Louis Perry Jr. says he always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
In 1992, after graduating from the University of Dayton, Perry took a job as a draftsman for his father’s engineering company, Louis Perry & Associates. After a three-year training program, he became a project manager, managing the design-build side of the operation. As that division grew, Perry asked his father if he could break it off and form a new company that would specialize in design and construction.
He says he realized his father’s firm had a strong reputation in the design industry, but not in construction.
So in 1996, he established The Perry Group. By its second year in operation, it was bringing in $4 million in revenue. That grew to more than $10 million in 1999, and Perry expects revenue to double again this year.
He is able to team up with his father’s architectural and engineering firm on projects, and says he has a high percentage of repeat business, which contributes to his success.
To keep up with that growth, Perry, who will be 31 this year, has become involved in the Cleveland chapter of the Young Entrepreneur’s Organization, and was recently accepted to attend a leadership program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology called Birthing of Giants. The one-week class, sponsored by Inc. magazine, is held once a year for three consecutive years and was developed to teach leadership skills to business owners under the age of 40.
Perry was one of 60 applicants from all over the world who were selected to participate.
“It’s great to hear about how other people do business, and you learn from others all the time,” Perry says. “A lot of these people are in the same age group, running into the same problems you’re having.”
In addition, Perry is trying to keep his company on the cutting edge of his industry by maintaining the ISO 9001 certification it received last year. He says it is rare for companies in the construction industry to have this certification, but he is hoping that accomplishment will set a precedent for others.
He is also investing in research and development for the equipment side of the business, which sells scales, weight products, customized machinery and control systems for manufacturing facilities. He is working on improving the control and accuracy of the products to “stay ahead in quality, accuracy and flexibility so that we can be ahead of our competition.”
The Perry Group employs 25 people in its Wadsworth offices. How to reach: The Perry Group, (330) 334-6070
Connie Swenson ([email protected]) is editor of SBN Akron/SBN Stark.
