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Chula Vista president always looking to move forwardInterviewed by Nathan LeafMike Kaminski Position: President, Chula Vista Theme Resort, 4031 River Road, Wisconsin Dells
Age: 46 Education: Degree in jazz music composition from UW-Madison; attended Madison Business College Employees: 350, expected to grow to 700-800 in the next year Family: Wife, Ann, is controller for Chula Vista; son, Jeff, works as a manager at Chula Vista; daughter, Krissy Revenue: Not available About Chula Vista: In 1950, Mike's grandfather, Joe Kaminski, took over Chula Vista when it had only 40 rooms, a six-stool bar, a 20-seat restaurant and dance hall, and no indoor plumbing. The resort has continuously expanded since then. Mike and his brother Tim, a vice president with Chula Vista, began taking the reins from their father, Fred, in the mid-1980s. In June, ground was broken on a $200 million expansion that will include 166 condominiums, an 80,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, a new restaurant, and an addition to the convention facilities. The Kaminski family also owns several other business in the Wisconsin Dells area. Q: How long have you been working the family business and where did you start? A: When I originally started, I worked in the dish room. I worked in the kitchen. I worked my way up through all of those different areas. I started working here originally in 1969 when I was 11 years old and my dad paid me 50 cents an hour to be a dishwasher. I did that for two years and then my younger brother, Joe, joined me and we ran the "clipper" together. That was our nickname for the dishwasher. And then from there at 15 years old, I started cooking and then ultimately I was a bartender and a waiter, an innkeeper, a maintenance guy. We just kept learning every aspect of the business and, in the early 1980s or so, my brother Tim, who's my partner, and I started taking over. Q: How did you decide to join the family business as an adult? A: I'm a schooled chef, but I wanted to be a musician. So I went to the University of Wisconsin. I was a music major, a jazz composition music major. ... I still have great memories of wanting to be a studio musician. I got married and decided that I didn't want anything to do with being an on-the-road musician. And if I couldn't sit in a studio and play and make a ton of money, I said, "I don't want to do this." So I came back here and I was the chef here for the first six or seven years. That was great. We had just built a new restaurant and a new dining room. That was kind of the start of the new Chula Vista. At that point, we were still seasonal. Q: Even though you're the company president, do you still spend time in the kitchen? A: Absolutely. We probably touch the kitchen every day. Tim spends a little bit more time in the kitchen than I do. When Tim was gone (earlier this year), I was in the kitchen. Cooking is a real passion of ours and we have a very nice kitchen in our home, so we can whip up a little something and go outside on the back deck and sit by the pond. Q: What are some of your hobbies? A: Our hobbies over the last couple of years have been our children's sports. (My son) Jeff went to St. John's (Collegeville, Minn.) and played a little junior varsity hockey up there and that was great getting Jeff to that level and watching the success that he had. ... I still coach a little AAA hockey. I have a real passion for hockey. And our daughter, Krissy, will be going to Ohio University (this fall) and be playing Division 1 volleyball. ... We're very excited about it. We've really encouraged our children to make athletics a very big part of their high school and ... college experience. The friends you meet in athletics tend to become your best friends in the whole world. And that's an experience we wanted our kids to have. We always have time for our kids' athletics. Q: Why is athletics such an important part of your life? A: I think it's the discipline it brings to you. What a healthy sense of respect to give a young person that teaches them (the mentality) that "I can compete with them, I can be your best friend and I can be your fiercest competitor." ... I just felt that the athletics have been a huge, huge advantage (for us). Q: Do you still play music? A: No, not really. But we had entertainment here in the hotel for a lot of years. For our 50th anniversary in 2000, Tim had the idea ... "You think it would be worth putting a show together and doing the old Chula Vista Revue like we used to do years ago?" And our Fab '50s (show) was born. We're entering our sixth season. The second year of our show, our guitar player had to leave on the 15th of August. And we didn't have a guitar player. (Members of the band) looked at me and said, "You were a music major." ... I really hadn't picked up a guitar in 15 or 20 years. You don't really forget, but the chops were pretty rusty. Well, I got up there and played the last 15 or 20 shows of the summer and I re-fell in love. ... For the next four years, I continued to play with the show. ... But last year I decided to get out of the show because I was busy. Q: What's your typical day like? A: Right now, we're very involved in the development of the new waterpark, the new condominiums, the new meeting facilities, so I may get up at 6:30, quarter to seven in the morning. I'm usually to work by 7 or 7:30. I'll have meetings with my departments right away in the morning. We talk about future business. I do marketing every day of the week, every hour of the day because we understand that what drives the boat here is people wanting to come up and spend their money in Wisconsin Dells. After my early morning meetings, somewhere around 9 or 9:30, I get into answering the myriad of cell phone messages and e-mail messages. Right now, I'm working with our architects and engineers on finishing up the design of our new multilevel indoor waterpark. At this time of the year, near the end of the day, I guess we all like to kind of go hit some balls on the golf course. In the summertime, we're probably here until 10 o'clock at night. The '50s show gets over at that point and we want to make sure everything went well and they become longer days. I can't honestly imagine trading any of those hours or doing anything differently. Q: Does it feel like a job? A: Absolutely not. It's uncomfortable to take a day off. The typical days are long but, you know, they don't ever seem like work, ever. Q: When you do get a chance, where do you go to unwind? A: We have a little place up on Castle Rock Lake. We thoroughly enjoy the Wisconsin River. We have a boat on the river and we love to go out late in the evening and watch the eagles on the water. Jeff and I are taking flying lessons right now. Ultimately, I'd like to own an airplane and fly down to Athens, Ohio, and watch my daughter's volleyball games. Q: What are the company's goals? A: I think our family and especially Tim and myself have always believed you're either moving forward or you're going backward. The goal is to continue to grow and to continue to find great people to work for us and continue to invite more people to enjoy (our resort). You want people to say, "Boy, the Kaminskis do it right." That's the goal. Q: What are some challenges in accomplishing these goals? A: Any time you bring on a large number of new staff members, getting them up to speed the Chula Vista way always takes a great deal of energy. Not knowing where the economy is at ... maybe gas prices are too high or maybe interest rates are too high, so you don't get that condo sale. Q: How do you ensure that you overcome those challenges? A: I think the longevity that we have here at Chula Vista and the continued results that we always seem to deliver ... are things that are tremendously important. I think that the Kaminskis and our seasoned staff of senior management is there guiding the ship are the solutions. There's a lot of brick and mortar out there. And there's a lot of brick and mortar out there that's nicer than ours. But it's the way that people are treated (that matters). We think the key in our industry ... is the people that we have. That's our greatest strength. Q: How do you get and keep those people? A: We empower people. We train people how to do their jobs before we put them out in the work force. We continue to search and hire only the best people that we can get our hands on. We make ourselves available to our people at any time so that they have the tools it takes to create their own learning curve. Everyone's going to fail to a certain degree. Let's work as a team. Let's make sure that not only do we train, but we follow through with things because that ultimately is going to determine how they make a decision next time. Q: What has been your biggest success at Chula Vista? A: Our annexation to the city of Wisconsin Dells. Two years ago, we started down the road. We wanted to build some condominiums. We had the golf course in our sight. We wanted to do great things with a newer, better indoor waterpark concept. And we wanted to continue to enhance our meeting and conference business. Working with the DNR and the city of Wisconsin Dells and trying not to (incense) the community that we may possibly be leaving (Dell Prairie). But we rose to the challenge and we created the best win-win that we could. The simple fact that this past April we actually completed the annexation to Wisconsin Dells and we were able to break ground (on all of those projects). ... We're pretty proud of that. Q: What have been your mistakes? A: When I was young, I was a tremendous micromanager. I wanted to be involved in everybody's decisions. ... Hopefully now, though I want to be informed, I want my people to make decisions. I think that's something that I've outgrown. I think that I'm a better manager because of that. There are still things that I like to keep my finger on and it's hard to let go. Q: What did you learn from those mistakes and how did you move away from micromanaging? A: When you ultimately find some success with some of your people and they do something better than you did, it makes it very easy to let go. We have had a variety of those success stories. What I've learned throughout making those kind of mistakes is that it's OK to let go and that it's probably more profitable to let go. You know what? You probably end up with a better product when you let go. It teaches you to be a better trainer and motivator. Q: What do you like about doing business in the Dells? A: One thing stands true in Wisconsin Dells. We understand that if we all invest in each other and our community, then we have a better chance to succeed. Q: What makes doing business in the Dells difficult? A: The bar is so high in Wisconsin Dells that raising the bar can be a tremendous challenge. Nleaf@madison.com madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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