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Roetheli's evergreen persistence drives life

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2007/04/30/story13.html

Joe Roetheli has plenty of green to retire on, having built S&M NuTec LLC into the world's most successful dog treat company, then selling it to Mars Inc. last year.
But Roetheli, whose company sold 750 million Greenies in the decade he and his wife, Judy, owned it, claims he's lived only a third of his life -- 59 years.
"I plan to live to at least 150," Roetheli said at the modest North Kansas City headquarters of Key Companies & Associates LLC -- the umbrella for a stable of startups.
And considering the spunky entrepreneur's track record, it doesn't seem wise to bet against him or the Roethelis' half-dozen new companies.
"If I had to pick one person to make a new project successful, I'd pick Joe," said Brad Allen, who joined S&M NuTec in 2001 and remains COO of its successor, the Greenies Co.
Among the many reasons for Roetheli's success, Allen said, are his passions for learning and problem-solving.
Solving his wife's problem with their dog's smelly breath led Roetheli to develop Greenies, the teeth-cleaning, gum-disease-preventing treat that accounted for $380 million in 2005 sales.
Meanwhile, Roetheli's love of learning led him to "Blue Ocean Strategy," a recently published book that is helping the Roethelis screen new opportunities.
The trick, the book explains, is to offer compelling new products and services, thus avoiding commoditized markets and cutthroat pricing.
Using that strategy, the Roethelis have invested in new ventures such as a day spa in Briarcliff Village, a line of simple but innovative tools and a charcoal smoker distributorship.
But Joe Roetheli said entrepreneurs must use their heads as well as books.
"Think, think, think. And furthermore, think creatively," said Roetheli, who can boil any business situation down to a catchy credo.
To get to Roetheli's essence, however, you have to dig deep -- to his roots.
In 1854, a group of 25 Roethelis left Switzerland for the United States. Only three survived the sinking of their riverboat and a cholera epidemic that greeted the family in Hermann, Mo. Roetheli's great-grandfather, who was 9, was the oldest survivor.
Penniless but persistent, he eked out a living by farming in Hermann, as did Roetheli's grandfather and father. Meanwhile, Roetheli said, a branch of the family that remained on Swiss soil was passing on a persistence gene that a distant cousin would inherit.
In 2005, Serge Roetheli completed a five-year, around-the-world charity run for kids, with his wife, Nicole, tagging along on a motorcycle.
"Many times, while we were building our company," Joe Roetheli said, "I said, 'Whatever our hurdles are, they're nothing compared to what Serge and Nicole are facing.' That helped us find some way under, around or through any hurdle we faced."
Apparently, Roetheli added, he inherited some persistence, too.
The Roethelis needed plenty of it when they launched S&M NuTec because they were in short supply of capital, said Larry Lee, a director for the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Having given up his post as an economic development official for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Roetheli outsourced the manufacturing of Greenies. But even that would have been impossible to swing had he not been able to negotiate several equipment leases in which the lessors agreed to bear expensive mold costs.
"All the leasing companies told him no," Lee said, "But Joe just kept calling and calling until he wore the companies down -- all 17 of them."
Persuading bankers to back the venture was even harder for the two, who had no business or sales experience.
Later, after Greenies took off, a banker called on S&M NuTec and was promptly pelted with marshmallows.
"He had to learn what our culture was like if he wanted to do business with us," Roetheli said.
Having fun always has been central to that culture. So the Roethelis readily adopted the marshmallow-throwing practice, called Shenanigans, after a doctoral student at Rockhurst University told them it improves productivity by 20 percent.
"Whenever there was tension in the air, someone would get on the intercom and say, 'Everyone meet in the cafeteria for Shenanigans,'" Allen said. "Then everyone would go throw marshmallows at each other for four or five minutes."
Shenanigans might not be for every company. But any business would do well to emulate the way the Roethelis treated their 100 employees, Allen said.
Joe Roetheli was careful about whom he hired, interviewing each applicant personally and asking questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" to get into the job seeker's head.
Once selected, however, employees became kin and were richly rewarded for helping the cause, Allen said.
Today, helping others is an even bigger part of the Roethelis' cause. Among their new ventures is a nonprofit effort to produce inspiring videos, including one about Serge Roetheli. In addition, the couple's Li'l Red Foundation just announced $1.25 million in gifts to support entrepreneurship, pet therapy for the elderly, eye care in the Third World and help for the homeless in Jamaica.
"Before I got into business, my goal in life was to be a good husband and father and make enough money to support my family," Roetheli said. "Now my goal is to be a good husband and father and a creative entrepreneur who helps many others."
Joe Roetheli
Title: CEO of Key Companies & Associates LLC
Age: 59
Family: Wife, Judy; two sons, Steffan, 28, and Michael, 26
Education: Bachelor's in agricultural economics and doctorate in economics from the University of Missouri, master's in food and resource economics from the University of Florida
Hobbies: Working, hiking and traveling


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