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Some businesses thriving in economic downturn
By: Kelli Bamforth, Staff Writer
News sources report company layoffs and falling stock values, but some Johnson County businesses are thriving.
The County Economic Research Institute’s Doug Davidson said certain types of businesses will continue to grow despite or even benefit directly from the current environment.
“With the weakening U.S. dollar, export and manufacturing companies might be benefiting,” he said. “Even mortgage lenders, with interest rates so low and a lot of folks facing readjusting loans, might be growing.”
House remodeling could also benefit from the economic climate, Davidson said.
“With an aging baby boomer population demanding more and more health care, (health care) is one field that is certainly growing,” he said.
The U.S. unemployment rate sits at 5 percent as of April 2008, but Johnson Countians seeking work can look to the following companies for opportunities.
On Demand Technologies
The digital print world is a thing of the future, On Demand Technologies Chief Operations Officer Tom Van Goethem said. As an exclusive digital print service provider, the Overland Park company works to provide efficient communications through printed and digital media.
“The industry is starting to come of age,” Van Goethem said. “As this technology continues to evolve it becomes more viable to replace traditional printing with digital printing. If you look at the overall print industry, it’s not growing very fast, but the size of the component converting from traditional to digital printing is growing at a phenomenal rate right now.
“As you go digital you can take advantage of a more targeted market and more permanent messaging, things you can’t do in the traditional print world.”
On Demand Technologies’ growth has been steady. The company has added about a dozen people over the past year, representing about one-third of its current workforce.
“We’re adding the most in production employees and client services,” Van Goethem said. “We’re looking for people who have a strong work ethic. We have an internal training program here, so we can teach them the way we want to.
“In client services we’re probably looking for those with a general business degree.”
Job seekers can contact the company’s human resources department, but many new employees at On Demand Technologies come from temporary services.
“We utilize temp services quite a bit and one of the places where we’ve been most successful is from bringing temps in and out, finding people who match our criteria and snagging them that way,” Van Goethem said. “We’ve gotten some really good people that way.”
On Demand Technologies
9291 Cody St., Overland Park; 438-1800
www.odtinc.com/index.html
Black & Veatch
The driving force behind the growth at Black & Veatch is the company’s goal to solve problems in the electricity, energy, water, telecommunications and federal markets using its engineering, consulting and construction experience, said Kim Mastalio, president of strategic sales and marketing.
“Quality of life is so much affected by electricity and clean waste water being available and your cell phone working as you drive across the area,” Mastalio said. “The core of that is what we do … We take it for granted here but in other parts of the world it’s greatly needed and those are the drivers for our business.”
Electricity use in the United States grows about 2 percent on average per year. Demand continues for clean water, Mastalio said.
“Johnson County is still growing and the facilities we design and build take years of planning before they’re ever started and several years to build them,” he said. “They last 50 or more years, it’s a very long process that has to be done well and is key to the growth of any area in the country.
“This is a global company sitting here in Johnson County.”
The core of Black & Veatch’s employees are engineers and technical specialists, Mastalio said, but the company also has the needs of a normal business.
“We have financial people, we need marketing people, we need legal people,” he said. “We have various kinds of support services. This being the Johnson County headquarters, the biggest office operations are all here and are still growing some. We need all kinds of people.”
Most positions require some type of bachelor’s degree, Mastalio said.
“Because there is a shortage of engineering and technical people across the country and across the world we are investing time and energy in local schools with programs like Project Lead the Way in the Blue Valley School District,” he said. “We need to invest in elementary schools at the lowest level to begin to get children oriented toward technology and subjects like math and science. If the U.S. graduates 75,000 engineers, India graduates 400,000 and China graduates 600,000.
“The government is not going to solve this problem, it will take an industry like us to develop the kind of talent that’s needed.”
Black & Veatch recruits heavily from Midwestern colleges and universities.
“The jobs we have here pay very well, we have engineers making well over $50,000 a year just out of school, those are the kind of folks we are looking for,” Mastalio said.
Black & Veatch
11401 Lamar Ave., Leawood; 458-2000
www.bv.com
The Mutual Fund Store
The Mutual Fund Store is a nationwide system of firms providing independent, fee-based, investment advisory and asset management services. Founded in 1996 and based in Overland Park, the company has grown to 68 locations in 57 markets across the United States.
Fifty-seven of those have opened since January 2005, making for “very rapid growth” in the last seven years, CEO David Byers said.
“We just completed opening markets in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver and Detroit,” he said. “Boston will open in June and we have several other major markets ready to go after that. We have $4.3 billion in assets under management that has climbed $1 billion since May 2005, so we’re experiencing explosive growth.”
Despite the “shaky” economy, the Mutual Fund Store brought in $340 million in new assets in the first quarter of 2008, when the market “was down 9.9 percent,” Byers said.
“The dramatic growth in the number of locations as well as the continued growth of the existing locations are combining to allow us to add significant numbers of new clients and client access,” he said.
“Our concept is transparent, a fee-based service that charges a very small percentage of assets under management. Our system resonates with middle Americans and is a business model not available anywhere else.”
At its Overland Park headquarters in 2007, the company hired 29 employees, a 132 percent increase over the previous staff level of 22. The Mutual Fund Store estimates it will add another 13 full-time positions in 2008.
Across the United States, the company added 19 full-time employees in 2007 and projects adding 12 to 15 employees in 2008.
“We are currently hiring for a range of positions on an ongoing basis, everything from investment advisers who serve our clients to client service representatives at our corporate headquarters to service our entire network,” Byers said. “The skill set is dependent upon the specific role that we’re hiring for.”
The Mutual Fund Store
7301 College Blvd., Suite 220, Overland Park; 338-2323
www.mutualfundstore.com
PlattForm
PlattForm is a full-service marketing and advertising agency offering enrollment solutions for the education industry and the military.
“One of the reasons we’ve been able to succeed with the economy the way it is is by being in the education industry,” Kevin Kuzma, public relations and marketing manager, said. “When there is a recession a lot of people decide to go back and get their education to start making salary-wise what they think they deserve or to get different positions. That’s where we come in. We place ads for career-oriented colleges and help drive students into the classroom. The more people willing to go to school, the more opportunities we have to help our clients out.”
PlattForm is ranked as the fourth-largest advertising agency in the Kansas City area by the Business Journal, Kuzma said.
“We are No. 4 in terms of overall agency revenue and No. 4 in total amount of employees,” he said. “We have a number of positions we are trying to fill, such as client services representatives, openings in our Web design area and print department. I would guess the majority have bachelor’s degrees in marketing, advertising or a related field.”
PlattForm is also building its interactive division. Kuzma said any job seeker with knowledge of the Internet or interactive realm would be “a tremendous asset right now.”
PlattForm should continue growing over the next year, Kuzma said.
“We’ll see a substantial increase in the number of clients we have especially in regard to interactive services,” he said.
PlattForm
500 N. Rogers Road, Olathe; 254-6000
www.plattformad.com
Contact Kelli Bamforth at 385-6024 or kellibamforth@sunpublications.com.
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The County Economic Research Institute’s Doug Davidson said certain types of businesses will continue to grow despite or even benefit directly from the current environment.
“With the weakening U.S. dollar, export and manufacturing companies might be benefiting,” he said. “Even mortgage lenders, with interest rates so low and a lot of folks facing readjusting loans, might be growing.”
House remodeling could also benefit from the economic climate, Davidson said.
“With an aging baby boomer population demanding more and more health care, (health care) is one field that is certainly growing,” he said.
The U.S. unemployment rate sits at 5 percent as of April 2008, but Johnson Countians seeking work can look to the following companies for opportunities.
On Demand Technologies
The digital print world is a thing of the future, On Demand Technologies Chief Operations Officer Tom Van Goethem said. As an exclusive digital print service provider, the Overland Park company works to provide efficient communications through printed and digital media.
“The industry is starting to come of age,” Van Goethem said. “As this technology continues to evolve it becomes more viable to replace traditional printing with digital printing. If you look at the overall print industry, it’s not growing very fast, but the size of the component converting from traditional to digital printing is growing at a phenomenal rate right now.
“As you go digital you can take advantage of a more targeted market and more permanent messaging, things you can’t do in the traditional print world.”
On Demand Technologies’ growth has been steady. The company has added about a dozen people over the past year, representing about one-third of its current workforce.
“We’re adding the most in production employees and client services,” Van Goethem said. “We’re looking for people who have a strong work ethic. We have an internal training program here, so we can teach them the way we want to.
“In client services we’re probably looking for those with a general business degree.”
Job seekers can contact the company’s human resources department, but many new employees at On Demand Technologies come from temporary services.
“We utilize temp services quite a bit and one of the places where we’ve been most successful is from bringing temps in and out, finding people who match our criteria and snagging them that way,” Van Goethem said. “We’ve gotten some really good people that way.”
On Demand Technologies
9291 Cody St., Overland Park; 438-1800
www.odtinc.com/index.html
Black & Veatch
The driving force behind the growth at Black & Veatch is the company’s goal to solve problems in the electricity, energy, water, telecommunications and federal markets using its engineering, consulting and construction experience, said Kim Mastalio, president of strategic sales and marketing.
“Quality of life is so much affected by electricity and clean waste water being available and your cell phone working as you drive across the area,” Mastalio said. “The core of that is what we do … We take it for granted here but in other parts of the world it’s greatly needed and those are the drivers for our business.”
Electricity use in the United States grows about 2 percent on average per year. Demand continues for clean water, Mastalio said.
“Johnson County is still growing and the facilities we design and build take years of planning before they’re ever started and several years to build them,” he said. “They last 50 or more years, it’s a very long process that has to be done well and is key to the growth of any area in the country.
“This is a global company sitting here in Johnson County.”
The core of Black & Veatch’s employees are engineers and technical specialists, Mastalio said, but the company also has the needs of a normal business.
“We have financial people, we need marketing people, we need legal people,” he said. “We have various kinds of support services. This being the Johnson County headquarters, the biggest office operations are all here and are still growing some. We need all kinds of people.”
Most positions require some type of bachelor’s degree, Mastalio said.
“Because there is a shortage of engineering and technical people across the country and across the world we are investing time and energy in local schools with programs like Project Lead the Way in the Blue Valley School District,” he said. “We need to invest in elementary schools at the lowest level to begin to get children oriented toward technology and subjects like math and science. If the U.S. graduates 75,000 engineers, India graduates 400,000 and China graduates 600,000.
“The government is not going to solve this problem, it will take an industry like us to develop the kind of talent that’s needed.”
Black & Veatch recruits heavily from Midwestern colleges and universities.
“The jobs we have here pay very well, we have engineers making well over $50,000 a year just out of school, those are the kind of folks we are looking for,” Mastalio said.
Black & Veatch
11401 Lamar Ave., Leawood; 458-2000
www.bv.com
The Mutual Fund Store
The Mutual Fund Store is a nationwide system of firms providing independent, fee-based, investment advisory and asset management services. Founded in 1996 and based in Overland Park, the company has grown to 68 locations in 57 markets across the United States.
Fifty-seven of those have opened since January 2005, making for “very rapid growth” in the last seven years, CEO David Byers said.
“We just completed opening markets in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver and Detroit,” he said. “Boston will open in June and we have several other major markets ready to go after that. We have $4.3 billion in assets under management that has climbed $1 billion since May 2005, so we’re experiencing explosive growth.”
Despite the “shaky” economy, the Mutual Fund Store brought in $340 million in new assets in the first quarter of 2008, when the market “was down 9.9 percent,” Byers said.
“The dramatic growth in the number of locations as well as the continued growth of the existing locations are combining to allow us to add significant numbers of new clients and client access,” he said.
“Our concept is transparent, a fee-based service that charges a very small percentage of assets under management. Our system resonates with middle Americans and is a business model not available anywhere else.”
At its Overland Park headquarters in 2007, the company hired 29 employees, a 132 percent increase over the previous staff level of 22. The Mutual Fund Store estimates it will add another 13 full-time positions in 2008.
Across the United States, the company added 19 full-time employees in 2007 and projects adding 12 to 15 employees in 2008.
“We are currently hiring for a range of positions on an ongoing basis, everything from investment advisers who serve our clients to client service representatives at our corporate headquarters to service our entire network,” Byers said. “The skill set is dependent upon the specific role that we’re hiring for.”
The Mutual Fund Store
7301 College Blvd., Suite 220, Overland Park; 338-2323
www.mutualfundstore.com
PlattForm
PlattForm is a full-service marketing and advertising agency offering enrollment solutions for the education industry and the military.
“One of the reasons we’ve been able to succeed with the economy the way it is is by being in the education industry,” Kevin Kuzma, public relations and marketing manager, said. “When there is a recession a lot of people decide to go back and get their education to start making salary-wise what they think they deserve or to get different positions. That’s where we come in. We place ads for career-oriented colleges and help drive students into the classroom. The more people willing to go to school, the more opportunities we have to help our clients out.”
PlattForm is ranked as the fourth-largest advertising agency in the Kansas City area by the Business Journal, Kuzma said.
“We are No. 4 in terms of overall agency revenue and No. 4 in total amount of employees,” he said. “We have a number of positions we are trying to fill, such as client services representatives, openings in our Web design area and print department. I would guess the majority have bachelor’s degrees in marketing, advertising or a related field.”
PlattForm is also building its interactive division. Kuzma said any job seeker with knowledge of the Internet or interactive realm would be “a tremendous asset right now.”
PlattForm should continue growing over the next year, Kuzma said.
“We’ll see a substantial increase in the number of clients we have especially in regard to interactive services,” he said.
PlattForm
500 N. Rogers Road, Olathe; 254-6000
www.plattformad.com
Contact Kelli Bamforth at 385-6024 or kellibamforth@sunpublications.com.