Tell us the basics: Who are you, what’s your company’s name, and how long have you been at this company?

I co-founded SPARK Engineering LLC with in Sean Anderson October 1997. SPARK specializes in the design of consumer and medical products. The products we have designed over the last 14 years range from operating tables to water pitchers. SPARK works with product companies of all sizes as well as individual inventors. Bruce Ferris joined SPARK in 2001 as a third partner. Currently SPARK’s design staff is comprised of the three partners and three additional engineers, including a PhD biomedical engineer.

What’s a lesson you’ve learned during the recessionary environment of the past few years?

What we learned in the 2001 recession carried us through the 2008 recession. We are conservative on overhead, expenses, and debt. Some might call it being lean and mean. We run a lean operation but wouldn’t characterize SPARK as mean. Also we have learned the importance of diversifying our client base. We have seen may firms go by the wayside because they have one or two clients that account for 90% of their revenue. Having such a small client base means you’re one buyout or management change from closing your doors. As some of our longtime product companies pulled back their development spending in 2008-2009, we started developing individual inventors as a new source of customers.

Is there a secret to your personal success? Perhaps a piece of advice you’ve always remembered?

In a college co-op internship with Cardwell Machine, I received some shop safety advice from the foreman. “Take a look around at the older guys. Whoever has all ten fingers, do exactly what they do.” Learning from experience can be applied to much more than shop safety. Throughout my career I have asked experienced coworkers why they do things the way they do and try to learn from their answers. So today I have all ten fingers and I am a part of a successful design firm.

How did you wind up in this business? What did you do before coming to Spark?

Sean, Bruce and I all worked together at AMF Bowling. At AMF and with other companies, we had worked with many outside design consultants. That experience showed us that there was a need for better engineering, product-design services. From the beginning, SPARK has strived to deliver consistent quality design services. The result of delivering consistent quality is evident in SPARK’s list of repeat clients. Our first client was Hemodyne, a company developing a blood analyzer that was operating out of the Biotechnology Park downtown.

You all seem to occupy a pretty unique niche with product design and re-design. Is there a lot of competition? If so, is it mostly national competition?

Richmond, by dumb luck, is an ideal market for our services. There is no other design firm we consider a competitor from Raleigh, NC to beyond Washington, D.C. Although we have clients from all over the U.S., the vast majority of our clients are right here in Virginia.

What’s coming up in the next year for you and your company? What about in the next five years?

We are right in the middle of developing a strategic plan for the company, so this is a very good and timely question. Unfortunately we’re several weeks from putting that plan together. But in the short term, it does appear that many of our clients are finally putting their fears behind them and starting to think about new products for the future.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made? What’s the best decision you ever made?

The best is easy. Marrying my wife, Annetta, 26 years ago. I can’t single out one cataclysmic mistake, but there have been many mistakes along the way. What I have learned is confronting them and fixing them as soon as they are uncovered keeps them from becoming bigger and harder to solve.

What’s the part of your job you dread the most?

Writing proposals for new work. I regret that I haven’t figured out how to get paid for writing proposals. I’d prefer to get paid for proposals so I could do the design work I enjoy for free.

What’s the part of your job that excites you the most, the thing that makes you want to hurry to work?

At SPARK we do something new every day. Most product engineers have to change jobs to learn about a new industry or product. We come to work and are asked to innovate on something as mundane as doorsill, but end up changing the way doors are installed for decades. The following day we start work on a device to treat cancer. I love the challenge of learning something new everyday.