March 26, 2024 • 19 mins
Brian grew up with Mid-City, riding to the office with his dad as a boy. He went from working in the warehouse during his summer breaks, to delivering tools and material, running the warehouse, then purchasing, and then project managing. He now serves as Mid-City’s President and strategic leader. Throughout this time with Mid-City, Brian went to The Ohio State University earning his bachelor’s degree as well as his MBA. He is an advocate for moving the company forward and is heavily involved with the local community as well as industry organizations, like the Builders Exchange of Central Ohio and the National Electrical Contractors Association. An avid outdoorsman and photography enthusiast, Brian enjoys taking trips to Norris Lake with his wife and family, and hunting with his sons and Brittany Spaniels, Daisy and Dash. Brian and Kim are blessed with four boys, Jimmy, Ryan, Andy, and Tanner, and enjoy having Jimmy and Ryan work alongside him in the family business. He is very proud of his five grandchildren Kendall, James, Ben, Winnie, and Hazel and loves spending time with them, watching them grow and overwhelm their parents.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Columbus in Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How do they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know andiHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. Welcome back to
(00:20):
another episode of CEOs You Should Know. This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast.
I'm your host Boxer. This iswhere we champion our local businesses and where
you get to hear the story ofthese businesses and how they became successful in
who they are today. It givesme great pleasure to bring Brian Doo into
our studio from Mid City Electric.Mid City Electric has this incredible rich history.
(00:44):
They've been around since nineteen sixty.They're based out of Westerville, and
Brian happens to be the president andCEO. Brian, good to have you
here, sir, Thank you goodto be here. So let's start with
the very beginning, because I knowwhen you look at mid City Electric website,
it says one of the largest commercialelectrical and teledata contractors in Central Ohio.
(01:07):
What exactly does that mean? Tellus about the company. Well,
I can start at the beginning.My dad, Jim Doo, along with
his best friend Jack Kempton, startedthe business in nineteen sixty. Their thought
was to create a better future fortheir families, and their business philosophy was
(01:30):
to treat customers the way they wantto be treated. I like that.
So it all started with your dadAnd I read this story too, and
I'm sure you can elaborate on this, Brian. How you would go to
work with your dad a lot growingup? Is that right? So you
learned the business at a young age. I really did, and you know,
it just became natural to me.I'd go in as a kid,
(01:53):
you know, and roam around whilemy dad was working. I'd come in
on a Saturday and play in thewarehouse and he I can remember back the
first job he gave me was paintingthe fence with that silver, nasty paint.
And so I got myself, youknow, immersed in the business by
(02:16):
covering myself with silver paint. Yeah, you got to start somewhere. Yes,
used the same kind of paint topaint the the top of our trailers.
We had a couple of trailers.So I painted down and yeah,
and painted ladders back when you wereallowed to paint wood ladders with sealant,
and you know, made him twiceas heavy, but made him last twice
(02:38):
as long too. Brian Do iswith us. He's this week's guest on
CEOs You Should Know and I heardMedia Columbus podcast. Brian is the president
and CEO of Mid City Electric.Brian, we'll get into the nuts and
bolts of specifically what mid City Electricdoes, but I'm curious with you riding
around with your dad and working withhim and seeing the business growing up and
(03:00):
growing up with the business. WhatI always like to ask this, what
kind of pieces of advice or wordsof wisdom would he give you growing up?
You know, just basically you know, working hard, and your success
depends on how hard you work,always doing the right thing, and always
always treating others the way you wantto be treated yourself. Yeah, it's
(03:23):
clear from the website alone with midCity Electric that that you you thrive on
that type of culture, that thatthat family culture, the respect culture.
It's clear just you know, oneglance of the website. So I applaud
you for that. Thank you solet's dive into a little bit more about
what mid City Electric does. Ithink of it this way. Is that
(03:46):
just about everything you can think ofelectrically we do except for residential, okay,
as well as on the Tella dataside. We if it has a
wire we do it, and thenif it's wireless, we do it.
Brian, did it start that way? Where did you ever do residential?
Was it always commercial? It wasalways commercial and industrial? Okay? When
(04:08):
it when it comes to you know, growing this business, you know,
so you grew up in it.You eventually went to school Ohio State,
also got your m b A.There. Did you want to stay in
the business? Were you? Wasthere one point You're like, I think
I'm going to venture out for awhile and see what else is out there?
Yeah, there was a time youknow that I that I thought,
(04:29):
you know, maybe the grass isgreener. But when I when I came
back, well, I worked myway through college, and I work part
time, went to school full time, and and vice versa. All the
while it helped me in the business. You know, I didn't go through
the field like my dad did.I went through the through school and got
(04:55):
my m b A and and allof that, you know, at some
point translated to into helping me besuccessful in the business. When I came
back full time into the business,I was the purchasing agent. I morphed
into project managing and eventually became president. But I worked in the warehouse,
(05:15):
and then I graduated up to runningthe warehouse, and then you know,
I worked as a purchasing agent.Then I worked as a project manager and
really got to know every element ofthe business. And and really as project
manager, I worked very closely withour guys in the field to learn what
(05:40):
they did and how they did it. And so I learned the business not
really through installing things with my handsout in the field, but I did.
I did learn it through a veryclose relationship with the with the field
and the field formula. Yeah,you know, Brian, would you agree
with this. We've had lots ofguys on this podcast, lots of families
(06:02):
that have built bigger businesses. Ithink about the Rick Rekers that have been
in here among others, who talkabout how they worked almost every different unit
of that business. And I'm gettingand one thing that they will say,
and I'm guessing you would probably agreewith this is work as many different areas
(06:23):
of that family business as possible,because it'll obviously help you down the road.
Would you agree with that totally?I totally would agree with that.
And also listening, you know,listening to people that have done it before.
I had the good fortune of havinga mentor just about every turn,
(06:43):
so I was able to learn thebusiness really through really good mentorship and coaching.
Yeah. Brian doo is with uswho as the president and CEO of
mid City Electric and it's based outof Westervilt. It's been around since nineteen
sixty. He just had a curiosity. We know where it's located, but
how broad of an area does midCity Electric cover? We serve mainly Central
(07:08):
Ohio, and that can branch outto fifty to seventy five miles from here,
just depending on the customer and thecustomer's needs. We know about Intel,
We know about these dynamic technology companiesthat are here. Are you helping
(07:28):
any of them as they move in? And are you hoping grows Central Ohio
in that way? Yes, weare. And Intel we did the temporary
power for that project. We're currentlynot working there now. We finished that
project, but there's a lot ofother businesses that are coming to town.
A lot of data centers that arecoming to town that we're involved with.
(07:51):
So are the size of our projectsrun from very big to very small.
We've got thirty service vehicles that wecan service. You know, just if
you guys need an outlet, youknow, we can come out here and
install an outlet. Yeah. Sowe've got you know, over thirty service
(08:13):
technicians that can do just about anyneed or feel about any need that's that's
out there. When did you startdoing data centers? Out of curiosity?
Because I'm trying to put my mindaround how big of a project that must
be. I would say about fifteenyears ago. Okay, there was a
TJX data center we were involved withup in New Albany and that was a
(08:37):
joint venture. But yeah, we'vebeen doing data centers for quite a while.
I would say we're probably more knownthroughout Central Ohio as a hospital contractor.
Okay, we've now ventured into datacenters and we're good at that too.
So Brian, let me ask you. You're not the only electrical contractor
(08:58):
out there in Central Ohio. Butcan I ask what makes you different from
the other ones? I'd say it'sour people. Yeah, that's that's first
and foremost are our people. We'vegot to We've got a field force of
over five hundred electricians and technicians,and they've all got great attitudes. They're
(09:18):
very hard working, and they believein in our philosophy. You know,
they believe in what we're doing,and without them, we don't accomplish anything
as a company. Yeah, andyou know what, it's always been that
way. They are the face ofour company, and they are to our
(09:39):
customers, they're the most important,and they're who bring the work back to
the company. How do you reinforcethat? Because that's nice to hear,
But I'm always curious when a companysays that, what kind of things do
they do? Like if if youhired me today, what kind of things
am I going to experience or orsee within your company? What we like
(10:03):
to show them is who we are, and we like to treat them the
way we want to be treated.And one of our core values is we
treat our people like family. AndI want to believe that that comes through
to everyone in the company. Yeah, you know, it's difficult to get
(10:24):
the message out to all five hundredplus people. We've probably got another hundred
that work in the office, andso it's it's it's as you become bigger,
it becomes a little more difficult,but we're still the same people.
And you know, we do thingsfor them, like we have a a
(10:46):
field leadership program to where those thosethat are interested can get additional training to
help them become a coach to thoseunder them and to to we train them
to deal with the changes that aretaking place in our industry. We also
(11:07):
help them deal with those under themto bring them along and have them become
future leaders. So that that's aprogram that we have. We've we've got
a health and wellness program that weput on and and we've got a we've
got a gym on site, andso we encourage all of our employees to
(11:31):
take place in that for their ownhealth. Yeah, we have a health
and wellness coach that that they canthey can work with one on one with
the We also offer nutritional assistance foreveryou know wants to utilize that. And
Brian, you know something I readthat something mid City does on the job
(11:54):
site. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is you bring someone out there to
I don't know if it's check onthe employees or I guess take care of
them. How does that work?What do they do well? Mental health
is a concern in construction, andwe've decided to to have a mental health
(12:15):
advocate that we send out to jobsites and provide mental health talks with our
electricians and our technicians on a regularbasis. You know, you think about
first responders military, I never thoughtabout that before with construction workers. What
kind of things are they dealing withthat maybe the average person wouldn't realize.
(12:37):
Electricians a lot of times are veryprivate and and they're not willing to talk
about things that might be on theirmind and might be bothering them. So
it's sometimes is helpful to be proactiveabout that and and have someone who's whose
(12:58):
whose job it is really to toask the questions, you know, that
draw out information that that might bebothering someone and because the last thing you
want is for something to happen tosomeone. Yeah, and you really you
really didn't get the signs or youmissed the signs, and so we try
(13:20):
to be proactive about it. Howis the job for us right now?
The workforce? Are you do?Do you have a lot of openings like
so many other companies had for thelongest time. Is that are you up
to par now? What's that likefor you? We we still need people
and we're we monitor our backlog sothat we don't over commit ourselves because our
(13:46):
reputation is very important to us.We don't want to accept a job and
not be able to deliver, sowe are very cautious about over committing.
So we want to under commit andover deliver is kind of our our motto.
Yeah, Brian, you've been inthis community for a long time,
(14:07):
as we've said, since nineteen sixty. So with that, what kind of
things are you involved in in thecommunity? Is mid City Electric we're involved
quite a bit, Like for example, in Westerville, the Parks and Direct
Department has a Earth Day and wehelp them plant trees down at Nationwide Children's
(14:30):
Hospital, they have a Healthy Neighborhoodsand Healthy Families initiative and we go down
and help do things that the peoplein need down there can't do them for
themselves, so we help with theirmaintenance on their houses, we help with
landscaping and things of that nature.I like that. Yeah, And we're
(14:52):
also very involved in local hospitals.We give to them. We also help
our employees out, you know,have they have needs for for their kids
or or that they're involved with andand their sports programs, we help them
with that. We help out withhard Hats with Hearts that through the American
(15:13):
Heart Association. Well, what's thattell me about that? That sounds neat
heart Hats with Hearts. Yeah,We've We've got several of our construction managers
that we do work with that thatare heavily involved in that. And you
know, through through the American HeartAssociation they put that on and and it's
basically construction related and a construction relatedfundraiser. So where is mid City Electric
(15:39):
going? What's the future look like? Tell us about what we're seeing in
Columbus right now, because there's there'sa big business, uh you know,
construction boom going on in all differentfacets. So how does mid City Electric
fit into that? We want tomaintain our customer focus and in doing so,
we want to fulfill our promises,and it's getting more and more difficult
(16:03):
to do that because of how thelabor shortage is affecting our business. So
we want to make sure number one, when we promise something, the customer
can count on that and can counton the fact that mid City is going
to take care of that for them. The way we take care of customers
(16:25):
is kind of an old school concept, you know, doing the right thing
and taking care of the customer.The customer is always first, and we
want to maintain that. We don'twant to shy away from that. At
the same time, we need tostay up with technological advances. We need
to make sure that we are doingeverything we can do to be as relevant
(16:51):
as possible for our customers. Sothen when they make the choice to go
with mid City, they're not sacrificinganything and they're getting treated well while they're
doing it. Is anyone up andcoming under you or are you training anyone?
I'm very proud of my sons.I have four boys, Yeah,
three of which are working in thecompany. Okay, my oldest is our
(17:15):
leader of our service in small projects, and my second oldest is our CFO.
My oldest is Jimmy, and thenmy CFO his name is Ryan,
and my fourth oldest is Tanner andhe's working in the field for us.
Wow. So this is definitely afamily affair. Yeah. It helps me
(17:41):
get up and come on in inthe morning. Yeah, it's a lot
of fun, absolutely. You know, before we wrap up, Ryan,
you know, sometimes you'll hear thatsome families don't want to continue with the
family business. So the sons ordaughters that are coming up, they're all
doing their own thing. That hadto feel good knowing well, they're going
(18:02):
to be in this, My sonsare going to be in this, They're
going to take it over. UhSo I guess that leads me to,
well, how long are you goingto do this for as long as you
can? You want to go buyan island or something in a few years,
what do you want to do.I'm enjoying myself. I been urged
to do a transition a succession planOka and so who urged you? Well,
(18:26):
I was told by our leadership teamthat it's a it's a it's a
best practice practices for the business.And uh I don't feel like I'm that
old, you know, but Ithink, you know, the more times
I get asked that question, Imust not be looking at or looking all
that young. But anyway, I'vekind of taken that to heart, and
(18:52):
and I do have a plan now, so I'll be in the process of
delivering that message to to the companyand so that you know, the young
people can look forward and say,okay that I'm I'm clear about the direction
of the company. Sure, andand and and I'm told it's very important,
(19:14):
and I I am now starting tobelieve it. You're not the only
one. I see a lot ofcompanies that do stuff like that have a
transition plan in place. So,Brian Doue, the President CEO of mid
City Electric based out of Westerville,it is a pleasure to have you here
and I appreciate you taking the timeto come down today and be our guest
on CEOs you Should Know. Thankyou very much. CEOs you Should Know
(19:37):
is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
Columbus in Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How do they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know andiHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. Welcome back to
(00:20):
another episode of CEOs You Should Know. This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast.
I'm your host Boxer. This iswhere we champion our local businesses and where
you get to hear the story ofthese businesses and how they became successful in
who they are today. It givesme great pleasure to bring Brian Doo into
our studio from Mid City Electric.Mid City Electric has this incredible rich history.
(00:44):
They've been around since nineteen sixty.They're based out of Westerville, and
Brian happens to be the president andCEO. Brian, good to have you
here, sir, Thank you goodto be here. So let's start with
the very beginning, because I knowwhen you look at mid City Electric website,
it says one of the largest commercialelectrical and teledata contractors in Central Ohio.
(01:07):
What exactly does that mean? Tellus about the company. Well,
I can start at the beginning.My dad, Jim Doo, along with
his best friend Jack Kempton, startedthe business in nineteen sixty. Their thought
was to create a better future fortheir families, and their business philosophy was
(01:30):
to treat customers the way they wantto be treated. I like that.
So it all started with your dadAnd I read this story too, and
I'm sure you can elaborate on this, Brian. How you would go to
work with your dad a lot growingup? Is that right? So you
learned the business at a young age. I really did, and you know,
it just became natural to me.I'd go in as a kid,
(01:53):
you know, and roam around whilemy dad was working. I'd come in
on a Saturday and play in thewarehouse and he I can remember back the
first job he gave me was paintingthe fence with that silver, nasty paint.
And so I got myself, youknow, immersed in the business by
(02:16):
covering myself with silver paint. Yeah, you got to start somewhere. Yes,
used the same kind of paint topaint the the top of our trailers.
We had a couple of trailers.So I painted down and yeah,
and painted ladders back when you wereallowed to paint wood ladders with sealant,
and you know, made him twiceas heavy, but made him last twice
(02:38):
as long too. Brian Do iswith us. He's this week's guest on
CEOs You Should Know and I heardMedia Columbus podcast. Brian is the president
and CEO of Mid City Electric.Brian, we'll get into the nuts and
bolts of specifically what mid City Electricdoes, but I'm curious with you riding
around with your dad and working withhim and seeing the business growing up and
(03:00):
growing up with the business. WhatI always like to ask this, what
kind of pieces of advice or wordsof wisdom would he give you growing up?
You know, just basically you know, working hard, and your success
depends on how hard you work,always doing the right thing, and always
always treating others the way you wantto be treated yourself. Yeah, it's
(03:23):
clear from the website alone with midCity Electric that that you you thrive on
that type of culture, that thatthat family culture, the respect culture.
It's clear just you know, oneglance of the website. So I applaud
you for that. Thank you solet's dive into a little bit more about
what mid City Electric does. Ithink of it this way. Is that
(03:46):
just about everything you can think ofelectrically we do except for residential, okay,
as well as on the Tella dataside. We if it has a
wire we do it, and thenif it's wireless, we do it.
Brian, did it start that way? Where did you ever do residential?
Was it always commercial? It wasalways commercial and industrial? Okay? When
(04:08):
it when it comes to you know, growing this business, you know,
so you grew up in it.You eventually went to school Ohio State,
also got your m b A.There. Did you want to stay in
the business? Were you? Wasthere one point You're like, I think
I'm going to venture out for awhile and see what else is out there?
Yeah, there was a time youknow that I that I thought,
(04:29):
you know, maybe the grass isgreener. But when I when I came
back, well, I worked myway through college, and I work part
time, went to school full time, and and vice versa. All the
while it helped me in the business. You know, I didn't go through
the field like my dad did.I went through the through school and got
(04:55):
my m b A and and allof that, you know, at some
point translated to into helping me besuccessful in the business. When I came
back full time into the business,I was the purchasing agent. I morphed
into project managing and eventually became president. But I worked in the warehouse,
(05:15):
and then I graduated up to runningthe warehouse, and then you know,
I worked as a purchasing agent.Then I worked as a project manager and
really got to know every element ofthe business. And and really as project
manager, I worked very closely withour guys in the field to learn what
(05:40):
they did and how they did it. And so I learned the business not
really through installing things with my handsout in the field, but I did.
I did learn it through a veryclose relationship with the with the field
and the field formula. Yeah,you know, Brian, would you agree
with this. We've had lots ofguys on this podcast, lots of families
(06:02):
that have built bigger businesses. Ithink about the Rick Rekers that have been
in here among others, who talkabout how they worked almost every different unit
of that business. And I'm gettingand one thing that they will say,
and I'm guessing you would probably agreewith this is work as many different areas
(06:23):
of that family business as possible,because it'll obviously help you down the road.
Would you agree with that totally?I totally would agree with that.
And also listening, you know,listening to people that have done it before.
I had the good fortune of havinga mentor just about every turn,
(06:43):
so I was able to learn thebusiness really through really good mentorship and coaching.
Yeah. Brian doo is with uswho as the president and CEO of
mid City Electric and it's based outof Westervilt. It's been around since nineteen
sixty. He just had a curiosity. We know where it's located, but
how broad of an area does midCity Electric cover? We serve mainly Central
(07:08):
Ohio, and that can branch outto fifty to seventy five miles from here,
just depending on the customer and thecustomer's needs. We know about Intel,
We know about these dynamic technology companiesthat are here. Are you helping
(07:28):
any of them as they move in? And are you hoping grows Central Ohio
in that way? Yes, weare. And Intel we did the temporary
power for that project. We're currentlynot working there now. We finished that
project, but there's a lot ofother businesses that are coming to town.
A lot of data centers that arecoming to town that we're involved with.
(07:51):
So are the size of our projectsrun from very big to very small.
We've got thirty service vehicles that wecan service. You know, just if
you guys need an outlet, youknow, we can come out here and
install an outlet. Yeah. Sowe've got you know, over thirty service
(08:13):
technicians that can do just about anyneed or feel about any need that's that's
out there. When did you startdoing data centers? Out of curiosity?
Because I'm trying to put my mindaround how big of a project that must
be. I would say about fifteenyears ago. Okay, there was a
TJX data center we were involved withup in New Albany and that was a
(08:37):
joint venture. But yeah, we'vebeen doing data centers for quite a while.
I would say we're probably more knownthroughout Central Ohio as a hospital contractor.
Okay, we've now ventured into datacenters and we're good at that too.
So Brian, let me ask you. You're not the only electrical contractor
(08:58):
out there in Central Ohio. Butcan I ask what makes you different from
the other ones? I'd say it'sour people. Yeah, that's that's first
and foremost are our people. We'vegot to We've got a field force of
over five hundred electricians and technicians,and they've all got great attitudes. They're
(09:18):
very hard working, and they believein in our philosophy. You know,
they believe in what we're doing,and without them, we don't accomplish anything
as a company. Yeah, andyou know what, it's always been that
way. They are the face ofour company, and they are to our
(09:39):
customers, they're the most important,and they're who bring the work back to
the company. How do you reinforcethat? Because that's nice to hear,
But I'm always curious when a companysays that, what kind of things do
they do? Like if if youhired me today, what kind of things
am I going to experience or orsee within your company? What we like
(10:03):
to show them is who we are, and we like to treat them the
way we want to be treated.And one of our core values is we
treat our people like family. AndI want to believe that that comes through
to everyone in the company. Yeah, you know, it's difficult to get
(10:24):
the message out to all five hundredplus people. We've probably got another hundred
that work in the office, andso it's it's it's as you become bigger,
it becomes a little more difficult,but we're still the same people.
And you know, we do thingsfor them, like we have a a
(10:46):
field leadership program to where those thosethat are interested can get additional training to
help them become a coach to thoseunder them and to to we train them
to deal with the changes that aretaking place in our industry. We also
(11:07):
help them deal with those under themto bring them along and have them become
future leaders. So that that's aprogram that we have. We've we've got
a health and wellness program that weput on and and we've got a we've
got a gym on site, andso we encourage all of our employees to
(11:31):
take place in that for their ownhealth. Yeah, we have a health
and wellness coach that that they canthey can work with one on one with
the We also offer nutritional assistance foreveryou know wants to utilize that. And
Brian, you know something I readthat something mid City does on the job
(11:54):
site. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is you bring someone out there to
I don't know if it's check onthe employees or I guess take care of
them. How does that work?What do they do well? Mental health
is a concern in construction, andwe've decided to to have a mental health
(12:15):
advocate that we send out to jobsites and provide mental health talks with our
electricians and our technicians on a regularbasis. You know, you think about
first responders military, I never thoughtabout that before with construction workers. What
kind of things are they dealing withthat maybe the average person wouldn't realize.
(12:37):
Electricians a lot of times are veryprivate and and they're not willing to talk
about things that might be on theirmind and might be bothering them. So
it's sometimes is helpful to be proactiveabout that and and have someone who's whose
(12:58):
whose job it is really to toask the questions, you know, that
draw out information that that might bebothering someone and because the last thing you
want is for something to happen tosomeone. Yeah, and you really you
really didn't get the signs or youmissed the signs, and so we try
(13:20):
to be proactive about it. Howis the job for us right now?
The workforce? Are you do?Do you have a lot of openings like
so many other companies had for thelongest time. Is that are you up
to par now? What's that likefor you? We we still need people
and we're we monitor our backlog sothat we don't over commit ourselves because our
(13:46):
reputation is very important to us.We don't want to accept a job and
not be able to deliver, sowe are very cautious about over committing.
So we want to under commit andover deliver is kind of our our motto.
Yeah, Brian, you've been inthis community for a long time,
(14:07):
as we've said, since nineteen sixty. So with that, what kind of
things are you involved in in thecommunity? Is mid City Electric we're involved
quite a bit, Like for example, in Westerville, the Parks and Direct
Department has a Earth Day and wehelp them plant trees down at Nationwide Children's
(14:30):
Hospital, they have a Healthy Neighborhoodsand Healthy Families initiative and we go down
and help do things that the peoplein need down there can't do them for
themselves, so we help with theirmaintenance on their houses, we help with
landscaping and things of that nature.I like that. Yeah, And we're
(14:52):
also very involved in local hospitals.We give to them. We also help
our employees out, you know,have they have needs for for their kids
or or that they're involved with andand their sports programs, we help them
with that. We help out withhard Hats with Hearts that through the American
(15:13):
Heart Association. Well, what's thattell me about that? That sounds neat
heart Hats with Hearts. Yeah,We've We've got several of our construction managers
that we do work with that thatare heavily involved in that. And you
know, through through the American HeartAssociation they put that on and and it's
basically construction related and a construction relatedfundraiser. So where is mid City Electric
(15:39):
going? What's the future look like? Tell us about what we're seeing in
Columbus right now, because there's there'sa big business, uh you know,
construction boom going on in all differentfacets. So how does mid City Electric
fit into that? We want tomaintain our customer focus and in doing so,
we want to fulfill our promises,and it's getting more and more difficult
(16:03):
to do that because of how thelabor shortage is affecting our business. So
we want to make sure number one, when we promise something, the customer
can count on that and can counton the fact that mid City is going
to take care of that for them. The way we take care of customers
(16:25):
is kind of an old school concept, you know, doing the right thing
and taking care of the customer.The customer is always first, and we
want to maintain that. We don'twant to shy away from that. At
the same time, we need tostay up with technological advances. We need
to make sure that we are doingeverything we can do to be as relevant
(16:51):
as possible for our customers. Sothen when they make the choice to go
with mid City, they're not sacrificinganything and they're getting treated well while they're
doing it. Is anyone up andcoming under you or are you training anyone?
I'm very proud of my sons.I have four boys, Yeah,
three of which are working in thecompany. Okay, my oldest is our
(17:15):
leader of our service in small projects, and my second oldest is our CFO.
My oldest is Jimmy, and thenmy CFO his name is Ryan,
and my fourth oldest is Tanner andhe's working in the field for us.
Wow. So this is definitely afamily affair. Yeah. It helps me
(17:41):
get up and come on in inthe morning. Yeah, it's a lot
of fun, absolutely. You know, before we wrap up, Ryan,
you know, sometimes you'll hear thatsome families don't want to continue with the
family business. So the sons ordaughters that are coming up, they're all
doing their own thing. That hadto feel good knowing well, they're going
(18:02):
to be in this, My sonsare going to be in this, They're
going to take it over. UhSo I guess that leads me to,
well, how long are you goingto do this for as long as you
can? You want to go buyan island or something in a few years,
what do you want to do.I'm enjoying myself. I been urged
to do a transition a succession planOka and so who urged you? Well,
(18:26):
I was told by our leadership teamthat it's a it's a it's a
best practice practices for the business.And uh I don't feel like I'm that
old, you know, but Ithink, you know, the more times
I get asked that question, Imust not be looking at or looking all
that young. But anyway, I'vekind of taken that to heart, and
(18:52):
and I do have a plan now, so I'll be in the process of
delivering that message to to the companyand so that you know, the young
people can look forward and say,okay that I'm I'm clear about the direction
of the company. Sure, andand and and I'm told it's very important,
(19:14):
and I I am now starting tobelieve it. You're not the only
one. I see a lot ofcompanies that do stuff like that have a
transition plan in place. So,Brian Doue, the President CEO of mid
City Electric based out of Westerville,it is a pleasure to have you here
and I appreciate you taking the timeto come down today and be our guest
on CEOs you Should Know. Thankyou very much. CEOs you Should Know
(19:37):
is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
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