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Leveraging experience: Chad Surprenant CEO of ISG (Mankato, MN), a multi-disciplinary design and engineering firm that has growth in its DNA.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
G rowing up in the industry, Surprenant has had a ground-level understanding of engineering from the time he was six. He worked in the family business throughout high school and college. After college, he joined his parents’ 10-person engineering practice. Over the next several years, he helped ISG leaders grow the company by adding people and services. “Recently, we moved an acquired office from the suburbs into a fresh, redeveloped downtown spot which resulted in better morale from current staff, greater ability to hire elevated talent that may have been previously inaccessible, and providing our current and prospective clients a completely different and positive view of ISG,” Surprenant says. A CONVERSATION WITH CHAD SURPRENANT. The Zweig Letter: What are the three to four key business performance indicators that you watch most carefully? Do you share that information with your staff?
Chad Surprenant: We operate as a one-firm profit center to keep emphasis on markets, not just geographical areas or service groups. Each market has an active strategic plan where market-specific items are tracked; however, from a general business perspective, we use the following performance indicators given that cash is king: ❚ ❚ Current cash position and current break-even status. Cash on hand, fixed-term notes, shareholder notes, line of credit activity, etc. We realize that these are not all truly “current cash position” items; however, we would rather steer clear of leaning on banks too much, so we try to stay cash positive and nimble. In line with current position, we also ensure there’s an understanding of our true break-even expenditures to keep the firm moving forward. As with any AEC firm, there is seasonality to our work, although it’s somewhat more balanced to market diversity. We focus on understanding which months may be cash burn months, but also which must be cash positive. This information is shared in an appropriate manner with market and office leaders, and with Shared Services leaders. . Functioning as a 100 percent ESOP, myself and our firm president, Lynn Bruns, share
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