For a brief period, Michael Phillips was something of a competitor to Sparkhound—the IT services firm he’s now helping lead as chief operations officer—which was founded by Shawn Usher and Brad Smith. After Sparkhound received some requests for work in which it did not specialize, the pair invited Phillips on board. He credits Miller for teaching him to run a business, and the lessons are paying off. Sparkhound has been included on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing businesses in the nation, it had about $25 million in revenue in 2012 and is aiming for more than $30 million in the coming year. Phillips says Sparkhound’s focus on customer experience and culture are key to the company’s success. You can find the complete Q&A with Phillips from the new issue of Business Report here; the following is a sample:
If you started over, what would you do differently?
“Not a thing. I have learned more through failure than I ever have through my successes or education. Failure is a part of life and once embraced is something that you can learn to appreciate and even enjoy because you know that success is on the way.”
