We were lucky to catch up with Jonathan Orpin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jonathan , we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
I have based much of my life and career on the triple bottom line, the belief that people, planet, and profit work together to ensure a better future. Most folks in business only look at their financial bottom line and that is important, no doubt, because without profit there is no business. But the financial bottom line is not the only important part of running a business and it is certainly a very limited way to approach your life.
The other two filters I consider just as important in business is People and Planet. In people of course I mean my coworkers and our clients, but I mean all people: our neighbors, our community, our nation, and the people of this world. Which leads us to Planet. Should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention how badly we need to shift our thinking about this planet.
On a very fundamental level, I am a lifelong entrepreneur, and founder of multiple businesses, all of which are still operating. I didn’t do any of it on my own. My career has taken me on an extraordinary journey and along the way has put many great and talented people into my life. The people I have worked with have helped me build both New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks into the bi-coastal industry leading companies that they are today, and my greatest professional accomplishment has to be passing along the ownership of these companies to the employees who made it possible through an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). Utilizing an ESOP as a means of succession planning ensures these companies will continue to lead the way in sustainable forward thinking business practices for decades in a democratized workplace.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I believe mentoring to be part of what it means to be an entrepreneur. I certainly didn’t get New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks to be a $46 million set of companies on my own, and it seems like the right thing to do to help others through business issues. Especially when they’re using their company to make their community or our planet a better place. Informally I have helped some of my own past coworkers start their own businesses. I have sat at the table with competitors who are on the precept of change and shared how we have made it through something similar, or how we might go about it if we have not.
More formally I am an active member of a NESEA’s BuildingEnergy Bottom Lines group (https://nesea.org/about-buildingenergy-bottom-lines) which brings architectural, design, and build companies who are working off the triple bottom line business model (the Triple Bottom Line (3BL) of People, Planet, and Profit as their guiding business principles)together for information sharing, problem solving, and comradery. As a senior member of this group, and as one of the largest revenue/employer CEOs in the group, I have had many conversations with these peers about how to face challenges in the market, business development, and growth & marketing. Right now I am working more on transfer of ownership mentoring, through our experience going through ESOP buy out and working on developing our next generation of senior leaders. At the same time, I am working to start a BuildingEnergy Bottom Lines group on the West Coast, which could use the same mentoring/peer sharing as the NESEA groups.
Lastly, I believe strongly in education through experience. Since our inception we have had an all-hands business meeting once a year (sometimes more often) where go through the numbers as a company. Whether you’re in management, or a tradesman who pulls nails in our denailing bunk, I want you to know how we’re doing as a company. The only way that this information will be helpful is if you have some business acumen, so we also use that time to go over the basics of business economics. At its simplest form it’s become known as “Jonathan’s Famous Business Chart” and there are coworkers of mine who have sat through this for 20 years and can recite it. But my goal is to help all of the folks in our companies understand what is needed from the numbers to be successful – whether that is here, or in another business.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
#1 Take risks. As a company founder/owner and longtime entrepreneur, I take risks every day. Years ago, a management book was circulating called The E Myth by Michael E. Gerber, whose premise was that entrepreneurs don’t actually take risks. My guess is that Mr. Gerber was not actually an entrepreneur himself.
As an example, here’s one of many: In 2006 I made the decision to move to the west coast with my family and one coworker, far from our home base in western New York, to start a sister organization, mimicking much (although not all) of the services we provide from our New York facility. The thinking was that as a company we would more easily be able to service the entire country, tap into the west coast love for wood-and-timber-intensive architectural style (for which we are known), and be right in the midst of big timber country, which we use, obviously. This would also enable us to best supply each coasts manufacturing efforts as well.
The risk, not insubstantial, is that the founder and president was leaving the main facility to start a similar one on the far coast basically from scratch. The risk paid off, we are now a bi-costal operation employing 130+ craftsmen and coworkers that are more than just employees, but co-owners as we have grown to become 100% employee owned as an ESOP.
#2 Be Resilient. Resilience is as necessary, daily, as oxygen. A big one would be a continuation of the story about risk, and the move to the west coast. You may recall this timing was the start of the Great Recession, caused by the collapse of the housing market. We made a commitment to not initiate layoffs, or cutback on salaries and benefits. We made work, we took whatever jobs we could find, we participated in shared work programs, invested in marketing, and we all put our shoulders to the wheel. As the recession eased up, we were thus able to come out of it largely intact, and ready to get healthy again.
#3 Share the successes. When you can raise wages, do. When you can offer better benefits, do it. When you can bring your coworkers into some form of democratic-ownership so that you can transition out and leave the company in the hands that built it alongside you, do it. The most expensive part of your business, and often the reason for your success, are your employees. Those who are coming to work as if this business is their own — create polices, packages, and succession plans that reward this. The more investment you have from your teams, and the less attrition of good talent, the more successful you will be.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The big challenge I have taken on at this stage in my career is transitioning New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks into 100% Employee-Ownership through an ESOP or Employee Stock Ownership Plan (which is the largest wealth building tool an employer can provide) as a means of succession planning as a Founder/Owner, I have taken these businesses and ensured that the 140+ craftspeople who have worked so hard to build up these companies share in their success long-term by making each one of them a business owner. This is no easy task…
I like to think that by creating a community of craftspeople through our two companies I have given a lot of folks careers instead of jobs, helped families plant roots & grow, elevated what it means to be a person who works with their hands, brought sustainable building materials and practical leadership into the business community, as well as collectively striving to push for continued growth of manufacturing in the USA.
My goal as I begin to transition the leadership of these companies to the employee-owners is to cement the pieces of the company that helped make us who we are. Looking at business decisions through the lenses of people and planet – not just profit. Writing governance and making business moves that will show others that you can transition out of original-owner to democratic-ownership and still keep the ethos the companies were founded on intact.
What I hope to happen as a result of this transition effort is that New Energy Works and Pioneer Millworks will continue to push for buildings to have a pivotal role in reversing climate change and push the boundaries sustainable wood—one of the best carbon sequestering materials we have—through creative products & investment. I hope these now 100% employee-owned companies we will continue to offer beautiful timber frame structures and manufacture some of the finest wood materials on the market so that our homes & buildings become places we treasure for generations, not throw away.
In the end, when business can do more than make money, but also make our planet healthier & our people/communities stronger – that’s when real business leadership shows through. Passing the torch of leadership is a challenge, but it is possible, and an ESOP is a rewarding and thoughtful way to achieve it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://newenergyworks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newenergyworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewEnergyWorksTimberframers/
- Other: https://pioneermillworks.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pioneermillworks/
https://www.facebook.com/PioneerMillworks
Image Credits
Courtesy of New Energy Works & Pioneer Millworks
