Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9506010016
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Glenn said Tuesday he will leave Roanoke Gas, possibly as quickly as two weeks from now, to start his own consulting business, the Issues Management Group. The new venture will specialize in helping businesses deal with major issues or changes, such as Roanoke Gas' successful defense against the city of Roanoke's takeover attempt in 1993 and the utility's restructuring and downsizing, which Glenn helped bring about.
Last Wednesday, Glenn walked into President Frank Farmer's office and told him that he didn't think Roanoke Gas needed a vice president anymore to do the work that he was doing.
Farmer said he hadn't expected Glenn's suggestion but wasn't surprised either, having felt that Glenn had been itching to try something on his own. "I have mixed emotions," Farmer said. "I hate to lose Rob."
As it is, Farmer will not lose Glenn completely. He will take on Roanoke Gas as his first consulting client. Glenn will be available to provide advice to the two managers who will divide up his former duties at the gas company and for any other projects Farmer might assign him.
Bobby Wells, the company's manager of information services, will assume Glenn's customer service duties. John D'Orazio, who oversees new construction, will take over supervision of sales. Both Wells and D'Orazio will report directly to Farmer.
Glenn, 37, said that he has dreamed most of his adult life about owning his own business. Before the Burlington, N.C., native went to work at Roanoke Gas, he was director of marketing and customer service at Appalachian Power Co. in Roanoke, which hired him straight out of North Carolina State University.
The idea for the consulting business, Glenn said, was born during Roanoke Gas' fight when the city proposed assuming the company's operations within the city limits when the company's last franchise expired. The experience showed him that the issues facing business today are often too complicated for a company to handle on its own, he said.
The kind of team effort that the company put together against the city, involving half a dozen different disciplines, is something he wants to do with his consulting business, Glenn said. "We will assemble a team of people custom-made to whatever the problem might be," he said.
Initially, besides his work with Roanoke Gas, Glenn said he will work with Slant Corp., a Danville-based maker of carwash equipment, and with John Lambert Associates, a Roanoke public relations and advertising firm.
Although he will be his company's sole employee starting out, Glenn said he intends to continue his involvement in a variety of civic activities. He is chairman-elect of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and serves on the boards of the United Way of the Roanoke Valley and Downtown Roanoke Inc. His wife, Sherry, is a Roanoke native who works for a Roanoke law firm.
Roanoke Gas' employees have been through a lot of changes over the past few years as the company has restructured to compete in an environment free from government regulation, Glenn said. "What better way to show we're serious about the whole thing than to outsource me, too," he said.
The company has recently contracted with outside firms for work that was formerly done by six employees who have left the company through early retirement or for other reasons. Outside companies will now make calls to customers who are late in paying their bills, process the company's bill payments, handle after-hours customer calls and mail out bills.
There have been no layoffs, Farmer and Glenn stressed. Twelve of 25 eligible employees took a recent early-retirement offer and other employees have left the company for other reasons. Roanoke Gas' total employment is down from around 161 last year to 140, Farmer said.
The retirements will save the company $500,000 a year, Glenn said. At the company's last shareholders meeting, officials reported that the company planned to cut its budget by at least $350,000 in order to compensate for revenue losses from a decrease in gas sales caused by this winter's weather, which was 15 degrees warmer than normal.
The savings will allow the company to pay its full $1 stock dividend this year, Farmer said.
by CNB