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September 28, 2021

Frank Venegas: Crazy like a fox

Monica Stavish Skaggs

It began with a gold 1979 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, a dream and a lot of moxie. Today, it’s a multicompany empire in Southwest Detroit, dedicated to serving customers throughout the United States and improving the lives of young people who need a fresh start.

The Cadillac? Frank Venegas Jr. won it in a raffle. A construction worker in his mid-20s at the time, he drove the glitzy vehicle just nine days before he sold it and used the money to start his own business. More than 40 years later, he is chairman and CEO of The Ideal Group Inc., an eight-company conglomerate with 600 employees.

Ideal companies offer structural and steel fabrication solutions, general contracting and construction, inventory management and warranty and repair management. The company closed 2020 with $237,518,000 in revenue.

Venegas’ grandparents came to Detroit from Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1917, lured by $5-a-day jobs. Armed with the same work ethic, he has a zeal for business and a passion for community outreach. Since the day he invested his raffle winnings in his first company — Ideal Steel & Builders Supplies LLC — he has maintained a focus on tomorrow.

“If you’re going to be a good business person, you had better be able to see what’s going on in the future,” he said. “It’s what we call ‘constant preparation’ at Ideal.”

For Venegas, two keys to the future are his daughter Linzie and son Jesse. Both are vice presidents at Ideal, and they came up through the ranks.

“We’ve been busy working into the second generation of Ideal,” he said. “My kids are now 40 and 41, and they’ve been working here since they were 10. I’m 69 and close to hanging up the spurs or doing less. I have a great management team.”

Like other visionaries, Venegas sought ways to survive and even thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, he did the same thing he did in his early days — adapt.

“The pandemic is one thing. But I remember when I started, business and interest rates were high. I sold steel beams for basements back then. We got through that,” he said. “Then in 1996, 1997, we went into the steel market. We knew one thing: We’ve got to stay in move-the-puck mode, like a hockey game.”

Throughout COVID, Ideal provided essential services to other entities.

“In the beginning of the pandemic, we had customers come to us, and they couldn’t handle distribution of [personal protective equipment],” Venegas said. Ideal provided managerial and organizational skills to the state of Michigan, General Motors Co. and other clients to help them ship masks, gloves and other protective gear.

Adapting to changing needs, the company also creates plastic sign bases for retailers to use for COVID testing and vaccinations and other special parking.

“If you drive 10 miles, I don’t care if you’re in Arkansas or Texas or anywhere, you’ve driven by thousands of pieces of my equipment,” Venegas said. “Forget about being an MBE, we are inventors. We invented stuff 25 years ago, and people thought I was crazy.”

Gangs — just regular people

Another passion is community outreach. Ideal works with local youth, including individuals affiliated with gangs and prison inmates. The company provides mentoring, college scholarships, and job opportunities.

“People don’t understand gangs. They’re just regular people,” Venegas said. “When we sat down with four or five gang leaders, they said they wanted a job with medical benefits.”

Ideal sponsors Cadillac Urban Gardens on Merritt, a one-acre garden on the grounds of GM’s former Cadillac Clark Street plant executive parking lot. Along with Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, GM, and other organizations, Ideal collaborates on the project to help residents grow fresh fruits and vegetables and beautify the area.

In addition, Ideal supports Scarcyny Park and Garden, a perennial garden in Southwest Detroit, and the Merritt Street Clean Neighborhood Project.

“We’re not here to fix people, but to help people find the resources they need to make this a safe, thriving community to live in,” said Sylvia Gucken, Venegas’ assistant.

While hard work and perseverance pay off professionally and in the community, Venegas believes it’s what’s inside a person that matters most.

“I bought 100 mirrors and put them on [employees’] desks and toolboxes,” he said. “Everybody looked at me. The mirrors were to look at themselves while talking to a customer. And to ask themselves, ‘What am I doing right and what am I doing wrong?’ And recognize what they’re not doing.”