Inside Business Magazine features MAGNET's work driving the growth of Northeast Ohio manufacturers.

1. NEO GROW
52 INSIDE BUSINESS | JULY/AUGUST 2015
AFTER EARNING A bachelor’s
degree at Miami University and
a doctorate in chemical biology
from Harvard University, Ethan
Karp signed on with manage-
mentconsultingfirmMcKinsey
& Co. in Cleveland.
“I could have joined McKin-
sey anywhere in theworld, but
I wanted to go to Cleveland . . .
it has been a great place to raise
myfamily,”saysKarp,anativeof
Clarion,Pennsylvania.
Karp mixed his academic
background in chemistry and
hiswork as a management con-
sultant by joining MAGNET:
The Manufacturing Advocacy
and Growth Network in 2013.
The 30-year-old organization is
one of about 60 Manufacturing
Extension Partnerships (MEPs)
in the country, and covers the
18-county region of Northeast
Ohio. Such private-public part-
nershipswere created in 1988 by
the U.S. Commerce Department
to help U.S. manufacturers com-
peteintheglobalmarketplace.
MAGNET is a success story
that’s gaining national attention:
PresidentBarackObamapaidthe
organization avisitwhen hewas
inClevelandearlierthisyear,the
first sitting president tovisit an
MEPaffiliate.
InMay,Karpbecamethenew
face of MAGNETwhen he was
promoted from vice president
of client services to president
andCEO,succeedingtheretiring
DanBerry.
Karp is one of the youngest
nonprofitheadsintheCleveland
area and is offering a newvision
to accomplish MAGNET’s mis-
sion. Karpwants to leverage the
nonprofit’shistoryandexpertise
togrowboththeconsultingbusi-
nessandtheregion’sworkforce.
“Tobeabletobringeverything
NortheastOhiohastohelpsmall
manufacturers grow and thrive
here,we have spentyears devel-
opingdeepconnectionswithour
universities, colleges and major
institutionslikeNASA.Ourstaff
of 35 manufacturing experts
brings the power of Northeast
Ohio to help manufacturers,”
Karpsays.“Wewanttoworkwith
more partners and more manu-
facturers,toreachourlong-term
goals of growing manufacturing
and offering more middle-class
jobsinourregion.”
One of the main long-term
goals —Karp calls it MAGNET’s
holygrail—istogenerateahigh
school feeder program to find
talented employees towork for
thosemanufacturers.
“The biggest issue manufac-
turers face when they’ve fig-
ured out how to grow is finding
people,”Karpsays.
MAGNET already has part-
nerships in placewith learning
institutions such as Cuyahoga
Community College towork on
job training. The organization
is also trying to develop those
kinds of relationshipswith area
highschools.Andthat,Karpsays,
is the most critical piece of the
puzzle.
“How dowe at a high school
level create a European-style
model that works in the U.S. ,
with multiple companies draw-
ing hundreds of students who
are prepared and excited to go
intomanufacturing?”heasks.
Matthew Fieldman, MAG-
NET’s vice president for exter-
nal affairs, says they’re already
working on getting high school
studentsinterestedinandexcited
aboutmanufacturing.
“We do a lot with local high
schools to get students to think
aboutcareersinmanufacturing,”
he says. “We set up plant tours,
send themvideos and help em-
ployers find and hire interns of
all ages, but there is even more
wecando.”
Another ambition for MAG-
NET, Karp says, is to expand its
partnershipsaswellasgeograph-
ic reach throughout Northeast
Ohio.
Most of what MAGNET
does is provide consulting ser-
vices directly to manufacturers,
ranging from helping develop a
marketing plan and implement
it, designing or modifying a new
productwithMAGNET’sproduct
and design engineering team, to
helpingtransformamanufactur-
ing facility by engaging employ-
eesandfindingefficiencies.
MAGNETworks with busi-
nesses as they need help — as
JoePullella,vicepresidentof op-
erations at Vitamix puts it, “Our
experience with MAGNET has
actually been everything that I
hopeditwouldbeandmorequite
honestly. The MAGNET team
has been great —they’ve really
understoodourneeds.”
“What we offer is holistic
consultation,” Fieldman says.
“We analyze the business from
the plant floor to leadership to
enhancetheminallaspects.”
Mentoring
Manufacturers
WITH A STRONG AND GROWING COMMITMENT
TO LOCAL MANUFACTURING, MAGNET’S
BUILT A NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED HUB
FOR OUR LEGACY INDUSTRY.
BY VINCE GUERRIERI
“THE MOST EXCITING
THING IS WATCHING
A COMPANY WHO
WE HAVE HELPED
GROW THEIR
BUSINESS, HIRE
NEW PEOPLE AND,
BECAUSE OF THEIR
BUSINESS SUCCESS,
IMPROVE THE LOCAL
ECONOMY.”
— Ethan Karp
MAGNET growth
adviser Jeff Shick
with President Barack
Obama
WHITE HOUSE POOL PHOTOGRAPHY

2. IBmag.com 53
One company that has al-
ready drawn on those services
was Parkman-based Montville
Plastics.
Fieldman says MAGNET
helped them write job descrip-
tions — a great service to any
small company that typically
doesn’thaveanin-househuman
resources department — but
Tracie Roberts, Montville’svice
president of sales and market-
ing, says MAGNET’s role went
beyondthat.
“It was a complete process,”
she says. “They went over how
we advertise. They went over
howweinterview.”
Roberts says many manufac-
turerslookstrictlyatskillsetsbut
acknowledges that’s only part of
the picture: “There’s so much
more to it,” she says. “It’s about
theculturalfit.It’saboutcompe-
tencies. It’s more than just, ‘Can
yourunanextruder?’ ”
Roberts says the company
also foundvalue in MAGNET’s
informational series on market-
ingandworkforcedevelopment.
Karp says thevalue of MAG-
NET is that it provides business
servicessuchasgrowthplanning,
websitedevelopment,marketing,
salesanddesignatthesamehigh
level that his former employer
McKinsey & Co. did, but at a
scale and price point that’s more
accessibletosmallerandmedium
manufacturers.
“MAGNETdoesn’t just bring
consultants,we bring the power
of theentireregiontohelpsmall
manufacturers grow. We’re able
to give clients holistic, personal-
ized growth plans that used to
onlybeavailabletohugecompa-
nieswithgiganticbudgets,”Karp
says.
One of the nonprofit’s flag-
ship clients is Cleveland Whis-
key, a small distillery housed in
MAGNET’s facility on East 25th
Street. Tom Lix, the distillery’s
founder and chairman, isn’t a
distillerbytrade.Instead,hedoes
what he calls “disruptive tech-
nology,” shrinking the distilling
process for liquor —which can
take a decade or more — down
tomonthsorevenweeks.
Cleveland Whiskeywas one
of the portfolio companies at
MAGNETthatPresidentObama
visitedwhen he came to Cleve-
land in March, in addition to
OsteoSymbionics, Vadxx and
EcoChem, all small compa-
nies working on cutting-edge
technology.
OsteoSymbionics uses an
MRI or CT scan to 3-D-print a
synthetic piece of skull that can
be implanted during surgery.
Vadxx melts down plastic and
turnsitintooil—“It’smuchmore
profitablethanactuallyrecycling
theplastic,”saysFieldman—and
EcoChemmakesamachinethat,
when installed in a truck, will
clean gasoline to create fuel that
willburncleanerandofferbetter
mileage.
Another company served by
MAGNET is Biolectrics, maker
of OraFlow,which looks like the
type of mouth guard an athlete
would wear. But it’s actually a
cleaning tool that uses a small
electriccharge—whichCEOPaul
Ruflinsaysisundetectablebyhu-
mans —to break down bacteria
andfightmouthdisease.
The company decided to
branch out into the animal mar-
ket since 80 percent of dogs 3
yearsorolderhavesometypeof
periodontal disease. They came
up with a new design called
Zumby,amotion-activatedchew
toythatemitsthesameelectrical
charge. Theywere also aided by
MAGNET and expect to go to
marketinearly2016.
“They helped with project
management, design, testing,
materials and manufacturing,”
Ruflin says. “They basically
helpedeverystepalongtheway.”
“I think the most exciting
thing is watching a company
who we have helped in any
way grow their business, hire
new people and, because of
their business success, improve
the local economy,” Karp says.
“Every single day I can see the
importanceof whatwe’redoing,
and I’m surrounded by the tre-
mendoustalentandpassionof a
group of manufacturing experts
whowant to see Northeast Ohio
grow and thrive. That brings a
lot of energy to me personally
and gives me much hope about
where Northeast Ohiowill be 10
yearsfromnow.”
MAGNET
1768E.25THST.
CLEVELAND,OH44114
216-282-4634
MANUFACTURINGSUCCESS.ORG
MAGNET’s Ethan Karp
guides President
Obama on a tour of
Cleveland Whiskey.
WHITE HOUSE POOL PHOTOGRAPHY
President Obama with three MAGNET
interns, all CSU engineering students