Since he founded his company at the end of 2000, Jon C. Ransom has had one focus:
sustainability. That’s not just the business model for his company, Environmental
Management Specialists Inc., it’s also the service provided by the environmental contractor that specializes in remediation, waste management and related services in the
Great Lakes region.
Today, Ransom is the proud president of an expanding company that has been a
Weatherhead 100 Upstart Award Winner, but the entrepreneurial flames that started EMS
still stoke the daily energy at the company. After starting off as a one-employee waste brokerage that helped environmental firms and contractors with the scheduling of transportation and disposal of toxic waste, Ransom turned EMS into a highly portable, well-trained team with qualified managers that can handle nearly any job.
Even with those increased capabilities and EMS roughly doubling its revenue in the last
two years, Ransom still makes it a point to keep pushing his company by being an example of that entrepreneurial spirit. His 12 employees regularly see Ransom with his hands
in the same muck that their own hands are in, as he continues to work the front lines and
put in the kind of time and effort he did when EMS was a solo project.
At the same time, he further fuels employees by not getting his hands into their work.
While he does anything but shy away from the front-line work, Ransom appreciates that the
success of his company comes from ingenuity and effort. So while he is willing to work
next to his people, he never works over his people. Instead, he sets the tone for the company and lets his employees take their own path to the goal. In turn, EMS employees are
enthusiastic, empowered and inspired. That’s a simple equation that makes an employee
base happy and sustainable, but then, EMS wouldn’t have any other focus.
HOW TO REACH: Environmental Management Specialists Inc., www.emsonsite.com or (440) 816-1107