The Entrepreneur’s View: Robert L. Luddy
By the Editors
This article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of the Coolidge Review. Request a free copy of a future print issue.
Robert L. Luddy has achieved entrepreneurial success in both business and education.
In the 1970s, amid a growing recession, Luddy started his own company, despite having almost no capital. Over the past several decades he has transformed CaptiveAire Systems into North America’s leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems. The company earns annual revenues in the hundreds of millions.
A champion for children’s education, Luddy has founded a number of charter and independent schools. In 2007 he started Thales Academy. Dedicated to providing a high-quality, affordable education, Thales now serves more than 6,100 students across thirteen locations in three states.
Luddy’s venture into higher education, Thales College, recently graduated its first class.
Luddy, a supporter of the Coolidge Debate League and founder of the Coolidge Cup, recently spoke with the Coolidge Review about the challenges of running a start-up, the importance of the individual, the power of wonder, and more.
Why did you decide to start your own business?
On October 24, 1976, my sales commission was substantially reduced by the company where I worked. On the 26th, I decided to depart and start my own company. I gave notice on the 27th, and my boss allowed me to depart in two days. Atlantic Fire Systems was born on October 30, when I installed my first Ansul fire-suppression system. My start-up capital was $1,300.
Early in your book Entrepreneurial Life, you include a quotation attributed to Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” How has this mindset shaped your life and career?
From the beginning, I realized I needed to change the market to win orders. To do that, I focused on providing superior quality and service as well as low pricing.
When the Ansul company appointed me as the first new distributor in the Carolinas in its history, my company received more recognition and could offer better pricing.
The company grew quickly, but cash flow remained a major issue until 1984, which confirms the challenge of running a start-up.
At the end of 1983, I sold the contracting business to concentrate on manufacturing ventilation systems.
What was the biggest gap you tried to fill in creating Thales Academy?
Public education experimented with all types of reading and math curricula that failed many students. Classrooms abandoned discipline, cursive writing, times tables, and writing skills.
Thales Academy adopted a proven method of teaching reading and math known as Direct Instruction, which focuses on teaching to mastery. Thales students learn to read well by the third grade.
By contrast, 50 percent of North Carolina’s public school students do not achieve reading mastery in the third and eighth grades.
What advice would you give to Coolidge Foundation students?
It is imperative to wonder and become a self-learner with the goal of becoming a courageous, virtuous servant leader.
What has been your greatest success?
Mastering the art of allowing individuals as much freedom to contribute to excellent outcomes. All contributions and improvements stem from the individual, not credentials or the group.
What has been your greatest failure?
My biggest failure relates to delegation. Delegating to the wrong individual leads to failure, and everyone suffers.
What policy issues matter most to you?
Taxation and regulation. Taxation reduces the choices of individuals, the market makers. Regulation saps our energy, time, and ability to create.
Entrepreneurship is hard; it requires the freedom to create. Governments at all levels purport to create jobs, but in reality they make things very difficult for business.
What do you admire most about Calvin Coolidge?
Coolidge was courageous and he respected the individual, the prime contributor to society.
This article appears in the Winter 2025 issue of the Coolidge Review. Request a free copy of a future print issue.