Teething on Technology
Bryan Hutchison
- Company: Hutchison Lumber, Pine, Colo.
- Age: 27
- Title: President
- Tenure with company: 4 years
- 2006 gross sales: $8.5 million
For Bryan Hutchison, who was born a year before Ronald Reagan was elected president, technology has always been a part of his life. His father, Robert, who bought the store that became Hutchison Lumber in 1978, gave him his first computer at age 7 and encouraged him to use it. But while Bryan speaks with pride about his father’s progressive attitude toward technology early on, he says the different eras in which the two men came of age produced fundamentally different approaches to the business.
“My dad grew up on a farm, so I think for him it’s always been sink or swim, and figuring things out as you went,” says Bryan, who assumed the title of president at $8.5 million Hutchison in 2006 (Robert is still CEO). “He’s extroverted, with the classic, outgoing personality of a good salesman. I’m more introverted, more analytical than that.”
That analytical nature has helped him evaluate which technologies are right at the firm, such as Hutchison’s current POS system, which is powered by software from Spruce Computer Systems. “We’ve always been very eye-to-eye in that respect,” Bryan says. “He lets me go out there and do most of the due diligence on programs or technology we might need, and then report back to him. He understands there’s a capital expenditure to make, but that it will help our systems work more efficiently.”
The character trait also has led to a more process-oriented way of running the business, whether developing systematic training programs that are strictly in line with OSHA requirements or interviewing each job candidate a minimum of three times before making a hire. “The workforce has changed, and as we’ve grown, we need our different locations to know who we’re bringing in. We want to make sure we know who they are from the start,” Bryan says.
Bryan also grew up in an era where choice was the norm, a contrast to the post?World War II world in which his father, now 68, matured professionally. It’s a difference that Bryan says helps him cope with current issues in the industry today, such as ballooning SKU counts and consolidation. “Choice is everything today. You go into a coffee place and you have to make three decisions to order one cup of coffee. In my father’s day, you walked up to the counter and poured it yourself.” Bryan says that sea change means marketing to his contractor-customers to let them know about Hutchison’s wide range of products, while helping them choose the specific materials and tools right for them.
After earning a business administration degree from the University of Northern Colorado, Bryan took a job at Stock Building Supply, now owned by British-based Wolseley, and went through the firm’s management training program. He says that experience gave him an appreciation of where the lumber industry fits into the broader, global economy today. While taking a position at another lumber firm may have been viewed in the past as disloyal to the family business, today getting experience outside the fold is viewed as smart. And for Bryan, it resulted in a world view of the industry that’s more global in nature than had he only worked in his father’s shop. “As my dad built the business, he saw several consolidations–and breakups–in the industry. But it was never to the extent of major backers such as Wolseley and Fidelity starting to see value in the home building industry. That’s just totally different today.”
Hutchison Lumber is a member of the Do it Best buying co-op, and Bryan keeps close tabs on where the industry is heading so Hutchison can stay ahead. “The key for independents today is to lock up and join forces,” Bryan says. “For my dad, even though he always attended conferences and networked within the industry, at that time you were much more of an island to yourself.” Today, Bryan stays plugged in to what his colleagues and competitors are doing as treasurer for the Mountain States Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association. “It’s all about networking, and making contacts, to make sure you know where things are headed,” Bryan says.
Regardless of the technology-influenced, systematic approach he brings to the business, Bryan says there are other skills, more germane to his father’s generation, that he’s had to learn to carry the business forward today. “You’ve got to respect what came in the past,” Bryan says. “I might be more process-oriented, but this is still a people business. And that’s what Dad’s always been good at: getting to know people. When I came in, I had to learn that everyone has a story. Knowing what that story is, and knowing your customers and employees by name, is critical.”
–Joe Bousquin
An Army of More
Chris Yenrick
- Company: Smith Phillips Building Supply, Winston-Salem, N.C.
- Age: 36
- Title: COO
- Tenure with company: 8 years
- 2006 gross sales: $25 million
When Mickey Boles, 65, started running Winston-Salem, N.C.?based Smith Phillips Building Supply in 1978, every aspect of the business crossed his desk. But now, as his son-in-law, Chris Yenrick, 36, prepares to take over the firm, the face of the company has changed. With 79 employees and three yards, no one person can realistically stay on top of all of the $25 million pro dealer’s different initiatives. For that reason, Yenrick, who holds a B.S. in small business management from the University of Alabama and draws upon 11 years of experience in the military, has implemented a much more top-down, chain-of-command mentality at the firm.
“When Mickey came into the business, we were a single-yard operation, and he wore all of the hats,” Yenrick says. “Now, it seems like it’s a lot harder for one person to be proficient in every area.” That means having an executive in charge of information technology, to run and maintain Smith Phillips’ Activant Falcon POS, and another to watch over its installed sales division. The ownership structure has changed, too; Yenrick is one of six owner-executives at the company.
In order to make sure the different parts function smoothly, Yenrick is shepherding the dealer toward a more formalized structure. “We’re finding it necessary to have more systems in place, because it’s hard to get consistency across a large number of employees when you have three different people training them. It’s definitely more of a corporate-type model, but we’re still trying to maintain that family atmosphere.”
The scope of the business also has changed. Where Boles’ original sales team was equipped with legal pads and pickup trucks, today Smith Phillips’ outside salespeople roam with mobile broadband?enabled laptops. The devices, which run on Sprint Aircards, allow salespeople to connect to the firm’s Falcon system through a virtual private network and retrieve inventory and order data. “The speed with which information can flow from the field back to the store has increased tremendously,” Yenrick says.
That increased speed, though, also has increased expectations among Smith Phillips’ customers. “When builders had to come in to select materials, they had to plan out their day a lot more. Now, you don’t see as much planning on their part. They know they can call up with a push of their Nextel phone and say, ‘I need 20 more 2x4s on that truck you just sent out.’ And they want it right then, not tomorrow.”
In that area, though, Yenrick sees Smith Phillips’ size as an advantage, even as consolidation continues to gobble up more independent dealers in his area. “By being smaller, we can go to market faster,” Yenrick says. “And given the fact that building practices vary so widely among different geographic areas, we can tailor our services to those individual markets and building codes. Those large corporations, with their broader footprints, seem less able to do that.”
With his command structure firmly in place and core group of executives at the top, though, Yenrick is ready to do battle for his generation at Smith Phillips, and is anything but an army of one. In that sense, he knows that while he’s ultimately accountable for the company’s future, he doesn’t have to be the one to do it all.
“I feel like I have a lot of people I can lean on to help me make those decisions, and that we all work very closely as a team,” Yenrick says. “I don’t feel like I am out there alone.”
–Joe Bousquin
