Winner
Retail/Consumer Products
Dave Lindsey could have stopped working during the tough times of getting Defender Direct Inc. off of the ground. He could have made excuses for why things weren’t working out.
Instead, he figured out how to work through challenges and create solutions to problems. It’s that persistence that helped turn the fledgling business, which Lindsey began out of a spare bedroom in his home, into a national brand with a presence across the nation.
Defender provides home services for such things as security monitoring, satellite and cable TV, homeowners insurance, and water softeners. Lindsey has succeeded with the business because he sets a clear goal to handle the most important tasks up front and then works on the details.
The founder and CEO creates systems that can be easily replicated to help his company grow but is also willing to make changes when his company has outgrown a particular strategy. Before 2003, 98 percent of his company’s customer contact was through outbound calling. When the Do Not Call Registry was enacted, Defender was hit hard.
Lindsey adapted by sending out marketing pieces to potential customers and enticing them to contact Defender for its services.
But Lindsey hasn’t succeeded just by keeping his eye on corporate strategy. His primary focus has always been growing his people and he encourages employees to work harder on growing themselves than on their jobs.
“We go into business and we all want to have a better widget and a better plan than the next guy,” Lindsey says. “But at the end of the day, the humbling thing as an owner and leader is that I’m only able to grow as fast as my people can grow. It’s an understanding that the real roots of success are not the better widget or the better plan, but it’s the better person.”
How to reach: Defender Direct Inc., (317) 810-4720 or www.defenderdirect.com
