Entrepreneur Of The Year
Day by day
How Robert Schumacher takes Pole/Zero Corp. one day at a time
Smart Business Cincinnati | July 2007
As president of Pole/Zero Corp., Robert
Schumacher relies on three principles
in order to succeed: evolution, empowerment and perseverance.
His mantra is “Evolution every day, revolution once in awhile.” This philosophy
helped him create more business for
the company, which
designs and manufactures RF filters to
control communication interference
issues. Pole/Zero bids
on long-term government contracts to
develop new products, and competitors usually bid to develop
one product for one situation, which creates high costs and long lead times.
Schumacher saw commercial potential
for products and thought he could build
from core technologies. He led the company to underbid the competition to get the
right projects that would allow him to modify the products for commercial use. This
strategy has made Pole/Zero profitable.
He also works to empower employees to
do what they do best and recognize their
strengths. This helps employees feel like
their efforts matter, which helps them
develop and the company succeed. As a
result, Pole/Zero has seen increased profits
and employees without significant
turnover.
The company has also seen its share of
scary situations, where Schumacher had to
put the company at stake to grow. In the
late 1990s, he led the company to take on
two contracts, the value of which exceeded Pole/Zero’s revenue. Competing companies deemed the work impossible, but
Schumacher created a design to solve the
problem and led his team to successfully
complete the task over two years. As a
result, many competitors have left, saying
they simply can’t compete with Pole/Zero.
HOW TO REACH: Pole/Zero Corp., (513) 870-9060 or
www.polezero.com
