Dare to Go Big with Casey Lowery at Applied Innovation

Podcast Description:

In this episode of Total Michigan, host Cliff Duvernois sits down with Casey Lowery, the President of Applied Innovation, a technology company based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They discuss the company's journey from a startup in the copier and printer industry to its explosive growth into a tech giant with a strong presence in various states. As part of a family-run business, Casey discusses his experiences stepping into different roles within the company and his transition into his current position as President. The discussion provides unique insights into how Applied Innovation maintained its customer-focused ethos while growing and diversifying their services. The company's unique culture, transition into the IT space, and their approach to customer service are all discussed, revealing a story of perseverance, strategic growth, and the power of a service-centric approach. 

Links from the Episode

Applied Innovations Website

Applied Innovations Facebook

Transcript

Cliff Duvernois: episode is brought to you by the Stevens Center for Family Business, whose mission is to support the success of family businesses through the generations with education, networking, and collaboration. 

Casey Lowery: Another mentor of mine says is that a lot of companies that are successful stop doing the things that got them where they are. So for me, my number one thing is to make sure that I stay true to the foundation that my dad's built. And make sure that customers have awareness of all the different things that we do and make sure that we're staying relevant for the next 35 years. One  

Cliff Duvernois: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Total Michigan, where we interview ordinary Michiganders doing some pretty extraordinary things. I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois. So, Michigan over the years has been changing, and I knew at some point in time I was going to be talking to somebody running a technology company here in Michigan. 

If you've been paying attention to the news you know, our governor, our legislator is working hard to try to bring more tech business into Michigan. And I'm happy today because we [00:01:00] have a company that was actually founded in Michigan that is doing some pretty amazing things over the last 35 plus years that they've been in business in the IT space. 

With, today we are joined by Casey Lowery, President of Applied Innovation out of Grand Rapids. Casey, how are you?  

Casey Lowery: I'm doing great, Cliff. I really appreciate you having me on the show and excited to spend some time with you today. 

Cliff Duvernois: Where are you from? Where did you grow up?  

Casey Lowery: So, born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Moved around a little bit but I’m probably about a mile from where I grew up here in, in Grand Rapids. Like I said, born and raised, and went to high school downtown. And then, after I graduated from high school, I moved away for school.  

Where did you go to school? 

I went to Indiana University, Kelly School of Business. So, moved down there. It was about six hours away at the time. Now, there's faster ways to get there than there used to be. But, uh, yeah, wanted to get away, but knew I wanted to, go to business school, so.  

Casey Lowery: I think for me it was a lot about getting away from Grand Rapids and you know, seeing what I was made of.  

I knew that it was a good school. And I knew I wanted to go to a big school. So I think those couple of things and, uh, when I went and visited, I just fell in love with the campus. 

Cliff Duvernois: Now what did you get your degree in?  

Casey Lowery: So, I was, business operations and marketing. 

Cliff Duvernois: Now your father started Applied Innovations when?  

Cliff Duvernois: Now the company is going in full swing. At some point after you graduated from college, did you come and join your father's company at the time? 

Or did you go off and get some experience someplace else?  

Casey Lowery: Yeah, so after I graduated from IU, I decided that I wanted to get some sales experience. I felt like I, you know, my goal even when I went to IU was hopefully to someday end up in the family business. But knew I wanted to go out and get some additional experience. So, I actually went to work for, Rico out of the Detroit area and did that for two years. 

And then at the time, my wife was looking to go to nursing school. And she transferred to Grand Valley and felt like if we were going to move back to Grand Rapids, that it would be a great time to hopefully join the business and see if I could help grow it. 

Cliff Duvernois: Now your father John started Applied Innovation in '87 

So the question I got is why technology? Why get into that space in the first place?  

Casey Lowery: I think entrepreneurs in general, I think they start businesses for a few reasons. One is, often they're high in control. I would say that he's pretty high in control. 

And, if you go back, you know, the story that he always tells me is that he watched my grandpa lose his job after he had been someplace for 33 years. 

For him, it was a sense of security and really being able to kind of control his own destiny. The reason I think that he ended up in the technology space, believe it or not, tech, you know, facsimile back in the day in the 80s was technology. That was a space that he knew. 

He had worked for a place, that ended up becoming a competitor. But that kind of goes back to, really around the time when he left the brass business, which is where my grandpa was in. That was the late seventies that he got into that space. And always, like I said, knew that he wanted to have some control and be able to do something of his own. 

Cliff Duvernois: Now your location you started off with one location.  

Now you're up to 11?  

Casey Lowery: 14.  

Cliff Duvernois: OK. I can count, by the way.  

Casey Lowery: Yeah, I should, I should know that. I feel like off the top of my head. 

Cliff Duvernois: Okay, so you're up to 14 locations. So first off, that's incredible. That really is. The second off, my question to you is, is that when you came back to the company, how many locations were you up to at that point?  

Casey Lowery: I believe we had one sales rep in Lansing. Uh, We had a Kalamazoo location. And then we had a sales office in Muskegon. So it was really three, I say, but potentially four. You could call it four. We had one, like I said, one sales rep, out of the Lansing area, 

Cliff Duvernois: So you started off with, you had one location, you had a couple of small satellite offices. And then you come along and join the company. But now here we are, you're at 14 locations, you're across multiple states, right? You got Michigan, you got Indiana, you've got Florida. 

The only word that comes to mind is explosive growth, right? You guys are growing rapidly. What do you attribute that growth to?  

Casey Lowery: When you look at it, so I started in 2006 and a lot of the growth has you know, has been since then. But I, I think oftentimes people don't look at the kind of the foundation of the things that were leading up to some of that explosive growth. 

So I think that was always at our core. Actually, if you look back, there's an article in my dad's office, and in 1997, he said, I think we could be a hundred million in sales 17 offices across the state. So, so I think you, you know, you kind of throw that out there. And I, I feel like even when I started, a hundred million was kind of [00:06:00] always our goal, and I, I don't know if I even truly believed it, but then you hear it enough times, and you feel like, everybody starts to buy in. 

 I think, we got lucky along the way. We had the right things happen in the industry. So we, we've made quite a few acquisitions over the years. And I think one thing that, other people, like my dad, who are looking to sell their business and do not have an exit plan, a lot of times, we're a great option for them. Because they know that we care about their people. And we're going to continue to deliver great service. And we are going to take care of their customers. 

So, I think when you put a few of the acquisitions together. And then you look at some of our strategies for organic growth, I just think it's kind of been a perfect storm. 

Cliff Duvernois: You made the comment about how you joined the company in 2006. 2008, you know, the economy is melting down, and basically the whole country froze. What has kind of surprised you the most about getting through those really tough times?  

Casey Lowery: When we look at like 2008 2009 specifically, I remember we did. I think it was 19 million in sales. And we did it the same the next year. And we felt like staying flat [00:07:00] was growth in the Great Recession. 

We did do one acquisition that I feel like was super key back then. That really helped, catapult us over that 20 million. And we always felt like there was these hurdles that you had to get past. And that's something that we've talked about over the years. But,  I think specifically, again, looking at that one, I remember one thing that we did back at that time. 

Because I, in 2006, I came on and I was a sales rep. And I would go knock on doors. And, I still remember people not knowing who Applied Innovation was. And at the time we were Applied Imaging. So I would go out and I would cold call. And I would, I would talk about Applied and everything we had to offer. And I had to, teach people who Applied even was. 

And, you know, You just get a little bit of momentum with acquisition and, and,  I wouldn't say the rest is history. But that really helped catapult us through that time. 

Cliff Duvernois: So when you join the company tell us about some of the things that really surprised you when you joined the business? 

Casey Lowery: Well, I would say we're, as I mentioned, very entrepreneurial. So I would say we shoot from the hip a little bit. So, know, I came from, uh, [00:08:00] from Rico Direct and it was very structured. 

Like I knew exactly what my territory was. I knew exactly what my quota was. I knew all of these things. And when I came on board here, I was given a territory that someone else shared and I would go cold call. And I had to come back and I would try to put it in our CRM. And I'm like, I actually can't call on that account. 

So for me, it was the lack of organization that made it very difficult for me. Although, I think in a lot of ways, being able to shoot from the hip and being able to be flexible is also the reason that we've been able to be so successful. Because we can react quickly to customer requests and really take care of people the way they need to be taken care of. 

But yeah, certainly the lack of some of that structure. And, you know, even today when we look at it, we want to add structure to make sure that we can sustain. And we can continue to grow. But at the same time we want to make sure there's not too much red tape. It's certainly a balance, so. 

Cliff Duvernois: One of the things I know is it seems like It seems like the people that start a business are not the same people that grow the business.  

What would be some of the things maybe that he was thinking of along the way as far as managing that [00:09:00] growth goes? That was like, okay, maybe this worked when we were a startup. But it's not working today.  

Casey Lowery: I moved back from Detroit in 2006. We had about 65 people. It was sometime in between, 2009. That's when the Great Recession hit. Again, we're just trying to kind of stay flat. It was about 2011. Because I've been saying to my dad, it'd be great if we could go over to Detroit. We've got some great customers that have locations over there that were having someone else service for us. 

And I think when we added that, so looking at new geographies for us has always been a way to really ignite some growth. So we went from being very small in Detroit to being able to now having multiple teams and up to Saginaw, and the Clio areas where our closest offices up there. 

But for us, it's been adding those locations. And I think as tough as it is for my dad to let go of some of that, some of the control, I think he has done a pretty good job for an entrepreneur of being able to let people go and do what they need to do. And [00:10:00] move into more of an organizational, stage company. 

And I would say too, you know, even when we, started to grow, for us, a big part of it was the culture. you know that each office is going to have a little bit of its own subculture. But we wanted to have that foundation really at the core of everything that we do. 

And so, I think by being you know, back in 2011, I don't think culture was as popular as it, back then, as it is to talk about now. But, kind of having some of that foresight to, to make sure that we codify who we are so that way people know what they're getting into when they come on board. 

Cliff Duvernois: So I spent some time on your LinkedIn page. And I see casino night. You know a lot of employees rolling dice and I saw knights fighting in armor. Is this all part of your culture?  

Casey Lowery: Yes, for, for sure. Um, You know, I think it's one of those things that really, I feel like when people come on board, they kind of latch on to,and they make it their own. 

We always say, at the time, uh, from his perspective, he's kind of always setting the [00:11:00] values and the vision. But really when it comes down to how that kind of gets implemented. It may not be 100 percent him. So, but the casino night was something that he always envisioned. I think he's done a great job of really trying to theme as many things as possible. 

Cliff Duvernois: a great fundraiser.  

Casey Lowery: Oh, it was a great fundraiser. Yep. Yep. For the Children's Healing Center. They do a great job here in Grand Rapids. And they're looking to add, additional locations as well. Yeah, they do a great job and really trying to think really try to find things that are super close to things that we believe in here at Applied. 

And kids and families and, and everything along those lines, those are super important to us here.  

Cliff Duvernois: At what point in time did you say to yourself, you know what, I really do want to be a part of the family business and I think I'm ready for more responsibility. 

What was that tipping point for you?  

Casey Lowery: You Even as far back as I can remember, I think probably I was 13 when I, this is all I ever wanted to do. So I don't know if there's a ton of other people that wanted, again, were, we were a copier [00:12:00] dealer at heart transitioning into, you know, more technology and things like that. 

I always looked up to my dad as a role model. And so that was always what I wanted to do. Basically, after I realized I wasn't going to be in the NBA. So, um, and that was pretty early on in life. I think. when I was selling, back from 2006 to 2008. Another mentor of mine is our Vice President of Sales, John Konynenbelt sits in the office right next to me. I think he kind of nudged me.  

So I had sold for two years at Ricoh, sold for two more years here, two to three years here. We had somebody that left the business. And he felt like it was a good time for me to kind of step into sales management. 

So I did that for four years. And I would say he definitely nudged me and, and kind of pushed me out of my comfort zone. But at some point, kind of in my journey throughout the different roles that I had here, I realized that if at some point I was going to be the CEO or president, that I had to have all the experiences. 

So I kind of had to just own the fact that I was going to be uncomfortable in a certain role and, and figure it out. 

Cliff Duvernois: quick break and thank our sponsors [00:13:00] when we come back. Uh, we're going to dive a little bit more into the growth of Applied Innovation. And we'll see you after the break.  

 The Stevens Center for Family Business supports the success of family business throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan. It provides a wealth of resources that family-owned businesses can access to leverage the unique strengths that are just inherent to family enterprises.  

The Center provides educational opportunities about managing the often-complicated combination of family and business. Members attend networking events where family business leaders can share their experiences and learn from one another, drawing on experts from around the country.  

The Center focuses on topics and issues that are just unique to family-owned businesses. They focus on an emphasis on optimal business results, including family harmony, succession planning, preparing the next generation, conflict resolution governance, family dynamics, policy development, company culture, and so much more. 

[00:14:00] Regardless of the size of your family business or the number of years that you have in your history, the Stevens Center for Family Business is a valuable resource for helping to secure the ongoing legacy. of a multi-generational family business. The Stevens Center for Family Business, where networking and knowledge meet to support the success of family-owned companies, both in business pursuits and in family relationships. 

For more information, go to svsu.edu/scfb or contact Casey Stevens at 989.964. 2776. 

 Michiganders doing some pretty extraordinary things. I'm your host, Cliff Duvernois. Today, we're talking with Casey Lowery. President of Applied Innovation out of Grand Rapids. One of the things that I would like to talk about is in some of the research that I was doing is this I guess eight-year journey, so to speak, for [00:15:00] you to become president of the company, right?  

Because you're talking about, you know, your father's been running it for all this time. He is now more of the CEO role. He has, uh, given up the president's role. And now you're on it. Let's talk about, let's talk about that journey, that eight-year journey. 

What did that look like? What did that entail?  

Casey Lowery: Sure yeah that's a good question. I think, even going back to the question you asked before the break, which was, you know, what are some of the things that my dad did to help us grow? One of the things that, and I don't know if it was his idea or somebody forced the idea upon him, but, I really feel like he has thought about succession planning more than a lot of people. First gens typically do. I went into sales management as we grew. Then, I became a director of sales. And then the plan was always to put me in as COO. Because the idea was never to transition the business to me individually. It was to transition to the leadership team.  

So it was all about building that team and making sure that we were prepared for the future and given us that experience And a lot of that started back, so you had mentioned eight years, so yes, it was about eight years ago that I would say I first started to attend our leadership meetings. 

And at first it was probably, three years of me just listening and just [00:16:00] trying to observe what the leadership team was working on and being aware of the ins and outs. And then over the course of those eight years really started to get more engaged. So I've been president since October 1st and was COO for the three years prior to that.  

But certainly, uh, he had the foresight to be able to really try to help me get exposed to a lot of the different parts of the business. 

Cliff Duvernois: And I know that exposure to the business and all these different elements that’s a part of it. But I'm also thinking to that there's the leadership part, there is the vision part, right? And this is almost another skillset that is required. 

So why don't you talk to us a little bit about thinking about just like taking care of we have one customer versus now taking care of a company. I've got employees. I've got payroll I've got all these customers that we're taking care of. So talk to us about that shift in thinking.  

Casey Lowery: I would say that shift even happened probably eight years ago. My dad always encouraged me. He said, Hey, yes, this is your role. But you need to also be thinking about it from this hat. And put this hat on from time to time. I would say, you know, he's always So it's the hat of the owner, [00:17:00] right? 

He's always encouraged me to Yes, that is your role right now. Um, but think, yeah, but think bigger. And I'd say even, going back for years, he's talked about, actively about, Hey, every family has, on average, two and a half people in it. So you're responsible for, at the time, it was 250 people to put food on the plate for dinner. 

It's just something that we, I would say, we've always talked about. I still felt like, as I mentioned, as I stepped into different roles, maybe I wasn't prepared at the time. But, I, I feel like hearing it enough times over the years, hopefully prepared me to, to be ready. 

And I think, some advice that I got from a mentor of mine years ago was to just be the type of person that somebody would want to work for. And to me that's kind of what it comes down to just be a good person. Create a great place to come to work every day, and the rest will figure itself out. 

Part of that culture we were talking about earlier. Certainly. Definitely. 

Cliff Duvernois: One of the things that really surprised me when I'm doing my research and prepping for this particular interview, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. [00:18:00] First off, billion-dollar brand. What surprised me in reading the press release for this, they sought you out. You did not go and bid on them. They actually came to you and said, hey, this is a problem. 

Can you help us solve it? Sweet Moses, that's awesome.  

Casey Lowery: That was, that was pretty good.  

Cliff Duvernois: Okay, so I'm kind of fanboying right now.  

So talk to us, talk to us about that. What was that like to have them just, like, call out of the blue one day, like, hey, can you help us?  

Casey Lowery: know, we talked about being lucky and having good timing. So what's funny is, actually we saw a demographer at the Econ Club in downtown Grand Rapids. And that's actually the reason that we're in Tampa. So we knew that there was this deal, we had been contacted about a acquisition, a potential acquisition down in, in the Tampa area. 

We kind of were, I would say, hemming and hawing about it. We saw a demographer. They were saying, you know, Michigan's staying fairly flat over the next 20 years. demographer? Just that talked about demographics. So, so he, you're just looking at populations and [00:19:00] shifts in ages and, all sorts of different things. 

So, they were talking about Florida over the next 25 years was supposed to double in size. I think it was 21 million to 42 million or something like that. And so we thought, hey, let's try to see what we can do in a growth economy. So we had that going on in the background and kind of tie it back into your Tampa Bay Bucks question. 

So we had been doing business with the Detroit Lions for a handful of years. We had a contact move down there and it was like, we love working with you, at the Lions, I'm now at the Bucks. Do you know anybody down here who could help build a similar relationship? And we were just like, hold on. And within the next six months we were in Tampa. And again, it stars aligned and, and uh, we were able to make that deal, put that deal together. 

Cliff Duvernois: And one of the questions I have to ask too even as a small business owner, when you go up and you're going for somebody big, like I said, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this is a billion dollar brand, sometimes have to ask this, like, wait, what made you think that you could actually [00:20:00] get them as a client?  

Casey Lowery: Yeah, I guess even going back, I've always kind of thought as Applied as, the, it was one of kind of our jokes forever as a little guy across town. So for me, it's always had a chip on our shoulder. We're always trying to punch above our weight.  

uh, I think even with that, what all customers are looking for is partnership, right? And especially somebody like that. If we can, potentially bring customers for them. And they, and, they can bring customers to us, and for us, it's, that's what we did with the Lions. And I think that that's what they hoped that we would bring to the Bucs. And it, both have been a great partnership. I'd say the other thing that all customers are looking for is just great service. 

They knew that they rely on us for that. One of the things that we've talked about for years here is to not just fix the problem, but to fix the customer. So it's not about, putting in a different part that fixes the issue and quit getting out of the office. It's about making sure the customer feels like the problem is solved. 

So that's something that we've always focused on. And that's why I feel like customers like Tampa would potentially, [00:21:00] you know, seek us out.  

So when we talk about technology, What is it that Applied Innovation does for your customers?  

Casey Lowery: Sure. So I would say, the backbone of what we've always done has been the hardware piece. So that's been copiers, printers our joke was always, IT folks are, you know, who pulled the short straw that has to deal with the copiers and printers. 

So for us, that's kind of the backbone, the bread and butter of what we do. 

And what we want to do is try to make that something that they don't have to think about. So if they don't have to think about that, they can focus on other things that are more pressing that was the core of our business. 

And about 2001 was when we got into the automation space, where we're taking paper-based process and trying to help people automate process. The managed I. T. space where we'll basically manage anything. 

So help desk to server to, you know, anything in the cloud. So we can help customers basically completely go third party with their I. T. Or if they want to do partial, we could help them with [00:22:00] that as well. And I would say for us too. So kind of that transition from Applied Imaging. We were Applied Imaging until, last July, when we officially became Applied Innovation. 

And for us, it was really that transition, right? It was, we're not an imaging company anymore. We've been in the IT space for almost 10 years. And, we're a lot more than that. And we see ourselves as, we want to build a great place to come to work every day. Passionate people take really good care of customers. 

We just happen to sell copiers and printers, and now IT, and now shredding. And now telephony and, and for us, you know, I feel like, again, if you can create an environment where people really take care of customers and really care, then it really doesn't matter what we sell. That just happens to be what we do. 

So if you go back to, uh, Simon Sinek, Start with Why. This was around the same time when we, uh, You know, you're a book guy, so, same time when we saw that TED Talk was around the time when we started to codify some of our culture. And, for us it was a [00:23:00] passion for service, for people, for business. 

So, again, people first, because we feel like if we're at service to one another, and if we're at service to one another here in the office, that's where it starts. And then, from there, you can go out and deliver great service to the customer. 

Cliff Duvernois: I love that. Cause you talk about great customer service 1400 tickets a year closed, 98.9% Customer Retention.  

Casey Lowery: Yep. There's some happy people out there with you. 

There's some really happy people. Um and I feel like, uh, our Customer Loyalty Center is a good example. If you go back probably 2012 ish, we looked at all the calls that were coming into Applied. They were primarily service or supply calls. So we cross trained those two teams and made our Customer Loyalty Center. And our goal was to really have every call come in and under three rings be able to pick it up and be able to take care of them right there. 

So again, it's all, comes down to, how can we deliver service even just a little bit better? You know, one of the things my dad kind of [00:24:00] always talked about was maybe we're never going to invent the iPhone, but if we can come up with a way to deliver service 1 percent better. We're going back to the Atomic Habits, right? 

Can we get one percent better every day? Then think about the gap that you'll have in between you and your competition over time. 

Cliff Duvernois: Now that you're president. What is kind of what? It's kind of like the vision that you. see down the road for Applied Innovation?  

Casey Lowery: Another mentor of mine always says is that a lot of companies that, you know, that, that are successful stop doing the things that got them where they are. So for me, my number one thing is to make sure that I stay true to the foundation that my dad's built. It's things like employee breakfasts or Imagepalooza where we bring everybody together and that's something that, that we've themed for years now and that was the, the Knights, the medieval party that we had with the, with the customers or with all of our, uh, with all of our employees over the summer. 

So I think for me, it's staying true to a lot of those roots. But potentially expanding on that. One thing that I'm passionate about is, um, is trying to continue [00:25:00] to cross sell across all the different functions of what we do. What we find oftentimes is that. Customers that find out that we are in the IT space are like, I didn't know that. We would have gone with you had we had the chance.  

So, I think for us it's about how do we continue to cross sell and make sure that customers are, have awareness of all the different things that we do and make sure that we're staying relevant for the next 35 years.  

Cliff Duvernois: Casey, if somebody's listening to this interview, and they want to check out Applied Innovations, maybe read up on you, because I know you're all over the social, you're all over the place, where can people find you? 

Casey Lowery: I would say the best place is probably AppliedInnovation.com. Certainly, you can check us out on, any social platform. 

LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. But, probably our website would be thebest place to contact us. 

Cliff Duvernois: Impressive. Casey, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today. I really do appreciate it.  

Casey Lowery: Cliff. I appreciate it.  

Cliff Duvernois: And for our audience, you can always roll on over to TotalMichigan.com. Click on Casey's interview and get the links that he mentioned above.  

Youtube Video