"we always thought it was people before profits" Kowalski's Grocery

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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/columnists/dave_beal/6702735.htm

DAVE BEAL: Next generation receives more than business
Pioneer Press Columnist
Posted on Sun, Sep. 07, 2003

It's not business as usual at Kowalski's Markets these days.

Top executives at Woodbury-based Kowalski's are building a curriculum to define not only the culture of the grocery chain but to secure the company as an independent "civic institution.''

Much of the effort is being financed by the Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative, a Twin Cities-based nonprofit that for years has been quietly laying the groundwork for efforts such as the one at Kowalski's.

Two other companies — the Gausman & Moore engineering firm in Roseville and Flannery Construction in St. Paul — have joined Kowalski's in a pilot project now in the second of three years. All three are privately held companies whose owners are in the process of passing their companies on to a younger generation.....

She has worked closely with Tony Massengale, a civic organizer in Los Angeles, and with University of Minnesota professors Harry Boyte and Michael Hartoonian.

The Minnesota citizenship initiative began in 1995 with bipartisan backing from then-Lt. Gov. Joanne Bensonand former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe.

In 1996, Michels won formidable backing from Carol Stassen Taylor and her husband, James Taylor. They were among the beneficiaries when James Taylor's company, West Publishing in Eagan, was sold. After the sale, they gave $1.2 million to the initiative....