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Word On The Street
By: Tama Swan, Associate Editor
Issue: 2009may
With his home life just a brief walk from the office and a Blackberry always within arm’s reach, Marc S. Simon, chief executive officer and director for top-earning distributorship Halo/Lee Wayne Corporation (UPIC: LEEWAYNE) based in Sterling, Illinois, works hard to know what’s going on in the industry and to stay on top of it all. So what does Simon see from his high vantage point? One word: opportunity.
5:20 am I wake up to plug in the coffeemaker. Then I check e-mail to see if anything of an urgent nature happened overnight and prepare myself for the pressing issues of the day ahead. With CNBC on in the background, I read The New York Times online, if there is time.
6:20 am I finish my coffee and have a small breakfast with my wife of more than 34 years, Marcy. It’s a good time for us to catch up over the local newspaper. With our three boys all on their own now, it is a relaxing start to the day.
7:05 am My oldest son calls with the great news that he and his wonderful wife are expecting our first grandchild. I’m plenty excited, but Marcy is beside herself. It’s a great way to start the day. Even out of the house, we are lucky to hear from at least one of the boys or our daughters-in-law almost every day. We enjoy seeing the men they’ve become and watching their families get started.
7:30 am I make another brief e-mail check before I shower and then another before heading to the office. I’m fortunate to live just a mile from my office in downtown Chicago. Chicago is a great city in every season, which makes the walk a great transition from home to the office no matter the time of year.
8:45 am The first thing I do after getting settled is check our bookings, billings and collections from the previous day. In good times, it’s smart to know where your business is from day-to-day. In challenging times like these, I think it’s essential. We have really good reporting, and I would be lost without it.
9:15 am I e-mail account executives who turned in large and/or interesting orders from the day before. It’s a great way for me to take a pulse of what’s happening on the street.
9:50 am I return calls to suppliers and industry competitors with whom I’ve become very good friends. While there are very few specific order-related issues I have to get involved with, suppliers and account executives are more interested than ever in where the industry is in this economy and where it may be taking them.
10:30 am I have a very interesting call with a medium-sized industry distributor that is considering selling the family business. I’ll go on to have a few more calls like this today, as I have for the past few months. More people are interested in an alternative for their business in this economy, and we’re in a great financial position to have these conversations.
At the end of these conversations, I’m always amazed at how similar every distributor in our industry seems to be, regardless of size, yet how differently each company derives its sales volume.
12:30 pm Meeting a couple of friends for lunch. I grew up in Chicago and have worked here all my life. It’s a big city, but still seems like a small community to Marcy and me.
1:45 pm I get back to the office and check messages. With my trusty Blackberry (or crackberry), I work hard at responding to everyone getting in touch with me. I’ll spend the better part of the next few hours reviewing e-mailed reports from our operational team in Sterling and catching up on a variety of issues and opportunities with the business.
2 pm I’m on a conference call with our financial partner, Compass Diversified Trust. With the increase in potential acquisition activity, we have status calls almost weekly. They are good partners and have come to believe deeply in what we are doing. As a result, they have committed significant additional capital to our company to address the dynamic nature of our industry.
2:40 pm I call our president, Jack Mewhirter, in Sterling to touch base on any open issues. It’s a good time for me to download my thoughts and concerns. Jack’s been a great partner. He’s a very good listener and sounding board. He has more than 35 years’ experience in the industry and can help me connect the historical dots between the key industry players and the minor and major issues our company faces each day. He also pulls me in from the ledge from time to time.
3:05 pm Jim Stutz, our executive VP of sales and business development, calls to update me on a new recruit—a $600,000-plus producer in the Southeast U.S. Recruiting has picked up this year due to liquidity opportunities with us. Jim and his team are busier than ever. It is vitally important for industry salespeople to stay positive and focused in an economy like this. Jim, Dale Limes, Kevin McHargue and their teams are doing a great job of this. We’ve added nearly two dozen experienced and successful producers to our team since the beginning of the year. If we can maintain this, we’ll be well-positioned once the economy turns around.
3:15 pm I call our attorneys. We’re really concerned about protecting our clients and sales force in regard to product safety and the new laws. It is one of the more immediate and crucial challenges the industry faces, and we have to get it right. While I spent a few decades as a practicing attorney, I want a product safety expert to make sure we’re taking the best steps. It’s a complex issue. The call lasts more than half an hour. I remind them that the first hour should be free. Nobody laughs—attorneys need to have more fun. On the other hand, when I practiced law, I used to tell my clients that I charged extra for lawyer jokes.
4:40 pm I finish the day talking with and e-mailing many of the same people—status updates from our team in Sterling, a few “attaboys” and “attaladies” to account executives with great projects either in the works or in process, industry vendors and friendly competitors. It seems we’re all working 50 percent harder for 15 percent less revenue. Challenging times, but my day reminds me that with great challenge comes great opportunity. We seem to be a little more optimistic than most, and a good portion of my job is to reflect that bright outlook for our team while being straightforward about our responsibility to run a strong and profitable business.
5:30 pm I wrap up at the office and start on my walk home. Marcy and I will take an hour to decompress with a glass of wine and some appetizers (and a series of toasts to our new grandchild-to-be). Then, as she gets dinner ready, I will sneak another look at my Blackberry. We have great friends, but we’re homebodies and enjoy dinner at home or at a quiet restaurant before more e-mails, a little TV, more e-mails, reading and heading to bed.
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