Q & A with Andy Stultz, President of Atlas Building Company

The Gulf Coast CEO Forum gives our region’s business leaders the tools and connections to help them grow, build relationships with their peers and learn how others solve challenges and optimize opportunities. 

Andy Stultz, president of Atlas Building Company, is not only a member of the Gulf Coast CEO Forum, but he also serves on the board. In the community, he’s the Board Chair of the Bradenton Economic Development Corporation, where he’s been a member for 10 years. He offers his personal experiences with the Gulf Coast CEO Forum in this exclusive Q&A.

Q: Can you tell us more about your role with Atlas Building Company?

A: I’m the founder and president of Atlas Building Company. It was formed in the fall 2015 and officially opened for business on January 1, 2016. We are a commercial construction company based in downtown Sarasota. We do work all over the state of Florida, Georgia and Arizona.

Q: How does Atlas Building Company differ from other construction companies in the area?

A: We’re exclusive commercial construction, and we have two main differentiators.

As a founder and owner of the company, I’m very involved in working with clients in the design and pre-construction phase of the project. Once we go to construction, we hand the project off to a project manager, but I stay very involved with all clients to ensure all their needs are being met.

We have developed a proprietary 12-step program that shepherds project through different phases of construction, with a lot of emphasis on preconstruction, permitting, administration and then the  closing out the project. The Atlas 12-step program is checklist and operationally driven to make sure that projects are delivered on time, on budget and per the contract documents.

The second thing that separates us is that while many companies have missions and visions, we have character traits. People can say they live by values, but all that is demonstrated through character traits. We use Atlas as an acronym for these:

• Accountable: We believe in being held accountable to each other, and we understand project financing. Money management is very important in every construction project, so we’re accountable.
• Team-oriented: We believe strongly that when issues arise, it takes a complete team effort of the client, of the design team and of us as a contractor to solve challenges.
• Likeable: If you like each other, respect each other and treat everyone with dignity, it’s much easier to solve the challenges of construction.
• Adaptable: We believe in adapting to the reality of the world.
• Simple: We understand that construction, development, permitting, engineering and architecture are all complex, but we strive to make the process as simple as we can for our client, our subcontractors and our staff.

Those are a couple of areas that we believe separate us from our competition.

Q: How has the Gulf Coast CEO Forum helped you and your business?

A: It’s one of the best investments I could have ever made. I believe that the CEO Forum provides us with the opportunity to interact with other leaders in our region, and the relationship building that I’m able to do through the CEO Forum has been very beneficial, personally and in business. We’re a non-solicitation organization, so you don’t solicit other members for their business. However, once you get to know people, you naturally gravitate to wanting to do business with people that you like, respect and hold in high regard. Everyone that’s in the CEO forum I hold in very high regard. Therefore, if there’s an opportunity to do business with another person in the CEO Forum, my natural tendency is to gravitate toward that person and try to build a relationship because I know they’re going to take care of me and my needs. The relationship building has been phenomenal.

The other thing that we do is the roundtable groups that are formed. We break the total membership down into roundtables of 8 to 12 people that meet monthly. If we’re having a challenge in our business, we can discuss it in a confidential way and get guidance. It’s essentially very similar to a board of directors, but these are all businesspeople who may have experienced something similar or can offer you insight to how to solve a challenge. They can also encourage you when things are going well. There’s nothing better than to have that encouragement and someone that you can share your successes with as well as your problems.

And then we have some really good speakers that come in and speak to us on a monthly basis who are tops in their field and pertinent to what I need as a business leader in the community.

Q: What would you tell others who may want to join the Gulf Coast CEO Forum? 

A: You have to be a qualifying member with certain levels of staffing and revenue. So, if you qualify, come check it out. I would highly encourage people, if they don’t know someone who’s already in it, to seek out someone who is. They can always reach out to me if they have a question about joining the forum. Come and experience it once or twice. It’s free. Once you come and meet the people and hear a speaker, I think you’re going to find that it’s very worthwhile investment. The return on the investment of joining the CEO Forum is immeasurable for all those things I have already mentioned. If nothing else, you get to meet some nice people and have breakfast or lunch.

Q: In December, the Gulf Coast CEO Forum is hosting a Big Event featuring Jesse Itzler. What are you most looking forward to?

A: He is a world-class talent and a very sought-after speaker. He’s going to deliver some workshop activities the night before and also the day of his event here in December. To have access to that level of speaker through the CEO Forum has been great.

I’m a big believer in surrounding yourself with positive experiences and positive speakers and learning opportunities. I have followed Jesse on social media for years. I’m honored to be the main sponsor for the event. And, so it’s a way to take time away from the busyness of everyday business. I look forward to learning from somebody like Jesse Itzler and reframing my world view.