Under CEO Matt Gresge’s leadership, AIA Corporation (asi/109480) increased year-over-year North American promotional product sales more than 5% in 2017 to $175.4 million. The gain was good enough to rank AIA as the 11^th largest distributor in the promotional products industry, according to Counselor’s most recent Top 40 Distributors list. While proud of the achievement, Gresge feels like he and the team at AIA are just starting to tap the organization’s potential for growth in a dynamic marketplace. With Gresge about to celebrate two years in charge at AIA this October, Counselor checked in with the forward-thinking CEO for insights on where AIA has been – and where it’s going.

AIA Corporation CEO Matt Gresge.

Q: So before we jump into AIA, please tell us a bit about your background. What were you doing professionally before you joined the distributorship?

MG: I was President and COO for The Highlands Group, a service provider to independent distributors and their supporting manufacturers. I was also President of TOPS Products, a $300 million manufacturer of business products that are sold through leading retailers, e-commerce resellers and a nationwide network of over 2,000 independent distributors. I began my career as a commissioned sales representative, leading a large North American sales force, and spent my general management career successfully growing businesses that are driven by independent distributor networks.

Q: What are some things AIA is doing to thrive in the modern marketplace?

MG: Our industry is changing at a rapid pace. Between acquisitions, technological advancements and a shift in buyers’ purchasing behaviors, it’s forcing us and the entire industry to change.

Darryl Willis from Google said, “Companies will either be a catalyst for change or they will be a casualty of change.” As CEO, I’m committed to making AIA a catalyst, and we’re doing that by working smarter to accomplish more.

When I became CEO, I took a critical look at the systems and processes in place to help our owners operate with efficiency. From there, we prioritized updating our technological infrastructure, restructuring our processes and procedures, and investing in software to procure and analyze critical data.

Through the development of best-of-breed technology and the Experience AIA cloud-based platform, our owners can to do more in less time. In fact, we estimate that it reduces order processing time by as much as 30% per order. The result is more time to invest in efforts that improve owners’ bottom lines.

We also created processes for managing this technology, specifically by studying value stream maps to depict our order-to-cash-cycle because we want our owners to get paid faster. From there, we established standards to shorten billing cycles and identify when things aren’t working.

Lastly, we completely revamped the way we collect, process and analyze data. Talk about an eye-opening experience! We now have at our fingertips access to on-demand data aggregation, which allows us to help our owners make smart business decisions, specifically when it comes to sales planning, anticipating inputs and outputs, and increasing gross margins on goods sold.

Q: Can you tell us about the “Entrepreneurial Operating System” and how it figures into AIA’s operations?

MG: When a company undergoes transformation, it’s important to take pause and create a clear picture of where they’re headed and how to get there. Our leadership team recognized that AIA needed this introspection in order to preserve and enhance the livelihood of our company and the owners we serve. We quickly rallied around Gino Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). As a result, it’s enabled us to be nimble, work smarter and accomplish more.

We built a roadmap for the future based on EOS principles, including vision, values, goals and accountability. Most importantly, we recreated our core values, which are to always be...“Smart, Hungry, Honest, Collaborative and All-In.”

These core values forced us to rethink a few things. Specifically, what each role at AIA should look like and benchmarks for success to ensure the professionals we hire are an ideal fit for the company. At the same time, they are a fundamental standard as we actively recruit new owners to help prospects understand who we are as a company and to discover if they align with our core values.

Additionally, we meet quarterly to take a step back and look at AIA as a whole. We look at where we are spending our time, what’s making an impact and ensuring that the initiatives we implement are positively affecting our owners and helping the business overall.

Q: What are some other initiatives AIA is working on in terms of marketing, social media and coaching/business services?

MG: Our marketing team helps owners understand the benefits of engagement––both through traditional marketing initiatives such as email marketing, self-promos, mailers, etc. and through social media. The goal is to connect owners with customers and prospects – to arm our owners with targeted messages to help increase awareness, educate, provide value and, ultimately, drive sales.

We just launched our new email marketing platform that we built in conjunction with ASI. It’s a free service available to our owners that allows them to engage with customers in a visual manner with the goal of driving the customer back to their company’s website to make a sale or provide a touchpoint for further conversations.

Additionally, every owner has access to a dedicated “Success Manager.” This is an advocate for their business and works one-on-one with owners to help them make more money by increasing sales and reducing costs.

Q: Now, to your credit, you candidly admit not everything has been roses. You’ve had some missteps along the way. For instance, AIA had recently planned to start charging suppliers an administrative fee on invoices. AIA received ample backlash on this, and then decided not to proceed with the charges. What did you learn from the experience?

MG: Status quo is not an option to compete in today’s changing global economy. You may be able to get by for a while, but as someone who is “all in” on owner growth and success, I don’t have the luxury of remaining complacent.

I’m not afraid to try new things – to channel the collective experiences of our leadership team and make decisions that evolve our company. Most of the time, it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But learning is the most important takeaway, making us more prepared for challenges that lie ahead.

Q: Speaking of AIA’s leadership team: It has evolved during your tenure. Who are some of the key players?

MG: I can’t speak highly enough of our leadership team. Over the past few years, we’ve retained and added incredible talent based on their alignment with our core values, their diverse experience and track record of success.

Our current executive team consists of:

• Tom Lehr, EVP and CAO
• Tony West, COO
• Randy Morhbacher, CIO
• Susan Mintmire, VP of Business Development
• Bill Zeuch, SVP of Marketing & eCommerce
• Kimberly Fulford, SVP of Owner Success
• Katrina Willis, SVP of Supplier Relations
• Rochelle Blindauer, VP of Human Resources

A good leader knows to put their ego aside and surround themselves with smart people. This team is the real deal. They are continually engaging with our owner community to help them succeed in a competitive marketplace.