A Conversation With ... John Fleming

Job title: Springfield chapter chairman

Education: Engineering degree, Wayne State University-Michigan; Master of Business Administration, Indiana Wesleyan University

Career: 43 years in corporate America; currently owns Enterprise Productivity Consulting LLC

What’s the history of SCORE in Springfield?

It was founded in 1975. We have 32 counselors, two of which are women. About 30 percent of our clients are already in business, so 70 percent are startups. We counsel clients three ways. The majority is face-to-face, then by telephone, then by e-mail, so it’s really up to the client to decide what is their preferred approach. The primary focus in the beginning is to determine their readiness to start a business. Last year, we had 875 client meetings. We average about 70 new clients a month. Everything we do is free, except for a seminar we run at Ozarks Technical Community College five times a year – nine classes that are held on two consecutive Saturdays. That costs $90. We have a Web site at www.springfieldscore.org.

How does SCORE help determine whether someone is ready to launch a business?

Does the family buy in? Is the spouse supportive? What’s their personal financial situation, looking at their own balance sheet of assets and liabilities, looking at their credit scores? … We really are trying to save them a financial loss. We want them to be successful, but if we find out conditions aren’t favorable, we’re going to let them down easy. The second part (of readiness) is what I consider to be the support system. The support system is your ability to manage your business, meaning you either have the skills yourself to cover the broad range of requirements, or you can get it contracted through some outside service.

Does SCORE help build support networks?

We can give (clients) all kinds of ideas about what kinds of software they should buy, but we don’t typically refer clients to specific businesses, because we consider it to be unethical.

Who should consider volunteering as a SCORE counselor?

The majority of our counselors are retired, but at least 10 of them still have their own companies. We have a banker who’s a counselor, and he’s still a banker. We have a couple of restaurant owners who still own their own restaurants. We have two business brokers … we have an insurance agent who still has his own agency. In general, it should be somebody near retirement … somebody who’s accessible. There are counselors … who limit (the amount) of their counseling. We have to be flexible to meet the counselors’ needs. Busy people are the best people … people who like being busy. We’ve learned a lot, and people who want to start their own business, or even people in business ought to value the fact that we’ve been there. We know the pain, and we can help you with that.

Do you want to expand SCORE’s services?

We had a large commercial construction company approach us a few weeks ago and ask if we would be willing to work with their subcontractors to improve their billing, invoicing, inventory management … because when you’re building a large commercial building where the contract is going to last anywhere from one to three years, you need to make sure your subcontractors are viable. What we’re kind of discussing is, how could we develop a partnership with a large construction company? It could be some other industry as well (and we could) kind of be the go-between, the mentor for subcontractors. There are SCORE chapters that do that on a very active level. It’s a great idea … but (it would be) a whole new thing for us to do.

What’s your career experience?

I have 43 years (of experience) in corporate life. The first half of it was with General Motors, and the second half of it was with United Technologies Corp. I’ve traveled all over the world. I was the program manager for 14 Asia plants, and I was also an operations manager for a Carrier air conditioning plant that was also part of United Technologies. I’m an engineer, and my experience is primarily in manufacturing and manufacturing operations. Now, I have my own consulting business, Enterprise Productivity Consulting LLC. I’ve been with SCORE for about three years, and I assumed the chairman role Oct. 1. I’ll serve a one-year term.

What does your consulting firm provide?

Basically, it’s management consulting. I do have one local client that is a custom woodworking company. I can’t name (the local firm), but most of my clients are very large corporations like Snap-On tools. United Parcel Service is a client. Almost all of (my clients) are $10 billion or more in sales.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]