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14 November/December 2012 “I call them ‘change agents.’ We saw a new generation of change agents emerge, and today, the same people are still stepping up as leaders. General managers at our locations really displayed their leadership qualities.” People with leadership and problem-solving abilities surfaced in many areas of the company, including the new director of IT and the new director of customer service. “People rising up and showing their leadership skills took some pressure off top management,” Shaffer said. “Having a better management team freed us up to be able to plan for the future. I don’t think we would have the management team that we have today had we not gone through the process of going to a new ERP system. This is a huge benefit.” Circle 23 Wright agreed: “The company’s size has reached the point where we have to have strong leaders stepping up for the future. We feel like we have a better company now because of stronger managers and employees.” Shaffer added: “We want strong leaders. We want to invest in the best people to get the best possible results and some of our employees have really risen to the top. I have been very impressed and honored to work with these people. Mark (Wright) and I have really come to rely on the managers and directors that we have in place today. Most of these people took on their new roles after implementing the new computer system and the overall company reorganization.” While delivery drivers are not usually considered middle management, they are oftentimes the “face” of a distributorship, that is, they are the people who customers see the most. AP&T’s drivers also stepped us as a result of the company’s evolution project and have become more involved in obtaining leads for the sales department. “We have drivers who have been here a long time,” Shaffer said. “During the past couple of years, they have helped us in our sales efforts. One of the things we asked them to do was help us with sales leads, whether it be a building they drive by that we don’t service, or items they see getting delivered to a customer that we are not delivering. “We put together some incentive programs for them on sales leads and it has been pretty successful. The drivers feel rewarded and our sales reps are ‘over the moon’ for the programs.” Wright added: “Getting drivers involved in looking for sales leads gave them ‘buy in.’ Drivers have taken more ownership in the company because they have seen us respond to their requests.” From Putting Out Fires To Proactive Approach With about 70 trucks in its fleet, sporting “American Paper & Twine” in large letters and traveling about 2.3 million miles a year from five warehouses, anecdotal evidence suggests the company’s name is well known throughout the region. Evidence has also indicated that while AP&T’s name is widely recognized, exactly what the company does and what is in its trucks are not as well known. “I was hired in May (2012) to help bring direction to the marketing effort of American Paper & Twine,” Spivak said. “The company recognized the market was starting to change and just having a sales rep on the street wasn’t enough to keep its name out in front of customers or potential customers anymore. “The problem we were having was many people knew the name and they recognized the trucks, but they really had no understanding of what we sold or how we sold it. We needed to do a better job communicating.” AP&T’s vendors are also playing an important role in ratcheting up the marketing initiative. “Our vendors participate in our marketing program and they really help us reach out and touch our customers,” Spivak said. “They are also helping us with website content and many other things. This will make it easier for us in the coming year to reach out and be able to better communicate to our customers and potential customers about what and how we sell.”
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