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- This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- The following episode of Charlotte,

a city of international success, is brought to you by

Central Piedmont Community College and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hello, I'm Dr. Maha Gingrich.

Coming up next on Charlotte, a city of international

success, I will interview Jessica Kulitz

President of Esta USA.

We are going to talk about the intricacies and

challenges of starting a new business.

Stay with us.

(upbeat music)

Welcome to Charlotte, a city of international success.

I'm Dr. Maha Gingrich.

Today our guest is Jessica Kulitz.

Jessica is the president of Esta USA.

Jessica, welcome to our show.

- Thank you very much.

- I am truly looking forward to speaking with you

because I just think you're a great adventurous woman.

And I really want to learn a little more about

you know, your adventures.

So to start off with, this Esta USA, did I say

the whole thing correct?

Is there more to it?

- There is more to it,

the legal name is Esta Extraction USA,

and extraction is kind of a difficult term in the US

because it's translated from German to English

and extraction in English means many things,

but not necessarily immediately what we do.

- Oh I see.

Now, is there a German version of Esta?

- Yes, Esta is the abbreviation of

(speaks German)

which translates in electrical dust collectors

and extraction fans.

- To start off with, you are originally from,

now I know for sure, that's German.

- Yes from Germany.

- So you're from Germany, okay

what part of Germany are you from?

- I come from Ulm, a town located in the south

between Munich and Stuttgart.

In Baden-Württembern but on the border to Bavaria.

- Okay, is that a town, city?

- It'a a city, we're about 122 thousand inhabitants.

A very old town, from the medieval ages and it has

similarities to Charlotte, Uhm used to be a very important

town for trade so the trade route went from the north,

from Hamburg down to Venice and from Paris to Budapest

so it has kind of this, the Charlotte connection

with the cross in the middle with

Tryon Street and Trade Street.

- Oh wow.

- It's a similarity. - That's really neat.

And then, so, is that the town Einstein was born?

- Yes, Einstein was born in Ulm and we also have the

highest church steeple in the world, so it is worthwhile

visiting, it is a very nice and traditional town

but also very modern and very advanced in terms of

education, manufacturing, development, research,

we have a large research center, so I am very proud

of my hometown as you can probably tell.

- Well you have good reasons, my gosh.

Especially I think there's a huge historic significance

as well because you're talking where somebody like

Einstein being born and then you're talking about

the highest steeple in the entire world?

- Still and hopefully always but La Sagrada Familia in

Barcelona they're trying to build it a little higher

so depending on when that will be finished.

- But this point in time...

- At this point we're still the highest steeple.

- Absolutely wow.

That's really neat.

And so you know, I always wonder about

when there is a family business, because this is a family

business, I always wonder about, where did the idea

come from for the family, because sometimes I hear

saying oh it was just they visited someplace,

they saw something, they thought oh, I should do this

and some people see it as a market niche saying,

you know nobody is addressing this issue and I'm

gonna come up woth something to fix it.

So how did this particular dust collection family business,

is it your father or your grandfather who started this?

- Well the history, it goes far back to my grandfather

and it's, if I may go back that far it's probably

the story of a man becoming entrepreneurial

so after world war two my grandfather was working for

the administration and he was registering new businesses,

that was one part of his job, it was a very safe job

but he had the natural German virtues, he was a very

thoughtful man, a very reliable man, but he also wanted

to make a change so in the end he discovered that

within the administration there was no space to make

big changes and to improve things.

It was more of a rigid, and I guess it still is everywhere,

set of structures since photography was,

is one of his passions one day a photographer entered

his office and wanted to register a photography business

and my grandfather, out of personal curiosity

asked whether that was enough to earn for a living

to supply the family with enough food and money, etc.

And so the photographer offered him and invited him

to take his camera for a weekend to go to the

Lake of Constance and take pictures of tourists

that went to Lindow, a very nice little town.

And he kind of promised that he would make more money

within that, on that weekend,

then he did at the administration on a salary.

So my father took up that challenge and he actually

went there and then decided, that's kind of the decision

or that influenced his decision in becoming

entrepreneurially active.

- Wow what a nice story, for someone to actually

give their camera like that.

- Oh yeah, at the time it was..

- But they didn't know anybody and I know how

expensive the cameras are.

- At the time it was a very large investment.

- Yes.

- So he then moved to Newel and was the photographer

of the US troops that were stationed in Newel.

And he kind of built up a kiosk because the soldiers

needed accessories for their dates or stamps and

postcards to write to their families in the US,

so he kind of supplied them with everything they needed

and that's kind of how I guess he got trained

and how he learned to become more entrepreneurially

active he saw the opportunity and made kind of a small

business out of it.

- Now how did he start this business?

- Right, he had a close friend who passed away

and he was, this friend had a company,

and he was the legal guardian, I guess, of the son

and so he liquidated the company, the company was a tool

they sold tools where you could drill around the corner,

it's like a drill head, a right angle drill head.

And they still had a few hundred in stock and some

brochures and so he kind of sent out the brochures,

he looked at the book, at the phone book,

who might be needing them and then sent out the brochures

and all of a sudden he received purchase orders for dust

collectors, and he was like well, I got these

products in stock and I'm not really sure what

you're talking about so he followed up on these

purchase orders and the customer said well, why don't

you take a look at the back of the brochure and

that's kind of the coincidence.

- So it was on the back of the brochure?

- There was a little picture displayed

and it turned out the company didn't have it in their

portfolio anymore but he decided if there's a demand

I'll just supply the market and maybe that's a niche

that I can make a business out of.

- So that's how it got started?

- That's how it started back in '72.

- I love that.

I love the story.

So now your father and your mother,

how many siblings are you guys?

- Well, we're five siblings in total

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Oh okay.

- My mother came out of a very big family, they had six,

she actually wanted six but I think she stopped at five.

We were keeping her busy enough.

She always wanted a large family.

MY father was the only child, so he didn't mind

having more children, it's a blessing it's great.

- It is great to have.

So you have what, where are you?

- I'm right in the middle.

- Right in the middle so you have two before you

and two after you.

- Right.

- Brothers, sisters?

- I have two brothers and two sisters.

- Ah that's great.

So your father, what did he do, did he automatically go into

the business with your grandfather?

- No.

Since my grandfather had gone through that experience,

especially after you know the German boom,

economic boom and seeing many companies succeed

and not succeed his philosophy was always be independent,

and study, like the most important thing is to have a good

education and so my father studied law.

Built his own law firm in Ulm, always being part of the

company, of course, that's kind of what a family business

often is, so he grew up with the business but did

his own company or business experience with the law firm

and then after my grandfather got sick

he took over the company and expanded the company

for many years and then since 2005 he has become more active

in the chamber of commerce so he's the president of

Ulm and the state of Baden-Württemberg .

His mission and passion has become to improve

economic development activity, increase the attractiveness

for businesses especially on a local scale.

He opened up a regional TV channel with the chamber,

with the organization or then also the chamber has been

involved in forming an international school

that if ex-pats or foreign families, if they come to Ulm

they would have the opportunity for their kids to

have an international education.

- Your father is a very busy man.

- Oh yes.

- You know, to have a business, and to actually do all these

things I mean, chamber, a television station,

that's a lot of work.

So how did that influence you, because usually what I see is

when you see your parents being so diverse in what they do,

they are so busy, and also this is not like just a one way

he was not just focused on just business or just law firm,

just the community, so here he is just totally diverse

interest bringing them all together to make an impact.

So how did that change who you are?

Because obviously you went to school there right?

- Yes.

- Okay, did you do your bachelors there?

- No.

- So where did you do your bachelors?

- Well maybe looking on the influence on my values and

background, I guess his family, or his side, is the very

entrepreneurial liberal and also anthroposophical,

the Rudolf Steiner kind of influence, where as my mother

has more of a Christian traditional...

- Faith based?

- Yes like a very family orientated values that kind

of form the baseline of how I was brought up.

But all in a very international context, both of them.

- That's beautiful.

- I ended up, I went to Rudolf Steiner school

for the first years within school periods I was abroad

for about four and a half years or five years, so I was in

France for a student exchange at the age of 11

for six months, and I spent three years in England,

a year in Spain, and then I finished with an

international baccalaureate in England.

- You really traveled at a very young age.

- Yes, I was fortunate.

- That probably, yeah because that opens up your eyes

to so many things and I guess to different dreams maybe

I should say. - Oh yeah.

- Just opportunities because you've seen so much

and you feel like I can do that, I can do this

I want to do that, I want to do this.

So after all your travels, you came back home to

do bachelors or you went somewhere else?

- Well it's kind of a curse and a blessing to have

that many options. - Yes

- I remember the time when I was nearly finishing with my

international baccalaureate and I came back home for

Easter break or whatever, and my father was sitting in

his chair reading the newspaper and when he saw me

he was like well daughter, let's talk, what's next?

I knew that he was gonna ask this at some point

and I was prepared, and I'm like well dad,

there's so many options out there and I'm very

excited to share them.

I really enjoy languages and people and traveling,

I could see myself studying philosophy, psychology,

anthropology, sociology, and with every career

I mentioned his eyebrow rose and he was like,

and how are you going to earn money?

What's the step after studying?

I'm like well, before I decide

I really need to take a year off and do kind of a self

travel and get to know myself a little better

since those are all different careers and I really want

to make the right choice so I don't drop out of university

or have to change a career at some point.

And he didn't seem convinced at the time.

So in the end what happened is I ended up doing

an apprenticship, so before going on to university,

I did an apprenticeship for international wholesale

and foreign trade.

In the US they don't know these

administrative apprenticeships that well.

- We're more technical. - You're more technical,

but it's kind of the same going through

every department within a company on the administrative side

so you learn about trade, you learn about accounting,

you learn about sales, about service,

about warehousing, about production.

- Oh what a wonderful. - It's a great

apprentice program.

- Because our college, Central Piedmont Community College,

is really getting into doing apprenticeship programs

at many companies here locally,

because we understand the need.

So, and on the technical side, so you're saying

it's both together.

So what happened after that?

- Well in the end I did not study psychology,

sociology, or philosophy.

I ended up studying business and economics as a bachelor

and I ended my university with an executive master

for family entrepreneurship, which kind of focuses on

family business management and entrepreneurial activities.

- So how did you come here?

Now did you work for the business for your father or not?

- Well, no there is a little loop aside of that.

- Yeah?

- When I got into the apprenticeship I came back

from England and then was back in Ulm and

was kind of looking for an extracurricular challenge I guess

and since I had no clue about politics,

I was reading the newspaper but I didn't really know,

you know, what it meant.

I knew the name of the chancellor at the time

and a few other names but not really

how things were working.

So we had lots of change going on regionally

so I decided to join the party, a party,

a political party.

- Oh so you're in polotics?

- In order to learn more about it yes.

And then I was, for the youngsters I was kind of their chair

and had like, different functions in the party itself.

I joined in 2005 and in 2009 I got elected into

the city counsel. - Oh congratulations.

- For five years, and then that was a great experience,

aside of work and.

- Now I know you did your masters as well.

- Yes that was kind of parallel.

- Yeah just keeping the time in mind I want to make sure

so what did you do your masters in?

- An executive masters for family entrepreneurship.

- Oh I like that. - It's kind of a...

Yeah it's kind of focusing, like since I did the business

economics, it's more focused on really

on economical issues.

- But for family business.

- Like, yes, cause it's kind of a specialized,

but also very broad study, I enjoyed it very much.

We have different topics within family businesses I guess

but it was more of a broader masters for economics.

- That is wonderful.

So tell me, finally, how did you get into this business?

- Okay, well after my masters degree, I was still

city counselor in Ulm,

and I was kind of looking for job opportunities

not too far because your time is a little limited

since you have to go to all these meetings and

assemblies so my father asked if I wanted to join

the company since I had done all this kind of economic

career it kind of fitted with the comapny's goals and

it's kind of pushing, well not pushing but guiding

in direction of succession.

And then I was honored and agreed to go in like to join.

And my first task was to implement lean management

which is a very like a great passion of mine.

It's a very philosophy to improve processes and the

organization to be lean and clean and kind of

prevent waste from happening or yeah

improve communication strings and really it's

a great way to learn how the company works.

So that's how I joined, but then I noticed

everbody kind of automatically assumes you're

kind of stepping in to the footsteps and I wasn't sure

whether that was the right way to go.

So I decided, or I asked my father whether,

I had three options that I really wanted to pursue.

Either do another, to write a PHD on lean management,

or go into a different company and kind of succeed there

in order to know whether that's the way to go.

Or the third option was to build up a subsidiary

in a foreign country.

- That's how you ended up in Charlotte, North Carolina.

You know somebody who just comes to a different country,

starts a brand new business and I would think that

there would be a lot of challenges even though

Europe and America maybe a little bit similar language

you know, not a big barrier, but at the same time

I would think the regulations, whether it is

business law, whether it is federal laws

as well as accounting and you know, just regulations.

How did you come here like that and then really learn,

I would think you probably had quite a few challenges

or at least what did you learn out of that

because there were so many people that would, you know,

love to start their own business, invest in a different

country so can you share your experiences with us?

- I guess everything you mentioned is a process that I

did not, I wasn't prepared for.

- Yes I can understand that.

- And it certainly still is a challenge,

starting every year with taxes.

The accounting everyday is not entirely different

but you do have a few differences that you need to make sure

you're aware of, and then doing business in different states

is different what I expected.

I expected to come into one country and it certainly is

a country that is so diverse with all the different states

and their regulations and also mentalities,

I did not expect that to be honest and I am still learning

on how to deal best with every part of business that is

different to the German system.

- And I know your company is really large in Germany

and coming here just starting from scratch that's not easy.

So if someone wants to do what you're doing

what is your advice for them?

- I think one reason also out of many geographical

and socioeconomic reasons I chose Charlotte

is that Charlotte is very well connected

within it's business community.

The international business community.

That was a big advantage for myself

and a big encouragement for Charlotte, for the city

as it self since you need to be open

and you need to be talking to people in order

to understand how things work.

You need to have somebody you can trust,

especially as a woman my age in kind

of an industrial setting,

that you need to be able to get information

as soon as possible and very quickly.

So that is certainly an advice to be open,

to get out because the business kind of sucks you in

with all the challenges on a day to day basis

you need to get out, to talk to people,

get involved, get enrolled get into the networks that help

you also understand how things work and to have people

around you that can help you when you have questions.

- I love that.

I mean it is so true, that is not easy.

And everything that you talked about is so important

not only for a new business for I would think

for anybody in order to be successful.

So Jessica thank you so much for being on our show

and I love to hear the way the business stared

and then here you are starting a new life so congratulations

and thank you for being on our show.

- Thank you very much.

- And thank you for watching Charlotte, a city of

international success.

I'm Dr. Maha Gingrich, please join us again next time

right here on WTVI PBS Charlotte.

- A production of PBS Charlotte.