Preparing to Lead

© July 2008by: Howard ShingleWindow coverings professionals need to take the LEED. Yes, that’s the correct spelling. It’s L-E-E-D, as inLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a program of the U.S. Green Building Council. Bob Hipps,president, Hipps & Co., Inc., Fort Lauderdale, FL, wants to make LEED certification workshops animportant part of his two-year term as president of the Window Coverings Association of America(WCAA).Hipps’ term began July 1, but his involvement in LEED programs began six years ago, and he believes thetime is right for the industry to pick up on it.“When I went to a LEED workshop in San Francisco, there was such a big push out there and I realizedthat this is going to take off. That was about six years ago,” Hipps says. “It made a lot of sense to me and Iwas glad to get involved in that early on,” he adds.As a third-party certification program and nationally accepted benchmark for the design, constructionand operation of high performance green buildings, the LEED program encourages and aims to acceleratethe adoption of sustainable green building globally. The program involves architects, real estateprofessionals, facility managers, interior designers and decorators, landscape architects, constructionmanagers and others.“I felt that the window coverings profession was lacking in that because it’s new out there and they arekind of skittish about taking on new stuff,” says Hipps. “It takes a while for the window coverings industryto really grasp it and say, ‘I feel comfortable doing this now,’ or even offering it.”Actually, Hipps notes that going green is not really a new idea. “My grandparents were into green evenbefore it was a color,” Hipps says. “Early America recycled everything, and sometimes twice. Today . . .we’ve lost sight of a few green things. Green makes ‘cents’ with sustainable fabrics, child safety cords—orthe elimination of cords—energy efficient, time-controlled shading and light controls will integrate andmanage light.”Going forward, Hipps sees taking the environmental initiative as an all-encompassing process for dealers.Specifically for the window treatments industry, it begins with sun shading products and motorization,but goes beyond that.“It’s using products that aren’t going to be harmful for the environment or, for example, products that wewere able to take out of one construction project and reuse the metal. We took vertical blinds out of oneproject that we did and rather than filling up a dumpster with all this vertical material we were able torecycle the plastic and we took the actual metal extrusion from the headrails to an art welder. He made anelaborate artwork that is now in [the client’s] lobby as an art piece.”

With energy conservation a top priority these days, Hipps foresees a future in which home energy usecould be controlled the same way automobile gasoline mileage and emissions are regulated. He recalls arecent issue of USA Today that polled 8,000 adults and found 40 percent of the respondents said thegovernment should enforce environmentally sound practices. “California is leading this charge with everynew government building needing to be LEED-certified. Probably in our lifetime, every new home will bechallenged to be energy efficient smart homes,” Hipps says.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND MOTORIZATION

Bob Hipps represents the third-generation of his family in the window coverings business. Hisgrandfather, William Gerald Hipps, started a venetian blind factory in 1946 after World War II. His father,Jerry Hipps, was president and CEO of Atlantic Venetian Blind and Drapery Co. for more than 40 years.Bob started Hipps & Co. in 1991 as a home-based installation service working with a few designers in thesouthern Florida market. He has a son in college who works installation several days a week who could,one day, become the family’s fourth generation business owner.Hipps’ beginning home-based business included his wife Judi who answered the phones while homeschooling their three children. Now, 17 years later, Hipps & Co. has seven employees including fourinstallers and two “cracker-jack” designers. There is a satellite sales and service office in Orlando, FL, but the company operates out of its Fort Lauderdale Cypress quarters.Today’s business is split 40 percent commercial and 50 percent residential, but Hipps notes that theresidential business tends to be very high-end, so he’s comfortable working with both designers andhomeowners. “Usually what will happen is we get an architect that will call us looking for specinformation and then there’s a call looking for fabrics. We have our designers team up with them as sort of a liaison. After that project is done the homeowners go to their other trophy home and we get the calldirect to come do that house.”Without naming names, Hipps confides that his clients include professional sports figures, entertainersand what he calls “several Wall Street movers and shakers.” “We’re seeing an increase in our mega motoryacht builders and designers looking to integrate shading and lighting controls on their vessels,” Hippsadds.Hipps & Co.’s specialties are customer service and motorization. Hipps found his niche in motorization agood 10 years ago and he says the designers have really appreciated that. He says about 70 percent of business today is in motorization. “It’s still in an infancy stage and a lot of people that either aren’t involved in it or very scared of it are going to miss the train when it pulls out of the station,” Hipps warns.He thinks sooner or later the government is going to mandate that new construction maintain a certainlevel of energy efficiency and for many projects motorization will be the way to bridge that.Because of the opportunities motorization offers, Hipps believes dealers one day may find they will needto have a licensed electrician on staff. In fact, Hipps partners with several and has one part-time employeewho does all of the necessary permitting or anything that’s required for new projects involvingmotorization. “He’s on retainer and does a great job. He knows the system and he knows the products andthat helps.”“We have a small retail space so people can come in and get a feel for what’s out there and see, and hear,different motorization,” Hipps continues. “People like that; they don’t want to hear a motor. That’s part of the ‘Wow Factor’ also. Because [in the Fort Lauderdale market] we have all these big, huge windowsoverlooking oceans, lakes and golf courses and nobody wants to pull a cord to raise them, but when theyhit a button and this huge fabric panel raises up, or a drapery opens or closes it’s, ‘Wow, look at that!’”