Business The Way Mom Likes That Philosophy Has Served Fast-Growing Schweitzer Engineering Labs Well

Ed Schweitzer shows up on a lot more than just the name on his company’s shingle.

From accounts payable to shipping, from research to receiving, the corporate culture of Schweitzer Engineering Labs can be summarized as: Ed Schweitzer.

“We want to do business the way our mother would want us to,” explains Schweitzer, the spiritual motherboard of the digital relay maker that outgrows its buildings faster than a 3-year-old outgrows shoes. “We treat our customers like we want our suppliers to treat us.”

The company broke ground for another 20,000 square feet of space this month, and should fill it by early spring. It will hire its 200th worker before the year ends, with the intent of hiring dozens more.

The 49-year-old Schweitzer, on a first-name basis with the bulk of SEL’s employee-owners, is personable but direct. He wears white dress shirts flared with a couple pens poking from the pocket. As an electrical engineering professor at Washington State University, he thought up the company’s first products in 1982.

The digital relays let utilities know what’s going on along their power lines, whether spikes of electricity are arcing along them or if lightning has snapped a pole in half 100 miles from the nearest hardhats. The devices also protect sensitive equipment from power surges and lightning strikes.

If your lights flicker, there’s a good chance that SEL’s goods are helping the power company figure out why.

Otter Trail Power Co. in Fergus Falls, Minn., snapped up the first relay units in 1984. Now utility surveys rank Schweitzer’s creation as the pre-eminent relay in the country.

SEL stands out not only as a company bringing highly skilled professionals from around the country to Pullman, but also for providing decent-paying manufacturing jobs for locals.

Along with cooking up the technology, Edmund O. Schweitzer III added a heaping tablespoon of common sense in running the business.

Bills get paid the same day they arrive. That creates a happy camp of vendors eager to do business with Schweitzer because they know it won’t be a month until they’re paid.

If a customer forgets to order cables with a relay unit, the company rushes out a set the same day, no purchase order, no hassle.

“The paperwork needed to get the cables out would cost us more than what the cables are worth,” Schweitzer says.

If a relay breaks for some reason, SEL fixes it. For free. And sends it back. Try that with your stereo deck, says Aaron Frakes, who does communications for Schweitzer.

The mantra that’s embossed on the corporate logo and SEL’s corporate conscience reads: Making electric power safer, more reliable and more economical.

Every task that every employee does moves the company toward that mission, Schweitzer says. “It helps all of our employees connect what they’re doing with our purpose,” he says.

Each Friday, the whole company sits down for a catered lunch, as it has since there were just 11 people in 1985. Departments make presentations about how their jobs match the mission, and customers from all corners of the world visit Pullman and explain why they buy SEL products.

While the company can’t accomplish the mission if it’s not making money, harnessing profit is not the ultimatum here.

Unleashing creativity may be. White marker boards frame cubicles and workstations throughout SEL, blazing with colored pen messages asking questions, providing updates, floating new ideas.

“If someone has a question or an idea, they can take it right to Ed,” says Bob Stolte, who handles human resources. “We’ve got a very flat corporate structure here.”

Creating new products in the technical world of electric relays demands a special kind of creativity, Schweitzer says. That the process is customer-driven isn’t unusual, but the approach can be a little different.

Say the challenge is to find a substitute for a windshield wiper, he begins. Perhaps a windshield that somehow repels moisture and grime is a better solution. Schweitzer likes to back up even further: why have a windshield at all?

Perhaps a car with a computer-operated guidance system would be even better, he says. “Our products create markets for themselves.”

New products from SEL include a unit that helps the other relays talk with each other, and software that runs on computers to make controlling the relays easier.

Stringent quality control means a trial by fire - almost literally. Each new unit gets “baked” in ovens while turned on to simulate the first few weeks of operation. The process weeds out units that would fail early in their lives.

Relay boxes are shaked violently, put in humid chambers to simulate tropical operating conditions, and must pass a slew of other tests before being shipped.

The company continues to expand around the country and internationally, Frakes says. New customer service/technical support centers in different regions put SEL resources closer to utilities.

Though new offices in Illinois and Florida can’t attend the Friday lunches, the meeting gets recorded and sent to them.

Schweitzer remains humble about his success, being reluctant to call the way the company runs his own. “It’s just the way we’ve always done things.”

Long hours are part of the job at nearly all high-tech companies, and SEL’s lights stay on late when a project faces a deadline.

“We do try to emphasize balance here,” Stolte says. Schweitzer admits to not being very good at it, himself.

Drawing the kind of talent needed to move the company forward isn’t the easiest job. Selling Pullman to people from urban areas or who expect a lot of diversity isn’t always successful. The area’s spare housing market also makes transitions tougher.

Once here, however, few leave SEL, Stolte says, and employee ownership is one reason why. Workers own 30 percent of the company, while Schweitzer and his wife, Mary, own the rest. Eventually, the plan is to have employees own all the stock.

“We don’t often have people leave us because they’re unsatisfied with the work or the pay,” Stolte says.

Schweitzer has been prominent in sharing SEL’s success with Pullman and WSU. The company sponsors professorships and supports a variety of causes in Pullman, especially education.

Saddled with a big university that pays no taxes, Pullman schools must ask for more money from citizens. SEL cash goes toward boosting science and math education.

“I just think it’s crucial for the long-term success of democracy,” Schweitzer says. “We have a lot of people who work here who help out in the schools.”

Once the new building opens, SEL will add as many as 30 more employees, and will keep opening offices close to customers.

As for Schweitzer, it’s full speed ahead. The company might need a bigger meeting room for Friday lunches, or may need to buy a bunch more marker boards, but beyond that, expect more of the same.

“If the company has three, 30, 300 or 3,000 employees, we’re not going to do anything differently,” he says. “Our philosophies here aren’t going to change.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SCHWEITZER ENGINEERING LABS Created in Pullman in 1982. Makes and sells electrical relay equipment for utilities making power safer, more reliable and cheaper. Has 300 customers around the world. Had sales of $30 million last year. Employs 192 people, but plans to add 38 more in the coming months. Broke ground this month for a new building next to the 62,000 square-feet of current facilities.