Kevin Conley
Published for the Week Of November 15, 2004
As a group, custom system builders emerged from the downturn this year as an even more vibrant force in the industry. And Kevin Conley, the 43-year-old president and CEO of Seneca Data Distributors, North Syracuse, N.Y., is leading the charge.
One customer was so impressed by Conley’s leadership at Seneca Data—and how he transformed it from a distributor to a system builder, an initiative begun after the economy hit the wall in 2000—that he began mimicking Conley’s methods. “We call it the Seneca way,” says Bob Sampson, president and CEO of Sage Microsystems, Exton, Pa., which, among other things, sells POS solutions to Jiffy Lube locations.
If the VAR that automated Jiffy Lube is impressed, then Conley must be on to something. He has sent every employee through efficiency training, and rallies his 130 troops at monthly meetings, making sure everyone from assembly workers on up knows how the company is performing against plan. And Conley insists all have a set of personal goals that roll into company objectives.
Sampson says Conley embodies Reaganesque leadership skills. “The sense of unity throughout the whole organization is unbelievable, and I think that’s what’s contributing to their growth right now,” he says. Vertical VARs like Sage, a core market for Seneca Data’s Nexlink systems, are also helping. Sales should rise 25 percent to $90 million this year, and income is climbing twice as fast.
That Conley, who has spent most of his life near Syracuse and is a 20-year veteran at Seneca Data, is driving change seems an anomaly. But his team says he has a knack for getting things done. Conley pounds home one consistent theme to his troops: “If we take care of customers, everything else will fall into place,” one executive says.
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Conley says once he and Chairman Adolph Falso decided to focus on system building, the rest was easy. “Once we set the direction, it’s like going to war,” he says. “Now everyone knows what you have to get done, and people are motivated by it.”