Ephesus unveils new LED chip

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SYRACUSE — Ephesus Technologies, LLC is rolling out its own, proprietary LED chip, which it says could help the firm create more than 1,000 jobs in the next 10 years. Ephesus developed the chip in partnership with Group4 Labs of Fremont, Calif. Group4 works in New York from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering […]

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SYRACUSE — Ephesus Technologies, LLC is rolling out its own, proprietary LED chip, which it says could help the firm create more than 1,000 jobs in the next 10 years.

Ephesus developed the chip in partnership with Group4 Labs of Fremont, Calif. Group4 works in New York from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center of Excellence in Canandaigua.

The chip will rival the best and most efficient LEDs on the market today, according to Ephesus. The company plans to establish a production facility in Central New York for the chips and is looking at a number of sites now, Ephesus President Joe Casper says.

LED chips power LED lighting fixtures, which Ephesus also produces. The company’s fixtures are used in applications including warehouses, manufacturing facilities, parking lots and garages, roadways, stadiums, tunnels, and bridges.

Ephesus expects to use the new chips in its own lighting fixtures, also produced in upstate New York, Casper says. The move will give the company control of its own supply chain.

It currently uses third-party chips for its lights, Casper says. Using its own chips will allow Ephesus to control costs, design new fixtures quickly, and remain flexible.

In the long run, the company is aiming to be supplier to other companies producing LED lights, including industry giants like GE and Sylvania, Casper says.

The Ephesus chip incorporates a diamond-based material that is Group4’s specialty. In any LED light, a primary aim is to keep the chip as cool as possible, explains Joseph Smart, vice president and general manager for Group4 in New York.

Cooler chips mean better efficiency and a longer lifespan, he says. Diamond, Smart says, has incredible heat-diffusing properties so incorporating the material into the chip yields impressive results.

The Ephesus chip also allows for more brightness, according to the company.

Casper says Ephesus can produce prototype volumes of its chip at the Center of Excellence in Canandaigua and with university partners. Establishing a full-scale production facility will require about $5 million, which the company hopes to raise from the state and private investors.

Ephesus received a $50,000 grant earlier this year from the Syracuse Center of Excellence Commercialization Assistance Program and also has secured $1 million in tax incentives through Empire State Development.

Ephesus currently employs 16 people at the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse. The firm plans to relocate its headquarters, engineering staff, and fixture production later this year to a 10,000-square-foot space in the Radisson section of the town of Lysander.

Ephesus’ expansion efforts were among the projects submitted to the state as part of Central New York’s regional economic- development plan in 2011. But the company was not among those chosen for funding as part of the process, which involved a competition among 10 regions around the state for a limited pool of aid.

Ephesus Technologies launched in 2009 in Syracuse University’s CASE Center with two employees. Casper and his wife, Amy Casper, who is CEO and chairwoman, co-own the company.

The overall market for LED chips potentially totals in the billions of dollars, according to Ephesus. The company says its chip is expected to lower the cost of its own fixtures by 30 percent.

Giarrosso Sheetmetal hopes tin man will help business grow

Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — One man working for Giarrosso Sheetmetal, Inc. spends all day in one spot. Yet the company hopes it can follow him down a road of expansion. The man isn’t a traditional employee. In fact, he’s made out of metal — he’s a tin man standing in front of Giarrosso Sheetmetal’s home at 120

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SYRACUSE — One man working for Giarrosso Sheetmetal, Inc. spends all day in one spot. Yet the company hopes it can follow him down a road of expansion.

The man isn’t a traditional employee. In fact, he’s made out of metal — he’s a tin man standing in front of Giarrosso Sheetmetal’s home at 120 Ball Circle in Syracuse.

Giarrosso Sheetmetal built the tin man over the winter and placed him in front of its headquarters at the end of February. His construction was part of an effort to make the business more visible, according to its co-owner, Andrew Shaffer.

“We’re set back from the road,” Shaffer says. “We needed something more to stand out — a landmark. And it’s fun.”

The tin man’s assembly coincides with a push to expand the sheet-metal fabrication company’s sales. Shaffer wants to market the company’s services to contractors in the Syracuse area.

Giarrosso, founded in 1888, specializes in fabricating ductwork for heating and air-conditioning systems. It can also create a variety of metal products, from copper sinks to metal roofing.

“More established, older businesses are familiar with the name Giarrosso,” Shaffer says. “We are now trying to reenergize that business.”

Giarrosso’s business had slowed before Andrew Shaffer and his brother, Patrick Shaffer, purchased the company in 2006, Andrew Shaffer says. Giarrosso’s owner and sole employee at the time, Joseph Spano, was preparing to retire, he adds.

Andrew Shaffer and Patrick Shaffer own another company, Shaffer Building Services, Inc., which is an industrial-contracting firm. Shaffer Building Services was Giarrosso’s primary client when the brothers purchased the sheet-metal fabrication company, according to Andrew Shaffer. He declined to discuss the terms of the purchase or disclose Giarrosso’s revenue totals.

However, Andrew Shaffer has set a goal of growing Giarrosso’s revenue by 20 percent to 30 percent in 2012. He declined to share the company’s revenue growth from previous years.

That growth could spark hiring, he says. Not counting its tin man, the sheet-metal fabricator currently has two full-time employees and a part-time worker, as well as a front-office staff member it shares with Shaffer Building Services.

The exact timeline for hiring workers and the number of employees to be added will be determined by the rate of Giarrosso’s growth, Andrew Shaffer says. The company will be willing to bring on experienced employees as well as workers who need training, he says.

Andrew Shaffer’s strategy for growing the sheet-metal business goes beyond reaching out to contractors that may already be familiar with Giarrosso. He also plans to cold-call new contractors who may not have worked with the company before, he says.

“We have a large variety of people that come in here, because we make specialty things,” he says. “If you need it today, we can pretty much get it for you today. If not, we can get it for you first thing tomorrow.”

Andrew Shaffer plans to focus on the Central New York market. He has no intention of expanding to other regions of the state.

Giarrosso takes up 2,200 square feet of a 10,000-square-foot building at 120 Ball Circle. Shaffer Building Services is headquartered in the remainder of the building, which Andrew Shaffer and Patrick Shaffer own.

Building company

Shaffer Building Services specializes in commercial roofing work, Andrew Shaffer says. The company generated $3 million in revenue in 2011, and Andrew Shaffer projects revenue to increase by 10 percent in 2012. The firm is experiencing strong growth at the moment and may even hit 20-percent growth this year, he says.

The building company employs 20 people full time and is currently in the process of hiring an estimator, Andrew Shaffer says. It may hire an additional estimator as well, he adds.

Neither Shaffer Building Services nor Giarrosso Sheetmetal is likely to be adding any more tin men in the future. Andrew Shaffer thinks that the one Giarrosso has showcases the firm’s abilities. Its parts demonstrate the company’s craftsmanship, he says.

“None of the pieces are off the shelf,” he says. “They’re all custom-made. Special bends, tapers, special seaming.”

Improve Income and Lower Benefits Cost with Good Communication

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

In my book, “Employees, Kids & Pets,” I talk about how the lack of proper and disciplined communication can lead to unhappy employees and business owners. What I don’t talk about is how profoundly that unhappiness can affect your bottom line. When I say, “communicate with employees,” I don’t mean day-to-day stuff or even formal “task”

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When I say, “communicate with employees,” I don’t mean day-to-day stuff or even formal “task” training. What I mean is properly communicating your organizational needs and wishes.

For instance, how many of your employees know what your mission or vision statement is? Have you ever specifically stated it to them, or do you just assume they know? Here is a good test: pick a handful of lower-level employees and ask them to explain, in their own words, what the company actually does. Then ask them who your target customer is? Finally, ask them what is most important to upper management/the owners? If they cannot answer these questions suitably, then there is an opportunity for improvement.

Teach a man to fish

If you explain your expectations, then there are a million other little things employees can figure out for themselves because they know the general direction. For tasks, you can say, “This is the order in which to assemble this car.” But with mission and vision you can say, “We do everything here perfectly and we absolutely want to treat our customers better than anyone else. So, when you are building this car, we want to make sure that no customer ever has a problem and it never has a defect. When you’re building it, know that our mission is for it to be perfect, no matter what.”

Armed with that communication, those employees are now empowered to deal with all kinds of issues that you could never begin to foresee.

For instance, say a car comes down the assembly line in an auto manufacturing plant and the employee notices a mistake done by the person before her on the line. Now, let’s assume these employees are best friends and the one who discovered the mistake knows the other employee’s husband lost his job. Assume they were trained on “how to handle a mistake” but were never given any moral direction on “how to handle a mistake made by your best friend when her husband just lost his job.” What is the line for our torn employee? Maybe she would call attention to the mistake as she is supposed to if her friend’s husband still had a job, but that one little detail might make all the moral difference in the world to her.

If the employees were never told how important perfection is to the company and only told what to do for a mistake, then they can justify a deviation. However, go back up, read the company expectations, and tell me you do not clearly know what it wants and where it stands on this matter or any other number of odd situations surrounding a mistake. Employees of that auto manufacturer know, “This car is going to go down the line with a defect and that’s not good. I need to do something about this or it will be my butt.”

The same thing can happen to a white-collar service business as well, although it tends to be a little more subtle. For instance, I have seen employees block sales because they don’t like a salesperson in a company that relies on sales to stay in business. I have also seen the employees who purposely treated customers poorly because they didn’t like them. The main reason they do this is because no one ever told them that every single sale and customer is important.

How does it affect the bottom line?

The potential fallout from the assembly-line employee making the wrong choice is infinite. The defect could harm another employee down the line and send him out on workers’ compensation or disability. If terminated, the employee might get unemployment depending on the circumstances. The defect could end up on the road and cause an injury lawsuit against the company that could result in all your insurance going up or worse.

The white-collar scenarios can be even worse. Business can be lost, but poor morale due to factions in a company can severely lower productivity and result in workplace violence, harassment lawsuits, and stress-related medical issues.

Why is it so hard?

Communicating in a clear, sensible, and consistent manner is not difficult in theory, but two things tend to get in the way.

The first is the assumption that everyone already knows. “Common sense” is over-estimated. For instance, a scientist might think it is common sense not to mix potassium chlorate and sulfur. A contractor might believe it is common sense not to walk a job site with sneakers. A mechanic may think it is common sense not to touch a spark-plug wire. However, a “common” person would need to experience or be told that potassium chlorate and sulfur explode, nails go through sneakers, and sparkplug wires shock. If you want them to know, you must tell them in a clear, sensible, and consistent manner.

The second is conflict avoidance. Most people avoid conflict. When employees who may already have an edge about them do something wrong, the manager or boss might have a tendency to let it slide or “wait to see if they do it again.” The next time they do it, you are distracted or sick and think, “I’ll say something the third time.”

Issue with lack of consistency

The problem with the above scenario of ignoring bad behavior multiple times is something I call, “Now you’re the bad guy.” When employees do something (whether they know it is wrong or not) and get away with it multiple times, it becomes OK or standard. So, when you finally work up the courage to confront them on the fourth time, they look at you like you’re crazy. They think, “Why are you being such a jerk? This is allowed, this is the way we always do it.”

Don’t be the bad guy and don’t assume your employees know any more than you tell them. It’s not fair to them, your company, or your bottom line.

Eric Egeland is president of Capacity Consulting Inc., based in Rock Hill (Sullivan County), which provides management and business consulting services. Contact him at ericegeland@capacityconsultinginc.com

Legislation expands foreign trade zone to create jobs, investment in CNY

Opinion, Subscriber Only

I was pleased to co-sponsor legislation that aims to draw more businesses to Central New York. In March, the New York Assembly unanimously passed legislation that will expand the foreign trade zone. The Senate also passed this bill and it awaits Governor Cuomo’s review. The legislation would expand the foreign trade zone, established at Syracuse

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What happened to our vibrant, regional economy?

Opinion, Subscriber Only

I hear it all the time. Our region was once the manufacturing hub of America, which created wealth and employment. Our children remained in the area because of the abundant opportunities and family ties. No more. Today we have lost our industrial base and replaced it with institutions of higher education and health-care facilities. A

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No more. Today we have lost our industrial base and replaced it with institutions of higher education and health-care facilities.

A glance at The Business Journal’s Book of Lists from 1993 confirms the rapid transformation. Two decades ago, manufacturing powerhouses like Carrier; Oneida, Ltd.; New Venture Gear; Syracuse China; J.J. Pietrafesa; and Syroco filled the pages of the area’s largest companies. A review of the 2012 Book of Lists “largest companies” is headed by Upstate Medical University, Cornell University, United Health Systems, Faxton St. Luke’s, Syracuse University, and Binghamton University. Of the first 25 on the current list, only four companies are manufacturers.

The despondency over the loss of our local economy reminds me of how America must have bemoaned the loss of our rural way of life. In 1900, half of all our citizens still lived on farms in order to feed the other half. Today, the ranks of our farmers represent less than 2 percent of the population, but the agricultural community not only feeds all of America but also the rest of the world. I’m not aware that anybody still lies awake at night bemoaning the transformation.

While large institutions of education and health care, better known as “eds and meds,” occupy the ranks of the area’s largest employers, our region today also supports a beehive of activity of companies which drive the new economy. Central New York, the Mohawk Valley, Greater Binghamton, the Finger Lakes, and the North Country encompass hundreds of mid-size companies, which are growing rapidly both in revenue and in employment. Names like Bankers Healthcare Group, BlueRock Energy, Byrne Dairy, Agro-Farma, Upstate Shredding, Polaris, PPC, and Usherwood are examples of dynamic companies that are driving the growth.

Because most of these new companies are privately held, they often operate under the radar, unknown not just to the local citizenry but also to the business community. No longer — it’s time to shine a spotlight on the new economy. On July 20, The Business Journal will release the first, comprehensive listing of the largest 500 companies in a 16-county region surrounding Syracuse. The publication is designed to highlight those firms that represent half of the area’s GDP and half of its employment.

Taking a page from the annual Fortune 500, we have dubbed the new publication the Business Journal 500. The Business Journal 500 will contain an alphabetical listing of the companies with valuable information about each company’s size and its key management team. The publication will also contain cross-reference lists of the companies in descending order by annual revenue and by number of employees.

The information contained in the Business Journal 500 is compiled by our staff of researchers, reporters, and editors, who update the information continually. The publication includes all corporations, both for-profit and nonprofit, which are headquartered in the area or which have a substantial presence.

The Business Journal 500 tells an important part of the story of what happened to our regional economy. We are convinced that the community will find it a valuable resource of companies which range in size from multi-billion dollar entities to those generating less than $20 million.

It’s not often that we toot our own horn at The Business Journal, but the Business Journal 500 heralds a new direction in our continuing commitment to gather and disseminate valuable news and information about the business community. July 20 is the start of a new annual publication. We trust you will find it valuable as a resource in explaining our vibrant, regional economy.

Norman Poltenson is publisher of The Central New York Business Journal. Contact him at npoltenson@cnybj.com

Is Health Care a Right?

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Here is a good question that arose during the Supreme Court presentations on Obamacare. Is health care a right? You know, like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Like the rights spelled out in our Bill of Rights? More to the point: Should it be free? After all, some folks cannot afford health care.

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More to the point: Should it be free? After all, some folks cannot afford health care. If they cannot afford it, it ought to be free to them, right? Public education is. Because we figure that education is a right. So, should health care — bottom line — be free?

Suppose a person has no money. But she has the right to health care. Does that include a heart transplant? At a humungous cost? If not, why not? I can think of any number of procedures and treatments that will cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep her alive. Is she entitled to them? How about a new hip at age 60? At 70? At 80? Is there a cutoff, when a “right” no longer exists?

Recently, students broke into a meeting of administrators at a California college. They demanded free college education. No fees. No tuition. Higher education is their right, they told the world. There are many who agree. College should be as free as public high school, they say.

I wonder. What if the guy wants to pursue a degree in playground supervising? (Some big college football players get such degrees.) Should he get a free four years? Wait, a free six years? Too many college kids take that long these days.

And if the idea is that education is a right and therefore free, how about master’s degrees? And if they are free, why stop there? Some brainy people have two or three master’s degrees. Should they be free? A master’s degree often paves the way for a doctorate. Any reason why we should charge for this? If education is a right, why stop there?

Food, of course, is a right. Lots of people believe that. Food is so much of a right that we the people feed lunch to millions of students every day. We feed breakfast to millions. As well as afternoon snacks. And we dole out billions of dollars in food stamps.

If food is a right, why don’t we have government simply open up grocery stores and hand it out? Why bother with all the red tape associated with food stamps? Government could buy Walmart.

We could locate the Walmarts in the middle of the free housing. The free housing the government provided. Once we agreed that shelter is an absolute right. Whenever anyone needed shelter, he could drop down to the nearest housing office and pick up the keys to an apartment.

As long as we are handing out rights, surely the right to transport is a biggie. You must be able to move from point to point. That being the case, should we declare all trains, subways, buses, and taxis free? As a right? Where those services won’t work, should we hand out cars?

I am not being cynical. Just asking some questions. The main question being: When it comes to our rights, where do we draw the line? Should some surgeries and treatments be free, but not all of them? Should health care be free to some, but not others?

Think about that. Why should my hip surgery be free while your kidney transplant is not?

Lastly, who should make such decisions? Who should decide what is a right and what is not? Who should decide who is entitled to such rights and who is not?

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about financial and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and new TV show. For more information about him, visit his website at www.tomasinmorgan.com

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Boot camp gets more funding from bar foundation

Law, Accounting & Taxes

SYRACUSE — The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities is getting the second portion of a $250,000 grant from the New York Bar Foundation. The

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