CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS: You started the company in the back of your house, right, around 1970? How did that come about?

GEORGE HILL: Well, this is one of those believe-it-or-not kind of situations. I was working at Chrysler Corp. at the time. The director of government affairs ... got ill and he was supposed to be representing Chrysler at a (Small Business Administration) conference and ... he called me up and said, 'George, you've been around for a while ... I want you to stand in for me.' This is a true story. So, I went to the conference.

I wandered about and wandered into this one particular event and you had to sign in, not knowing that my signage was going to end up being a data point to the people who were in that group who were interested in contracts. A few weeks later I started getting these government bids in the mail. I went to this friend of mine who was kind of in that business, knew something about it. He said, 'Look, why don't we see if we can't make some money on the side.' We did it, and we got the bid. We got several more and he said, 'See how easy it is to make money in this chemical business?' That became kind of a side job ... and bingo. Here we are.

So in 1968 you were on a CBS affiliate in Detroit hosting the show "Job Opportunity Line," the first Black person on regularly scheduled TV in the area. Can you talk about how that came about?

Well, what happened is that after the ('67 uprising) of course there was a great deal of interest, as there is now, in what's going on in the Black community ... and everyone was trying to figure out what could be done to improve conditions in the community and to get a better peek into the world of African Americans. A friend of mine ... had been talking to CBS without my knowledge. He'd kind of thrown my hat into the ring. He called me and said, 'George, I've done this and I wonder if you'd take the time to talk to these folks.' So I went out and talked to them and much to my surprise, they wanted me to do it. I was the interviewer, we talked about jobs, education, things in the community. I was interviewing people who had companies, I was interviewing university professors about training ... It was really odd. It came out on Sunday mornings this is kind of funny. When I first started the business, you know, there was a period in which you're gearing up to do your manufacturing and on one point in time I would be in people's living rooms and bedrooms (doing interviews) and then on Monday I'd be out calling on small businesses and we'd be going in to (do cleaning work). They'd look at me and say, 'Didn't I see you on TV yesterday morning? ... Come on, come on to my office, we'll talk.' ... That might be the secret sauce to the beginnings of the company's small successes.

How did the company develop over time, then?

We started off doing simple things. (Chemicals to) clean the floor, clean the toilets, that kind of stuff. We had a small plant up on Woodrow Wilson. We were selling things primarily in gallons and drums, that kind of stuff. As we grew and had our own chemists, we recognized the formulations that were being used to clean X would be the same basic formulations to clean Y. Then, in the manufacturing plants, once a part is machined, it has to be cleaned before it can be welded or assembled or anything else, and they'd been cleaning all these things with ... very high caustic solutions and high heat, and the energy costs were just enormous. Well, as we got more chemists and had more sophistication ... we started innovating in terms of the things we could do in our plants and laboratories here that would mimic and replicate what was going on in our customers' plants. We developed a variety of very innovative products that really saved a lot of money and did a great deal of cleaning without the dangers of the caustic being heated up.

Can you give us an idea of the size of the company?

In terms of revenue we're in the $75 million-$100 million range. We will be in the neighborhood of $80 million probably in 2021. We have about 90 employees.

You guys put emphasis on hiring Detroit residents, right?

We always do. There was a lot more talent and confidence, particularly in the Black community, than people suspected. I mean this is an extraordinary city. We felt there was a lot here to tap into (as a Black middle class and education and homeownership grew with the automotive industry) ... so we really felt as though, given my personal philosophy that people really drive your success, people who are talented, committed, skilled, passionate ... so Detroit itself was just the perfect spot. We grew on a national basis and even built a plant in Germany and in South Korea at one time ... We've been a much bigger company, by the way, we've sold off divisions. In the downturn of the '80s we sold off a $25 million-$30 million division. But the basis for all that (expansion) was the people who were here and the educational base that was here and industries that were here.

Anything new going on?

We are licensed to manufacture, and the only licensee in the country, to manufacture a product called Envirocleanse, which is a water-based disinfectant that kills the virus that leads to COVID-19. (We got the license) within the last six-seven months.

Right now we're looking at this pandemic-induced downturn. What do you think needs to be done in Detroit to help the city and Detroiters during this time?

I've got a philosophy that the answer to the regeneration of urban areas and the regeneration of the economy would be a marriage between corporate America and small business, particularly small business that's diverse. Black, Hispanic, et cetera. As we look at the relationship we've got with some of our partners for instance, Henkel (Adhesive Technologies). Henkel is engaged with us on the community level ... Henkel has joined with us (on an educational and mentorship program called Math Corps) and (companies like Henkel) want to do something that makes a difference. So my answer to what has to be done is bringing resources ... into our community and that those resources make an investment in people, who are the businesses, in order to make sure we have a future that is always in jeopardy if we are not always developing the skills to make us first ... I'm going to sound very critical when I say this. Our level of science competency and engineering competency, we are no longer leaders of the world in those areas. We should be. We need to come together in a way that we start recognizing this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Hear the entire interview on crainsdetroit.com/theConversation

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Diversified Chemical's George Hill on finding the right chemistry - Crain's Detroit Business