George W. Smith is a fighter. How else do you explain his successful path from an award-winning Marine Corps corporal in Vietnam to maintaining a stronghold for the last nine years in the highly competitive health care industry? Battling the majors daily, Smith now handles 38 medical-market accounts.
After Vietnam, Smith entered the College of San Mateo, where he majored in liberal arts and worked 30 hours a week as an orderly at a local hospital. In 1972, he joined the San Mateo Fire Department as a hoseman engineer/emergency medical technician. In 1979, he injured his back while working at the fire department. Donald W. Knoll, a family friend and, at the time, president of Tully-Wihr, asked Smith to join the distributorship after Smith underwent back surgery. Initially, Smith was reluctant because he felt working with a friend could affect their relationship, but Knoll cajoled him into joining the company's sales department.
"Joining the printing industry was a huge shock because you're working pretty much 24/7, and your decisions are questioned all the time," Smith says. "What helped me was my ability to make decisions and act on my own. What I lacked was industry knowledge." But Smith's undying thirst for knowledge propelled him to learn the ropes of the industry quickly and make contacts with clients and prospects in the health care industry. "I have to know everything," he says. "I like to stay in the upper echelons of knowledge."
The next step was to leverage that network in the health care industry. Taking a suggestion from Meredith R. Smith Jr., CAE, former executive vice president of NBFA (now DMIA) and then a member of Tully-Wihr's board of directors, George W. Smith wrote down the names of everyone he knew in the health care industry. "Since then, I have stayed in touch with all of them," he says. "The most important thing is retaining contact. You have a name and you stay in touch with them continuously."
Smith also figured out a way to make prospective clients feel comfortable. Each time he walks into a prospect's office, Smith searches the room for details. "If there's a replica of a boat, ask the prospective client if he owns one," Smith says. "The interview is already over. It's about breaking down the adversarial type of atmosphere."
Today, thanks in part to Smith's tenaciousness in the health care market, Tully-Wihr calls itself a "hospital forms specialist." It offers expertise and sophistication in designing and producing health care documents. The company caters to numerous top hospitals and other health care institutions in Northern California.
Smith, who became a partner at the distributorship five years ago, aggressively pushes the company's web presence to gain new clients and transition existing ones to online ordering. Approximately one-third of the firm's health care customers order business cards online, but Smith aims to generate business worth $1 million this year. "Online ordering will never replace the face-to-face business relationship we're founded on," says Smith, who's also a DMIA Board member and the chairperson of DMIA's Health Care Special Interest Group. "It's just another tool that will enhance and fortify our relationships with our current and prospective customers."
Vastly different personalities and working styles haven't stopped Glen James and Frank Poeschel from building a highly profitable distributorship--one that has increased profits consistently since its birth in 1996. Seemingly oblivious to a sluggish economy, the company's sales have grown from $7.5 million in 2001 to $8.5 million in 2002 to approximately $10 million this year.
While James is always on time, Poeschel runs late. James tends to be cautious and structured, but Poeschel is carefree and a risk-taker. If one sees the positive side of something, the other often points out the negative side. Both see the complete picture. Perhaps because their differences complement each other, the two make a winning team.
In 1987, James and Poeschel met when joining the sales team at Lisle, Ill.-based manufacturer Wallace Computer Services Inc. By 1996, rumors about Moore Corporation Ltd. buying Wallace hit the company, and the two didn't want to work for Moore. (Moore purchased Wallace in May.) "We have a disregard for lazy, lukewarm people," Poeschel says. "We didn't know how it would be working for Moore, but we did know of lazy people who worked there." That was enough reason for them to start their own company.
They wrote a business plan based on the simple premise that their distributorship (then known as Business Printing) would provide more responsive service than large, direct-selling manufacturers. "We always thought we could serve the local marketplace more effectively and efficiently," James says. "We could assist our customers better logistically and cost-wise." The two entered the market looking for print jobs, and offering large and medium-sized companies efficient ways to buy individual printed items. Once the company developed an infrastructure to handle those, James and Poeschel decided to diversify into warehouse and distribution services, online ordering and proofing, and inventory management.
"We now have an infrastructure and technology that is more responsive than the majors," James says. "We have a lower response time for delivery and a system that serves customers more efficiently."
Poeschel says their biggest achievement is the ability to modify Resource Print Management's services to meet customers' needs "unlike the majors, which have a tendency to stay within the box." The company's philosophy is offering solutions rather than just products. It analyzes clients' inventory management, product usage and budgets, then uses the best applicable manufacturing method for each job.
James' and Poeschel's complementary work skills make their business plan stronger. James has a management background; Poeschel has solid sales experience. James is more involved in daily operations; Poeschel analyzes the bigger picture. When working with a client, Poeschel concentrates on improving products; James concentrates on operations, information flow and cost reduction. They occasionally get on each other's nerves, they admit, but trust and respect each other tremendously.
James and Poeschel say they're excited about their next big move--to a 65,000-square-foot facility in Fort Worth in December.
Glen James (left) and Frank Poeschel, co-owners of Resource Print Management, a distributorship in Fort Worth, Texas, created a highly profitable company "to serve the local marketplace more effectively and efficiently" than large, direct-selling manufacturers.
Rick Roever has witnessed tremendous change during his 32 years in the industry. But what sets him apart from many and makes him successful is his ability to embrace change.
Roever was 7 years old when his father started a printing company in a small room behind a tavern outside of East St. Louis, Ill. The unit set manufacturer was called MAR Business Forms, named after Rick's father Myron A. Roever. When he was 13, Rick Roever began working in the bindery department because the company needed "more bodies," he says. "While working with my father, I learned from the best."
The manufacturing company began expanding slowly, focusing on high-quality and timely delivery. Today, the company has 90 employees, is spread over 70,000 acres in Valmeyer, Ill., and has clients nationwide. Roever, now the firm's president, aggressively has reinvented the company during the last 10 years. "The problem with this industry is that it's changing constantly and rapidly," he says. "Your competitors are changing, and the products are changing. The whole complexion is changing. So you just try and stay on top of things."
MAR gradually introduced integrated cards and labels, digital imaging and variable data imaging, commercial printing, warehousing, and online ordering. The company, which changed its name to MAR Graphics in 1994, is one of a few forms printers that operates a Strobbe computer-to-plate system, which streamlines the digital prepress process.
How does Roever know the pulse of the market? He constantly talks to customers. "Feedback is critical," he says. "It's all about finding out what direction customers want us to go. Once I get an idea, we talk among ourselves and see what we can do about it." Roever personally meets customers--especially ones in the Midwest and Northeast--and regularly attends trade shows and other industry-related events. He also carefully avoids hiring people with I-can't-get-it-done attitudes. "Tell me what you can do," is Roever's favorite statement to prospective hires. Additionally, he seeks open-minded customers.
Working at a family owned business presents challenges, Roever says. His twin sister, Bobbie Klinkhardt, is the company's vice president; younger sister, Anita Redohl, is its secretary; and his brother, Scott, is its treasurer. Roever says it's not unusual for the family to talk about business during Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. They aim to maintain respect for each other's opinions and decisions at work. "You still have to perform and are held accountable," Roever says. "The business never really goes away--even at family dinners."
More than a quarter-century after beginning in the industry, Roever is excited about MAR Graphics' future and plans to add more products and services to the company's repertoire. "There's no magic elixir in the industry," he says. "It's just hard work."
Rick Roever, president of Valmeyer, Ill., manufacturer MAR Graphics, has added new products and services continuously to evolve the firm.
