Curtis Lavine Visits the Entrepreneurial Mindset Class-Sep 25, 2012

 

Curtis Lavine, Independence serial entrepreneur, joined the Entrepreneurial Mindset class of Independence Community College on September 25. 
 (Our thanks to Independence Reporter photographer Rob Morgan for taking these photographs.)

He said he went out on his own to escape the four-wall trap of the corporate world where he took his direction from others.  He started Kansas Aviation in the early 1992 with a partner and four employees.  At at time when the competition took four days to get an order to the shop floor,  the new Kansas Aviation was returning the overhauled parts to their customers in two to four days.  Today, his son, Toby, runs Kansas Aviation which employees around 65 people.  The company is a world leader in aircraft engine accessory overhaul services and each day ship and receive parts all over the globe.

Curtis started eight or nine other companies in the years since starting Kansas Aviation.  In a perfect example of opportunistic adaptation (part of the Ice House curriculum) Kansas Aviation was so reliable and timely that customers began asking them to solve other problems for them.  One concept Curtis developed was one of inventory management where he offered to store inventory for Cessna vendors so it would be available on a just-in-time basis without Cessna incurring the cost of holding the inventory.  (Cessna builds the Mustang jet in Independence, Kansas.) Thus was born Cornerstone Warehousing.  Today that company stores inventory in similar fashion for Boeing and Cessna as well as a couple of local and regional companies.

As with our other guest entrepreneurs so far--Kym Kays, local franchisee for Express Employment Professionals and Jim Halsey, Impresario that managed 140 entertainment acts, including Roy Clark and the Oak Ridge Boys--Curtis brought up many points consistent with the eight life's lessons in the Ice House curriculum featured in the ICC Entrepreneurial Mindset class.

Curtis was in his early 60's when he left corporate life to start Kansas Aviation in 1992.  The expansion of Kansas Aviation and the start-up of the other companies took place at a point in Curtis' life when some would have retired.  Age places no limitations on the Entrepreneurial Mindset.