Georgia Business Leader Urges Companies To Embrace Change

With the speed of a microchip, the technological revolution threatens to bury businesses that refuse to change with it, a Georgia executive and philanthropist told Spokane’s largest business group Tuesday.

“We ourselves are our greatest risk,” Robert Jepson Jr. warned 800 people gathered for the 98th annual meeting of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. “You’re going to be facing change. Embrace it, make it work for you.”

Jepson, chairman of Kuhlman Corp., a Savannah, Ga., manufacturer, is the man for whom the Jepson Center at Gonzaga University is named. Jepson and others donated more than $1 million toward the building.

Although he claimed to be “a product of an obsolescent and disappearing age,” Jepson has successfully managed several companies, ranging from a California winery to Kuhlman, a manufacturer of electric transformers that employs more than 1,000 people. In March, Jepson owned $1.3 million in Kuhlman stock.

The changes in communications, data transfer, production and management are bigger than any that have occurred in 500 years, Jepson said. Business owners and their employees must quickly adapt to ensure their future, he said.

“The risks you take will be fatal if not recognized and managed,” Jepson said. “If we fail to respond to the advantages of change, our organizations will move closer to extinction.”

Also at the annual meeting, the chamber announced that it has grown to 2,200 members, most with fewer than 10 employees. The organization also is continuing to study the possibility of sharing office space with the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, Spokane Regional Conventions and Visitors Bureau and others.

The chamber installed Chris Schnug of McFarland & Alton as chair for 1995-96.