Category: Video Library – Outlook on Leadership

Outlook on Leadership with Dorothy Munao

Based in Eau Claire, Michigan, Flamm Pickle & Packing Co. is an industrial manufacturer that provides high-quality pickle relish for food manufacturers to use in salad dressings, sauces and dips. In contrast to competitors who sell relish as a side business (pickles being their primary product), Flamm is laser-focused on relish.

Flamm’s president Dorothy Munao counts high standards, clear goals and empowering employees as keys to her company’s success. “It’s important for your people to understand not just what they’re supposed to do, but also why
they do it,” she says.

Outlook on Leadership with Courtney Lorenz

Cortney Lorenz started Cultured Kombucha Co. in 2015, introducing the first kombucha microbrewery to Michigan. In the past 10 years, she has taken the Traverse City-based company from startup stage, selling its multiflavored fermented tea at farmer’s markets, to an award-winning second-stage business that now distributes its products to more than 500 restaurants, breweries and stores. Among recent milestones, Cultured Kombucha was named a 2025 Michigan Companies to Watch honoree this spring, and the company is getting reach to launch a new line of canned kombucha.

Outlook on Leadership with Dan Hampu

In this session of “Outlook on Leadership,” Dan Hampu, president and CEO of Burton D. Morgan Foundation, discusses his organization’s mission, the striking similarities between our respective founders, Burt Morgan and Ed Lowe — and how our two organizations are working together to serve entrepreneurs in the second-stage space.

Outlook on Leadership with Cynthia Kay

Authenticity and transparency are important leadership skills, says Cynthia Kay, founder of CK and Co. Media Production in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “This isn’t rocket science,” she says. “It’s being who you really are in the workplace… being willing to be open and share with employees — and that means the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Outlook on Leadership with Dan Ducote

In just six years Dan Ducote led Enginuity Global LLC from a four-person company based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to an international organization with nearly 90 employees. He chalks up much of Enginuity’s success to creating a culture where people are passionate about what they are doing.

Outlook on Leadership with Erick Stewart

“You’re never successful, you’re always succeeding,” says Erick Stewart, a Battle Creek-based serial entrepreneur who wrote his first business plan at age 26, then launched Stewart Industries and grew it into a $50 million company. Today as CEO of Lagniappe Global Commodity Partners and an Entrepreneur Emeritus at the foundation, Erick is helping other business leaders grow their organizations and themselves

Outlook on Leadership Zach Raley

Founder of Utiliserve and Fireserve LLC in Bossier City, Louisiana, Zach Raley says one of his biggest leadership lessons has been identifying strengths and weaknesses in order to get the right people in the right places at the right time.

Outlook on Leadership with Patti Eisenbraun

Co-owner of Brown Iron Brewhouse, Patti Eisenbraun discusses how she and her husband evolved their love for craft beer and good food into an award-winning restaurant company with two locations in Michigan — and a third in the works.

Outlook on Leadership with Kathie Fuce-Hobohm

A self-described “accidental entrepreneur,” Kathie Fuce-Hobohm launched SPACE Inc. in 1995 and has grown the Michigan-based company into a national commercial interior design firm with a focus on sustainability. Kathie discusses some key lessons from her three decades as a business owner.

Outlook on Leadership with Julie Metty Bennett & Rachel Kuntzsch

As co-owners of Public Sector Consultants, a nonpartisan public policy firm in Lansing, Julie Metty Bennett and Rachel Kuntzsch work with clients to solve challenges, remove obstacles and identify opportunities to move policy forward. Dan Wyant asks this dynamic duo to share what makes their partnership tick.