Eric Davis of FutureTech Enterprises
Star Profile
By John Temple Ligon Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Eric Davis

Eric Davis founded FutureTech Enterprises in 1988, a start- up in the early years of the PC era. While he was starting his business, running his paperwork across the family kitchen table, Davis was also working for SCANA as a programmer at its V.C. Summer Plant in Jenkinsville. He left SCANA in mid- 1989 to devote himself to FutureTech Enterprises and his family.

Davis was born in Cincinnati, where his father was a chemist in radioactive materials for Proctor & Gamble. Davis lived in Cincinnati for grades K- 12 and graduated from St. Xavier High School, a Jesuit institution. According to Davis, while he was at St. Xavier he was the nerdiest of the nerds. He was also about the best chess player in school and one of the more promising budding scientists.

In the classrooms and laboratories at Ohio State, he moved from an entry- level direction to robotics over to computer science. Davis customized an almost double major, a BS in management information systems that was a combination of business and computer science.

During five years of college, Davis alternated between academics and the real world, something of a work/study program called cooperative education. He worked off- and- on in software development with the Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, or SDRC.

At SDRC, Davis worked on main- frame computers and mini- computers, using Fortran to put together computer- aided designs.

Upon graduation, Davis went to work in Columbus, Ohio, as a computer programmer/analyst. After a few years on the job in Columbus, Davis was recruited to work for Don McLauren's Columbia consulting firm.

From McLauren, Davis moved on to produce for SCANA as a computer programmer.

Davis and his wife Diane married 19 years ago, and their first child, Benjamin, soon arrived. He is a junior- year honors student at Cardinal Newman. Their daughter Emily, a seventh grader, is also an honors student at Cardinal Newman.

Davis began FutureTech Enterprises on January 1, 1988, with one PC and $1,500. He took almost a year building the business before he snared his first client. Once Davis pushed FutureTech Enterprises into profitability, he pushed himself out of SCANA and into full entrepreneurship as his own CEO.

His early clients engaged him for contract programming while he ran a retail operation in PC and network sales. In the late 1980s, the PC- clones were gaining acceptance.

Davis and his business clients worked through a four- step sequence as he and they evolved with the PC industry trends. First, Davis had to convince customers to buy PCs and then network them together. Second, he had to direct his clients to shift to Microsoft Office. Third, clients had to embrace the idea of dialing up for email and the Internet. And fourth, clients had to agree with the need for a Website and with the need to hire Davis to design and maintain it.

Davis works with his staff at 1400 Laurel Street, which is his building. He occupies 1,400 sq. ft. while he rents out another 4,000 sq. ft.

What separates Davis from the pack, he declares, is uncompromising service. Whatever the technology needs, Davis avails himself to solve the problems.

With such dedication to customer service, FutureTech gets most of its new business by referral.