 2009, according to the CNYSME website.

Accomplishments

Among his accomplishments, Daino helped lead the organization in its recent move to a new location on Syracuse’s Near Westside.

WCNY, Central New York’s public-broadcasting company, on Oct. 30, 2013 formally opened its new, 56,000-square-foot broadcast and education center at 415 W. Fayette St. in Syracuse.

WCNY moved into the new facility earlier that year, after having previously operated at 506 Old Liverpool Road in Salina.

The project’s construction and capital costs totaled about $20 million, according to a WCNY fact sheet on the project. The organization used both private and public funding to finance the project.

Two buildings make up the campus, including the refurbished 30,000-square-foot former Case Supply building, and the new 26,000-square-foot technology building that includes studios and the space leased to Centralcast, LLC that provides television-content delivery services for all stations in New York and New Jersey, WHYY in Philadelphia, WTVI in Charlotte, and several other stations.

The facility also includes WCNY’s 10,000-square-foot education center, which occupies the third floor. The center features education programs including Enterprise America, described as a hands-on learning program for high-school students to learn about entrepreneurship in a “simulated city,” the organization said. 

About WCNY

WCNY is a private, nonprofit organization and member-supported PBS affiliate that employs close to 70 people, according to the organization.

Its broadcast area encompasses about one-third of upstate New York and reaches more than 1.8 million people in 19 counties, the organization said.

WCNY broadcasts five digital television channels, including WCNY, Create, World, Plus, and HowTo. 

It also broadcasts three primary radio channels, including Classic FM (91.3 in Syracuse, 89.5 in the Utica–Rome area, and 90.9 in Watertown and the North Country) and its ReadOut channel, which delivers content for the visually impaired. 

Its Classical, Jazz, and Oldies formats are available in high-definition (HD) via online streaming, according to WCNY.               

Manufacturing activity in New York posted a big rebound in January after plunging the month before.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Jan. 15 that its Empire State Manufacturing Survey general business-conditions index climbed 11 points to 10. 

That’s a big bounce back from December when the index had tumbled 14 points to its first negative reading in nearly two years.

The January report found 33 percent of New York manufacturing respondents felt that conditions had improved, while 23 percent reported that conditions had worsened. The survey also showed “modest” growth in new orders and shipments, according to the New York Fed.

The new-orders index rose six points to 6.1, and the shipments index rose seven points to 9.6.

The unfilled-orders index moved up after a sharp decline in December, but remained negative at -8.4. 

The delivery-time index was -5.3, pointing to shorter delivery times, and the inventories index was -7.4, suggesting a decline in inventory levels.

Labor-market indicators were mixed. 

The index for number of employees climbed five points to 13.7 in January, suggesting that employment levels “continued to increase.” 

The average-workweek index, however, remained below zero and, at -8.4, pointed to a decline in hours worked for a fourth consecutive month.

The prices-paid index was little changed at 12.6; for a fourth straight month, it showed a modest increase in input prices. 

The prices-received index rose for a second month, a sign that selling prices were “increasing at a faster pace.” 

Indexes assessing the six-month outlook conveyed “considerable optimism” about future business activity. 

The index for future general-business conditions rose nine points to 48.4, with nearly 60 percent of respondents expecting conditions to improve. 

The future new orders and shipments indexes both advanced to levels just above 40.

The index for expected number of employees rose 11 points to 31.6, “its highest level in nearly three years,” indicating that respondents anticipate a “significant” expansion in employment in the months ahead.

The capital-expenditures index was “little changed” at 14.7, while the technology-spending index fell five points to 12.6.

The New York Fed distributes the Empire State Manufacturing Survey on the first day of each month to the same pool of about 200 manufacturing executives in New York. On average, about 100 executives return responses.        

Planning is a challenge. More than once, clients have told me that the last time they asked their managers to update the strategic plan, the response sounded something like “… So by the time we finish the plan we will have already implemented all of its strategies,” or, “We did a plan a few years ago but haven’t really done anything with it.”

In fairness, developing a true strategic plan is no simple task. Too often, the strategic plan gets derailed because it evolves into a wish list or a retrospective evaluation. While there will certainly be consideration of both during the development stages, the strategic plan should ultimately identify (unique) strengths and (relevant) weaknesses that can provide insight about new opportunities or identify the causes of current problems.

Sounds fairly straightforward, and in a way it is. The tricky part is understanding that a plan takes time and focused energy to develop. And, a successful plan requires a commitment to implementation.

Perhaps the most important consideration is communication. Without effective and candid communication, it’s difficult to understand not only where you are, but also how to set clear and realistic goals to get you to your objective. Communication does not ensure success, but lack of effective communication almost guarantees failure.

Is strategic planning worthwhile? Most successful business leaders and organizations would respond with a resounding, “Yes!”

A typical source of confusion about strategic planning comes from lack of understanding. For a bit of a primer, consider the following:

– A business plan focuses on actions necessary to generate revenue and includes information about products, services, and the competitive environment.

– An operating plan is a directive that includes tasks and action steps to accomplish the goals of the strategic plan, generally identifying specific roles and timelines.

– The strategic plan is the tool that offers guidance in fulfilling the mission, which likely is profitably providing goods or services with which you are knowledgeable. (It’s OK to not be all things to all people.) Clearly articulated goals and action steps are important aspects.

– An implementation plan is akin to a user’s guide for the strategic plan.

The first step in developing a strategic plan is to have a clear view of external challenges and opportunities. Sometimes, as can be easily seen with technology, for example, one specific reality can provide both opportunity and challenge. As important as the external understanding is the internal insight. What are your limitations? Your strengths? Are you able to be objective and do some soul searching? A clear assessment provides the stepping-off point for determining the actual plan.

Again, communication is critical for gathering input from all stakeholder groups. Multiple owners, employees, service providers, and customers provide valuable insight. You need to hear from all groups that will be part of the plan’s implementation or subject to its effects. Another delicate point of navigation is that keeping the workgroup from becoming too large and bogged down, yet ensuring input from, and communication with, stakeholders. To accomplish this, it’s important to have a strong planning committee.

The planning group should include owners and senior company leaders, but beware. It is not healthy for these individuals to micromanage or become heavy-handed. Sharing responsibility is not only reasonable and more likely to engage others, but it also helps keep the project from getting bogged down. With so many aspects to consider, a team approach makes perfect sense, and we all know that good teams have leaders, not dictators.

Many times, a consultant is engaged not to delegate the project, but to provide experienced insight, help keep things on course, and maintain momentum. While outside assistance can be invaluable, it is up to the organization’s leadership to identify mission, vision, and values statements. Who else but leadership can 

answer the fundamental questions, “What do we do?” “Where do we want to be?” and “What do we believe in?”

A plan on the closet shelf is not effective, so take some time to consider these questions and whether you are ready to get serious about strategy.        

Gail Kinsella is a partner in the Syracuse office of The Bonadio Group accounting firm. Contact Kinsella at gkinsella@bonadio.com

If you seem to be spending too much time lately wondering where your regular customers are, try turning the tables. Don’t wait for them to come to you; reach out to them — inquire about their situations and what you may be able to do to help. This is a great opportunity to practice the “one hand washes the other” adage.

I received a call recently from a relatively new small-business owner saying she thought all of her customers had gone elsewhere. Her business was slowing down, even though she knew her services were still in demand. I encouraged her to step into the proverbial shoes of her customers.

Loyal customers don’t want to let you down, either. They may be staying away because they are embarrassed to let you know just how much they are feeling the crunch, too. Avoidance may offer the safest solution for now. You should take the initiative and visit them.

Let your customers (and potential customers) know you understand their position only too well. Invite them to come to discuss what you might be able to do together to strengthen each other’s position for the short term You may find there are many small businesses feeling isolated because they are in uncertain and downright “scary” times. Pulling together tends to bring out the best in all of us. Elicit, build on, and support the suggestions each of you brings to the table. Just imagine the benefits to be reaped when the slump is over.

Each of you knows your external customer chain: those people on whom you rely for your materials or supplies, and those who rely on you directly for your products or services. If you’re hurting, they’re hurting. Get them involved in the process of staying the course. Share the big picture and determine where each entity can contribute, as well as what they can contribute. Establish a time line and map out the problems you have identified and start talking about solutions. Assign tasks according to everyone’s strengths or primary area of interest. If you are all focused on the win-win for the greater good, who knows, you might even enjoy it. The ultimate rewards will be reaped in the form of businesses saved and relationships strengthened.         

Nancy Ansteth is a New York state-certified business advisor with the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College. Contact her at anstethn@sunyocc.edu or (315) 498-6072.