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President, Pelican Wire Co., and CEO, Pelican Holdings Group. Parents Larry and Theresa Bill founded the company in their Illinois garage in 1969 and moved the business to Naples in 1975. In 2008, after Larry’s death, Pelican Wire transitioned to a 100 percent employeeowned company. Ted, who holds an MBA from The University of Central Florida, joined the company then, after working as a senior systems analyst and business technology partner for Walt Disney World from 1998-2008.


BEST LESSONS FROM DISNEY

“Their ability to find the right-fit people for their company values is something that I still look back at and am impressed with. When we hire people, it’s really understanding what is the culture that we want to have and making sure we have people that match up with that culture. The second thing is really just about engagement. [Disney taught me to use] very active and proactive communication to the employees, whether it’s through newsletters, training classes, business presentations … really doing our best to communicate and share information freely and quickly so everyone knows where the business is.”

KEY STEPS FOR CREATING STABILITY IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE

“You engage the people who are going to be impacted the most as much as possible in the change. The more they’re engaged in what’s happening, the more likely that it will be a positive success.”

TIP FOR MAKING A TOUGH DECISION

“I tend to look for facts and figures. I let knowledge kind of lead my way, as far as decision-making. Sometimes, there can be risk involved with decision-making, but I think it’s about making sure that it’s a good, calculated risk.”

BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN THE PAST YEAR

“It’s a challenge that is probably a lifelong challenge. My business started as a family company. We’re trying to keep that family atmosphere as much as possible. Sometimes, it’s a hard line for people to see, that we’re a family and we try to run the business as a family, but we’re also a team. Just like any good team, all your players have to perform. Everyone has to fill their role. Our company also is going through a lot of growth. We were down to 32 employees [in 2009]. We’re about 140 employees all told [as of spring 2016]. As the company scales up, finding the right people to fill those roles and new challenges and responsibilities has been difficult.”

INSPIRATIONAL BOOK

Rhythm: How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth (February 2014), by Patrick Thean

“Communication isn’t a random thing. It’s all about rhythm. It’s all about regularity. We have a daily stand-up meeting, which we call our ‘huddles’ [to share news such as accomplishments and plans]. Everybody in our company is involved in a huddle at some point of time in the day.”

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