COVID-19 business survey results optimistic

A December 2020 survey of area businesses shows that respondents are feeling more optimistic about the future of their companies.

A total of 236 businesses and nonprofits responded to the survey, conducted by the Greater Kansas City Area Chamber of Commerce, Kansas City Area Development Council, KCSourceLink, the Black Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City, the Mid-America LGBT Chamber and Visit KC.

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed are “very confident” their business will fully recover from the pandemic and related economic downturn; 31 percent were “somewhat confident;” four percent were “not very confident;” and one percent said they were “not at all confident.”

“We see that passion, perseverance and tenacity in these survey results as well as in the number of people who are looking to start businesses during this pandemic. These business owners need our support now and in the future so they can continue to solve problems, bridge the wealth gap, fuel our local economy and build their own resiliency," said Maria Meyers, executive director of the UMKC Innovation Center and founder of SourceLink.

In terms of revenue since March 2020, 20 percent said they’ve seen revenues decrease more than 50 percent; 37.83 percent reported a revenue decrease of 50 percent or less; while 33.48 percent saw their revenues stay the same or increase. A total of 31.74 percent say they’ve laid off employees. Of their biggest concerns going forward, the largest response – 29.13 percent – said they were concerned about losing sales.

A majority of those responding said the pandemic has had some positive effect in the way they do business, including development of new e-commerce options and increases in online sales. Others noted that pivoting their business as a result of the pandemic has forced them to “think outside the box more,” or has accelerated their future business direction.

Responses were mixed regarding business travel once a vaccine is readily available. A total of 47.3 percent said the impact would be small, with some amount of reduced travel; 27.49 percent predicted no impact, though they weren’t traveling yet; while 20.47 percent said there would be a large impact on their business travel, expecting their role to no longer require/allow as much travel in the longterm.

On the subject of vaccines, 26 percent of respondents said they planned to require employees to be vaccinated before returning to the workplace.

New KC city manager shares future plans, priorities

Improving efficiencies and supporting underserved communities are among the top priorities for Kansas City, Missouri’s new city manager, Brian Platt.

This week, KC Downtowners welcomed Platt as their monthly virtual luncheon speaker.  Kim Gile, community reference manager for Kansas City Public Library and president of KC Downtowners, moderated. 

Platt, who formerly served as city manager/business administrator for Jersey City, New Jersey, began his role in Kansas City on December 7, 2020.

Citing the city’s $70 million budget deficit for the next year, Platt said he is committed to finding ways to provide and deliver city services without reducing personnel, emergency response times or any crucial services. 

“We’re looking at a lot of ways where we can provide the same services, possibly even provide more of those services, in a much more efficient and cost-effective manner,” said Platt. 

Platt said that since he arrived, the city already has made some specific and aggressive changes to the snow removal policy to make sure that the city is removing snow quickly and efficiently.

As an example, Platt pointed out converting city street lights to LED lights could, over time, cut the annual cost for street lights and their maintenance by nearly one-half.

Platt said he is approaching his new position by listening and learning from the city’s residents and stakeholders to see what the biggest challenges are and will work collectively and collaboratively to identify the best path forward.

“I’m not coming in here and saying this is how I think things should be,” said Platt.

The day before Platt assumed his position, the Kansas City Star released its report on racism in the fire department.  One of the first challenges with which Platt was tasked was tackling systemic racism within city government.

“This problem exists and transcends far beyond the fire department.  It’s in all of our departments and it’s even beyond the halls of city hall, so to speak. It’s a cultural challenge that is not going to be something that we solve overnight,” Platt said.

Platt said the city will be making some big investments to increase staffing in its human resources department and providing management training to make sure managers know the types of behaviors that are acceptable and the best ways to support their staff.

Platt supports making economic development incentives more widely available to underserved communities where there might be some local developers or property owners that have the ability to build a successful project, but might not know or understand the incentive process.

Platt has been speaking with city council members privately - and discussing publicly with community groups - the need for a very detailed, specific and comprehensive development and incentive policy for the entire city.

“One of the ways that a better policy (with) more transparency, more openness will be helpful is anyone in the city, not just the biggest players, not just those with the means and those with the most resources, have access to those incentives.  There seem to be plenty of incentives available.  It’s not a question necessarily of, for the most part, making more incentives available, it’s a question of getting them into the right hands and ensuring that we’re giving them only in the circumstances and cases with the highest need,” Platt said.

Moving from a part of the country where the river is such an important part of the city, Platt was surprised to see so little development along Kansas City’s Riverfront.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity to do more stuff along the waterfront even if it’s just like restaurants and social activities and that sort of thing.  But, it’s one of those resources that absolutely has a lot more potential,” Platt said.

He also said that discussions are underway internally about the opportunity for energy capture from the river itself.

“You think about solar, you think about wind, but we also should think about hydroelectric power.  The water flowing down that river, you may not notice if you look at it, but there are tens of thousands of gallons flowing by every second and that energy and that force of water can be a big, literally, creator of power for the city,” said Platt.

Pulse Design Group moves into Plaza high rise

Pulse Design Group has moved into their new office space on the tenth floor of the 46 Penn Centre building.

Custom-designed by their own team, Pulse’s new, 10,000-SF headquarters feature unobstructed views of the Country Club Plaza, an open floor plan and plenty of space to safely collaborate and accommodate anticipated staff growth.

The finished product is a welcoming environment that fosters collaboration, innovation and creativity - the perfect stage for a team of healthcare forward-thinking architects, interior designers, medical equipment planners and virtual reality developers.

“The move to the Country Club Plaza provides a larger footprint for firm growth, adds increased visibility, creates a central locale for employees, clients and industry partners, and offers additional amenities for associates,” said Rick Embers, managing partner for Pulse.

The open kitchen and dining spaces provide an area for the entire firm to meet and further encourage employee camaraderie. Multiple meeting spaces, varying in size, provide areas throughout the office for employees to work individually or in small groups.

“The new space is also great for entertainment. The central location and open-floor concept caters to hosting industry events,” said Lindsay Hampton, Pulse principal.

Pulse is optimistic that the move across the state line - from Lenexa, Kan. to Kansas City, Mo. - will catapult the firm’s goals; which include recruiting and developing talent, increasing brand awareness, identifying new business to diversify the firms portfolio, expanding the firms geographic reach and adding areas of focus within healthcare design.

“Employee morale is at an all-time high. Everyone is so proud of our new space,” said Pulse president, Dennis Burns.

It was important for the leadership to have all hands on deck while creating their new office, which even served as a learning tool for younger staff who were included in design charrettes, an integral part of the creative process.

“Many Pulse employees were involved in the creation of our new space and it is was amazing to see the employee excitement while creating their new home. Our new office space is collaborative, open, modern and caters to innovative design,” said Basil Sherman, Pulse principal.

Pulse leadership is also dedicated to employee professional development, encourages community involvement networking with industry professionals and assists and advises in employee growth.

“Whether that requires advising intern architects on licensure, helping staff achieve accreditations, suggesting outlets to obtain continuing education credits or mentoring a summer intern, Pulse Design Group leadership capitalize every opportunity to assist employee professional development,” said Mary Moore, Pulse associate principal.

Providing cutting-edge, solution-driven design solutions are at the core of the firm as exemplified in one of their recent projects at Lawrence Memorial Hospital (LMH) West Campus.

Representing the largest single campus expansion in it’s history, the LMH Health West ambulatory facility is a new, 243,000-SF medical office building designed to guide the organization for the next 20 years. Pulse Design Group provided full architectural and interior design services in addition to complete scope of services for medical equipment planning. This design-build project featured a constant collaboration between architect, contractor and owner that resulted in a cutting-edge facility to serve Douglas County.

Pulse Design Group was originally founded in 1980 as Wilson Johnson Associates. In 1997, Rick Embers joined and the firm became known as Wilson Johnson Embers (WJE). In 2011, WJE rebranded to Pulse Design Group, zoning in on their healthcare industry focus. Today, Pulse Design Group is celebrating over 40 years in business.

“Many of the firm’s employees have been with Pulse Design Group 10+ years, a true testament to positive employee satisfaction,” said Michael Andracsek, Pulse principal.

From a COVID-19 standpoint, Pulse is maintaining a safe and operational office space with safely-distanced workstations, staff mask requirements and room occupancy limits.

To learn more about Pulse Design Group, please visit their website at www.pulsedesigngroup.com.