WINTER 2017

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THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
STAR STAINLESS 2016 NIFMSE HALL OF FAME RECIPIENT - BRUCE WHEELER from page 96
Acceptance Speech by Bruce Wheeler
Rob, those were some nice things you shared. After
being together 40 years, I wasn’t sure what you were
actually going to come out with.
I was sweating that out a little and was glad you only
commented on the good things. I owe you for that so you
deserve a European vacation, we can go to Germany, but
we need to visit a fastener show.
Never did I think my journey would ever lead me here
and I am honored to stand here before you today. Looking
back, I think that never going to business school was
actually a blessing. It forced me to evolve untainted and
create my own set of rules to play by. A rule book that
made sense to me. You see, I never knew about things like
inventory turns. I only knew that customers want stock, so
I put it in the inventory. Lots of it.
The more you bought, the more inventory was put in.
Maybe sometimes too much, but it’s better to have too
much than to little. It was pretty basic and made good
sense to me.
Can you imagine if I bought into the concept of
inventory turns, we would be out of stock on half the items
you were looking to buy.
Let’s talk about the old 80/20 rule people like to
embrace.
If I bought into this one, we would be eliminating half
of the items Star carries. You know, those nasty items no
else wants to tie up their cash in, those tough items you all
rely on Star to have for you. As a distributer you wouldn’t be
happy with those being eliminated from our inventory. Don’t
BRUCE WHEELER AND GRANDSON CONNOR
BRUCE WHEELER MAKING HIS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH AT
2016 NIFMSE HALL OF FAME PRESENTATION
worry, there are no plans to do that, you have to remember,
I never learned the proper way of conducting business.
Here’s more on the 80/20 rule. Years ago one of our
competitors analyzed their customer base and decided
to apply the 80/20 rule and pushed all their smaller
customers away. Good move for Star.
Many of these customers came our way and we
welcomed them with open arms, ORDERS BIG AND SMALL,
WE LOVE THEM ALL. That competitors text book approach
didn’t pan out well, he is no longer in business.
I was extremely fortunate to have an unconventional
mentor and friend. The late Wayne Golden. Wayne instilled
upon me a different approach at business. Over the years
we fed off each other fueling an unconventional approach
which has built Star to the company it is today.
When I first began working at Star, we had about 40
people and 1 location. We now employ 400 and have 14
locations.
I have never found the business aspect of Star to be
all that difficult. The real challenge comes in managing 400
employees. I have been asked for years why our employee
turnover is almost nonexistent. It’s simple, we put a lot
of time and effort into working with our people Its time
consuming and it will try your patience at times, but the
investment is well worth it.
Over my 40 + years in the business, I have embraced
certain business beliefs and I would like to share a few of
them with you today.
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