Never Stop Learning: Interview with David Indursky, President of ENCON
I recently went one on one with David Indursky, President of ENCON.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here?
David: Over the past decade, I've been laser-focused on growing my business. My mindset is: grow or die. Our current team is solid, which has allowed us to gain market share. While it was by design to have 10-20% growth, we've far exceeded those numbers. It all started with a goal and a plan to track it. It was intentional. And the tricky part was building the infrastructure for our team while we were growing and making sure sales didn't outpace operations in a harmful manner.
Adam: What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
David: The failures that fueled our growth occurred when we got too busy and lost focus on our business’s blocking and tackling. When you're chasing a big opportunity, and there's no one focused on the cost structure and how you're spending money, it's easy to veer off track quickly. If you take your eye off what you do well every day, there will be a time you'll look back and wonder how you got so far off the mark.
My advice is not to get too wrapped up in the day-to-day to avoid veering off the path. For example, in our industry, we're all about controlling labor and material costs on projects. And that needs to be a focus daily – it cannot be done once a month. Early in my career, we were too busy with other aspects of the business; we lost our focus, it came back to hurt us.
My mantra is: if someone's not focusing on our company's cost structure daily as part of their job, it's only a matter of time before you'll wind up in big trouble. Someone has to be blocking and tackling daily for the core fundamentals of your business.
Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business?
David: To grow and scale your business, you need a clear roadmap. It needs to happen by design, not by accident. Define your marketplace, define where you want to scale and grow, and ensure along the way that you have the proper stop gaps in place to expand successfully.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
David: Listening to your team and the world around you are the defining qualities of an effective leader. Then, make the best decisions with the information you have on hand at the moment.
David: A bad decision is worse than no decision. So the consensus within the team is vitally important. However, being confident in your decision-making and looking at the impacts of your decisions is also essential. Then, if you were wrong, circle back and be agile enough to course correct.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
David: Practice. Leadership changes and evolves with time. What worked yesterday with a particular group may not work tomorrow. So the old adage that "we've done it for years" may not be the best way to lead going forward. As a leader, if you're not changing and evolving, it's a problem.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
David:
Most importantly, it's essential to create a company culture.
Be true to the values you're instilling in your product, services, and organization.
It's crucial to constantly evaluate your current team, ensuring you have the most qualified associates in the right roles.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
David: Invest in continuing education to ensure your teams are thriving professionally. For example, I've hired career coaches to work with our leadership team, and then they share those new skills with their teams, so there's a trickle-down effect throughout the company.
Never stop learning how to be a better leader, whether that's the books you read, the people you associate with, and learn from other leaders’ successes and failures.
Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding?
David: In sales, you need to be a good listener with your customers and respond to them. Listen, change, adapt, and be nimble.
You've got to invest in your marketing and branding using techniques best suited to your business. Market and develop your brand tailored to your specific marketplace. It comes down to fundamentally knowing your clientele. Know the market you want to serve and focus your marketing resources there. Our company is 50+-years-old, and we saw significant impacts on our business when we re-branded two years ago. Our strategic approach to social media, PR, and marketing has raised my company's profile.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
David: Never stop learning, and don't be afraid to fail. You learn more from your failures than you do from your successes.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
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