Letter on the Third — October 2025
Dear Datamax Family,
Bringing up the State of Missouri and the City of Saint Louis, for me, brings with it a flood of great memories. Going up into the Gateway Arch for the first time. Attending Cardinals games and canoe trips along the river. And trust me, there’s nothing like an Italian dinner on The Hill.
My time in Saint Louis in the early 1980s, at a time when A.B. Dick Products was transitioning to the name Datamax, was an exciting time in our business and a formidable one for me professionally. Not unlike today, it was a time of dramatic change as our industry was shifting from offset and spirit duplicators into early iterations of the photocopiers we use today.
It's funny, though. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Allow me to circle back to my time in Saint Louis, and explain a few things I championed then that I still do today.
Championing Collaboration.
Dick Callier was a huge collaborator and a great friend in those days. We were on the supplies side of the business, and Dick and I would meet after hours often and talk about the things we were doing, how we could improve sales processes. We’d go out and make calls ourselves, just to determine what worked and what didn’t. Collaboration challenged us both, and it made our teams better.
Success came from working together, not just in sales, but alongside our service teams. Whether it was figuring out how to position a Canon typewriter as the future of word processing, or selling the first duplexing machine (even if it only ran ten copies before needing service), it was always a joint effort.
Championing Camaraderie.
In those days, everything was about people. We didn’t have databases; we worked off of “schook” cards. We set up call times, kept track of prospects, and learned by doing. Our mornings started at 7 a.m. with role plays, taking apart machines, and figuring out how to sell everything from coupon books (which represented a certain quantity of duplicator or mimeograph paper) to mimeographs themselves. Some of those lessons came with a lot of ink on our hands — or even on our shirts — but they taught us resilience and creativity.
After hours in the office, camaraderie was just as strong, with post-workday Ping Pong tournaments. It only made our team tighter.
Championing Culture.
What those years taught me most is that culture trumps everything. I saw what good culture can look like, and I learned that when a team is built on trust, mutual respect, and a shared sense of purpose, people will do anything for one another.
Looking back on those early days, the best lessons often come from everyday work experiences, and it’s clear that camaraderie, collaboration, and culture are just as relevant now as they were 40 years ago — proving that some things truly do come full circle.
The Best is Yet to Be.
Your Raving Fan,
