What Makes Gus Go? Inside the Leader’s Mind

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by just about anything business related. How do businesses become successful? How do they sustain that success? How do they market themselves? How do they adapt and evolve, struggle, survive, and thrive?

I follow business sort of like a sports nut. I’m watching sales in the same way others watch batting average, studying the leaders and front-line employees like others analyze coaches and players on a team. It’s one thing to have a good game, or a good season, but how do certain teams win year after year, no matter what challenges are thrown in their face? While others may have ESPN burned into TV screens and minds, CNBC is burned in mine.

Last week I got to sit down with Gus Olympidis, CEO, Founder, and Owner of Family Express, to see what I could learn from his experience selling me my gas, coffee, mountain dew, and those famous square donuts.

 

Customer Driven Company, Good to Great, Blue Ocean Strategy, and Pour Your Heart Into It are all books that are cornerstones on Gus' desk, and a quick discussion of each makes it easy to see why: Customer Driven Company for its long-standing, classic lessons about serving the people coming into the stores; Good to Great for the focus on constantly striving to become a high performance organization, Blue Ocean Strategy for the vision to think about what is next beyond what anyone is doing right now; and Pour Your Heart Into It for the way Starbucks created an experience out of getting a cup of coffee.

When you see the race between companies that have a passion for customer service versus those that don’t, Gus tells me, “It is not a photo finish. It’s not even close.

Family Express continues to build new stores and recently completed a huge upgrade of its corporate office and primary distribution facility in Valparaiso, including a full-featured training store inside. It has launched the FE Perks customer loyalty program that leads the industry with discounts on gas, based on all the other purchases and services that Family Express offers. How does he retain the edge, after so many years of success?

“I learned when I was young that I am allergic to poverty,” he replies. “My survival, that of my family and our company, depends on it.” When I inquire if the thought ever comes to mind to just take that success off to a chair on the beach somewhere with a book in the sun, he wants no part of it. “That is what a judge would sentence me to.”

Any mistakes, or tough times along the way I ask? “Hundreds, if not thousands,” he is quick to man up to, as he tells me they are constantly improving everything they do in response to the economy, government regulations, and consumer buying patterns.

Even with the Family Express turnover rate being among the lowest in the industry, “It is still not zero, so we have work to do. We look for people that are friendly and giving, as those are DNA traits that success is dependent upon, and the company uses personal and institutional behavior and performance tools to screen 50 candidates to get one person qualified to serve their customers.”

“You have to manage your fairness and your firmness,” he replies when I ask him how to balance the needs for performance of the business and the needs of his people. “There are situations that require 100% to 0% of each, and rarely is 50/50 the right answer.  It’s great to say you are a leader, but how many people are behind you?”

Gus has been involved in a wide variety of regional and local community organizations like the Visiting Nurses Association, has shared 30 years of his life with his wife Beth who he would “race to the chapel” to marry again, keeps a soft spot for animals, enjoys a keen interest in interior design, good food, and wakes up with a “passion for winning” that keeps him on the GO every day.