John Udelhofen, Chairman & CEO, Laurus Technologies, Lake Forest MBA Class of 1995
John Udelhofen wasn’t interested in getting pigeon-holed in low-level accounting positions. Even after founding his own business in 1991, he knew he needed an MBA to move beyond the numbers into more challenging territory.
Today, Udelhofen is co-founder and CFO of Open Business Systems, a value-added reseller of Sun Microsystems, JAVA consulting, Internet consulting and application development. He and his partners, including his brother-in-law, started the business because they "wanted an opportunity to do our own thing." That risk-taking attitude has taken their company from $132,000 in first-year sales to more than $18 million in 1998.
Udelhofen came to LFGSM’s Lake Forest campus with an accounting degree from Loyola University and a computer science degree from Roosevelt University. The 1995 LFGSM graduate explained, "my (career) goal was to get away from so much accounting and into operations and business development," which he now leads for Open Business Systems.
He and his three partners started the company working part-time. "We wanted to be in a technology field, so we researched the equipment and the manufacturers and determined that Sun Microsystems was the best in the Unix environment," he noted. The group then began adding complementary products and services. However, as one of numerous Sun distributors in the Midwest, they knew they must differentiate themselves from the competition.
"We’re customer focused, and that's what differentiates us," Udelhofen believes, adding that their customers also know that, "whatever we do, we do it right." He says that the greatest challenge in the highly competitive technology field is finding and retaining good employees. It’s a challenge OBS doesn’t take lightly. "We keep a relaxed working environment and include everyone in the decision-making process," he says.
The company is also dedicated to providing necessary training to ensure that their people are the best at what they do. They are in the process of establishing their own training facilities for employees and customers. Open Business Systems (OBS) has quickly grown from the four part-timers in 1991 to more than 50 employees in 1998. Udelhofen expects that number to jump to 100 people and predicts sales of $34 million in 1999. This rapid growth has come from the company's ability to anticipate and respond to needs in the technology market. They added Internet catalog sales services last November and are currently working with the North Shore Higher Education Consortium to establish a virtual learning network that will link some 30 Chicago area colleges and universities beginning sometime in 1999.
The potential of this small company took a giant leap in June when it went public in a merger with Osage Systems Group, a system integration company based in Phoenix. OBS is now wholly owned by Osage, but operates independently. "The exposure they give us and the ability to expand our customer base will allow us to take our products and services across the country," Udelhofen explained.
With his own company well off the ground and prospering, Udelhofen has turned his focus outwards a bit. He now shares his expertise with a new generation of entrepreneurs, teaching accounting and business part-time.
Back