[2006 Leadership Profiles] Bob Klein

New York City is like no other pest control market. Running a successful pest control business in The "big apple" requires more than just a smart business plan. It takes a company committed to quality customer care and innovative service offerings, as well as a charismatic leader who has cultivated strategic relationships throughout the city. It takes a company like Assured Environments and a leader like Bob Klein, the second-generation CEO of the Manhattan-based company.

Under Klein’s direction Assured has built upon an already stellar reputation and grown into a leader in the New York City marketplace. Klein’s competitive nature, networking abilities and keen market knowledge have guided the company during the past 40 years.

Assured Environments has grown steadily throughout the years and is well positioned for even more significant growth. The company now generates revenues in excess of $25 million, employs 200 people and services clients in New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Massachusetts as well as New York.

These and other accomplishments have earned Klein the respect of colleagues and competitors alike, including Jim McHale, president of Buchanan, N.Y.-based JP McHale Pest Management, Inc. "What separates Bob from the ‘also rans’ is not what he does, but how he continues to do it. Bob has exploited all the possible pathways to cultivate and grow his client data base into the revenue-producing machine it is today," McHale said.

A LIFE-LONG INTEREST IN PEST CONTROL
The Assured Environments story begins in 1934 when Bob’s father, Daniel J. Klein, founded Allied Exterminating. His business focused on providing quality pest control to a variety of commercial accounts and high-rise residential buildings, which are still key sectors in Assured’s business model.

Bob Klein, who grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., traces his interest in the pest control industry back to his childhood when he would help out around the office by stuffing bills into envelopes. He would officially join the company in 1958 at age 16, while still in high school. Initially, he worked with Walter Higgins, a foreman, who helped "teach him the ropes." Klein started from the ground up, literally, powdering excinerator rooms with DDT before eventually servicing apartments.

Many of Daniel’s personality traits and business practices left a strong impression on Bob. "My father was the type of person who after you met you would go home and say, ‘I met the most unusual person today,’" Bob recalls. "He had the ability to walk into a setting and just captivate a room. I hope some of that rubbed off on me. It was a tough act to follow."

Daniel J. Klein also kept a meticulously neat and clean-smelling office, something his competitors were not doing at the time. "His feeling was that you spend almost as much time at work as you do at home, so you may as well have a nice place to work."

EARLY EXPERIENCES

After "cutting his teeth" on these early pest control experiences, Klein attended New York University, where he earned a business degree in 1964. That same year, at age 22, Bob joined Allied Exterminating in a management capacity and Daniel quickly started transitioning his son to take over the business.

"My dad sat me down and said, ‘Son, the business is a gift to you. If you want to make it bigger, make it bigger. If you want to make it smaller you can do that. I’m drawing out of the company the money I need. There is money in the bank if you want to make acquisitions. I am going inside to read the newspaper. If you need me, come and see me.’" Daniel believed this arrangement would let him serve as mentor while allowing Bob to develop the essential business acumen through practical experience. Bob was essentially "thrown into the fire" in terms of decision-making, but that’s not to say Daniel’s role as teacher ended at that point. "My father’s accomplishments were tremendous, in terms of building his business from nothing. It was through his sweat and toil. When I first began with the company I was petrified of selling. I did not want to hear the ‘no’ word. He taught me how to ask for business."

When Bob came on board in 1964, Allied was a $150,000-a-year company with about six service technicians and a secretary. From 1964 to 1977, Daniel and Bob proved a powerful combination, acquiring six New York pest control companies and growing Allied into one of New York City’s biggest and most highly regarded companies. "Dad died in 1977, but we had 13 wonderful years together. Every morning we would spend an hour-and-a-half discussing different business scenarios," he said.

WELL CONNECTED

Throughout the years Assured Environments has grown by retaining current customers, growing existing routes and acquiring other pest control companies. The company does very little advertising, thus growing almost exclusively by word-of-mouth and targeted marketing initiatives.

Klein has surrounded himself with a solid management team of business and technical professionals — the company currently has four full-time board certified entomologists. One of Klein’s "go-to" technical sources has been industry icon Dr. Austin Frishman, who has assisted with training, troubleshooting and other technical issues, including evaluating potential acquisitions. Klein credits Frishman for encouraging him to aggressively grow. During the 1970s, as environmental pressures increased in the pest control industry, Frishman recognized that companies like Klein’s would be the ones to succeed. "I told him, ‘You are in a position to grow because of your connections, the quality of work, the quality of your people and the fact you are doing commercial work,’" Frishman recalls. "He took my recommendations very seriously, worked out a plan that involved making more acquisitions and increasing sales — and that plan worked."

Klein’s many contacts in the New York real estate market and service industries have served him well in several capacities, especially growing existing routes. "Bob’s vast contacts in all industries help us in terms of going after big accounts," said Assured Environments COO Barry Beck. "He sees the bigger picture. In other words, if we are servicing an account let’s find out about the building next door. Maybe they will give us their entire portfolio. That could be 50 buildings."

Another example, Beck recalled, when Klein’s contacts proved integral in the company’s growth, was during the 1980s when large cleaning service conglomerates emerged, many of which added pest control divisions. In many cases, these turned out to be underperforming divisions. Klein recognized this trend and Assured Environments positioned itself well when many of these cleaning conglomerates began outsourcing pest control.

Assured Environments also has been on the forefront of the IPM movement and services several "green" buildings where no or minimal pesticides are used. The company’s embrace of IPM also made add-on services a natural (and profitable) fit. In addition to core residential and commercial pest control services, Assured Environments offers 24/7 services such as: compactor chute cleaning; drain/grease trap cleaning; allergen remediation; specialty cleaning; health facility audits; and animal trapping.

GROWTH THROUGH RETENTIION

Another key to Assured Environments’ success has been the company’s ability to attract and retain quality employees. This has been accomplished by traditional means such as competitive wages and benefits.

For example, Assured Environments recently brought on board Mark Popkin to serve as chief financial officer. Popkin’s main objective has been to develop the company’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). This unique benefit gives employees partial company ownership and a valuable retirement plan.

Another reason for Assured Environments’ employee retention success has been the Kleins’ approach to their employees from both the personal and professional side. One person who has seen Klein’s generosity carry over from work to home is Andrew Feldstein, vice president of operations. When Feldstein first came to work at Assured Environments he was between car leases. "Bob overheard me. He had an extra SUV in the garage and he said, ‘Take it for as long as you need it.’ Bob is a very warm and endearing guy.

"The company grows because people want to be here and they want to be here because Bob and Andy (Klein) have made it a comfortable place to work."

POISED FOR GROWTH

With a solid business plan and organizational structure in place, Assured Environments pursued acquisitions of other pest control companies that would be a good fit. An important acquisition occurred in the early 1990s when Assured acquired Barton Exterminating, a deal which was brokered by Ted Barron.

Barron was impressed with how Klein handled the Barton acquisition and in 1990 he presented Klein with the opportunity to buy Ogden Allied Corporation’s pest control division, Pioneer Exterminating. Barron proposed purchasing Pioneer and becoming a partner with Klein. With these acquisitions, as well as a later acquisition (Thompkins Pest Control), Assured Environments (which at the time operated under the Allied name) nearly doubled in size overnight. (Allied was about a $2.5 million company while Pioneer was about a $2 million company.)

It was through this partnership that Assured Environments really experienced substantial growth. "As wonderful as my father has been, Ted has been the most fabulous partner," Klein said.

The Pioneer acquisition and subsequent company growth coincided with the addition of Bob’s son, Andrew Klein, who rejoined the company in 1989. Andrew first started with the company as a teenager and eventually learned the ropes from Assured’s then-Technical Director Mike Deutsch and Frishman. He decided to re-join the company after college because it was a lifelong goal to work side-by-side with his dad.

"When I was 16 I worked with him for a summer and did everything from running a route, to cleaning the office, to stuffing envelopes," Andrew Klein recalls. "In addition to being in the field, Dad would have me spend time with him in the office and listen to how he handled problems on the telephone. That was something he wanted me to do. My father has a terrific ability to be able to connect to people, whether it is 21-year-old trainee or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. He has the ability to put himself in other people’s shoes."

Andrew has progressed through the company in much the same manner as his father — quickly. He now serves as president, responsible for day-to-day operations, while Bob has transitioned into more of an advisory role. It’s been a successful combination.

One of Andew Klein’s strengths is attention to detail, including finance. He initiated the company’s ESOP, an idea that was actually considered years ago by Bob; however, the company was too small at the time to do it. Andrew also has assembled a strong management team that includes: Beck; Feldstein; Popkin; Don Fowley, senior management director; Joel Sklar, vice president of sales; Tom Cusati, service manager; and Dennis Auriemma, operations manager.

With a storied past, a proven business model in place, and quality, committed employees, Bob Klein is as excited about Assured Environments’ future as its present. "I expect at some point for this to be a $50 million company and I expect it to happen while I am alive."

----------------------------------------------

What's In A Name?

What’s In a Name?

One of the by-products of acquiring other pest control companies is being forced to change or alter the company name. In the early 1990s Allied Exterminating made a series of acquisitions that caused the company to rethink its own name. For Allied Exterminating, it also presented an opportunity for the company to redefine itself and expand its definition of what it believes a pest control company is to its customers.

"We had grown to include such things as indoor air quality assays, specialty grease trap cleaning, compactor and chute cleaning, and so forth, so we wanted a name that was more all-encompassing," said Andrew Klein, who spearheaded the effort for the name change. "Allied and Pioneer were great historical names, but they did not really speak to what we consider ourselves today."

For years Andrew Klein had discussed a name change with several people, including his father-in-law, Marty Landy, who came up with the name Assured Environments. "It was perfect because (Assured Environments) is about assuring that we will provide a service that will eliminate and handle anything in your indoor environment that is causing you difficulty, whether it is in the home or office. It is very compelling and spoke to a lot of the IPM philosophy that (former Technical Director) Mike Deutsch had instilled in me."

Andrew credits his father for being receptive to the change, especially considering that past generations had built up the Allied name. "It goes back to my father’s and his father’s philosophy that the business was for the family to live from and grow with. That it wasn’t a sacred cow that couldn’t be tinkered with."

----------------------------------------------

A Talent-Laden Family

Bob Klein has certainly infused the entrepreneurial spirit in sons Andrew and Jeffrey. While Andrew has risen to the rank of president of Assured Environments, Jeffrey has made a name for himself in the hotel business. He currently owns a pair of boutique hotels in New York City and one in Los Angeles.

Bob has been married to his high school sweetheart, Susan, for 42 years. Susan is talented in her own right. She is an authority on Americana art, and has authored a pair of books on this subject: "Folk Hearts: A Celebration of the Heart Motif in American Folk Art" and "American Painted Furniture."

Bob enjoys spending time with his family and also gets great fulfillment from philanthropy. Charitable organizations he is involved in include: Covenant House; Michael J. Fox Foundation; Children’s Hearing Institute; Police Athletic League; and many others.