64. Weatherhead 100
As environmental services company EnviroScience Inc. has grown over the past few years, the main lesson that President Marty Hilovsky has learned is that he and CEO Dan Dunstan can’t do it all themselves.
“I’ve got to really rely on the key people and trust their instincts and their experience,” Hilovsky says.
So when, eight years ago, a new employee who had been with the company only a couple of years after starting fresh out of college came to them, they listened. He thought there was a market to work with endangered mussels. The company had never done it and didn’t know much about it, but Dunstan and Hilovsky decided to let him run with it. That guy is now a vice president and runs a division.
And the ecological division of the company was actually started by a college kid washing dishes in the laboratory. He answered the phone and took the initiative to tell a client that the company could do something that it wasn’t doing, but he thought it could do. Hilovsky and Dunstan gave him a shot, and he built a whole division around that one project and one telephone call, and he, too, is now a vice president.
“Understand that everyone makes mistakes and not every time they step in the batter’s box are they going to hit a home run,” Hilovsky says. “Create an environment where you make it safe for people to take a chance and make a mistake, and you also encourage and recognize the wins when they happen and promote those people and reward those people that make it happen.”
The company takes 35 percent of its net profit and gives it back to its employees to encourage and reward them for their efforts.
“Growth is fueled not so much by a master plan or strategy that I’ve developed,” Hilovsky says. … “It comes at the staff level from the people who have been with us for a few years, who have an idea and want to pursue it, and we try to make the resources available for them to do it.”
How to reach: EnviroScience Inc., (800) 940-4025 or www.enviroscienceinc.com
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