Jennette Smith on Muck Rack

Jennette Smith

  • Chief Marketing Officer, MCCI
Detroit
As seen in: Crain's Detroit Business
25-year biz journalist, modern day Mrs. Brady, comms, strategy and leadership geek. Spartan. GIF fan. President @CRIMSON_agency_ FmrEditor @crainsdetroit
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Articles by Jennette Smith

CHRIS PEYERK | Crain's Detroit Business

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Biggest achievement: Assuming active control of the company and restructuring it from a small family business to a large player in the construction industry. Increased annual revenue from $10 million to $175 million a year. Current goal: To become the No. 1 road builder in the state. Dan's Excavating Inc., with Chris Peyerk at the helm, has developed a reputation for efficiency.
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Detroit to host NCAA Men’s Final Four in 2009

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Detroit will be home to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Final Four basketball games in 2009, the NCAA announced Tuesday. Ford Field will host the games. The University of Detroit Mercy is the host university. Other chosen cities for men’s Final Four sites are San Antonio in 2008, Indianapolis in 2010 and Houston in 2011, according to an NCAA news release. A news conference is being held at 4 p.m. at Ford Field, where local officials will discuss the bid.
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Think big, don't let bureaucracy thwart innovation, Gilbert tells his 'family'

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Corporate bureaucracy that blocks innovation — and small thinking in general — needs to be squashed in order for organizations to thrive and overcome what Dan Gilbert dubs "horizontal gravity." Gilbert used a speech this morning to leaders from 72 Gilbert/Rock Ventures/Detroit Venture Partners companies as a platform to talk about thinking big, not getting lost in the weeds of spreadsheets and the benefits of making decisions quickly.
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After a great adventure at Crain's, a new beginning awaits

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Eighteen years of business journalism in Detroit. That's a lot of news cycles. As I exit the editor's desk at Crain's Detroit Business after a long and great adventure as a beat reporter/storyteller, editor and manager, let me offer a few highlights. A memory: During the hubbub of Super Bowl XL in 2006, I was walking back to the office from Ford Field to write a post-game column. I was struck by the scores of limousines corralled near the Crain Communications Inc. building on Gratiot.
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Detroit comes up short on building tall, but is that a bad thing?

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Where are the new skyscrapers in Detroit? This is a question I have posed during a number of recent meetings at business organizations. My co-workers have even begun rolling their eyes about my obsession. But if Detroit is America's great comeback story, where are the new office towers? Where are the new high-rise condos? Where are the large corporations making bold statements with gleaming, new signature towers? Well, it's not quite that kind of a comeback. Yet.
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Persistence pays for entrepreneurs

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
It is always fascinating to talk to entrepreneurs about the factors that propelled them to big success. One part raw hustle, one part product or service differentiation and one part serendipity.
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A superwoman shout-out to the help that went into this year's report

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
When Crain's Detroit Business published its first list of "100 Most Influential Women" in 1997, one office wag wondered if we would ever find 100. We did, and published additional lists in 2002 and 2007. This time, we scoured the state for prospective women and reviewed more than 300 nominees. It would not have been possible to develop a comprehensive report on women's leadership in Michigan — and identify so many interesting women from around the state — without the help of dozens.
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Panel: Opportunities abound in Michigan IoT if companies can learn to share intellectual property

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
The Internet of Things, for many businesspeople, is still an abstract concept involving billions of connected objects and the ability to track real-time data from them. But its usefulness seems something of an enigma. For now. But as moderator Tom DeVries, principal of consultancy Grand Rapids-based Thoughtfull pointed out, people are at the center of its productive applications, from prioritizing projects to creating shared spaces for collaboration.
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Business growth author wants to help companies scale up

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
How many of us know talented, hard-working small and midsize business owners who just haven't figured out how to scale up? It's the billion-dollar question. And who better to speak with about the conundrum than Verne Harnish, the founder of EO (Entrepreneurs Organization), CEO of Gazelles Inc. and business growth author. What irritates Harnish? As much buzz as trendy startups generate, it's "scale-ups" — or growth companies — that really help drive local economic growth.
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How business growth author Verne Harnish wants to help companies scale up

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
How many of us know talented, hard-working small and midsize business owners who just haven't figured out how to scale up? It's the billion-dollar question. And who better to speak with about the conundrum than Verne Harnish, the founder of EO (Entrepreneurs Organization), CEO of Gazelles Inc. and business growth author. What irritates Harnish? As much buzz as trendy startups generate, it's "scale-ups" — or growth companies — that really help drive local economic growth.
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Inside this week's issue: Could $491M Detroit pension shortfall be avoided?

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Crain's Detroit Business is a metered site. Print and digital subscribers have unlimited access to stories, but registered users are limited to eight stories every 30 days. After viewing three metered stories, you'll be asked to register or log in. After eight more stories in 30 days, you'll be asked to subscribe.
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Decide to become a better decision-maker

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
It's mid-January and we're halfway through the first month of a fresh, shiny new year. And with the new year comes that welcome — although sometimes stress-inducing — internal pressure to CHANGE. EVERYTHING. NOW! Of course our logical and reasoning brains know we can't actually fix everything that needs some fixing about either our professional or personal routines in the first month of the year. And, really, why set yourself up to fail?
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Staff changes at area media outlets illustrate pressures on news industry

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Pressure on news providers has never been greater. As Bill Shea reports on Page 1, Detroit's two daily newspapers are in a staff churn period, as some talent says "yes" to parent company buyout offers and overall newsroom headcounts decline. You must be a subscriber to access this content. This exclusive, archived content is only available to subscribers.
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Internship shows mentoring goes full circle

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Early in our careers, we all need a helping hand, and a great coach. For me, that came in the form of editors at The Macomb Daily, the Times Herald (Port Huron) and The Muskegon Chronicle. Those folks, along with college instructors and colleagues at the student newspaper at Michigan State University, The State News, helped me find my reporting style and writing voice.
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Family biz: Stories of succession, success

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Every Tuesday morning, April Diez assembles her senior management team, and they talk through the issues — the good, the bad, the ugly — that the company is facing. Good communication via this standing meeting (and some hard-fought company culture change) is how the leader of the second-generation company stays up to speed on near-term and longer-term challenges.
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Entrepreneurs share David vs. Goliath success stories at Crain's event

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By Jennette Smith
| Crain's Detroit Business
Panelists share stories of David vs. Goliath during Crain's Salute to Entrepreneurs event Thursday morning at The Henry in Dearborn. From left: Eoin Comerford, CEO, Moosejaw Mountaineering; Marc Gardner, founder, North American Bancard LLC and PayAnywhere LLC; and Lydia Gutierrez, president & CEO, Hacienda Mexican Foods. Entrepreneurs can make their own David vs.
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