CEO Conversation
Kelly Groth
By Chris Brunson
Entrepreneurs don’t always fit in, but they do tend to stand out.
Kelly Groth is CEO and majority owner of Mountainside, a resort meeting facility located at the base of red rock cliffs of Beseck Mountain in Wallingford.
She is young, female, and possesses real-life savvy. If you underestimate her tenacity, determination and fierce devotion to her family-owned business, you’ll be surprised more than once.
That said, Groth is a CEO is going places and taking the business with her. She has a love for people and sets the standards for her company’s reputation in exceptional customer service for special events.
The company has much to celebrate in 2006; it is the 40th year of business for Mountainside. On a personal note, 2006 also marks the one-year wedding anniversary for Kelly Groth-Massore (more about this unique wedding event held on the grounds later).
It’s evident she loves what she does and believes in her business.
“We like loyal customers and will do just about anything to make an event a success,” said Groth from her headquarters housed inside a rustic modern building with fabulous views of the grounds. “I want people to walk away saying it was great. Yes, glitches happen, but the Mountainside team approach is to find solutions and quickly.”
The property is one of a kind; in any other state, the site might earmarked as a national landmark. For natural beauty, framed by rugged rock and sweeping views, it is notable.
Features for meetings and events offer include a combination of indoor meeting space with a full range of outdoor event capabilities. Mountainside is able to accommodate more than 7,000 people, but can transform to do an intimate small meeting or wedding with ease. No kidding.
“If people haven’t seen Mountainside, it’s hard to imagine, “ said Groth.
“So I’ll say, come out and take a look. Some groups want the very formal
setting. Others prefer to blend the natural setting with sessions and
break-outs. We are a different kind of place.”
The business is personal, and part of family history, too. Mountainside was started in 1966 by Jim Groth, Kelly’s father, who purchased a small day camp on a 60-acre parcel. Once word got out, he was fielding inquiries about hosting company picnics.
As an entrepreneur, he answered the call, grew the business for special events. Groth and his four children, Kelly, JD, Karyn and John Michael, have since nurtured it to world-class level.
Clients range from ESPN to GE Capital and Elizabeth Arden. Mountainside can nimbly handle trade shows, meetings and outings — or combine these for personalized venues. Weddings are popular —anyone who has seen the park-like grounds complemented with gazebos and plantings will understand why.
One client needed trade show/exhibit space plus food service for 500 people.
“Then they asked can you provide a place that they can use a backhoe or use a chainsaw?” said Kelly. “You can’t find that combination at a hotel! My job now is to find out how many other organizations are out there but that could benefit with the options we offer?”
Mountainside currently hosts the largest equipment show in New England.
“Plus we host family reunions to weddings to formal banquets and conferences,” said Groth, who notes that theme parties are a specialty. “We recently did a complete Kraft General Foods with a Halloween theme. My own wedding was a Caribbean island theme — it was in February and we used all sorts of props.Guests wore Hawaiian shorts and shirts.” A working volcano and a crop of palm trees helped add ambiance, even as the snow came down outdoors.
Ground Crew
Don’t think it’s all been a bed of roses growing up inside a family business. Adversity teaches some hard lessons in perseverance.
Groth started work at the resort when she was 12. Her first job? Wielding a toilet scrub brush, cleaning the bathrooms. Talk about starting from the ground and working up.
“I was working on the grounds crew for about 6 years, then got fired the summer I graduated high school,” she recalls.”I was called into the office. The vice president said we got to fix this and started me in the sales office. So now I was doing sales and going around looking at colleges. I was interested in art. But my father took me to Bryant (University, in Rhode Island), which doesn’t even have an art course. He wanted me exposed to business.”
It worked. She ended up falling in love with the idea of studying business, and after a convoluted path, signed up at Central (Connecticut State University) full-time. She went to school at night for six years while she worked also full-time to earn her degree.
Then came a car accident, a personal setback and a struggle to recover her health. She never gave up.
“I believe that one of the most important things in business is people, knowing people, understanding people, and school can’t teach you out of a book. The true nature of sales management is to understand people, “ she said. “Customers are teachers, you have to listen to what they want, to create a relationship. It is a two-sided relationship —] if you can help them, they can help your business, telling other people. The way I look at it is, every single event I plan I take it as if it were my own, the level I would want it, for people to walk away with the best possible experience. Like at the end of a wedding, to get a hug from the bride who says 'you made my wedding,' that’s incredible to be told you made the bride’s day.”
Challenges Ahead?
There are some mountains to climb for Groth as she steers the company forward. As her staff fields calls for bookings, the goal is to broaden her marketing and continue to establish the identity of the business.
“Some people perceive the facility as on the lip of a mountain,” she said. “With the name Mountainside, there is also a perception that we are on a mountain. Also, for many years the Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney company parties were held here, as company picnics. People remember that, but we have grown up and evolved. We host formal banquets for 600 people or weddings or meetings and conferences. The mind-set is changing. We can combine meetings with outdoor team building, in a setting that looks like a country club. Possibilities for combination workshops or displays plus meetings are nearly endless here.”
For multi-day events, clients and guests have access to more than 1,000 rooms within a four-mile radius.
“We have arrangements with hotels for transportation and to help our customers for one-stop shopping,” said Groth, who has good working relationships with area hotels. “I want things to be seamless. For example, clients wanted a block of rooms — one in Meriden and one in Wallingford — and the hotels had taxi service. Well, it snowed and his staff went out and brushed off snow off all the cars. That’s the level of service our guests get.”
While growth happens, attention remains on what works well.
“We don’t charge gratuities, we pay our staffs well, so there is no need to charge 18 percent on top of the event package. As a business, your employees represent you. If they are happy and well trained, and that is paired up with good food and good customer service, you are taking care of everything in advance - it’s proactive. That’s your front line.
“A manager, an owner, sets the standard. Everyone works to a common goal — high but realistic standards, people back each other up. At the end of the day, and the end of an event the goal is to have a good relationship, a satisfied customer.”
After an event is finished, Groth wants all feedback, especially the bad. Why, you ask?
“Customers will send their survey on exit feedback, and while I love to hear the compliments, I want to hear anything they weren’t pleased with, so I can improve my service. That’s education. Why wouldn’t you want to know that?”
For the future, plans include building more awareness to businesses to view Mountainside as an alternate to the traditional meetings and banquets.
“We have a good niche, but I want to broaden awareness of Mountainside as a year-round facility. We continue to evolve in response to our customers.”
Resource: Mountainside is located in central Connecticut at the end of High Hill Road, Wallingford, CT; (203) 265-0522; (800) 762-6903; www.mountainsideweb.com. The grounds are not open to the general public; meeting planners should call ahead to arrange a tour.
