Wallace Electrical Systems History
Wallace Electrical Systems was founded in 2003 by David Wallace, its president. WES's main office is located in southern Illinois in West Frankfort. Wallace currently employs more than 60 positions in 3 facilities. The majority of Wallace employees are from the immediate Franklin County area, most having lived in West Frankfort their entire lives and are dedicated to promoting small business in this region and to the global market. The additional two facilities are located in western Kentucky and in central Alabama. David’s vision is to create a corporate atmosphere that promotes innovative thinking.
Providing Expert Electrical Solutions
Wallace Electrical Systems, a manufacturer of electrical solutions in the mining, petro chemical, and industrial production sectors, finds high-tech solutions for age-old industry problems. Their products range from power distribution through specialized explosion-proof control systems. David Wallace and the staff of Wallace Electrical Systems pride themselves in working in traditional industries and finding new ways to do old things or finding high-tech solutions to solve old problems. In the electrical engineering field, customization to meet client’s needs is the key to adding value to traditional products and allowing a higher than normal profit margin. Wallace’s competitive advantage revolves around four key concepts: Image, Brand, Research, and Standards and Approvals.
Changing the Way Employees View Their “Job”
Having an extensive corporate background before opening his own company, David saw a need to run a company using "open-book" management, whereby the employees see what it really costs to run the business – including salaries and the owner’s draw and re-investment– along with the company’s revenues. This sharing of company information has engaged employees in the long-term vision of the business as well as a higher level of commitment in the day-to-day operations, helping to make everyone feel accountable for the direction of the company.
David knows a good employee when he sees one. That employee usually comes to him in the form of a referral. He looks for engineers who have the talent to manage. When he finds this person, he pursues them to become a part of Wallace Engineering Systems. He has very little turnover in the employees he has courted and hired. David feels the culture of WES is different than most electrical “shops.” In the WES environment, David feels it is important to spend money making employees happy and comfortable. David’s philosophy is if you are going to do something, do it right the first time, and the people he surrounds himself with all share that pride in their workplace. David feels the internal image of the company is sometimes more important than the external image.
Dedicated to Systematic Growth
Wallace has experienced tremendous growth in a short period of time and realizes to continue to grow he must systematically manage this growth. First of all, to continue growing as he would like, a new facility is required. David is currently housed in an Incubator facility, and has outgrown his office and manufacturing space several times over, expanding to take over additional space in the Incubator. Working with the City of West Frankfort, David has negotiated an agreement for land where he will build a new, larger facility, to be open by Summer 2012. This financing package combines state financing, TIF district, and Empowerment Zone. Plans include 18 new jobs, growing to $30m sales through acquisitions of other companies. David is at the point where to continue growing at a rapid rate, he is going to have to buy out some smaller companies and fold their work into his workload. As of June 2012, David has aquired Gould Motor Technologies and their assests including several employees and has opened two additional warehouse/service facilities. One is located in werstern Kentucky and one in central Alabama.
The Future of Innovation
David feels the future growth of WES is to “invest in bringing more efficiency into the manufacturing sector by taking perhaps only partially developed technologies and building a better way to get the job done.” In David’s estimate, there is a huge market potential in both the US and overseas for him to work with traditional manufacturing industries and develop them into state-of-the art facilities.