Businessman talks about not trying to be everything to everyone.
Name: Steve Boal
Business: Accumold
Employees: 210
Location: Ankeny, Iowa
As chief financial officer of Accumold for the last 14 years, Steve Boal has been witness to the impressive growth of the company, which molds micro-sized plastic parts for electronic, optic and medical devices. In February, the company announced more growth—a $10 million expansion that will add 200 jobs over the next three years. Now, Boal talks about the strategy behind being a specialty company and creating a work culture that doesn’t make his employees feel microscopic.
What have you learned from being part of a small business for 14 years?
[Company President] Roger [Hargens] is a great visionary, and I’m the support person to help him turn that vision into reality. It really takes somebody looking beyond where you are today.
Another thing we look for is creating a culture where we truly appreciate the people we have.
As we look for new employees, we look for the right fit—technical aptitude, strong math skills. Beyond that, we want people who want to be here. As we look to grow our workforce, we really look inside Iowa, or we’ll take people from outside Iowa that have some kind of connection who want to give back to our state.
Accumold is near Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). Why was it important to build a relationship with the school, and how does that relationship benefit your business?
Some of the key technical people in our business are toolmakers that build the plastic molds, and the other specialty is the automation, the robotics [and] electronics. Those type of specialties are not real prevalent.
DMACC has programs for both of those areas. So we’ve established a relationship with DMACC by selecting incoming students for a scholarship that covers about two-thirds of their tuition. The agreement is the student works part-time for us, and they get exposed to and learn what our working environment is like and what it’s like working with micro-sized parts as opposed to traditional plastics.
What makes Iowa a good place for small businesses to grow?
First, we have a strong work ethic. We still have young people that know how to work, and it’s kind of a cultural thing. Second, Iowa has a strong education system, and I think that’s really important.
In your position, how do you respond to challenges that arise?
The key thing is being a good communicator. It’s a matter of everybody understanding. We’ll talk through this and allow people to have some say in how we respond to that challenge. At some point, it is having the leadership to say, “Let’s move forward and come to a consensus.” There [are] some issues that take time to resolve. You have to give people that time to come to a realization and lead them through that answer—not just trying to force the answer.
What advice do you have for up-and-coming small business owners?
One, really look for what is your core competency, and two, is that relevant to the marketplace? It doesn’t matter whether you’re the best person in making something or providing a type of service—if the marketplace doesn’t value that, it doesn’t matter. Somebody might say, “Hey, I have a great idea.” That’s fine, but can you actually make money from that idea? Don’t try to be everything to everyone.
How does that relate to your business?
We have customers that come back to us and ask, if you can make our parts, how about you do these additional services? Maybe [we’ll] do assembly. Maybe [we’ll] package. If they truly want to provide enough value for that, then we’ll do that. But if not—if it’s really kind of a marginal proposition—then we’ll say no.
We’re not going to grow by doing things that really don’t require our core competency. Our core competency is making molds, and then molding plastic parts that take advantage of the technologies that we’ve developed molding micro-sized components.
