{"id":11717,"date":"2015-03-24T13:07:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T17:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=11717"},"modified":"2015-03-24T13:08:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T17:08:22","slug":"dealer-spotlight-frankly-speaking-with-flexprint-founder-ceo-frank-gaspari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/dealer-spotlight\/2015\/03\/dealer-spotlight-frankly-speaking-with-flexprint-founder-ceo-frank-gaspari\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealer Spotlight: Frankly Speaking with FlexPrint Founder & CEO Frank Gaspari"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Frank

Frank Gaspari<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a dealer who isn\u2019t concerned about telling it like it is, look no further than Frank Gaspari, Founder & CEO of FlexPrint, Inc. He\u2019s been in the industry for 30 years and has a well-documented reputation as a visionary leader and successful entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Gaspari started his first dealership in 1990 at age 25, sold it to Global Imaging Systems in 1999, and started a MPS company in 2000, which was acquired by Global in 2004. Since 2005 he\u2019s been at the helm of FlexPrint, a services-led dealership based in Mesa, AZ with clients in every state.<\/p>\n

Under Gaspari\u2019s leadership, FlexPrint has become the largest privately held managed print provider in the U.S. It\u2019s been recognized with five consecutive Inc.<\/em>500|5000 awards, eight consecutive \u201cBest Places to Work\u201d awards, and a host of other industry leadership awards that celebrate FlexPrint\u2019s business model and corporate culture.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always a trip to interview Gaspari. He\u2019s always candid and always Frank<\/em>, salty language and all. I love it! How did you come up with the concept for a services-led business model using information management for a \u201cflexible\u201d approach that\u2019s become the foundation of FlexPrint?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>It came from years of experience and what I tell customers when I\u2019m in front of them. Part of our value proposition and differentiator is something very simple. Whatever we say we\u2019re going to do and whatever our proposal says we\u2019re going to deliver, we absolutely deliver that consistently and then some. If every service business in America could say that there\u2019d be a lot less wasted time.<\/p>\n

I talk to customers about that all the time. If their vendors did what they said they were going to do, they\u2019d have a lot less problems.<\/p>\n

It starts with service. You can have the right intentions, but if you don\u2019t make the consistent investment into the infrastructure to not only take care of what you have today\u2014the people, the bodies, the resources to accommodate growth\u2014you can\u2019t deliver on what you said you would. That\u2019s critical.<\/p>\n

Is that any different from the way you learned to sell when you first started in this industry?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s different. In order for there to be sustainability you need a business model that\u2019s sustainable and allows you to grow. I\u2019ve been an owner-operator for 26 years in this space. This is my third business and by far it\u2019s my best business because of my planning and focus on whom we want to engage with. It is all about delivering a high SLA throughout the relationship. You learn from experience. It\u2019s a cultural thing. The sales people, the customer service people, they can\u2019t be the only ones passionate about that and preaching that. Everybody throughout the whole organization has to clearly understand this is who we are.<\/p>\n

Between selling MPS and selling Managed IT, and selling traditional office technology as well, how did you find people who can take these various components to market and be successful?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>You start by being candid and transparent during the interview process. I tell people when I interview them I\u2019m not going to paint a Picasso. I\u2019m going to tell you exactly what the expectations are, what the highs are, and what the challenges are. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a young person in their first or second job or if it\u2019s someone north of 60 and experienced; I respect the fact that they\u2019re going to change their career and come to work here. That\u2019s a big thing for them to do.<\/p>\n

I let them know they\u2019re making a big move by switching jobs. That\u2019s going to stay with them forever. That being said, I tell them I\u2019m going to be honest with you because once you come here the doors are wide open. There are no excuses. I don\u2019t want to hear, \u201cI didn\u2019t know this.\u201d This is the culture you got yourself into. When we explain how there\u2019s so much opportunity here and how our culture is so alive and intense and fun, people want <\/em>to work here. It starts with attracting those people and being honest with them. It\u2019s not for everybody.<\/p>\n

And that approach works?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari:<\/strong> You\u2019ve got to be able to ask the right questions and you\u2019ve got to have people with the same DNA. There are some things I can\u2019t teach. I can\u2019t teach character, I can\u2019t teach heart, I can\u2019t teach you how to be passionate. Certain people have it in their DNA.<\/p>\n

We have 170 employees today all over the country and I\u2019m the messenger of the company and that message gets relayed to our leaders and the people who are hiring and when they meet me they either want to work in this type of environment or they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So the person that fits best into a FlexPrint environment is someone who is passionate, competitive and enjoys a challenge? <\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>And people who are really, really committed to reinventing themselves. I talk about that all the time, I don\u2019t care what you accomplished last year or yesterday, it\u2019s all about what you\u2019re doing today. We need people who are committed to reinventing themselves, learning, getting better, and delivering results. We are a 100 percent results-driven company. It\u2019s an intense culture and a grateful culture where we\u2019re grateful for people who do their job. And we show it with incentives. But we are 100 percent results driven. That\u2019s the bottom line. If you don\u2019t have the stomach for that, if you want to talk about what you did before and all that other #$%&, you don\u2019t have a home here; it\u2019s not going to work out.<\/p>\n

In our annual kick-off meeting this past Monday I told everyone we had a great year and we were recognized with all these accolades, which should remind us we\u2019re great. That said, let\u2019s shred them because that is the past, it\u2019s over, get over it! You\u2019ve got to do better, you\u2019ve got to move forward, you\u2019ve got to improve starting now.<\/p>\n

Looking back to 2005 when you started FlexPrint, is there anything you\u2019d do differently now that you\u2019ve been doing this 10 years and are even smarter than you were back then?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>I don\u2019t think so, because when I started FlexPrint in 2005 I was on a high. \u00a0I had just sold my second company to Global. \u00a0I had a vision for this space. When I started in 2005, the Managed Print space was embryonic. I was able to do exactly what I told you, I reinvented myself. When you reinvent yourself you get knocked down DAILY, but you get up again, and you learn, and you start over. It\u2019s almost like being a rookie again. I needed to be a rookie again at 40 with the financial resources and experience. I\u2019m okay to say I don\u2019t know, and I\u2019m okay to lose once in awhile because you learn when you lose. After being successful, those are things I learned. \u00a0I had a lot of failures, but I learned from them and I\u2019m passionate about getting better. I don\u2019t think a lot of people are. As people get older in life and they\u2019re successful, they think they should have all the answers, but they don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re a company that continues to aggressively grow all over the country. We\u2019re growing by double digits every year. We just had the chief editor of Inc.<\/em> magazine talk to us about how unique our organic growth is. Only 900 privately help companies in history have had that type of organic growth over five years. I wouldn\u2019t change anything brother.<\/p>\n

You invest in education, not every dealer does that; as successful as you\u2019ve been why do you still find that important? <\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>I don\u2019t attend a lot of industry events. I look at some of the people that attend all the industry events and \u00a0I see these companies winning awards for the \u201cbest\u201d in managed print etc, and it\u2019s a TOTAL joke because they\u2019re half my size and been around twice as long. We\u2019re heavily committed to continuous education because you can learn something from anybody and any environment you go to. When you ask open ended questions, I don\u2019t care who they are or what they do, there\u2019s always an opportunity to learn. Someone is always doing something different. I want to hear what other people are doing because there\u2019s a chance I\u2019m going to pick up something that\u2019s going to benefit my business. Ninety nine percent of the time I walk out of a group event, I feel grateful for the way I<\/em> run my business and the awesome people that work for FlexPrint.<\/p>\n

The document imaging industry is constantly evolving and new services, solutions, and technologies are part of that evolution, is there anything new on the horizon that intrigues you and may be a good fit for FlexPrint in the not-too-distant future?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>My eyes are wide open. We created a great company here. One of the things I look at is what are the threats to us as a business? One is making sure we\u2019re bringing more measurable value to our customers. We\u2019ve always done that. There\u2019s gigantic opportunity for us to gobble up so much more business from the OEMs. The fact is the space is more mature than it was five years ago and there are downsides to that, but the upside is that Corporate America recognizes there\u2019s a lot of value in a managed program and no one can deliver better results on a national basis than FlexPrint. We have to continue to get better and add more value in the managed print piece of our value proposition because we can grow our company in an exponential way by doing that. That\u2019s what I\u2019m laser focused on.<\/p>\n

Any mistakes you\u2019ve made that you\u2019ve learned from and been able to turn into a positive over the course of your career?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>I\u2019ve made a lot of mistakes and I will make lots more! One is hiring the wrong people. At some point you have to look in the mirror. I\u2019ve had a lot of great hires and a lot of absolutely horrible hires that have cost me significant money. It\u2019s never affected our growth though. We\u2019ve always grown double digits. We\u2019re a 10-year old business and we grew another 20 percent last year. I\u2019ve invested a lot of money in people I shouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

Why do you think that is?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari:<\/strong> \u00a0I\u2019m an optimist and I believe in people, but some people misrepresent themselves. \u00a0Over the last 26 years I\u2019ve been fortunate to have many great people work for me to create a great business. When I see someone and they remind me of someone who had the DNA that worked for me before, I take more risks than I should. I am absolutely learning I have to be more selective in my decision making when it comes to people.<\/p>\n

What is it that gets you excited to get out of bed in the morning and go to work?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>I love what I do. I love the company. I am absolutely blessed to have not only such highly talented people on my team, but people with integrity, intense, results-driven, good people. I turned 50 this year and I\u2019ve owned FlexPrint longer than I\u2019ve owned my first company that I sold to Global, and I believe we can triple the size of the business. I\u2019m excited about the reputation we have earned across the nation in this space. When we compete in an enterprise opportunity with the OEMs, they know they\u2019re in for a battle and they know there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re going to lose.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited because we have great customers that value us, great employees and we can continue to grow and expand in an ultra aggressive way as long as we never forget where we came from, what it took to get here, and what our core values are.<\/p>\n

And those are?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari:<\/strong> Our people and our passion, and our business model of taking care of the customer.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re not working what do you do for fun?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>My wife and I are empty nesters now, which is pretty cool. I\u2019m fortunate; I have the best wife possible and great kids. I enjoy exercising, I love my home, and I enjoy drinking beautiful red wine.<\/p>\n

How does the rest of the year look for FlexPrint?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>For a company that never talks about revenue and sales reps that have NO revenue budget, FlexPrint will generate $50 million this year. We hired a CFO and we have a solid business plan for the year. Last year we signed double the net new CPP business than we\u2019ve ever had. I know we will exceed our budget this year. I\u2019m excited about it.<\/p>\n

I have to ask this, you spent all these years in Chicago, how did you end up a Phoenix Suns fan when you had Jordan and the Bulls?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>We have the FlexPrint club at the US Airways Center [where the Suns play]; it holds about 800 people and anybody who sits on the floor has access to it. It\u2019s a great way for us to have branding in the marketplace. The Phoenix Suns are playing the Bulls on Friday, but I\u2019ll be cheering for the Bulls. The Suns are a fun team and I\u2019m a big sponsor, but my heart is in Chicago\u2014I\u2019m a Blackhawks, Bears, and Cubs fan.<\/p>\n

Are you optimistic about the Cubs in 2015?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaspari: <\/strong>In honor of St. Ernie Banks they\u2019re going to win the World Series this year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re looking for a dealer who isn\u2019t concerned about telling it like it is, look no further than Frank Gaspari, Founder & CEO of FlexPrint, Inc. He\u2019s been in the industry for 30 years and has a well-documented reputation as a visionary leader and successful entrepreneur. Gaspari started his first dealership in 1990 at age 25, sold it to Global Imaging Systems in 1999, and started a MPS company in 2000, which was acquired by Global in 2004. Since 2005 he\u2019s been at the helm of FlexPrint, a services-led dealership based in Mesa, AZ with clients in every state. Under Gaspari\u2019s leadership, FlexPrint has become the largest privately held managed print provider in the U.S. It\u2019s been recognized with five consecutive Inc.500|5000 awards, eight consecutive \u201cBest Places to Work\u201d awards, and a host of other industry leadership awards that celebrate FlexPrint\u2019s business model and corporate culture. It\u2019s always a trip to interview Gaspari. He\u2019s always candid and always Frank, salty language and all. I love it! How did you come up with the concept for a services-led business model using information management for a \u201cflexible\u201d approach that\u2019s become the foundation of FlexPrint? Gaspari: It came from years of experience and what I tell customers when I\u2019m in front of them. Part of our value proposition and differentiator is something very simple. Whatever we say we\u2019re going to do and whatever our proposal says we\u2019re going to deliver, we absolutely deliver that consistently and then some. If every service business in America could say that there\u2019d be a lot less wasted time. I talk to customers about that all the time. If their vendors did what they said they were going to do, they\u2019d have a lot less problems. It starts with service. You can have the right intentions, but if you don\u2019t make the consistent investment into the infrastructure to not only take care of what you have today\u2014the people, the bodies, the resources to accommodate growth\u2014you can\u2019t deliver on what you said you would. That\u2019s critical. Is that any different from the way you learned to sell when you first started in this industry? Gaspari: I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s different. In order for there to be sustainability you need a business model that\u2019s sustainable and allows you to grow. I\u2019ve been an owner-operator for 26 years in this space. This is my third business and by far it\u2019s my best business because of my planning and focus on whom we want to engage with. It is all about delivering a high SLA throughout the relationship. You learn from experience. It\u2019s a cultural thing. The sales people, the customer service people, they can\u2019t be the only ones passionate about that and preaching that. Everybody throughout the whole organization has to clearly understand this is who we are. Between selling MPS and selling Managed IT, and selling traditional office technology as well, how did you find people who can take these various components to market and be successful? Gaspari: You start by being candid and transparent during the interview process. I tell people when I interview them I\u2019m not going to paint a Picasso. I\u2019m going to tell you exactly what the expectations are, what the highs are, and what the challenges are. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a young person in their first or second job or if it\u2019s someone north of 60 and experienced; I respect the fact that they\u2019re going to change their career and come to work here. That\u2019s a big thing for them to do. I let them know they\u2019re making a big move by switching jobs. That\u2019s going to stay with them forever. That being said, I tell them I\u2019m going to be honest with you because once you come here the doors are wide open. There are no excuses. I don\u2019t want to hear, \u201cI didn\u2019t know this.\u201d This is the culture you got yourself into. When we explain how there\u2019s so much opportunity here and how our culture is so alive and intense and fun, people want to work here. It starts with attracting those people and being honest with them. It\u2019s not for everybody. And that approach works? Gaspari: You\u2019ve got to be able to ask the right questions and you\u2019ve got to have people with the same DNA. There are some things I can\u2019t teach. I can\u2019t teach character, I can\u2019t teach heart, I can\u2019t teach you how to be passionate. Certain people have it in their DNA. We have 170 employees today all over the country and I\u2019m the messenger of the company and that message gets relayed to our leaders and the people who are hiring and when they meet me they either want to work in this type of environment or they don\u2019t. So the person that fits best into a FlexPrint environment is someone who is passionate, competitive and enjoys a challenge? Gaspari: And people who are really, really committed to reinventing themselves. I talk about that all the time, I don\u2019t care what you accomplished last year or yesterday, it\u2019s all about what you\u2019re doing today. We need people who are committed to reinventing themselves, learning, getting better, and delivering results. We are a 100 percent results-driven company. It\u2019s an intense culture and a grateful culture where we\u2019re grateful for people who do their job. And we show it with incentives. But we are 100 percent results driven. That\u2019s the bottom line. If you don\u2019t have the stomach for that, if you want to talk about what you did before and all that other #$%&, you don\u2019t have a home here; it\u2019s not going to work out. In our annual kick-off meeting this past Monday I told everyone we had a great year and we were recognized with all these accolades, which should remind us we\u2019re great. That said, let\u2019s shred them because that is the past, it\u2019s over, get over it! You\u2019ve got to do better, you\u2019ve got to move forward, you\u2019ve got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1643],"tags":[2139,186,190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11719,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11717\/revisions\/11719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}