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V O L . X X V I I N O. X V I I I A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 2 1 8 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E Machias Savings Bank said it awarded $50,166 in Community Development Grant funding to 14 organizations across the state. The grants were awarded to projects that create or re- tain jobs, revitalize communities within the bank's service area and help to provide affordable housing or other pro- grams designed to assist low-to-moder- ate income individuals and/or families. The Cumberland County Committee of the Maine Community Foundation in Ellsworth awarded $113,174 in grants to 16 nonprofits through its Community Building Grant Program. In addition, the foundation awarded $282,500 in grants to 21 Maine organizations to support animal welfare. Bangor names contractor for transit center e city of Bangor is ready to award a $3.45 million contract to Westbrook- based Benchmark Construction for the planned 2,200-square-foot SP ONSORED BY How to become successful SPEAKERS Tom Rainey Tae Chong Cary Weston PANELISTS Lisa Whited Sam LeGeyt Matt McGrath MODERATOR Dawn Reshen-Doty REGISTER FOR FREE AUGUST 25 | ONLINE 11:00am–Noon The Modern Workplace A live panel discussion with small business owners and advisors M O D E R AT O R : Dawn Reshen-Doty, CEO of Benay Enterprises, Inc PA N E L I S T S : Lisa Whited, Chief Transformation Officer at Workplace Transformation Facilitation / Sam LeGeyt, Broker at NAI The Dunham Group / Matt McGrath, President and CEO of Systems Engineering 1:00 pm 5 ideas you need to know about marketing, financing, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies for your business! Speaker breakout sessions: 5 ideas in 10 minutes. M A R K E T I N G S E S S I O N : Cary Weston, President & Chief Marketing Officer at Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications FINANCE SES SION : Tom Rainey, Executive Director of The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs D I V E R S I T Y, E Q U I T Y, I N C L U S I O N S E S S I O N : Tae Chong, Founder of Tae Chong Consulting and Director of Multicultural Markets and Strategies for the Maine State Chamber AT MAINEBIZ.BIZ/SMALLBIZ in the modern workplace! A S K AC E A n s w e r e d b y T o v e R a s m u s s e n o f P a r t n e r s C r e a t i n g G r o w t h The Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) is a non-profit association of independent consultants who value "Success through Collaboration." The public is welcome to attend its regular meetings to share best practices and engage with industry experts. For more information go to www.consultexpertise.com. Q: My company has a lot of product ideas but needs a way to weed them out to make the most of the company's resources. Can you recommend a weeding process that focuses resources and optimizes the likelihood of a successful launch? ACE answers: Launches often experi- ence delays, overruns, product defects and market failure. Lacking focus, many companies try to develop too many products simultaneously, with few or no product launches. Here are some alternatives: Stage Gate process — A Stage Gate process segments development and launch into stages, requiring manage- ment to make a go/no-go decision after each stage. The process requires a con- certed effort from marketing, sales, research and development, operations, finance and management. Every one of these departments should be part of the development team. Six stages — I use six stages, but tai- lor your stages to your company and industry. Each is a chance to prioritize and make go/no-go decisions. Capture — Develop a simple system for capturing ideas for new products from customers, suppliers, employees, etc. A restricted shared drive is fine. Criteria development — Develop assess- ment criteria for the ideas: strategic fit, competitive advantage, market need and attractiveness, expected revenue and profit, time to revenue, technical difficulty. Feasibility assessment — Generate and refine revenue and profit numbers. Based on your criteria, can the product be made, and made a few times? Is there an objectively good business case? Development — Assess whether the product can be manufactured cost- effectively to the required standards. Prepare commercialization plan. Launch — Implement your commercial- ization plan, bring the product to market and monitor revenue and profit goals. Review and reflect — Conduct a one- year review, comparing actual versus forecast sales and profits. Note suc- cesses, learnings and implement to improve future product launches. ACE member Tove Rasmussen is a Portland-based consultant with Partners Creating Growth. She can be reached at tove@partnerscreatinggrowth.com For more on this topic, see "How to Develop and Commercialize New Products" at consultexpertise.com/blog/10920719 @ N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N

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