![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/MelnickR-02-final1.jpg\" "\\"MelnickR-02")
<\/a>Reed Melnick<\/p><\/div>\n
For many of us or maybe just me, the news on Aug. 5 that Nevill Business Machines in Carrolton, Texas has been acquired by Kyocera Document Solutions America was a shocker. Nevill has been a perennial Elite Dealer and a high-profile Kyocera dealership thanks in large part to the larger than life presence of Nevill\u2019s President and General Manager Reed Melnick. He\u2019s also been a great source for many of my articles and I\u2019ve always valued his perspective.<\/p>\n
With the acquisition Nevill becomes Nevill Document Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera Document Solutions America. According to the August 5 press release issued by Nevill, Nevill will be relocating in January 2013 to Kyocera\u2019s Irving, Texas regional office from the current Nevill Headquarters in Carrolton, enabling the company to expand its operations for future growth across the state of Texas.<\/p>\n
We caught up with Melnick on Monday right after the news was announced.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>As you know the relationship between Kyocera and Nevill has been growing stronger and stronger throughout the years. It really got to a place where in the last 15 years we went from $2 million to $17 million and we still wanted to grow more. It became a decision, \u2018do I want to go and buy companies in different areas and take another $5 or $6 million on the table or find someone who had $3 billion worth of cash and grow that way\u2019.<\/p>\n When Mr. Ina (President of Kyocera Document Solutions America) came aboard the company really started to come together because there was no more \u2018let me ask Japan.\u2019 It became a direct connection and the company could make decisions quickly and make good decisions, and that really changed the dynamics of the corporation.<\/p>\n Looking at that and the direction I wanted to take Nevill, and making sure all the employees were taken care of and all the things that had happened with the relationship that Kyocera and Nevill had together, I thought that would be a good transition. We looked at it and made a decision that Nevill Document Solutions will be the center for the growth of the operation for Texas and wherever else we go.<\/p>\n How difficult of a decision was this despite everything you just told me?<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>It was a crazy hard decision to make because this has been my baby for all these years. I had to take myself out of the emotional side of things and look at what was best for the customers and the employees for not only 5-10 years, but long term. This was really the best way.<\/p>\n I started to study the corporate culture of Kyocera in Japan under Dr. Inamori\u2019s \u00a0leadership. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve delved into what a tremendous person he is as the founder of Kyocera. When you look his management style, his beliefs, his contributions to mankind and science, I found there was so much similarity with the way we grew our company and take care of our customers and our people and the management philosophies of allowing creative people to be creative. There\u2019s a lot of synergy and I would not have done this with anybody but Kyocera.<\/p>\n How does this affect your employees?<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>Everyone has a great future and everyone came aboard with the new company. If you look at this it\u2019s crazy great because everyone who has built this company that we trained and developed is now on the ground floor of the next level of Nevill because we want to expand to major cities in Texas. Over the next three years we want to triple our size and now we have the ability to do that. It\u2019s now like Nevill on steroids.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n How does this affect you? What role will you now play?<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>A lot of times when people sell their company that\u2019s the end of their career, but I look at this as the next development of me of growth within the organization and helping to create a company culture. I think it\u2019s a great thing. I lot of the experiences I had with other manufacturers did not turn out the way I wanted them to because their culture was not towards people, not towards the customer, instead it was more towards them and manufacturing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m now president of Nevill Document Solutions so I\u2019m leading the organization just like I did before. We\u2019re moving from our corporate headquarters here that has 16,000-square feet to our new corporate center that is Kyocera\u2019s regional center in Irving with 170,000-square feet.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You\u2019ve been a vocal member of the Kyocera Dealer Council, clearly as a Kyocera employee you will no longer be in that role.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>Right, I no longer am the president of the Dealer Council.<\/p>\n What did you learn from that experience that will help you as a member of the Kyocera organization?<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>I got to interface with many of the Kyocera Japan people from the standpoint of product development and marketing. I got to understand who they are and what they\u2019re about. It also demonstrated to me the things I needed to do from a leadership standpoint in their organization to get my points across. Also, through the things I did with the Dealer Council I think it earned me a great deal of respect so I\u2019m not an unknown for anybody [at Kyocera].\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You\u2019ve done a great job of branding Nevill with the Nevill Maniacs, etc., is that going to change?<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>It\u2019s not, it\u2019s just going to be our Nevill knowledge, our Nevill wizard, our Nevill intelligence, and now it\u2019s going to expand throughout the state of Texas. The only thing you\u2019ll see is a different logo where instead of it being blue and white it\u2019s now red and black. It\u2019s still Nevill Document Solutions and will have some of the style. We\u2019ll also building the Japanese culture into our organization and we\u2019re looking for a lot of tremendous growth.<\/p>\n We believe that [moving to] this center will allow us to succeed [as we expand] into further [locations] in the United States. If you think about it, going from the office we have now to 170,000-square feet that has the robotic parts distribution center for the whole United States, the training center for the technical people, the ability of adding more classrooms to train employees and create the culture through the classrooms, the image and the direction we\u2019re going as a company, it\u2019s just vast, positive, and upward.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You e-mailed me about this last Friday and before the end of the day and even first thing Monday morning, I started hearing rumors from people in the industry. Let me run a couple of those by you and let you address them. One, Global was interested in acquiring Nevill and that\u2019s why Kyocera stepped in?<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>Not true, we never entertained Global at any point. Our cultures are too different.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Rumor two, Nevill was having financial issues and that\u2019s the reason for the sale?<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>We are kicking butt. Never have we been stronger and if you were to go onto Dunn & Bradstreet, and even though we were a privately held company and had our financial information out there for everyone to see, you would have never seen a stronger Nevill.<\/p>\n What do you see as the biggest challenge for you going forward as you transition from one role to the next?<\/em><\/p>\n Melnick: <\/strong>Our challenge together is to understand how we grow businesses in this industry and making sure we don\u2019t develop \u2018this is the way that Kyocera does it,\u2019 but develop a way that together we do it within the guidelines of a privately held company and succeed at the same time. It\u2019s going to be a great chess game.<\/p>\n This is the first non-defensive acquisition that Kyocera has made. This is one where they said \u2018how can we build our business and who do we want to do this with\u2019 and they looked to someone who is loyal to them and has stuck by them as they have stuck by me. They want a spirit where we can grow together. I told them \u2018if you want to do this and you just want me to do this little piece, it\u2019s not good for anybody. If you want this to be a place to expand, a place for creativity, and a place of everyone winning and getting to our goals, that\u2019s what we need to do.\u2019<\/p>\n There\u2019s going to be lots of conversations of why and how and hopefully we can take some of the successful things we\u2019ve done here and spread them nationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many of us or maybe just me, the news on Aug. 5 that Nevill Business Machines in Carrolton, Texas has been acquired by Kyocera Document Solutions America was a shocker. Nevill has been a perennial Elite Dealer and a high-profile Kyocera dealership thanks in large part to the larger than life presence of Nevill\u2019s President and General Manager Reed Melnick. He\u2019s also been a great source for many of my articles and I\u2019ve always valued his perspective. With the acquisition Nevill becomes Nevill Document Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera Document Solutions America. According to the August 5 press release issued by Nevill, Nevill will be relocating in January 2013 to Kyocera\u2019s Irving, Texas regional office from the current Nevill Headquarters in Carrolton, enabling the company to expand its operations for future growth across the state of Texas. We caught up with Melnick on Monday right after the news was announced. Why? Melnick: As you know the relationship between Kyocera and Nevill has been growing stronger and stronger throughout the years. It really got to a place where in the last 15 years we went from $2 million to $17 million and we still wanted to grow more. It became a decision, \u2018do I want to go and buy companies in different areas and take another $5 or $6 million on the table or find someone who had $3 billion worth of cash and grow that way\u2019. When Mr. Ina (President of Kyocera Document Solutions America) came aboard the company really started to come together because there was no more \u2018let me ask Japan.\u2019 It became a direct connection and the company could make decisions quickly and make good decisions, and that really changed the dynamics of the corporation. Looking at that and the direction I wanted to take Nevill, and making sure all the employees were taken care of and all the things that had happened with the relationship that Kyocera and Nevill had together, I thought that would be a good transition. We looked at it and made a decision that Nevill Document Solutions will be the center for the growth of the operation for Texas and wherever else we go. How difficult of a decision was this despite everything you just told me?\u00a0 Melnick: It was a crazy hard decision to make because this has been my baby for all these years. I had to take myself out of the emotional side of things and look at what was best for the customers and the employees for not only 5-10 years, but long term. This was really the best way. I started to study the corporate culture of Kyocera in Japan under Dr. Inamori\u2019s \u00a0leadership. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve delved into what a tremendous person he is as the founder of Kyocera. When you look his management style, his beliefs, his contributions to mankind and science, I found there was so much similarity with the way we grew our company and take care of our customers and our people and the management philosophies of allowing creative people to be creative. There\u2019s a lot of synergy and I would not have done this with anybody but Kyocera. How does this affect your employees?\u00a0 Melnick: Everyone has a great future and everyone came aboard with the new company. If you look at this it\u2019s crazy great because everyone who has built this company that we trained and developed is now on the ground floor of the next level of Nevill because we want to expand to major cities in Texas. Over the next three years we want to triple our size and now we have the ability to do that. It\u2019s now like Nevill on steroids.\u00a0 How does this affect you? What role will you now play? Melnick: A lot of times when people sell their company that\u2019s the end of their career, but I look at this as the next development of me of growth within the organization and helping to create a company culture. I think it\u2019s a great thing. I lot of the experiences I had with other manufacturers did not turn out the way I wanted them to because their culture was not towards people, not towards the customer, instead it was more towards them and manufacturing.\u00a0 I\u2019m now president of Nevill Document Solutions so I\u2019m leading the organization just like I did before. We\u2019re moving from our corporate headquarters here that has 16,000-square feet to our new corporate center that is Kyocera\u2019s regional center in Irving with 170,000-square feet.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been a vocal member of the Kyocera Dealer Council, clearly as a Kyocera employee you will no longer be in that role.\u00a0\u00a0 Melnick: Right, I no longer am the president of the Dealer Council. What did you learn from that experience that will help you as a member of the Kyocera organization?\u00a0 Melnick: I got to interface with many of the Kyocera Japan people from the standpoint of product development and marketing. I got to understand who they are and what they\u2019re about. It also demonstrated to me the things I needed to do from a leadership standpoint in their organization to get my points across. Also, through the things I did with the Dealer Council I think it earned me a great deal of respect so I\u2019m not an unknown for anybody [at Kyocera].\u00a0 You\u2019ve done a great job of branding Nevill with the Nevill Maniacs, etc., is that going to change?\u00a0 Melnick: It\u2019s not, it\u2019s just going to be our Nevill knowledge, our Nevill wizard, our Nevill intelligence, and now it\u2019s going to expand throughout the state of Texas. The only thing you\u2019ll see is a different logo where instead of it being blue and white it\u2019s now red and black. It\u2019s still Nevill Document Solutions and will have some of the style. We\u2019ll also building the Japanese culture into our organization and we\u2019re looking for a lot of tremendous growth. We believe that [moving to] this center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}