Day & Zimmermann is a familiar name in the Greenville community. The company opened an office here about 20 years ago, and it has thrived where others have not. This year the company, which is headquartered in Philadelphia and boasts Greenville, SC, as one of its largest offices, celebrates 110 years in business. The Greenville office has about 400 employees, with another 400 reporting in from their field positions. A privately owned, family-held company since 1901, Day & Zimmermann has maintained its core values of safety, integrity, diversity and success.
In fact, every executive at Day & Zimmerman spends time organizing his or her daily activities around these four key components of the corporate philosophy. Nationwide, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and industrial clients such as power plants depend on Day & Zimmermann’s employees for engineering, construction, facility and program management, and professional talent recruitment.
The company provides services in four divisions:
• Engineering, Construction and Maintenance
• Government Services
• Munitions Manufacturing and Demilitarization
• Staffing Services.
THE EVOLUTION
In 110 years, the company’s leaders have seen interesting transitions as Day & Zimmermann has evolved. “In the 1950s, the company focused heavily on engineering, construction, military work and utilities consulting,” says Day & Zimmermann’s vice president of business development Ken Anthony. “Then in the late 1980s to today, we have focused on consulting with power and industrial customers.” In 1961, Harold Yoh, who owned the nation’s first temporary technical staffing firm, assumed the chief role at Day & Zimmerman and integrated H.L Yoh Company as an operating division of the company when he realized complementary capabilities in employee recruitment. The Yoh family still owns Day & Zimmermann and pursues joint ventures with large companies such as the one it enjoys with Lockheed Martin.
Changes continue today. “Our biggest change is adaptation to new technology tools,” says Guy Starr, Day & Zimmermann’s president of engineering and construction for the past 11 years. “Clients demand faster cycle times, so our productivity must increase to meet expectations.”
“The pace is getting faster all the time,” concurs Rick Domyslawski, Day & Zimmermann’s executive vice president of engineering, who has been with the company for 16 years. “And we’ve gone from one CAD [computer-aided design] person performing ‘black magic’ to intelligent design systems and 3-D modeling. Everyone is using software now for design, office functions and electronic collaboration.”
TODAY
Today, Day & Zimmermann focuses on streamlining procedures across all divisions of its organization and maintaining the slow and steady growth that has defined the company so far. “Our growth plans are modest,” says Anthony. “We are succeeding even through the economic downturn because of our diversification.” The company is well known for its engineering and construction management but also manufactures munitions for the U.S. military.
The company is pushing to further develop a technical talent pool. Domyslawski sponsors a young professionals network within the company, integrating people of all ages and their ideas into a cohesive unit. “Diversity is a huge piece of it; we want diversity of thought, diversity of marketing. It’s one of our core values,” says Starr. “We are always actively recruiting, trying to keep the talent pipeline full,” he adds. The company says it has an age-balanced workforce but expects 40 percent of its Baby Boomer employees to begin retiring over the next few years. “We are selling talent and expertise,” continues Starr, “so we’re working to pull diverse people from colleges and technical schools all the time.”
Clients seem to be buying what Day & Zimmermann is selling. The company brought in $2.4 billion in revenue last fiscal year and boasts some large and well-respected customers, including General Electric, GlaxoSmithKline, U.S. Department of Defense, SAP, and Eastman Chemical Company. “Day & Zimmermann is the onsite engineering partner at our Kingsport, TN, facility,” says Eastman’s VP of Worldwide Engineering and Construction, Mark Cox, a D&Z customer for 10+ years. “We’ve had a significant capital spend in the last year with a lot of opportunities for both companies,” Cox continues. “Day & Zimmermann’s workload has increased dramatically, but its employees do not have an entitlement mentality. They stay hungry and responsive to Eastman. Day & Zimmermann fits in with our corporate culture and is proactive during project engagements. They make our priorities their priorities.”
TOMORROW
What direction will the company turn in the near future? None of the executives will say for sure, but they all seem confident in Day & Zimmermann’s proven adaptability. “The munitions industry is changing, and we see it as an opportunity to develop and expand other products for the government and defense market such as oxygenated wound dressing and photoluminescent materials,” says Anthony. The company is open to whatever the economy brings its way. “We are a solutions provider,” Starr says. “I spend a part of my time each day paying attention to the three things that matter most to us – our customers, talent development and innovation. We have learned to get along – we are friendly with our competitors and work with them on talent identification, talent placement and projects when necessary.” Day & Zimmermann will survive and thrive and is confident of its direction.