The RGU continues to grow at a rate of approximately two new shops per month, which suits Kennedy just fine. “Just like in any other business, uncontrolled growth can create chaos,” she explained. “We don’t want to outpace our ability to sustain our success. We have spent a great deal of time and effort building a scalable management model and a strong infrastructure with the help of technology. This will help RGU grow while maintaining its current success.”

“The steady controlled growth has allowed us to focus on offerings that significantly impact our members’ bottom line, such as a credit-card merchant-services program and, most recently, the development of a health-insurance consortium targeted to reduce employee group-health-insurance expense by 30%.,” said Jon Kaplan, owner/CEO of Stoneworks LTD in Cleveland and RGU managing partner. “For a company with as many employees as Stoneworks, the savings are phenomenal.”

While the RGU does work hard at improving member profitability through service offerings and economies of scale in stone-industry purchasing, the group maintains that its greatest input into moving the profitability needle is its best practices in operational efficiency and operational systems.

From remnant programs to reducing rework, the group has a laser focus in creating, modifying and distributing duplicable systems and practices to improve quality in service and product which in turn lead to greater sales and greater profits.

This is echoed by newest member Bost. “As an ardent Vistage [a national leadership and best practices network of CEOs from diverse industries] member, I believe that mutual accountability and sharing best practices improve the results of all participants,” he said. “I am attracted to Rockheads for the stone-industry focus.”