Rodney Wasserstrom The Wasserstrom Co.

Touring the dealership's headquarters, you realize that the company's past is never far behind. Paintings of the company's various locations decorate the walls and many antique drugstore cases housing the countless awards and other forms of recognition line the halls. And in the boardroom one finds a series of portraits depicting the various members of the Wasserstrom family that have served the company over the course of previous generations. The dealership even has a modest museum-like area chronicling the company's growth from generation to generation. For Rodney, the lessons his uncles taught him while climbing through the ranks of the family business serve as a grounding and guiding influence as he and today's management team lead the dealership to impressive levels of growth and success.

Modestly, Rodney credits the management team already in place when he unexpectedly became president of the dealership and the hundreds of associates that have come since with the company's continued prosperity. But his vision, leadership, passion and integrity have kept the company on course and allowed the Wasserstrom associates to feel a sense of pride and ownership in their work.

Rodney always dresses the part. Here, he serves as master of ceremonies at a company gathering with a 1970’s theme.

Beyond these attributes, Rodney is widely known throughout the industry for his honest, open approach to doing business. His willingness to share information freely and equally with his fellow dealers, vendors and customers has earned Rodney respect from all corners of the industry.

As if this were not enough, Rodney sees being involved in the Columbus community through his participation in various business, civic and charitable organizations as a natural extension of his role. This approach starts at the top of the company and makes its way throughout the organization.

For all these reasons and more, FE&S is proud to name Rodney Wasserstrom the recipient of its 2008 Hall of Fame Award. Over the next few pages we hope to further introduce you to Rodney, his business philosophy and more.

FE&S: What are some of the characteristics that go into making a good equipment and supplies dealer?

RW: The characteristics of any foodservice equipment and supplies dealer are probably no different from any other distribution-based business. They have a lot to do with your beliefs. The first characteristic has to be honesty and then integrity. You have a passion for whatever business you are in. Passion takes you a long way toward being successful. I believe that not just for myself but it carries through our entire management team and everyone else in our company. I believe and all of our associates believe that you should treat people the way you want to be treated. If you live by that basic creed, then honesty and integrity are always going to be a basic part of your life and your business.

I think our customers, vendors, associates, shareholders and partners are all successful because

Pictured here (left to right): Eric Wasserstrom, president,N. Wasserstrom and Sons; ReidWasserstrom, president, Wasserstrom Realty; Laura Wasserstrom, project manager, E-Commerce, The Wasserstrom Co.; Rodney Wasserstrom, president and CEO, The Wasserstrom Co.; Alan Wasserstrom, CEO, N. Wasserstrom and Sons; Bruce Wasserstrom, president, Amteko Industries; and Brad Wasserstrom, executive vice president, The Wasserstrom Co.

FE&S: You started, literally, on the ground floor of this business and worked your way to the top. What did those experiences teach you?

RW: What you learn when you are sweeping floors, unloading trucks or marking items for display on the showroom floor is respect for the people who are doing the job. You learn that in no way should you belittle people.

My uncles also taught me that you need to sell your manners and dress the part. The customers, when they came in, needed to see us as being proper business people. Learning to greet people is very important and there's a lesson in there that helped this business grow to where it is today.

Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, walked into our showroom one day and one of our salespeople greeted him in such a way that made him feel comfortable. At the time he was buying for five local KFC stores but Dave went on to be a very big customer for us. I believe that if we had not properly greeted him and made him feel comfortable, Dave would not have stayed for more than an hour picking out equipment. Had he not been treated with respect, we would not be where we are today.

FE&S: You talked about the importance of honesty and integrity. Can you describe, in greater detail, your corporate culture?

RW: You need to look inside our company to understand what we are about. We treat our vendors as partners, not adversaries. Naturally, we have become business friends with many of our vendors. We are able to talk on the same level. We can talk about business situations that come up. We are not talking about customers or pricing. We talk about everyday business challenges. Whether you are a customer or a vendor or another dealer, I enjoy talking about many of these issues.

FE&S: Is the entrepreneurial flame still burning bright at Wasserstrom?

RW: We give our people a lot of leeway to try things with their customers and if it does not work, we move on to something else. If you give people the freedom to do that, they are going to be a lot more successful and feel a lot more a part of what you are doing. I can see that in the future we will continue to be entrepreneurial.

This business started with a lot of families because it was a pretty easy business to start. It was a good business that put food on the table and provided shelter over the heads of many of these families. It made it easy for these families to do better than what they were doing. I think that will continue so long as you manage your family and business separately and don't put family in a position where they can't be successful. You know, we are very fortunate. We're into the fourth generation of this family that's in this business and I don't know any reason why we can't continue to that way. We have the talent in my son, Brad, his cousins, Eric and Laura, and my brother Bruce. They are all very young and they have the entrepreneurial spirit to continue in this business and grow it.

Wasserstrom associates install a two-story stainless-steel sculpture the company built and donated to the Columbus Museum of Art.

RW: Let's use 1978, the year I became president, as the starting point. At that time, the company's management consisted of five people and I relied on them heavily for guidance. First, I had never thought I would be president of the dealership and did not know if I had what it took to be president of the dealership. But I had senior management of Eric Baum, Bob Stone, Frank Fancelli and Dennis Blank and knew that they would do whatever it took to make the company successful. From that point, we made sure to hire the best people we could. We couldn't bring enough people through internally to meet our growing demand for talent. That's why the hiring process is so tedious but important. Today, our management team consists of 35 people and you have to make sure they understand our mission, vision and core values, and where this company came from and where it is going. That's the important part today, regardless of what part of the company they work in.

FE&S: As your company has grown over the years, how has the way you monitor its progress changed?

RW: Today, we have all the programs in place to monitor all the criteria you need to successfully run this business. In 1978, you were satisfied having this information available to you on a quarterly or monthly basis. Today, you need it on a daily basis. You can't manage by walking around anymore. You rely upon the information and you have to have it daily.

We are investing in a new software package because we want to continue to grow and in order to do so, we need to make this information available not only to our associates but to our customers and vendors, too.

FE&S: You are well-versed in Wasserstrom's corporate culture but how do you articulate it to your roughly 600 associates that are scattered across multiple states to ensure they understand and consistently apply it in their dealings with customers, vendors and others?

RW: Gary Mangelson, our CFO, Brad and I have been discussing how to communicate our company's core values to our current and new associates. We know this is something we have to address and communicate to everyone in the company. Of course, the fact that we have to do this is symbolic of the way we have grown. Previous generations of associates used to sit down at the lunch counter and talked with my uncle, who told you about our values.

What people want today is instant gratification and a clear career path. That's why you have to teach them about our core values and the direction this company is going. We need people that want to grow and see that they can grow with our company. They need to see what this company is about from the inside and how they can be a part of where we are going.

FE&S: Your company is often credited as being the industry's first chain specialist. Is that fair?

RW: Other companies were serving chains locally but we were pioneers in serving chains across America. This is a source of pride because of the successes our people have had in serving these customers. If we have, in some way, helped the industry grow in stature and enhance the opportunities it provides young people, that's the sense of pride we have.

FE&S: You got into the chain business when few, if any dealers, were serving these kinds of customers on a large-scale basis. What lessons did you learn along the way that allowed you to grow?

RW: This was not an overnight experience. There were chains in the area that we were already

For the next generation of Wasserstroms, Bruce, Brad, Laura and Eric, following in the steps of their forefathers, pictured behind them, serves as a motivating factor. “They will take this company a lot farther than I could and I just enjoy listening to their visions for the future,” Rodney says.

FE&S: How did the way the chains approached their business differ from your existing business?

RW: At the very beginning, the way chains approached things did not differ very much from our existing customer base. That's because you did not have chains with 500 or 1,000 units. For our part, we were never afraid to work with someone who was going to build a restaurant 500 miles away. But as the chains grew, they wanted the same pricing, delivery and service no matter where they were or what they needed. We always thought we could work with customers anywhere. The customers felt if we could not deliver that level of service then we were of no value to them. So, this became a different approach and they felt they were entitled to a different pricing structure because of the volume they purchase. All of which is why we have the facilities we have today.

FE&S: You are known for being very generous with your time and expertise, sharing it with other members of the industry, regardless of whether they are a dealer, manufacturer or operator. What motivates you to continue doing this?

RW: I enjoy going to FEDA and many of these meetings because we have a lot of things in common and we can share them. A lot of our successes have come from things I have learned from other people. Hopefully, together we have made a difference in each other's businesses.

FE&S: I am sure they have learned much from you but what have you learned from your competitors?

RW: I have never been afraid to share non-proprietary information with competitors, and I have invited many dealers to visit our operations to see how we do things and to help them. What you learn is how nearsighted one's approach to running their business can be. You learn that you have to look beyond what's in front of you to grow your business. You also learn by empowering your associates to be individual contributors and eliminating a top-down management style. Associates are then more motivated to take the company to the next level.

FE&S: Did you ever entertain the notion of doing something other than working in the family business?

RW: When I was five or six years old, I would go to work with my dad on a Saturday or during the holidays. But it was not me working then. I was the one stirring up everyone in the shop. At the time, my dad was overseeing the manufacturing part of the business and I really enjoyed going to work with him and being a part of what he was doing. In 1961 when I officially joined the company, there was really no desire on my part of doing anything else. Even at that point I thought this was a great family business and just loved what they did.

Some of my fondest memories of selling are selling those first accounts I had. When my uncle promoted me to salesman, he gave me a list of 10 or 12 accounts and told me to go call on them. He told me to visit these accounts early in the morning so I could be back to cover the showroom floor by lunch. What he did not tell me was that none of these accounts were buying from us due to a variety of reasons. So, I would go in and listen to them tell the horror stories about how we had delivered them the wrong range and so on. Over time, I literally broke those accounts down one by one and those people became some of my closest friends in the business.

FE&S: The second generation of Wasserstroms was already running a pretty successful business when you joined the company. When you became president of the dealership, did you feel any pressure to live up to what was at the time a very successful family legacy?

RW: My uncle Albert passed away in 1978 and I became president of the dealership. I was quite taken when the family asked me to become president and had never really thought about assuming this position because my uncle was young at the time.

I did feel some pressure coming into this new role. Helping me with the transition was a great group of executives who had worked with my family for a number of years. I leaned on them very heavily and they really helped me. I felt this weight on my shoulders but I went about my business taking on the new responsibilities. A lot of people, the executives, my brother and my cousins, all stepped up and really helped. It is a really special group of people and I hope that I helped them grow, too.

FE&S: How has the relationship between you, Alan and Reid evolved over the years?

Recreating a similar picture from their younger days (from left) Reid, Alan and Rodney also remain in charge of the various entities that comprise the Wasserstrom family of companies. “Alan, Reid and I, whenever we are together, have a hard time not talking business,” Rodney says.

My cousin Reid, who has spent his career working on the operations side of the business, presently manages the real estate portfolio for the company. The three of us, referred to as R-A-R, have worked together very well for many years, probably above and beyond what most people visualize for a family business.

The culture we have today is not the one that Alan or Reid or I put in place. It is the culture the previous generation handed to us and we've taken it the next step.

FE&S: So many family businesses fail for countless reasons. How did yours avoid some of the common pitfalls?

RW: To get the next generation involved we gave them exposure to all aspects of the companies. Alan, Reid and I, whenever we are together, have a hard time not talking business. The environment here is one where people talk positively about the business. So, it's important to expose the next generation to the business in a positive way. But you have to remember that family is not the business. Business is business. When I got started I did not call my uncles, who were running the company at the time, “uncle.” I had to address them as “Mister.” This was to show that we had respect and that the family was not taking precedent over the other associates. Our intent was to make sure that nobody could look at you and say we made a decision to promote someone or any other kind of business decision just because we are family. When we have brought people into the company we have tried to make sure they are smarter than we are in a given area, such as the distribution or financial aspects of the business. Bringing in people that are beyond where we are now really makes us reach to be better.

FE&S: Your son, Brad, and other family members are now growing their careers in this

The relationship between Rodney and Brad Wasserstrom (right) is a rare combination of father/son, and business associate and mentor.

RW: When I think about Brad being in the business I get a big smile across my face. I never really thought about what it was going to be like to have a child in the business but I always wanted my children to be in the business. It's a moment that makes you very proud, not when they join the business but when they show you how well they can do. What I am most proud about is his successes, specifically when it comes to people. And to be honest, Brad and his cousins are a lot smarter than I am. They will take this company a lot farther than I could and I just enjoy listening to their visions for the future.

FE&S: What lessons do you hope to teach them?

RW: Listening is a trait that you must have to be a good leader. I never realized how important listening was until I watched them work with our associates. They have such wonderful thoughts about how to make our company better. You are not going to accept every idea or use every idea. But just listening to them is very important. There's plenty of time to talk after you are done listening.

FE&S: What makes you continue to come to work every morning?

RW: I have a passion and I love this industry. I am not just talking about the selling of equipment and supplies. I enjoy engaging with foodservice operators. My career started as I was working on the floor of our cash-and-store and from there I went to being an outside salesman. I thoroughly enjoyed being with the customers, learning about their operation and how we could partner with them. They are people just like us. I never saw this as an adversarial relationship. We are about people and not just the people in our company. We are a company that espouses customer, vendor and associate relationships. What we say we are going to do, we do.

FE&S: When the day comes that you retire, what do you hope your legacy to the industry will be?

RW: In my life, I do not do what I do each and every day for honors. But if there is a time when I should exit this industry I want to be able to leave and know that I have done something really good for everyone I touch and work with. If I could leave and people look up to me for what I stand for — the honesty, integrity and knowing that a simple handshake will get everything done — then I feel I will have accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish as a business person. I handle my personal life the same way.

FE&S: Do you think you will ever retire?

RW: I don't see myself retiring, but there will be a time when Brad will have the responsibility for running the business and I will do other things. It's not as far away as he thinks it is. I hope to engage myself with new and existing associates to teach our culture and what it takes to make you successful in the business world. If I can do that and continue to work on some special projects, then I will continue to be engaged in the company for years to come.

FE&S: Also, you are known to be very involved in the Columbus community, working with other businesses and supporting local charities. Can you describe some of what you do and why?

RW: The Columbus community has been very good to our company and it's our responsibility to give back to Columbus. We have set up a number of ways for our associates to give back to the community. In this case, it's important for the leader to show by example. I've done volunteer work since I was in grade school and thoroughly enjoy the feelings you get from volunteering. I've personally been involved with the Columbus Children's Hospital, The Columbus Symphony, Columbus Museum of Art, National Kidney Foundation, Center for Science and Industry and Columbus Jewish Historical Society. I've enjoyed being on the boards of these organizations and helping in other ways. Whatever my little piece of involvement was, I have enjoyed being a part of it in every way.

I was touched last year when 35 management members contributed their time and money to over 40 central Ohio organizations. In addition to our management community contributions, Wasserstrom associates have been involved with United Way of Central Ohio, Operation Feed, Holiday Wish List, Community Care Day, Rebuilding Columbus, Red Cross blood drives along with goods and services donated to the Ohio Theatre, James Cancer Hospital, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus Speech and Hearing, Community Shelter Board, I Know I Can and educational scholarships to The Culinary Institute of America and the culinary program at Columbus State Community College, amongst so many others that are too numerous to count.

FE&S: So many people I have talked with about you say they see you as a leader. Have you ever studied leadership? Who are some of the leaders that have had an impact on your career?

RW: No, I have not studied leadership. But Frank Fancelli, more than anyone else helped me understand and teach leadership. Together, we lived and learned. I have learned a lot more from Frank than he learned from me.

FE&S: Earlier, you mentioned listening as one key trait a leader must have. What are some others?

RW: The person you appoint to a leadership position can't be about themselves. They have to be about “we.” A leader also has to have respect. The person you are working with has to feel you respect what they do no matter what that is. Flexibility is another key attribute of a leader. You must have a plan and each day you should think about the ways that plan needs to be tweaked. That's because the plan is only as good as the day it is written so as a leader you need to be flexible in adapting that plan to the current business environment.

FE&S: You started out talking about needing to have a passion for this business to be successful. My last question for you is does your passion burn as brightly for this business today as it did when you first started back in 1961?

RW: I have always had a passion for this business and maybe to a fault. I do love this business and I love the people in this business and I have felt that way since the first time I walked into the facilities. Sure there have been challenges but this comes really easy to me. If anything, my passion for this business has grown and the flames are brighter than ever.