A Family Beyond The Bloodlines

PHOTO/Matt VOLPINI DAVIS Cos. Founder Robert Davis stands between his sons, Patrick (left) and Brendon. Robert Davis launched the firm in the finished basement of the family's home.

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By Livia Gershon Special To The Worcester Business Journal

When Brendon Davis, director of business operations for Marlborough-based staffing firm The Davis Cos., got on a conference call to talk about his family's business recently, he mentioned that there might be some noise in the background from his four-month-old son. The baby's presence seemed wholly appropriate since the little boy is a potential third-generation member of a business that began when Davis was a small child himself.

Brendon's father, Robert Davis, started the company in 1984 and worked from the family's finished basement with the first handful of employees. Before walking downstairs to work, Robert said he would eat breakfast with his wife and kids, and he'd join them again at lunch time.

“It really was all about the family,” he said.

Six members of the Davis family now work together to run the business, including Brendon's brother Patrick and his wife Katie, who he met when they were working together at the company. But the Davises say the company's identity as a “family business” isn't just about DNA. Employees — more than 65 of them in seven offices that reach from Georgia to Minnesota — are part of the family too. Robert Davis said one of his managers is the godmother of his youngest daughter, and Andrea Pion, vice president of national client programs, babysat Brendon and Patrick when they were young.

“Andrea is as much my sister as my sister is,” he said. “I know we blur the line sometimes... They've been at every wedding.”

Patrick said his experience growing up in the business was all about parties and outings the company would hold in the summers.

“I didn't think they worked at all,” he said. “A lot of what we saw was the outcome of a lot of success ... I wasn't seeing it from the business perspective.”

The family atmosphere, which includes one group of employees who spend their weekends playing together on a lacrosse team, also comes with what Robert considers a special responsibility. In the early 2000s, he said, the company was booming, with offices all over the country and plans to go public. Then recession hit. That meant a particularly hard blow to the staffing industry, since temporary workers are one of the first places suffering companies tend to cut. The Davis Cos. closed offices and brought people back to the East Coast, but didn't eliminate their jobs.

Building Relationships, Teamwork

“There's a different expectation in a family business, I think, when you're this close,” Robert said. “You just can't lay people off because of the relationships … in many ways it's kind of helped us where we've all had to pitch in.”

Employees took pay cuts to help the company get by, and many of them are still doing their jobs now.

While it makes a big commitment to its employees, Brendon said The Davis Cos. is “picky” about who it hires, looking particularly for entrepreneurial types who are ready to take on leadership roles when the company has a chance to start a new venture. “You need the people to raise their hand and go, 'I want to take on that opportunity,'” he said.

Patrick, who studied computer science and business in college, is one of the people leading a new Davis initiative: analyzing a new market in Minnesota where the company is making inroads to determine the opportunities and the competition it faces. “As soon as (employees) start with Davis, it's non-stop emphasis on 'This is your company,'” he said. “If you see an opportunity to do something or bring something to the table, we're fortunate that a lot of folks can leave ego at the door and be open to new ideas. That's been such a driver for growth.”

Another driver for the company has clearly been the pride its leaders feel in their fellow family members —biological and otherwise. Brendon said he's been hugely impressed with the analytical tools Patrick has brought to the market study work he's doing. “Being able to see him… really creating his own path has been amazing not just from a business standpoint but also from a brother standpoint as well,” he said. “I couldn't believe you could do this with this technology.”

The same kind of pride is evident in Robert, both when he talks about his sons and when he mentions his brother Jim, who started the company's mid-Atlantic area business more than 15 years ago. Since Jim is the older brother, he said, the relationship felt a bit “out of sequence as far as who reports to who,” he said, but “I think one nice thing was my brother had a high degree of respect for what I brought to the table regarding the knowledge that I brought to the business, and I don't think I ever lost that little-brother respect for the big brother.”

The company is now planning for even more growth, with a five-year “road map” for its development. Robert said he's thrilled to have his sons playing such strong roles to move the business forward. Meanwhile, he said, he's using his prerogative as a CEO to take every Wednesday off to do some “recruiter training” — and diaper changing — with the newest member of the family business, his little grandson.

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