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Springfield, MO

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From left: Jeven Russell, Nathan Mindeman, Robert Lister and Darin Wray
SBJ photo by Jessica Rosa
From left: Jeven Russell, Nathan Mindeman, Robert Lister and Darin Wray

2019 Dynamic Dozen No. 2: Russell Cellular Inc.

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Springfield Business Journal: What has been key to your recent growth?
Jeven Russell: We’ve been in business for just over 25 years. We’ve been a part of an industry that’s continued to grow year over year. For us, I think more than anything, it’s just been the commitment to our roots and staying true to where ae businaess was founded. Our three pillars – opportunity, value and team – that’s always at the forefront of what we’re doing. We always want to be a company that people are proud to work for. It doesn’t matter what you sell or what services you offer. We’re all in the people business.

From day one, Jeff and Kym [Russell] have always talked about … making sure we have something that is duplicatable, something that we have solid systems and have the right resources and the right people. That’s something we continue to focus on every single day … empowering individuals in our company to do their part and own their part of the business, and making sure that we’re investing in the right systems.

SBJ: Russell Cellular is building a $6 million, nearly 42,000-square-foot headquarters in Battlefield. What led to that development?
Russell: We built our first headquarters out in Battlefield about 11 years ago. As much as we’ve continued to grow and expand to new states and new markets, keeping our roots here and being able to have our corporate office headquartered out of Springfield and the Battlefield area, that was a huge sense of pride for us. We’re across four offices now. We’re looking forward to the new building because it’s something our team will be proud to be in. It definitely attributes to the growth we’ve had the last couple years, and part of that is really forecasting and foreseeing what growth will look like for the rest of 2019 and into 2020, as well. We expect to move in the first of the year.

SBJ: What are your top issues when it comes to managing growth?
Russell: We have a responsibility to our team across the nation to ensure that we’re making smart decisions with our growth. We want to make sure that we’re helping our team members and our existing footprint continue to grow to develop those markets, to continue to impact those communities and serve more customers. We probably turn down more opportunities than we opt in for, just simply knowing that that may not be the right investment. As long as we continue to focus on our employee and customer experience, I’m confident we’ll continue to make those right decisions. Along with that, we’re obviously part of an industry that changes daily – new manufacturers and new technology at the forefront all the time. Obviously, Verizon is our key partner.

SBJ: Do you see your growth being sustainable in the long run?
Russell: I do. Being technology driven, we’re on the forefront of, some are calling it, the next industrial revolution with 5G technologies.

We’re very optimistic about what the future of wireless looks like, how this will continue to grow into different segments of different industries, from city infrastructure to medical to manufacturing.

You just have to keep the same quality at all times. If you get bigger, you just have to figure out a way to keep that quality there.

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