By staff of the Independent Electoral Commission
People crafts. That’s the address Jared Credit, president and CEO of K2 Electric, Phoenix, Arizona, respectfully names the skilled electricians working in the field for K2 Electric. It’s where all other areas of the company focus their efforts so that craftspeople have what they need to excel on the job site.
K2 Electric has a rich history and its tremendous growth continues to this day.
“My parents, Dean and Marna, founded K2 Electric in 2003,” says Jared. “Dean was the active person in the business until 2019, and now he’s mostly retired. My dad loves trading, and he especially loved going out and solving complex problems for clients. My brother Nick joined the company in 2006 and is currently a senior estimator. I joined in 2008, and my wife Natalie joined in 2020 as Marketing Director.
Super family size
The company attributes much of its success to the fact that K2 Electric invites others to join their families to join them in good, honest work. In fact, the home page of their website boldly states:
Join our family
K2 Electric cultivates employee, customer and community relationships through a company built on performance, operational excellence and service. When you join our company, you join a family committed to each other’s growth and the success of our customers.
Words do not fail, but are supported by actions.
“For a long time, I looked at things like what am I capable of, what can I do,” Jared says. “When I left that and said instead what can the team do, that’s why we are where we are today. The difference between today and 20 years ago is that we are building the foundation that determines what will happen in the future.
This includes a company-wide focus on training and development, listening to and engaging employees, and doing whatever it takes to build the best team. Natalie refers to an annual survey to collect employee feedback on old and new initiatives, situations they encounter, and ideas they might have. Not only do they receive valuable information from all K2 team members, but it shows employees how important they truly are to us, she notes. Jared emphasizes that K2 doesn’t have it all figured out, but they work every day to be better and never want to settle for mediocrity.
“The most exciting thing to me is the people,” Jared adds. “In general, the industry is full of good salt of the earth,” says Jared. “We have an opportunity to impact the people who work here in a way that changes their lives, changes their situations economically, their relationships at home. It’s not just what they do every day at work but really it’s the core of who they are. And when you do that, that flows back into the work and is The business is more successful and you can reinvest in people.
Shares some examples. One is one of the company’s first employees who Jared went to school with from kindergarten through 12th grade.
“Matt started college but it wasn’t for him,” Jared explains. “When he started the business, my father asked Matt to come help him with some small projects. In short, it became more than just a side gig. He went full time and went through the IEC apprenticeship program. Then he came to my father and said he would like to start a service department for the company K2 built that, became a partner in K2, and then decided he wanted to run his own business, so K2 bought it out. I think the opportunities he had – first on the business side and then the business side – are something you don’t get at a Fortune 500 company; “You have to be in a small to medium sized business environment. He doesn’t work with us at K2 anymore, but it’s just a great experience and shows how we work.”
The other is Michael, Jared, and Natalie’s neighbor’s nephew who works in retail and is frustrated about his ability to grow. He applied to K2, was hired, and was screened Arizona Independent Election Commission Industrial apprenticeship programme.
“By the end of his four years, he had become a foreman,” Jared explains. “We had recently started our VDC division, and he was just the right age with the right technical skill set as well as a real interest in the computer side of things and software technology, so he is now in the team leading that area of the business. So, in six to seven years, “Going from a dead spot in the retail environment to helping grow an innovative new part of our business. These are the kind of opportunities we can create for hardworking individuals in this industry.”
K2 growth
“Neither Nick nor I are electricians, but we grew up working in the summer with my dad,” Jared says. “Since my father had not gone to college himself and was aware that the electrical contracting business could be risky and volatile, my father encouraged us to go to college. I have a degree in business administration.”
In 2008, Jared joined the company. Nick started with K2 in 2006.
“I started K2 in 2003, and by 2006, it was really starting to pick up some growth,” says Jared. “At the time, Arizona, like most of the country before it collapsed, had a lot of work. My business school background combined well with my father’s passion for business. We felt this could be a complement – he could focus on the craft side and I could focus more on The administrative side It was two years before I finished college, but I made the decision to continue working summers at K2 and when I graduated in 2008, I joined K2 full time.
It was during the recession and the company really had to come together and work to keep K2 open. By 2010, with the award of their first contract with Amazon, they had grown to 50 employees and were beginning to emerge from the recession. In 2011, they started the service department of the company. By 2012, the company saw its revenue grow 5x over the previous year. The growth has continued and Jared points to a number of important moves for their continued progress:
Establishment of Tucson Department (2015)
Start of K2 prefab division (2017)
Reached 130 employees and was awarded first Job Order Contracting (JOC) contract with the City of Scottsdale (2019)
Achieving 43 percent revenue growth due to increased industrial business (2020)
Awarded a Ritz-Carlton project – its largest ever – while also being named a Top 10 Best Places to Work (2021)
Won its first data center project, as well as the La Posada project in Tucson – its largest project to date (2022)
The K2 Lean Journey began with the purchase of a 35,000 square foot turnkey store, 200 employees, and achieved its largest revenue to date (2023).
Employs over 300 exceptional people! (2024)
Jared says the company’s core values (see sidebar) stand tall in the company’s success. The values were formally established in 2017, allowing the entire team to better connect what the culture is to how it leads the company.
“Building relationships in this business; Jared emphasizes that this is fundamental to who we are. “And I think in construction, and in the space that we’re in, that’s what we’re selling. There’s a lot of people who have qualified electricians, but how do you take your team and the client’s team and solve problems together? And that’s through the relationship.”
Always put people first
The fundamental principle of putting people first lives on with current and future employees, customers, and the community. The company believes in servant leadership, authentic relationships, and a culture of good communication and trust so that a strong team is built to succeed together.
“An important part of our culture is how we talk internally about our craft team members; without them we have no business, and all the non-craft team members work to simplify things for the craft teams,” says Jared.
In addition to those surveys and respectful treatment of all employees, K2 Electric is no slouch when it comes to having fun.
Among those events and activities are the Founder’s Day Summer Picnic, the annual Christmas Party, monthly team lunches, field appreciation days, and numerous service projects, both locally and internationally. Twice a year, K2 sends a team to Mexico to build their homes 1taska faith-based community development organization that gives people experiencing poverty the opportunity to earn a home by serving their community.
“Our team is mostly made up of very helpful people, most of whom know how to do construction work,” says Jared. “Because our teams are so skilled and often bring our own tools, we get our jobs done very quickly and often move in to help another group.”
Local service projects include “Feed My Starving Children,” blood drives, breakfast and lunch drives, and Operation Gratitude boxing care packages for military and first responders, among others, Natalie adds. The company has a Community Service Committee that leads this area, and Jared and Nick are big proponents of community involvement.
“Giving back is something organic at K2,” Natalie adds. “Many of our employees are really involved in the community and often provide us with opportunities and we love to support them.”
These future employees? Jared says many new people come to K2 as referrals from current employees who have seen the company as real, authentic, and truly cares about its employees.
“A lot of times people know we want to be a place where people like to work,” he says. “They know this is a priority for us because our employees go to tell their friends and former colleagues. This is part of our culture.”
Another example of K2’s commitment to helping people grow? Field leadership program. This leadership program was launched in 2022, and in the summer of 2024, its fifth batch began.
“There is a lot of practicality in the program as we are actually training people to take the next step in their career here at K2,” Jared explains. “It’s company-specific training for the new foreman as well as general leadership orientation. We wanted to grow more and what we kept running into was that we had a little more bandwidth in most areas but we didn’t have any other foreman. Every time we tried to grow, it ended We had to promote a foreman to super or to project engineer and the challenge was that we couldn’t take on any other projects because we needed more people to be ready to handle the job of a foreman on a project.”
The launch of this program saw an increase in the identification of – or pursuit of – those individuals with high ambition who were ready to take the next step. There is a sense of pride when asked to participate, and K2 leadership across the board takes seriously their role in helping with this development.
“We’re still learning,” Jared concludes. “We haven’t perfected this, but we will never stop trying. The love and passion that K2 leaders have for this industry is a true testament to their commitment to our company and our employees.
Mission: K2 Electric grows employee, customer and community relationships through a company built on performance, operational excellence and service.
Core values
Safety is essential
Safety should be everyone’s top priority; We train and empower our employees to recognize risks and take proactive measures to eliminate them to complete all projects safely.
Perform to be preferred
Our personal commitment is evident in our behavior and actions – from the pre-construction phase to completion of the work. We respond, collaborate, and go beyond what is expected to share information, support the entire team, and deliver a project of lasting value.
Real relationships
Nothing is more important to our success than our personal and business reputation. We reinforce this excellence by acting honestly, adhering to the Golden Rule, and demonstrating integrity in all business decisions.
Advancing our team
Training and professional development for every employee is critical to understanding and serving our customers’ needs and preparing them as future leaders in our industry.
