SUCCESS IN ACTION
CHIEF TALK
CEOS SHARE KEY LESSONS THEY’VE LEARNED INTERVIEW BY LEE LUSARDI CONNOR
First, Listen and Learn
DOLLAMUR SPORTS SURFACES: A GAME PLAN FOR GROWTH
A SPECIALTY MAT MAKER BUILDS ITS MARKETING AND TECHNOLOGY MUSCLES.
In the first 90 days as a leader at a new company, you need to learn as much as you can about four components: people, processes, technology, and infrastructure. Dollamur already had strong brand equity and name recognition in 30 countries, largely because of our support of premiere competitive events around the world. We also had great people in place. However, most of the team members I inherited were “home-grown”—meaning they had a tremendous amount of knowledge about the company, but not the breadth of experience at other companies and exposure to best practices that would take us to the next level. The challenge was to build a management team with the right blend of skills, experiences, and industry knowledge. We especially needed to build our marketing and information technology areas.
Improve Technology to Support Growth We hired a gentleman with extensive experience to support three initiatives: improving our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, improving our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and supporting online sales. We weren’t fully utilizing our existing ERP system. An ERP works best when it’s fully integrated, and you turn it on and all the key modules work together—sales, accounting, manufacturing, and so on. The ERP has to become the heartbeat of everything you do. We are also implementing the technology required to support our direct sales to consumers. Now the consumer can go to Amazon.com or eBay to buy a smaller version of our wrestling mat for use at home. We are also talking to several leading sporting goods retailers to sell our products on their sites.
D
ollamur Sports Surfaces, maker of specialty mats for wrestling, gymnastics, yoga, martial arts, cheerleading, and more, is a mid-size company with outsize ambitions. “Our strategy is to dominate in every single sports segment we compete in,” says CEO Don Ochsenreiter, who was brought in last year by owner Frist Capital. His mandate: to double the company’s sales to at least $50 million in five years. Ochsenreiter, former CEO of Burton Golf, says the company is well on the way to meeting that goal. Here, he shares his approach to leadership:
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The Dollamur name, front and center at a martial arts tournament
Fall 2015
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