Research

At the heart of entrepreneurship

Some entrepreneurs dream about starting an enterprise their whole lives long, while others chase new inspiration. Yet regardless of their path, the vision for the entrepreneurs behind Kitchell, Ersland Touch Landscape, IO, I-ology and Melrose Pharmacy, was to touch the lives of people. And touch our lives they do — by treating their customers like family, maximizing the potential of our data centers, helping us build business tools for the future, erecting businesses from the ground up and making medicines that are as individual as we are.

2014-12-03

That’s exactly why these Valley-based businesses were named the winners of the 18th annual Spirit of Enterprise Awards from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Whether they came to market with a big idea or small improvement, these companies fill a gap in the market, solve problems and provide great value — each with a unique recipe for success.

Empowering employees to empower the community

Founded by an entrepreneur in 1950, Kitchell is a construction company that continues to reinvent itself — driven by a massive crew of in-house entrepreneur/owners — all Kitchell employees. “Very early on, our founder Sam Kitchell discovered that one plus one could equal three, if he included his management team in ownership,” says Jim Swanson, president and CEO of the winner of this year’s Hahnco Special Achievement in Entrepreneurship Award. “Over time that has translated into a 100-percent employee-owned company.”

As owners, employees have the incentive and motivation to innovate. They can also access support and mentorship through the Kitchell Champions program. “Champions allows employees with a passion for doing new things to go ahead and experiment,” Swanson says. “If they have a good plan, a great idea, and the commitment to stick with it, we will find a way to support those people in those ventures.”

The company is dedicated to not only evolving, but evolving alongside its home state — and helping Arizona thrive. “One of the reasons Kitchell is so successful is because we’re committed to the communities in which we work and live,” Swanson adds. “We will continue to grow in Arizona, build big projects in Arizona and be an important part of the skyline here.”

Finding a niche, and sticking with it

“Very simply, we mow grass and we trim bushes … and we do a great job at it,” says Rick Ersland, owner, founder and CEO of Ersland Touch Landscape, the winner of this year’s Overcoming Adversity Award. With more than 30 years in business, the company that started with one man, one pickup truck and one lawn mower now tends the grounds of more than 400 residences and 20 homeowners associations across the Valley. According to Ersland, a core competency that focuses on the customer — and a signature “Ersland touch”— has enabled the company to stand out in a saturated industry, overcome significant farm debt and continue thriving year after year.

Ersland has found success by sticking with what he knows the company can deliver and deliver well. Landscape maintenance is the company’s sweet spot so rather than adding new services, Ersland has found ways to improve upon what’s already working through processes like job costing. Customer service is another area in which the company excels. “We’ve built our business on excellent customer service,” Ersland says. “We answer the phone on the first or second ring, we make our appointments on time and we keep any promises we’ve made to our customers.”

Challenging the status quo

While the rest of the industry built solutions as unique as snowflakes, the winner of this year’s Emerging Enterprise Award had disruptive ideas about reinventing IT through standardization. IO’s patented software-defined data center (SDDC) is lauded by major research firms as the future of infrastructure — a future that’s sure to be dynamic with IO at the helm. “I think it’s very much about how we endeavor to deconstruct things to rebuild them. That’s in our DNA,” says George Slessman, CEO and product architect at IO. “We thrive in complexity and we thrive in change.”

Through a process of deconstructing what exists to rebuild what should exist, IO President Tony Wanger believes challenging the status quo has been instrumental to the company’s success. “We always felt that given a lack of legacy constraints and given a blank sheet of paper, we could do more and do better,” he says.

Add in the passion of its founding team, and that’s the IO recipe for success. “In the context of IO, I think it really comes down to this founder culture,” Slessman adds, “because the founders have such passion for what they’re doing, such passion for what they’re developing and such an encompassing sense of ownership. That’s what ultimately drives the success of the organization.”

Staying small — and flat

Although it wasn’t Trish Bear’s original game plan for I-ology, staying small became an obvious avenue to excellence when demand for web-based services declined during the recession. The web-based technology and operations provider is the winner of this year’s Gary L. Trujillo Minority Enterprise Award sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. “When a professional services firm gets to a certain size,” she explains, “you lose intimacy with the clients as a strategic partner, your margins shrink and employee issues grow.”

I-ology is today staffed by a small team of specialists who develop compelling interactive experiences for a core group of clients. “We provide tools and develop applications to help our clients grow, evolve and serve their audiences,” Bear says. “This includes the look and feel and the overall experience for a user, as well as all the backend development.”

The talent at I-ology is outstanding — something Bear knows is hard to find and even harder to keep around. “Retaining great talent in this industry is challenging, so I set out to create an entirely different business model,” she says, explaining her choice to restructure I-ology as a partnership model. “They’re all business owners, on track to make partner.” With the incentive and bandwidth to take the business to the next level, that’s exactly what the I-ology team plans to do and keep doing.

Taking a customized approach to service

“We believe the wellness of an individual goes beyond just filling prescriptions,” says Teresa Stickler, owners and pharmacist at Melrose Pharmacy, the winner of this year’s Innovation in Entrepreneurship Award. “A lot of times there are mental, spiritual or social concerns that need to be addressed.”

Addressing those needs has always been important to Stickler, who left her career in retail pharmacy so she could provide her patients with higher-quality care.

Her independent pharmacy today fills prescriptions, while also catering to the entire individual through compounding — the art and science of creating individually customized medications. Melrose Pharmacy staff work with patients to identify their ideal form and composition, before delivering compounded medications as everything from pills and topical creams to lozenges and ear gels. Stickler credits much of her success to per-patient customization, which is really an extension of strong customer service in her mind.

Meeting unique patient needs continues to be an important part of her business model, and a main driver of innovation at Melrose Pharmacy. Most recently it has led Stickler to improve upon her already successful model with onePac — a pharmacy automation system that individually wraps medications, organized by date and time — the first of its kind in Phoenix. “This machine places Melrose Pharmacy in a league of its own,” she says. “There’s apparent value for both patients and caregivers.”

Getting to the heart of it all

When it comes to their individual recipes for success, heart is the common ingredient for each of these entrepreneurs. They know that business acumen helps, as does a great idea. But when you’re all in — and willing to take a leap of faith — it’s so much easier to trust the process.

“They didn’t take the easy way — they committed to hard work and excellence and built something great,” says Sidnee Peck, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the W. P. Carey School of Business. “Having the honor of coordinating the 2014 Spirit of Enterprise Awards I was reminded of how many impressive and dedicated Arizonans are doing this every single day.”

Peck believes it is vital to share these stories with students, alumni and the business community, to help aspiring entrepreneurs find their own recipes for success and every entrepreneur-at-heart find the motivation they need to take a leap — and never look back. “The companies we celebrate are a shining example,” she says, “of the incredible impact a person with a dream can have on a community and its economy … the heartbeat of our liberties and freedoms.”

Entrepreneurship Management