February 23, 2015

Hartford Business Journal - Sheena Butler-Young

When Tony Amenta and his college buddy, Bob Emma, rented a 600-square-foot downtown Hartford office space 30 years ago to start a fledgling architecture firm, their success might have been a longshot.

In fact, employees at a construction company in the same Wyllis Street building took bets on how quickly the startup would fail.

But that didn't phase Amenta, who says he's always had high expectations to build a strong business.

Today Amenta, principal and president of Amenta Emma Architects, says although his firm has had to weather some turbulence — namely the 1989 recession when Amenta and Emma downsized the firm drastically to just three people — it's stronger and more stable than ever before.

Recently, the firm has landed major contracts, including a multi-million dollar renovation to the state office building on Capitol Avenue and Washington Street, and plans to ramp-up hiring this year.

Running an architectural firm in a slow economic-growth region remains a challenge — mainly because it limits job opportunities — but it's something Amenta said he's been able to manage.

"You can't let the environment you're in be a brick wall to your ability to succeed," he said.

Amenta said one successful leadership trait he learned early on was the importance of hiring the right people and delegating tasks that are outside of his scope of knowledge.

"You don't get trained to be a business person when you're in architecture school," said Amenta. "I think some of our [early] failures had to do directly with the fact that we didn't understand how business works. As someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, I thought it meant I had to figure everything out myself."

Following tough times from the early '90s recession, Amenta said he and his business partner hired a growth strategist to revamp the firm's approach to the market and help get the business back on its feet.

Effective changes included redefining job descriptions: Amenta and Emma agreed to relinquish some of their duties and delegate them to staff. Those changes remain in effect to this day, Amenta said.

Since then, Amenta said he's tailored his "lead-by-example" leadership approach and the firm has been more successful: they've opened offices in Cambridge, Mass. and Stamford; were one of a select few firms to work on the Connecticut Convention Center; and landed dozens of projects at West Hartford's Blue Back Square.

"I remember during our darkest days [our growth strategist] told us we would grow from our then annual sales of $600,000 a year to over $5 million. At the time we thought that was the funniest thing we ever heard. We were laughing hysterically. But we have been fortunate to have passed that figure years ago now."

As a leader, Amenta said he tries to infuse others with the same passion he has for doing his best.

"There's not one aspect of this business that I don't enjoy and I want others to feel that," he said.

Amenta said his drive to succeed was honed in childhood when his parents set high expectations.

"I was a celebrated young person," said Amenta, who was president of his first grade class. "My dad was an amazingly hardworking auto mechanic with his own business and my mom always insisted that I come home with 'A's' on my report card."

Amenta said his parents were masterful at "building esteem and demanding work ethic" — a strategy he has adopted as his own philosophy for mentorship and recruitment.

"My goal is to find folks with a level head who are willing to go through the steps to be successful," said Amenta. "You start with getting your degree but that's not all you do; you've got to grow and evolve — don't just show up but hone your skills continually."

A former intern and full-time architect at Amenta's firm, Michael Joy, said Amenta's leadership has been instrumental in his career. The firm's strategy, he said, is both unique and effective for grooming young talent.

"Tony is ahead of the curve from his generation," said Joy, who interned with Amenta for four summers while in college and worked for the firm full-time from 2002-2003 before his obligations took him to New York City. "The field of architecture has a lot of manifestations of ego but Tony empowers young architects with responsibilities and opportunities."