Change Is Brewing <i>Entrepreneur</i> and Xerox stir things up with a new look for a very deserving brewery.

Editor's note: Looking for our online exclusives? Thom Filicia's additional design tips are at the end of this article. To read about last year's makeover and to view a slideshow, read "To the Rescue."

"Please excuse our outdated office," Randy Sprecher would begin, standing in a drab space that pretended to be a lobby. And if people looked down the narrow room filled with cubicles and doorways, they would see décor that smacked of the 1970s--even though the business had come into being in 1985. Sprecher would explain to visitors that his brewery put all its resources into its beer, root beer and other sodas. And if the office appeared to be having a particularly bad day, Sprecher might go further in his act of contrition, saying: "We put all the emphasis on quality control, training our people, making payroll, providing a good health plan ..." Then he would try to change the subject.

Sprecher never held important meetings in the Milwaukee offices of Sprecher Brewing Co. Inc. He did his best to take people anywhere else. Or if they dropped by unexpectedly, he would take guests on a tour of the brewing facilities, which he was understandably proud of. Above all, he avoided leading anyone into the nucleus of his operations.