In 1982, David Blittersdorf, Founder of 2007 Top Small Workplace NRG Systems Inc., entered into business for himself, betting on the growing need for wind measurement in a changing world. The wind power industry was still in its infancy, and from a small rented house in Bristol, Vermont, he set about capitalizing on a niche: renewable energy.
It was a winning bet.
David and his wife, Jan, who is President and CEO of the business, have embodied the Jim Collins approach of picking one thing and doing it well. "We grew this thing from the ground up," says Jan. "There were no profits for the first six years and it was pretty lean. We're now the world leader in wind measurement. We have our niche and we stuck to that niche the entire time."
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In the early years, lack of support from the U.S. government coupled with friendlier tariff and fee laws in Europe helped NRG Systems get a foothold overseas. In recent years, the free market in the U.S., powered by advances in science and technology and savvy entrepreneurs looking to identify and serve their own niches, has met growing demand for ever more renewable energy solutions. For NRG, this momentum has translated to 55 percent of all sales from domestic clientele.
But success can be difficult to navigate. As the business grew from just David and Jan operating out of their modest home office to a much larger company, the risk was great that their unique culture, characterized by shared ownership, open communication and out-and-out environmental responsibility, could be jeopardized.
Creative communication has been a chief agent in the glue that has held the culture together, as employees as diverse as 13-year veteran Chris Tall, engineer on special projects, and Patrick Strom, sales associate for international markets and an employee of over eight years, can attest. "As a larger company, you do need to make more of a concerted effort to keep everyone on the same page," says Tall.
Employees enjoy complementary organic lunches that are prepared on site by a chef who is brought in four days a week. The lunches provide an opportunity for staff from different departments to touch base. The company also regularly hosts workshops that run the gamut from simple book clubs to "do-it-yourself hydroelectrics."
"We're trying different things," says Jan. "But the open communication, bringing as many people together as possible, is the cornerstone."
Open communication intersects with employee ownership in the form of NRG's aggressive profit-sharing plan, which Jan and David mapped out while on vacation in the mid 1990s. "That was when we started to become profitable, and it was important to David and me that employees share in that, in the success as it started to happen," Jan says.
Although strong year-over-year sales growth has turned the plan into an earnings powerhouse for the company's 87 employees – last year, the payout was roughly 50 percent above industry-competitive base pay – it is still widely seen as a comparison tool against the previous month's business, a motivating force and, most of all, a testament to the shared responsibility that comes with being a team member.
And Jan and David have found that the money given back to employees comes back to help the business. "What we get out of it is clearly loyalty and very low turnover," Jan says.
While retention is certainly important, when Jan talks about employee growth, she exemplifies one of the traits that separated the 2007 Top Small Workplaces from the Finalist pool. Namely, she, like many of the other winners, understands that revenue growth by leaps and bounds can potentially negatively impact the culture she's worked so hard to cultivate when sales necessitate many new hires at once.
Being forced to learn how to handle both lean and peak times has resulted in "better strategic planning and recognizing what growth is going to look like," she says.
When NRG does plan to hire, the leadership shapes its benefits to reflect the values of current employees. Perhaps chief among these is environmental stewardship.
"It's a shared passion here," Strom affirms.
NRG's employees are rewarded for their passion for saving the planet. Some of the most popular incentives in this area include:
There are many more impressive incentives for employees to cash in on for lessening their, and the company's, environmental footprint, and David and Jan add to the roster each year to keep it fresh. The company has received so much attention on this front that the leaders have received calls from other companies asking for their advice in implementing similar programs.
"It just makes sense to us, it's walking our talk," Jan says.
Slightly younger than the average 2007 Top Small Workplace at 26 years old (the average winner has been in business for 31 years), NRG has nevertheless weathered many changes, both internal and external. And there will be changes to weather in the years ahead, including adding an extension to their already recently extended, LEED-certified headquarters. But no matter which way the wind blows, the company will be ready to respond.
"The fundamentals will remain on the table as we evolve," says Jan "And it's not going to continue this way unless we continue to work at it."
Company: NRG Systems Inc.
Web site: www.nrgsystems.com
Industry: Renewable resource technologies
Location: Hinesburg, VT
Number of Employees: 87
Sales: $29 million
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