Blue Horse welcomes TomoTherapy

When we first heard the phrase “TomoTherapy,” some of us thought it might have something to do with recovering from working with Tom Thiede. But such is not the case.

TomoTherapy Incorporated is a Madison-based company that has developed a revolutionary new medical system combining on-board CT imaging with conformal radiation therapy to treat cancer patients. This new system provides unprecedented precision. It can target radiation treatment to the patient’s tumor while limiting damage to surrounding tissues.

Called the TomoTherapy Hi-Art System ®, it’s now being used in 50 cancer centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The technology was born out of collaboration with the University of Wisconsin.

Blue Horse is proud to add TomoTherapy Inc. to our list of public relations clients.

It’s a company with a terrific future. Their CEO, Dr. Frederick Robertson, has stated, “Our growth has been dramatic. Revenue increased almost 70% in 2005, while the number of orders for our system more than doubled. To keep up with this product demand, we have ramped up our hiring, growing from 171 employees at the end of 2004 to 327 employees on December 31, 2005.”

As recently as this past Friday, it was reported that TomoTherapy Inc was in line to have four of its systems installed in major German universities. “We have penetrated four key university sites in less than 10 months – a task that usually takes over two years,” noted Jack Reese, the company’s director of European sales. TomoTherapy expects half its orders to come from Europe and Asia this year.

Susie Falk and Steve Johnstone, our pr folks, have already rolled up their sleeves and gotten to work for the people at TomoTherapy. They’ve succeeded in securing a Wall Street Journal article about them and other cancer treatment options.

TomoTherapy is example of the kind of ingenuity and Wisconsin-progress that we referred to in our previous article. It’s this kind of creativity that has propelled the Madison area to the position of “first in its class” in the Creativity Index created by Richard Florida at George Mason University.

To find out more about this wonderful company, visit their website at www.tomotherapy.com.

What Florida thinks of Milwaukee

Interesting article in Wednesday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Joel Dressing interviewed Richard Florida who is professor of public policy at George Mason University and a bestselling author. Mr. Florida “touts human capital as the driving force for economic development.”

In the article, Florida cites the problem for America of developing a “world-competitive creative class.” He refers to the “talent deficit, an inability to invest in our people when they’re young and when they’re older.”

One line in particular caught our eye: “We have to make a massive investment in early childhood education. We need to rebuild our school system for the creative age.”

If you’ve read any of our earlier comments, you know where we stand on this. Too many schools, especially at the early, graded level, are running on cruise control. Further, for every school that has the enlightened thinking and the funds to push itself up, more are being left in the educational dust. It’s very frustrating to see schools, especially inner city minority schools, struggling just to provide the basics, to simply survive, while the demands of the marketplace are in fact growing. Where we most need to teach creativity, we are least accomplishing the task.


There are bright spots. Recently, we had the opportunity to spend some time with Mathew Johnson and the people at Strive Media Institute here in Milwaukee. Strive, a non-profit mentoring and training program, is doing a terrific job of providing opportunities to students who have demonstrated talent and a willingness to work hard. If you haven’t seen what they’re up to, we invite you to visit their website at http://www.strivemedia.com
or read about Strive's recent plans to expand its facility and outreach: http://www.biztimes.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=currentissue.welcome&display=Special&num=1 Strive partners with media professionals to provide training and opportunity to students in print journalism, marketing, computer media, television and radio broadcast. Above is a photo of Mathew Johnson, taken at our Open House. Next to Mathew is Jim Locatelli, a CPA we know, and B. John Bisio, of Wal-Mart Stores.

Strive exists because people like Mathew Johnson saw the need and took steps to deal with it. But more is called for and it almost seems like a pretty massive “rethink” has to happen at the primary school level in order to keep pace. (We’d love to hear from people about similar stories to Strive or with other suggestions on how this “creative gap” can be closed).

By the way, Mr. Florida pointed out that Madison “measures first in (his) creativity index for regions in its size class and eighth among all 331 regions in the country. It is doing phenomenally well.” Meanwhile, Milwaukee ranks 124th. “Milwaukee has to figure out a way to connect itself to the creative age. And Milwaukee is one of the cities that have a great shot.” “With affordable housing, the great urban neighborhoods and the rebuilding around the river, it can attract people who are being priced out of the Chicago market.”

We have so much potential here. The question is, will we make it happen? And when we do, will we share it with one another?

The Legend of the Blue Horse

Everyone asks, “Where did you come up with the name, Blue Horse?”

The answer of course lies somewhere in the imagination. And to help us make that point, we commissioned some of the most imaginative people on earth to help us tell “The Legend of the Blue Horse.”

We went to several area schools and offered up a writing and art assignment to their 2nd and 3rd graders. “Tell us,” we asked, “where the Blue Horse came from.” We thought a few of the kids might give us their very special perspective on the issue.

What we got was over a hundred and thirty versions. And every single one is marvelous. We’ve posted a couple of them here for you to enjoy. Many of them are up on the walls of our offices, as you can see from this picture taken during our Open House. We’re working now to preserve all of them and hopefully publish a volume containing as many as possible.

Our thanks go to Freiss Lake Elementary School, Elm Creative Arts School, and the Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School.

By the way, thanks as well go to columnist Lewis Lazare in the Chicago Sun Times who had some kind words to say about our Christmas card this year which featured some of the children’s art, www.suntimes.com/output/lazare/cst-fin-lew23.html

All this brings up a thought. A lot of companies spend their dollars on scholarships and endowments at the college level. This is a fine and noble thing to do. But we were wondering, how many companies might step up and offer their funding to America’s grade schools?

It seems like that money could go a long way toward uplifting the level of our primary education, to better prepare our kids for high school. It’s understandable why any business would want to solicit talent that is ready to join their ranks. But the need seems to be so pressing at the primary and high school levels, particularly the inner city schools or schools which primarily serve our minorities. The kids at these schools are in real danger of not getting the tools to compete. We simply can’t afford to create a society where the gulf between “haves” and “have-nots” is too big to surmount. That problem, it seems to us, starts at the neighborhood grade school level.

Fortunately, the schools we went to seem to be performing in a superlative way. But, if you’re like me, you’ve probably seen those schools that are well, frankly, being left behind. Along with their students.

Imagination begins so early. It’s a shame to see it shatter against reality.