president and CEO of MOM
Like many office dealer executives, Kevin McCarthy stakes a claim to having the best technical service team in the business. But where the president and CEO of Cincinnati-based Modern Office Methods (MOM) parts from his industry colleagues is his ability to demonstrate it in convincing fashion. Thus, instead of doing busy work during the height of the pandemic, MOM’s technical service team took its already elevated skill level to even greater heights, bolstered by the efforts of the dealer’s in-house service trainer. The company posted some of (if not the) nation’s top test scores for elite-level service, administered by manufacturers Ricoh and Canon.
If the tech service break room had a refrigerator, these performances would certainly merit a prominent spot on the door. MOM’s techs copped the top score on both sections of Ricoh’s Prestige Service certification tests, and three others tied for the third-best score. In all, eight MOM techs cracked the top 10, and their average score of 93.1 was significantly higher than the national average of 68.
“Everyone says they have great service, but ours is backed by manufacturer testing,” McCarthy noted. “We follow up every service call with a client survey with a return rate of 23%. Our client loyalty manager follows up any score of less than seven (on a 10 scale) with a call to see what we need to do to improve our performance. A few years ago, I challenged our team to reach a Net Promoter Score of 95, so we still have a little way to go.”
The 2021 campaign has been a resurgent one for MOM. The pandemic impacted business by 12%, but in using the first eight-plus months as an indicator, the dealership is on track to register sales in the range of $56 million. Founded in 1957 by McCarthy’s father, Robert, the dealer offers a variety of MFP hardware from Ricoh, Canon and HP, in addition to managed print services and managed IT, production print and document management. With a crew of 200-plus employees spread across nine Ohio facilities and satellite offices, MOM serves the needs of health care, education, government, legal, manufacturing and non-profit verticals, among others.
Critical Decision
McCarthy, who joined the firm in 1983, is fiercely proud of the MOM team, particularly its performance and flexibility during the uncertain early days of the pandemic. Knowing that living paycheck to paycheck is a fact of life for many people, he chose not to implement layoffs or furloughs. McCarthy wanted to take care of the people who looked after MOM’s clients; verticals such as health care, manufacturing and government that were designated essential operations. The dealer even held a mask-burning party, which was symbolic of MOM enduring the worst of the pandemic from an operational standpoint.
As the pandemic continues to smolder in many ways, McCarthy knows many of his clients—particularly in health care—are still grappling with staffing issues, and he’s watching how the vaccine mandate for Cincinnati hospital employees plays out. Still, the dealer has performed particularly well in this regard. MOM is 15 months removed from procuring the largest contract in company history, which includes management of devices for one of the nation’s largest Catholic health care networks. The education space is still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels; McCarthy notes one of his sales reps, who boasts a strong education-based client list, has witnessed a one-third reduction in clicks.
The dealer’s strong performance in 2021 comes with an added footnote that roughly $5 million worth of hardware orders remain backlogged due to supply chain issues. Fortunately, toner and parts are not nearly as difficult to procure as hardware, and McCarthy cited the litany of factors that can place a drag on hardware orders—the global chip shortage, shipping and ground transportation, and all of the challenges each of those segment faces (truck drivers are also being taxed with vaccine mandates, with the pushback being that their occupation is one of isolation).
McCarthy notes the backlog situation has been growing for months, without an immediate resolution pending. “If we could get all of that backlog delivered, we’ll have one heck of a finish to 2021,” he said. “But we’re at the mercy of lots of factors affecting the supply chain. Otherwise, we’d have a lot of installations to do.”
Super-Sized
Production print is another area in which MOM continues to excel, led by the company’s 360° Production Team. The department is loaded with industry experts boasting more than 100 years of cumulative production experience, from an EFI Fiery-certified expert to nine Fiery-certified individuals within MOM’s installation, service and help desk units. MOM has an individual with G7 Expert Certification through Idealliance, a mark of excellence for color management, process and quality control.
A majority of MOM’s production clients are print service providers, CRDs and in-plant print shops—customers well-versed in the art and science of printing. “There are clients who know more about what’s needed than most people, because they’re so familiar with their workflow and applications,” McCarthy said. “Production print is definitely client-application driven, and we need to hone in on what they need to do and ensure our solutions fit into their workflow. It can sometimes be challenging and beyond the typical sales rep’s knowledge base, so we’re fortunate to have a team of experts that can speak the language and have that technical proficiency.”
An interesting subset of production print that MOM has been promoting in its blogs is wide-format printing. It speaks to a comprehensive range of customer opportunities in retail, manufacturing, food/hospitality, marketing—the vertical list is nearly as limitless as the applications. While McCarthy notes the offering has yet to deliver on its potential, sales have slowly progressed in recent months.
“It’s a crazy market,” he said. “As manufacturers come out with bigger equipment, you can wrap vehicles, create billboards…wrap a building if you’re ambitious enough.”
One of the more challenging aspects of doing business during the pandemic era has been expanding managed services, particularly MPS. With the reduction in print volumes, some clients have chosen to not renew their contracts. But with a multitude of MFP clients, the opportunity for significant growth still exists, and MOM is in the process of launching a program to help expand its MPS business. On the managed IT side, MOM’s wealth of IT services has triggered a strong growth trend, backed by the acquisition of a managed network provider, Full Service Networking, five years ago.
McCarthy believes the catalyst for future growth lies in face-to-face interactions, which will become more commonplace as clients feel increasingly comfortable with visitors in the post-pandemic era. Virtual meetings have been a necessary evil, but he believes it’s more difficult to pick up on client body language and other subtleties that can provide cues to sales reps. Also, visiting a client’s office enables a rep to better understand how solutions can fit into available workspaces.
M&A Potential
Looking ahead to 2022, McCarthy isn’t seeking to make many substantial changes, instead focusing on an organizational restructuring to help address the dealer’s future needs and direction. He’s also reinstating and reconfiguring the company’s profit sharing plan, which found itself lost amid the shuffle of other priorities.
A third initiative is embarking on acquisition opportunities in earnest, as McCarthy is interested in expanding MOM’s geographic footprint. While M&A talk tends to make existing employees nervous, past deals have netted the dealer talented individuals who have grown into upper-level roles. Thus, a concerted acquisition strategy will be complementary to the overall growth aspirations.
McCarthy’s certainly ready for a full return to normalcy, when MOM employees can enjoy a party, be treated to a Kings Island outing, a cool evening at a Cincinnati Reds baseball game or a Fun Friday. Everything may not be perfect all the time, but the bonds he’s forged with employees—during good times and bad—makes it all worthwhile for MOM’s chief executive.
“I love the interaction with our people,” he said. “It’s important to keep a positive workforce and make sure that we all leave happy and feel fulfilled at the end of the day. To me, that’s what it is all about.”
The Family Business: Father Works Magic on Son
When it comes to being the son or daughter of a business owner, there are generally two schools of thought. There’s the heir apparent model, in which joining the family business is a fait accompli upon graduating high school or college. The parent sometimes requires the child to go out in the business world for a short apprenticeship before joining the fold. But it invariably leads to a passing of the torch.
The second model is one in which the offspring has little to no interest in entering the family business. They decide to strike out on their own and carve a unique path. Perhaps their passions lie elsewhere, or for some, family and work are not a palatable combination.
Looking back, the answer was quite simple for Kevin McCarthy. He didn’t want to be the son of the boss, and all the negative connotations it embodies. But his father, Robert, had other ideas.
The elder McCarthy wanted his boy to join the firm after graduating from Miami (Ohio) University. Kevin instead opted to move to Seattle and become a sales rep in a different industry. But every time Robert called Kevin, he asked the inevitable question: when are you coming home?
Eventually, Robert McCarthy got the answer he wanted. Nearly 40 years later, Kevin McCarthy couldn’t fathom taking a different path.
