JOHN MAYBURY MHEDA's 52nd President

John Maybury is president of Maybury Material Handling in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and MHEDA's 2006 President.

MEET
THE MAN

What was your first job, and what did you learn from the experience?
My first job was in the lawn care and snow removal business while I was in high school. That job helped me understand the need for time management and following through on commitments. The grass kept growing and I had no control over when it snowed.

How did you get into material handling?
While still in school at Western New England College, I started selling benches, stools, shelving and carts to local manufacturing firms in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area, companies such as Smith & Wesson, Milton Bradley, American Saw and others.

What is your favorite part of the job today?
I enjoy the people, networking, problem-solving and strategizing aspects. There's never a dull moment because things are always changing. My favorite part is being involved in projects, going into different manufacturer and distributor companies, and seeing different products and processes.

How do you spend a typical day?
I usually get up early, stop at Dunkin Donuts and head for the office. The time varies from as early as 5:30 to as late as 8:30, depending on what's going on at home. Once at the office, I check correspondence, review quotations, go over key performance indicators from our different divisions, and make customer visits. Then, I circle back and make myself available to staff. After work, I'm either at home or watching the kids' events and it's on to the next day.

How do you develop employees?
We start during the hiring process by looking for integrity, passion and self-motivation. We build our company culture with these three characteristics. We do a lot with self-managed teams and empowerment. Our HR manager develops orientation and training materials focusing on customer satisfaction, sales, gross margin and employee satisfaction.

What is the number one thing you waste time on?
I don't waste much time at all. I'm a busy guy going full steam. Quite frankly, if I didn't have to sleep, it would be just fine with me. Other people think I'm nuts, but I consider sleep a waste of time. I'm not sure what's productive about sleeping, but I guess we have to do it.

What did you want to be when you were 10 years old?
I was probably hoping to be a professional motorcycle rider because I spent most of my time riding, changing parts on, and souping up dirt bikes.

If you weren't in material handling, what do you think you would be?
I would enjoy being a doctor, probably a trauma surgeon. I am intrigued by heart surgery, even knee replacements and emergencies like car accidents because of the immediate action and quick thinking required.

What is your family life like?
I've lived in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, my whole life. My wife Sandy and I have been married for over 20 years. We have two sons: Tom, 16, and William, 14, plus a four-year-old female golden retriever named Dakota. In between school sports and other activities, we like to vacation in New Hampshire and travel when we can. It's easy to spend time with my kids because I live only two miles from the office. People with long commutes sometimes envy that.

Do you have a favorite game?
Right now it's paintball. I actually have a paintball field behind the house. Employees play, friends play, and my sons' friends play. It's a lot of fun.

Do you collect anything?
Since I was 10 or 12 years old, I've been interested in anything that has a motor, almost to a fault. My wife and others have concerns about how much stuff I have in my barn—motorcycles, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, boats, race car engines, just stuff. I try to fix them up, ride them or use them.

Why should someone be a member of MHEDA?
There's no better business group or association in which to network, share or openly discuss industry-specific issues. The inexpensive education offerings, retreats and conventions continue to provide vital, up-to-date, industry-specific information that can't be gotten elsewhere. And the Affinity Programs save more money than the membership fee costs.

What is your top priority as MHEDA President?
I want to make sure that the association is able to drill down deeper into organizations to the younger associates, the future leaders. We'll continue to provide quality networking and educational opportunities to the core group, but we want to expand to the next generation.

What else can MHEDA members look forward to this year?
We'll have similar consistent content that members continue to want and are used to seeing, and then some. The “and then some” includes new networking and education programs for “Edgers” (younger associates and future leaders). The Annual Convention will be in Marco Island, Florida, one of the finest venues for a convention, and there will be excellent networking opportunities and outstanding education tracks. We're adding Affinity Programs where they provide a benefit to the membership.

What is the one thing that's always with you?
My BlackBerry.

What should distributors be doing with technology?
They need to use technology as an accelerator. There is more new technology available than any individual company could possibly implement. However, the proper use of the right technology can act as a springboard for our distributor members, specifically the use of data in a push format, sales dashboards and manager dashboards. The information is there, and we need to put it in front of people so they can look at their KPI and benchmark.

Where will you be five years from now?
I hope to be doing the same thing, more or less, right here, enjoying what I do.