Andrews Cooper (AC) recently celebrated its 200th employee hire!
To mark the occasion, we reached out to our Co-Founders, Neal Andrews and Steve V. Cooper, to reflect on this milestone and their observations as AC has evolved over the last two decades.
Today, we share a few excerpts below. You can also check out our highlights video on LinkedIn! Enjoy!
On Founding AC: Risks & Hopes
When you two first envisioned Andrews Cooper, what did you picture it becoming?
Working at HP before founding AC
Entrepreneurial Engineers & Best Friends
Neal Andrews
Yeah, I think our original stretch goal might have been to someday reach 20 employees. So, 200 is 10 times what we originally imagined, even in our wildest dreams.
Having just secured jobs after leaving Hewlett-Packard, we initially had a survival mindset, as you can imagine, and that fostered some of our early objectives. We wanted to choose where we wanted to live and figure out how to survive there. We really liked the idea of depending on ourselves for job security rather than relying on others, especially after being let go by HP. We also valued the freedom to quickly adapt to a dynamic, changing world because it had happened to us a couple of times. We really liked the idea of having that flexibility and freedom to go where the work was.
We also wanted to create something much better than a traditional staffing agency. For example, we wanted to provide teams rather than individuals to serve our customers, manage our people ourselves rather than have our customers manage them, and proactively help our customers be successful rather than just being told what to do.
We also really depended on the support and efforts of our wives, Cece and Charmaine, when we were making this decision. Our friends at HP thought we were crazy, saying things like, “That’s way too risky! Why don’t you just stay with HP and commute to Corvallis or Vancouver?” It was very scary to risk our livelihoods at that time, but Cees and Charmaine never wavered in their support. Having that support made it possible for us to take the necessary risks and start Andrews Cooper.
Putting each other and the needs of the company first has always helped us evolve into a team-oriented culture, and I think that’s key to being a strong company.
Steve V. Cooper
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. We both had young families in those days, and jumping off the cliff like that was kind of a scary thing.
One key factor we found in forming a successful service company is intentionality and drive. We believe in taking full responsibility for our own success and also the success of our clients. In fact, this idea has been captured in one of our Core Values—we call it “Own It.” When we hire people, we consider that a key ingredient in our success. Taking personal responsibility and being a self-starter is not an area we feel we can compromise on at all. This whole notion is captured in something that Neal likes to call “attitude.”
We interview for attitude when we hire people, and being enthusiastic and energetic in our work sets us apart from others who might sit around and wait to be told what to do. We believe that jumping in, formulating ideas, and looking for solutions is not only key to successful client and team relationships, but it also makes our job fun and exciting.
Elevating Engineering Through AC
We know that the company’s mission is to elevate the practice of device engineering. How has that mission helped shape the direction and achievements of Andrews Cooper?
Neal
We didn’t realize it at the start, but we really are a services business. Emphasizing that we are a services business and that our success depends on our customers’ success has really focused our efforts and approach.
Steve
Yeah, that’s right, Neal. It’s all about putting your ego aside and working as a team to iterate and innovate. I think as a team, we’ve solved many difficult problems, and it’s definitely the collective that creates the power to improve.
One early story that we like to tell around here is about a jogging track at Hewlett-Packard in McMinnville. It was about a mile and a half long, and each year, anyone who wanted to participate could have a friendly race around the track. It was always fun to see who would have the best time, and Neal was among the regular winners of that race. We did it for years.
One year, we decided to all train together and work as a team instead of competing against each other. Rather than making it a competition between ourselves, we decided that we’d all work together and see if we could beat the old course record. The idea of teamwork and goal-setting has fostered a culture at Andrews Cooper of “Help Each Other Win.” That’s another one of our Core Values.
What Experience Teaches
Can you give some examples of unexpected lessons you’ve learned from your employees or clients over the years?
Neal
Yeah, some of mine are that job satisfaction is directly tied to a sense of contribution, and that outside consultants can streamline our adoption of new business processes, but strategic decisions are best made by ourselves.
Experience is what allows you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Steve
Exactly. Some fun anecdotes I like to live by are, “If you can’t explain a problem, then you don’t understand it and you can’t solve it.” “Sometimes it takes longer to explain a problem than it does to solve it.” And “Always ask the quiet guy in the room what he’s thinking.” These are a couple of things I’ve discovered over the years.
But seriously, everything we know has come from someone else or from making mistakes. The fun part of this journey is learning together and the journey of discovery. One of our favorite sayings is, “Experience is what allows you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”
Thanks, Neal & Steve, for marking this milestone with us!
And, our warmest thanks to our customers and employees, past and present, for coming on this journey with AC. It’s because of you that we have continued to enjoy growth and success.
We look forward to the solutions we’ll develop together in the days and years to come!
