Eddie Taylor '87Finding Entrepreneurial Opportunities Through Leaps of Faith
"The most difficult thing to do is take that leap of faith," says Eddie Taylor '87, who says his career is proof enough of that philosophy. From studying psychology while at Allegheny to now being considered one of the top 40 business people under the age of 40 in Cleveland, Taylor's life experience has been a series of leaps, and each one seems to take him higher. "You want to grow on the successes you've had," he says. "Each one strengthens that competitive spirit."
Several months before graduating from Allegheny, Taylor knew he wanted to move into the retail industry in the region. His subsequent experiences in retail management would provide him with a strong foundation for his future ventures. "Working retail is one of the greatest challenges," Taylor says. "It humbles and prepares, by requiring you to deal with people at a variety of levels in a service capacity."
But Taylor soon realized that retailing did not satisfy his competitive hunger. Returning to his native Ohio in 1988, Taylor relied upon his Allegheny connections to gain employment with Davis & Associates, a Columbus-based company that handles workers' compensation issues. Moving quickly within the firm, Taylor opened a Cincinnati-based branch for the company. He soon grew from an account executive to the youngest vice president in Davis & Associates' history.
The managerial opportunities whetted Taylor's appetite for authority, and he knew that he wanted more. In 1996 he left Davis & Associates to join Workers' Compensation Management Solutions (WCMS), after being pursued for several months by that firm's founder, Umberto Fedeli. "I still had an opportunity to grow things by my own hand," he explains, "but the firm did more to satisfy my yearning toward entrepreneurship."
WCMS would eventually catapult Taylor to the entrepreneur status he desired. His business successes and positive attitude impressed his employer Fedeli so much that, in November of 1997, the WCMS founder became an investor in Integrated Consulting Services Ltd. (ICS), Taylor's most recent business venture. Based in Independence, Ohio, the company is a third-party administrator, managing workers' compensation claims for more than 6,000 organizations, school districts and municipalities. Within two years under Taylor's direction as president and CEO, the company expanded to generate more than one million dollars in sales.
Not content to work with only one company, Taylor still serves as executive vice president of WCMS, a dual-employment arrangement that allows him to approach workers' compensation issues from more than one angle. At the same time, he plans to modify the service approach of the company to make Integrated Consulting Services as successful as it can be. Taylor says this attitude, like his constant search for personal challenges, is due in part to his athletic experiences while at Allegheny. "By virtue of my athletic background, my spirit of competition is constantly growing," he says. "Similarly, I've learned to respect and value the talents of my teammates."
Taylor's "teammates" in the city of Cleveland have expressed their own respect for his talents - he was recently voted one of the top 40 business persons under age 40 in the Cleveland region. And he shows no sign of stopping his search for new entrepreneurial opportunities. "My advice is clear," Taylor says to current Allegheny students. "The results may not always be immediate, but remain strong and stay the course. Don't be afraid of that leap."
