Built to Last & Wired for Growth at Interstates

Interstates has always been more than just an electrical contractor or a construction company. Over the past three decades, under the leadership of CEO Scott Peterson, the company has evolved into an industry leader across critical sectors like data centers, food and beverage, energy, chemicals, consumer packaged goods, water, wastewater, and value-added agriculture. But what’s the secret behind this remarkable growth from $12 million in revenue with 140 employees to more than $500 million today?  

Recently, Peterson spoke on the FMI Built-In Podcast, offering insights into the leadership philosophy, strategic pivots, and cultural foundations that have driven Interstates’ enduring success. His leadership story, and the broader story of Interstates, is one of steady progress mixed with new models and moving past comfort zones to push the company forward.   

Navigating Change with Core Values  

While strong business fundamentals were always important, Peterson credits much of Interstates’ resilience and dynamism to a deliberate focus on values and servant leadership. “Our core values launched in 1996… and in 2012, we added the ‘why’ statements from Simon Sinek’s model,” he explains. “That was the pivotal change in our culture—our team members started talking about our culture more than we did as leaders… That’s when the culture was owned by the team members.”  

It's a subtle but significant shift: by moving away from a leader-driven culture to one where every team member feels a sense of ownership, Interstates was able to unlock fresh energy, ideas, and a shared sense of purpose. By consistently reinforcing company values and vision, the culture became a shared, lived experience throughout the organization.  

Growth Through Adaptation and Resilience  

For Peterson, Interstates’ progress over the years has followed an “S-curve” pattern—periods with spurts of rapid growth, slow plateaus, and intervals of regrouping for reinvention: 

“Some of that’s by happenstance, some by choice, some by economic situations… What got you here won’t get you where you want to go. You have to change some of the things you really hold dearly and might be really good at, but you have to create space for the new.”  

Critical moments like transitioning from a top-down leadership style to servant leadership, weathering the .com bust, losing major contracts, and the impact of the Great Recession all required grit, resilience, and a willingness to rethink the company’s structure:  

“During the Great Recession… the construction industry was hit really hard. A lot of companies were down, and markets were down 40 to 60%. We were very fortunate to have some diversity within our markets and a great relationship with our clients. And during that time period, we were at around $83 million for about three years in a row. It sounds odd, but it’s not about growth; that defined resilience for me—for use to face that kind of adversity and continue to develop our people, work on our culture, continue to dd services for our clients and continue to build relationships… and not have to contract like a lot of other companies did. That was probably one of the things that I think speaks highly of the leadership team that we have and all our team members at Interstates during that time.”  

Adversity, for Peterson, isn’t just a test of character—it’s where new strengths and approaches are forged.  

Empowering Teams, Decentralizing Control  

As Interstates grew, one significant realization became clear. There was a notable constraint on scaling due to the limited number of leaders who could step up and the number of leaders who could hand over some of their control. Peterson knew that growing a business wasn’t just about bringing in more work—it was about developing new leaders and letting go of that tightly-held control. “You have to give up the illusion of control. Technically, you never have control. You just have this illusion of control,” he says.  

In practice, this meant empowering project teams, sharing ownership of key decisions, and even leaning into vulnerability: “Recently, we’ve been framing it as, do you want to lead out of love, or do you want to lead out of fear? If you lead out of fear, you’re really going to be talking about controlling… If you’re leading out of love, you’re wanting to do the best for others, the best for the client, best for the team, best for that individual team member or leader.”  

This approach proved invaluable during unpredictable moments such as the onset of COVID-19, when the company quickly established empowered ‘nerve center’ teams to solve complex challenges and communicate efficiently. Now, sprints and small, cross-functional teams have become a mainstay, delivering focus and agility while avoiding decision-making bottlenecks from the top.  

The Pursuit of a “Better Way”  

Interstates’ philosophy is a commitment to continuous improvement for clients, team members, and the community. “For me, it starts with our culture,” Peterson says. “Our ‘why’ statements are: pursuing a better way, making a difference with our clients and communities, and providing opportunities for our people.”  

This serves as the company’s “secret sauce”—fostering a culture where feedback is encouraged at all levels, innovation is rewarded, team members are valued, and authenticity defines operations. And that’s not just talk: new hires, Peterson notes, often tell him that the culture is even stronger than described when they were being recruited.  

Looking Ahead: Adaptation, Innovation, and Endurance 

Looking ahead to 2030 and beyond, Peterson is focused on positioning Interstates and its clients to navigate disruption, from AI and analytics to prefabrication and the changing nature of work in construction. But the focus, he says, remains on being adaptive rather than predicting every trend: “You can’t predict the future, but what you can do is create a base foundation to make sure that you can adapt to it. We have to push ourselves and be real with ourselves about what the marketplace needs from us.”  

Staying competitive means being willing to let go of past successes and embrace new methods, even if uncomfortable and different from the norm: “We have to change how we do our work moving forward… We have to let go of those things that gave us kudos for how smart or creative we are, and do something we’ve never done before, which is scary.”  

Reflections & Advice  

When asked what he’d tell himself on his first day as CEO, Peterson emphasized humility and the importance of self-renewal: “You can’t outwork the job (of CEO)—you have to find your pace… Have the humility to listen, ask questions, get perspective, and then build toward a vision, regularly resetting that vision as you go.”  

Ultimately, his mission is to put position Interstates by building strong leaders and a resilient culture ready to meet the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow. “The other job of the leader is really to position the next person to really do an excellent job and better than what you did.”  

The Interstates story, through Peterson’s eyes, is a vibrant example of how clear values, adaptability, teamwork, and humility can turn even the toughest challenges into places for long-lasting growth. The company’s enduring success isn’t just about what it builds for clients, it’s about what it builds within its own culture: purpose, versatility, and a relentless pursuit of a “better way.”  

Listen to the original podcast here.