Frank Gaspari
If you’re looking for a dealer who isn’t concerned about telling it like it is, look no further than Frank Gaspari, Founder & CEO of FlexPrint, Inc. He’s been in the industry for 30 years and has a well-documented reputation as a visionary leader and successful entrepreneur.
Gaspari started his first dealership in 1990 at age 25, sold it to Global Imaging Systems in 1999, and started a MPS company in 2000, which was acquired by Global in 2004. Since 2005 he’s been at the helm of FlexPrint, a services-led dealership based in Mesa, AZ with clients in every state.
Under Gaspari’s leadership, FlexPrint has become the largest privately held managed print provider in the U.S. It’s been recognized with five consecutive Inc.500|5000 awards, eight consecutive “Best Places to Work” awards, and a host of other industry leadership awards that celebrate FlexPrint’s business model and corporate culture.
It’s always a trip to interview Gaspari. He’s always candid and always Frank, salty language and all. I love it! How did you come up with the concept for a services-led business model using information management for a “flexible” approach that’s become the foundation of FlexPrint?
Gaspari: It came from years of experience and what I tell customers when I’m in front of them. Part of our value proposition and differentiator is something very simple. Whatever we say we’re going to do and whatever our proposal says we’re going to deliver, we absolutely deliver that consistently and then some. If every service business in America could say that there’d be a lot less wasted time.
I talk to customers about that all the time. If their vendors did what they said they were going to do, they’d have a lot less problems.
It starts with service. You can have the right intentions, but if you don’t make the consistent investment into the infrastructure to not only take care of what you have today—the people, the bodies, the resources to accommodate growth—you can’t deliver on what you said you would. That’s critical.
Is that any different from the way you learned to sell when you first started in this industry?
Gaspari: I don’t know if it’s different. In order for there to be sustainability you need a business model that’s sustainable and allows you to grow. I’ve been an owner-operator for 26 years in this space. This is my third business and by far it’s my best business because of my planning and focus on whom we want to engage with. It is all about delivering a high SLA throughout the relationship. You learn from experience. It’s a cultural thing. The sales people, the customer service people, they can’t be the only ones passionate about that and preaching that. Everybody throughout the whole organization has to clearly understand this is who we are.
Between selling MPS and selling Managed IT, and selling traditional office technology as well, how did you find people who can take these various components to market and be successful?
Gaspari: You start by being candid and transparent during the interview process. I tell people when I interview them I’m not going to paint a Picasso. I’m going to tell you exactly what the expectations are, what the highs are, and what the challenges are. I don’t care if it’s a young person in their first or second job or if it’s someone north of 60 and experienced; I respect the fact that they’re going to change their career and come to work here. That’s a big thing for them to do.
I let them know they’re making a big move by switching jobs. That’s going to stay with them forever. That being said, I tell them I’m going to be honest with you because once you come here the doors are wide open. There are no excuses. I don’t want to hear, “I didn’t know this.” This is the culture you got yourself into. When we explain how there’s so much opportunity here and how our culture is so alive and intense and fun, people want to work here. It starts with attracting those people and being honest with them. It’s not for everybody.
And that approach works?
Gaspari: You’ve got to be able to ask the right questions and you’ve got to have people with the same DNA. There are some things I can’t teach. I can’t teach character, I can’t teach heart, I can’t teach you how to be passionate. Certain people have it in their DNA.
We have 170 employees today all over the country and I’m the messenger of the company and that message gets relayed to our leaders and the people who are hiring and when they meet me they either want to work in this type of environment or they don’t.
So the person that fits best into a FlexPrint environment is someone who is passionate, competitive and enjoys a challenge?
Gaspari: And people who are really, really committed to reinventing themselves. I talk about that all the time, I don’t care what you accomplished last year or yesterday, it’s all about what you’re doing today. We need people who are committed to reinventing themselves, learning, getting better, and delivering results. We are a 100 percent results-driven company. It’s an intense culture and a grateful culture where we’re grateful for people who do their job. And we show it with incentives. But we are 100 percent results driven. That’s the bottom line. If you don’t have the stomach for that, if you want to talk about what you did before and all that other #$%&, you don’t have a home here; it’s not going to work out.
In our annual kick-off meeting this past Monday I told everyone we had a great year and we were recognized with all these accolades, which should remind us we’re great. That said, let’s shred them because that is the past, it’s over, get over it! You’ve got to do better, you’ve got to move forward, you’ve got to improve starting now.
Looking back to 2005 when you started FlexPrint, is there anything you’d do differently now that you’ve been doing this 10 years and are even smarter than you were back then?
Gaspari: I don’t think so, because when I started FlexPrint in 2005 I was on a high. I had just sold my second company to Global. I had a vision for this space. When I started in 2005, the Managed Print space was embryonic. I was able to do exactly what I told you, I reinvented myself. When you reinvent yourself you get knocked down DAILY, but you get up again, and you learn, and you start over. It’s almost like being a rookie again. I needed to be a rookie again at 40 with the financial resources and experience. I’m okay to say I don’t know, and I’m okay to lose once in awhile because you learn when you lose. After being successful, those are things I learned. I had a lot of failures, but I learned from them and I’m passionate about getting better. I don’t think a lot of people are. As people get older in life and they’re successful, they think they should have all the answers, but they don’t have to.
Today we’re a company that continues to aggressively grow all over the country. We’re growing by double digits every year. We just had the chief editor of Inc. magazine talk to us about how unique our organic growth is. Only 900 privately help companies in history have had that type of organic growth over five years. I wouldn’t change anything brother.
You invest in education, not every dealer does that; as successful as you’ve been why do you still find that important?
Gaspari: I don’t attend a lot of industry events. I look at some of the people that attend all the industry events and I see these companies winning awards for the “best” in managed print etc, and it’s a TOTAL joke because they’re half my size and been around twice as long. We’re heavily committed to continuous education because you can learn something from anybody and any environment you go to. When you ask open ended questions, I don’t care who they are or what they do, there’s always an opportunity to learn. Someone is always doing something different. I want to hear what other people are doing because there’s a chance I’m going to pick up something that’s going to benefit my business. Ninety nine percent of the time I walk out of a group event, I feel grateful for the way I run my business and the awesome people that work for FlexPrint.
The document imaging industry is constantly evolving and new services, solutions, and technologies are part of that evolution, is there anything new on the horizon that intrigues you and may be a good fit for FlexPrint in the not-too-distant future?
Gaspari: My eyes are wide open. We created a great company here. One of the things I look at is what are the threats to us as a business? One is making sure we’re bringing more measurable value to our customers. We’ve always done that. There’s gigantic opportunity for us to gobble up so much more business from the OEMs. The fact is the space is more mature than it was five years ago and there are downsides to that, but the upside is that Corporate America recognizes there’s a lot of value in a managed program and no one can deliver better results on a national basis than FlexPrint. We have to continue to get better and add more value in the managed print piece of our value proposition because we can grow our company in an exponential way by doing that. That’s what I’m laser focused on.
Any mistakes you’ve made that you’ve learned from and been able to turn into a positive over the course of your career?
Gaspari: I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I will make lots more! One is hiring the wrong people. At some point you have to look in the mirror. I’ve had a lot of great hires and a lot of absolutely horrible hires that have cost me significant money. It’s never affected our growth though. We’ve always grown double digits. We’re a 10-year old business and we grew another 20 percent last year. I’ve invested a lot of money in people I shouldn’t have.
Why do you think that is?
Gaspari: I’m an optimist and I believe in people, but some people misrepresent themselves. Over the last 26 years I’ve been fortunate to have many great people work for me to create a great business. When I see someone and they remind me of someone who had the DNA that worked for me before, I take more risks than I should. I am absolutely learning I have to be more selective in my decision making when it comes to people.
What is it that gets you excited to get out of bed in the morning and go to work?
Gaspari: I love what I do. I love the company. I am absolutely blessed to have not only such highly talented people on my team, but people with integrity, intense, results-driven, good people. I turned 50 this year and I’ve owned FlexPrint longer than I’ve owned my first company that I sold to Global, and I believe we can triple the size of the business. I’m excited about the reputation we have earned across the nation in this space. When we compete in an enterprise opportunity with the OEMs, they know they’re in for a battle and they know there’s a good chance they’re going to lose.
I’m excited because we have great customers that value us, great employees and we can continue to grow and expand in an ultra aggressive way as long as we never forget where we came from, what it took to get here, and what our core values are.
And those are?
Gaspari: Our people and our passion, and our business model of taking care of the customer.
When you’re not working what do you do for fun?
Gaspari: My wife and I are empty nesters now, which is pretty cool. I’m fortunate; I have the best wife possible and great kids. I enjoy exercising, I love my home, and I enjoy drinking beautiful red wine.
How does the rest of the year look for FlexPrint?
Gaspari: For a company that never talks about revenue and sales reps that have NO revenue budget, FlexPrint will generate $50 million this year. We hired a CFO and we have a solid business plan for the year. Last year we signed double the net new CPP business than we’ve ever had. I know we will exceed our budget this year. I’m excited about it.
I have to ask this, you spent all these years in Chicago, how did you end up a Phoenix Suns fan when you had Jordan and the Bulls?
Gaspari: We have the FlexPrint club at the US Airways Center [where the Suns play]; it holds about 800 people and anybody who sits on the floor has access to it. It’s a great way for us to have branding in the marketplace. The Phoenix Suns are playing the Bulls on Friday, but I’ll be cheering for the Bulls. The Suns are a fun team and I’m a big sponsor, but my heart is in Chicago—I’m a Blackhawks, Bears, and Cubs fan.
Are you optimistic about the Cubs in 2015?
Gaspari: In honor of St. Ernie Banks they’re going to win the World Series this year.
