BIG INTERVIEW
Staying NIMBLE, INFORMED and RELEVANT
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Aiming to break through the $200 million sales barrier this year, Brooks Smith is on a mission to write the next chapter in the story of Innovative Office Solutions – by Steve Hilleard
www.opi.net
nnovative Office Solutions is one of the largest independent dealers in the US – in the top five. Founded in 2001 and run by the late Jennifer Smith for many years, Jennifer’s husband Brooks has been at the helm since February 2023. The period leading up to that point was immeasurably tough: on the one hand, with Jennifer’s prolonged cancer treatment and in-patient care at City of Hope in California; on the other hand, back in Minnesota, navigating COVID-19 and all the challenges it brought to the fast-evolving business supplies industry. It took an incredibly strong company with solid leadership and an outstanding can-do attitude and culture to weather such personal as well as professional storms. In mid-2024, Innovative is on the cusp of breaking through the $200 million revenue barrier. In OPI’s first interview with Brooks Smith, the CEO describes a path that speaks to his competence, resilience and infectious enthusiasm for his company and compassion for our industry as a whole.
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OPI: Brooks, despite being pretty familiar with Innovative as a company, I don’t know a huge amount about your background, so let’s start with that. Brooks Smith: Sure. My journey to the dealership was quite winding. I went to college to major in economics but determined after about a year that it wasn’t for me, so I swapped to political science. Choosing political science, you get to the end and wonder what to do next – teach, go into politics or whatever. My decision was to follow college with law school for another three years.
I attended law school at the same university where Jennifer was studying as an undergraduate. I discovered fairly quickly that I didn’t want to go into litigation or be in a courtroom for the rest of my life, so I gravitated towards the business side of law. After completing law school and passing the bar exam, I went into public accounting for about eight years with a couple of large, multinational firms. I was on a partner track, but when my children were very young, I concluded that it would be tough to be a connected father and spouse as a partner in a large accountancy firm. Instead, I bought a medical manufacturing company, Medcare Products, which made patient lifting equipment for nursing homes. During this time, Jennifer owned and ran Town & Country Business Products (T&C), originally founded by her father. In 1997, she sold T&C to USOP and joined me at Medcare. We did this for a number of years until Jennifer’s non-compete agreement ran out and she convinced some of her old T&C colleagues to start Innovative in 2001. I stayed on at Medcare for another nine years before selling it and joining Jennifer full time at Innovative in a CFO/General Counsel role.