As we exit the holiday spirit, I wanted to discuss another type of spirit that creates success within the workplace.
Those of you who know me know I’m constantly saying “What’s up dawg?” or “It’s a beautiful day and so are you!” or you might see me end an email with “Go ESD!” There’s a reason for that. It’s called the Spirit of Entrepreneurship that resides at ESD.
The Spirit of Entrepreneurship allows a company to create (or invent) services that complement its core business offering. Within the engineering industry, Intelligent Building Systems (IBS) integrate technology or what is known as The Internet of Things (IoT) with building automation systems, security, wireless technology and other building components. When a company embraces and invests in technology consultants, the combination of the two talents (engineers and technology consultants) creates an offering that companies that do not embrace entrepreneurship can’t grasp.
Within our firm, I see the Spirit of Entrepreneurship in so many areas of the company. It’s that same spirit that allows me to create service offerings in consulting that no other firm offers. What other engineering firm offers M&A (infrastructure) in the data center market? None. Other services that embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship would include Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or Data Center Development Services. These type of services go way beyond the typical engineering services such as due diligence, estimating or site selection. It is this spirit that allows us to go from concept to contract.
Recently, I had the privilege to be a part of the acquisition team (Beach Point Capital and Medina Capital) of the 57-data-center acquisition of the Century Link portfolio. One of the things I noticed, is that with all of the telecom companies, they are set in their ways and do not adapt well to change. The two cultures of telecom and collocation are different. With the new investment companies acquiring these data center assets, you can tell that the Spirit of Entrepreneurship resides within the new company that will make it a great success! Congrats entrepreneurs!
It’s that same spirit that allows us to create and grow new offices in San Francisco and in Dallas. With every entrepreneur there are risks. But, when done smartly, the return on risk is high — and personally rewarding.
The Spirit of Entrepreneurship embraces creativity on an individual level too. It’s that same spirit that allows us to create our own niche within the workplace. Whether your career started in accounting, and now you head up HR, or a special engineer that has excelled in project management, the Spirit of Entrepreneurship allows you to create a niche that separates you from your peers. The sooner you recognize this niche, the sooner your career will rocket!
Watch out for the Spirit of Entrepreneurship this summer!
While I can’t go into details, we anticipate (through the Spirit of Entrepreneurship) in June/July there will be an announcement that will rock the data center – cloud – collocation world off its axis! In 2017 stay tuned as we hint of successes that will change how data centers are designed and operated in the future. That’s all I can say for now. Goodbye…oh, and Go ESD!