August 20, 2025 • 30 mins
Doug Riley is the President and CEO of Thos. Somerville Co., a leading plumbing and HVAC wholesale distributor in the Mid-Atlantic region. His career with the company spans nearly four decades, beginning in 1985 as a summer warehouse associate in Fairfax, Virginia, and rising steadily through the ranks—from inside and outside sales to branch and regional management—before assuming the role of CEO in 2015. Doug earned a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from George Mason University, where he also competed as a collegiate track athlete. He later completed his MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland in 2012. Throughout his tenure at Somerville, Doug has been recognized for his leadership and performance, including being named Salesman of the Year in 1988 and guiding multiple branches and regions to annual honors such as Branch of the Year and Region of the Year. Outside of Thos. Somerville, Doug has remained active in leadership and education. He served on the TW Perry Advisory Board from 2015 to 2020 and currently sits on the board of St. Anne’s School. He also taught graduate-level Negotiations as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland from 2014 to 2015. A certified group fitness instructor, Doug has coached track and field at both high school and middle school levels and completed seven Tough Mudder races across the country between 2012 and 2013. Originally from Newburgh, New York, and born in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Doug now resides in Gambrills, Maryland. He is married to children’s book author Cyana Riley and is a proud father and grandfather to a blended family that includes four children and three grandchildren.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank Prison CEOs. You should know how
word by I heard me.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Let's meet Doug Riley. He is the president and CEO
for Thomas Summerville Company. Established in eighteen sixty one. This
seventh generation family owned company is a regional wholesale distributor
specializing in plumbing, heating, and air conditioning supplies and solutions.
Doug is coming up on his fortieth anniversary with the company,
and before he talks more about his incredible team and
what they offer their clients, I first asked him to
(00:27):
talk a little bit about himself, where he's from and
his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So I was actually born in the suburbs of Philly
in the Upper Darby, Pennsylvania area. Never lived there, really,
just born almost in transition as the parents were moving
into a new location in Newburgh, New York, which is
about sixty minutes north of New York City. Actually came
down as I graduated high school. My parents had again
had moved and over to Rhode Island. So when I
(00:51):
left to come to school down in Maryland, originally I
had no place to go back home at no place
that I was familiar with, so I stayed down in
this area came down to go to University of Maryland.
When I went to the orientation right before school started,
I thought it was too impersonal, and my brother was
over George Mason.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Playing volleyball, said hey, come check the school out over here.
You might like it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I went over and checked it out and it
was more personable at least that gave that feel than
Maryland at the time, and I transferred without ever taking
a class and started George Mason back in nineteen eighty two,
jumped on the track team. Through connections of the athletic
department that my brother had got an opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Run track for a year.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
And it was only a year because as the year
was ending, my grades were also plummeting, so putting myself
through school running track at the same time, it was
not enough hours in the day for me to get
my studies right. And since there was no money getting
paid to me as it was today for athletes, I
was smart to drop track and concentrate on my studies
(01:57):
since that's where I was going to have to make
my living. Graduated on time. Funny aspect of that is
I was the third of three sons, third one to
go to college first one to get out of college.
My brothers would still be in college if they could
be today.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
They enjoyed themselves. What did you want to do coming
out of school?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
So as I came out of school, I was living
in Fairfax actually between my junior and senior years. While
living in Fairfax, needed a summer job, and a former
roommate of mine was working at Summer Belt at the time, said.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Hey, go to the Fairfax branch. They always need help.
Walk in there to hide me, sit right away.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Start the next day, put away a bunch of stock
in the back of their warehouse to get them caught
up because they couldn't even drive forklifts up and down
the aisles. They were so far behind from being short employees.
Once I got caught up in the back, they said, hey,
why don't you help us out at the counter. Not
knowing anything about what they did, I thought they were
kind of crazy for letting me work the counter, but
they said, hey, that's.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
A bunch now. Back then, unfortunately, were still writing hand tickets.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It was right before the computers got put in place,
so that also made it easier because I knew what
they were talking about.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I didn't know what it did most of the time,
but I.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Knew the items just from seeing them, familiarity with the
boxes and what the label said on them. So I'd
write down what they wanted to go get it. Sometimes
they'd come back with me and help them pick out
what they needed. Learned a little bit, not a lot,
a little bit about what they did, what the products
were used for. Went back to school, came time to graduate,
didn't have the perfect job lined up yet, and the
(03:31):
manager of Rockville at the time called me up and said, hey,
I heard you did a great job in Fairfax. We
need help over here. You want to come to work
in Rockville. I said, no, Eddie, I don't think so.
I'm looking for something different. Went back to, you know,
finishing up at school. Got a call two weeks later
from the regional manager, same pitch. Heard you did a
great job. We'd love to talk to you about the opportunity.
(03:53):
Why don't you meet me for lunch. As a graduating
senior with no money in my pocket, free lunch was
a great opportunity for me now to get to get
a nice hot meal. So I met him for lunch
and he was not good at presenting the office so
much so that after the lunch was over, I had
a full belly, but I was less interested in the job.
So again, a couple more weeks past, I still don't
(04:15):
have the perfect job. Interviewed with quite a few places,
but didn't have the perfect job lined up, at least
in my eyes.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
The manager of Fairfax at.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
The time, Rod sends a ball, calls me and says, hey,
why don't we sit down and talk about the opportunity again.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'll buy you lunch.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We sat down. He cut right to the chase. He goes, Hey,
I know why you don't want to do this. I go, hey,
why is that? Rod?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
He goes, it's plumbing and heating.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
If we have parties with your friends and go ask
you what you do for a living, you'll be embarrassed
to tell him. I said, that's pretty accurate. I'm looking
for something a little more glamorous, a little more sexy,
and he goes, listen.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I went to GW for my master's.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I went to Duke my undergrad I'm in this business
number one because it's.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Products people will always need. Think about that.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
It's a family owned company that's been around since eighteen
sixty one. Anywhere, and I need more people on the street,
and I'm going to give you a great opportunity to
earn as much as you want.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Unlimited income, was the commissioner. See, now that's a good pitch.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
He did a great job pitching it, which is why
I said, you know what, Rod, I'm going to give
it a shop. You did a great job of convincing
me that I should give it a trop. He goes,
I'm going to tell you nine months from now, I'm
putting you.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
On the road.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
You're going to get your own sales territory. I said, okay.
At that point, I didn't know how much I needed
to learn. Right, So nine months comes around, he says, hey,
you ready. I go, Ready for what I forgot? He goes,
You're going on the road.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I go, no, no, no, no, not yet. I'm going
to make a fool of myself.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And I know I'm smart enough to know I got
one chance of making a good impression, and I'm going
to make some bad onoks.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
He goes, you tell me when you're ready.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
A couple more months past, I felt like I had
learned enough to at least talk to talk, and at
the same time, another guy who had a very good
sales territory had left, so it was a perfect timing
for me to slide into a developed territory. At the
same time, he was going to give me some customers
that hadn't been buying from us no to see if
I maybe.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Change your opinions. So I did well. I got lucky.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I had some good help on the inside and people
liked me. I also had good connections in the warehouse,
which is nice because when you need an order picked
after hours of lunch, or you need a link delivery
maid or a second delivery maid, and the guys like you, they're.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
More willing to do it for you.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So I was smart how to play the game, and
I was successful as a salesperson. And in the process
of that, while I was being a successful salesperson, my boss,
the guy who hired me, got promoted so as a
twenty one or twenty two year.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Old kid, and I thought, well, I could do his job.
So I threw my hat in the ring.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
They were like, no, you can't. Sorry, sorry, son. At
age twenty two, we have twenty one locations and this
is the second largest. We can't just slotch you in there.
You're not the guy yet.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Maybe down the.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Road, but we're going to hire the guy from York
to come to Fairfax. If you want to take York,
you can have York. It's a smaller branch.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You can learn, you get a little more acclimated.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So I took it, took its site unseen, went to
work up in York, Pennsylvania. Saw that there was opportunity,
saw that they weren't servicing our customers very well. Needed
to change some attitudes, and really worked my philosophy to
the people that had been in Some of those people
had been there for twenty plus years. Actually, that branch
had the longest tenured employee ever in the company. A
(07:15):
guy made it sixty two years, wow, which is amazing,
just amazing, quit working full time, came back part time.
After he'd stopped working part time, came back and worked
when we have counter days. He flipped the burgers on
the grill. The guy was with us for like seventy
years in total. It was amazing. So I grew the
business in New York, Pennsylvania. At the same time, I
(07:37):
didn't think the guy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was doing his
job very well. So I got a little cocky and
told my boss at the time, I could do both
better than he could do the one.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Sure enough, he gave.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Me that shot, which was a little nervous, nerve wracking
because again, I'm still fairly new to this industry, and
I'm around people that had been in there for twenty
and thirty years, and they're thinking, this kid who still
went behind the ears, who is he to be our boss?
And I was younger than probably ninety five percent of them.
But I get to Lancaster and now I find out.
(08:09):
I thought it was a great opportunity. York tremendous opportunity,
and language was a growing marketplace. We were like, if
there were seven wholesalers, we were number set. We were
probably everybody's seventh choice, which meant if everybody else didn't
have what they were looking for in their location, they
have the inventory, they'd come to us and potentially buy
from us. We hardly got any business, and part of
that was again our service philosophy. Our philosophy at the
(08:31):
time was lived at Pennsylvania gets deliveries on Wednesdays, Columbia,
Pensylvania gets deliveries on Mondays. All these different areas had
these deliveries on a set day, I said, hey, have
you guys ever thought about the fact that if you're
only asking for business one out of five days, you're
really asking for the.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Max of twenty percent of their business.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And that's if we're really good at what we do
twenty percent to max, why don't we go.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
After one hundred percent. Oh we can't do that, Oh
yeah we can. We don't have the resources. Go get
the business.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We'll figure out the resources, which has always been my philosophy.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So we changed.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
We printed up t shirts that on the back said
Thomas Summerville every day everywhere, and that was our mantra forever.
We just kept hammering home, if you need it tomorrow,
give it to us today. By five o'clock, it'll be
there tomorrow. Doesn't matter where you are, We'll get it
there every day everywhere. And that spread and that got
the employees excited because they started to see these opportunities.
They started to see the business going up. They started
(09:23):
to see that there were days when we had more
deliveries than would get fit in our trucks, and that
although was a problem, it's also an opportunity. So I
would just continue to solve those problems for them to
say that's okay, we'll run a truck. We don't have
a driver, that's all right, this guy can drive. We'll
take him off the counter, and the insights salespeople will
cover the counter. Everybody covers for each other, and we're
going to grow this thing together. We're going And we
also had fun. As the orders would stack up at
(09:45):
the end of the day, I would just say, all right,
see you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'd get out there with everybody and we'd have fun
pulling the orders. We'd see who could do it fast.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
We just we'd put away water heater trucks and say, okay,
last time we did a water truck, took us eighteen
minutes to put it away.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I think we can do it today. Sixteen. Let's get
it done. Come on, wife, goat.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
And we would just have fun growing the business, and
everybody really enjoyed it. And along the way I also
found people and brought people. I brought a guy from
Mason who I knew forever. I brought really good people
into the business because I also learned from my mentor,
who is Michael McInnerny, who's a family member at Sumrville,
that if you bring good people and smarter people than
(10:23):
you into the business.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
They make you look a lot smarter. Yeah. So I
continually did that.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Everywhere I could go, I would find whoever and even
if we weren't hiring, we were hiring.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
If you're good, you've got to spot with us.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, I don't know what that spot is yet, but
we're bringing in and we'll figure it out. Well.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You know a lot of the things that you're talking about, Doug,
that I want to talk about a little bit later
about leadership. You've talked about team, You've talked about culture, timing, ambition,
and also passion, and those are all the makings of
a leader, which you are right now as president and CEO,
and with all that going into your fortieth which is incredible.
(11:01):
So I do want to do this because I know
there's so many people that are associated and know about
the company because it's been around for so long one
hundred and sixty four plus years. But with that said,
can you tell us about mission and vision and what
are they for the company?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Our mission is very simple, So our vision it's very simple.
We just want to be the leading plumbing, heating and
air conditioning content wholesaler in the markets. We serve and
then markets we serve in the mid Atlantic in case
those people that maybe don't know that they see the
green trucks out there with the big s on it,
don't know what we do.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
We do. You're right, there are some people that don't
know what we do.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
There's people that think we sell furniture, that we're the
Summer Goo Furniture Company. There's folks that think we're contractors
when we're wholesalers. But yeah, it's really simple and our
business model simple. We buy boxes, basically build with different things.
We sell those boxes to wholesalers or to contractors. We
(11:55):
provide services related to that, whether that be quotations, whether
that be knowledge your expertise on what certain things are
used for and help folks, and we provide credit terms
and then at the end of the day, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We get paid for all of the services. All right, well,
let's do this. Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And I know you're kind of alluding to it right now,
but if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view to tell people about what you offer and what
you do, what would that be.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
We offer pretty much anything related to plumbing, heating, and
air conditioning that goes inside your house or a commercial building,
and we are, we hope we are servicing you, delivering
to you, providing information for you better and with more
trust and a better relationship than other people do. The
(12:47):
way I've said it in the past is any experience
that you've had service related, whether that be at a
restaurant and a store, wherever you go, and you're dealing
with people that are providing a service, we want it
to be memorable, memorable rate, not memorable horrible, because if
it's horrible, you'll never want to repeat it again. If
it's great, you want to repeat it over and over
and over again. Because when we're dealing with our customers,
(13:08):
I don't want their order for today. I want their
business for our lifetime. And in fact, we've had that.
We have customers that are in second and third generations
of dealing with Summer Built, because we're actually in our
seventh generation. So that's the key. Just like I want
employees to think of this as a career and not
a job, I want our salespeople to think in terms
(13:29):
of let's get their business and not their orders.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Now, when it comes to commercial and or residential customers,
you work with both or just one we do.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
We are definitely tilted much more on the residential side,
and that's even changed even more so in the last
five years.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I mentioned earlier that you know, we hire people when
we find people. Unfortunately, as an industry, we're in an
aging industry and more people are starting to retire than
they're coming in behind. That's part of the fact that
it's not a real sexy business. Where As an entire industry,
we're trying to bring more people into this business and
show them it's a great opportunity for them to have
(14:08):
a career here. But we are just like most other wholesalers.
We have a lot of people retiring. We've fed people
here twenty thirty, forty fifty years, but as they retire,
a lot of things have to take place.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
We have to replace them, but we also have to
replace their knowledge because.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
As they come off the books and they go into retirement,
most of them, with those long careers have a ton
of built in knowledge and expertise that they have to
somehow transfer that wisdom and that wealth of information to
the next generation that's coming in.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know, you work with a lot of products and
you can go over maybe some of the star ones
that you work with regularly that people really want. But
with that said, I imagine when it comes to customer service,
which I realize is very important to you, and also communication,
which we'll talk about when we chat about leadership, but
the supplies that you offer and what you do, it's
(14:57):
a very personal thing to people because when you talk
talk about being in their home or they're a small
place of business, it's important that it works correctly, it
looks cool, it works, but also there's a great customer service.
And I know, once again that's some of you pride,
But can you kind of expound on that a little
bit because I think when it comes to what you
do out there, it's such a personal thing for people.
(15:17):
The communication and the follow through and the product of
course all has to be stellar and a plus. But
talk a little bit more about that because I think
you know, not only being seventh generation family, it's about
the customer service, longevity of the business that really says
about who you guys are.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Can you talk about that.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, We've always as a company prided ourselves on being
aligned and affiliated with the top brand. So we have
Coal and we have Moan, we have Delta, we have
Aosmith water heaters, we have Renei water heaters, Tactus what eaters,
we have LG products.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
We have Allied on the HVAC side of it. Any
brand that has a great name.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And reputation behind it is who we also stand behind.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
And in some cases.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
We'll do over and above to make sure that the customer,
the end customer, is happy with the product that they've received.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Again, just like our contract, we want them to have
a great experience. We also want their customers to have
a great experience.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Because if our customers don't get the business from them,
then the whole channel doesn't work right right, So we're
standing behind them just as much as the manufacturer is.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
You know, Doug, one of the things being a leader
that there's always fires to put out every day, and
there's a lot of curve balls. And you've had two
big ones in the last five years. You had COVID
and the pandemic. And I've talked to a lot of
businesses where they actually thrive during that. I want to
hear how you had to pivot the company if at
all with your leadership. And then also the tariffs are
going on right now, it's in the news every day,
(16:46):
and you work with a lot of products. So can
you talk about both about the pandemic and what you
did in any pivoting for the company and your staff
and your customers, and then a little bit about what
we're experiencing today in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, I'll take you back a little bit beyond before that.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, before two years before all of that happened, we
did a software change, and as you know, not all
software transfers or changes and companies go well, right, Well,
we had we had a hitup. We waited, we waited
for a next generation of the software that we were
going to to come out because they told us we'd
had more bells and whistles. Unfortunately, you had more bells
(17:22):
and whistles, but it hadn't been vetted as well as
the previous versions. So we were we were the guinea pig.
You never wanted to.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Be the first on a software conversion. We learned that lesson.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
We learned that unfortunately, uh, to our detriment. It took
us to our knees. We really struggled to do transactions,
which had a hangover effect into the next year.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
UH.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
And then we had a ransomware attack. We had everything
that could possibly go wrong, and then COVID hit. Although
COVID was, as you mentioned, for some companies, a blessing,
for us, it was it was a reset. You gave
us a chance to set ourselves and say, Okay, there's
all this going on.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
We were in an essential business, so we didn't close,
but it did give us a breath to say, what
do we do really well? And let's do that really
really well and some of these other things that we're
struggling at because we don't have enough people because COVID
is now underway and all these other things, with our
software conversion going sideways, what can we shed that we're
(18:21):
also not representing ourselves well with anyway. So we started
to peel off some business parts that weren't we weren't
the best at, and we concentrated more in the residential
We concentrated more on the repair of modeling customer, we
concentrated more on the HVAC contractor, and did those things well.
And now as we're finding more employees, we can start
stretching ourselves back out and be more of who we
(18:43):
were before. But we had to get all of the
other things right first, and COVID did give us that chance.
Was a short shorter period than I think many people anticipated,
especially because we were in essential business. But we had
about a two month time period where we could kind
of catch our breath for a second and get our
ship right.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
All right, what about twenty twenty five terriffs? Are they
affecting you at all?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I mean, of course, whenever we have to go out
to the marketplace with price increases that are being forced
upon us, it stops everybody.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Everyone pauses, and.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Even the folks that truly cherish all the things that
we do for them service wise, it gets them to
maybe take a look and make sure that the pricing
is good.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
But we're kind of the guy caught in the middle. Yeah. Yeah,
the price.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Is put upon us, and we don't do anything to
change that price. We're passing along what's taking place. If
the guy's going up five percent, then unfortunately to the contractor,
it's a five percent increase from us. I can't eat
it along the way. Or you know, our profitability model
works when we pass along those price increases. If we
start to absorb those, then our whole model falls apart.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Understood, Well, let's talk a little bit more about that,
and without making any assumptions, I imagine it is a
competitive lefe escape for what you and your team do.
With that said, when you sell yourself, either somebody comes
to you or you're pitching yourself to somebody, how you
do differentiate yourself from that said competition.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
The biggest thing that works for us is we meet
the customer at their point in need. So it comes
from questions you get when a salesperson meeting with the
customer or a manager and myself whoever, you need to
find out what their pain points are, right, where's their
biggest problem? Is it getting product to the job site
at a timely fashion?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Is it back orders? Is it support on knowledge on
the on the inside? Is whatever the pain points are?
Wherever they need more help, Wherever we can make them
be more profitable.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Maybe it's a business.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Segment they haven't paid attention to it we see has
worked effectively for other contractors in other areas. Any of
those spots where we can make them or help them
be a better business, that's what we concentrate on.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
And it's not one size fits all.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Obviously, every contractor is a little bit different and their
their weaker points or their pain points may be different
than somebody else's. So that's why we got to meet
them at their point of need and then solve that problem,
and not just one time, but every time. Like I
tell our employees all the time, we don't want just
the customer's orders, we want their business. Business is long term.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, that's well said, Doug. I want to talk about
philanthropic and charity work. And I know it's very important
to you the company, and it's near and dear to
your heart. And I know you do several things and
when you have time to be a part of that,
whether it's through the business or personally, what do you
like to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
So the biggest thing that we focused on on the
last couple of years, and we ran our inaugural event
last years. It's called Contractors Against Cancer. And the reason
why we named it that is because we wanted to
give all the credit to the contractors out there, because
they drive our business.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Without them, we have no business.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
And what it is is it's modeled after an event
called Monday after the Masters that was started in South
Carolina years ago by hooting the blowfish well on Sunday.
We have tailgating, a concert, a very intimate concert, it's
not a big forum, a live auction, and then some
karaoke and on Monday there's golf with aelebrity. We pair
your forceome up with a fifth person as a celebrity,
(22:03):
and you play a five person scramble and it's the
world renowned blue course at Congressional.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
So it's a bucket list item for many.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
We raised last year we did it at TPC Avenue,
but we raised six about six hundred thousand dollars Fowrectal
Cancer rese understanding. Yeah, I mean to come out of
the shoot and get the six hundred thousand. We were
pretty proud of ourselves for what we did. It's been
a tougher fight this year to try to get the
number up. We're still shooting to get over eight hundred.
My goal is actually a million, but with the economy
(22:33):
the way it is and there's uncertainty in the marketplace,
it's been a little tougher to try to get people
to come up with big amounts of money. This isn't
a five thousand dollars one thousand dollars event. We're asking
people to pay large amounts of money to get a
sponsorship or to put a force them in the event.
But it's for a great cause, and it's really to
open people's eyes up to the fact that colon and
(22:55):
recti cancer aren't an old man's disease.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It's not for the man that's fifty five years plus.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
It's happening to people in their twenties and thirties, men
and women both and people aren't aware of that.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And there's some simple things you can do.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I mean, exact scientist has a thing called Cooler Guard
where they send you a box and you basically go
to the bathroom in the box. They send the box
back to home and they'll determine whether or not you
need to do further testing. But it's an early sign
of figuring out if you have an issue or not,
especially people who have family history. If you've got family history,
you better get to a doctor and get tested because
(23:28):
if you catch it early, it's preventable. It's curable. I mean,
but there's I can't remember the number they told me.
I think eighty three percent of the deaths are preventable.
Eighty three percent. What are we doing, I mean, let's
save some lives. So any way, anyone wants to help
support us. We got a website. It's www. Contractors Against
(23:48):
Cancer dot org, no spaces in between. If anybody wants
to jump in and help us out, we truly appreciate that. Well.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
As ambitious as you've been over the years, dog guy,
don't doubt that you're going to hit your million dollars go.
I know you've got your reservations with economy and everything
else that's going on, but I think it's a great
goal to strive for. I do want to talk about leadership,
and without making any assumptions, again, I imagine there's a lot
of moving parts with your job, not only your staff,
third parties, things that don't go well, things not on time,
(24:20):
just everything that goes with that. So when we talk
about leadership in the series, we talk about culture, we
talk about team communication, things that you've already alluded to.
But when you talk about leadership and then you also
execute your leadership with all the different employees of three
hundred and sixty that you have to deal with and
then third parties, can you tell us a little bit
about what leadership means to you and how you execute it.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I think the most important thing that I've learned over
the years is to let the employees know how much
you care about I mean I do I personally or
with the company's assistance. Made sure there's certain circumstances or
situations for employees are paramount that they take care of
(25:06):
those things before they worry about their job.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Their job will be here.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
We'll take care of whatever the whole is that's created
by them maybe not being here because they have a
personal situation or they have something going on in their lives.
I mean, without our three hundred and sixteen, just like
without our customers, we have no business. With our's three
hundred and sixte employees that show up every day doing
their jobs as well as they do, we're not who
we are. So I want to make sure they're all
(25:31):
taken care of it. I want to make sure that
they understand they have a career here and not a
job here. I want them to know how much we
love what they do for us, and that we love
them personally, and that you know, they're not just on our.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Team, they're in our family. I mean, we spend more time.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Together than anywhere else, right, And I also have mentioned
this many times.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I want them to wake up every morning and want
to come to work here. And I've told people, if
you get to a point where you don't want to
come to work here, let us know.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
We'll help you find something else. Who wants to get
up and be miserable every day? Right, agreed, So yeah,
just let us know, and we'll help you get a
job somewhere else. And you may create a whole, but
we'll get over it. We've gotten over everything else over
the last hundred and sixty four years.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, we'll be okay, you should be okay. Yeah, that's
took the time. I took it several years ago, and
I wish I could do it again. It's just very
time between me.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I met with every single employee in the company for
fifteen minutes just to talk about who they are, their job,
what they like, what they don't like, and let them
be heard. And from that, several great ideas came about
and some things that we put right in play.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And then I learned very early in my career, if
you surround yourself with good people, you'll have a great company. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I agree with that, and that's well said. And you know,
one of the other things that really resonates with the
final thing about the accessibility that you gave all the employees, Doug,
is that as humans, we want simple acknowledgment and we
just want to be noticed and be able to relate
to each other. And it sounds like with your leadership abilities,
but the type of person you are, you did that,
and I imagine that was very appreciated by all of
(27:04):
your employees that you did that, because not every CEO
and president does that. I mean, let's be real about that.
They just don't do that. So that was a pretty
cool thing that you did. I do want to get
some final thoughts from you. Really enjoyed this conversation. I'd
like to recap what we've talked about, and then we're
going to give the website to everybody and make sure
and if you are hiring, Doug, I know people love
to hear about that, and I imagine at times you're
looking for the best of the best. So let's talk
(27:26):
about that and just recap what we've talked about. The
floor is yours, sir.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, So on the hiring aspect, we're always hiring even
when we're not hiring. So if there's a great employee
out there that comes to our website or reaches out
to us individually. And one of the things I could
also tell you is we have an open door policy.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Nobody answers my phone. My door is always open. Closed.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Now obviously we're got a conversation home, but it's always open.
Same thing with our vps, our executive team, anybody on
our staff is reachable. So if there's somebody out there
that just heard this message said wow, sounds like a
great company I'm to work for, we'd love to have
you come to work for us. Reach out to me.
Go to www dot t sco online. That's where our
(28:08):
website is careers. It's down to the bottom tab. We
only get better when we get better people. And I've
always told this story. You know, if there's ten employees
out in the warehouse and they're all eight players, the
work's divided each.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Of each one of them is doing ten percent. Right.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
If there's ten employees and eight of them are A
players and two of them are D players, the amount
of work that has to be done is the same,
just me as the eight players are doing a little
more because they're making up for the guys who are
seeing D players. Nobody likes that. That's bad chemistry. So
we even encourage people. You know, if you're on a
team and you see somebody who's not carrying their weight, yeah,
let us know.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Because we don't see everything. You got to let me know.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
You gotta let your surfero supervisor know, or that person
who's in charge of that location or that warehouse.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
No, because you shouldn't want them on your team. I
don't want them on my team.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So we help foster that whole mindset of we want
a team made a bunch of a players.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
You help us get there. So you know, I love
coming to work every day. I'm in my fortieth year.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
I'm going about to start my fortieth year, and if
I didn't, I'd go somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And I think that the.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Reason why we have twenty thirty forty fifty year employees
is because we've created that feeling a family, of a
fun place to work. We have a great opportunity to
advance and raise a family and do well for yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, it's all well said, Doug.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
And you know, one of the many things I've learned
not only from my industry of being in sports and
playing sports, but it applies to every business out there.
It doesn't matter what you do. You're talking about culture,
and if you have a healthy culture with communication, you're
going to have success. That sounds like something you pride yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
On, absolutely no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Good Well, listen. I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time. Congratulations on so far a stellar career,
going forty years of one place in four decades. I
don't know if if it presses upon you. I don't
talk to many people that have been in place for
four decades. It's truly incredible, but says a lot about you,
but also says a lot about the company. I can't
tell you how much we appreciate your valuable time. Please
(30:09):
get my best to all your team members, and I'm
really glad we could feature you on CEOs you should Know.
Continue success to.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You, Dannis, Thank you very much. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should Know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for Communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive
because when businesses succeed, our community succeed
M and T Bank Prison CEOs. You should know how
word by I heard me.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Let's meet Doug Riley. He is the president and CEO
for Thomas Summerville Company. Established in eighteen sixty one. This
seventh generation family owned company is a regional wholesale distributor
specializing in plumbing, heating, and air conditioning supplies and solutions.
Doug is coming up on his fortieth anniversary with the company,
and before he talks more about his incredible team and
what they offer their clients, I first asked him to
(00:27):
talk a little bit about himself, where he's from and
his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So I was actually born in the suburbs of Philly
in the Upper Darby, Pennsylvania area. Never lived there, really,
just born almost in transition as the parents were moving
into a new location in Newburgh, New York, which is
about sixty minutes north of New York City. Actually came
down as I graduated high school. My parents had again
had moved and over to Rhode Island. So when I
(00:51):
left to come to school down in Maryland, originally I
had no place to go back home at no place
that I was familiar with, so I stayed down in
this area came down to go to University of Maryland.
When I went to the orientation right before school started,
I thought it was too impersonal, and my brother was
over George Mason.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Playing volleyball, said hey, come check the school out over here.
You might like it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I went over and checked it out and it
was more personable at least that gave that feel than
Maryland at the time, and I transferred without ever taking
a class and started George Mason back in nineteen eighty two,
jumped on the track team. Through connections of the athletic
department that my brother had got an opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Run track for a year.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
And it was only a year because as the year
was ending, my grades were also plummeting, so putting myself
through school running track at the same time, it was
not enough hours in the day for me to get
my studies right. And since there was no money getting
paid to me as it was today for athletes, I
was smart to drop track and concentrate on my studies
(01:57):
since that's where I was going to have to make
my living. Graduated on time. Funny aspect of that is
I was the third of three sons, third one to
go to college first one to get out of college.
My brothers would still be in college if they could
be today.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
They enjoyed themselves. What did you want to do coming
out of school?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
So as I came out of school, I was living
in Fairfax actually between my junior and senior years. While
living in Fairfax, needed a summer job, and a former
roommate of mine was working at Summer Belt at the time, said.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Hey, go to the Fairfax branch. They always need help.
Walk in there to hide me, sit right away.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Start the next day, put away a bunch of stock
in the back of their warehouse to get them caught
up because they couldn't even drive forklifts up and down
the aisles. They were so far behind from being short employees.
Once I got caught up in the back, they said, hey,
why don't you help us out at the counter. Not
knowing anything about what they did, I thought they were
kind of crazy for letting me work the counter, but
they said, hey, that's.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
A bunch now. Back then, unfortunately, were still writing hand tickets.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It was right before the computers got put in place,
so that also made it easier because I knew what
they were talking about.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I didn't know what it did most of the time,
but I.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Knew the items just from seeing them, familiarity with the
boxes and what the label said on them. So I'd
write down what they wanted to go get it. Sometimes
they'd come back with me and help them pick out
what they needed. Learned a little bit, not a lot,
a little bit about what they did, what the products
were used for. Went back to school, came time to graduate,
didn't have the perfect job lined up yet, and the
(03:31):
manager of Rockville at the time called me up and said, hey,
I heard you did a great job in Fairfax. We
need help over here. You want to come to work
in Rockville. I said, no, Eddie, I don't think so.
I'm looking for something different. Went back to, you know,
finishing up at school. Got a call two weeks later
from the regional manager, same pitch. Heard you did a
great job. We'd love to talk to you about the opportunity.
(03:53):
Why don't you meet me for lunch. As a graduating
senior with no money in my pocket, free lunch was
a great opportunity for me now to get to get
a nice hot meal. So I met him for lunch
and he was not good at presenting the office so
much so that after the lunch was over, I had
a full belly, but I was less interested in the job.
So again, a couple more weeks past, I still don't
(04:15):
have the perfect job. Interviewed with quite a few places,
but didn't have the perfect job lined up, at least
in my eyes.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
The manager of Fairfax at.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
The time, Rod sends a ball, calls me and says, hey,
why don't we sit down and talk about the opportunity again.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'll buy you lunch.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We sat down. He cut right to the chase. He goes, Hey,
I know why you don't want to do this. I go, hey,
why is that? Rod?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
He goes, it's plumbing and heating.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
If we have parties with your friends and go ask
you what you do for a living, you'll be embarrassed
to tell him. I said, that's pretty accurate. I'm looking
for something a little more glamorous, a little more sexy,
and he goes, listen.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I went to GW for my master's.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I went to Duke my undergrad I'm in this business
number one because it's.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Products people will always need. Think about that.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
It's a family owned company that's been around since eighteen
sixty one. Anywhere, and I need more people on the street,
and I'm going to give you a great opportunity to
earn as much as you want.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Unlimited income, was the commissioner. See, now that's a good pitch.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
He did a great job pitching it, which is why
I said, you know what, Rod, I'm going to give
it a shop. You did a great job of convincing
me that I should give it a trop. He goes,
I'm going to tell you nine months from now, I'm
putting you.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
On the road.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
You're going to get your own sales territory. I said, okay.
At that point, I didn't know how much I needed
to learn. Right, So nine months comes around, he says, hey,
you ready. I go, Ready for what I forgot? He goes,
You're going on the road.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I go, no, no, no, no, not yet. I'm going
to make a fool of myself.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And I know I'm smart enough to know I got
one chance of making a good impression, and I'm going
to make some bad onoks.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
He goes, you tell me when you're ready.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
A couple more months past, I felt like I had
learned enough to at least talk to talk, and at
the same time, another guy who had a very good
sales territory had left, so it was a perfect timing
for me to slide into a developed territory. At the
same time, he was going to give me some customers
that hadn't been buying from us no to see if
I maybe.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Change your opinions. So I did well. I got lucky.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I had some good help on the inside and people
liked me. I also had good connections in the warehouse,
which is nice because when you need an order picked
after hours of lunch, or you need a link delivery
maid or a second delivery maid, and the guys like you, they're.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
More willing to do it for you.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So I was smart how to play the game, and
I was successful as a salesperson. And in the process
of that, while I was being a successful salesperson, my boss,
the guy who hired me, got promoted so as a
twenty one or twenty two year.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Old kid, and I thought, well, I could do his job.
So I threw my hat in the ring.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
They were like, no, you can't. Sorry, sorry, son. At
age twenty two, we have twenty one locations and this
is the second largest. We can't just slotch you in there.
You're not the guy yet.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Maybe down the.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Road, but we're going to hire the guy from York
to come to Fairfax. If you want to take York,
you can have York. It's a smaller branch.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You can learn, you get a little more acclimated.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So I took it, took its site unseen, went to
work up in York, Pennsylvania. Saw that there was opportunity,
saw that they weren't servicing our customers very well. Needed
to change some attitudes, and really worked my philosophy to
the people that had been in Some of those people
had been there for twenty plus years. Actually, that branch
had the longest tenured employee ever in the company. A
(07:15):
guy made it sixty two years, wow, which is amazing,
just amazing, quit working full time, came back part time.
After he'd stopped working part time, came back and worked
when we have counter days. He flipped the burgers on
the grill. The guy was with us for like seventy
years in total. It was amazing. So I grew the
business in New York, Pennsylvania. At the same time, I
(07:37):
didn't think the guy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was doing his
job very well. So I got a little cocky and
told my boss at the time, I could do both
better than he could do the one.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Sure enough, he gave.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Me that shot, which was a little nervous, nerve wracking
because again, I'm still fairly new to this industry, and
I'm around people that had been in there for twenty
and thirty years, and they're thinking, this kid who still
went behind the ears, who is he to be our boss?
And I was younger than probably ninety five percent of them.
But I get to Lancaster and now I find out.
(08:09):
I thought it was a great opportunity. York tremendous opportunity,
and language was a growing marketplace. We were like, if
there were seven wholesalers, we were number set. We were
probably everybody's seventh choice, which meant if everybody else didn't
have what they were looking for in their location, they
have the inventory, they'd come to us and potentially buy
from us. We hardly got any business, and part of
that was again our service philosophy. Our philosophy at the
(08:31):
time was lived at Pennsylvania gets deliveries on Wednesdays, Columbia,
Pensylvania gets deliveries on Mondays. All these different areas had
these deliveries on a set day, I said, hey, have
you guys ever thought about the fact that if you're
only asking for business one out of five days, you're
really asking for the.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Max of twenty percent of their business.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And that's if we're really good at what we do
twenty percent to max, why don't we go.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
After one hundred percent. Oh we can't do that, Oh
yeah we can. We don't have the resources. Go get
the business.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We'll figure out the resources, which has always been my philosophy.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So we changed.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
We printed up t shirts that on the back said
Thomas Summerville every day everywhere, and that was our mantra forever.
We just kept hammering home, if you need it tomorrow,
give it to us today. By five o'clock, it'll be
there tomorrow. Doesn't matter where you are, We'll get it
there every day everywhere. And that spread and that got
the employees excited because they started to see these opportunities.
They started to see the business going up. They started
(09:23):
to see that there were days when we had more
deliveries than would get fit in our trucks, and that
although was a problem, it's also an opportunity. So I
would just continue to solve those problems for them to
say that's okay, we'll run a truck. We don't have
a driver, that's all right, this guy can drive. We'll
take him off the counter, and the insights salespeople will
cover the counter. Everybody covers for each other, and we're
going to grow this thing together. We're going And we
also had fun. As the orders would stack up at
(09:45):
the end of the day, I would just say, all right,
see you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I'd get out there with everybody and we'd have fun
pulling the orders. We'd see who could do it fast.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
We just we'd put away water heater trucks and say, okay,
last time we did a water truck, took us eighteen
minutes to put it away.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I think we can do it today. Sixteen. Let's get
it done. Come on, wife, goat.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
And we would just have fun growing the business, and
everybody really enjoyed it. And along the way I also
found people and brought people. I brought a guy from
Mason who I knew forever. I brought really good people
into the business because I also learned from my mentor,
who is Michael McInnerny, who's a family member at Sumrville,
that if you bring good people and smarter people than
(10:23):
you into the business.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
They make you look a lot smarter. Yeah. So I
continually did that.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Everywhere I could go, I would find whoever and even
if we weren't hiring, we were hiring.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
If you're good, you've got to spot with us.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, I don't know what that spot is yet, but
we're bringing in and we'll figure it out. Well.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You know a lot of the things that you're talking about, Doug,
that I want to talk about a little bit later
about leadership. You've talked about team, You've talked about culture, timing, ambition,
and also passion, and those are all the makings of
a leader, which you are right now as president and CEO,
and with all that going into your fortieth which is incredible.
(11:01):
So I do want to do this because I know
there's so many people that are associated and know about
the company because it's been around for so long one
hundred and sixty four plus years. But with that said,
can you tell us about mission and vision and what
are they for the company?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Our mission is very simple, So our vision it's very simple.
We just want to be the leading plumbing, heating and
air conditioning content wholesaler in the markets. We serve and
then markets we serve in the mid Atlantic in case
those people that maybe don't know that they see the
green trucks out there with the big s on it,
don't know what we do.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
We do. You're right, there are some people that don't
know what we do.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
There's people that think we sell furniture, that we're the
Summer Goo Furniture Company. There's folks that think we're contractors
when we're wholesalers. But yeah, it's really simple and our
business model simple. We buy boxes, basically build with different things.
We sell those boxes to wholesalers or to contractors. We
(11:55):
provide services related to that, whether that be quotations, whether
that be knowledge your expertise on what certain things are
used for and help folks, and we provide credit terms
and then at the end of the day, hopefully.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We get paid for all of the services. All right, well,
let's do this. Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And I know you're kind of alluding to it right now,
but if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view to tell people about what you offer and what
you do, what would that be.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
We offer pretty much anything related to plumbing, heating, and
air conditioning that goes inside your house or a commercial building,
and we are, we hope we are servicing you, delivering
to you, providing information for you better and with more
trust and a better relationship than other people do. The
(12:47):
way I've said it in the past is any experience
that you've had service related, whether that be at a
restaurant and a store, wherever you go, and you're dealing
with people that are providing a service, we want it
to be memorable, memorable rate, not memorable horrible, because if
it's horrible, you'll never want to repeat it again. If
it's great, you want to repeat it over and over
and over again. Because when we're dealing with our customers,
(13:08):
I don't want their order for today. I want their
business for our lifetime. And in fact, we've had that.
We have customers that are in second and third generations
of dealing with Summer Built, because we're actually in our
seventh generation. So that's the key. Just like I want
employees to think of this as a career and not
a job, I want our salespeople to think in terms
(13:29):
of let's get their business and not their orders.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Now, when it comes to commercial and or residential customers,
you work with both or just one we do.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
We are definitely tilted much more on the residential side,
and that's even changed even more so in the last
five years.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I mentioned earlier that you know, we hire people when
we find people. Unfortunately, as an industry, we're in an
aging industry and more people are starting to retire than
they're coming in behind. That's part of the fact that
it's not a real sexy business. Where As an entire industry,
we're trying to bring more people into this business and
show them it's a great opportunity for them to have
(14:08):
a career here. But we are just like most other wholesalers.
We have a lot of people retiring. We've fed people
here twenty thirty, forty fifty years, but as they retire,
a lot of things have to take place.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
We have to replace them, but we also have to
replace their knowledge because.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
As they come off the books and they go into retirement,
most of them, with those long careers have a ton
of built in knowledge and expertise that they have to
somehow transfer that wisdom and that wealth of information to
the next generation that's coming in.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know, you work with a lot of products and
you can go over maybe some of the star ones
that you work with regularly that people really want. But
with that said, I imagine when it comes to customer service,
which I realize is very important to you, and also communication,
which we'll talk about when we chat about leadership, but
the supplies that you offer and what you do, it's
(14:57):
a very personal thing to people because when you talk
talk about being in their home or they're a small
place of business, it's important that it works correctly, it
looks cool, it works, but also there's a great customer service.
And I know, once again that's some of you pride,
But can you kind of expound on that a little
bit because I think when it comes to what you
do out there, it's such a personal thing for people.
(15:17):
The communication and the follow through and the product of
course all has to be stellar and a plus. But
talk a little bit more about that because I think
you know, not only being seventh generation family, it's about
the customer service, longevity of the business that really says
about who you guys are.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Can you talk about that.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, We've always as a company prided ourselves on being
aligned and affiliated with the top brand. So we have
Coal and we have Moan, we have Delta, we have
Aosmith water heaters, we have Renei water heaters, Tactus what eaters,
we have LG products.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
We have Allied on the HVAC side of it. Any
brand that has a great name.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And reputation behind it is who we also stand behind.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
And in some cases.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
We'll do over and above to make sure that the customer,
the end customer, is happy with the product that they've received.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Again, just like our contract, we want them to have
a great experience. We also want their customers to have
a great experience.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Because if our customers don't get the business from them,
then the whole channel doesn't work right right, So we're
standing behind them just as much as the manufacturer is.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
You know, Doug, one of the things being a leader
that there's always fires to put out every day, and
there's a lot of curve balls. And you've had two
big ones in the last five years. You had COVID
and the pandemic. And I've talked to a lot of
businesses where they actually thrive during that. I want to
hear how you had to pivot the company if at
all with your leadership. And then also the tariffs are
going on right now, it's in the news every day,
(16:46):
and you work with a lot of products. So can
you talk about both about the pandemic and what you
did in any pivoting for the company and your staff
and your customers, and then a little bit about what
we're experiencing today in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, I'll take you back a little bit beyond before that.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, before two years before all of that happened, we
did a software change, and as you know, not all
software transfers or changes and companies go well, right, Well,
we had we had a hitup. We waited, we waited
for a next generation of the software that we were
going to to come out because they told us we'd
had more bells and whistles. Unfortunately, you had more bells
(17:22):
and whistles, but it hadn't been vetted as well as
the previous versions. So we were we were the guinea pig.
You never wanted to.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Be the first on a software conversion. We learned that lesson.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
We learned that unfortunately, uh, to our detriment. It took
us to our knees. We really struggled to do transactions,
which had a hangover effect into the next year.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
UH.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
And then we had a ransomware attack. We had everything
that could possibly go wrong, and then COVID hit. Although
COVID was, as you mentioned, for some companies, a blessing,
for us, it was it was a reset. You gave
us a chance to set ourselves and say, Okay, there's
all this going on.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
We were in an essential business, so we didn't close,
but it did give us a breath to say, what
do we do really well? And let's do that really
really well and some of these other things that we're
struggling at because we don't have enough people because COVID
is now underway and all these other things, with our
software conversion going sideways, what can we shed that we're
(18:21):
also not representing ourselves well with anyway. So we started
to peel off some business parts that weren't we weren't
the best at, and we concentrated more in the residential
We concentrated more on the repair of modeling customer, we
concentrated more on the HVAC contractor, and did those things well.
And now as we're finding more employees, we can start
stretching ourselves back out and be more of who we
(18:43):
were before. But we had to get all of the
other things right first, and COVID did give us that chance.
Was a short shorter period than I think many people anticipated,
especially because we were in essential business. But we had
about a two month time period where we could kind
of catch our breath for a second and get our
ship right.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
All right, what about twenty twenty five terriffs? Are they
affecting you at all?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I mean, of course, whenever we have to go out
to the marketplace with price increases that are being forced
upon us, it stops everybody.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Everyone pauses, and.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Even the folks that truly cherish all the things that
we do for them service wise, it gets them to
maybe take a look and make sure that the pricing
is good.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
But we're kind of the guy caught in the middle. Yeah. Yeah,
the price.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Is put upon us, and we don't do anything to
change that price. We're passing along what's taking place. If
the guy's going up five percent, then unfortunately to the contractor,
it's a five percent increase from us. I can't eat
it along the way. Or you know, our profitability model
works when we pass along those price increases. If we
start to absorb those, then our whole model falls apart.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Understood, Well, let's talk a little bit more about that,
and without making any assumptions, I imagine it is a
competitive lefe escape for what you and your team do.
With that said, when you sell yourself, either somebody comes
to you or you're pitching yourself to somebody, how you
do differentiate yourself from that said competition.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
The biggest thing that works for us is we meet
the customer at their point in need. So it comes
from questions you get when a salesperson meeting with the
customer or a manager and myself whoever, you need to
find out what their pain points are, right, where's their
biggest problem? Is it getting product to the job site
at a timely fashion?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Is it back orders? Is it support on knowledge on
the on the inside? Is whatever the pain points are?
Wherever they need more help, Wherever we can make them
be more profitable.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Maybe it's a business.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Segment they haven't paid attention to it we see has
worked effectively for other contractors in other areas. Any of
those spots where we can make them or help them
be a better business, that's what we concentrate on.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
And it's not one size fits all.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Obviously, every contractor is a little bit different and their
their weaker points or their pain points may be different
than somebody else's. So that's why we got to meet
them at their point of need and then solve that problem,
and not just one time, but every time. Like I
tell our employees all the time, we don't want just
the customer's orders, we want their business. Business is long term.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, that's well said, Doug. I want to talk about
philanthropic and charity work. And I know it's very important
to you the company, and it's near and dear to
your heart. And I know you do several things and
when you have time to be a part of that,
whether it's through the business or personally, what do you
like to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
So the biggest thing that we focused on on the
last couple of years, and we ran our inaugural event
last years. It's called Contractors Against Cancer. And the reason
why we named it that is because we wanted to
give all the credit to the contractors out there, because
they drive our business.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Without them, we have no business.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
And what it is is it's modeled after an event
called Monday after the Masters that was started in South
Carolina years ago by hooting the blowfish well on Sunday.
We have tailgating, a concert, a very intimate concert, it's
not a big forum, a live auction, and then some
karaoke and on Monday there's golf with aelebrity. We pair
your forceome up with a fifth person as a celebrity,
(22:03):
and you play a five person scramble and it's the
world renowned blue course at Congressional.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
So it's a bucket list item for many.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
We raised last year we did it at TPC Avenue,
but we raised six about six hundred thousand dollars Fowrectal
Cancer rese understanding. Yeah, I mean to come out of
the shoot and get the six hundred thousand. We were
pretty proud of ourselves for what we did. It's been
a tougher fight this year to try to get the
number up. We're still shooting to get over eight hundred.
My goal is actually a million, but with the economy
(22:33):
the way it is and there's uncertainty in the marketplace,
it's been a little tougher to try to get people
to come up with big amounts of money. This isn't
a five thousand dollars one thousand dollars event. We're asking
people to pay large amounts of money to get a
sponsorship or to put a force them in the event.
But it's for a great cause, and it's really to
open people's eyes up to the fact that colon and
(22:55):
recti cancer aren't an old man's disease.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It's not for the man that's fifty five years plus.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
It's happening to people in their twenties and thirties, men
and women both and people aren't aware of that.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And there's some simple things you can do.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I mean, exact scientist has a thing called Cooler Guard
where they send you a box and you basically go
to the bathroom in the box. They send the box
back to home and they'll determine whether or not you
need to do further testing. But it's an early sign
of figuring out if you have an issue or not,
especially people who have family history. If you've got family history,
you better get to a doctor and get tested because
(23:28):
if you catch it early, it's preventable. It's curable. I mean,
but there's I can't remember the number they told me.
I think eighty three percent of the deaths are preventable.
Eighty three percent. What are we doing, I mean, let's
save some lives. So any way, anyone wants to help
support us. We got a website. It's www. Contractors Against
(23:48):
Cancer dot org, no spaces in between. If anybody wants
to jump in and help us out, we truly appreciate that. Well.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
As ambitious as you've been over the years, dog guy,
don't doubt that you're going to hit your million dollars go.
I know you've got your reservations with economy and everything
else that's going on, but I think it's a great
goal to strive for. I do want to talk about leadership,
and without making any assumptions, again, I imagine there's a lot
of moving parts with your job, not only your staff,
third parties, things that don't go well, things not on time,
(24:20):
just everything that goes with that. So when we talk
about leadership in the series, we talk about culture, we
talk about team communication, things that you've already alluded to.
But when you talk about leadership and then you also
execute your leadership with all the different employees of three
hundred and sixty that you have to deal with and
then third parties, can you tell us a little bit
about what leadership means to you and how you execute it.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I think the most important thing that I've learned over
the years is to let the employees know how much
you care about I mean I do I personally or
with the company's assistance. Made sure there's certain circumstances or
situations for employees are paramount that they take care of
(25:06):
those things before they worry about their job.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Their job will be here.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
We'll take care of whatever the whole is that's created
by them maybe not being here because they have a
personal situation or they have something going on in their lives.
I mean, without our three hundred and sixteen, just like
without our customers, we have no business. With our's three
hundred and sixte employees that show up every day doing
their jobs as well as they do, we're not who
we are. So I want to make sure they're all
(25:31):
taken care of it. I want to make sure that
they understand they have a career here and not a
job here. I want them to know how much we
love what they do for us, and that we love
them personally, and that you know, they're not just on our.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Team, they're in our family. I mean, we spend more time.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Together than anywhere else, right, And I also have mentioned
this many times.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I want them to wake up every morning and want
to come to work here. And I've told people, if
you get to a point where you don't want to
come to work here, let us know.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
We'll help you find something else. Who wants to get
up and be miserable every day? Right, agreed, So yeah,
just let us know, and we'll help you get a
job somewhere else. And you may create a whole, but
we'll get over it. We've gotten over everything else over
the last hundred and sixty four years.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, we'll be okay, you should be okay. Yeah, that's
took the time. I took it several years ago, and
I wish I could do it again. It's just very
time between me.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I met with every single employee in the company for
fifteen minutes just to talk about who they are, their job,
what they like, what they don't like, and let them
be heard. And from that, several great ideas came about
and some things that we put right in play.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And then I learned very early in my career, if
you surround yourself with good people, you'll have a great company. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I agree with that, and that's well said. And you know,
one of the other things that really resonates with the
final thing about the accessibility that you gave all the employees, Doug,
is that as humans, we want simple acknowledgment and we
just want to be noticed and be able to relate
to each other. And it sounds like with your leadership abilities,
but the type of person you are, you did that,
and I imagine that was very appreciated by all of
(27:04):
your employees that you did that, because not every CEO
and president does that. I mean, let's be real about that.
They just don't do that. So that was a pretty
cool thing that you did. I do want to get
some final thoughts from you. Really enjoyed this conversation. I'd
like to recap what we've talked about, and then we're
going to give the website to everybody and make sure
and if you are hiring, Doug, I know people love
to hear about that, and I imagine at times you're
looking for the best of the best. So let's talk
(27:26):
about that and just recap what we've talked about. The
floor is yours, sir.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, So on the hiring aspect, we're always hiring even
when we're not hiring. So if there's a great employee
out there that comes to our website or reaches out
to us individually. And one of the things I could
also tell you is we have an open door policy.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Nobody answers my phone. My door is always open. Closed.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Now obviously we're got a conversation home, but it's always open.
Same thing with our vps, our executive team, anybody on
our staff is reachable. So if there's somebody out there
that just heard this message said wow, sounds like a
great company I'm to work for, we'd love to have
you come to work for us. Reach out to me.
Go to www dot t sco online. That's where our
(28:08):
website is careers. It's down to the bottom tab. We
only get better when we get better people. And I've
always told this story. You know, if there's ten employees
out in the warehouse and they're all eight players, the
work's divided each.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Of each one of them is doing ten percent. Right.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
If there's ten employees and eight of them are A
players and two of them are D players, the amount
of work that has to be done is the same,
just me as the eight players are doing a little
more because they're making up for the guys who are
seeing D players. Nobody likes that. That's bad chemistry. So
we even encourage people. You know, if you're on a
team and you see somebody who's not carrying their weight, yeah,
let us know.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Because we don't see everything. You got to let me know.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
You gotta let your surfero supervisor know, or that person
who's in charge of that location or that warehouse.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
No, because you shouldn't want them on your team. I
don't want them on my team.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So we help foster that whole mindset of we want
a team made a bunch of a players.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
You help us get there. So you know, I love
coming to work every day. I'm in my fortieth year.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
I'm going about to start my fortieth year, and if
I didn't, I'd go somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And I think that the.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Reason why we have twenty thirty forty fifty year employees
is because we've created that feeling a family, of a
fun place to work. We have a great opportunity to
advance and raise a family and do well for yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Well, it's all well said, Doug.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
And you know, one of the many things I've learned
not only from my industry of being in sports and
playing sports, but it applies to every business out there.
It doesn't matter what you do. You're talking about culture,
and if you have a healthy culture with communication, you're
going to have success. That sounds like something you pride yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
On, absolutely no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Good Well, listen. I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time. Congratulations on so far a stellar career,
going forty years of one place in four decades. I
don't know if if it presses upon you. I don't
talk to many people that have been in place for
four decades. It's truly incredible, but says a lot about you,
but also says a lot about the company. I can't
tell you how much we appreciate your valuable time. Please
(30:09):
get my best to all your team members, and I'm
really glad we could feature you on CEOs you should Know.
Continue success to.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You, Dannis, Thank you very much. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should Know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for Communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive
because when businesses succeed, our community succeed
Popular Podcasts
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.