Design firm finds top

Newport Beach company named to Interior Design magazine’s top-100 list, rebounding from 1986 Chapter 11 reorganization.Newport Beach design firm H. Hendy Associates recently earned a spot in Interior Design magazine’s annual top-100 interior design firms list.

The firm specializes in interior architecture, planning and design. Its forte is identifying clients’ business objectives and developing an office environment that will improve communication and the overall working atmosphere for employees. H. Hendy Associates was No. 93 on the trade magazine’s list, which was in the January issue.

Though founder and firm partner Heidi Hendy has enjoyed a great deal of success in the industry in recent years, it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, the firm faced serious financial troubles in 1986 when it sought reorganization with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to this firm,” Hendy said.

The experience taught Hendy a great deal, including one of the more important lessons she’s learned in business -- that a company is sustained by its business plan.

“We were running the business off sheer talent and not a business plan,” Hendy said.

After learning the company was going into Chapter 11, Hendy left town to retreat for a couple of weeks. She told herself she would not come back until she had figured out what went wrong, why, and how to fix it.

She spent two weeks educating herself about business and developing a plan. The first thing she did when she returned was give all her employees raises.

“My main purpose has not ever been the bottom line,” she said. “The bottom line comes when you stay focused on higher levels -- the employees and individuals you serve.”

She said trough the whole ordeal they did not lose a single employee and lost only one client, for which she credits open communication and honesty.

To this day, Hendy places great value on her employees and clients and the connection between the two.

“Happy employees bring on loyal clients,” Hendy said. “In order to keep great people, I’ve got to respect where they’re at.”

In the late 1980s, when several of her female employees got pregnant and had children, she came up with a mother-and-child day. Basically, employees are given the option of modifying their schedules to a four-day workweek so they can spend more time at home.

“She [Heidi] is ahead of her game,” said Vice President of Business Development Chery Eisenhauer, adding that the employee retention rate at H. Hendy Associates is better than any corporation she’s ever worked for. “She gets that loyalty from everybody because of the way she treats people, because of the value she puts on the balance between personal and professional life. It’s nice working for a company that values that.... This will be my last job. I feel very fortunate to be here.”

Hendy credits much of her success in business to the values she was raised with as a child. She said her parents always stressed the importance of open and honest communication, and she puts those values into her everyday business dealings. But as she considers learning to be a lifetime affair, she said she has much to learn about leadership.

“I’m still learning to become a leader,” she said. “A leader isn’t there to lead -- it’s to promote.... It’s not all me. I feel extremely blessed with the individuals I have around me -- I’m just kind of a catalyst in between.”20060208iucdn4ncJAMIE FLANAGAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Newport Beach resident and entrepreneur Heidi Hendy’s interior design company made the top-100 list in Interior Design magazine.