A spirit of cooperation and a mutual vision across generations positions the dealership for greatness.
Above: Matthew, Matt, and Mitchell Mawby
According to Mitchell Mawby, sales manager for Professional Business Systems (PBS) in Bentonville, Arkansas, the time has arrived for his family’s dealership to transform from a successful business into a great one. It’s a lofty vision, one that 30-year-old Mitchell, who has already logged 10 years in the family business, shares with his father Matt and his brother Matthew, who has been with the company for seven years. Yet, it is a goal they believe is achievable because the dealership’s strategy since its inception has been to provide elite products and services, and equally elite service that sets the bar exceptionally high in its market and differentiates PBS from its competitors.
Family Ties
PBS was founded in 1986 by Marvin Gray, Mitchell’s grandfather. Gray had been working in the copier industry when Konica approached him about starting a dealership in Northwest Arkansas. PBS opened its doors in September of 1986 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and in November, Matt joined the company. Matt was successful from the beginning, embarking on a thriving career alongside his father-in-law until 1996 when Marvin retired. By 1996, Marvin and Matt were partners in the business. Today, Matt, Mitchell, and Matthew are actively working through a succession plan to become a true ‘family’ business. As for Matt, a transition to retirement isn’t expected anytime soon. “He is having too much fun,” said Mitchell. “He’s seeing what’s happening and watching it play out from a visionary position.” What’s happening is that the dealership is growing and embarking on new initiatives that will position it as an even stronger player in the market.
Matt addresses employees during the company’s third quarter organizational recap meeting.
Mitchell joined PBS during his junior year at the University of Arkansas. While in school, he also gained valuable insights about commercial lending while working for a local lending partner. “I was studying the back end of our business and how we leverage financial resources from a lending partner,” recalled Mitchell. Ten years ago, when Chris Meyer, who was leading PBS’s sales organization, was preparing to retire, he felt his successor should be a Mawby and offered the position to Mitchell who embraced the opportunity. However, Mitchell was adamant about avoiding any perception of nepotism. He told Meyer he didn’t want business cards or to be introduced by his last name. He wanted to establish credibility and trust while gaining perspective on the business and its customers. He learned fast, and along the way, gained a deeper appreciation for the business that his grandfather and father built. “I didn’t fall in love with the business. I fell in love with the relationships, and I fell in love with the opportunity that we had in the market and in the community,” said Mitchell.
Shortly after joining PBS, Mitchell and his father agreed that Matt’s role would evolve from sales into a more visionary role to transform PBS into a great business. “We wanted to get him out of client-facing responsibilities within five to seven years, which we successfully did,” said Mitchell. Guiding this transition is the EOS model. The EOS model focuses on the “Six Key Components” of any business that must be managed and strengthened to be a great business. Those include vision, data, process, traction, people, and issues. “That was something we were intentional about as we started to execute this transition,” explained Mitchell. “That’s been a tremendous success.”
Above and below: Matthew, Mitchell and Matt updated employees on the EOS initiative, share PBS’ year-to-date performance,
and map out plans for the fourth quarter during the organizational recap meeting.
When Mitchell says “success,” he’s talking about placing the right people in the right positions and putting the proper processes in place. The dealership even hired an integrator to assist the PBS leadership team in implementing the EOS process.
Current Events
As with most dealers, PBS has been challenged by backorders. Its technology partners include Konica Minolta, Kyocera, and HP. Mitchell is anxiously awaiting new products from various manufacturers, but he’s realistic. “We’re hopeful we’ll continue seeing improvement as far as lead time turnarounds and supply chain constraints,” he added.
PBS’ well-stocked warehouse
PBS’s client portfolio consists of businesses that vary from SMB to enterprise, across all verticals. “We have a lot of organizations that have roots in Northwest Arkansas, but span across state lines and some nationally across the country,” explained Mitchell. “From a direct serviceability standpoint, we can go two hours east, two hours south, two hours west, and two hours north. If relationships take us beyond those thresholds, we’ll partner with dealers in other markets that possess the same desire to deliver upon superior customer service in support of our customers.”
Branding is important to PBS and its service vehicles send the message that the dealership puts the “Pro” in professional.
PBS is on a mission to grow. The dealership has been doing that organically but is also actively pursuing other local independents about potential acquisitions. “Do we get fired up about going into the larger metros like Little Rock, Tulsa, or Oklahoma City?” observed Mitchell. “We don’t, because we still think there’s a lot of business in Northwest Arkansas, especially when you start diversifying your products and services offerings. With that said, if the right opportunity presented itself, we would certainly consider it if it meant enhancing our ability to serve our customers.”
The Managed IT Opportunity
A key diversification opportunity is managed IT. The pandemic and subsequent decline of traditional office print have accelerated PBS’s interest in the space. If all goes according to plan, this business will launch in January 2023.
However, this isn’t the first time PBS has ventured into IT. Its first foray into managed IT was seven years ago. Even though it did a tremendous job, rapid growth burdened the dealership’s internal resources, leading to some jobs being handled by outside contractors. Because of this previous experience, PBS is now more intentional about how it goes to market and is working with a reputable, industry consultant to ensure the dealership is better prepared for success in the future.
Keeping Pace with Growth
Whether IT or imaging, Mitchell said PBS can’t hire people fast enough to keep pace with the dealership’s growth. “We have several operational seats that we’re recruiting for,” he said. “We’re leveraging Facebook, LinkedIn, and Indeed.” Because applications aren’t rolling in as fast as management would like, PBS has partnered with a local staffing service for assistance in filling those vacant roles. This is how PBS must roll to keep pace with changing times and new challenges.
“Before COVID, we could manage this business the way we had for 35 years,” said Mitchell. “We didn’t have supply chain constraints, and we had 90 to 120 days to prepare for large conversions. We don’t have that now.” Meanwhile, PBS’s sales reps continue to sell despite supply chain challenges, creating a huge backlog. “Now that things are starting to free up, we have several large deployments that we must deploy with limited resources because they’re needed within the same timeframe,” acknowledged Mitchell.
A Bright Future
Despite the challenges, the Mawbys emphasize that it’s the dealership’s job to manage expectations and leverage new opportunities. “We are very optimistic about what’s to come,” said Mitchell. He credits their optimism to a tenured sales team that is growing relationships with existing clients as well as pursuing new clients for future partnerships. “When we get to the table, we’ve been successful. We’re not going to bat 1,000%—we realize that—but we have refined our focus around those client opportunities that value partnerships and not just products.”
Solutions Engineers Alex Livingston (above) and Tanner Cowan (below) ensure that PBS’s service is second to
none.
The bar is set high but still dependent on uncertainties around the supply chain. “By the second half of 2022, I’d love to see lead times improve,” said Mitchell. “I’d love to create some consistency from an operational side of our business, knowing the personnel and the resources that we need to accommodate the demand. Right now, it’s a little bit of a crapshoot because you don’t know what to expect week to week.”
None of that, however, has caused PBS’s leadership team to alter its growth projections or its mission to set itself apart in the markets it serves by providing elite products, services, and service. “We’re making great strides in the right direction,” noted Mitchell. “EOS has given us the visibility of what our three, five, 10-year plan needs to be.”
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