[2006 Leadership Profiles] Richard Stevenson, Sr.

By all accounts, Richard Stevenson Sr. could subtitle his life, "My Three Sons." Much like the fictional father played by Fred MacMurray, Stevenson regularly imparts wisdom to his sons, who have followed in his footsteps, much like he followed his own father, Howard, into the pest control industry more than three decades ago.

The thread running through this family runs extremely deep. Even though Howard retired from Modern Pest Services, headquartered in Brunswick, Maine, when he was 65, just after his youngest grandson was born, he continued to inspire and motivate.

Scott Stevenson, Richard’s oldest son, remembers, "When [my grandfather] was in his early 90s, I worked in our Augusta office, and I’d go up to his home once a week for lunch. I’d tell him about the new commercial account we had sold and told him what we were getting for it and he’d be astonished," Scott says. "He liked to know what was going on in the business. He was so proud of the business."

THIRD-GENERATION TRANSITION

Unlike his father and mother, who "walked out the door and never showed up at the main office again," Richard has been working toward transitioning the business to his three sons – Scott, Douglas and Richard – for the past two to three years, with the goal of retiring at the end of 2007.

"It seems the biggest challenge in any transition process is finding a successor. With me, that’s not a problem. I’ve got three people who are all very capable," he says. In fact, the three sons handle different aspects of the business: Scott deals with marketing, finance and overall operations; administrative duties, IT, and HR are handled by Douglas; and Richard Jr. is the technical director and oversees quality assurance, leadership development and training.

Following his father’s example, Richard Sr. put in long hours, and that dedication was apparent to his sons. "He worked all the time and worked very hard, but we knew what he was doing," says Douglas. "He left an impression on all of us that hard work is important."

Scott remembers, "As a manager my first day in the business he said, ‘Scott, I really don’t care when you show up in the morning or when you leave work at the end of the day; it’s up to you, but this business will only grow if you put in the work. Nothing comes easy in business. You have to work for it.’ I took those words to heart."

Additionally, each son started at Modern as a technician and progressed to taking phone calls, followed by working as a service manager and branch manager. Working side-by-side with their father and following his example and business strategy, the sons plan to continue in much the same manner after Richard Sr.’s retirement.

"We’re confident we’ll be successful because not that much will change," says Richard Jr. "We’re not going to dramatically change the way we do business, [but] simply continue what has been successful for us in the past."

A BUSINESS IS BORN

Modern Pest Services was formed in 1945 when Howard Stevenson decided to become a door-to-door salesman, selling household goods. One day, while making his rounds a woman asked for something to control rats. "He had read an article in Reader’s Digest about a new rat bait that had recently been invented, warfarin, so he bought some and began selling it door-to-door. He sold it for $1 a bag, which was a lot of money at that time," Richard Sr. recalls.

Upon returning to the woman’s house, Howard found she was afraid to put the warfarin in the cellar herself. He offered to do it, for $5. "He was surprised when she said ‘yes.’ That’s when he realized people would pay a lot of money for quality rat control," adds Richard Sr.

In order to grow his new business, Howard eventually added insect control services. At the age of six, Richard Sr. started to accompany his father on his routes, although he was not permitted to leave the truck.

Even though Richard Sr. and the family always assumed he would continue in the family business, upon graduation from Boothbay Region High School in 1961 he joined the U.S. Navy. "The draft was in effect at the time and I picked the Navy because I enjoyed diving." He served on a submarine and to combat the boredom while at sea read the "Mallis Handbook of Pest Control" cover to cover. "Most of what I know about entomology is from that book," he states.

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

After serving four and a half years, Richard Sr. received his honorable discharge from the Navy. He returned home and joined the family business, but within 18 months he wanted to explore his own business opportunities and his father wanted to expand Modern. Hearing that there were no pest control companies in the Maritime Provinces in Canada, they opened an office in Saint John, New Brunswick. But the distance and the demands of his father’s original office forced Howard to return to Maine. Twenty-five-year-old Richard Sr. borrowed $10,000 to buy the business from his father, and forged his own company, Dominion Pest Control Ltd.

"There was never any question in my mind that I would succeed. [My father] instilled so much confidence in me that it never occurred to me that I might fail," Richard Sr. remembers. After spending five years in the Canadian market, Richard Sr. sold Dominion to PCO Services of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and purchased Modern from his father, who retired.

A YOUNG FAMILY

While in the Navy, Richard Sr. met his future wife Bonnie. They married and had three sons, Scott, born in 1966; Richard Jr., born in 1967; and Douglas, who was born in 1972. While Richard Sr. commuted to Canada, leaving on Sunday evening and returning to Maine the following Friday, Bonnie took care of the children and also taught. "She’s one of the major reasons we’re successful," he states. "She has always been very supportive of me and the business. She may have had some reservations, but she didn’t share them with me."

Mirroring his father’s influence, Richard Sr. involved his sons in the business early. Scott and Richard Jr. remember their first duties at the office involved sweeping floors. At the time, "the company was still mixing its own [rat] bait, a combination of warfarin and corn meal," recalls Richard Jr. "We would be responsible for sweeping up the excess meal from the dirt floor in the work area."

At that point, the family was living in Vassalboro, Maine, which was mostly rural, with few other children in the area. "My aim when they were young was to keep them busy enough so they didn’t get into trouble," remembers Richard Sr. The strategy worked. All three sons developed into fine young men who have become active members of the community and valuable contributors to Modern Pest Services.

A TEAM ENVIRONMENT

Modern currently has 120 team members, and the company ranks as the third largest in New England. Ultimately, Scott says, "We want to be New England’s largest" and "one day we would like to be the largest pest control company in the nation. We have a lot of team members who are working toward that goal every day."

Richard Jr. stresses that his father instilled the team concept at Modern. "I don’t think what we have going on here is ordinary." The team concept not only applies to the entire company, but also to Richard Sr.’s three sons. "We realize that if one of us fails we all fail. If we work together, we can’t be beat," Richard Jr. states.

Douglas adds that problems are identified, strategies are created, compromises are made, and they execute the strategy as a unified company, without egos coming into play. Monthly managers’ meetings provide a forum for decision-making. "We’ve got several things we live by," says Scott. "Mistakes are forgiven, lies are not. Clients are the heart of our company, but our team members are its soul. We have clients, not customers. We have team members, not employees. Without teamwork," he adds, "we have nothing."

BUSINESS GROWTH

Several factors have led to the success of Modern, which operates from six locations and services Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. An aggressive branding effort was conducted to raise awareness of their company. Modern rolled out its HomeCare brand, focusing on residential services, and EcoCare, dealing with the commercial side of the business.

Part of the branding experience was evaluating marketing. "We know from the PPMA (Professional Pest Management Alliance) research that our residential clients are largely soccer moms," says Douglas, "so we designed our residential service offerings and branding efforts around that audience." A fleet of 15 decorated Volkswagen Beetles aid in the marketing efforts.

Also, the company has invested time in developing a vision statement, and each team, from the executive support team to the service team, has created its own mission statement. The first sentence is the same for each team, "We will play a key leadership role in ensuring the company mission is achieved..." while the remaining statement continues with specific roles suitable for each group.

Technologically, Modern has invested in its Web site, allowing commercial clients to access their accounts, pay invoices online, view station tracking, and more. With the use of hand-helds, information is captured in the field, reducing paperwork. Modern has added an automated routing system. A new automated phone system makes courtesy calls to customers to remind them of upcoming service visits, eliminating this task from the service coordinators. "That’s hundreds of calls wiped out," says Douglas, "leaving them time to do what they do best, and that’s to sell."

WHAT’S AHEAD?

With retirement plans in place, Richard Sr. can devote more time to his hobbies, playing tennis and traveling. One of his best friends in the industry, Linden Griffin, president of Griffin Pest Solutions, Kalamazoo, Mich., has traveled extensively with him, both on industry excursions and on vacations with their wives. "He’s a high energy kind of guy," Griffin states, "and absolutely fearless."

In fact, in 1985, Richard Sr. purchased a 41-foot sailboat in Europe and sailed back to Maine with a small crew, including his mother. "She was only going to stay on board one week as the cook, but ended up making the entire journey," Griffin says.

"He knows no fear and he’s passed that on to his sons," Griffin remarks. That aggressiveness has helped Modern succeed, he adds. "Most of all, though, he’s a great friend; someone you can always count on."

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A Founder’s Wisdom

When he retired from Modern Pest Services in 1973, Howard Stevenson didn’t return to the office he had founded nearly 30 years earlier. "I have no idea why he stopped coming to the office," his son, Richard Sr. says, "other than perhaps he wanted to demonstrate that he had confidence in me to run the business on a day-to-day basis and didn’t want to undermine my authority."

Even though he physically stayed away from the business, in the 1980s he started to write letters to his son, grandsons and others at Modern. Entitled "Thoughts While Shaving," Howard regularly imparted his unique business philosophy and included a vocabulary word in the letter.

"To this day, I’ve saved all his letters," Richard Jr. explains, and his brothers also have the letters, which number in the hundreds, filed in their offices.

"The last one was dated a month before he passed away," Scott says.

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Secrets to Success

Like many entrepreneurs, Richard Stevenson Sr. is highly motivated. That’s one of the reasons he has been so successful in growing Modern Pest Services into one of the largest, most respected companies in all of New England. Upon reflecting on his career, Stevenson offers the following keys to his success, words of wisdom that may assist others in growing their businesses:

1. If on Saturday, after a hard week at work, you can’t wait for Mon-
day to get here, you’re on your way to success.

2. I figured that if I worked one hour per day more than my com-
petitor, I’d beat him. I figured he worked 72 hours per week.

3. On sales, I figured I’d get a new commercial client for every 15
doors I knocked on. Every "no" meant I was getting closer.

4. It is far easier to keep a client than to go out and find another.

5. I would rather lose money trying to deliver on our promise of
service than to damage our reputation.

6. After I had about a dozen employees, I began to realize that I
could do more from behind a desk than I could on the road.

7. One of the most difficult hurdles in growth is to learn how to run
a branch office.

8. Since the boys were young they were told they could do any-
thing they wanted in life [and] that Modern would be there if they
cared to become part of the team. Their grandfather provided
them with the desire to become a part of Modern and their
mother provided them with character.