In the world of human resources and hiring, some things just never quite translate on resumes and cover letters. Those materials will reveal education, experience and skills, among other facets of a prospect’s career. And now, thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence (AI), job candidates can ensure their case for employment is being delivered in the strongest of terms. That’s a good thing, especially in a highly competitive job environment.
There are certain realities. Not every candidate will boast an MBA, advanced degree, certification or Forbes 500-caliber experience. Many have a high school diploma or GED and are fresh off a three-year stint with an Amazon fulfillment center. In the end, none of that really matters to Jeff Ragusa. The president of Applied Business Concepts (ABC) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is looking for a quality all people have from a physical standpoint but don’t always use in the symbolic sense.
Ragusa makes his hiring criteria clear. “I’m talking about right here,” he exclaims, patting his chest to indicate heart. “If you have the same values I have—hard work, integrity, honesty and commitment—then it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, tall, short, male, female, old or young. That all works out on its own when you’re looking for good people.”
While ABC isn’t the Island of Misfit Toys, Ragusa admits it’s a “very strange place,” but in a good way. He cited several nontraditional success stories:
- Rena was a single mother of two when she arrived at ABC 20 years ago as a receptionist. She’d never used a 10-key calculator and wasn’t familiar with the Microsoft Office suite—in fact, her background was in the retail environment. But she was willing to work hard and learn. Today, Rena is a senior sales rep.
- Pat joined ABC six years ago despite having no industry experience and, at age 69, not fitting the profile of a high-potential prospect. Now at 75, she’s “setting the world on fire” as a sales rep serving the government sector, and customers love how she brightens every room she enters.
- After years in middle management for a high-profile company in the oil and gas world, Barry retired. Despite being financially secure, he wanted his second act to be a little more robust. Barry answered an ABC want ad for a technician in early 2017. After several years with the dealer, he decided to retire again, but Ragusa felt he was too valuable to lose. He told Barry he could work as often, or as little, as he felt comfortable doing. Now, in his mid-70s, Barry works 2–3 days a week, 5–6 hours per day, making a considerable impact every time he walks through the door.
Thus, when Ragusa says it’s the people who make ABC a great company, he shows the math. “Without having the right people, ABC is nothing,” he added. “We’re not a checkbox kind of company when it comes to hiring. When I meet with people, I can usually tell if they’re good to the core and can work in our culture. We can teach them the tasks. But integrity, hard work, commitment—you can’t teach that; they need to bring it with them. If they have all those things, we can normally figure out the rest.”
Ownership Journey
That Ragusa has been able to insert round pegs into square holes only scratches the surface of ABC’s value proposition. A Sharp-powered dealership, ABC debuted in 1996 behind Ragusa, his father Ben and Ed Doyle. The elder Ragusa had been a Lanier sales rep since the late 1960s, and by the 1980s he was the number-three exec in the company, a VP in charge of global sales. Upon leaving, Ben and Jeff teamed up in 1988 to start a Toshiba dealership in Atlanta called Omni Business Products. The Ragusas sold Omni to the manufacturer in 1994 and stuck around for a transitional period. In 1996, they moved back to their hometown of Baton Rouge and enlisted Doyle (also now retired) in starting ABC. Jeff has been joined by his twin daughters Elizabeth Ragusa Doiron and Madeline Ragusa Shea.
Sadly, Ben passed away Dec. 19 of last year, six months after Patti, his wife of 59 years, had passed. While Ben had not been engaged in the day-to-day at ABC for a few years, his guidance and advice were always welcome and valuable.
Ragusa describes ABC as a business family as opposed to a family business; he resisted the urge to populate the company with cousins, nieces and nephews. “I love having my daughters in the business—it’s a tremendous legacy,” he said. “They’re learning and growing. But we’ve made an effort not to have ABC saturated with family members.”
Success at ABC has centered on organic growth and M&A opportunities. Ragusa made two acquisitions in the past two years. One was a small, one-person lifestyle business called All-American Business Products. Then last June, CopyNet of New Iberia—a three-person tech operation—was obtained. The latter deal enabled ABC to boost its Lafayette operations, add a general manager and set the stage for the branch to move into a new facility in 2026. ABC also has an office in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.
With revenue in the $5 million to $10 million range, ABC serves southern Louisiana from the east Texas border to western Mississippi, and north into the Opelousas/Alexandria region—essentially the central part of the state. Religion and education are two of the primary verticals the dealer serves, which originated because of its Duplo digital duplicator products (unseating a local RISO dealer in the process) in the early days of ABC. State and local government contracts have fueled growth in the SLED realm, helping to scale ABC’s education portfolio.
Myriad Opportunities
In recent years, correctional facilities have proven to be a fertile market, and the dealer counts the state’s flagship prison among its clients. This led to strong customer referrals. The industrial sector, powered by the petrochemical influence (chemical plants, refineries) along the Mississippi River, represents some of ABC’s larger commercial clients.
In addition to Sharp MFPs, AQUOUS Boards and professional displays and the aforementioned duplicators, ABC offers Kyocera printers, Epson wide-format devices and KIP multifunction plotters. Ragusa would like to see more emphasis on Sharp display products and feels the Lafayette market has a particularly high upside. While he’s given thought to certain diversifications, Ragusa wants to ensure he has a firm footing following the CopyNet acquisition.
It was a banner 2025 for ABC. The CopyNet acquisition and the addition of their personnel bolstered the company’s foundation in the western Louisiana market. Madeline returned to the company after spending a year in Texas, and she’s been a key addition. The greatest growth has stemmed from managed print services (MPS) and the government sector.
The challenges have been mostly good ones. Jayson Salter, director of operations, has been a burst of positive energy after joining ABC two years ago, providing the bandwidth needed to address the expansion.
“We’re feeling some growing pains right now, and we’re doing significant building renovations at our headquarters to accommodate it,” Ragusa noted. “In addition to developing a lot of new people, we’re realigning responsibilities with some of our existing people.”
The MPS performance was a product of some internal changes made by ABC to ensure the offering was getting the attention it deserved from clients. “We’d done a good job with the clients we had, but we weren’t attracting enough new MPS business,” he pointed out. “We took a different approach, adjusting our incentive plans and compensation programs to make MPS more important to our sales force. Getting a better focus on it, being more deliberate about it and then making sure the salespeople are more vested in it has really been the big difference. Our markets are a little less sophisticated than a Chicago, New York or L.A., so a little innovation goes a lot longer in our marketplace than it would in a bigger market.”
Mastering Marketing
Another meaningful change at ABC was the creation of a stand-alone marketing team led by Elizabeth. Previously, it fell upon the account representatives to align their sales and marketing efforts, and Ragusa wanted them to focus on client research and outreach. Not only does her department tend to marketing, but it’s also charged with sales administration, which previously fell under accounting. In addition, Elizabeth coordinates logistics and billing with the goal of creating more synergy between the sales department and order fulfillment.
In the near future, Ragusa has plans to add another pair of hands to the marketing department. He also emerged from last fall’s Sharp dealer meeting with a few of the OEM’s initiatives that he feels will advance ABC’s program further.
“We plan to flesh out the true marketing aspect more than we have been,” he said. “We haven’t taken it into the direction we really wanted to initially because of the way we’ve handled the administrative side of it. The addition of personnel will give us the bandwidth to focus on true marketing impact.
“I’m excited to participate in some of Sharp’s marketing initiatives, especially relative to social media, where there’s going to be a great deal of both automation and resource-sharing. I love the possibilities, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that develops.”
Not all marketing ideas take root. One third-party resource, a multi-channel lead generation program Ragusa learned about via a webinar, didn’t work out for the dealer—a fact that became apparent during the implementation phase. However, using BlitzMasters’ sales-enablement call campaigns has been a rousing success. Ragusa credits Scott Bonk, ABC’s vice president of sales, with leveraging the program to its fullest during the pandemic. It pairs advanced metrics with a recasting of the original sales blitz method of generating net-new accounts and augmenting existing ones.
“Using the old skills we’ve all developed—objection-handling and having a good script and plan—we’ve seen a terrific impact with our salespeople,” Ragusa said. “We’re getting in front of more decision makers, which yields more business. Our outbound marketing has been much more successful than the other program.”
While not a micromanager, Ragusa is certainly a hands-on owner who’s engaged with all 30 members of the team. This helps him speak fluently with customers on any matters concerning their engagement with ABC. Ragusa doesn’t keep banker’s hours or spend afternoons on the golf course; he’s plugged in from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. He leaves the granular management of the departments to Bonk and Frank Fernandez, the company’s vice president of technology. The commitment level of the execs adds to the success formula.
Raising the Bar
Moving forward, Ragusa would like to see ABC engage AI in more aspects of the business. From a product perspective, he thinks water could be an easy add-on in the future. Another takeaway from the Sharp conference was a presentation by Culture Index. Although Ragusa’s instincts have been spot-on in evaluating atypical personnel fits, this tool can help evaluate not only job candidates but existing personnel as well.
And while Ragusa’s not looking to expand his coverage footprint via M&A, he’s always willing to entertain overtures from dealers seeking to exit the business. Any deals he completes over the next 24 months will likely focus on bolstering ABC’s current branches. There are prospective opportunities he’s mulling.
“I want to be careful. ABC is a very stable company,” Ragusa noted, pointing out he’s never had to resort to layoffs, even during the worst of Hurricane Katrina and the pandemic. “We’re aggressive, but we’re also conservative. Financial stability is a key component. I don’t want to overextend and get myself in trouble, which is why I put adding new products on the backburner. You don’t want to have too many balls in the air and mess up a good thing.”
The new year has plenty of exciting possibilities, from the Baton Rouge HQ rehab to the new office in Lafayette led by GM Kerry Pelham and the plan to add account reps. Bringing more of ABC’s products and services to the acquired companies’ customer list will continue. On a personal note, both Elizabeth and Madeline are due to have their first children in the spring, making Ragusa a first-time grandfather.
“We’re just seeing lots of success everywhere we turn,” he added. “I’m so excited about what the future holds for us.”
