OUR STORIES PROPERTIES HISTORY ABOUT US INVESTORS Our philosophy: Our most valuable assets are the businesses growing under our roofs. “If you have fun at your job and enjoy the people you work with, the customer can’t help but notice.” A business record that extends back to 1877 is rare to find. But Patterson has not only endured for over a century, it’s thrived to the point that it is the second-largest dental supply company in North America. Marya Lessard, National Technical Service Manager, explains the company’s resilience as a result of its surprisingly simple customer service philosophy: “If you have fun at your job and enjoy the people you work with, the customer can’t help but notice that you’re smiling, that you’re in a good mood, and that you’re here to help. As long as my customers are happy, it’s a great day.” READ MORE > “It’s evolving our business to be here.” Being in the business of joy takes a lot of work. Just ask the folks at RAVE Sports, who, for twenty years, have offered non-stop summer bliss to people around the world. “At the peak of our season, we’ll be processing 2,000 orders a day,” said Bruce Senske, co-owner of the company with Steve Friswold. RAVE Sports manufactures and sources a vast array of water recreation products, originating with water trampolines. Over time, the company added wakeboards, waterskis, personal flotation devices, pool floats, stand-up paddleboards and a waterpark division—all providing unique storage and shipping challenges. Adding to the complexity: a dramatic change in order fulfillment. RAVE had to adapt to a shift from early-season, one-time retailer shipments to season-long activity, fulfilling individual orders to consumers. Their space was incompatible with the constant flow of coming and going, so the search for a new company home began in 2014. READ MORE > “It was like two families moving in together.” As a wing of a billion-dollar company specializing in high-tech products and services, you’d expect the Kaman location in Eagan, Minnesota to feel cold. Corporate. Impersonal. The opposite is true, and that’s by design: “We started in the basement of a home, and didn’t move into office space until there were 13 employees. We were forced to get an office, because we were sharing desks and juggling schedules,” said Lori Kowitz, District Operations Manager. “We made it work, but realized we needed to find a space that fits our needs as a business as well as a bunch of humans.” While this particular Kaman division required a space that was functional and safe for combination of light manufacturing and assembly, it also had other specific business needs: “We are a motion control distributor, a systems control integrator, we offer onsite testing and customer training, and do applications engineering and assembly for large systems—and we need the freedom to do what we need to do on all these fronts,” said Kowitz. “We built our success by growing our customer sales. But the way we do that is to encourage growth in our employees, expanding their knowledge and skill sets through training. In turn, that keeps our customers happy because every Kaman person is meeting their expectations.” READ MORE > CAREERS LEADERSHIP NEWS CONTACT US