The organization that had been called Genesis 3 for most of two decades now will go without the number. In 1998, Skip Phillips, Brian Van Bower and David Tisherman established the organization and adopted the name Genesis 3: A Design Group, as an acknowledgment of the founding trio. The name then became the Genesis 3 Design Group and, within a few years, was commonly shorthanded to Genesis 3.
In 2012, David Tisherman departed from the group. At that point, Van Bower and Phillips decided to make the leadership more inclusive, involving senior members in providing and implementing the corporate vision.
Continuing in that vein, the organization has dropped the “3” from its name to take the focus off the founders, said Skip Phillips, also president of Questar Pools and Spas in Escondido, Calif.
“Originally when this organization was driven by its founders, there was some importance to that because it had to gain traction, and the personalities … had something to do with the creation of the organizational structure,” Phillips said.
“But at some point, the product has to move to the forefront. Now that we have literally thousands of people going through our system — and our Society of Watershape Designers and our platinum members are doing such extraordinary work — it only makes sense to really focus on them.”
Genesis 3 remains part of the corporate name and will be utilized in certain ways, such as in the website address to maintain search engine optimization.
The group has 184 members and has educated approximately 3,000 professionals, either through dedicated Genesis schools or in courses held during conferences hosted by industry associations, buying groups and foundations.
