Inside Verrex's Neverending World Tour

Berry says he leads “by walking around” and he likes what he sees in his family’s company. He wants other people to see it, too. Whenever possible Verrex likes to give clients a tour of its headquarters and regional offices in Boston, Houston and Shanghai.

These are not your typical tours, more of a “pull back the curtain” type, says business development director Frank Swetits. “[It] allows them to see our in-house fabrication, testing, engineering, IT, finance, leadership, our own conference rooms, etc. That brings a reality to what we’ve been telling them. We build trust and they understand they have this entire building of dedicated employees working for them.”

Berry says he believes in paying his employees well and getting a high level of commitment in return. That’s one reason transparency and the tours ought to work in Verrex’s favor.

Meanwhile, Berry gets his hands dirty, Hahn says. “He is directly involved with initiatives related to sales, business development, strategic growth, service excellence, and client and partner development,” she says. “He meets with clients, prospects, and partners regularly. Few can speak as passionately about Verrex as Tom.”

A sign that Verrex employees echo Berry’s passion is that they tend to stick around. “We look to keep attrition down by giving the opportunity to grow,” says Chamberlin, who started as an on-site technician 12 years ago. Jeremiah Brown is another example of a Verrex employee who started at an entry-level position 12 years ago and is now the firm’s programming director. “Verrex fosters employee education and growth,” he says. “Many high-level Verrex employees have started on the ground floor and become excellent leaders within the company.”

That Nuanced Approach

Verrex’s success globally is a reflection of taking its passionate company culture on display in Mountainside, N.J., and bringing it overseas, while being self-aware enough to realize that alone isn’t good enough.

Some lessons were learned the hard way. When it first started out globally Verrex overextended itself, Berry acknowledges. Initially it had a “build it and they will come” philosophy, he says, while it would have been better “to go in and earn that business and then build.”

There were also issues related to not balancing “the Verrex way” with that of the local culture and workplace communication and styles. “Look at us,” Berry says, referring to himself and Chamberlin. “You’re talking to a New Yorker and a guy from Boston. We’re classified on the high-strung side. We get things done and we take charge. We want things done yesterday. We don’t tolerate delays and excuses. When you travel to other parts of the world, they don’t move at the same speed.”

There is no shortcut to overcoming cultural, philosophical differences as Berry’s own frequent flier miles attest. Verrex, in addition to hiring local talent for its Shanghai operations, has customer-embedded employees all over the world — China, Singapore, India, Poland, Ireland, to name a few spots. Berry makes it a priority to travel to see employees not to simply meet with them but to spend time with them.