![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Buddy-Puente.jpg\")
Buddy Puente,
president of operations and finance, SOS<\/p><\/div>\n
Buddy Puente, president of operations and finance for Fort Worth, TX-based Southwest Office Systems (SOS) knows from first-hand experience the benefits reaped in developing managers who can help elevate the business to the next level. In the last five years, Puente has played a hand in the development of the company\u2019s administrative director, service manager and accounting manager, all of whom rose through the ranks at SOS and have been essential to the success of the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of these people has done an incredible job,\u201d said Puente, a 2017 ENX Magazine<\/em> Difference Maker. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to monitor their decision making. Since I don\u2019t have to micromanage their work, it frees me up to think more along the lines of innovation and what we need to do next to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n Success has been a constant for years at SOS, which has enjoyed double-digit growth while operating without any debt. The company has embraced innovations that have enabled it to continue building upon its high level of success, and Puente considers the operation a well-oiled machine that requires only tweaks, and not wholesale changes, to continue on its growth path.<\/p>\n Puente is part of the one-two punch at the head of SOS, along with brother, Vince, who is president of sales and marketing. They took the helm from their father, Victor Puente Sr., who started the firm after a successful career in the service department of the Olivetti-Underwood typewriter company. Buddy Puente went to work for his father in the early 1970s, while still in high school, garnering knowledge about typewriters and electronic calculators.<\/p>\n One of the lessons Puente took from his father was the need to foster communication between the sales and service departments, something that was lacking at Olivetti-Underwood. Too often, the service techs needed to play the role of consultant with customers, letting them know about the capabilities and limitations of the equipment. With SOS, sales and service are on the same page.<\/p>\n \u201cService is number one for us,\u201d Puente said. \u201cWe work hard to ensure we\u2019re selling the customer a solution that will work. We\u2019ve walked away from business when we know it\u2019s not what the customer wants or needs. The competition will sell it to them anyway, and many times the customer wasn\u2019t happy with it. There\u2019s good communication between our sales and service people, and they trust each other, so we don\u2019t have that kind of problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Communication is a two-way street, and Puente sees the value in being a good listener. \u201cI coach them to understand the philosophy of the Puentes and the SOS culture,\u201d he said. \u201cI give them the criteria that enable\u001b them to accomplish their goals. And I know most of our people, know about their families. I want them to know I care about them personally.\u201d<\/p>\n While SOS has grown beyond the scope of a small operation, Puente learned in his early years the value of being familiar with many aspects of the business and how equipment operates. That becomes increasingly difficult as the product and service offerings expand, but it helps to become well-versed with the technologies.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to start your own restaurant,\u201d he muses, \u201cyou\u2019d better learn how to run the grill.\u201d<\/p>\n The SOS crew has proved itself worthy of tackling large deals in the past few years, according to Puente, having handled taxing periods without showing any signs of stress to the client. That is a product of having the right people performing roles tailor-made to their skills. It shows during the end-of-year evaluations, when virtually all of the employees score high on performance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve taken the time to hire the right people and that\u2019s been huge,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll only hire the people who meet all of our criteria. It\u2019s made our job as managers so much easier, and we can focus on helping our employees achieve more.\u201d<\/p>\n While SOS enlisted the services of CEO Juice to help garner more efficiencies, the dealer is primarily focused on subtle changes to bring about improvement. Tweaks are being made to SOS\u2019 Toner on Demand program and website enhancements for remote service troubleshooting and an online chat function.<\/p>\n Puente and his wife, Alice, have been married 34 years and have three grown children. They enjoy traveling by RV and recently purchased a summer home in New Mexico to avoid the Texas heat. The Puentes are active in the community and enjoy taking on philanthropic projects for organizations such as Girls Inc. and the YMCA. They also love supporting Texas Christian University athletics, particularly football and baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Employee empowerment is one of the critical ingredients required in enabling an office technology dealership, or any business for that matter, to realize its fullest potential. Finding and developing the right individuals who know what to do once the harness is in their hands is another matter. Buddy Puente, president of operations and finance for Fort Worth, TX-based Southwest Office Systems (SOS) knows from first-hand experience the benefits reaped in developing managers who can help elevate the business to the next level. In the last five years, Puente has played a hand in the development of the company\u2019s administrative director, service manager and accounting manager, all of whom rose through the ranks at SOS and have been essential to the success of the company. \u201cEach of these people has done an incredible job,\u201d said Puente, a 2017 ENX Magazine Difference Maker. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to monitor their decision making. Since I don\u2019t have to micromanage their work, it frees me up to think more along the lines of innovation and what we need to do next to succeed.\u201d Success has been a constant for years at SOS, which has enjoyed double-digit growth while operating without any debt. The company has embraced innovations that have enabled it to continue building upon its high level of success, and Puente considers the operation a well-oiled machine that requires only tweaks, and not wholesale changes, to continue on its growth path. Puente is part of the one-two punch at the head of SOS, along with brother, Vince, who is president of sales and marketing. They took the helm from their father, Victor Puente Sr., who started the firm after a successful career in the service department of the Olivetti-Underwood typewriter company. Buddy Puente went to work for his father in the early 1970s, while still in high school, garnering knowledge about typewriters and electronic calculators. One of the lessons Puente took from his father was the need to foster communication between the sales and service departments, something that was lacking at Olivetti-Underwood. Too often, the service techs needed to play the role of consultant with customers, letting them know about the capabilities and limitations of the equipment. With SOS, sales and service are on the same page. \u201cService is number one for us,\u201d Puente said. \u201cWe work hard to ensure we\u2019re selling the customer a solution that will work. We\u2019ve walked away from business when we know it\u2019s not what the customer wants or needs. The competition will sell it to them anyway, and many times the customer wasn\u2019t happy with it. There\u2019s good communication between our sales and service people, and they trust each other, so we don\u2019t have that kind of problem.\u201d Communication is a two-way street, and Puente sees the value in being a good listener. \u201cI coach them to understand the philosophy of the Puentes and the SOS culture,\u201d he said. \u201cI give them the criteria that enable\u001b them to accomplish their goals. And I know most of our people, know about their families. I want them to know I care about them personally.\u201d While SOS has grown beyond the scope of a small operation, Puente learned in his early years the value of being familiar with many aspects of the business and how equipment operates. That becomes increasingly difficult as the product and service offerings expand, but it helps to become well-versed with the technologies. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to start your own restaurant,\u201d he muses, \u201cyou\u2019d better learn how to run the grill.\u201d The SOS crew has proved itself worthy of tackling large deals in the past few years, according to Puente, having handled taxing periods without showing any signs of stress to the client. That is a product of having the right people performing roles tailor-made to their skills. It shows during the end-of-year evaluations, when virtually all of the employees score high on performance. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken the time to hire the right people and that\u2019s been huge,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll only hire the people who meet all of our criteria. It\u2019s made our job as managers so much easier, and we can focus on helping our employees achieve more.\u201d While SOS enlisted the services of CEO Juice to help garner more efficiencies, the dealer is primarily focused on subtle changes to bring about improvement. Tweaks are being made to SOS\u2019 Toner on Demand program and website enhancements for remote service troubleshooting and an online chat function. Puente and his wife, Alice, have been married 34 years and have three grown children. They enjoy traveling by RV and recently purchased a summer home in New Mexico to avoid the Texas heat. The Puentes are active in the community and enjoy taking on philanthropic projects for organizations such as Girls Inc. and the YMCA. They also love supporting Texas Christian University athletics, particularly football and baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":23546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,84,87,1638],"tags":[3009],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27052"}],"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\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27054,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27052\/revisions\/27054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}