Businesses find a thoughtful guide

Scott Daugherty is not one of those people who will blurt out any thought that pops into his head.

He knows how to listen, and he always thinks before he speaks.

Those two traits, perhaps more than any others, have made him a success in the business development world.

Daugherty is the executive director of the state's Small Business and Technology Development Center, a position he has held since the center was created 25 years ago.

Daugherty estimates the center has helped 125,000 businesses with planning, finding financing and strategy. And though he is reluctant to accept much praise, he does take pride in his life's work.

"I always wondered why we didn't put little ribbons on the buildings so we could ride around and say, 'That one was ours. ... That one was ours,'" he says.

Sitting in his corner office in downtown Raleigh, Daugherty's surroundings seem to match the man.

Hardwood floors and dark wood furniture are complemented by a comfy green couch, two armchairs, a bookshelf and a desk.

Large windows allow an easy view of the state Capitol and the growing downtown business district. Classical music plays softly from a radio on the window ledge.

On his desk sit a computer, paper and a set of bookends that surround one lone book - a dictionary.

"Sometimes you have to have something really handy," Daugherty says, in his soft Southern drawl.

He regards visitors through thick, dark-rimmed glasses, and when he converses, he often looks away as he composes his thoughts.

As he settles on what he's going to say, his eyes snap back to you. He uses his hands a lot when he talks, ticking off his points with his fingers as he speaks.

Friends call him "Word Boy," because of his propensity for reading.

At the moment, he's reading "The Last Founding Father" about President James Monroe, "Packing the Court," a book about the Supreme Court, and a novel called "The Cat Dancers" that is set in the North Carolina mountains.

"He's enormously into history," says Cary resident Rich Santino, who has known Daugherty for more than 20 years. "The Civil War and all of that. All the wars. All the presidents. He knows more about them than anyone I know on the planet."

In many ways, Daugherty was uniquely positioned to become the Small Business & Technology Development Center's director.

The right combination

A world traveler, he enjoys his trips to towns across North Carolina. His background in law helps him offer sound advice to businesses while his upbringing in the '60s instilled a great desire to make positive change in the world.

"I remember sitting in my fraternity house at Wake Forest with my fraternity brothers and watching the news reports from Birmingham," he recalls. "I remember just being universally aghast that that could be happening. ... I knew that the next issues beyond the civil rights were going to be economic ones. ... It was like, 'Now you can vote. Now you can go to a restaurant. Now you can go to a hotel. So what if you don't have any money?'"

At first it seemed that Daugherty was destined to find a line of work addressing social issues. He helped run a Head Start program while he was still in college. After that, he spent a few years working for Family and Child Services of Washington, D.C.

"And then I found law school, and that really was a big change," he says. "That got me focused on business issues."

His law studies took a two-year detour when he was drafted in the late '60s. He drew on his experience working with organizations such as Family Services and spent two years serving as a psychiatric social worker, first in Denver and then in Okinawa, Japan.

After that, he went back to complete his law degree and then worked a series of jobs that would take him from being private counsel for a wealthy family in Florida to a rural economic development group in Mississippi to a job as general counsel for Freddie Mac in Washington, D.C.

In 1984, the fledgling Small Business and Technology Development Center recruited him from Freddie Mac to become the organization's first executive director.

In the mid-1980s, Carolina Pottery in Smithfield was on the verge of big-time growth that would eventually take the company public and increase sales 10 times over.

"We were way undercapitalized, had no business plan, had no financial people," said Dixon Fleming, whose family operated the business at the time and later sold and repurchased it following a corporate bankruptcy. "[Daugherty] pointed out that we needed a real good financial officer for the growth that we envisioned. ... We worked together for a year and a half. We came up with a business plan, found financing and ended up bringing on a CFO. And the rest, as they say, is history."

Over the years and thousands of cases, Daugherty has become skilled at evaluating what a business needs.

In October, he was presented with the Old North State Award from Gov. Bev Perdue, in recognition of 25 years of service to the state.

Despite the recognition, Daugherty says the job has taught him to be humble.

"The environment we work in is ever-changing," he says. "You really have to constantly learn something. What worked well for you 15 years ago may not work well for you now."

Years of experience have not changed some things, says Daugherty's wife, Debbie. Each morning, Daugherty still goes to work early - about 7 a.m. - to get a head start on the day. Most days he gets a cup of black coffee from the nearby Morning Times coffee shop. And then he heads for his desk. More than anything, Debbie Daugherty says, her husband likes to have time to think things through.

"You can just see him," she says. "He becomes very quiet, and the wheels are turning at that point. Sometimes it's at night or sometimes it's on the weekends, and you can see the wheels turning. He just shows up at work on Monday morning and throws it into play."

A good cook, too

And despite having, according to his friends, "more suits than Brooks Brothers," Daugherty has a laid-back side that speaks to the Harley and sailboat he owns.

He also loves to cook and handles all of the grocery shopping for the household. Fan favorites include Daugherty's paella, (a rice dish with seafood or chicken), bouillabaisse and smoked salmon. His friends have come to expect gourmet meals even on camping trips.

"Those kind of dinners that they put together is like a five-star, multiple-course dinner," says Jay Hull, who lives in Maryland and has been friends with the Daugherty family for almost three decades. "It's not like a steak and baked potato. There's an appetizer; there's a soup. When you go visit their house, it's like going to a fancy bed and breakfast."

But Daugherty says a bed and breakfast is not in the plans.

Even at age 66, he has no plans to retire quite yet.

He loves what he's doing, and says, "If I didn't do this, I'd be doing something else just as demanding."