A room with a zu.

When growth at zu caused employees to double up at work stations and share phone lines, Ryan Lejbak and Tony Zuck knew something had to be done. In two short years, the business partners saw their 15-year-old, Saskatoon-based company--specializing in website strategy, design and development, social media and mobile applications--double in size from 28 to 55 employees. With space at a premium, the zu keepers knew the temporary solution, albeit crowded, was necessary until the longer term view came into focus. All that took was a little guts, a lot of capital and, in hindsight, a fair bit of naivete.

Lejbak and Zuck looked to the warehouse district of Saskatoon's north downtown where a&b Sound formerly occupied a three-storey, brick building located at 303 Pacific Avenue. Believing in the potential of both the area overall and of the 80-year-old building as a fixer-upper, the zu partners started inquiring about the availability of the property. Despite the location being vacant, the building was not as attainable as what they had hoped.

"We knew this warehouse district would pop eventually, so we thought let's get in on it early," Lejbak says. "We talked to our real estate agent and he found out the owner of the property only wanted to lease it. We were really disappointed because we liked the building but we weren't interested in leasing, so we ended up buying some land on Robin Crescent."

Conceding the land on Robin was a compromise, their enthusiasm and excitement over this property waned in comparison to the prospect of being downtown. As such, they dragged their heels a bit in terms of development, but it was a fateful plan of (in)action. About a year after their original inquiry, the pair decided to have their agent call the a&b building owner on a whim and sure enough, he wanted to take advantage of Saskatoon's bullish real estate sector. He had listed the property, which was immediately purchased by the zu partners.

"We made an offer and got it and that was a really, really good feeling," Lejbak recalls. "That was at the start of winter and then we got our first energy bill. All of a sudden it was 'Holy crap!' There's not a lot of insulation value in bricks."

Indeed the three-storey, brick building was lacking a little when it came to energy efficiency. So the pair went about researching how to best retrofit the 80-year-old structure. Being innovative and green came naturally to the 40-something business partners who first went into business in 1994 with a small print shop (Pro Print, which they recently sold), before launching zu a year later.

As pioneers in the website industry, Lejbak and Zuck have long been on the pulse of the ever-changing world of technology. Similarly, they've always had an affinity and kinship for environmental matters (for instance, employees who don't drive to work are paid an eco bonus). Despite their desire to be environmentally friendly, they knew they'd have to be innovative. They looked into solar power, but ruled that out when they learned 500 solar panels would be required to run their operations. At $1,000 per panel, the cost factor was prohibitive enough, but besides that, they had nowhere near enough room to accommodate anywhere close to that number at their downtown property.

"We decided we wanted to make this as energy efficient as possible," Zuck says. "That was the first thing. So we hooked up with Jim Siemens at Stantec Architecture, and he's been awesome. He has the same values as we do so what we ended up doing was using this revolutionary, low-pressure heating and cooling system that runs underneath the floor."

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Zuck explains the modular floor tiles are moveable to any place on the floor, making the infrastructure, such as the ventilation ducts, equally as mobile. As such, each of the nearly 100 work stations at zu's new building has its own manifold. This allows each worker to customize their airflow and thus heat, or cool, their own station as needed. Being that the heat comes from the floor rather than through the roof, less energy will be required. The system is designed to heat only the lowest four feet of air space, with the principle of heat rising taking over for the remainder of the heating volume. They've been told they're the first in the province to utilize this system, and one of a few to incorporate it in Western Canada.

Because of its relative newness to this market, it's been challenging for contractors to work out the kinks. Lejbak says the old standard of doubling the time and cost components of a construction project has been nearly bang on from their perspective. But their long-anticipated move came to be at the end of June.

The zu partners take a philosophical look at their construction project. On one hand, they did lock in their contracts at the height of the construction boom in Saskatoon, where prices were higher. But with higher mortgage payments, they take that as a challenge to work a little harder to put their bottom line in a healthy position. The owners have certainly bought into this position, and the staff has as well.

Although their budget has been modified several times, Lejbak and Zuck are thinking long-term with all aspects of their new digs. For instance, thanks to a revolutionary moving wall system, all offices can be changed to any degree without further construction. Need another office? No problem. Just move the glass wall panels and add another door to accommodate it. Likewise, electrical outlets and phone jacks can be moved without further construction costs or delays. Similarly, all office furniture and work stations are modular so any retrofitting is quick and easy. Also on the plus side, the heating and cooling system will save zu an estimated $30,000 annually.

Despite the latest in technology being deployed at their new offices, great attention is also being paid to the heritage component of the building. All of the building's brick work and interior beam structures are not only original, but they are featured highlights of the architectural design and integrity. The south-facing walls have new energy-efficient windows installed to allow solar warmth in the winter, as well as ample natural lighting throughout the day.

Although the three floors are not being used to their fullest capacity, Lejbak and Zuck are looking to the future there as well. The new building has room for 98 people, a number which they foresee as being reached likely in the next three to five years. Being that the top two floors are the only ones in use right now, visitors to zu will go to the reception area on the second floor. Perceived as being the centre of the building and the centre of activity, this area of zu's new offices has affectionately been dubbed "The Bridge" in honour of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock's domain on the Starship Enterprise. The irony of this situation is not lost upon zu's founders. Barely old enough to recall the original Star Trek series themselves, most of their staff falls in the 20-something range, with an estimated average age being 28.

"One of the things that I love about our staff is that everybody is really energetic and passionate about what they do," Lejbak says. "I heard somewhere that the average age at an office is like 45 or 46, and our office is around 28 or 29. We have so many young people who are the ones who really understand the new technology."

"Tony and I think we know what's going on, and we think we have a pretty good grasp from a business sense, but we're always relying on our younger people to help us come up with new ideas."

Having such a young workforce has both its advantages and challenges. Clearly, this generation is on top of all things technological, which assists zu in retaining its highly revered place in the world of website development. They also have the need and desire for instant connection and communication--which again, can have its pros and cons. But internal communication is certainly no problem. The challenges may stem from their employees keeping interest in the project at hand before being distracted by something else. Despite many companies having difficulty with employee retention amongst employees of this age range, don't count zu among the companies in this category.

"We have a lot of employees who have been with us for a long time," Lejbak says. He credits this to their philosophy as employers, where they grant employees an average of an hour a day to conduct research and professional development.

"Our workdays are seven-and-a-half hours and we want to try and give our employees time for learning and to expand their knowledge," Lejbak explains. "That research is generally technology-based; what are some new websites, what's a new programming technique, what are some new industry trends, what is a new programming language, developing stuff for BlackBerrys and iPhones and things like that."

Obviously their philosophy regarding their employees and their clients has been working to perfection. Indeed the biggest impetus behind their move came from the amazing growth zu has experienced the past couple of years. Longtime clients such as PotashCorp, Cameco and Areva have been joined by a growing list of national clients. Remarkably, Lejbak says that their growth has largely been fuelled by word of mouth.

"Our very first job was Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, who we still work with, and that was 15 years ago," Lejbak says. "We did the press conference dressed in Shakespearean tights and all of the press came out for it because back then websites were a pretty big deal."

"That led to this one called Virtual Saskatchewan, which was an online tourism and travel magazine. The City of Saskatoon saw that and then PotashCorp saw that we did the City of Saskatoon's website, so then we did PotashCorp's. Cameco saw we did PotashCorp's and it's the same thing now. CN sees we do PotashCorp's, Rogers sees we do CN's. A lot of it is just word of mouth and just providing really good quality and service."

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