If you’re in need of a snap decision, then John Hey probably isn’t your man. But he definitely should be.
John Hey
Partner and Founder
Strategic Business Associates
He has enjoyed a long and colorful journey through the office technology world. From a 10-year stint with his father, Don, at the D.C. Hey Co. dealership in Minneapolis (and his later ownership of it) through its acquisition by Alco Office Products in the late 1980s, which later joined the IKON juggernaut, Hey has witnessed the many highs and lows accompanied by the prolific M&A era. He guided the dealership from a comparatively modest $12 million business to a $170 million operation that included 1,200 employees. Hey played a pivotal role in more than a dozen deals.
Perhaps most interesting of all, Hey spent 12 years with the company after its initial acquisition by Alco, an almost unheard of tenure for an executive who has sold his business.
So what has this 2017 ENX Magazine Difference Maker taken away from nearly 40 years in the industry? It is important to have patience…lots and lots of patience.
“I’m very much a planner and thinker before acting,” Hey said. “I was never a ready, fire, aim kind of guy, I made decisions after much planning. Sometimes it frustrated some of my managers, but I always found that taking time to evaluate and thinking about the implications of what you’re doing pays more benefits than diving into something and figuring it out later.”
These days, Hey makes use of his encyclopedic bank of industry knowledge as a founder and partner with Strategic Business Associates, where he counsels entrepreneurs on leadership and management best practices to guide a path to growth and profitability. Hey uses management processes and benchmarking tools to help managers deliver on profitable growth strategies.
Hey lives by the mantra of having a clear vision of where you want to go and he counsels clients to forge a clear mission that enables their companies and team members to focus on attaining the desired outcome. He gained inspiration from his father, Don, whose principles of honesty, integrity and customer service left a big impression on him at an early age.
One of the many takeaways Hey gleaned from his years with D.C. Hey/Alco/IKON was the importance of surrounding one’s self with quality people. “Having a good team and high capacity people on my team was critical to my success,” he said. “Competent leaders in sales, finance and operations allowed us to grow at that pace and be able to integrate all those acquisitions. You really have to provide training and development to those people because in many cases, we were all in jobs for the first time. Training and development got to be a critical part of building skills and knowledge to handle the pace of change we were embracing.”
Maintaining open lines of communication also proved valuable for Hey, especially as the dealership continued to swell in size. Hey continuously sought and engaged in feedback with the front lines of the organization, keeping them informed of the company’s progress. He maintained an open door policy and encouraged the ranks to speak their minds.
“When you’re growing at 15-20 percent a year and have a lot of acquisitions with many moving parts, it’s easy to become out of touch,” Hey noted.
As a consultant, Hey also encourages clients to share as much information as possible, including financials. He shared quarterly results for 10 years at D.C. Hey, calling these mandatory meetings Fun with Numbers (“when the numbers weren’t good, it wasn’t so much fun,” he mused). What it accomplished, however, was ensuring that everyone was on the same page.
Hey and his wife, Sandy, have two children and two new grandchildren. Sandy is a former theater owner and now a consultant. He has a passion for golf, noting “I play as much as my schedule and my wife will allow.” The Heys love to travel and find Italy one of the best-rounded countries in terms of boasting great history, weather, art and food. They’re also making a trip to Israel this fall.
