I didn’t start out thinking Stuller. Then one day, while I was at home in Atlanta, I received an out-of-the-blue call from a recruiter. That’s nothing unusual, but this time the recruiter gushed about what an outstanding company this was. As I am known to do, I started my own research and found similar glowing stories from blog posts, on-line searches, and from people in the business. This was a company with a stellar reputation.
In many ways, Stuller faces issues similar to the independent optical business from which I came. It’s a business made up of some 22,000 independently-owned businesses that were about the same size and face many of the same issues that independent jewelers face. In that regard, experience is a carry-over and helped me with coming up to speed a little more quickly.
We happened to make one of our first visits here during the week of Festival International de Louisiane. We were quickly introduced to the “Cajun Culture” and had a blast sampling the food, taking in the music, and experiencing the esprit de corps. Since then, we have enjoyed many of the festivals, music in the park, and good food wherever we go.
Nancy and I found a place to live in Broussard, which we occupy with our rescue cat “Domino”. In addition to Domino, we have three children-twin boys, Matthew who lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his wife Amy, and 9-month old twins of their own; Stephen and his wife Stephanie who live in San Francisco, CA and have 3 kids; and Megan and Michael who live in Wilmington, NC and have one daughter.
Nancy and I love to hike. One of our first dates was climbing up Mount LeConte in the Great Smokey’s with a college hiking club. We have hiked major sections of the Appalachian Trail, not all at once though. We have also hiked through the Grand Canyon, and we have been to most of the other National Parks that this country is blessed to have. We have found a few trails here in Louisiana too.
Church plays a very important part in our lives as well. We have moved several times, and find that being a part of a church community gets one familiar with a new area much more quickly. Nancy has worked in a variety of ministries over the years, and is currently looking for something similar here. Other than that, she enjoys a certain Stuller group that gets together to watch “Dancing with the Stars”!.
We have been here at Stuller for nearly a year, and how time flies! The experience has been tremendous. I only wish that I had found Stuller and Acadiana much sooner!
My day-to-day life at Stuller is the predictable schedule of meetings of all kinds, punctuated by moments of “HE DID WHAT?? REALLY??” that make up my day. Many of the sales reps have figured out that I start early, and they can get to me before the day gets crazy. Often these discussions are around contract strategies, customer needs and so on. We are implementing a new sales approach called “Challenger” in which the sales people are being more directive and prescriptive in their approach. We are looking to uncover win-win relationships that benefit our customers and ourselves at the same time. We have also implemented a business case approach to new opportunities to put the tools in place to manage some of these opportunities. Lack of this approach got us into some projects that were not good for us. About the time I come up for air again, the day is over, and I start getting prepared for the next day.
I also try to get into the field as much as I can. We as a company are trying to move from being mostly transactional to more relational. What does this mean? It means getting inside the head of the independent jeweler more and feeling the things that keep him up at night – how to bring more people in the front door, how to convert more lookers to buyers, how to sell more to each customer, and how to profit and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. This is the fun space – full of possibilities and new ideas that become tomorrow’s reality.
