Rick Sontag, the founder and seller of Jacksonville-based Unison Industries, maintains that the most important element to an organization’s success is people.
“Structuring, hiring, organizing, evaluating and reviewing people,” Sontag told a JAX Chamber group last week.
“And including the termination of people,” he said.
Sontag, who sold Unison 10 years ago, knows about termination.
“I managed to get myself fired three times,” he told participants at the chamber’s CEO Nexus Forum.
After those terminations, he realized he preferred to be in business for himself.
At the age of 36, he set out to buy and build his own company, Unison Industries. Unison made aviation engine components.
He shared his story last week at the quarterly forum. The events feature CEOs who discuss their experiences with owners of second-stage businesses, defined as a privately held, Florida-based company beyond its initial startup growth and on the verge of expansion with 10-99 employees and annual revenues between $1 million and $49 million.
Sontag told the group of about 30 how he used venture capital to buy an aviation products company in 1980.
He eventually bought the Bendix Corp. airplane ignition products division, which operated in Jacksonville.
Sontag moved his company from Rockford, Ill., to Jacksonville.
He told the group about the highs and lows of the industry and the company over the decades, ending with the sale of Unison in 2002 to GE Engine Services. Unison had about 600 employees at the time.
After the sale, Sontag launched a venture capital firm, Spring Bay Companies, and he and his wife, Susan, created The Sontag Foundation, which supports medical research and social causes.
Susan Sontag is an 18-year survivor of brain cancer.
Sontag told the forum that when a crisis would hit, he followed several paths.
First, “get over the trauma.” He said he was “not going to cry longer than three days.”
Second, communicate. “When your back is against the wall, people think they’re getting fired,” he said. “Tell people what is going on. Keep your people informed.”
Third, gut it out. “Is there another market? Do I have a people problem?”
Sontag talked about the importance of leadership and how leaders set an example for their organizations.
“Don’t kid yourself. Your employees are watching everything you’re doing,” he said.
“You better be very, very careful,” he said.
Sontag said he has seen examples of how the lack of personal leadership led to the collapse of an organization.
Asked why he was fired so often, Sontag referred to the corporate environment and his bosses.
“I was fairly intense as an employee,” he said.
@MathisKb
356-2466