IDO Customizes Your Interior Environment to Meet Your Needs
Photographer / Krystal Dailey
Some of the most successful businesses began in the basement of a visionary’s house, such is the case for IDO Incorporated, an interior design organization dedicated to helping people thrive.
Launched in 1992 by Jill Mendoza, the business was born to serve clients’ commercial interior design needs. Mendoza did a beautiful job, and through the years IDO has grown in both staff and client services, completed award-winning projects and relocated to the heart of downtown. When Amanda Medlen joined the team in 2003, IDO employed seven staff members — today they have 19 employees, including Lee Boyland who came aboard in 2008.
In 2017, Mendoza began sharing her thoughts about succession planning with Medlen and Boyland, who took ownership of the company in October 2023 when Mendoza retired. Now Medlen is Principal/CEO, Boyland is Principal/COO, and Jennifer Knotts, who joined IDO in 2022, is CFO. Together the three make up the Executive Leadership Team.
Having these three impressive women working together has created synergy that has not only helped the business grow but thrive. “We are working to diversify our portfolio of clients and distribute our work more evenly through our core sectors,” Medlen says.
IDO’s four pillars are health care and life science, higher education, municipality and government, and corporate office. Their services include Interior Design that fulfills an organization’s vision, Workplace Planning that optimizes human interaction, Sustainable Design that makes a positive impact, Lab Solutions that help advance Life Sciences, and Specialized Move Management that maximizes productivity.
IDO has designed for clients such as Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, City of Indianapolis – Community Justice Center, Eli Lilly & Company, Westville Correctional Facility, Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana University, and YMCA of Greater Indianapolis to name a few.
When an IDO team member meets with a client, it’s an ongoing collaborative process to ensure they meet the client’s needs.
“Once we gather info, we’ll do field verification and work on space plan options, then sit down for a working session with the client in which sometimes adjust things as they talk,” Boyland says.
It’s an integral process in which they are simultaneously working with the client and other disciplines like architecture and engineering to come up with an integrated solution.
IDO’s team holds weekly meetings with
their team of designers where they go around the room, discuss projects they are working on, and assess their current workload. This is key not only to ensure meeting deadlines but also to support a healthy work-life balance.
“If someone says they’re on fire, immediately someone at the table will ask what they can take on,” Knotts says.
Medlen says that IDO’s commitment to preserving a healthy work-life balance has played a big part in her never leaving the company. Through the years she has turned down other job offers because she cherishes the personal connections she has built at IDO.
“The people at IDO have been with me through graduating, getting married, and growing my family,” Medlen says. “They did things that meant a lot to me, like when my father-in-law unexpectedly passed away and they drove more than an hour to attend the viewing.”
To engage the company’s younger generation, they created something called the “social committee.” This year the social committee chose to do a field day, and their marketing manager asked some reps if they wanted to sponsor it.
“Not only did reps cover the cost of drinks and snacks, but they also participated in field day with us and have asked if they can do so again next year,” Knotts says.
IDO also participates in Spirit Weeks to build company culture.
“Our culture is probably the best thing we have, and anybody that knows us would tell you that,” Knotts says.
“All our favorite memories surround our company culture,” Medlen adds.
This is why the company has experienced zero turnover in two years. Not surprisingly, for the past three years, IDO was named one of the best places to work by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
Employees also appreciate the communicative nature of IDO’s leadership.
“We’re always transparent with the team, giving updates, sharing graphs of our income and overhead, and explaining what we’ve done and what we plan to do,” Boyland says. “We want our team to truly understand how we’re doing.”
IDO is committed to giving back to the community. For instance, they are advocates for Purposeful Design, an organization that takes men who have faced trouble in the past and teaches them the art of metalworking and woodworking to get them back on their feet. IDO also gives their team members eight hours of paid volunteer leave each year to do with what they wish. They can choose to volunteer at a nonprofit, a church, their child’s school, or whatever speaks to their heart.
In addition, IDO volunteers with the downtown Indy Boys & Girls Club and participates in the Women Build with Greater Indianapolis Habitat for Humanity. The IDO team always participates in the Indy Chamber’s annual Women in Business retreat, which gives participants a chance to connect with the brightest, most inspirational women in and around Indy.
“The retreat is all about lifting women up as it brings together women from all different fields and stages of careers,” says Knotts, who now helps plan the event by serving on the advisory council. “It’s close to our hearts because that’s how we all [she, Medlen, and Boyland] met.”
Although IDO has been in business for 33 years, they are always looking to spread the word about who they are and what they do.
“We want to show people we are here to help,” says Medlen, who recalls when she first started at IDO how nobody had heard of the company. “It’s fun to see how much that has changed.”
This year IDO has added five new positions, which is amazing for a small company. According to Knotts, they expect IDO to continue to grow considerably over the next 15 years.
“The projections are coming in,” Knotts says. “We are a thriving company, and we’re excited for the future!”
IDO Incorporated is located at 601 North Capitol Avenue in Indianapolis. For more information, call 317-784-6044 or visit idoincorporated.com.
