International Exploits
- Company: Deerfield Builders Supply, Deerfield Beach, Fla.
- Age: 38
- Title: Executive Vice President
- Tenure with company: 17 years
- 2006 gross sales: $28.6 million
When Brad Wanzenberg returned to Deerfield Builders Supply (DBS) in 1994 after earning his master’s degree, the most advanced technology in his work kit was a pager, and DBS was doing between $8 million and $9 million in annual sales. E-mail him today, and you’ll get a response from the third-generation lumberman within minutes, sent from his BlackBerry, the communications tool du jour in any industry. On a recent afternoon, he shot off an e-mail as he returned from a field call for a $1 million window installation generated from DBS Construction Services. While the seven-figure sale was noteworthy in its own right, it accounts for just a fraction of DBS’ overall sales of roughly $30 million today.
Wanzenberg says much of that revenue comes from offshore sales DBS makes through its export division, a business he helped develop while putting his education to work. From Port Everglades, Port of Miami, and Port of Palm Beach, DBS ships lumber and materials to the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Virgin Islands, and Bermuda. In the last two years, DBS has been selling into Central and South America as well and has fielded sales leads as far away as Europe.
That international profile is a far cry from the business his grandfather started in 1947 selling concrete block or even when his uncle took over leadership in the early-1980s, supplying the development boom that built the retirement mecca of Southeast Florida.
“That’s something that’s different today,” Wanzenberg says. “Business can be down in your immediate area, but there’s always someone building somewhere in the world. Our outperformance, particularly this year, is largely due to our export business. I’d be awake at night if we didn’t have that. The only way a business like ours can survive and thrive is if you find and exploit your niche. We don’t sell flashlights, and we’re not going head-to-head with Home Depot.”
To keep track of all those far-flung shipments, the firm uses inventory, tracking, and fulfillment software from Activant Solutions throughout the company and hired a chief technology officer two years ago. It has widescreen video panels and Internet access in its three design centers, so customers can get a feel for products instantly without waiting for a sales catalog to arrive from a manufacturer next week, a challenge that his uncle encountered a generation ago. “You have to harness technology and use it as a sales tool,” Wanzenberg says.
The faces of the 70-plus employees who work at the firm also have changed; DBS employees include individuals with Latino, Jamaican, Haitian, Brazilian, and Vietnamese heritages. Wanzenberg says that diversity is a resource the company can tap as it continues to sell materials offshore.
Yet, for as much as the business has changed, and as different as he is from his grandfather and uncle, Wanzenberg says some things are constant. “You’ve got to use good business ethics and treat your customers, vendors, and employees in a way that builds a lasting business relationship.”
That means making a customer whole immediately, paying vendors promptly, and treating employees as part of the extended family. “We’ve grown, and you’ve got to embrace change or you’re going backwards. As I’m sitting here today, I think we still use a lot of the same, traditional ways of doing business that were in place here 50 years ago,” Wanzenberg says. “If I have anything to say about it, those aspects of the business are never going to change.”
–Joe Bousquin
Building on a Father’s Legacy
- Company: Pacific Building Center, Blaine, Wash.
- Age: 33
- Title: Corporate Secretary
- Tenure with company: 10 years
- 2006 gross sales: $2.7 million
In many ways, Kimberly Akre is much like her father, Bob Christianson, who started working in the lumber business nearly 30 years ago and bought Pacific Building Center, the family’s business in Blaine, Wash., in 1997. Like her father, Akre can’t walk past a piece of trash in the store’s parking lot without picking it up. At 33, the second-generation lumberwoman greets her customers by name, just as her father did when she was growing up.
But there’s one obvious difference: their gender. One increasingly often today sees daughters groomed to take over the family lumberyard, and in Pacific’s case, there are two: Akre and her sister, Stephanie Munden. But it’s important to remember that not so long ago such a transition wasn’t so common. And while Christianson has been able to focus on his customers for most of his career, when Akre comes to work she has to divide her attention between the demands of customers and the demands posed by the two toddler sons she brings to the office regularly.
With the $2.7 million True Value store’s business split equally between pros and DIYers, Akre is constantly challenged to get customers what they want, when they want it. Usually, that’s right now. “We live in a society where you can look up any information you want in a matter of minutes,” Akre says. “In the past, if you didn’t have something in stock, you could order it and tell them it would be here in a week. But now, people come in and they want it now. They want instant gratification.”
As she steps into the leadership role at the company–she says her father, now 61, has been threatening to retire in the next five years–she says she needs to remain vigilant on products and trends to stay ahead of her customers’ expectations. That’s especially challenging with the Internet, where a customer might spend hours reading up on a single paint applicator, while she needs to have a wider knowledge of all types available on the market. “Today, customers’ expectations are different. You’ve got to be cognizant of the fact that everything’s constantly changing.”
To keep up on those changing times, Akre is an active member of the Western Building Materials Association and a past president of the organization’s Young Westerners Club. “I constantly remind myself that I need to keep learning and stay on top of industry trends so I can help our customers,” Akre says. She also encourages participation at industry events among the company’s handful of employees. But maintaining her workforce is becoming daunting in it’s own right; Akre says paying a living wage and attracting employees who share a similar, can-do philosophy is more challenging than ever.
Yet, even as times have changed, Akre also says they’ve stayed the same. Like her dad, Akre knows the key to keeping the company going for the next generation will be how she treats her customers, even as they throw increasingly complex questions at her. “Good service never changes,” she says. “It makes a difference when you know someone by name and stop for a second to ask, ‘Hi, John, how’s your wife?'”
As she works to lead the company going forward, expanding product lines and adopting more technology–although the single-unit company still forgoes voicemail, instead opting to have employees take personal messages–she also feels a pressure unique to a family business: the challenge of maintaining, and growing, what was handed down to her and her sister, so they can hand it down to future generations. “Our family has worked very, very hard to build this company,” Akre says. “I would have a hard time if I felt that I hadn’t done the best job I could to continue our legacy. It’s something that’s in the back of my mind every day.”
–Joe Bousquin
