Hutton Speaks To Rotarians On Upcoming Leadership Event

(PICTURE: Ben Hutton is pictured with Rotary Club Board Member Grant Merrill. The Club will donate a book in his name to the Andover Public Library)

Wichita businessman Ben Hutton is all about leadership.

As the Chairman and CEO of Hutton Construction, he oversees millions of dollars in projects across the state of Kansas each year. He says that most of his business includes buildings like schools, hospitals, office buildings, and medical clinics. But over the years, his family enterprise has had it's hammers and nails in all kinds of projects in various branches of businesses.

Hutton became the President in 2010, and relayed to the Andover Rotary Club the story of his ascension to an office that left him feeling a great responsibility to not only his clients, but the people his business employs ever day. "It was that day that I walked into an empty office that I was moving into, and the only thing in there was a baton." Hutton recalled. "My father was now passing this baton off to me, and as I continued to look at it, it became much heavier as I thought about the fact that my decisions were now going to have tremendous impact on over 100 employees that work with us."

The younger Hutton says that the first two years went smoothly, and during this time he became interested in the Global Leadership Summit, an event that started in a Chicago church, but now has a worldwide audience each year. This year's event will be held locally at the Century II Convention Center, as Wichitans will be able to take part remotely as the speakers will be piped in via satellite. Ranging from widely known ministers like Atlanta's Andy Stanley, to television personalities like CNBC's Marcus Lemonis of "The Profit", Hutton says that each speaker brings a magnitude of knowledge and personal experiences to the table.

And it is knowledge that has shaped decisions he has made, in turn shaping one of the city's larger employers.

"Later in my career, I found myself in the office at 3:00 AM, agonizing over a decision that had to be made. We had a business arm of our company that had experienced some failures, and now I had to decide it's future." Hutton told the club. "It was a speech and a book from a previous leadership summit that shaped my decision, and laid out the plan for what had to be done."

Hutton says that last year he brought fifty people in his company to the event, and this year he will bring more.

"If you want to reward your employees, this is one of the finest ways to do it." Hutton said. "I would encourage every business here to get their people to this event. Everyone will find tremendous benefit and knowledge in what these people have to say."

For more information on this event, you can go to www.leadwichita.org.