Tom Russell Associate Editor

But that success wasn’t enough to sustain the business after the loss of a major account earlier this year. The account was Kimball International, which said in January it would exit the residential furniture business. Kimball, Bob Holland said, represented about a third of his overall revenues. Approaching 60, he admitted he didn’t see enough opportunities for replacement business. Hence, the firm closed in January.

The Holland & Holland story is an example of how the entrepreneurial spirit can build a successful business. It also shows how having too many eggs in one basket can hurt. Holland recently reflected on these and other aspects of his business, and also looked ahead with a sense of optimism.

Holland and his wife, both liberal arts majors in college, started out teaching in the Charlotte Mecklenburg County school system in North Carolina. They moved to Lenoir in 1970, seeing it as a good place to raise a family and start a business. Holland & Holland started as a creative and graphic services firm that got off the ground thanks to clients such as Classic Leather Group.

With an interest in biology, Holland also developed relationships in the pharmaceutical business, and later served allergy medicine specialist Greer Labs and Bayer’s allergy division in Connecticut. At one point during the ’90s, Bayer represented about 30% of revenues, which Holland said was too high for a single client. That same situation resurfaced toward the end with its largest client, Kimball Home.

As management changes caused some of his pharmaceutical business to dry up, Holland decided to specialize in clients that were either furniture manufacturers or suppliers. Ironically, that was during the ’90s, when imports were beginning to flood into the U.S. market. Despite the shift, Holland’s business flourished thanks to its efforts to help clients create marketing ideas and strategies built on their strengths.

“Then we started to think about brand,” Holland said. “We saw brand as the heart of everything, and in a global economy that is more true now than ever. When the supply has outstripped the demand, then brand is the main thing a manufacturer or supplier has got left to distinguish themselves.”

But Holland also realized something else: the industry’s fixation on price eventually would make it harder for his firm to bring in new business.

“People are looking for answers right now,” he said. “But if the answer is just price, price, price, there is no marketing to be done. The only thing to do is fire everybody you can and squeeze more out of your suppliers and squeeze more out of your work force. There is nothing an agency can contribute to someone that has that goal. Marketing, it just becomes part of overhead. That’s what we were up against.”

In hindsight, Holland views the partnership with Kimball as his company’s single greatest achievement. It had worked with the company since late 1997, helping it establish a marketing direction as it entered the residential furniture business.

Kimball also represented a third of Holland & Holland’s income. Over the past few years, Holland also had lost some other accounts due to management changes and overall business conditions, leaving it with seven employees. With Kimball’s residential demise, Holland was faced with the prospect of more layoffs, and he felt he couldn’t run a viable agency with less than that.

Today, Holland & Holland still has some active accounts that Holland and his wife handle with the help of some displaced employees. But for the most part, Holland is looking to new avenues, including going back to teach high school biology, a subject that is still close to his heart.

“I am very excited about that,” he said. “As a business person you don’t get to do much that affects humanity. As a teacher, you have a shot at that.”  (to add or view public comments click on "Add your Comment" below, or to email Tom directly click here.)