Jim Becker
President and CEO
EPIC Creative
West Bend
www.epiccreative.com
EPIC Creative, a full-service advertising and video production agency headquartered in West Bend, is celebrating 25 years of its “work hard, have fun” corporate culture. Company president and chief executive officer Jim Becker says the concept has been paramount for its survival. The company capped a record year in 2014.
“At EPIC, we built a reputation for excellent creative, but we still had a lot to learn about business acumen. For example, in the early years, budgets were tight, so we hired entry-level people that we could afford with the idea of ‘training them up right.’ But we soon learned they weren’t helping to raise the bar for us – or our clients. So we bit the bullet and invested in exceptional talent.
“Today, my business philosophy is to hire people smarter than I am, provide expectations, trust and respect and get out of their way. Everyone has a voice in the business and suggestions are always encouraged.
“What we have learned is that when we take good care of our people, they take good care of our clients. We used to hire low, and hope for the best. Now, we hire the best and shoot for the sky. When we opened for business, we were scared, desperate and would take any job we could get. Now, we are good at what we do and are comfortable moving on from accounts that don’t fit. Then, we struggled to make payroll. Now, everyone gets profit sharing. But most of all, we really do work hard and have fun.”
You can reach Jim at: jbecker@epiccreative.com.
