Find Great People

By Stefanie Caraviello

Very seldom in writing stories does the name of the company actually end up being the headline for the article. But in the case of John Uprichard, his company, FGP International, does just what the letters stand for – Find Great People.

John’s company represents the “people” aspect of economic development. Under John’s culture-based guidance, FGP has experienced 600 percent revenue growth and launched two new business lines. FGP is the only company to be on the South Carolina Fastest Growing Companies list four consecutive years, and it has spent three consecutive years on the list of Best Places to Work in South Carolina. When talking to John, it’s easy to see why his company is so successful. This modest leader keeps things grounded, while pushing his employees to take a leap of faith when needed.

Background:

When it comes to places he’s called home, the third time is a charm for John Uprichard. Born in Florida, Uprichard later attended Auburn University on an ROTC scholarship. Then, after eight years in the United States Navy, this naval officer’s wife said she wanted to move to Greenville, SC. Slightly miffed, because they had just built a house on Florida’s Amelia Island, John agreed to go with his wife to visit Greenville. And as the saying goes…the rest is history.

Q and A:

SC Chamber: What happened after your family moved to Greenville?

Uprichard: I was in a job search mode, and I got into recruiting just by looking for a job. I went to work for a large international staffing company that had an office in Greenville and really sort of learned the staffing and recruiting business there.

SC Chamber: How did you end up with FGP?

Uprichard: I had a leadership role in the company I was working with, and they kept asking me to move. I never did, because we really loved Greenville. Like many people, we came to Greenville, fell in love with it and never ever really want to leave. Through my wife, I met Marty Harrison and his partner, Tee Hooper, who were looking at buying a recruiting company. I ended up buying a company with them in 2002.

When we bought the company (Phillips International), we needed to retool the business pretty quickly, especially from a technology standpoint, because technology has really impacted the recruiting business. We went into healthcare and into accounting and were doing that on a nationwide basis. But people kept getting us confused with Phillips Staffing, so we needed to rebrand.

We went to a local company, Brains on Fire…and they are really the ones who helped create the idea that what we do is find great people. So they said that’s what our name should be.

SC Chamber: So that was the beginning of FGP really becoming a success. What is it that makes your company so successful now?

Uprichard: When you think about FGP, the brand isn’t one person. Everybody here is really the brand and is the company. The only way this company is going to be successful is if it is all about the people within the company. And you have to hire great people, develop the people you have on your team, and then you have to do everything you can to retain those people.

SC Chamber: What makes FGP different?

Uprichard: Our process is not unlike other staffing and recruiting companies. It’s not like we have some type of patent on our process. What makes us different is our people. So that’s why it’s important we hire the right people, and that we make sure our people take the time to understand the client and build relationships that transcend one specific hire.

SC Chamber: Tell me about the economic development aspect of what FGP does.

Uprichard: The people side of economic development is absolutely critical. When you think about economic development, it’s improving the economy in the community by creating jobs, retaining jobs, improving incomes and growing the tax base…When companies are looking at relocating in South Carolina, one of the main things they are looking for is people. Can we actually go out, find and hire the people?

SC Chamber: What do you think South Carolina needs to do better to support economic development?

Uprichard: I think as a whole we have to do a better job at attracting corporate and regional headquarters…South Carolina is driven by small and medium-sized businesses, but you have to have some of those larger organizations for those small and medium-sized business to support.

SC Chamber: In today’s recession companies have had to cut back, and people have lost their jobs. As a staffing company, how has FGP been affected?

Uprichard: It is tough times. And in tough times, it demands teamwork…we’ve had to go out and re-educate our customer base by talking about the flexible staffing concept. We’ve had to make sure people understand just because you are not hiring, we actually can still be a great value added resource for you. Because even though you’ve had to downsize, the work still continues. So what we do is bring people in on a sort of just-in-time basis on a variable cost.

From the FGP employee side, in a downturn we’ve got to have great people, and we’ve got to make those people even better. The way we’ve done that is to get serious about professional development on an individual basis.

SC Chamber: What makes FGP so dynamic and entrepreneurial?

Uprichard: We are entrepreneurial. We don’t have a lot of resources. They are not unlimited, and we recognize that. So if we waited until we are 100 percent ready to launch something, we’d probably never go. I think that’s what makes us dynamic – when we’re probably 70 to 80 percent of the way there and we say ok, let’s go. Let’s jump out of the plane, and we’ll figure out how to work the shoot on the way down.

SC Chamber: Final question – Why do you think FGP is so fantastic?

Uprichard: It’s pretty simple. It’s our people. It’s our culture. It’s teamwork. We are all aligned on the same page…people are working hard together. We are looking at this downturn as an opportunity. We will become stronger. We will become better. And it’s ok to get knocked down. But what do you do when you get back up?

Stefanie Caraviello is the multimedia managing editor at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. E-mail her at Stefanie.caraviello@scchamber.net.