Gary Brothers, President / D&H Distributing

“A lot of the company&'s success has been built around his direction and his personal commitment and relationships,” says Steve Dallman, director of channel sales and marketing at Intel. “For the digital home, they&'ve been a key partner to help us understand and get into this business.”

For similar reasons, Cisco Systems in July brought on D&H to help push its lower-end products to small-business solution providers. “The deal with Cisco is one of the biggest relationships we&'ve developed in the last few years, and has the potential of changing our business model,” Brothers says.

Brothers, a 32-year veteran of the family-owned business, has been through a lot of changes at the company as it moved from appliances to computers to digital convergence products. Associates say the common thread has been Brothers&' ability to push his customer-centric message throughout the organization.

“All areas of the business, even those that don&'t interface with the customer, he makes sure they know that what they do affects the customer,” says Jeff Davis, vice president of sales at D&H. “Everyone is therefore focused on that, so we can grow our business.”

With these close relationships and the success they have created, Brothers wouldn&'t think of working anywhere else. “We&'ve developed great relationships with vendors and solution providers. It&'s very fast-paced work, very rewarding. We enjoy what we&'re doing,” he says.