…how a company with limited resources grew from 55th to 1st place in a competitive industry. By studying and understanding the rules of engagement, then modifying them to its advantage, the ECCO Group scrapped its way to happy customers, passionate team members, and global leadership of a tiny niche market.

      Our Speaker: Ed Zimmer is the CEO of ECCO, based in Boise, Idaho, the country’s leading manufacturer of back-up alarms and amber emergency lights. He joined ECCO as vice-president of sales in the late 1980s, working with his brother-in-law, Jim Thompson, who had bought the company in 1986. In the early 1990s, Thompson suffered a series of heart attacks and asked Zimmer to become president, saying that otherwise he would sell the business. Zimmer agreed to take the job. Under his leadership, ECCO became a model of customer-intimacy and developed a reputation as one of the most innovative companies in its industry. The company is employee-owned – the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) owns 58% of the company’s stock – and an accomplished practitioner of open-book management, having played its own version of The Great Game of Business for more than 10 years. www.eccolink.com