Few, if any, of the 1 million visitors to Holiday World & Splashin' Safari probably leave the facility without having spent the day laughing and smiling.

Will Koch takes that responsibility seriously, and as president and CEO of the Santa Claus, Ind. facility (about a two-hour drive from Marion), he and his team of 2,200 full- and part-time employees have been racking up the rave reviews.

"We just visited a couple of weeks ago, and it was packed; everyone had a great time," said Kyle Harfst, interim executive director of the Southern Illinois Research Park in Carbondale. Harfst knows a thing or two about business development and planning, and he was quick to give Koch's operation high marks when it comes to customer service.

"Their training and execution rivals Disney in every way. They're top-notch," Harfst said.

How Koch motivates his team is one of the topics he will touch upon as the keynote speaker for the next Community Leaders' Breakfast, set for 7 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10 at John A. Logan College. Co-sponsored by the Southern Business Journal and its team of community partners - John A. Logan College, Pepsi MidAmerica, SchoolCenter, Southern Illinois Healthcare, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Egyptian Electric Cooperative Association and Shawnee Community College - the breakfast event typically draws about 300 company owners, managers, supervisors, community leaders and others interested in the region's business community.

Presented under the motto, "One Region, One Vision," the events are designed to help galvanize the business community and provide a venue for leaders of a large region to get together and discuss issues of mutual interest.

Tickets are $12 per person, and reservations ought to be made by Friday, Sept. 5.

The Koch family (starting with Will's grandfather, Louis) built the town of Santa Claus and has demonstrated you don't have to live in or directly near a metropolis to succeed, said Dennis DeRossett, publisher of The Southern Illinoisan and the business journal.

"Will Koch is a living example of how you don't have to be located in an urban area to have success," DeRossett said. "You have to be creative, you have to work hard, and you have to provide quality customer service. Will Koch knows that customer service is key, and we're thrilled to have him as our keynote speaker for our next Community Leaders' Breakfast."

Koch took time recently to slow down long enough to answer some questions about Holiday World & Splashin' Safari, his background and his favorite ride (it's a no-brainer!).

Question: Describe the relationship you had with your father, Bill, and your grandfather, Louis?

Answer: My dad was married when he was 45 years old. As a result, my grandfather was much older. I did not get an opportunity to know him well. I do know he was a very bright man and industrious - always interested in things, how they work and how they could be made to work better.

Dad and my relationship really centered on Holiday World. After I graduated from college (University of Notre Dame), I worked on the West Coast for a defense contractor for a few years. When I returned, Dad was kind of ready to retire and kind of not ready to retire.

He told me that he wasn't going to "give me" responsibility, that I had to "take it away" from him. I know this isn't what any book on family business would recommend, but for Dad and I, it actually worked well.

I felt that we became good business partners - sharing ideas, and bouncing them off of each other. I valued his experience, vision and opinions very much, and he respected my ability.

Q: Looking back, describe one of the life lessons you picked up from your father or that he taught you.

A: I learned many things from Dad. Most importantly was the respect he had for all individuals who he came into contact with. To him, there was never a difference in the "value" of a person whether they worked cleaning restrooms or held high political office. Dad treated everyone with the respect they deserved as human beings.

Q: You didn't work in the "family business" right away and not until 1987. What did you do, and how did you decide to invest your life in Santa Claus, Ind.?

A: I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1984, with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. I returned to Holiday World that summer and worked. At the end of the summer, I got an offer to work for TRW Electronics and Defense, in Redondo Beach, Calif. I decided to take it. I worked there for two and a half years.

During that time, I married Lori Morris, who I'd met when she was performing in shows at Santa Claus Land/Holiday World. When we started to consider the idea of starting a family, we quickly realized that we didn't want to do that in Southern California. Dad had always left the welcome mat out for me, and I decided it was time to move home and go to work in the family business.

Q: Talk about the challenges Holiday World has faced since the mid-1980s and what the company did to stay competitive, grow and succeed.

A: Our biggest challenge was to figure out how to compete with the larger, better-financed parks that surrounded us - one in St. Louis, one in Cincinnati and one in Nashville (the now-defunct Opryland).

We made a decision to focus our business on families. This allowed us to build on the reputation we'd already established as a great place for families to visit but also allowed us to really focus our growth, development and marketing on one target market rather than trying to reach "everyone."

I believe there is great power in focus. We believed then, and I still believe today, that our park can provide a better experience for a smaller cost for our family visitors than our competitors can.

Q: Holiday World is known for its superior customer service. How is it so good, and how important is it for any business to succeed?

A: We have always placed a very high value on the cleanliness of our grounds and the friendliness of our staff.

We believe that the only way to get a large staff (we have about 2,200 employees this year) to buy in to something this important is for the entire management team, from ownership down, to demonstrate their personal commitment to our standards. Our entire management team does this day in, day out.

Further, my Mom, Pat Koch, is an incredible example and motivator for our staff. She greets guests every morning at our gate, helps out in food services daily and is just about everywhere in the park.

Q: What is your favorite attraction at the park, and why?

A: The Voyage. It's the No. 1 wooden roller-coaster in the world. 'Nuf said.

Q: Since the 63-year-old park was first started as Santa Claus Land, Koch family members have been active community participants. Why is community service important to you?

A: My father set out to do more than to build a park; he set out to build a town. When I grew up in Santa Claus, the population was 47 (Mom has a copy of the census report framed on her wall). Today, there are 2,400 residents.

While we are still not a "metropolis," (not even Metropolis, Ill.), we have grown when most rural communities have been shrinking.

I believe that supporting this community is a responsibility that I bear as a member of the Koch family. Further, based on my deeply held values, it is simply the right thing to do.

Q: Splashin' Safari was added in 1993. How successful has the 14-acre water park been?

A: Splashin' Safari has been enormously successful. When we first started it, we believed that it would be another attraction, like another ride that visitors would enjoy while at Holiday World.

It has in fact turned into a true "companion product" - an equal to Holiday World. We have added to it almost every year since it opened - primarily because the demand for it continued to exceed the supply. Even today, on our busiest days, traffic flow and lines for the most popular attractions are worse in Splashin' Safari than they are in Holiday World.

Splashin' Safari has been a huge factor in our growth and will continue to be for as far as I can foresee into the future.

Q: How many people visited Holiday World last year, and what is expected this year?

A: In 2007, we entertained 1,017,561 visitors. This year, we expect to be down a bit, at about one million. This will be an exception to a very long string of record seasons. In fact, from 1975 to 2007, we had only six seasons that were not record seasons.

Q: What is the key message you want to deliver to attendees of the Community Leaders' Breakfast on Sept. 10?

A: One of the most important steps that any business can take is to decide who makes up its target market, and then do everything reasonable and possible to serve that target market better than any competitor.

It's far better to be No. 1 to 10 percent of a market than No. 2 to 100 percent of it.

DETAILS

What: Community Leaders' Breakfast

When: 7-9 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 10

Where: John A. Logan College

To register, call 529-5454, ext. 5002 or go to www.sbj.biz.

Cost: $12 per person includes full, hot breakfast buffet.

Featured speaker: Will Koch