Want to become an effective leader? Brian Balow ascribes to what he terms the “no ego approach.”
The vice president for production sales and solutions, dealer channel, at Ricoh is loath to take credit for success, because he appreciates the fact that it takes the entire team to reach the loftiest of performance goals. A running back in football may have talent, but it’s the offensive line that creates opportunities to score.
You won’t see this Ricoh veteran doing any touchdown dances. “When you build a team of the best and brightest, and then empower it to do their jobs, it’s amazing what can happen,” said Balow, a 2024 ENX Magazine Difference Maker. “That’s what we have at Ricoh.”
Continuing the football analogy, Balow also recognizes the importance of high engagement at the principal (coach) and field (player) levels. He feels it’s vital to prevent the strategy from to straying away from the intel being received “in the trenches.” It’s a game plan that has served Balow well.
“To me, the best ideas come from the street,” he said. “Once you get away from that, you become institutionalized and out of touch with reality.”
Winning is in Balow’s blood, and he relishes the opportunity to work with dealer owners and private equity leadership to make it a reality. Crafting strategies for success, then watching them come to fruition, is an experience he never tires of enjoying.
“These are some very bright people, and the entrepreneurial spirit is simply energizing,” Balow added.
Spearheading Ricoh’s indirect production business, including strategy and field execution, is another aspect Balow enjoys. He believes the company has amassed an “unmatched” team of production professionals, whose knowledge and skills have enabled Ricoh’s dealer partners to enjoy major takedowns.
RX for Success
The imaging industry crept its way into Balow’s life at just the right time. He was a pre-med major in college with a love for math and science. It didn’t take long for him to realize the world of medicine was not for him (though he attained a bachelor of applied science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later completed Harvard Business School’s leadership development program). Professionally, Balow started out as a sales director for PSINet/BenNevis Inc. before embarking on a seven-year journey with IKON Office Solutions.
During his 14 years with Ricoh, Balow feels blessed to have benefitted from the wisdom of several leaders, including Jim Coriddi, Andre Brazeau and John Hey. While each has left an indelible impression on Balow, he also sees common denominators among them that represent the earmarks of success and growth.
“Some of the common attributes they exhibit are consistently showing up with high energy and positivity, managing by walking around and listening to the team, focusing on building and developing teams, putting the right people in the right seats, and never getting too far away from the field,” Balow noted.
The 2023 campaign continued a successful run for Ricoh’s production print business on both the hardware and software fronts, which has doubled since 2019. Balow attributes credit to the OEM’s production sales and field service teams, not to mention a dealer roster that has demonstrated a commitment to ensuring that growth.
Complete Mastery
As 2024 turns the page to 2025, Balow feels the prime objective is to sustain Ricoh’s business momentum and enable its most committed dealers accelerate the transition to “Premier Production Solutions Provider” status. That goes beyond attaining sales plateaus to thinking creatively via integrated solutions.
“To be the best, you need to be good at equipment sales, software sales and implementation, and the ability to meet customer service level agreements that are production specific,” he said. “My team’s job is to enable all three of these criteria. We have the infrastructure and expertise to execute but the key is being there to help our dealers and letting them know that we are able to provide solutions in numerous ways when they may need it.”
If there’s one thing Balow has learned, it’s that you should never take your foot off the gas. Complacency kills, he notes, and the key for both him and Ricoh is to keep innovating and driving new ideas forward, to the benefit of the OEM’s team and its dealer partners. Much energy has been spent on seeing Ricoh’s dealers become significant players in the production realm.
“With so much to focus on, dealers sometimes let unfamiliar business aspects like marketing lag behind,” he said. “That is something that is in the plan this year and go forward specifically in production print.”
At home, Balow and his wife, Andrea, have been married for 27 years. They have a trio of boys—Sam 25, Max 22 and Jack 18. Sam works in sales at Paychex and Max is gearing up to become an Army Ranger. Jack is bound for St. Thomas College and hopes to parlay that into becoming an entrepreneur, and proud papa observed “I’m thinking Jack and I will buy a dealer someday, you never know.”
The boys played football, lacrosse and ice hockey, with Balow logging 15 years (and still going strong) as a hockey coach, which provided a quality bonding and learning experience. He has no plans to quit coaching, and he also loves to play tennis. Mexico is the family’s favorite vacation destination, with a particular affinity for Nuevo Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas.
