etitive ligence Values added

By Carla Waldemar

owner, Stan Ingalls... otherwise known as Dad. Okay, it's time to let you know that Genn, along with her brothers and cousin who also work here, is a fourth-generation member of the family, who grew up sweeping the store for 50 cents but had no intention, as we've learned, of getting sucked in. But listen to her now: "This industry is second to none," she insists. "I wake up every day challenged and excited."

But never coasting. "I really had to prove myself. Because I'm the owner's kid, I had to work harder. This 'owner's daughter' stuff is b.s.! I'm held to the same standards-and I expect that! I worked my way from the ground up. I give 15070, and I take pride in it."

ff ENN Hagan studied advertising \Iand marketing in college-a career path aimed at Madison Avenue, where she'd conquer the concrete canyons in her business suit. Insteadmuch to her own surprise-she headed back to upstate New York.

Pulling a reverse Cinderella, the attractive, talented and ambitious young lady abandoned the Information Superstrada for the Blue Highways of Greenville, where she signed on with GNH Lumber Inc. and now serves as advertising and promotions manager.

What was she thinking?

Thinking of how she wanted to spend her waking hours for the next couple of decades, that's what. Fending off possible hoots from her classmates, she chose to align her future with an industry that, she says, is a "best-kept secret." But she's eager to spill the beans.

Working in a small business rather than a large New York office, cruise control is not an option: "The challenges and satisfactions are different every day as you jump from one facet of the operation to another. It's an industry that puts you right to workone where you can make a difference," she testifies-"an industry where you interact with the owner every day. Where integrity is more than just a slogan. Where family, and family values, prevail over greed. Where the competition's not cutthroat. If I run into a problem, I can call up Curtis Lumber and ask, 'How do you handle this?"'Genn recounts. "My friends cannot believe that!"

Nor could they believe (even Genn admits to some advance hesitation) that, as a new board member of the Eastern New York Lumber Dealers Association, the good old boys were quick to turn to her with, "You're 30 years younger: What's your perspective?"

"They always show this respectwhat a good feeling!" she recounts.

"What sets you apart from a larger corporation is, it's family-owned and operated. Sure, we've got to grow and make money, but we're not going to sacrifice our employees and our employees' families to do so. (That's why so many have been here 15, 20, 30 years.)"

Integrity, she documents, is key"for instance, whether to compete in a price war. Or follow-through. Don't promise what you can't deliver. If a new employee says, 'Well, why not just tell them what they want to hear?' it's 'No. We're not going to play that game.' As another dealer once told me, 'You'll never find a man with more integrity"' than third-generation

To counteract any perception of special treatment, she keeps the relationship below the radar. "I call my dad 'Stan.' I use my married nameanother best-kept secret. In fact, one contractor I'd known a long time came up to me the other day and said, 'l had no idea!' Or, if an employee asks me, 'Can you tell your father...?' I say, 'Hey, it's your job. I don't have any pull; he'll tell me 'no' just as quick as he'll tell anyone else." Yet, she adds, "Dad and I complement each other, like when one of us gets an idea, 'We could try that, but this is what might go wrong...."'

An awful lot has gone right, however. In this trying 21st century, the company has grown from 30 to 80 employees and doubled its sales staff; moved the flagship store to a new, more advantageous location; branded itself as a company; and added a third location with l6 new employees.

"We haven't had any issues with safety, but as we've grown, we realized we needed to pay attention to it," Genn continues, "so we recently added safety incentives, to counteract things like broken bags of concrete or forklift damage. Negligence can result in damage, which costs us-so we asked our people, 'How do we stop this?' With the new safety incentive based on financial paybacks, "they hold each others' feet to the fire. It's worked like a charm!"

In dealing with the current economic downturn, "Yes, we're cost-cutting, but not cutting employees," Genn insists. "Instead, we're asking them for ways to save, looking for items where we can cut the fat. This industry is focused on budget and lives off a spreadsheet, so we're trying to do it better. And our drivers are not just 'steering wheel holders' -they've come forward with suggestions, such as not idling trucks in the yard, or bundl ing loads together.

"In today's economy, some dealers are hunkering down," she notes, "but we believe in getting ready for when the market opens back up. We're very pro-active with training. Every company sals that its employees are its best asset, but we actually address that from the get-go. We help them and we listen to them."

And customers, too. "We poll our contractors annually on what we're doing right or wrong. We think we're doing 1 lOVo , all arrows up, but in truth it's maybe only 957o. If you don't know something, you can't fix it," she reasons.

GNH boasts a solid customer base. Here's a good part of the reason: "We service the hell out of them, know what they need. If there's an issue, we address it, find out what happened and how can we fix it-let them know we care about them. It's like Cheers here-we know our customers by name and project, and say 'How can we help you?"' (Still, she knows full well the occasional bad apple "will try to play you like a fiddle, maybe trying to return a custom order. Customers have been educated by Home Depot that they can bring everything back.")

The Depot marched in in 2004, and Lowe's and WalMart soon followed. But GNH's business never took a dip. "Unfortunately for them, they go for the cheapest price. Home Depot's growth was huge [nationally], but now they're coming back down the other side. People are realizing you get what you pay for." she notes.

And sometimes a whole lot more, such as in GHN's Home Plannins Center, which offers pros and homel owners alike services ranging from CAD plans and advice on everything from procuring loans to masonry, flooring, and kitchen items.

"When we ask a homeowner if they have any idea of how to get started on the permit process, it's like a deer in the headlights. We help them with that, and it's worked to our advantage," she reports.

Genn's husband, a teacher, "sometimes thinks I'm crazy-the owner's kid working just as hard as, or harder than, anyone else. But I do it for myself. I take pride in what I do. I live, eat, breathe and sleep the industry, and I still enjoy it at the end of the day."

- A former award-winning LBM trade magafine editor, Carla Waldemar writes frequently on the industry. Contact her at cwaldemar@ comcast .net

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