A Conversation With ... Scott Bybee

Job title: President

Education: Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Missouri University of Science & Technology

In his free time: Bybee distributes copies of “The Total Money Makeover” by radio host Dave Ramsey, who advocates getting out of debt

Tell us about your company.

My dad, Eugene Bybee, worked for (Mid-America Dairymen Inc.) for years while I was a kid growing up, and was an engineer for them. He’s a mechanical engineer who graduated from Rolla as well. In the mid- to late ‘80s, he went out on his own and started ESC in our basement at a house out north of town, and grew clients in normal engineering like building design, and some in industrial, like food-processing. We incorporated in 1990, and along the line added electrical, civil and structural engineering. We’re at 35 people now. I’ve been president for about two years.

What is ESC’s client base?

Regionally, we do a lot of food-process (projects). Kraft is a big one (and) Schreiber, (Dairy Farmers of America Inc.), some of the flavoring (companies) around here. ... We’re also doing projects for 3M here in Springfield, Nevada (Mo.) and out in California. (Paul Mueller Co.) does a lot of big skids, these big, huge systems, and we do stuff for Mueller on the control side. They do all the process design and design all the systems, and we design all the electrical controls … to make it go. We do City Utilities (projects) and for Springfield Public Schools, we do some electrical support for them when they do electrical upgrades. We have eight or nine programmable logic controller programmers who do industrial controls. … We’ll design a process for Kraft or Reckitt Benckiser … mechanically, and then we would electrically figure out how to power it and do all of the instrumentation.

Has the company’s client focus changed?

Yes. We used to have an architect a few years ago, and we lost him, and it was kind of a God thing, I think, for us. A lot of our engineers really like to do the industrial stuff, but the food-processing stuff is really where our heart is. We went through a business analysis … (and we) talked about the hedgehog concept from Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” book. You try to do the stuff that you love to do, and the stuff that you’re best in the world at, and stuff that makes money. The intersection of those things is where you want to try to be living and working. ... The HVAC design and some of the normal stuff that other folks do, we just didn’t love it like we do the industrial stuff, so we shifted our focus.

What goals are you working on for ESC?

We want to establish our core values, our relationships. We’re going to do that as a team … but we need some core values that never change, no matter what the business climate (does) and our goals will be business-related. We’re trying to get more into the pharmaceutical world. … I’m really focused on the core values: relationships; treating people with respect; and empowering our employees to run the business. We do profit-sharing here based on the performance of the business, so my goal is to just get out of the way and make it easy for them to do their jobs.

What about future growth?

We have a person in Fort Smith full time at a Planters peanut plant right now. (The client) wanted one of our people down there. … That’s fairly common (and) basically, that’s our whole business model. We’re contract engineers. Long term, we’ll probably grow to fill our building (at 1922 N. Broadway Ave.). … We’re a family-run company, so we’re probably going to keep it simple. … We’re not going to try to grow just to make more money. I want us to be more profitable … but uncontrolled growth can be the death of a firm, just like stagnation can.

Tell us about your family.

My wife, Robbyn, went to Kickapoo, and I went to Hillcrest, and we didn’t meet each other until we both went to Drury. I transferred to Rolla to get my engineering degree, and we stuck together. In one week, I graduated from college, bought a house and got married, in 1996. We’ve got a son, Chandler, who’s 7, and a son, Mason, who’s 5. ... Robbyn works here sometimes, and does Junior League and PTA, and she makes custom curtains. My brother, Mark, is a vice president at Commerce Bank here in town. ... My mom, Ruthie, does our accounts receivable two or three days a week.

What do you do for fun?

I love golf, but I don’t get to play that much. I’m active at Fellowship Bible Church. ... I also give out copies of “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. It’s pretty radical, but it’s just because it’s contrary to what our society does. People … spend too much, and they go into debt, and it’s just normal for them to have credit cards and car payments. He advocates getting out of debt completely, and a lot of people are doing it, and I’m trying to do it, too.

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