Corporate Vision January 2017

, We invited ‘CEO of the Year 2017 – South Carolina in the Office Technology space , John Eckstrom to speak about his company success and what he believes has made himaward winning. Doing the Right Thing the Right Way The First Time Having begun as a traditional copier company, in the mid 1970’s, turned managed network support company, Carolina Business Equipment is a business process advisor, solutions provider and support organization. John Eckstrom joined the company as its CFO in 1994 and helped the company to reinvent itself and stay relevant in a constantly changing industry. Most these changes centred around the networks that supported their client’s businesses. John chats to us about how the company approaches clients, and how CBE works with them to achieve their goals. “Through the years, we have heard so many times that something, and you name it, can’t be done.” The team members at CBE know that those are words that I do not want to hear. I am OK hearing that we may not want to do something but let’s face it, do you really think that the typical difficult issue we see can’t be done ? I on occasion remind folks that we, not CBE but American ingenuity, put a man on the moon 45 years ago and brought him back safely. The company follows a key principle ‘do the right thing the right way the first time’.” Despite John becoming award winning, John is reluctant to be in the limelight and acknowledges that it is a collective effort from his staff that contributes to CBE’s overall success. “What I see is that others look at CBE’s success and automatically call me a successful CEO. While that may feel good, I see they are these as two different achievements and I would have to say that the most important task has been to assemble a strong team that makes me us all look good. “If you saw look at the team that has been assembled, you may not recognize me for this award. Rather it would have been something to recognize me for the creation of that team that I have. For now, you can call me an award winning CEO but I will have to quickly deflect that recognition to the strong management team that makes me look good.” CBE operates in a challenging industry which has gone through many changes over the years. According to John, the current state of the industry continues to be one of hyper-change. He talks about what is high on everyone’s agenda and the importance of technology. “We could fill up pages and pages of issues affecting the industry. On the top of almost every list centres around security. Here, we have been part of some very effective initiatives that put us in the forefront in our industry. “Absolutely everything we do and touch is centred around technology. The issue becomes the delivery of those solutions. What we e see too often are people that have a standard of ‘good enough’. From our perspective, that is a bar set too low. At CBE, we begin every engagement with the objective of making that encounter an amazing experience for our clients. We actually use the phrase, “Will it Amaze? “This is backed up by unsolicited communications from our clients stating that they did not know how sick they were until CBE made them better.” John concludes the interview by informing us of the company’s future plans and growth opportunities in the coming months ahead. “We have all heard that if you are not moving forward the only other option is to move backwards”. Standing still just does not work. We are and have been on a growth track for the last few years. Just in Q4 of 2016 we completed the expansion of our NOC (Network Operations Center). Called the First Response Center (FRC), our NOC It is the heartbeat for the forward mobility for CBE. “Every aspect of our growth presents new challenges but also new opportunities to shine. Right now, we are having fun wrapping our collectives arms around those opportunities. I will also add that 2017 will be an exciting year and that we are looking forward to projecting our full expectations.” K Company: Carolina Business Equipment Name: John Eckstrom Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.cbesc.com Address: 5123 Bush River Rd, Columbia, SC 29212 Telephone: 803-798-7522 1701CV74