Companies Of A Century: How Tri-State/Service Has Retrenched For Resilience
Editor’s Note: Chief Executive is kicking off a new annual tradition this year by celebrating every sizable (over $100 million in annual revenues) standalone company turning 100 in 2023. Check out the rest of this year’s class for tips, insights and, above all else, the inspiration you need to keep going….and going.
HQ: Vienna, West Virginia
Revenue: ~$318 million
Employees: ~500+
You just never know where a summer job will lead. Not long after the end of World War I, brothers Harry and Clarence Esbenshade worked a summer gig with a road tarring crew, which led to a job on the road selling roofing materials for the Barrett Company. They quickly identified a need in the market for a specialist in built-up roofing, and in 1923, they set up their own shop in Wheeling, West Virginia. (They called it Tri-State Roofing Company because Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio adjoin in Wheeling.)
But the brothers had their first brush with disaster when the Great Depression dried up capital expenditure for construction. They held on, doing smaller jobs until 1940, when Tri-State was awarded a major contract for new and re-roofing work at the Naval Ordnance Plant in Charleston, West Virginia. Closed since 1922, it soon became a vital center of wartime production, employing 7,400 workers producing ground-to-air rockets, torpedo flasks and battleship gun barrels.
Over the next several decades, the company methodically expanded, careful to stick to its core competencies and services that complemented them, and soon had plants in Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida. In 2000, the company began to focus on energy efficiency and a building envelope approach to roofing systems. It also extended its geographic footprint with the addition of offices in Virginia and Florida.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
