Letter on the Third — March 2019
Dear Datamax Family,
If you don’t have a goal or a plan, you’re like a cork on water. You drift with wherever the waves take you, rather than where you need to go.
We’ve just completed our annual Kick-Off Meetings in both Coppell and Arkansas, something we intend to do in East Texas as well in the future. I came away from these meetings very excited and optimistic with the Datamax direction in 2019.
For the past 30+ years, we’ve held an annual meeting like this with the intent of sharing with all employees where we’ve been over the last year, and where we're headed as an organization. Sometimes I think the tendency is to get trapped in our own tunnel, and not necessarily know what everyone else around us is doing. I thought all presenters did a fantastic job sharing statistics and summaries on individual departments, and bringing to light areas where we are doing very well, and others where we need to improve.
By making plans – which is not easy to do, it’s tough to put it all down – it takes us directly where we need to go.
As many of you know, our own Louis Massanelli in Hot Springs will be retiring next month. I first met Louis at a Canon conference more than 30 years ago. Over the years, we got to be good friends and from, time to time, we’d talk about future business plans. In 1995, I met with him and Carolyn about ways that by joining Datamax, we could help take his group to the next level.
As I often say, it is always about culture. The culture and integrity Louis, then the owner of the Business Center in Hot Springs, had was very prevalent from the beginning. He always sold value to the customer and value to the employees, and that’s how we knew that an acquisition like this would work. He’s an extremely loyal individual, and I think that’s why he’s stayed with us for 24 years after he joined Datamax. You don’t see that very often.
I have the highest respect for both Louis and Carolyn, and I wish him the best of luck and the best of health in his retirement. We will always be there for him.
Speaking of Louis, when he opened The Business Center in the 70s, he was selling predominantly typewriters and calculators. At Datamax, we were selling mimeographs and off-set machines. That led to word processors, electronic typewriters and fax machines. Most of that has gone away.
My point? Our industry is constantly changing. We need to stay nimble in our approach to providing solutions to clients “beyond the box,” and remain equally cognizant of what our differentiators really are. If a customer asks, we should be able to answer. We better know our story.
I would urge all of you to never be that cork on water. Have a plan. Review it. Understand where you’re at, and where you need to go. The Best Is Yet to Be.
Your Raving Fan,
