Indoff May 2020 Corporate Newsletter

MAY 2020

From humble beginnings to the present - a quick 50 years.

INSIDE CORPORATE NEWSLETTER "WHERE SOLUTIONS TAKE SHAPE"

The Indoff Wall of Fame

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 1

CONTENTS

TABLE OF

WHERE SOLUTIONS TAKE SHAPE PRESIDENT’S PROSE

3

HUMAN RESOURCES

5

WELCOME NEW PARTNERS

7

TECHIE TALK

8

RECRUITING AT INDOFF

10

OPERATIONS AT INDOFF

11

PARTNERS OF THE MONTH

12

FINANCE & ACCOUNTING

13

ANNIVERSARIES

14

MARKETING UPDATES

15

Indoff 2 | INDOFF INCORPORATED

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PRESIDENT'S PROSE

e’re kicking off our 50 th year in business by using this month’s newsletter to highlight people or events that resonate with the writ-

er. As a 32-year veteran with Indoff, I’ve accumulated too many such memories to do any of them justice, so I’m going to write about what makes Indoff special in my opinion.

I started with the Company in March 1988, and my initial interaction was primarily with John Temple. Over the next couple of years, I gradually worked more and more with John Ross as he transitioned from other businesses to working with Indoff. Everything that makes Indoff special

JIM MALKUS President & CEO

originates with those two gentlemen. Astute businessmen with a compassion for people make for a powerful business culture.

As we launched the Partner Program in 1991 and grew over the years, a real culture of family grew up. This is constantly evidenced – the welcome to Indoff greetings every time a Partner starts, the standing ovation for the corporate staff at our sales meetings, the appreciation luncheon for our corporate staff, the words of kindness, compassion and support for Partners or their family members going through health or personal struggles.

This is not the norm in corporate America, but our people have made it the norm here.

Our Partners support one another; our corporate staff appreciates and strives to help our Partners. Any conceivable question, application or issue that a customer has will draw five or ten or more ideas back from Partners once the question is asked on a list server – remarkable. We’re not perfect – we have the occasional squabble. Just like any real family, we work through it and head back down our path stronger than before.

Our current “normal” kind of sucks (sorry for the language, Mom). One of the things that gives me hope and cheers me up is the great group of people that I get to work with every day – I thank you all for that opportunity. Stay safe, stay well and thank you all for all you do for Indoff! I do look forward to celebrating our 50 th birthday with everyone next year!

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 3

A Manufacturer of Material Handling & Industrial Equipment * Storage Cabinets * Lockers * Shop Desks

* Carts & Tables * Trucks * Workbenches

* Drum Handling * Shelving * Racks

MODIFICATION * CUSTOM DESIGN

1440 East 36th Street * Cleveland, OH 44114 * 216.881.4604 * 800.336.4986 * fax 216.881.6731

4 | INDOFF INCORPORATED

www.PucelEnterprises.com

H

HUMAN RESOURCES

appy Spring, everyone! I hope you are enjoying warmer weather and the sun shining! As we begin our 50th year in busi-

ness, I am proud to say that I have been here for 32 of those 50 - I started with Indoff when I was just a “baby�! As many of you have heard before, I was hired to type quotes for the sales team in our office. Jim was brand new, so he asked me if I could type but he forgot to ask if I could spell!

ROBIN MIGDAL

Indoff VP of I have seen a lot of changes and the most Human Resources important change was the Partner Program. In the beginning (1991), I took care of starting the Partners - getting them fax machines, ordering printing, phone lines and calling cards. In 1992, we held our first National Sales Meeting in the conference room for twelve Partners; now, our meetings have 200 Partners and as many vendors. I have met a lot of Partners over the years and enjoy bringing everyone together at our sales meetings.

I have truly enjoyed my time here and working for John Temple, John Ross and Jim Malkus. It has been a humbling experience and I have learned so much from their mentoring. Indoff is a family and I have experienced this for the past 32 years! I want to thank John, John and Jim for the opportunity to work here; I am grateful for all the memories we have shared.

"I look forward to our 50th Anniversary Gala in 2021 and reminiscing and creating new memories.

Please stay well and keep safe and I hope to see you all at the next sales meeting." - Robin

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 5

MOVE 40 SERIES Our new Move 40 Series is in stock and ready for same-day shipping.

Move 40 is our most affordable line of height adjustable standing desks with an easy-to-use up/down control and five of our most popular finishes.

Industry-leading services: • Fully stocked products • Free space planning • Delivery in 3-5 business days for most locations • FREE freight!

• Nationwide Installation

Get in touch with me to learn more about special programs BBF offers exclusively for Indoff

EdVezina@bushindustries.com or 1.800.727.2874 Ext. 3579

INDOFF, INCORPORATED HOLIDAY SCHEDULE 2020 Friday

July 3

July 4th Holiday

Monday

September 7

Labor Day

Thursday

November 26

Thanksgiving

Friday

November 27

Thanksgiving

Thursday

December 24 – 12:00 p.m.

Christmas Eve

Friday

December 25

Christmas Day

Friday

January 1, 2021

New Years

6 | INDOFF INCORPORATED

RON

JAMIE

WYCOFF

REGAN

WATSON

MH

CI

CI

GARY

RICK

BLACKWELL

FORGES

BP

ES

WELCOME

TIM

WELCOME TO OUR NEW PAR TNERS INDOFF INCORPORATED | 7

A

TECHIE TALK

s Indoff celebrates 50 years in business, I’d like to reflect about my journey over the last 22 years at Indoff. In March 1999, Jim Malkus and Rick Beards-

ley hired me to work the night shift (editor’s note: what was Jim thinking to have Shawn work the night shift???) to monitor the overnight processes we had to run in our old accounting system, SBT. Nothing broke (permanently), and so my Indoff career was launched.

My journey to my current position at Indoff has always had 2 underlying themes - freedom and family. Jim, John and John have always given Colin and I the freedom to pursue the best possible solutions for our Sales

SHAWN FAULKINGHAM Chief Information Officer

Partners. Using your input and challenges of previous applications, we created Confluence in 2004. It was web based, allowing Sales Partners to use whatever device they felt best suited their business. In May of 2007, we switched from Microsoft Exchange using the indoff1.com domain to GSuite (formerly Google Apps for your Domain), which brought us front and center in terms of mobility, allowing Sales Partners to conduct business wherever they wanted and on the device of their choice - long before BYOD was an acronym!

COLIN FAULKINGHAM As for family during my journey, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many

Chief Technology Officer

of you, whether it was for support, general tech/geek questions or working on Confluence to make it better. But the real pleasure for me has been meeting and hanging out with many of you at National Sales Meetings! Seeing faces, having some drinks, enjoying some lively conversations and camaraderie means a lot to me and inspires me strive to do my best for Indoff. The Indoff Family can be seen not only at NSM’s, but in our daily interactions with each other. It makes us stronger as a group and successful as a Company! I truly look forward to many years ahead, striving to do my best and supporting the Indoff family!

Thanks for all you do!

Shawn, Colin and Tabitha 8 | INDOFF INCORPORATED

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 9

I

RECRUITING AT INDOFF

ndoff has been operating for half a century - 50 years is a long time! I started with Indoff 20 years ago and back then I thought we were on

the cutting edge - boy was I wrong! Thinking back on Recruiting memories, I have one that makes me laugh every time I think about it. To this day I cannot believe how far we have come!

Let me explain recruiting in 2000. To find businesses to recruit from, we used the “Yellow Pages”. Do any Partners remember mailing the Recruiting Department their local telephone book?

ANGELA SUNTRUP VP of Recruiting

These were a hot commodity back in the day! We had shelves and shelves of phone books stored around the office. If we did not have a Partner in a certain area code, guess where we had to go? The St. Louis Library!

Collecting data by area code was a daunting task! Picture this…the Recruiting department would squeeze in one compact car (usually Jay Temple’s) and head to the St. Louis library. Because telephone books were considered reference books (who knew?), they could not be checked out. Recruiters entered the reference section with a list of area codes to collect info on competitors in our industries.

Next, we pulled out our nickels and photocopied the pages we needed. This took hours because as BP Partners know there was always a copier issue. Finally, we headed back to the office where we made copies of the copies to pass out to the Recruiting staff.

My how things have changed! Welcome to 2020 where we use search engines, Sales Genie and social media platforms like LinkedIn to access every salesperson and business imaginable at the touch of a button. No more long trips to the library, no more calling and begging Partners to ship us their phone books and no more making copies! Who would have thought that in year 2000 you could get good money for phone books?

It is amazing how much the business world has changed since 2000. I am grateful for all the Indoff memories and how far we have come. As I write this article today, I know we are on the cutting edge…… but ask me that in another 20 years when I am talking about old internet search engines and social media platforms……

10 | INDOFF INCORPORATED

A

OPERATIONS AT INDOFF

s we kick off our celebration of Indoff’s 50th Anniversary, I couldn’t be more excited. Indoff is a great place to work,

but more than that, it is a family.

I celebrated 20 years with Indoff in April, and many of you posted well wishes on the discussion boards. I am fortunate to have strong relationships with many of our Partners, and I think you all know that I care about you as people as well as Indoff Partners.

PAM HAKE For many years I have joked about having a box of hats

VP of Operations

under my desk, to be changed as needed. I get involved in just about anything Partner related, including:

I get the privilege of filling all of

• Large Order Reviews

these roles, and I enjoy the amazing

• Job Problem Discussions and Follow Up

opportunity to work with the Best

• Counselor/Confidante/Sounding Board/Cheerleader

Sales Force ever assembled anywhere.

• Discussion Board Monitor - this is why Tripp dubbed me

We have more total experience in our

“Tiger Pam”, one of several nicknames that sticks with

industries than I can fathom. This makes

me still.

it possible for Indoff to serve all of our

• Principal – this can go with the monitor duty, but it also

customers better and fulfill just about

covers when one of our few rules or policies is not being

any needs that a commercial customer

followed or understood.

might have.

• Account issue mediator- though rare, I strive to be fair and follow the letter and intent of our account

Let me know what I can assist you with,

protection policy.

and as always, thanks for all you do for

• I also work the Low Producer reports - it is my job to

Indoff everyday - I can’t wait to gather

reach out to Partners who may be struggling and discuss

next April for the 50 Years of Indoff

their status and future. This is not always fun, but it is

Celebration.

necessary. I also speak with Partners who are doing well and are transitioning to W-2 status - much more fun.

• Some of you may even remember BatPam, my alter ego in the “Life and Times of a Sales Order” – now that’s going back a ways…

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 11

INDOFF SALES PAR TNERS OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY THROUGH APRIL C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S T O O U R T O P PA R T N E R S F R O M E A C H D I V I S I O N

FEBRUARY 2020

MARCH 2020

APRIL 2020 JOE VANDER

MATERIAL

CARLOS CALLES

KEN HEBERT

HANDLING

$739,891

$492,098

COMMERCIAL

GEORGINE GOLITKO DAVE MORROW

KEVIN FLYNN

INTERIORS

$423,915

$380,271

$372,901

BUSINESS

JOHN ERICKSON

DARRELL REED

DEANNA LIES

PRODUCTS

$233,638

$300,368

$93,593

PROMOTIONAL JOHN HOLLERN

JOHN HOLLERN

JOHN HOLLERN

PRODUCTS

$160,909

$252,236

$88,053

ENERGY

JOHN VASQUEZ

JUANITA TACKETT

ERIC GARNER

SOLUTIONS

$92,193

$19,343

$6,080

CHRIS

CHRIS

CHRIS

KOENEMAN

KOENEMAN

KOENEMAN

$369,046

$265,050

$232,125

ALLIED APPLIANCES

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ZANDEN $201,535

W

FINANCE & ACCOUNTING

ow, it’s hard to believe that I’ll be starting my 25th (consecutive) year with Indoff in the same year that

Indoff is celebrating its 50th year. Two big milestones indeed!

What has changed over the last 25 years? Almost everything.

We’ve transformed from a small, three division distribution company where orders were faxed in from standalone templates and keyed into our accounting software for order processing and bill-

JULIE FRANK

ing. Some departments we have now didn’t even exist back then.

Executive VP & CFO

Jim was our IT department (scary, I know) and Marketing wasn’t much of a thought before e-mail, the internet and social media made it so easy to connect with the world. Once Colin created Confluence as the Partner’s gateway to JD Edwards, we no longer needed a Data Processing group to rekey all of your orders. In short, technology and process improvements have helped us become a large and efficient distributor of just about anything our Partners can sell.

What hasn’t changed? The great people we work with. From our owners John Ross and John Temple, our fearless leader Jim Malkus, to all the Corporate staff and our Sales Partners, the people who have stayed around over the years are like family. We support each other in good times and in bad. We encourage each other, answer questions, offer advice, applaud successes, and share heartfelt condolences when needed.

As we get closer to our 50th anniversary milestone, I’m looking forward to what will be one of our best National Sales Meetings ever (and I’ve been to many over the years). We will share stories, have a lot of laughs, toast to good times, enjoy tasty meals and appetizers, learn from each other and celebrate all that Indoff has become over its 50 years. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it!

Until then, I hope you all stay safe and healthy and enjoy your summer! We are here to support you in any way we can!

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 13

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO AT INDOFF

10 Y E A R S

20 YEARS

FRANK

SUE

CHRIS

DAN

DEBBIE

HORNER

DARLING

HAMMON

BARTH

WICKLIFFE

JULIE

LUCY

JIM

TAMORA

COOK

QUINTANILLA

DIXON

PAM

STEVENS

HAKE

COURTNEY

STEPHANIE

BRAZELL

TURNER

14 | INDOFF INCORPORATED

CORPORATE NEWSLETTER

MARKETING UPDATES On the 20 th of April, I called John and said; “Dad, let’s have lunch and celebrate the beginning of Indoff’s 50 th year in business. John replied “Yea, yea, let’s do that.” But like many things during these crazy times, we didn’t, but the thought was there. Still it did give me a chance to go back and review the past three years that I have worked at Indoff. While I still feel like the new guy, the truth is Indoff has been a part of my life from childhood to present day.

When I was a boy, John would take me to the office on Saturday mornings and I would climb the racks in the warehouse while he did something called “paperwork”. I’d eventually get bored, come into the office and rifle through the secretary’s drawer. As far as I know, she never complained on Monday about the missing gum.

I eventually earned my keep and started working with the company in 1981. My duties consisted of working in the warehouse doing odd jobs. It was here I had the fortunate opportunity to work for a kind, older gentleman name Belvin. On Fridays, I had to mow the “lawn”, if it could be called that. The building was in a new office park and the lawn was more rock than grass. There were more than a few interesting stories with me and the lawn mower. Once after I had finished, I noticed that I had a slit in my tennis shoe but not in my tube sock. While I developed a new routine and avoided any potential trips to the hospital, I couldn’t escape the rocks flying out and bruising my ankles. I’m not sure why I didn’t go buy some work boots. It may have had something to do with my $3.25/hour paycheck. To this day I believe that Belvin put up with my mistakes in the warehouse because he appreciated the fact that I mowed the lawn without complaining about it.

Indoff, which back then was a combination of Storage Systems, Inc and Office Industrial Wholesale, each had their own warehouses. How they survived with a 15-year kid, who weighed all of 100 lbs., driving a manual forklift is a miracle in itself. Occasionally one of the suits, a salesperson with a coat and tie, would come out to the warehouse and talk to Belvin. Most were pleasant but sometimes even the most level-headed people would become, in a word, unkind. Regardless of the situation, Belvin was always polite, honest, and respectful. After one tense encounter I asked Belvin “Why are some of the guys jerks about it? It’s not your fault the shipment didn’t come in today.” He replied, “They’re upset because their customer is upset, that’s all.”

Belvin never said a bad word about anyone. If I had to describe him in one-word it would be decent. I believe that embodies all that Belvin was; modest, respectful, fair, and kind. And he was the same to everyone he worked with. He was a wonderful first boss. I strive to be more like Belvin. As I think about the future of Indoff, I hope we gravitate toward hiring and promoting more Belvins.

Jeff Ross

INDOFF INCORPORATED | 15

16 | INDOFF INCORPORATED