Carol and I were invited to a 35th Anniversary Celebration for Coordinated Business Systems in Burnsville, Minnesota on October 3. This was a stellar event attended by leading executives from many of the vendors who do business with Coordinated, including Kyocera Document Solutions, Inc.; Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America; US Bank; Great America Financial Services Corp., and a host of others. Everyone was warmly treated by Coordinated’s owners Jim Oricchio and his wife Donna.
We were impressed by the large turnout from Kyocera. The contingent from Kyocera was led by Oscar Sanchez, president & CEO; Yukio Ikeda, executive vice president; Tom Walsh, vice president of sales Western Zone; John Rickey, regional sales manager, Midwest; Brent Fickle, area sales manager, and Bob Mlynarski, regional
Above left to right: John Rickey, Frank Cannata, Jim Oricchio, Oscar Sanchez, Coordinated’s VP of Sales Kirk Studebaker, Yukio Ikeda, Bob Mlynkarski, and Brent Fickle gather to celebrate Coordinated’s 35th anniversary.
technical manager. It was truly an impressive showing and we congratulate Kyocera for demonstrating how important dealers like Jim Oricchio are to them.
That was extremely kind of Kyocera and it meant a great deal to the Oricchio’ s and their employees.
Coordinated represents Kyocera, Sharp, and Lexmark and the company’s walls are lined with trophies indicating just how well they represent their vendors. The dealership competes against the strongest dealers in Minnesota and manage to more than hold their own.
Coordinated enjoyed revenues of more than $23 million in 2017 and Jim expects the company will do better than that in 2018. The dealership employs 100 people who are proud to work for two people who care so much for them and treat them like family. Everyone we spoke to was effusive in their praise of the Oricchio’s. It is obvious they all feel it is a great place to work and enjoy being “a part of the family.”
That was easy to see as Carol and I very much enjoyed the Italian Style buffet along with some excellent wines. Serve Italian sausages and peppers and you will always get a smile and a well done from me. We also had the opportunity to sing Happy Birthday to Donna as she celebrated her birthday, which as fate would have it was the same day as Coordinated’s anniversary.
Jim held a brief ceremony in the entryway of Coordinated’s corporate headquarters. He thanked everyone who attended and was gracious to his team about their contribution to the business.
How does a dealer the size of Coordinated compete against industry leading dealers? My observation is by being honest. They represent themselves as exactly who they are in the offerings and they deliver whatever is promised to the customer. Many of those customers were there as well and it was obvious they enjoy more than a business relationship with Coordinated.
The event also included comments from four young women who have been or are currently enjoying scholarships at area universities. Their benefactors are the owners of Coordinated. As one young woman said, “You cannot imagine what the scholarship meant to me. It enabled me to complete my studies and earn a degree without incurring an unsupportable debt.”
Witnessing the gratitude of these young women, it was easy to discern that the Oricchio’ s hard-earned success involves being more than just successful in business, they are caring corporate citizens as well.
Carol and I were truly honored and thrilled to have attended this celebration. Jim was kind in his public remarks about our presence and what it meant to him. But we were the ones honored to be included in such a heart-warming and wonderful event.
We wish the Oricchio’s and all their employees continued success and look forward to attending their next milestone celebration.
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