Business Services Entrepreneur Kevin Charles Voges, president The Material Works, Ltd. Typical of most entrepreneurs, Kevin Charles Voges, loves a challenge and shares his passion and vision with his employees, whom he describes as “a variety of geniuses who don’t look in the rearview mirror.” In a beat-up industry where 21 steel mills and many more steel service centers have landed in bankruptcy court, The Material Works has become quite adept at discovering new ways to process steel—turning steel coils into more useable flat sheets. According to Voges, he and his team of visionaries turned around a financially-challenged company. Developed as a hedge against a recessionary economy, The Material Works, Ltd. quickly began to outperform its parent manufacturing company, and ended up competing with its customers. In response, the fabricating segment was spun off to form its own separate entity in December 1992. Since the spin off, TMW has grown significantly and added more capacity by installing a customer-owned processing line, which they, in turn, use to process other customer orders. Last year, the company had revenues of $10 million and anticipates $14 million this year. “Our people have an unbelievable level of commitment not only to the company, but to our customers as well,” according to Voges. “We truly operate by the Golden Rule.” Voges says his 150 employees operate with “quiet competency and initiate innovative ideas like these to keep the company insulated against financial disaster in an industry where companies are going bankrupt at record rates.” It’s the classic win-win scenario. TMW provides its customers with capabilities they don’t possess in their own plants, introduces cost-reducing initiatives to the client, and enhances its own bottom line at the same time. Indeed, their mission is to make it impractical for customers to process steel for themselves. Their customer list is literally a Who’s Who of major companies in numerous industries. Some of their major accounts include Maytag, Whirlpool, Kawasaki, Toyota, Hussman, Square D, ABB, John Deere, Emerson, Manchester Tanks, York, Aire, and Little Tikes.