Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Beth Ewen:
be***@*******ag.com
dev.divistack.com
WELCOME BETH EWEN, UPSIZE MINNESOTA, said the sign outside B&F Fastener Supply in St. Anthony, where I was going to interview CEO Loren O’Brien for this month’s cover story.
How old-fashioned, I thought. How earnest. How nice. It’s been a long time since a company has “rolled out the red carpet” for me, as O’Brien put it when I thanked him for the welcome.
Such values were on display all over the company, not just on the sign outside. I walked into a busy distribution center, but a real person greeted me in 10 seconds and went to find O’Brien. Another person came wheeling by, obviously on a mission, but stopped to ask if I needed help.
O’Brien himself came barreling down the stairs in 60 seconds, ready for the interview even though I was a bit early. He introduced me to many staff members, and each one thanked me for the opportunity of appearing in Upsize magazine.
It’s enough to make a person tear up, even your average hard-bitten business journalist who has heard so many CEOs talk about “putting the customer first” -well, let’s just say if she had a dollar for every one the magazine would have become Upsize U.S.A. a long time ago.
How many times as a customer have you searched the sales floor, at the store that buys full-page ads in every Sunday newspaper to get your business, hunting for a live person to take your credit card? How many times have you finally decided to respond to a direct mail piece, which cost the company thousands to prepare, and then languished in the automated phone tree until you hung up?
A company that backs up the rhetoric is so rare that when you find one it’s surprising how good the little gestures make you feel.
At B&F Fastener Supply, I became a believer. Todd Boone, executive vice president, told me there’s a camera in his office trained on the entryway, so if someone doesn’t help a customer right away he will.
He repeats the mantra over and over and over: “Service, service, service,” Boone says. “I say it all the time. You’re constantly addressing it. If you feel someone’s attitude is starting to wane, they’re reminded.”
They’ll pack odd numbers of parts for customers, or find something that they didn’t carry, and always deliver it for free. Even when gas prices rose they thought about adding a fuel charge “for about a minute” but refused.
“We do all sorts of crazy stuff. That’s just part of our model, to be flexible,” Boone says. “As long as it’s within reason we’ll do it, and even sometimes when it’s not within reason we’ll do it.”
When I was leaving O’Brien rushed away and came back carrying two small cardboard boxes stamped with the B&F Fastener Supply logo. I asked with a laugh if I was getting a free sample of nuts and bolts. “Coffee and chocolates,” he said, and insisted he carry them to my car.
How old-fashioned, I thought. How earnest. How nice.
