CLEVELAND – The Silverados, an industry group that usually conducts closed-door meetings, invited Interior Business magazine to a recent gathering to share its history and explain how membership has its benefits.
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The group of 11 companies in noncompeting markets focuses on problem solving, as well as professional and personal development. Learning is accomplished primarily through sharing, which members aren’t afraid to do because they aren’t competitors.
The Silverados share best practices, explained Barbara Helfman, president, TOPsiders, Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the group’s founders. “It’s like our own research and development,” she said.
Helfman and two founding members who are no longer part of the Silverados started the group in 1985, when Helfman operated an interiorscape business. Helfman explained that the members of Silverados are all long-time friends and entrepreneurs who started their businesses around the same time. “We had known each other from the trade shows,” Helfman said, “and this gave us the opportunity to delve deeper.”
| The Silverados Are … |
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Most of the companies in Silverados – first named the Platinum Group by facilitator Larry Gelart – have been with it from the start, though a few companies were sold and some new ones have joined. These friends and their businesses have grown together into multimillion-dollar operations, and they have been together from the days of working with Gelart to the addition of facilitator Will Phillips, of Qm2 in San Diego, Calif., four years ago.
Phillips and the group meet three times a year – once at the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and then rotating according to members’ business locations. For example, in late September 2001, the group convened in New York, and Silverado Howard Freilich, president, Blondie’s Treehouse, Mamaroneck, N.Y., hosted the meeting.
Each gathering always includes a tour of the host company’s operation, pointed out Silverado Nancy Silverman, president, Plantscaping, who arranged the group’s most recent meeting in Cleveland. “It is a real benefit to get to see other spaces,” Silverman said.
Silverman and other group members explained that discussions at such meetings range from financial comparisons to general strengths and weaknesses, sales strategies and ways to run a more efficient holiday business. Because each member offers specific strengths – McRae Anderson, president, McCaren Designs, Saint Paul, Minn., with design, Freilich with finances and Helfman with holiday, for example – the Silverados are guaranteed to take home new ideas to improve their operations. Members also explained that they set goals between each meeting, and they are accountable to the group.
Silverado Paul Levy, who operates Rolling Greens in Clinton, Md., said the group has helped improve his business in many ways. For instance, through the Silverados, Levy learned about personality profiling to improve his company’s hiring practices. The Predictive Index system, he explained, has revealed the personality traits that make a good technician. “It allows us to raise questions about someone,” he said, “or it confirms our hiring decisions.”
| NEW MEMBERS WANTED |
The Silverados are looking for new members. Here are the criteria: Contact Will Phillips, Qm2, San Diego, Calif., at 858/513-7835 or Will@qm2.com for more information on joining the Silverados. – Ali Cybulski |
Other Silverados have borrowed ideas, which have made their operations more profitable and efficient, from fellow members. For example, Mike Senneff, president, Plant Interscapes, San Antonio, Texas, said he saved “thousands” by borrowing a system of boxing and racking used by Bryan Hoffman, president, Hoffman Design Group, Aston, Pa. And Freilich noted that he learned from other Silverados how he could successfully operate a greenhouse as part of his company.
Obviously, members have gained a wealth of information from belonging to the group, but there is a definite time and financial commitment involved – the group even has a treasury. Anderson said meetings typically start on a weekday and last from early in the morning until as late as 11 p.m. – and sometimes discussions are carried on into the night over cocktails.
It’s intense, but the payoff is colossal. “There is power in communication, and our employees are so excited when we go to the Silverados meetings,” said Karin Senneff, vice president, Plant Interscapes. “They are excited to learn what new ideas we are going to bring back.” – Ali Cybulski
The author is Managing Editor of Interior Business magazine and can be reached at acybulski@gie.net.