In this tenth episode of ASUG Talks: Candid Career Conversations, season 2, we talk with Joe Leimer, VP of Technology with Design Resources, Inc. A full transcript follows:
Laurel Nelson-Rowe:
Hello. Thanks for joining another ASUG Talks: Candid Conversation. Today, we have Joe Leimer, VP of Technology with Design Resources Inc. Thanks for joining, Joe.
Joe Leimer:
Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me.
Nelson-Rowe:
All right. Let's start off with a little bit of background on you, and let's take it way back. Where did you grow up, and did that affect who you became as a professional in any way?
Leimer:
Yeah, certainly. I grew up in rural Nebraska, so out in the country. So yeah, that definitely shaped who I am, a lot of core values working with my dad on the farm in middle school and high school.
Nelson-Rowe:
And as a kid, and with those core values, how did they influence who you've become as a professional?
Leimer:
One of the things that I've noticed in my career is when you hear common sense, seek no other sense. So there's a lot of simple things that I've learned by doing hard work. And if you work hard and show up, folks will take notice. And that leads to future opportunities.
Nelson-Rowe:
With those values, and those principles, and the hard work ethic, how did they contribute to your career over time?
Leimer:
I quickly found out after leaving the Kauffman Foundation, which is a non-profit located here in Kansas City, a fully funded nonprofit that focuses on two things, one of which I really took notice in, which is being an educational resource for entrepreneurs. So that organization really fed that flame of, hey, how can I help other entrepreneurs grow by providing technology and leadership, which put me into a small, medium-sized company space.
Nelson-Rowe:
What was your capacity at the Kauffman Foundation non-profit?
Leimer:
I was on their technology staff there, back when they had an in-house technology staff. And my role aligned with my school experience at the time, which was in software development.
Nelson-Rowe:
Great. So software development. Did you always want a career in information technology?
Leimer:
Not always. I waffled in between two options. So the first being technology, and the second being art, and really enjoyed that side of being creative. And then I took a step back and looked at, okay, which one probably is more cash-flow positive? And so I decided, hey, if I focus in on my technology path, then that can fund my hobby.
Nelson-Rowe:
So is art still a hobby?
Leimer:
It's not where I'm spending a ton of time doing art or creating art. But being a dad, there are those moments where you can do things, you can make cards for folks, or just have fun with your kids, and they're like, "Hey, you're good at that." I'm like, "Well, I could be better if I went to school for that." But I'm good enough.
Nelson-Rowe:
Are you good enough for refrigerator art?
Leimer:
Oh, heck yeah. Yeah.
Nelson-Rowe:
What was your first job related to information technology and SAP solutions? When, where, and how did that happen?
Leimer:
Well, I was in technology for quite some time before I stepped into this role, where they do have SAP as part of their overall stack. And SAP is the core ERP for--I keep all my TLAs, three-letter-acronyms, straight--for all of our companies. So we have more than just design resources. There's multiple companies that focus on apparel.
Nelson-Rowe:
Okay. And so is this the role where you first encountered and needed to become very proficient to master of SAP solutions?
Leimer:
Yeah. So this is the first role where the organizations use SAP. How is that being leveraged? And then let's look at the wider picture, how do we amplify that? So back to the core statement of, how do we help these businesses grow?
Nelson-Rowe:
Reflecting on your entire career path, would you consider yourself an active career planner, a responsive career opportunist, or something of a hybrid?
Leimer:
My focus is more back to that core statement, can a company that I'm currently with, how can I help them grow? So probably a link more to the opportunist language because it's, hey, how do we grow and rate this business to either future growth, or is there an exit strategy here? But I really enjoy that both end of growing and maintaining a business, and then also having those opportunities where there might be an exit strategy involved and may be part of a merger deal or an acquisition. So I've been a part of that as well in my career.
Nelson-Rowe:
So was it the opportunity that this role gave you, with different organizations and their opportunities, that was very attractive and compelled you to take this role?
Leimer:
I saw this as an opportunity really to leverage my whole stack of experience. There are a few things that kind of linked together, but I had helped some friends grow a home remodeling business into four cities. And then that business got acquired by Home Depot. And then we remained a part of Home Depot and grew the business within Home Depot.
So the language for that is entrepreneurship, which is a whole next level of complexity. And then I also helped another friend grow a dotcom for a while that got a lot of seed money from a private equity firm. And then I looped back to a non-profit and went, "Oh wait, this nonprofit's too close to government." So that got me away from that entrepreneurial focus. So then this opportunity came up. So that's a super short summary of what'd you see on LinkedIn.
Nelson-Rowe:
Were there any other career highlights that you wanted to bring up, and tell us why they were such an important highlight to your career journey so far?
Leimer:
I worked at Sprint for a while back when Sprint was here in Kansas City, now it's T-Mobile, and I quickly realized, "Okay, that's going to be a challenge for me in my growth path."
And then I started at the Kauffman Foundation, which was a great career opportunity and really allowed me to grow in my skillset, it also allowed me to finish up my schooling because they fully funded college for folks. And then they decide to take the technology team and pivot that to an outsourced team, which then opened up the next opportunity of my friends going, "Hey, we got a good idea here with home remodeling, and let's do some simple things well," like return phone calls.
Nelson-Rowe:
That's a very important IT skill, returning phone calls.
Leimer:
Yeah. Well, As an organization, just real simple. Like, "Hey, here's a client that wants to remodel their home. Let's simplify that whole process. Let's return the phone call. They're doing custom work, so how about we make as many of those decisions as we can on the front end? Let's also finish the job in the time that we promised, and hey, how about we start the job after we have all the custom things we need to start it."
We had some complex things, like we built an algorithm for lead scoring, so our sales staff knew, okay, hey, we have the decision makers there, they're eager to move forward, and then we made sure that, hey, our sales staff would have a good opportunity for a success at least every night.
We're doing stuff with Nextel phones. Do you remember those push to talk things that were super popular, not to date myself, but I just did? And we partnered with a company that was doing geofencing, and that was super early, where I had to describe to people what that meant. Well, what that really meant was, the person doing the job, that was doing the install work, could clock in and clock out just using their phone. So we're doing some really advanced things for our size. And then Home Depot bought us and they're like, "Hey, just go faster and go national." And so we're doing that.
Nelson-Rowe:
It's sounded like that role with the startup essentially was one where you really blended understanding the business and the business opportunity with your technology and your technical acumen. Is that correct?
Leimer:
That quickly shoved me into the everything space. So I was out of being a software developer, I was into managing projects, I was into managing vendors and negotiating contracts, handling multiple locations across the country, and then growing that, naturally. And then post-acquisition, then amplify growth, where, hey, we had the orange checkbook and the directive of just go because now we're The Home Depot, so we got to do things not as kind of Wild West approach.
But even within that, we're still this little entity within giant Home Depot. So that was a lot of fun and challenging. I also call that entire period the Orange Crush, just from the level of stress, because just on an employee side, we went from 60 to 564 in 20 months, and went from four cities to eight cities. So there was a lot of complexity and a lot of hyper-growth happening.
Nelson-Rowe:
Well, I was actually going to ask you next, what's been your favorite job, and then, what's been the most challenging?
Leimer:
Yeah. Every job has been really fun. You're trying to figure out the personality of the company, you're trying to figure out the goals of the company, and then it's like, "Okay, how do we grow? How do we build a team that grows?" We're a service, IT is a service. You can slice that a bunch of different ways, but at the core, it's a service. So if you just keep that focus first, not only as a team, but okay, how does our team serve the company? How's that service help grow the companies? Those are the things that I try to keep track of. So each job I've really enjoyed, and either a personal growth or team members grow or overall company growth. And then I think that ‘orange crush’ period was the most challenging. It was a fun ride.
Nelson-Rowe:
What's been your best career decision to date, and what went into it?
Leimer:
I give more language to what those good decisions are. Hindsight always gives you good language and visibility, so you don't really know until you know. And so stepping into one decision that feels right, and then you get some miles on that decision, and then you look back and then you go, "Yeah, that was good." So for me to go, "Hey, I knew that going in," it would be totally pompous and not true, it is, "Hey, I'm going in with the best information that I have." And I know, hey, if I focus on these core skills of helping the business grow, helping the team grow, through that, there tends to be success.
I've also learned, hey, in looking at the leadership of the company, that's also key, and understanding that core personality of the leader. To generalize that, it's like, hey, is this leader a CFO, COO, or CSO, meaning, Chief Sales Officer? I have found the operating officer being the best fit. So they're really that balance of the financial focus and the sales focus, and going that entire operations focus. So for me, now, I have language to better define where those good fits are. Fair?
Nelson-Rowe:
Yeah. You hinted at the answer to this question, but is there anything in your career, or any career decision that you made, that you'd like to do over? And if so, why would you like to do it over?
Leimer:
Let's see. So in terms of doing over, I can't really say, "Hey, yeah, let's go back there and do that." It would be interesting to go back through the whole Home Depot acquisition and that whole process with the skills I have today. But I think also ignorance was bliss in there.
Nelson-Rowe:
Okay. Was there ever a job, or a role, or responsibility that you really wanted, and you didn't get it?
Leimer:
There are some small things early on. In college, I had a temp job helping out IBM. They had a contract with USDA or something like that, and I was like, "Oh, I'm working for IBM. This is awesome." It sounds flashy, but then you step back and you're like, hey, I'm just wiping computers and getting computers set up. So that job didn't pivot into a full-time role, but that's okay. That led to the next opportunity.
Nelson-Rowe:
You got to do all the tasks. Are there particulars of education and training experiences that have been essential for your success in your IT roles?
Leimer:
Well, definitely having that core knowledge set. I went to DeVry, so when I finished up, I was now a non-traditional student. So, I was so non-traditional, and been so long, and technology have moved so fast that I had been knocked back three semesters, or something like that. But what that allowed me to do was then focus up on going, okay, I want to learn the core things first, meaning, the technology that they're teaching, and I can wrap up all the other incidental stuff with my degrees later. But at the same time in the classroom, I was able to leverage and challenge classmates and even utilize them to do actual work. So I'm like, "I can give you a real experience thing, come help me with this project that I'm trying to get done." So I was essentially within the classroom recruiting my own interns, if you will.
And so that was a fun experience, to give people real experience versus just classroom. So that was powerful, having that whole traditional, the non-traditional approach to my schooling. And then I'm just a lifelong learner, so I'm always reading something. And another great resource that I like to go to every year is the Global Leadership Summit. And they do a great job of curating speakers, and those speakers have written great books. So for me it's like, okay, how do I keep refining? How do I keep getting better? So it's a daily exercise. It's back to Stephen Covey's ‘Sharpen the Saw.’ I have those literally ingrained in my head, all 7 Habits, which just point back to common sense.
Nelson-Rowe:
Speaking of advice, have you had mentors or a mentor? And if so, what kind of wisdom and what kind of advice have mentors imparted to you?
Leimer:
Yeah. So I've been fortunate to work with some great folks, both in the workplace, and then also have some great folks outside of the workplace. And when I started here, one of the first things the owner wanted to do was, he paired me up with someone that helped take CompUSA National. Remember that big box store that focused on computers? So we had a number of times of just grabbing coffee. And so for me, I've learned, hey, it's a lot of fun to just find somebody that is that next step ahead and may even be a peer and go, "Hey, let's get some time together. Let's get lunch, let's get a coffee. Let's hash through some things, get to know each other in workplace, in life, and through that, really help each other." So if you just keep that servant mindset, it tends to keep you on the right track.
Nelson-Rowe:
If you could synthesize it down, what are the three things that you've learned from being in the field of information technology and leadership that you think the audience could benefit from?
Leimer:
The first one is show up and lean in. If you show up and lean in, then people are like, "Oh, this person cares." And it's like, "Yeah, I do care." And if you're honest in that approach, that just tends to unlock a whole bunch of stuff, which is exciting because guess what? Emotions are contagious. So if you lean into the conversation with this, "Hey, how do we help make this better?" That unlocks the conversation, and then you get to a deeper spot.
And then the next thing is around clarity and just going, okay, that conversation unlocks some things, we may have uncovered some things, we may have some ideas, those ideas might stick, those ideas might not, but let's continue the conversation.
Communication is oxygen and clarity is kindness. So show up, lean in, and engage in the conversation, unlock it through caring, and then following up with consistent communication, because that's like oxygen. And if you focus in on that, then that creates a momentum, and that momentum can unlock bigger things.
Nelson-Rowe:
Those seem to be also universal truths for work and for leaders, whether you're in IT or whether you're in nursing, or a spectrum of roles and responsibilities. So far, I've detected considerable passion about what you do and who you are. So why are you so passionate today, every day, about what you do?
Leimer:
Why not? Yeah. What's the alternative to that? So it's just a lot more fun. If you live lighter, it's more lightweight. And more lightweight means you're carrying less. And if you're carrying less, then you're caring more. And if you're caring more, that just unlocks them more.
Nelson-Rowe:
Okay. Are there any examples or elements in your work, over time, that you've been most proud of in your profession?
Leimer:
It's hard to quantify most. I can look back and see successes all along the way. So that's been fun. And where we are now, it's a lot of fun to help all these apparel-focused companies grow. I'm coming up on 12 years here, and so it's just been a reinvention of, okay, we're at this stage now, okay, what do we need to grow? All right, now we're at the next plateau, what do we need to grow? And just keep pressing into that. So it's been fun, and it's been fun seeing the team grow with that across the companies.
Nelson-Rowe:
What are the most helpful resources that have helped you along the way, perhaps including ASUG?
Leimer:
Don't focus on memorizing everything, just focus on where to find it. So it's like, hey, I don't need to memorize that, I can easily Google that. And that Google link will lead me to Wiki link, which will give me the answer.
And it's also same on the network side. So building relationships across multiple companies, ASUG's definitely unlocked that ability. SAP is massive, and we use SAP Business One. So I'm consistently trying to figure out, okay, how do we grow that community, and then how do we link that community as it grows? So just building relationships and building friendships along the way has been huge. So yeah, ASUG has been huge in that aspect, Business One community's been huge in that aspect. Building relationships across vendors has been huge because: my lens is, okay, who are the super connectors? So one super connector will lead you to another super connector, and folks will come back to me for that sometimes because they're like, "Hey, wait a minute, your nickname's handshake Joe."
Nelson-Rowe:
Are you a super connector?
Leimer:
People have called me that. Yeah.
Nelson-Rowe:
Okay. I would believe it.
Leimer:
Yeah. But it's just, hey, show up, you lean in, you unlock a story, you get to know the person, that story sticks, and then somebody's like, "Hey, I'm trying to figure this out. What would you do?" And then it's like, "Oh, here, call these two people." So the great thing about friendship is, it's something you can give away and get more. What other thing can you give away and end up getting more of?
Nelson-Rowe:
Absolutely. Speaking of giving away, what are the three best pieces of advice that you'd give to those interested in a career in IT and using SAP? So really, you've offered lots of pearls of wisdom, but let's focus down on somebody that might be pivoting or might be thinking of a career in IT and SAP in particular. What would you tell them?
Leimer:
Okay. So first off, call it S-A-P, not sap. Second of all, call it HANA, not hana or H-A-N-A.
Nelson-Rowe:
Sound smart?
Leimer:
We're in the Midwest, so I'm coaching people up on just those simple things, like do your homework. And then within that, it is, okay, on the SAP side, understanding what products, what stack the company is using, what's your focus area, where are you an expert at, and how to grow that. Are you in the data layer? Are you in the analytic layer? So for me, the core thing I'm trying to figure out centers around the work style. So each person has a style. So as a technology developer, okay, help me understand, where in the technology stack do you like to play in? Where do you find strengths at? And then amplify the strengths, and then try to figure out how those strengths dovetail into better team fit. So that's where I focus in on.
Nelson-Rowe:
Okay. So it's time to wrap up with the famous superpower question, the ASUG Talks: Candid Career Conversation wrap-up question, which is, if you could have one superpower to be better at your job and more successful in your career, but really to be better in your everyday work, what would that superpower be?
Leimer:
What would that superpower be? Curious question. So it is probably on the memory side. If I could really crystallize that, and I've had flashes of this sometimes, where I can remember an exorbitant amount of names and faces. And it's powerful when you walk up to somebody and you just say their name and they're like, "What?" So it's seeing that unlock a deeper story, and a deeper story then unlocks another story. And you could play that in business, and you can play that in life. So really having that compassion and that empathy to see a person where they are is really a powerful superpower. Because I think the more we understand each other, we then see that unique style we each have.
And then if we understand that unique style, then we can see that deeper fit of like, "Okay, how can I help you out? How can I help you be successful? Who can I introduce you to?" So back to that friendship piece, like, "Hey, let me just assist."
Nelson-Rowe:
Well, I'd call it a perpetual people memory superpower.
Leimer:
Yeah. I just need some Google Glasses, which will come out eventually. And then just Google tell me right there in my retina.
Nelson-Rowe:
We'll watch for them. All right. Well, I thank you for the conversation today. With that, we'll wrap it up. Thanks, Joe, for the conversation.
Leimer:
Yeah. Thanks, Laurel.
Nelson-Rowe:
Well, we will share it with the rest of the audience. Have a great rest of your day.
Leimer:
Yeah, you too.