Written by: Kurt Frohlich – President
As I look back on the last calendar year, there are several notable changes and milestones that warrant further reflection.
On the personal side, it’s been almost six months without being dedicated to deliverables on a given project, which is the first time that’s happened since Apex was founded in 2001. While Apex senior leadership and others have been advocating this change for years, it’s been difficult to turn into a reality for several reasons. First, I love the work and the excitement of adding value to a client’s project because I know we make an impact wherever we’re assigned. Second, Apex has always and continues to run lean, and I always felt pressure to cover operating expenses by being billable. But as our book of work continues to expand, I finally realized that after being an individual contributor for 16 years while running a growing and successful company for 11 of those years, I needed to change my focus. I now devote the majority of my time to supporting our teams, helping to manage our sponsors, and ensuring the quality of our services and deliverables. This has not been an easy transition for me, but I’m fortunate to be surrounded by talented and dedicated people across the board who I really enjoy working with and helping where I can. And I’m excited about the results so far and the company direction…most notably in the area of strategic consulting.
The Apex strategic vision has always been to develop long-term client relationships, learn as much as possible about their operations, systems and processes, and turn that hard-fought knowledge into a self-evident value proposition. In our almost 10 years as a vendor with our largest client, this has happened over time but in isolated areas. However, this has accelerated greatly into several other areas by solidifying our position as a strategic partner. When we see our previously presented “blue sky” cost-saving and strategic ideas make their way into their presentations as efforts to be undertaken, there’s no greater compliment.
As for the general health of the company; this year we crossed a staffing milestone of 50+ employees; we were nominated again as one of the Best Places to Work in Reno; we have maintained a desired level of profitability and growth during the worse economy since the Great Depression; we implemented a 401K and profit sharing program, and Apex remains debt-free. We’ve also re-dedicated ourselves to raising our collective competence bar through a robust series of internal training events. Our investment in a dedicated Apex Training Manager has really paid off this year.
Lastly, any update would be incomplete without mention of the great work that Tech is Good has done this year. It became a 501C3 non-profit organization; our financial and computer equipment scholarship program helped fourteen more students who are attending the University of Nevada or TMCC this year; and we just concluded our Tech Teacher of the Year contest in which $8,000.00 will be awarded to Reno area teachers so they can purchase much needed technology/equipment for their classrooms (see http://techisgood.org/tech-teacher-of-the-year/).
In the course of taking stock and reflecting on the last 12 months, I hope you’re as impressed with our collective accomplishments as I am. Great things are in store as we take advantage of the solid foundation that we have built through our teams’ dedication, time, energy, and enthusiasm. I’m honored to work with such a great group of people, and for that I say a heartfelt “Thank You”!
Have a safe and happy Holiday Season!
All the best,
Kurt
