CEO Roundtable: Top 3 Companies in 2025 Dynamic Dozen

Springfield Business Journal Executive Editor Christine Temple discusses the business year in review with leaders from the top three companies in SBJ’s Dynamic Dozen, a feature honoring the fastest-growing companies in the Springfield region based on a calculation of revenue and employee growth over the past three years. Guests included Gregg Scholtens, KCI Construction Co. vice president of operations – Springfield; Drake Hughes, Keep Supply president and partner; and Tara Bielinski, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and population health, Phoenix Home Care & Hospice.

What follows are highlights from the conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Christine Temple: I want to start with growth. What are some of the keys that you all have experienced? And I know, being in three totally different industries, it’s going to be really unique to each of you. But talk about some of those keys to the fast growth that you’ve experienced in the last few years.
Gregg Scholtens: For us, it’s just been, I think, taking care of clients. Customer service is No. 1 for us. I think if we can teach that and train that with our people, and they go out and do good on our job sites, then those clients tend to repeat with us and come back, which I think has been probably our biggest attribute for our growth, is just repeat clientele.
Drake Hughes: So we practice open-book management. I know I’ve talked about that in the past, so I always attribute a ton of our success to that. Our team understands the financials. We go through the income statement every single week. They get how their jobs impact the numbers, and we just spend a lot of time on that. We’ve grown our head count a lot, too, and have gotten better at training and onboarding, and all of that’s been a big reason for success. And then similarly, customer service is very important to us, and getting people what they need as quickly as we can has continued to be a focus and something that drives the growth.
Tara Bielinski: And I think for us, the services that we provide are nontangible, and so I’ll parlay what you guys are talking about as far as customer service; that’s critical for our industry. You’re dealing with people’s lives and someone’s mother or father, and they’re very vulnerable at this time. So, hiring is another key component within our culture. You want that servant leader that is going to really be invested with that family member and get to know them, and they’re not just a number. And so that’s critical that we start internally by the right onboarding and hiring and creating that culture so we can lead by example and pull others into this industry, because there’s a shortage, and that’s one thing that we struggle with, is trying to find more people as we are expanding and bursting at the seams with clients. So, it’s a juggling match.
Temple: The growth that we’re talking about is pretty rapid and pretty wild, right? So that’s not always the goal for businesses, though; sometimes you need to be a little bit more sustainable. You got to go a little slow and steady. So how do you evaluate that internally with your executive teams, on how much growth you want, what your goals are, what your teams can handle, what you can staff for?
Bielinski: I think from our stance, we have regulatory requirements that we have to abide by. So if I do not have the internal staffing and in the field to provide that quality of care, then we cannot move forward with growth. So again: no margin, no mission. So, it is a fine line, a fine balance that we meet as an executive team weekly to discuss where are we with our growth patterns, where can we strategically align ourselves? We have to over-communicate, then under-communicate. Sometimes I feel like we have a meeting for a meeting, because we have to dissect every single component. But again, it is a highly regulated industry, and you are dealing again with vulnerable people, so you have to ensure that you are giving quality care. We are measured by value base. Now it’s all about quality and outcomes. So if we’re not doing what is right and appropriate for the patient, we suffer the consequences on the backside, which is published for everybody to see [by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services], and that is how a lot of times families pick and choose, off of star ratings. So we want to ensure that we are providing the best before we just move forward and provide a patient with a caregiver that’s not appropriate for them.
Hughes: That’s a good question. We’ve grown a lot, and we’ll end this year with another 50% growth here. I don’t know if we know any other way to do it. It’s created a lot of opportunities for people who work there. And I think we get really excited about that as a leadership team. So when we think about adding new people to the team, when we think about promotions or new jobs we’ll be able to create internally, like the culture feeds on that, and then it makes everyone want to go out and do it again. So we rolled out our plan for next year on Friday. And everybody seems very excited about where we’re heading, and we’re investing a lot into growth again, and we know that the market exists for us to continue to grow at this pace. So until we hit a point where we can’t do it anymore, I think we’ll just keep going.
Scholtens: The conversations we have at an executive level is just managing expectations of our people and ensuring that we are not overloading them. That’s a real risk in our industry right now, by the way, and just making sure that they’re on board with the growth as well. I mean, it’s, it’s a team sport, right? Like we as executives, can, you know, throw a dart against the board and say, yep, that’s where we’re headed, but unless the team is on board with it, we’re not going to get there. And so the key is really just to get everybody on board, surround yourself with other good leaders and people on board and head towards a common goal.

Excerpts of the conversation by Deputy Editor Gregory Holman, gholman@sbj.net.