February 28, 2025 • 23 mins
What if the company you worked for went bankrupt overnight—only for a bold new leader to step in and turn it into a multi-billion-dollar powerhouse?
That’s exactly what happened to SHI’s first employee, Melissa Graham.
In this special episode of Innovation Heroes, we’re celebrating the 35th anniversary of SHI. Melissa, the company's very first employee, shares stories about co-founder and CEO, Thai Lee and dives into SHI’s incredible journey from scrappy upstart to global IT giant.
Tune in to hear stories of resilience, innovation, and the pivotal moments that shaped SHI’s success.
Featuring: Melissa Graham, SHI’s Senior Vice President of the Global Organization and company’s very first employee.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Melissa (00:00):
As far as, um, Tai and Suli's aspirations, it was, you know, million
dollar company, hundred million dollarcompany, then a billion dollar company.
They always started, you know,added zeros to that number.
And my thoughts were, there's no wayI'm going to achieve those numbers.
Um, but I would say after probablythe first 10 years, every aspiration
(00:23):
or every milestone, um, that we wereable to achieve, I stopped questioning
our ability, right, to hit theobjectives that Suli and Thai set
for us, because every time we did.
Ed (00:37):
In the world of technology, heroes are everywhere.
They're overcoming disruption, deliveringsustainable outcomes, and fearlessly
forging the future to solve what's next.
Join me.
Ed McNamara, as we meet the peopleand businesses driving change in
our constantly disruptive world.
This is innovation heroes, apodcast brought to you by SHI.
(01:02):
Hey everyone.
And welcome to a specialepisode of innovation heroes.
The one in which we're going torecognize the passing of a significant
milestone, the 35th anniversary of SHI.
So, today's SHI proudly boasts a globalworkforce that is 6, 000 strong, built
almost exclusively through organic growth.
Now, by organic, we mean that in our35 plus years of existence, we've had
(01:25):
very few mergers or acquisitions topush our current headcount and revenue
numbers to where they are today.
But, there was a time whenthe entire operation consisted
of only three employees.
Two were the brand new owners ofa company called Software House.
The third is our guest today.
Melissa Graham is SeniorVice President of the Globals
organization at SHI International.
(01:47):
By Globals, we mean that the customers shesupports are some of the most recognizable
brands in the world, including thebanking, pharmaceutical, and telecom
giants of the Fortune 50 and beyond.
Her team literally supportssome of the most complex IT
organizations on the planet.
And over the past 35 years, Melissahas had a huge hand in developing,
(02:07):
if not flat out, inventing thesystems and solutions we use today.
Melissa, welcome to Innovation Heroes.
Melissa (02:13):
Hi, Ed.
Thank you for that verygenerous introduction.
Ed (02:17):
I know you didn't, you didn't really love hearing all those nice things,
but you just have to deal with it.
So SHI, let's just startright from the top.
SHI enjoys a very positivereputation among the people
in our industry, but despite.
That we're very far from a householdname, just curious as you're 35 years
into this, what's your cocktail partydescription of SHI when someone, when a
(02:37):
lay person asks you, you know, who you areand what you do, what do you tell them?
Melissa (02:41):
So SHI is a global IT solution provider.
Um, we sell into, as you mentioned, someof the largest companies in the world,
starting with the SMB segment, right?
That low.
And, um, we help our customers.
Select deploy and manage technology.
We keep it very simple for them.
Um, but we also help them, you know,secure their defenses, optimize their I.
(03:05):
T.
Ed (03:06):
You're SHI's first ever employee.
And one of only maybe three people out ofnow 6, 000, uh, that are still involved
with the company and have been since thebeginning, what were those first days?
Like, you know, what do you, what do youremember about meeting Thai and Suli?
How did you get here?
Melissa (03:22):
I was hired by a company called Lautech, and they had just acquired
Software House that was in April of 1989.
Before November of 1989,they went bankrupt, right?
All our assets were frozen, and we weretold to call our customers and tell
them we were going out of business.
And so I was on the phone with our largestof a handful of our customers and told
(03:45):
them we were going out of business.
And Suli, the co founder, walked inand told me to put the phone down.
I had no idea who this guy was,but he had a commanding voice
like put, put the phone down.
I want to talk to you.
And, um, so I did, and we had aconversation and ultimately he and
Thai had convinced a few of us to stay.
(04:06):
Um, at that point, Ireally was not interested.
Um, and I was interested because ithad been a few months of watching
the company really devolve Lautechdevolve over a few months time.
So Suli walked into analmost empty building.
Um, so finally, I thought, well,he really wants me to stay.
I have some leverage.
So I was earning 19, 000 at the time.
(04:30):
And I said, all right,for 23, 000, I'll stay.
And, um, He agreed to 21,000 and I stayed anyway.
Um, and certainly I didnot see 35 years coming.
Um, I was there until I found out orfigured out what I really wanted to do.
Ed (04:48):
What was your position in those early days?
Like, what were, what wereyou tasked with, with doing
like right at the beginning?
Melissa (04:53):
So I was hired as a customer service representative again, they needed
somebody to answer the phones and doprice quotes and do order processing
and handle those types of administrativetasks on a day to day basis.
And that's what I did until Suliand Thai bought the company.
And we had no computer systems.
(05:14):
We had no other support.
So overnight I becamethe jack of all trades.
I sold, I bought, I packaged,I picked, I shipped.
I even crossed a UPS picket line onetime to go pick up product to deliver
it to IBM in Yonkers, New York.
So that's what I did for several years.
(05:35):
So as a matter of fact, I think Iwas the treasurer of the company
at one point in the very, very,very early years of the company.
Ed (05:43):
Well, so you got a demotion at some point then?
Melissa (05:45):
I did get demoted at some point.
Exactly.
They didn't want my hands on those checks.
Ed (05:50):
Yeah, we all have different aptitudes.
What were the goals of thecompany at the beginning?
You know, so, like, that's whatyou were doing as an employee.
But, you know, what wasthose early day goals?
Um, and how were they discussed?
Melissa (06:03):
Well, the first thing that needed to happen was we had
to get off probation with IBM.
Um, because of the financial challengeswith Lautech, we couldn't ship anything.
Um, we were put on probation and had wenot been able to resume business with IBM,
we would have been out of business, right?
There would be no software house.
Um, that was the first challenge.
(06:24):
As convincing as Suli was.
to get me to hang up that phone and nottell IBM we were going on a business.
He was that convincing when hespoke with IBM and asked them
to give us a second chance.
Um, that was after he had secured a creditline with a distributor because we had
no credit because of low tax bank debt.
(06:45):
So that was the first hurdlethe company had to get over.
Um, after that it becameWe just have to win.
We have to win.
We have to win, right?
We have to build abrand in order to scale.
We just need big, big customers.
And then as far as, um, Thai andSuli's aspirations, it was, you
know, million dollar company, 100million dollar company than a billion
(07:08):
dollar company that we started, youknow, added zeros to that number.
And quite honestly for manyyears, I just couldn't see it.
I mean, some of the yearsI was the only seller.
So I was, you know, my thoughtswere, there's no way I'm going
to achieve those numbers.
Um, but I would say afterprobably the first 10 years, every
(07:28):
aspiration or every milestone,um, that we were able to achieve.
I stopped questioning our ability,right, to hit the objectives that Suli
and Ty set for us, because every time wedid, and, um, I was amazed every time.
Ed (07:46):
You and Thai are, I would say, on a day to day basis, the only two
people who have worked at SHI everysingle day since the beginning.
How would you describeThai management style?
Melissa (07:56):
So Thai's management style, she always told me, you want to
hire people that you don't have tomanage, which means they're self
managing, and they can be independentand autonomous and do a great job.
So that was her management style.
I appreciate that because Idon't want to be told what to do.
I don't want to be given a plan,you know, and said, you know,
(08:18):
go ahead and follow these steps.
She enabled me to be creative,um, to do what it takes to win.
And, um, I had that level of autonomyand, um, authority to make those
decisions because let's face it,what could I break at that point?
We didn't have much, therewasn't much to break.
She enabled people to makedecisions and be creative, um, and
(08:44):
to go out and win the business.
That was her management style, andin large part, it's still that way.
Ed (08:50):
So, you and Thai right from the beginning, uh, Thai's sister, Celeste,
came in a few, a few years afterwards,and, um, that was before anybody really
talked about, you know, women in IT.
And, you know, the ratio of men towomen in IT has been written and
talked about at length, you know, forthe past, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.
Um, You know, you're the secondemployee only to the president, CEO
(09:12):
of the largest minority woman ownedbusiness in the United States, yet
we don't often emphasize that, and Idon't get the feeling that for a long
time, anybody gave thought to that.
And why is that?
Melissa (09:25):
I mean, being the largest woman owned business in the United
States, it's an attribute, but it doesnot define who we are or what we do.
I know in the very early days,it was a door opener and we
used it to our advantage.
Um, but ultimately price andperformance is what wins the day.
Um, so the fact that we were a womanand minority owned really didn't matter
(09:47):
long term if we were not performing.
We don't want to be defined by being awoman owned company, and we don't want to
win because we're a woman owned company.
Um, we'll take the win, but we wantto win based on our own merits,
and it's always been that way.
Ed (10:03):
Let's move into the history of SHI and innovation.
You know, so, IT companieshave, have no choice.
Survival depends on constantlyevolving your offerings and
capabilities to customers.
Um, but it also requires completelychanging how you conduct your business.
When you started, SHI started with,you know, uh, quarterly paper catalogs,
telephones, fax machines, you know,you've witnessed firsthand our history
(10:26):
of, you know, accelerating growth,expansion, um, you know, what are some
of SHI's inflection points, you know,when you look back and say, okay,
these are some of those key decisionsor key events that actually happened.
Thank you.
Define the success of acompany that's now 35 years.
You know, what do you look back to as,as some of those points, uh, that, that
(10:46):
contributed to our long term success?
Melissa (10:48):
So I think about when we opened up SHI Hong Kong and it was at the
request of one customer and we openedup SHI Hong Kong for that one customer.
Well, that one customer, right.
35 years later, they have transformedmany, many times, but they're still
one of our largest customers, right?
So without.
And it's all interrelated.
(11:10):
It's all interrelated.
That one customer enabled usto win another customer, right?
To build a telco vertical.
Um, so opening the internationallocations, I would say was paramount,
especially in today's world.
It's all multinational.
It's all multinational.
Um, I would say the next is,You know, setting up shi.
(11:33):
com, right?
Our customers, our competitors weresupporting these electronic catalogs,
um, for their customers, right?
So we followed suit.
I think in 2009, shistarting shi corp, right?
For the SMB segment.
Um, she's often told me, had itnot been for that in 2009, we may
(11:55):
not be in business today, right?
Because their accelerationof growth for the company.
I mean, if you think about it.
How many years later, 2009until today, they're almost
a 10 billion business, right?
And they enabled us to, um, improveour authorizations with certain OEMs.
So that was a majorinflection point for us.
(12:18):
Um, in a great enabler of the, um.
You know, the longevity or the longterm health of S. H. I. I would say
the most recent, um, acquisition oflocusts in India is a major inflection
point because that's a big gap for usoutside the U. S. Um, so while they're
(12:38):
a managed services organization rightthere, strength is in security, high
performance compute in particular.
Um, and and they'll fill agap again, which is a Mhm.
Big deal for us because in the largestcompanies, they want, you know,
their partners to be those with thebroadest footprint, and that has been
(12:59):
a disadvantage for SHI for a long time.
Ed (13:02):
What's interesting about some of these inflection points, when we first
transitioned into hardware, um, it was,it was right after the dot com bubble and
post nine 11, our, our expansion into.
Mid size business was 2009, right inthe middle of the Great Recession.
A Stratoscale was opened, you know, in2020 when we were dealing with COVID.
(13:23):
You know, what does it say to SHI that itjust seems like we pick these times when
we're pushing down on the acceleratorwhen other people might be letting off?
Melissa (13:34):
I thinkhaiTy took advantage of the opportunity because others are letting
off and she wanted to capitalize on theirlack of attention, you know, pulling back
support for certain areas of the business.
Um, and she can only, only Ty cantell us best why she did those things,
but I think she saw an opportunitythat we had to capitalize on.
(13:56):
Um, another example, what I didn'tmention, but when you said about
getting into the hardware business, Iactually think it was in the, Earlier
nineties or maybe mid nineties.
Um, one of our, the largest banks inthe world called us on a Friday and
their reseller, who's no longer inbusiness any longer, jacked up their
prices significantly, like 10, 15, 20%.
(14:19):
And this bank said, thanks, but no thanks.
And they called S. H. I. Who's theirsoftware reseller and said, we need
like, you know, 40, 000 laptops a year.
Can you guys handle it?
And we're like, Uh oh, becareful what you ask for.
You know, we ran into Thai andSuli and they're like, let's do it.
Right.
And within a very short period of time,literally weeks, we were up and running.
(14:41):
That was really our entreeinto, um, large scale, you
know, laptop deployments, right.
For the big brands likeHP and Apple and Dell.
Um, because we really werenot on their map at that time.
Ed (14:56):
So today, uh, you and SHI's leadership team are leading a kind of a
complete evolution of how SHI conductsbusiness and improves productivity,
efficiency, you know, through throughthe use of AI whenever possible.
So we're doing it internally, butwe're also providing, you know, and
expertise, equipment, everything that'sneeded for customers to do it as well.
(15:19):
When you think of like innovationat, at, at SHI, you know, not just in
our offerings to customers, but likehow we run our business, you know,
how have we been able to do this, youknow, like repeatedly over the years?
Melissa (15:32):
So the automation has gone from building scripts to automate
things to, you know, full AI.
I'd say we've automated, um,software license renewals.
We've automated.
Dating catalogs, um, we've automated,you know, auto closing purchase orders.
So there's been a lot of incrementalautomation, just taking a look at some
(15:54):
of our, a lot of our processes thatreally consume the most energy and time
from the most employees in the company.
We're still in a totaltransformation, right?
For the last three to four years,we've been transforming I. T.
We've been transforming finance.
And as a result, the ripple down effectis transforming the entire company, right?
(16:17):
Sales, inside sales, purchasing,warehouse operations, et cetera.
Um, we also developed our owninternal AI called MindSpark.
There are things like trip reports, right?
Summarizing account plans.
You know, aid in developing proposals,getting ideas about how we can best
position S. H. I, um, in certain areas.
(16:38):
I think right now we'vegot over 100 use cases.
I think we've got like 4, 500of our 6, 000 employees that
are actively using MindSpark.
So, productivity, I know, I have seenproductivity improvements in my own
organization, um, and utilizing itis able to do things that would take
(16:59):
us months to, literally months to do.
Ed (17:02):
So, right now, as we speak, construction is nearing completion on
our new AI and Cyber Labs facility.
That's a place that's, that's designed tobring together leaders from businesses,
research universities, government agenciesto kind of reimagine and collaborate
and discover next generation A.
I. And cyber solutions were really as acompany building a place that could be a
(17:26):
research facility for people to come inand test out, you know, the latest in A.
I. You know, what do you think when yousee, you know, the potential that's there?
Melissa (17:35):
There's significant potential.
I mean, our customers need us.
And if you think about it, evenour customers still are trying to
figure out what to do with AI, right?
So many of them are just investingand building applications
because we've got to do it.
We've got to do it.
It's just like 15 years ago with cloud.
Right.
We've got to get all ourapplications to the cloud.
(17:56):
So you have that happening.
And then you have those that aren'tdoing much because they're afraid.
They don't know what to do, what'sgoing to do to the business.
So SHI and the labs that we havedeveloped are, it's a safety zone, right?
And rather than hire one of the,you know, largest of the consulting
firms, um, and pay them potentiallyhundreds of thousands or millions.
(18:20):
We can get through thatentire journey in six weeks.
No company has a big enoughbench or enough talent, right?
So save yourself a few million, right?
And let's go back and reinvest.
Um, and let's address the issuesperhaps that are preventing, um,
this AI from being successful.
(18:40):
So.
You know what?
We looked at again.
We just have to be the best at what we do.
And I believe what we doshould be what we're best at.
And so we focus our energy andaddress our customer needs where they
are and how we can best serve them.
And it might sound very simple,but it's really what we do.
(19:01):
It's simple, but it's very, veryimpactful to their business.
Similarly, in our cyber lab,if you think about it, every
organization has 10, 20, 30, 50, 100different security products, right?
They're trying to patchup every vulnerability.
And all of the primary, um, securitypartners are coming out with platforms
(19:23):
where one maybe was just like anendpoint device security company.
Now they're also protecting the edge.
They're protecting the cloud,the network, et cetera.
And.
They've got vulnerabilities.
So we've got the expertise, right?
And the labs and we will do the proofof concepts will integrate technologies.
(19:44):
Um, they'll give us test cases, right?
So we will test against their environmentand then generate reference architecture.
And we were not making thedecision for them about what
technology or how to move forward.
But what we're doing is Acceleratingor short circuiting that time to
I need to do something, um, toarming me with the information I
(20:06):
need or most of the informationI need to make a decision, right?
So accelerating time tovalue, accelerating time to
revenue, reducing their risk.
Um, it's it's really incredibly valuable.
Ed (20:18):
Um, one last question.
You know, you're nobody has workedin S. H. I. longer than you, which
I'm sure you're extremely proud of.
But being founded in 1989 means that.
S. H. I. Employees come from, youknow, four different named generations.
Like there's there's boomers.
There's Gen X. There's millennials.
There's Gen Z.
If we stick around long enough,we'll be welcoming some alphas
(20:39):
to our training classes.
You know, if we listen to the onethat's years ago, you know, we
should have failed the second thatwe had, you know, millennials at
the entry level with Gen X managers.
You know, why didn't it fail?
And what remains true?
Today from those years,
Melissa (20:55):
so I mentioned XR and I think it's very evident when I'm
like, you know, why should I do it?
Well, do you want a job?
I mean, you know, therewas back in the day.
It was just sheer brute force Um,and we had something to prove Um, so
you did what it took if you were 24hours a day seven days a week, right?
It was all about winning making thecustomer happy helping the customer
(21:17):
grow We were very outwardly focused.
I would say
Ed (21:21):
yeah
Melissa (21:22):
And the millennials are more about, um, you know, collaboration,
they want to talk about things, um, youknow, they want guidance, direction,
and all of those things are good.
It's just the complete opposite.
Of what me as a Gen Xer wanted,which was autonomy and authority
(21:44):
and just let me go, right?
Just let me go.
I don't need you totell me I'm doing okay.
Let me go.
And if I'm not doing okay, itwill become very apparent quickly.
Um, so that was definitely a shiftfor me and still is quite honestly.
We had people come in, themillennials, and they were doing,
(22:05):
like, happy hour after work.
I may have even commented to youat some point, like, happy hour?
What's this?
Like, is this still work time?
Um, but I think it's a greatcombination, actually, because there's
something to the human element.
You know, you can become very roboticwhen you're just singularly focused,
(22:27):
um, and, you know, sheer brute force.
You've got a mission.
And that's what you're doing.
There's something to be humanized, if youwill, with this next generation who wants
collaboration, they want feedback, right?
They want to be part of a communityand maybe not have, um, I guess
(22:48):
they want autonomy, but not thelevel of autonomy that we had.
So.
It's an adjustment.
I mean, I think Millennials,had we not adjusted to the Gen
Xers, had we not adjusted, theyprobably would have all left us.
I mean, I'm pretty certain.
Ed (23:04):
Well, so I just wanted to say thank you for coming on and
really representing, you know,the company that we all work for.
And thanks for still being here with us.
Melissa (23:13):
Thank you.
I'm grateful for the opportunity.
Ed (23:16):
Until next time, keep innovating, stay ahead of the curve.
For Innovation Heroes andSHI, I'm Ed McNamara, and I'll
see you again in two weeks.
As far as, um, Tai and Suli's aspirations, it was, you know, million
dollar company, hundred million dollarcompany, then a billion dollar company.
They always started, you know,added zeros to that number.
And my thoughts were, there's no wayI'm going to achieve those numbers.
Um, but I would say after probablythe first 10 years, every aspiration
(00:23):
or every milestone, um, that we wereable to achieve, I stopped questioning
our ability, right, to hit theobjectives that Suli and Thai set
for us, because every time we did.
Ed (00:37):
In the world of technology, heroes are everywhere.
They're overcoming disruption, deliveringsustainable outcomes, and fearlessly
forging the future to solve what's next.
Join me.
Ed McNamara, as we meet the peopleand businesses driving change in
our constantly disruptive world.
This is innovation heroes, apodcast brought to you by SHI.
(01:02):
Hey everyone.
And welcome to a specialepisode of innovation heroes.
The one in which we're going torecognize the passing of a significant
milestone, the 35th anniversary of SHI.
So, today's SHI proudly boasts a globalworkforce that is 6, 000 strong, built
almost exclusively through organic growth.
Now, by organic, we mean that in our35 plus years of existence, we've had
(01:25):
very few mergers or acquisitions topush our current headcount and revenue
numbers to where they are today.
But, there was a time whenthe entire operation consisted
of only three employees.
Two were the brand new owners ofa company called Software House.
The third is our guest today.
Melissa Graham is SeniorVice President of the Globals
organization at SHI International.
(01:47):
By Globals, we mean that the customers shesupports are some of the most recognizable
brands in the world, including thebanking, pharmaceutical, and telecom
giants of the Fortune 50 and beyond.
Her team literally supportssome of the most complex IT
organizations on the planet.
And over the past 35 years, Melissahas had a huge hand in developing,
(02:07):
if not flat out, inventing thesystems and solutions we use today.
Melissa, welcome to Innovation Heroes.
Melissa (02:13):
Hi, Ed.
Thank you for that verygenerous introduction.
Ed (02:17):
I know you didn't, you didn't really love hearing all those nice things,
but you just have to deal with it.
So SHI, let's just startright from the top.
SHI enjoys a very positivereputation among the people
in our industry, but despite.
That we're very far from a householdname, just curious as you're 35 years
into this, what's your cocktail partydescription of SHI when someone, when a
(02:37):
lay person asks you, you know, who you areand what you do, what do you tell them?
Melissa (02:41):
So SHI is a global IT solution provider.
Um, we sell into, as you mentioned, someof the largest companies in the world,
starting with the SMB segment, right?
That low.
And, um, we help our customers.
Select deploy and manage technology.
We keep it very simple for them.
Um, but we also help them, you know,secure their defenses, optimize their I.
(03:05):
T.
Ed (03:06):
You're SHI's first ever employee.
And one of only maybe three people out ofnow 6, 000, uh, that are still involved
with the company and have been since thebeginning, what were those first days?
Like, you know, what do you, what do youremember about meeting Thai and Suli?
How did you get here?
Melissa (03:22):
I was hired by a company called Lautech, and they had just acquired
Software House that was in April of 1989.
Before November of 1989,they went bankrupt, right?
All our assets were frozen, and we weretold to call our customers and tell
them we were going out of business.
And so I was on the phone with our largestof a handful of our customers and told
(03:45):
them we were going out of business.
And Suli, the co founder, walked inand told me to put the phone down.
I had no idea who this guy was,but he had a commanding voice
like put, put the phone down.
I want to talk to you.
And, um, so I did, and we had aconversation and ultimately he and
Thai had convinced a few of us to stay.
(04:06):
Um, at that point, Ireally was not interested.
Um, and I was interested because ithad been a few months of watching
the company really devolve Lautechdevolve over a few months time.
So Suli walked into analmost empty building.
Um, so finally, I thought, well,he really wants me to stay.
I have some leverage.
So I was earning 19, 000 at the time.
(04:30):
And I said, all right,for 23, 000, I'll stay.
And, um, He agreed to 21,000 and I stayed anyway.
Um, and certainly I didnot see 35 years coming.
Um, I was there until I found out orfigured out what I really wanted to do.
Ed (04:48):
What was your position in those early days?
Like, what were, what wereyou tasked with, with doing
like right at the beginning?
Melissa (04:53):
So I was hired as a customer service representative again, they needed
somebody to answer the phones and doprice quotes and do order processing
and handle those types of administrativetasks on a day to day basis.
And that's what I did until Suliand Thai bought the company.
And we had no computer systems.
(05:14):
We had no other support.
So overnight I becamethe jack of all trades.
I sold, I bought, I packaged,I picked, I shipped.
I even crossed a UPS picket line onetime to go pick up product to deliver
it to IBM in Yonkers, New York.
So that's what I did for several years.
(05:35):
So as a matter of fact, I think Iwas the treasurer of the company
at one point in the very, very,very early years of the company.
Ed (05:43):
Well, so you got a demotion at some point then?
Melissa (05:45):
I did get demoted at some point.
Exactly.
They didn't want my hands on those checks.
Ed (05:50):
Yeah, we all have different aptitudes.
What were the goals of thecompany at the beginning?
You know, so, like, that's whatyou were doing as an employee.
But, you know, what wasthose early day goals?
Um, and how were they discussed?
Melissa (06:03):
Well, the first thing that needed to happen was we had
to get off probation with IBM.
Um, because of the financial challengeswith Lautech, we couldn't ship anything.
Um, we were put on probation and had wenot been able to resume business with IBM,
we would have been out of business, right?
There would be no software house.
Um, that was the first challenge.
(06:24):
As convincing as Suli was.
to get me to hang up that phone and nottell IBM we were going on a business.
He was that convincing when hespoke with IBM and asked them
to give us a second chance.
Um, that was after he had secured a creditline with a distributor because we had
no credit because of low tax bank debt.
(06:45):
So that was the first hurdlethe company had to get over.
Um, after that it becameWe just have to win.
We have to win.
We have to win, right?
We have to build abrand in order to scale.
We just need big, big customers.
And then as far as, um, Thai andSuli's aspirations, it was, you
know, million dollar company, 100million dollar company than a billion
(07:08):
dollar company that we started, youknow, added zeros to that number.
And quite honestly for manyyears, I just couldn't see it.
I mean, some of the yearsI was the only seller.
So I was, you know, my thoughtswere, there's no way I'm going
to achieve those numbers.
Um, but I would say afterprobably the first 10 years, every
(07:28):
aspiration or every milestone,um, that we were able to achieve.
I stopped questioning our ability,right, to hit the objectives that Suli
and Ty set for us, because every time wedid, and, um, I was amazed every time.
Ed (07:46):
You and Thai are, I would say, on a day to day basis, the only two
people who have worked at SHI everysingle day since the beginning.
How would you describeThai management style?
Melissa (07:56):
So Thai's management style, she always told me, you want to
hire people that you don't have tomanage, which means they're self
managing, and they can be independentand autonomous and do a great job.
So that was her management style.
I appreciate that because Idon't want to be told what to do.
I don't want to be given a plan,you know, and said, you know,
(08:18):
go ahead and follow these steps.
She enabled me to be creative,um, to do what it takes to win.
And, um, I had that level of autonomyand, um, authority to make those
decisions because let's face it,what could I break at that point?
We didn't have much, therewasn't much to break.
She enabled people to makedecisions and be creative, um, and
(08:44):
to go out and win the business.
That was her management style, andin large part, it's still that way.
Ed (08:50):
So, you and Thai right from the beginning, uh, Thai's sister, Celeste,
came in a few, a few years afterwards,and, um, that was before anybody really
talked about, you know, women in IT.
And, you know, the ratio of men towomen in IT has been written and
talked about at length, you know, forthe past, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.
Um, You know, you're the secondemployee only to the president, CEO
(09:12):
of the largest minority woman ownedbusiness in the United States, yet
we don't often emphasize that, and Idon't get the feeling that for a long
time, anybody gave thought to that.
And why is that?
Melissa (09:25):
I mean, being the largest woman owned business in the United
States, it's an attribute, but it doesnot define who we are or what we do.
I know in the very early days,it was a door opener and we
used it to our advantage.
Um, but ultimately price andperformance is what wins the day.
Um, so the fact that we were a womanand minority owned really didn't matter
(09:47):
long term if we were not performing.
We don't want to be defined by being awoman owned company, and we don't want to
win because we're a woman owned company.
Um, we'll take the win, but we wantto win based on our own merits,
and it's always been that way.
Ed (10:03):
Let's move into the history of SHI and innovation.
You know, so, IT companieshave, have no choice.
Survival depends on constantlyevolving your offerings and
capabilities to customers.
Um, but it also requires completelychanging how you conduct your business.
When you started, SHI started with,you know, uh, quarterly paper catalogs,
telephones, fax machines, you know,you've witnessed firsthand our history
(10:26):
of, you know, accelerating growth,expansion, um, you know, what are some
of SHI's inflection points, you know,when you look back and say, okay,
these are some of those key decisionsor key events that actually happened.
Thank you.
Define the success of acompany that's now 35 years.
You know, what do you look back to as,as some of those points, uh, that, that
(10:46):
contributed to our long term success?
Melissa (10:48):
So I think about when we opened up SHI Hong Kong and it was at the
request of one customer and we openedup SHI Hong Kong for that one customer.
Well, that one customer, right.
35 years later, they have transformedmany, many times, but they're still
one of our largest customers, right?
So without.
And it's all interrelated.
(11:10):
It's all interrelated.
That one customer enabled usto win another customer, right?
To build a telco vertical.
Um, so opening the internationallocations, I would say was paramount,
especially in today's world.
It's all multinational.
It's all multinational.
Um, I would say the next is,You know, setting up shi.
(11:33):
com, right?
Our customers, our competitors weresupporting these electronic catalogs,
um, for their customers, right?
So we followed suit.
I think in 2009, shistarting shi corp, right?
For the SMB segment.
Um, she's often told me, had itnot been for that in 2009, we may
(11:55):
not be in business today, right?
Because their accelerationof growth for the company.
I mean, if you think about it.
How many years later, 2009until today, they're almost
a 10 billion business, right?
And they enabled us to, um, improveour authorizations with certain OEMs.
So that was a majorinflection point for us.
(12:18):
Um, in a great enabler of the, um.
You know, the longevity or the longterm health of S. H. I. I would say
the most recent, um, acquisition oflocusts in India is a major inflection
point because that's a big gap for usoutside the U. S. Um, so while they're
(12:38):
a managed services organization rightthere, strength is in security, high
performance compute in particular.
Um, and and they'll fill agap again, which is a Mhm.
Big deal for us because in the largestcompanies, they want, you know,
their partners to be those with thebroadest footprint, and that has been
(12:59):
a disadvantage for SHI for a long time.
Ed (13:02):
What's interesting about some of these inflection points, when we first
transitioned into hardware, um, it was,it was right after the dot com bubble and
post nine 11, our, our expansion into.
Mid size business was 2009, right inthe middle of the Great Recession.
A Stratoscale was opened, you know, in2020 when we were dealing with COVID.
(13:23):
You know, what does it say to SHI that itjust seems like we pick these times when
we're pushing down on the acceleratorwhen other people might be letting off?
Melissa (13:34):
I thinkhaiTy took advantage of the opportunity because others are letting
off and she wanted to capitalize on theirlack of attention, you know, pulling back
support for certain areas of the business.
Um, and she can only, only Ty cantell us best why she did those things,
but I think she saw an opportunitythat we had to capitalize on.
(13:56):
Um, another example, what I didn'tmention, but when you said about
getting into the hardware business, Iactually think it was in the, Earlier
nineties or maybe mid nineties.
Um, one of our, the largest banks inthe world called us on a Friday and
their reseller, who's no longer inbusiness any longer, jacked up their
prices significantly, like 10, 15, 20%.
(14:19):
And this bank said, thanks, but no thanks.
And they called S. H. I. Who's theirsoftware reseller and said, we need
like, you know, 40, 000 laptops a year.
Can you guys handle it?
And we're like, Uh oh, becareful what you ask for.
You know, we ran into Thai andSuli and they're like, let's do it.
Right.
And within a very short period of time,literally weeks, we were up and running.
(14:41):
That was really our entreeinto, um, large scale, you
know, laptop deployments, right.
For the big brands likeHP and Apple and Dell.
Um, because we really werenot on their map at that time.
Ed (14:56):
So today, uh, you and SHI's leadership team are leading a kind of a
complete evolution of how SHI conductsbusiness and improves productivity,
efficiency, you know, through throughthe use of AI whenever possible.
So we're doing it internally, butwe're also providing, you know, and
expertise, equipment, everything that'sneeded for customers to do it as well.
(15:19):
When you think of like innovationat, at, at SHI, you know, not just in
our offerings to customers, but likehow we run our business, you know,
how have we been able to do this, youknow, like repeatedly over the years?
Melissa (15:32):
So the automation has gone from building scripts to automate
things to, you know, full AI.
I'd say we've automated, um,software license renewals.
We've automated.
Dating catalogs, um, we've automated,you know, auto closing purchase orders.
So there's been a lot of incrementalautomation, just taking a look at some
(15:54):
of our, a lot of our processes thatreally consume the most energy and time
from the most employees in the company.
We're still in a totaltransformation, right?
For the last three to four years,we've been transforming I. T.
We've been transforming finance.
And as a result, the ripple down effectis transforming the entire company, right?
(16:17):
Sales, inside sales, purchasing,warehouse operations, et cetera.
Um, we also developed our owninternal AI called MindSpark.
There are things like trip reports, right?
Summarizing account plans.
You know, aid in developing proposals,getting ideas about how we can best
position S. H. I, um, in certain areas.
(16:38):
I think right now we'vegot over 100 use cases.
I think we've got like 4, 500of our 6, 000 employees that
are actively using MindSpark.
So, productivity, I know, I have seenproductivity improvements in my own
organization, um, and utilizing itis able to do things that would take
(16:59):
us months to, literally months to do.
Ed (17:02):
So, right now, as we speak, construction is nearing completion on
our new AI and Cyber Labs facility.
That's a place that's, that's designed tobring together leaders from businesses,
research universities, government agenciesto kind of reimagine and collaborate
and discover next generation A.
I. And cyber solutions were really as acompany building a place that could be a
(17:26):
research facility for people to come inand test out, you know, the latest in A.
I. You know, what do you think when yousee, you know, the potential that's there?
Melissa (17:35):
There's significant potential.
I mean, our customers need us.
And if you think about it, evenour customers still are trying to
figure out what to do with AI, right?
So many of them are just investingand building applications
because we've got to do it.
We've got to do it.
It's just like 15 years ago with cloud.
Right.
We've got to get all ourapplications to the cloud.
(17:56):
So you have that happening.
And then you have those that aren'tdoing much because they're afraid.
They don't know what to do, what'sgoing to do to the business.
So SHI and the labs that we havedeveloped are, it's a safety zone, right?
And rather than hire one of the,you know, largest of the consulting
firms, um, and pay them potentiallyhundreds of thousands or millions.
(18:20):
We can get through thatentire journey in six weeks.
No company has a big enoughbench or enough talent, right?
So save yourself a few million, right?
And let's go back and reinvest.
Um, and let's address the issuesperhaps that are preventing, um,
this AI from being successful.
(18:40):
So.
You know what?
We looked at again.
We just have to be the best at what we do.
And I believe what we doshould be what we're best at.
And so we focus our energy andaddress our customer needs where they
are and how we can best serve them.
And it might sound very simple,but it's really what we do.
(19:01):
It's simple, but it's very, veryimpactful to their business.
Similarly, in our cyber lab,if you think about it, every
organization has 10, 20, 30, 50, 100different security products, right?
They're trying to patchup every vulnerability.
And all of the primary, um, securitypartners are coming out with platforms
(19:23):
where one maybe was just like anendpoint device security company.
Now they're also protecting the edge.
They're protecting the cloud,the network, et cetera.
And.
They've got vulnerabilities.
So we've got the expertise, right?
And the labs and we will do the proofof concepts will integrate technologies.
(19:44):
Um, they'll give us test cases, right?
So we will test against their environmentand then generate reference architecture.
And we were not making thedecision for them about what
technology or how to move forward.
But what we're doing is Acceleratingor short circuiting that time to
I need to do something, um, toarming me with the information I
(20:06):
need or most of the informationI need to make a decision, right?
So accelerating time tovalue, accelerating time to
revenue, reducing their risk.
Um, it's it's really incredibly valuable.
Ed (20:18):
Um, one last question.
You know, you're nobody has workedin S. H. I. longer than you, which
I'm sure you're extremely proud of.
But being founded in 1989 means that.
S. H. I. Employees come from, youknow, four different named generations.
Like there's there's boomers.
There's Gen X. There's millennials.
There's Gen Z.
If we stick around long enough,we'll be welcoming some alphas
(20:39):
to our training classes.
You know, if we listen to the onethat's years ago, you know, we
should have failed the second thatwe had, you know, millennials at
the entry level with Gen X managers.
You know, why didn't it fail?
And what remains true?
Today from those years,
Melissa (20:55):
so I mentioned XR and I think it's very evident when I'm
like, you know, why should I do it?
Well, do you want a job?
I mean, you know, therewas back in the day.
It was just sheer brute force Um,and we had something to prove Um, so
you did what it took if you were 24hours a day seven days a week, right?
It was all about winning making thecustomer happy helping the customer
(21:17):
grow We were very outwardly focused.
I would say
Ed (21:21):
yeah
Melissa (21:22):
And the millennials are more about, um, you know, collaboration,
they want to talk about things, um, youknow, they want guidance, direction,
and all of those things are good.
It's just the complete opposite.
Of what me as a Gen Xer wanted,which was autonomy and authority
(21:44):
and just let me go, right?
Just let me go.
I don't need you totell me I'm doing okay.
Let me go.
And if I'm not doing okay, itwill become very apparent quickly.
Um, so that was definitely a shiftfor me and still is quite honestly.
We had people come in, themillennials, and they were doing,
(22:05):
like, happy hour after work.
I may have even commented to youat some point, like, happy hour?
What's this?
Like, is this still work time?
Um, but I think it's a greatcombination, actually, because there's
something to the human element.
You know, you can become very roboticwhen you're just singularly focused,
(22:27):
um, and, you know, sheer brute force.
You've got a mission.
And that's what you're doing.
There's something to be humanized, if youwill, with this next generation who wants
collaboration, they want feedback, right?
They want to be part of a communityand maybe not have, um, I guess
(22:48):
they want autonomy, but not thelevel of autonomy that we had.
So.
It's an adjustment.
I mean, I think Millennials,had we not adjusted to the Gen
Xers, had we not adjusted, theyprobably would have all left us.
I mean, I'm pretty certain.
Ed (23:04):
Well, so I just wanted to say thank you for coming on and
really representing, you know,the company that we all work for.
And thanks for still being here with us.
Melissa (23:13):
Thank you.
I'm grateful for the opportunity.
Ed (23:16):
Until next time, keep innovating, stay ahead of the curve.
For Innovation Heroes andSHI, I'm Ed McNamara, and I'll
see you again in two weeks.
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