Do you start your business meetings by asking folks to share some gratitude?
That’s how Inmar Intelligence opens its gatherings, CEO Spencer Baird said during a speech at the Greater Winston-Salem Inc. annual meeting this week.
The company’s accelerating success is something worth giving thanks, he emphasized. He noted that few people either in Winston-Salem or globally understand the company’s business. But Inmar’s motto is “Turn Data Into Value,” which has evolved over the past 46 years from grocery coupon redemption work into sophisticated data analytics offerings.
The bottom line is helping save money for consumers and more than 20,000 business clients, including some of the world’s biggest companies, Baird said. Food Lion or Publix customers that grab digital coupons off their smartphones are relying on Inmar’s services, he said. So are 91% of the nation’s hospitals that use the technology to help allocate charges between consumers and their insurers, he said.
We’ll share more about Baird’s comments on Inmar down the road.
Meanwhile, Mark Owens, CEO of the business promotion group, also expressed lots of gratitude at Winston-Salem’s progress. He noted that nearly 3,000 jobs have been created in the city over the past five years, which is more than in the previous decade. The group estimates about $825 million of corporate investment pledged between 2021 and 2025.
Winston-Salem doesn’t claim the jobs and investments pledged near Piedmont Triad International Airport by JetZero, Boom Supersonic and other big companies expanding in the region. But the city and Forsyth County have key influence at the authority-led airport, which is in Guilford County between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, while many workers will be living in the city, Owens said.
He also cited metrics suggesting Winston-Salem is making progress on its three key goals: 1) to be the top mid-sized city in the Southeast by 2030; 2) to become a more equitable city, and 3) to be the best place to raise a family.
The event was the 140th annual gathering of city leaders, with the first occurring in 1885, 10 years after Richard Joshua Reynolds started his tobacco business there.
Over the next year, Winston-Salem Business is working with the Kimley-Horn firm on a strategic study of the city’s strengths and weaknesses. The results will be presented at the group’s 2026 annual meeting.
Three groups were honored at the meeting:
- Jennifer Smith and Jay Pierce of the Mozelle’s and Betty on Burke restaurants received the Small Business of the Year award.
- Novex Innovation is the Innovator of the Year award. It is a contract development and manufacturing organization.
* Regenerative Medical Engine is the Collaboration of the Year honoree. The engine is funded by the National Science Foundation as a grant to the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, with an aim of advancing the regenerative medicine industry.
David Mildenberg is editor of Business North Carolina. Reach him at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.