Lindal goes beyond the family tree

For the first time since Lindal Cedar Homes was founded 62 years ago, someone with a surname other than Lindal is entering the top executive ranks.

Michael Harris will become president and chief operating officer of the family-owned company effective Sept. 1. It's a big step for the Seattle-based maker of custom cedar houses, though Harris is hardly a stranger.

"We've known him for years," said CEO Bob Lindal, going back to when Harris was running Boston-based competitor Deck House.

"At various times my father, my brother and I all made trips out to Deck House to look at buying the company," Lindal said. "He's hardly an unknown quantity."

Deck House eventually was sold to someone else, and Harris hired on as a consultant to help prepare Lindal's long-term strategic plan.

Coincidentally, succession planning was on Bob Lindal's mind, having announced earlier this year that he would retire in five to 10 years.

Lindal's two daughters both work for the company, as does his nephew, but the family decided that Harris' three decades of experience in the custom-home business was the right fit right now.

The moves also should reassure the company's 170 workers, as well as its distributors, contractors and suppliers, that the company will be around for a while.

"Having a succession plan gives people a lot of comfort," Lindal said. "They need confidence that this [business] is something that warrants their putting their time and effort into making it work."

The company was founded by Lindal's father, Sir Walter Lindal, in 1945. After a stint as a public company, the controlling family shareholders took it private in 2001; now eight family members share ownership. The company's status isn't likely to change: Lindal called going private "the best move we ever made."

And, unlike the giant homebuilders who've been hammered by the mortgage meltdown, Lindal Cedar Homes is holding its own (though new orders are a bit soft).

"I expect to finish the year up in revenue," Lindal said. "We're not up much, but we're up. People are flabbergasted when I tell them that."

— Drew DeSilver

The cost of doing business in the state

Washington state is hardly the cheapest — or most expensive — place in which to do business, but it's not too far off the national norm.

That was the conclusion of a new report from the Milken Institute that compared business costs among all 50 states.

Although Washington had the 15th-highest overall ranking, its index score was 102.7, meaning the total cost of doing business here was just 2.7 percent above the national average. Last year, the state placed 17th.

The study used 2006 data in five categories, the most important being wage levels, which accounted for half a state's final score. Other factors in the index were tax burden, electricity cost, and the cost of renting industrial and office space.

Washington's highest ranking, not surprisingly, was in the office-rent category.

The state's score of 136.2 means that it costs over a third more than the national average to rent space here, but that only determined 5 percent of the overall ranking. Electricity, which costs 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour here (26 percent less than the national average) made up 15 percent of the index score.

The average annual wage per Washington employee last year was $43,711, 10th-highest in the nation but only 4.3 percent higher than the national average.

The most expensive states, for the second year in a row, were Hawaii, New York and Alaska; South Dakota repeated as the least costly state.

Of our Northwest neighbors, Oregon ranked 29th and Idaho came in 46th.

You can find complete state-by-state results at:

http://www.milkeninstitute.org/research/research.taf?cat=indexes

— Drew DeSilver

Web site revels in subprime disaster

Can't get enough of the bad news rippling out of the subprime-mortgage meltdown? This Web site should fill that gap.

At www.ml-implode.com/, the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter tracks reports of failed or endangered mortgage lenders, and related financial fiascos.

It's a rich vein to mine right now: 15 to 20 articles a day, mostly in the mainstream media.

The headlines that don't carry news of layoffs or bankruptcies tend to focus on recriminations, such as this one from this past week: "Top Swiss banker attacks US lending standards as 'unbelievable' "

The Implode-O-Meter itself is up to 135 companies — no, wait, it's 137.

These including Mountlake Terrace-based mortgage lender MILA, which shut its doors in April and laid off 300 workers.

— Rami Grunbaum

This could be a latte nonsense

Elsewhere on the Web: A cranky personality reader calling herself "The Oracle of Starbucks" claims she can divine everything about your character based solely on your Starbucks order.

A latte drinker, for example, is "a simple person with modest tastes and a reasonable lifestyle. In other words, you're boring."

Same goes for F rappuccino and drip coffee drinkers, although if you add soy to an order, you become a "hippie" who has "dabbled in Wicca or other pseudoreligions that attract morons and have changed your sexual orientation a few times this year. You probably live in California."

Order something more sophisticated like a cappuccino or straight espresso and you're diagnosed as prone to wearing trendy wire-rimmed glasses even though you have perfect vision; what's more, "You've probably added an accent to your name or changed the pronunciation to seem sophisticated." The self-proclaimed Oracle can be consulted at www.buttafly.com/starbucks/.

Just click the stern face hand drawn onto a Starbucks cup,encircled by a Starbucks-green Oracle insignia.

The woman behind the Oracle is Jennifer Bishop Fulwiler of Austin, Texas, whose Starbucks ordering wisdom remains popular among e-mail forwarders.

In case macchiato drinkers think they have escaped the Oracle's sneer, take this: Your personality type is "clueless," and "you would like to order a Tazo Chai Crème but don't know how to pronounce it."

— Melissa Allison