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Team members think big

at Venture Labs

In November 2019, 26 Gray team members spent a day and
a half participating in an innovation-based workshop called
Venture Labs, hosted by Awesome, Inc. Based in Lexington,
Awesome, Inc. has been supporting the tech and startup
community in Kentucky since 2009. In addition to helping startup
businesses grow quickly, the company offers coding classes for
children and adults, builds software, and aims to bring the whole
community together in its coworking space. Memberships are
available for individuals to work in Awesome, Inc.’s open office
environment with access to amenities including gigabit internet,
conference rooms, a breakroom and kitchen, plus mentorship and
networking opportunities. 5
Gray has a long history with Awesome, Inc. that goes back to
its early days, and over the years the Gray family has supported
the mission and growth of their innovative concept. Both Jim Gray Venture Labs winning team "Gray Fusion" as selected by the Gray leadership team.
and Stephen Gray have offered their time as mentors and thought From left to right: Chad Jamison, Kendall Kluttz, Beth Beldon and Brad Heberling.
leaders, and volunteered and financially supported Awesome Inc’s
programs. Jim also sent the founders on an exploratory trip to
another startup ecosystem.
The goal of Venture Labs is to drive entrepreneurial thinking in the Team member take-aways
corporate workspace. During the workshop, Gray team members
spent time brainstorming ideas to improve processes, drive revenue “We were able to identify some gaps within Gray and
provide solutions for improvement. We will be launching a
and better serve customers. They then formed teams around new training program for our team members as a result of
these ideas and, after coaching from Venture Lab’s team, spent the Awesome, Inc experience.”
the remainder of the day developing and refining their “pitch” with Beth Beldon, Program Manager, Human Resources
their team.
“In short, we’re using our ten years of experience with startups to “The process we went through was much like the Six
teach corporate employees to think like entrepreneurs and founders Sigma process, just on a much shorter timeframe. The
within their own companies,” said Liz Brown, Marketing Director project selected for implementation will build out all of
with Awesome, Inc. “We like to call them ‘intrapreneurs.’” these areas, implement the improvement, document the
“I learned several things from the experience,” recalled Gray success of the improvement, and control the process so
Project Manager Chad Jamison. “Most notably, the level of that it doesn’t stray too far off course. As a result of the
dedication Gray has towards continuous improvement. It’s not often partnership, we have a long list of potential improvements
a company goes to such lengths to discover problems and seek that could be worked through.”
out improvements.” Allison Lewis, Business Analyst
At the end of the program, each team pitched their ideas to a
panel of Gray leaders, who then picked the winner. Team members “We have a lot of talented individuals with different ideas
and solutions to improve on what we do best. The benefit
expressed positive take-aways from their time at Venture Labs. of having a youthful pool of team members is that we get
“I learned our thoughts and vision for Gray’s operations are quite fresh ideas to streamline the systems that Gray has used for
aligned,” said Valan Daniel, Manager, Virtual Design Coordination. decades. It also helps us realize that although we are very
“Many of our pitches coincided and complimented the others.” good if not great at executing complex industrial projects as
“We can honestly say the Gray team was one of the most a company, we still have room for improvement.”
energetic, competitive, and driven groups Venture Labs has worked Marcus Taylor, Director, Business Development
with,” said Liz.
Both Gray and Awesome, Inc hope to partner together again in “Looking at current situations or procedures in a new way
the future. can open the door to creative improvement impacts.”
“Our goal is to continue to partner with Gray to discover ideas Josh Cecil, Senior Civil Engineer
among [team members], empower them to build out those ideas,
and thus increase productivity, revenue, and efficiency,” said Liz. “The experience allowed employees from all aspects of the
“The combination of Gray's strong internal culture and Awesome's company to provide input on ways to improve process or
ability to drive innovation can only lead to more good things for new ideas that would help everyone across the board.”
both organizations.” Kendall Kluttz, Senior Site Manager