VAA
Reprinted from Grain Journal November/December 2013 Issue
"One of the things we say is, ‘Our inventory goes home to their families at night.’” That’s how CEO Scott Stangeland sums up the culture at VAA, LLC, in Plymouth, MN (763-559-9100), a multi-disciplinary engineering firm serving agricultural, industrial, and architectural clients throughout the United States and Canada. With a motto like that, it’s no wonder VAA is celebrating its 35th anniversary in business in 2013.
A service-based organization like VAA has to rely on its people to establish its reputation and thereby earn repeat business. It’s clear from Stangeland that the leadership at VAA regards its employees highly and understands that an investment in its people is an investment in its future.
“It’s all about our people and the quality of our people,” said Stangeland. “We don’t have anything else that we sell. We don’t sell any products. All we sell is really good advice, and our people are problem solvers. So we join together with our customers to solve problems. It’s really a people-based service company doing outstanding engineering work,” he added.
A people-centric mentality isn’t one that you can just pay lip service to, either. Leadership must “walk the talk” in order for it to take root in the firm’s culture and, ultimately, extend to its clients, as is the case at VAA.
“One of the principles (founder) Dick (Van Sickle) had is, ‘Find people that are smarter than you are as employees.’ And I think the real key to our success is that we have smart people that care a lot about their work and are dedicated to the success of our clients,” said Stangeland. “So by focusing on doing a good job and doing what we say we’re going to do – follow-through and service – that, combined with technical excellence in the engineering field, I think is a real key.”
VAA: A Retrospective
The foundation for VAA was laid back in August 1978, when Dick Van Sickle and Chuck Allen opened shop in the historic Wesley Temple Building in downtown Minneapolis, MN under the name Van Sickle, Allen & Associates, Inc. It was co-located with a then small architectural firm, RSP Architects which now employs more than 200 people in the Twin Cities. The association with RSP continues to this day and is a testament to the long-term relationships that VAA fosters with its clients.
“One of our first clients was Rauenhorst, which is now Opus Corporation,” Stangeland recalled. “RSP was just starting up at that time, so Dick talked about how they actually did a lot of things together and started their businesses together. Our relationship with RSP goes back 35 years, and we still have them as a client to this day,” Stangeland continued.
“So through the years, the work has been a blend of traditional structural engineering consulting to architects and general arrangement, structural and civil engineering for agricultural companies on flour, grain, and feed projects,” he added.
Within four months after opening its doors, VAA completed its first project, the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lindstrom, MN, followed quickly by its first agricultural project for GTA Feeds in Sioux Falls, SD, a year later. Principal Reginald Silverthorne joined the firm in 1979, and by 1980, there were seven employees on staff and 59 projects on the books, including VAA’s first grain elevator and feed mill projects.
Since those humble beginnings, VAA has been recognized in the industrial/agribusiness markets for providing site/civil and structural engineering and general arrangement services for the design, storage, handling, and processing of grain and other agricultural commodities. During the last 10 years, VAA has delivered engineering services on over 4,000 U.S. projects worth more than $5.7 billion in estimated construction value and more than 200 plus projects around the world.
Planning for Growth
Success on this scale does not happen by chance. Strategic planning is essential, and VAA has clear objectives in mind for its continued growth.
“We have four strategic objectives at our firm,” said Stangeland. “One of those objectives is to be a great place to work. I’d like to be able to say to anybody that VAA is the best engineering firm to c work for in the Twin Cities. We spend a lot of time at work. Our people are giving us their very best time during the day, and we may as well make it a great place to be, as long as we’re at it.”
For a firm that places such high value on its people, this shouldn’t come as any surprise, nor should VAA’s other objectives, which include: providing opportunities for new leaders in the firm, improving its perception among current and prospective employees and clients alike, and doubling its repeat client base.
“When we developed this strategy about four or five years ago,” said Stangeland, “we said that by the end of 2015, we wanted to double our repeat client base. Again, we’re a firm based on clients, not projects. So by doubling our repeat client base, we’re expanding the diversification of our project types and client types. And again, by expanding them, we need to have more people involved in leading those client relationships.”
Headquarters Relocation
If growth is what VAA was planning for, the firm has certainly reaped what its sown. By May of 2013, the firm had outgrown its offices in Plymouth, MN, which consisted of two, separate buildings and moved into its new corporate headquarters one mile south. According to Stangeland, the new 35,000-sq-ft. office consolidates all of the company’s employees under one roof and creates a cohesive work environment celebrating the rich history of the firm’s work.
As Stangeland recalled, “Half of us were in one building, and half of us were in another building – and that was just because of the expansion the firm experienced in the last six or seven years. There wasn’t enough room for everybody, so we thought, ‘Well, let’s go someplace where we can all be in the same building and collaborate better, and in the process, create a better environment for our employees.’ Since we’re able to collaborate better, and it’s more efficient, we’re providing better service to our customers,” he noted.
In designing the space, VAA not surprisingly reached out to its long-time client and partner, RSP. “We hired (RSP’s) interiors group, and they asked us a lot of questions about the history of the firm,” he said. “They incorporated a lot of our firm’s history in structural engineering and civil engineering, and agricultural projects, into the design of the building. So if you come to our building, you’ll see the story of VAA in our interior architecture.”
Doing Well by Doing Good
In telling VAA’s story, Stangeland says it would be remiss to overlook the ways in which the firm has leveraged its resources to give back to the local community as part of an annual giving campaign it started 10 years ago. “Since we’re a service firm, I felt it was important for us to not only serve our clients in exchange for revenues, but also to serve the community, without expecting anything in return,” he said. Typically, charitable donations have been made to United Way, Minnesota Environmental Fund, and Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners.
In the past five years, VAA has also participated in the annual Canstruction® Competition, a national design and build competition, in which participants construct giant-sized structures made entirely out of canned food to benefit a local food pantry – which in Minnesota is Second Harvest Heartland. VAA’s sculptures in 2012 and 2011 have been related to agriculture – a combine tractor and an old fashioned grain elevator – and have garnered multiple awards for the firm. In the 2013 competition, the build team showcased folklore icon Paul Bunyan and his companion, Babe the Blue Ox. The real winners, of course, are the local food banks that receive the canned food to distribute to the needy after the sculptures have been dismantled.
Looking Ahead
If the past is any indication, the next 35 years will be as positive for VAA as the last 35, as it continues to evolve and expand its scope of services to various industries. “In the past five years, we’ve been focusing on diversifying our client base but also in diversifying our service offerings,” said Stangeland. “We’re evolving into a multidiscipline company.”
What won’t change, however, is VAA’s focus on people and offering the type of personalized service that only a small firm can provide. “I want to make sure we maintain a small company feel,” Stangeland noted. “The reason that I want to have that is that I think there’s more pride … in your smaller team, and you have a sense of place and a sense of belonging. And I think our customers get better quality service when they’re working with people that have a small firm mentality.”
