The 2007 PEI Board Of Directors On
Risk And Reward

PEI board members are an adventurous group. Risk takers all.
To a person, they rely on instinct and live with risk on a daily basis,
as do all PEI members. That's why we are entrepreneurs.

To get to know them better, the Board of Directors graciously shared with The PEI Journal their answers to the following questions:

1. As a leader, how do you determine when it's time to take a risk?
2. What is the biggest risk you've ever taken in your entire life?
3. If you could choose a different career, what would it be?
4. What is the best business advice you have ever received?

	We thank each board member for allowing us to publish a tounge-in-cheek look at what could have been, had they made different choices. So what do motorcycle racers, pilots, gamblers and skydivers have in common with distributors, manufacturers and suppliers of petroleum equipment? Risk. And the ability to not only live with it, but thrive on it.
	PEI President Calvin Bishop President, D & H Pump Service (El Paso, TX)
	When to Risk: I weigh the potential for failure, and how catastrophic the failure can be. If the failure doesn't seem too big, I take the risk. Biggest Risk: We opened our first branch location 15 years ago. Now we have six branch locations in addition to our headquarters office. Career Change: Lawyer. When I was in college I liked to argue both sides of a point. It comes in handy now. Best Advice: Don't burn bridges with customers or ex-employees. Hold your tongue. Too many times they come back in another life in a more influential position.

PEI Vice President Bruce Larson President, The Oscar W. Larson Co. (Clarkston, MI) When to Risk: Every decision made, regardless of how important, must be measured in terms of potential risk compared to potential benefit. Those who possess both guts and brains are usually successful for longer periods of time. Biggest Risk: Having children. Career Change: Airline pilot. Best Advice: Make your customers' jobs easy.

PEI Treasurer Blair Shwedo President, SouthEastern Petroleum Systems (Charlotte, NC) When to Risk: Define both the best and worst possible outcomes. Once I've assembled both the people and information that I need, I must also be willing to live with the results, good or bad. Biggest Risk: Parachuting. While the trip down was the most exhilarating experience of my life, when it came time to jump from the plane, it was really hard to get my mind to go along with the idea. Career Change: Something in the motor sports industry. I love cars and love driving on a track. Best Advice: Render more and better service than you are paid for, and sooner or later you will receive compound interest from your investment. (Napoleon Hill)

PEI Immediate Past President Stephen Hieber President, PWI, Incorporated (New Oxford, PA) When to Risk: Whenever the perceived gain is greater than the calculated loss. Biggest Risk: Purchasing my company via an LBO before the acronym existed. Career Change: None, I love what I do. Best Advice: There is no easy money; if you are looking for it, you are wasting time. Luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity.

District 2 Director Scott Hafer President, Hafer Petroleum Equipment (Reading, PA)

When to Risk: When business has a market shift/change, then our company needs to change according to the market trends. Biggest Risk: Marriage - twice. Career Change: Professional gambler would be nice change of pace. Nerve-racking at times, but potentially very rewarding! Best Advice: Hire and retain good people as part of your team. No one company is ever stronger than its employees and management.

	District 4 Director Andy Mercer Corporate Vice President, R. W. Mercer Company (Jackson, MI)
	When to Risk: It is time to act when the potential for reward is greater than the potential for loss. Biggest Risk: Becoming a business owner. Career Change: Golf course owner. Best Advice: Making a wrong decision is sometimes better than making no decision.

District 6 Director Terry Cooper President, P.E.S., Inc. (Marion, IA)

When to Risk: Find the balance between logic and emotion to best evaluate the positives and negatives associated with the risk. Then rely on gut to gauge the amount of risk, in light of a heartfelt desire to meet that risk head on. Biggest Risk: Buying a competitor's company. Career Change: Working as a pilot for a charter service, free to fly when I want to. Best Advice: My grandfather used to say, “If you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves.”

	District 5 Director Kevin McKinney Executive Vice President, McKinney Petroleum Equipment (Mobile, AL)
	When to Risk: Only when we see an opportunity that will be of long-term benefit to us and to our customers. Biggest Risk: I can't think of any BIG risks. Career Change: I wouldn't choose anything else! Best Advice: My father said to treat customers, employees and manufacturers honestly and fair, and they will treat us the same.

District 9 Director Dennis Rethmeier President, Western Pump (San Diego, CA) When to Risk: When your gut instinct tells you to. Biggest Risk: Leaving the Fortune 500 company that I had been employed by for 20 years to purchase a business that I knew nothing about. Career Change: Business owner 20 years sooner. Best Advice: Become the owner of your own business.

	District 1 Director Mark Babcock Vice President, Adams & Fogg Oil Equipment Co. (Falmouth, ME)
	When to Risk: Risk taking is best when opportunity and resources meet under the right circumstances. Biggest Risk: The 2006 opening of our second shop outside of Bangor, Maine. Career Change: Civil engineer, because I could participate in a project as it moves from an idea to completion. Best Advice: Money does grow on trees — referral trees.

District 10 Director Randy Dixon President, Dixon Pumps (Billings, MT)
When to Risk: I analyze the market, my product and my employees' disposition. If at least 70% looks good, I take the risk. Biggest Risk: Doing a joint partnership with China 25 years ago. Career Change: International market advisor. Best Advice: Never go into a business deal without the appropriate collateral.

District 3 Director Joey Cheek President, JMP Solutions (Tampa, FL)

When to Risk: When an opportunity comes up, I weigh the risk/rewards, both short and long term. Biggest Risk: As a teenager, riding tandem, a friend and I used a short bridge shaped like an inverted U as a launching ramp, measuring how far we could push his Honda 450 street motorcycle into the air, landing on the other side of the bridge. We jumped the bridge for 30 minutes. The experience led me to start racing motorcycles professionally two years later. Career Change: Naval aviator. If I had been more focused, I would have studied at the United States Naval Academy. Best Advice: While working for Circle K, my former supervisor and mentor, John Clark, said, “Focus on what you know and do best.”

District 8 Director Richard Dixon President/CEO, P. B. Hoidale Company (Wichita, KS)
When to Risk: I evaluate the risk (cost) based on the opportunity to advance our product or service offerings to our customers. Biggest Risk: Moving my family halfway across the country in order to leave a middle-management career with a very large corporation and buying into this business. Career Change: Test pilot at Groom Lake. Best Advice: Produce results, not excuses.

District 7 Director Fred Seymour President, J-8 Equipment Company (Denver, CO)

When to Risk: Leaders who stay in touch with their business and customers' needs can best decide when to take a risk. Gather all possible information from both internal and external trusted sources to develop an effective and proper plan to meet the challenges associated with the risk. Biggest Risk: Becoming an owner of J-8 Equipment Company. Career Change: College professor. Best Advice: Friends do business with friends.

Affiliate Director Gene Pope President, Pope & Associates (Tampa, FL)

When to Risk: When we have done all our due diligence, weighed the pros and cons and feel relatively confident that taking the risk will provide a positive outcome. Biggest Risk: Leaving an upwardly mobile position with American Airlines to become a manufacturer's representative in the petroleum equipment industry. Career Change: Physician. I get tremendous satisfaction out of helping others. Best Advice: My father told me that if I treat family, customers, fellow employees and business associates with respect and honesty, and treat them the way I want to be treated, I'll be a success in business and in life.

	District 11 Director Ian Burton VP Sales & Marketing, Car Wash Division, Nu*Star (Shakopee, MN)
	When to Risk: As leaders, everything we do requires risk. Biggest Risk: As an unemployed 36-year-old, I moved from Canada to the United States. Career Change: Member of the U.S. Coast Guard, practicing law enforcement on the water. Best Advice: Hire somebody better than you. They're always going to make you look good.

District 13 Director John B. Millet Jr. President, Austin Mohawk and Company (Utica, NY)

When to Risk: Determine if the risk is in line with our core competency, whether it will result in repeat business, and if the risk bears long-term value. Biggest Risk: Getting married (40+ years ago!) and leaving a successful career in big business to purchase a small business (30 years ago!). Career Change: Owning and leading a $100M company. Best Advice: When purchasing a company, resist the temptation to fiddle with the business until you understand how its team and systems function.

District 12 Director Martin Pettesch Executive Vice President, Universal Valve Company (Elizabeth, NJ)

When to Risk: The reward must outweigh the risk. Minimize the risk by setting up different counter-measures just in case something goes wrong. Biggest Risk: Acrobatic flying. Strapped into an old World War II plane, I do loops, rolls and spins. It's fun, but not high enough for the parachute to work. Career Change: Teacher. Best Advice: Have fun while treating everyone fairly and with respect. If you like what you are doing, you will always do your best (and you'll make more money).

Affiliate Director Robert Dendy President, Petro Energy (Houston, TX)

When to Risk: When market conditions or the economy changes, when competitors have a significant impact on my business, and certainly when profit margins start to decline. Biggest Risk: First was parachuting from an airplane. Second was leaving the corporate world to start my own business, a decision I've never regretted. Career Change: Regardless of the industry, I'd still start and operate my own business. Best Advice: My grandfather told me, “Always be honest and tell the truth...then you never will have any trouble remembering what you've told people.”

Robert N. Renkes PEI Executive Vice President When to Risk: Before you have to. Biggest Risk: Diving into the deep end of a pool when I knew I didn't know how to swim. Career Change: General manager of a major league baseball team. Best Advice: It is all about relationships.

   Current Issue   |   Past Issues   |   Contact Us   |   Send Files    |   Advertising   |   www.pei.org

The PEI Journal • First Quarter 2007 • Volume 1, No. 1 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. • Nothing may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission of the publisher.