[PCT Leadership Winner] Eric Eicher

Lots of people in the pest management industry can say they helped start a successful business. But not many can say they helped start a business and 20 years later are running a part of that business that generates more than $40 million in annual revenue. Eric Eicher can.

Eicher, president and COO of The Steritech Group’s Pest Prevention Division, together with John Whitley founded The Steritech Group in 1985. Today, Eicher, 47, oversees the company’s entire pest management operation, which spans all 50 states and has more than 350 employees.

Steritech is one of the most recognized service providers in the marketplace and boasts an impressive list of commercial clients, including well known names in government and the health-care, food-processing, food-service and retail industries.

"Eric came to Steritech with all that he needed to be a great manager and business man, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to evolve his own leadership and management abilities," said Steritech CEO John Whitley. "As the complexities of the business and industry have grown, Eric has grown with it. That is an achievement in itself — to go from a small business where he was involved with selling, service and management to overseeing an entire operation."

But like many in the industry, Eicher didn’t set out to build a successful career in the pest management industry.

THE EARLY DAYS. Eric Eicher grew up in rural Pennsylvania, about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. He was one of four boys who were all close in age (all are within five years of one another). "We grew up pretty much out in the country, on an acre-and-a-half of land, and that was surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods," he said. "So we spent a fair amount of time out in the woods and streams and hills of Pennsylvania."

Eicher’s family always grew many of their own vegetables and flowers. "I don’t know if growing up in a rural atmosphere necessarily fostered my interest in biology," he said, "but it was always something that spark-ed an interest in me."

Intrigued by the sciences, Eicher enrolled at Grove City College, Grove City, Pa., in 1975, but he didn’t know what he wanted to do after his schooling. In 1979 he graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in biology.

When he first got out of school, Eicher worked for a newspaper for three years. Even though he had a biology background he ended up selling advertising for the paper. One day he answered a blind ad for a sales manager, which turned out to be in the pest control industry. "I never really thought that I would end up in the pest control industry," he said. "But I was so impressed with the vision and business acumen of the interviewer that I decided to join (the company)."

That blind ad was placed by Rentokil, at the time one of world’s largest pest management firms headquartered in West Sussex, United Kingdom, and Eicher was interviewed and hired by John Whitley as a sales manager in the Pittsburgh market. At the time, Whitley was the president of the United States operation of Rentokil. "I came on as a sales manager for our Pittsburgh branch and worked there for a couple years before going to Atlanta, taking over as marketing director for the United States operation of Rentokil," Eicher said. "And the year after that, John and I both left and started Steritech."

In 1985, Whitley and Eicher, joined by Dave MacKenzie and Hank Palmer, launched Steritech, located in Charlotte, N.C. Whitley was president and Eicher was vice president. While vice president certainly sounds like an impressive title, Eicher did what everyone at a start-up company does: a little bit of everything. "I did everything from sales to service to typing all our correspondences and proposals — nobody else typed!" he said.

Eicher and Whitley created the commercial-only Steritech (the name is a combination of the words "sterilization" and "technology") for very specific reasons. "The reason that we chose the commercial market is because we saw opportunity and felt we should specialize. The industry technically has three different segments: commercial, residential and termite. To excel, we felt we needed to concentrate our efforts in one direction, and the commercial market was it. We find this market to be both challenging and rewarding and a place where we can help businesses be more successful at what they do," Eicher said.

The firm also focused on "pest prevention" and limited its use of pesticides, a concept that was just gaining legs in the mid-1980s. "We felt there was a greater need in the commercial market for a very high quality service that provided total elimination of pests with a minimum use of pesticides. And when we started, that was really our founding principal," Eicher said. "Our goal was to deliver a safer, more reliable, proactive service to the commercial market." (See related story on page 40.)

GROWTH SPURT. When Steritech began, the company had a single location in Charlotte. From there, the firm expanded into the Carolinas, opening offices in Greensboro and Raleigh, before moving on to Tennessee. In 1987, Eicher moved to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and established a branch office in one of the nation’s most lucrative commercial markets.

Over the next dozen years or so, the company continued to grow and expanded to one city after another, opening operations in places like Richmond, then Orlando and Tampa. "We continued to expand along the East Coast and finally made the leap to California where we opened an operation in San Diego," Eicher said. "Then we started filling in the states in the middle of the country."

About seven years ago, the company reorganized to better manage the business and today there are five regions: Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Florida, Central and Pacific. Each one of the divisions has a regional vice president, a regional administrator and a regional technical manager. Branch managers report to the individual regional vice presidents and each branch boasts a full complement of management, sales, service and administrative staff.

So what’s in store for Steritech? "I think we’ve laid a very good foundation for the company," Eicher said. "We’ve built the company with a lot of hard work, selling one account at a time and building branches one at a time. We’re now poised to take the company to the next level and I am excited about that."

PEOPLE PERSON. Fortunately, Eicher is no longer selling one account at a time. Today, he’s running the Pest Prevention Division of Steritech and working with employees at all of the company’s branches.

"My favorite part of the job is working with our people. We have remarkable people in the company, very dedicated, hardworking people and I love getting together with them," he said. "I particularly enjoy our brainstorming sessions and strategic meetings where the ideas really start to flow. Without a doubt, it’s the people — whether it’s sales, service, administration or management — that make our company special. And it’s the people I enjoy the most."

Whitley agrees that Eicher is an extraordinary "people person." "Eric is by far and away one of the most dedicated team players I have ever encountered; it doesn’t matter what role you ask him to play, he excels whether he’s doing service, selling or managing. He has a wonderful way with customers — to all of them with whom he has contact, he is not just a vendor, he’s a friend. And a true friend," he said. "He’s the first to call his clients and congratulate them on their business successes, but he also calls when a client’s son graduates from college."

And it’s a "people" issue that Eicher thinks is one of the most challenging for the pest management industry. "I think that employees, finding qualified employees, will certainly continue to be a challenge in the future," he said. "Attracting people to this industry can be a challenge, although I sometimes wonder why. We are public health protectors — that’s an important job! I think it’s a great industry to work in."

Eicher said that the industry has to get the public to see the importance – and value – of the service we provide (see related PPMA story on page 41). "If you go to countries that are still ravaged by diseases that pests transmit, they hold people with entomology degrees and professionals in our industry in very high regard because of the services they provide," he said. "In the United States, because of the wonderful advances that we have in vaccinations and medicine, we’re not quite in the same arena. Pests are viewed in our country as more of a nuisance factor with some exception, such as termites, of course. But in Third-World countries where they are losing 30, 40 percent of their food supply to pests and people are starving, they view it quite differently.

"I think that people in the United States are slowly starting to view the pest management industry in a better light, but it will take time," he said.

For the public to view the industry in a positive light, employees within the industry, first and foremost, have to feel proud of what they do, according to Eicher.

"We work very hard to make sure that we have a good balance with our people, as far as the right pay and benefits, so they know they are appreciated for the hard work they do. One of our core values as a company is that we’re a very family-oriented business, and we believe that things like family values and integrity are fundamental," he said. "That helps to attract the right people to the company. There are a lot of people that ordinarily may not consider the industry as a career that we’ve managed to bring in because they agree with our philosophies and values."

TODAY...AND THE FUTURE. Family values are something Eicher exhibits so well at work in part because he has a great family at home. He’s been happily married 18 years to his wife, Cynthia (Cindy). The couple has three sons ("We’re following the male trend within the family," he said.): 13-year-old Benjamin, 15-year-old Daniel and 17-year-old Ryan. Ryan has just started his first year of college in North Carolina, "so that’s an exciting event in our family," Eicher said.

These are exciting times at Steritech as well. "We have all the new technology out there such as handhelds and Web-based reporting, on-line training and real time access to information. These advances are all creating amazing changes in our industry," he said.

In addition to technology, there are also other changes occurring. "I see people taking an interest in pest control and hopefully pursuing it as a career. We provide an incredibly important service protecting the public health."

Eicher said he thinks the future of Steritech — and the industry as a whole — is bright. "Obviously I look at the future of Steritech from a biased perspective but I see a rosy picture for our company," he said.

"There are a lot of exciting opportunities out there, a lot of places for us to go as a company," Eicher said. "And it’s been an exciting 18 years, but I try to keep looking forward. It’s easy when you’re one of the founders of the company to get misty-eyed and reminisce about what happened in the early days when we were starting out pinching pennies and wearing 10 different hats.

"Those were certainly adrenaline-filled times," he added. "But really, the future is where it’s at. The real excitement is still to come."

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Clients Come First After 9/11

In one of nation’s most difficult times, Eric Eicher thought more about Steritech’s customers than he did about his own company.

"After the September 11th attacks, it was Eric who suggested an across the board substantial decrease for our hospitality accounts," said John Whitley, Steritech’s CEO. "Even though Steritech suffered some financial setback from the move, Eric was absolutely insistent that it was the right thing to do. Our clients were suffering losses and Eric felt that we should share this burden. He was right, and hundreds of customers were left with a feeling of gratitude toward our industry for its kindness.

"In creating a culture where people come first, where meeting the clients need is second only to safety, Eric has, in effect, demanded excellence of us all," Whitley continued. "And in doing so, he has helped to evolve the image of our industry into that of compassionate public health professionals."

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IPM Rules

Steritech’s EcoSensitive® Pest Prevention program is an environmentally sensitive system that minimizes pesticide usage and prevents infestations by correcting pest problems at their source.

"Obviously, our people get trained in the proper use of the pesticides that we sanction as a company. And we have very specific protocols for individual pests and how they should be treated," Eric Eicher said. "But the idea is to try to eliminate the conditions that are making a property conducive to having a pest infestation and therefore not rely on routine application of pesticides.

"Our company policy is that we only apply a pesticide if there’s a target pest present. The routine application on a monthly basis was the mainstay of the industry for years, but it wasn’t in keeping with how we wanted to approach the market," he added. "We don’t feel it’s good for the environment, we don’t feel it’s good for our people, and we don’t feel it’s good for our clients. So if there’s another way of doing it, of providing the service and still getting the results, we would prefer to do it that way."

So does the removal of pesticides from the market by manufacturers and EPA affect how Steritech does business?

"A lot of people think that regulatory actions are challenges for the industry. I don’t know if I view it that way. I have not been opposed to pulling most of these pesticides off the market," Eicher said. "I think the quality of the service that’s being provided today, even with the loss of some of the pesticides of the past, is better than ever. It just proves that we can be creative and innovative and continue to find solutions without relying so much on pesticides."

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Industry Wide Support

Even though The Steritech Group performs only commercial pest management work, the company still supports the industry as a whole, as well as the National Pest Management Association and the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA).

"Steritech had the vision, with PPMA, to understand that the messages that we get out to consumers overall, will impact the growth of their commercial business as well. They continue to give back to this industry in a very big way," said Cindy Mannes, PPMA executive director. "Their financial commitment to PPMA, as well as industry leadership, continues to help us get the message out to all on why all types of consumers need to use professional services. That is the mark of true leadership."

"We have supported PPMA in a fairly large way in the last couple years," Eric Eicher said, even though much of PPMA’s mission focused on the residential market.

"My feeling is that over the last several years, the leadership of both the NPMA and PPMA have done a very, very good job in redefining the industry and trying to promote the industry in a very positive way," Eicher said.

NPMA now has a Commercial Division committee, which discusses issues affecting that side of the business, of which Eicher is a part. While the general public often is more aware of the residential and termite sides of the business, Eicher said, he believes that NPMA’s work is critical to the success of both residential pest management professionals and commercial ones, like Steritech. "It’s a great organization, and one of which we are proud to be a part."