2019 W. Curtis Strube Small Business Award Finalist: ESC Inc. Consulting Engineers

SBJ photo by Jessica Rosa

Executive: Scott Bybee, principal engineer
Employees: 35
Services: Mechanical, electrical, civil and structural engineering, and consulting
Founded: 1989

30
ESC Inc. is in its 30th year of engineering. Eugene Bybee, Scott Bybee’s father, started the business in the basement of his north Springfield home. He hired his first employee two years later. It moved to its current home at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Atlantic Street in 1999. The abandoned building was originally constructed as a neighborhood grocery store.

FLEXIBLE
The firm pays its employees on an hourly basis, rather than salary, so team members can “customize their work hours to match their lifestyle, coordinate work time around family events and react to when ‘life’ happens and a 40-hour workweek is not possible,” Bybee says. The company also provides flexible working hours.

HEART
The engineering firm has focused on hiring people who care since its early days. “There are many excellent technical people or engineers in our society who have exceeding intelligence and capabilities,” reads one of ESC’s earliest employee handbooks. “The difference between a good engineer and a good consultant is what is in the heart of that person. … Good engineers and good consultants listen to serve.”

3D
ESC offers 3D laser scanning and modeling, which officials say sets them apart in the industry. The technology, which the company has used on dozens of projects, provides more accurate field measurements and 360-degree images. They say it allows clients to view a product with a visually precise model of a facility.