Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/414972
38 FEDA News & Views 38 FEDA News & Views is our culinary class with our chef. The goal is to teach them how to cook for themselves post dorm life. That one was very popular last year. Then, to provide even more of an insight into how the com- pany works, each intern presents (to the rest of the interns) what they did and what their department does at the end of the internship. N&V: You guys are really thinking long term and have taken a very strategic approach to the recruitment process. Groff: Yes, we want them to have a great experience here, but we look at the internship as an opportunity for them to learn about fulltime careers at Clark. For us, it's really an extended job interview. We try and recruit as many of our interns as possible. Jameel Burkett, President Burkett Restaurant Equipment When it comes to technology, Jameel Burkett and his father, Mike, have different ideas on how to go to market. Long story short, when he suggested setting up shop on eBay to grab more market share in the early 2000s, Mike was receptive but hesitant. After all, Burkett Restaurant Supply was already known as a reputable supplier of used equipment in the Toledo market and profits were good. Hopping online was a huge risk—not to mention a drain. "It took a lot of investment in the beginning," admits Burkett. Then he hits the playback button. "I still remember a comment my dad made back then," he says. "'You know,' he told me, 'we used to make more money before you started with us.'" Outside of being incredibly honest (and just as vocal about the wealth of respect he has for his dad), Burkett's response is indicative of how far the Toledo-based distributor has come. "If you want to be a million-dollar company," he told his dad, "you have to act like it." "That's how small we were at the time," says Burkett. "And I get that we were doing well, but my response was it will come." Be careful what you wish for doesn't really apply to the series of events that followed. Be prepared when it happens— or have the infrastructure in place—is more appropriate. It's also a great lesson in willing your company to the next level— by being willing to change. "When I first started with the company, we were very localized," says Burkett. "Toledo is close to Detroit, so we feel the same recession and the same pains. It's too small to pay attention to but there are enough opportunities that you can't forget about it. There was only so much that we could do in Toledo. There's only so much product that you can move and vendors typically follow people that have volume, so you're limited as a smaller, local company. "We were primarily known as a used supplier but as we started to use technology and go online, our market expanded. We went from having 300,000 people to 300 million people to market to. Our reach was astronomical." This year sales are expected to reach $23 million and the same risk-reward mentality, in terms of investing in tech- nology, continues to serve Burkett Restaurant Supply well. "Technology is not going to be a driving force behind top- line growth," says Burkett. "Technology is made specifically to improve user experience and drive your bottom line. That's my perspective on that." Below he shares his perspective on a number of other things, the versatility of ecommerce, how E&S can up its effi- ciency game, and what dealers should be ready to embrace in the future. N&V: Jameel, I'd like to start by asking you about a few comments you made in 2013, when you were named the Top Achiever-Dealer. You stated that often times when you hire someone outside of our industry, they bring fresh ideas concerning technology that we don't necessarily have in our industry. Can you elaborate? Burkett: One of the biggest things that I'd like to see is an industry standard for dealer-manufacturer communications. As you know, Brad Pierce was the first to address this and it's one of his major initiatives as FEDA president. So much time and energy goes into re-formatting the data that our manufactur- ers provide us. It really affects our efficiency and our ability to serve our customers. Take AutoQuotes, for example. All key vendors use it as a tool to provide dealers with access to their catalogs. The challenge we see is that AutoQuotes does not control the data. The vendor controls the data, in that example, so there could be 10 different categories for a two- door refrigerator. Using technology to streamline that communication would allow for just one category called "two-door refrigerator" that all vendors could drop their categories in. Then, if vendors have a request for another category, they can work with AutoQuotes to either find a category that fits them or AutoQuotes can cre- ate the category on the app. So this isn't really new technology, it is using technology to better serve the industry and better serve the dealer community that is becoming more reliant on digital catalogs. continued on page 46 Gustafson, Groff & Burkett continued