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CEO shares secrets of entrepreneurial success

Smith-Root chief speaks to small business owners

By Gordon Oliver, Columbian Business Editor
Published: November 20, 2014, 12:00am
3 Photos
Jeff Smith, president and CEO of Smith-Root, a told small business owners and entrepreneurs to look for opportunities in uncharted territory and to develop a broad perspective about competitors and economic conditions.
Jeff Smith, president and CEO of Smith-Root, a told small business owners and entrepreneurs to look for opportunities in uncharted territory and to develop a broad perspective about competitors and economic conditions. Smith spoke Wednesday at a business seminar hosted by Washington State University Vancouver's Business Growth Map Alliance. Photo Gallery

In an era in which companies draw on behavioral research tools to hire employees, it’s somehow reassuring to learn that the CEO of a highly successful local company measures job applicants in part on whether their cars are clean and uncluttered.

“There’s the old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover,” said Jeff Smith, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Smith-Root, a manufacturer of fisheries technology products. “I disagree. There’s a lot to be discovered by looking at the cover.”

Smith drew on a lifetime of business successes and failures Wednesday during an hourlong discussion in downtown’s Bank of America building attended by some two dozen entrepreneurs and small business owners. The session, part of a new business seminar series ,was hosted by Washington State University’s Business Growth MAP Alliance, an outgrowth of its student-led analysis program for small businesses. The next session will be on Jan. 21.

Smith, a brother of the company’s founder and himself a founder of several companies, has run Smith-Root for 15 years. During that time, he weathered the recession by focusing on its strongest products and markets, while also launching initiatives that are now paying dividends in an improved economy. Founded in 1964, the global company produces and sells electronics equipment for fisheries researchers and managers, including electronic barriers that keep fish away from dams and other hazards, and one that keeps unwanted sea lions away from docks. It’s now developing a way to anesthetize fish, as a replacement for the use of chemicals in fish management. That product was recently tested on alligators in commercial farms in Louisiana, although Smith was skeptical about that application.

“The more we do, the more we learn, but I’m not so sure about the alligators,” he said.

On the session’s theme of “Secrets of Entrepreneurial Success,” Smith had plenty of ready examples. He advised against jumping into what he called “me too markets,” stuffed with established companies that have already paid their dues. He urged entrepreneurs to instead look for not-so-obvious areas of unmet need, and develop a business plan that is adaptable to changing conditions and competition. He described himself as self-taught in business and said he often operated without a formal plan, but said he recognizes that he “probably could have done a lot better” with a plan in place.

A key to success, Smith said, is what he called peripheral vision — knowing your competitors and what’s going on in the larger world that could affect your company and its products. “It’s important to force yourself to have a broad perspective,” he said.

Smith somewhat hesitantly told a story of an earlier business failure, when he owned a contracting company and got into a dispute when a client refused to pay a large portion of a construction bill. The dispute developed into a drawn-out legal battle that led to the company’s financial failure, he said. While he still believes he was on solid legal footing, Smith said he now recognizes what he calls his own arrogance in refusing to negotiate a settlement.

“Sometimes you have to swallow your pride to move forward,” he said.

Yet Smith left no question that having strong people skills is a big key to entrepreneurial success. He urged his audience members to ask questions and listen to others instead of just talking, and to have a strong sense of their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they present themselves to others. Smith said he takes note of people’s body language, how they talk and how they dress, down to the shine of their shoes. When he finishes an interview, he likes to walk candidates to their cars to learn what he can, not from the model of car they drive, but whether they keep it clean. Smith suggested looking in a mirror and asking, “Would you hire you?’ “

His advice for building a strong company culture: make sure employees know the answer is “Yes” to these questions: “Can I trust you? Do you care about me? Are you committed to me?” The company has been so successful in developing a strong culture, he said, that it is now employee-owned.

And, like most entrepreneurs, Smith offered a message of optimism. Rapid technological advances have opened countless new opportunities, he said,

“This is a fun time to be in business,” he said. “There are so many exciting things out there. “

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Columbian Business Editor