Each month, Prairie Business Magazine speaks with regional leaders to learn more about a specific topic. This month we asked: What is one of your top business goals for the new year?
Cory Geffre
Head nurse
Altru
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Altru is committed to providing the highest quality care. Healthcare quality encompasses patient and staff safety, exceptional patient experiences, and measurable outcomes such as infection rates and readmissions. Altru’s quality results are strong, but the path to excellence continues with a focus on improvement and innovation.
Improvement involves refining existing processes and adopting best practices from peer hospitals and other industries. Innovation, on the other hand, requires breaking new ground – adopting ideas from fields such as hospitality or aviation to challenge traditional norms in healthcare. This balance between improvement and innovation fuels progress.
A pivotal moment in our quality journey arrives with the opening of our new hospital designed to revolutionize the way we deliver care and eliminate current barriers. This state-of-the-art facility is a launching pad for our evolution, with the ultimate goal of achieving a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. While Altru excels in clinical outcomes, we are committed to increasing patient satisfaction by ensuring the care experience matches the quality of the building.
Structured efforts, including daily meetings, focused work groups, and management oversight, are in place to address areas of opportunity while maintaining high standards in others. With a clear strategy and unwavering dedication, Altru aims to improve hospitality, customer service and satisfaction, ensuring patients feel as confident in their care as they do in the new facility. The journey to five-star excellence is well underway, driven by a shared commitment to continuous improvement.
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Mark Averett, AIA
Principal/Director of Marketing and Business Development
TSP, Inc.
Rapid City, SD
Looking ahead to 2025, one of TSP’s key business goals is to place greater emphasis on the growth and development of each team member. We understand that the success of our company is directly linked to the success of our people at every level. We firmly believe that our greatest strength lies in our people and that by focusing on all levels of our team, we can collectively achieve even greater success as an organization.
Our vision is clear: grow together. Growth is not just about improving technical skills or developing leadership, but it is about empowering each team member to reach their full potential, contribute meaningfully and thrive in his role. This intentional direction will strengthen our foundation and prepare us to meet new challenges with innovation, collaboration and trust.
This year, TSP is proud to celebrate 95 years in business. As we celebrate this milestone and look back on our legacy, we remain committed to providing additional resources and opportunities while fostering a culture that prioritizes personal and professional development. Whether it’s training programs, mentoring, or other new initiatives, our commitment to growth remains at the forefront of everything we do.
This goal goes beyond financial success. It’s about building a legacy of excellence. By supporting each member of our team and aligning our efforts, we will not only meet, but exceed expectations, ensuring the continued success and advancement of our firm.
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David Schornack,
Director of Business Development and Sales
Arvig
Perham, Minn.
At Arvig, one of our business goals for 2025 is to continue our commitment to delivering a truly exceptional customer experience. We have just completed major upgrades to our systems and streamlined our internal processes. We are therefore now better equipped than ever to serve our customers transparently and efficiently. From the moment someone contacts us, whether online or by phone, to the installation of their services and ongoing support, we aim to make every interaction seamless, personalized and positive. At Arvig, customer centricity is at the heart of everything we do, ensuring our customers feel valued and supported every step of the way.
On the technical and network side of our business, we are constantly improving our fiber optic network, and one of the areas we continue to develop is the redundancy of our network to ensure the best possible availability. We want our customers to be efficient and productive, and they need a permanent fiber optic network to achieve their business goals. Our network team, our technicians, our fiber splicers – every team member – is committed to investing in and implementing the best technology available to ensure our network delivers high speed and reliability.
Building a network that our customers rely on goes right back to that original goal of an exceptional customer experience. 2025 is shaping up to be another exciting year at Arvig, and our customers will definitely benefit from the many customer service improvements we’ve made.
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Chris Lee
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Gate City Bank
Fargo, North Dakota
Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender
At Gate City Bank, every goal we pursue is aligned with our core purpose: creating a better way of life for customers, communities and team members. And as we begin the coming year, one initiative hits particularly close to home: helping to alleviate the region’s child care shortage.
The availability of child care is essential to fostering strong communities. It helps working families, boosts local economies and gives the next generation the skills and confidence they need to thrive. Since launching our first-of-its-kind BetterLife™ loan for child care businesses in 2022, we have committed to investing $10 million to help meet the critical need for child care availability in North Dakota and central Minnesota, saving providers more than $1.6 million in interest. Our unique program makes it easier for them to hire additional help, make upgrades, start new child care centers and expand their operations.
To date, this initiative has supported 850 children in North Dakota. One non-profit organization described it as “a godsend” – and for good reason. The program not only offers below-market interest rates, as low as 2.02% APR*, but also extended terms and no origination fees. After launching the program with $5 million in funding, we quickly experienced high demand, resulting in an additional $5 million investment for 2025!
We recognize the critical role child care plays in our communities and the ripple effect it has on the people we serve. We are proud to continue innovating to support our communities and honored to invest in a better way of life for all.
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