Interviewee: Burr, President

Burr Truck & Trailer Sales Inc.

Interviewers: Alexander Schiffer, Troy Henderson, Roy Tin, Zach Plutchok, Elena Tiderencel

Date: 5th March 2017

Mode: Phone Interview

Duration of Interview: 34 minutes 20 seconds

Questions

What is your highest level of education?

I went college but I did not graduate, I went to Broome Community College and Binghamton University.

I studied business management and took a well-rounded agenda: marketing, management and economics.

What do you think is more important: experience or what you learn in college?

My experience. Yeah I mean it gives you a basis of understanding. Two of the other classes that we took

were psychology class and sociology class. It gave you a good insight into how human minds work and

how people think. But of course, it gives you the base line and you have to work with them to know how

that works.

How do you define management?

Up to this point, my definition of management is leading people and putting people in positions that they

can succeed and that they can grow.

How long have you been working for the company and this position?

In this position, the president. I have been with this company for 23 years and president for 3 years. In a

management position, probably for 19 of those 23 years.

Has the style of management change up the scale?

Changed a lot, so we have been a family and operated business for 50 years and for those 50 years, those

23 years that I am here, my father and uncle were there and I also have a cousin in, having 4 people from

our family in the company at this size, it was really easier to manage, because we can communicate really

well. When my dad took over the presidents position, we really have to relearn the management style. I

have a picture in my office, what is a horse chariot, and that pic is about 4 employees pulling the chariot

with the boss on top. And the other picture is the leader, the one leading people to pull the chariot. For

years, I have been the leader. When I have to hire the managers, I have transform from being a leader to

being a boss. Leader works on a daily basis, shoulder to shoulder, have that foresight to work hand to

hand with people. But sometimes you really have to step back and take a look at the big picture and do

whats best for the company. It definitely has been a transition, on top of that, if you think about me, I am

44 years old,, when I started, I was pretty young, so hiring people to be a part of our company. It was

quite a challenge, because you look younger than the person you are hiring. You are my boss? It really is

quite a challenge.

Can you explain the trucking industry for us?

We are a heavy duty and medium duty truck dealership. We are like a car dealership but heavy equipment.

Our lot. For Binghamton NY, it is good size. We represent Volvo trucks, they have dealers in United

States. We head down and we reveal our financial composite and understand how are we struggling

internally and we help each other out. I became good friends with these other Volvo dealers, the one in

Tennessee, is one of the best in United States. In my experience, over the years, we have had management

consulting company that we hire to work with us, they teach us more about business and management

style. The most experience I have seen and the most I have learnt is really this group. When you sit down

with your peers, you dont only prepare your financial statements, you really have to look to look at gross
profit for each department, and a ranking among the dealers, and people really help you to pull away from

the bottom.

Do you look at growth relative to size of the company?

It is easy to look at the gross sales and say they have a very higher absolute value, however, if you look at

percentage. Then it doesnt matter how big your company is. At end of the day, its all relative. On top of

that, you need to have that much more personal expense to handle. I have 33 employees and they have

230 employees, so there is a huge difference.

What specific department?

Sales Department, we sell brand new and used trucks, leasing and rental division, and we have other

departments and accounting department.

Have you ever had a demanding boss?

Yes, I have had demanding bosses before working at my family business. It is no different than you have

a demanding parent when you have a child, you change the way that you raise your child and the way that

you were raised.

What do your employees think of you?

I think my employees think that I am a bit of a softie, it is funny, because having a business partner, my

cousin. We have to play good cop, bad cop. I always get to play good cop. Over the past years, we have
realized that now there is a change in this generation of employees, and what are the expectations that

they have from their bosses.

How do you motivate your employees?

Food. Over the years, we have to sit down and do survey to our employees, anonymous, there are 10

things on the list, and our employees can rank them. The first time that we did it, our managers all did it,

we thought that they really want to get paid on time. However, it is surprising that among the 30 of them,

only 1 of them rank pay on time. In real life, our employees want to feel like they are part of a team, and

they are in part of the decision-making process, do we do this? They want to be heard and feel respected.

So how do we take care of our employees? We have a lot of subcommittee, and whenever we have

management meeting, we have those heads to come in and talk to us about what they heard amongst their

little committees, and even as simple as what is the Christmas party gonna be this year, any giveaways, do

we include spouses or just employees? The other thing that you have to think about Binghamton NY is

that the area is really depressed, a lot of people want to leave the area and they want to go to the city.

Whether it is the weather, the housing, there is no good draw in our area to bring talents in. We look at it

as employee retention, even at my meetings, I always talk about what do we do to retain employees.

What is the biggest challenge that you have faced as a manager?

The biggest is to avoid favoritism. Every employee is different, and as a manager, you look at everyone

differently. You look at them and you think what you do to utilize them and how to get the most out of

them. In different industries, it is all different, people on minimum wage and such. But at a corporate

level manager, you can look at people and say what do I have to do to keep this person engage and how
much do I pay them the least to still get a lot out of them because the financial statements are also

important.

What is the greatest success you have had as a manager?

Volvo truck has a competition every 2 years, it is a team competition for parts and services. 4 people

team. 1 technician, 1 service advisor, 2 parts employees. You do a series of test in the dealership, and if

you do well, you move on to the next round. If you make it to Final Four, you get invited down south to

represent in Northeast region, and we have go down 7 times out of 11 times. This is a really big deal and

we won once, I was fortunate enough to be the manager and put the team together to move from local, to

regional, to northeast, and represent the entire Northeast to go down to compete with Canada and such.

Knowing that we are capable of winning this, I am really proud of this.

Is your management style consistent with the corporation?

Yes, we also focus on the fact that we are family owned and operated. A lot of our decision making is

really based on and stay true to family owned and operated. Sometimes it blinds us, sometime it helps us.

How does that hinder you?

Typically, family business is slow to make changes, employees really want to make change, and they

dont like to wait for someone to think through the process and take their time in a slow fashion. Taking

too long, traditionally to make decisions.

What are some of your personal traits that really help your management?

I think experience is really the number 1. Even with my father and uncle here, I was put into the

management position. My grandfather was the true strong manager, his upbringing, he was the manager

of the family as well. My father and uncle sometimes got lucky in their decision making, but they really

hired the right people, steer into the right direction, and as a third generation, I really get to learn from the

family.

Do you think your management skillset is transferrable to other industries, for example, energy or

retail?

No. I dont think so. Obviously some of them are going to overlap each other, I think that different

industries require different skillsets.

POLC and how has working in this industry shaped your experience in these four areas?

Number one, I go to work every day with an agenda, being a manager is not something that you can walk

in and wait for instructions, and manager is the one giving out agendas, if you are not prepared, your

employees know that right off the bat, you need to know what your goals are for the next week, whether

short term or long term, and how to accomplish that, and hopefully you can get result from the previous

time frame and use that to think about what you can do next. That is the one thing that we did not have

when we started, but something that I learnt along the way. You are the leader, you are the boss, you need

to inspire people, motivate people, you have to be able to kick them in the butt when they are working

slow. You really need the good balance between POLC, a good manager needs to be able to read people,

your people, customers, and how can your company be able to adapt to the expectation, and I think that is

how a company build a culture. You have to be able to shape your team to fit the needs of your customers.
POLC is like a sphere, if you dont have an equal balance, your weakest point will really come out and

your employees and customers will know that.