Focus on: Rick Nemeth, Heilind Electronics
Like many successful businesspeople, Rick Nemeth has drawn from his positive attitude and perseverance to help him achieve his goals. He always keeps his eye on the future, and predicts that the days of high-tech, high-touch are coming to an end, as predicted in the decades-old book Megatrends.

Rick Nemeth
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Heilind Electronics, Wilmington, Mass., U.S.
Previous industry positions: National Sales Manager, Regional Manager, Manufacturer’s Rep, Branch Manager, Sales Engineer
Industry affiliations or organizations: N.A.W., E.R.A., S.M.E.
Accomplishments you’re proud of: Personally: Beating lymphoma, then convincing my wonderful wife to marry me and raise two fine sons with her. Professionally: Helping Heilind’s owner Bob Clapp and the people of our company build Heilind into the preeminent interconnect distributor in our industry.

First job: Baskin Robbins—got fired (too many friends who loved ice cream).

Favorite website: Like everyone else, I love the web and use it all day long for many things. As a result, I have many favorites. Some highlights: allmyfaves.com, a nice, simple site that organizes interesting sites by about 50 different categories, such as search, sports, maps, video, etc.; techrepublic.com, a good PC geek site; craigslist.com (I’m Polish-Hungarian and love a good deal, what more can I say?); heilind.com (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

The last book I read: Through a Dog’s Eyes by Jennifer Arnold. I love big, slobbery dogs and this book is just a well-done, feel-good book about dogs. It provides nearly scientific arguments for what dog lovers everywhere already know: Dogs love, dogs trust, dogs sense, dogs feel, and they deserve to be treated accordingly. Of course, what the book very slyly helps you realize is that the same is true for people, which is something you can’t be reminded of too often.

Why did you choose this industry for your profession? I think, like a lot of people in our industry, I kind of fell into it. I was always interested in electronics. I interned as an electronic technician with Allen Bradley here in Cleveland during my last year in high school and my plans were to attain an engineering degree. Well, it turned out I couldn’t hack the math in the engineering program and ended up in the Business College. During those late high school and early college days, I had pictured myself ending up on the technical, design-side of a business, not in sales. However, that changed when I joined Pioneer Standard as an inside salesperson. I very quickly discovered that I loved the diversity of sales. While the problem-solving aspect of distribution sales satisfied my technical appetite, I found that I really enjoyed the constant customer interface. Customers are great. Most of the important things I know about business I’ve learned from customers. It has always amazed me what you can learn by asking smart people good questions and then shutting up and listening to what they tell you.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have: Become a veterinarian. OK, seriously, I would have talked less and listened more.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was: “This is not a complicated business, don’t make it one.” I wish I could remember who said that to me!

What trend in the industry is affecting your job and what would you like to do about it? The growth of the Internet and powerful desktop computing. These two things have affected every aspect of our business. I’ve always been a technology early-adopter, so I love this stuff as much as anyone. I also appreciate the power of technology to increase productivity and information speed. But these changes have made our business much colder and less personal. We are all inclined to rely more on data and less on experience and relationships, precisely at the time when we all need to be making faster decisions based on mutual trust between partners. Finding a balance between these conflicting pressures is a constant challenge.

Other comments:
We’re sitting at a very exciting time in our industry. The internationalization of markets, the advance of technology, the shortening of product cycles, the growth of contract manufacturing services, the consolidation of customer, supplier, and competitor organizations all make for a very dynamic arena to operate in. My 30-year-old self would be amazed at the pace of business today. I have to say, though, that I love this pace. I have a short attention span and am easily bored; I’m happy to say that I am rarely bored in my job.