Feature Article

CEOs' seamless transition

At Owens & Minor, Gil Minor has taught Craig Smith the ropes.

By Bob Rayner

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

In some respects, Gil Minor and Craig Smith could not be more different.

Minor grew up a Virginian, and his family has deep roots here. He speaks with a casual Southern drawl, pausing now and then to consider his words.

Smith grew up in Southern California and moved to Richmond 13 years ago. His conversations are marked by the occasional pause, too, but they're followed by a rush of ideas and bullet points.

Minor ambles into a room, the dignified Southern gentleman.

Smith seems to appear from nowhere and disappears almost as quickly.

But the two men do have a clear and consuming area of common interest: Owens & Minor Inc., the Fortune 500 medical-and-surgical-supply company that Minor's family started in downtown Richmond in 1882.

Minor, 64, has spent his entire career at the company, including 21 years as chief executive. Smith, 10 years younger, joined Owens & Minor in 1989 and was promoted to president in 1999.

In July, Smith replaced Minor as CEO, the first person not named Minor to head the company in more than half a century.

Minor remains chairman, but he is weaning himself from the nitty-gritty management of the company, which posted $4.5 billion in revenue last year.

"This is a positive change for the business and a positive change for me," he said. "The business challenges of today need fresh perspectives. It's a natural transition."

Still, it's an awfully big change for the man and the company.

"All my life, I've worked every day, every night. I've been on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for Owens & Minor. That's been my life for 42 years."

He's not complaining. And he's not going away. But he might stop coming by the office every day.

"I think I can be a help to Craig, but I'm bound and determined not to get in his way. The one thing I did not want to do is hang around and be in the way of the great progress and growth that are ahead for us."

At Owens & Minor, the executives call the employees teammates. It's reflexive. Nobody seems to think twice about it.

"I have great confidence in Craig, the teammates do and they need to start going to him," Minor said. "I couldn't be happier. It's the best of all worlds."

Smith said that when he was younger, he never envisioned himself as a CEO: "I always loved sales, and I always thought that I would be in sales."

His father was a sales manager for Aetna insurance. When he died, "guys came to the funeral who he had helped 30 years ago. My dad loved to train people and help develop their careers."

Smith figured he might follow the same path. Things worked out a little differently.

He joined Owens & Minor after a 1989 acquisition and worked on the West Coast for three years before coming to Richmond.

Smith caught the CEO's eye right away: "I just thought he had that fire in the belly when I worked with him after the acquisition," Minor said.

In the past decade, Smith has been more student than teacher, working closely with Minor, watching how he interacts with customers when they're on the road together and taking clues from the older man's relationship with the teammates.

"I've learned a lot from Gil," Smith said. Now he's ready to lead a company that competes in a business marked by slim margins and modest revenue growth.

Owens & Minor -- the old-line Richmond company -- has succeeded by becoming an industry leader in technology, by developing a customer-first culture and by paying close attention to those teammates, with a heavy emphasis on training.

"Gil and I are very proud that we're very good box movers. That's nothing to be ashamed of," Smith said. Still, the company focuses a lot of energy on finding ways to use supply-chain information and expertise to help customers save -- and make -- money.

"We'll try a lot of new things," he said -- but not too many. Smith is adamant about preserving the company's strengths.

"I want to make sure this continues to be a wonderful place for people to work."

Smith believes he can pull that off: "I've been very fortunate to have a great teacher."

For Minor, the slowing pace seems more sweet than bitter.

He can look back on many accomplishments. He guided the business through especially trying times in the 1990s when a big, complicated merger was followed by the sudden loss of the company's biggest customer.

Wall Street was screaming for deep spending cuts. Some suggested it was time for Owens & Minor to find a white knight.

"We stubbed our toe. But we said, 'Let's gut it out, put the emphasis on rebuilding,'" Minor recalled. "That turned out to be the right decision. It was common sense."

Minor radiates old-Richmond manners -- and preaches change.

"Even in those challenging days, we persevered with our technology investment. We stepped out in front of the market. There was some risk there."

Paid off.

"The status quo is totally unacceptable. Every three or four years, we've had to reinvent ourselves as a company."

Minor doesn't seem the type who needs to reinvent himself.

His office is garage-sale cluttered with pictures, plaques, mementos -- some from business but just as many reflecting his many interests, including baseball and a certain old-Virginia school in Lexington.

He'll spend even more time helping his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute, where he is president of the board of visitors, first in a long list of civic duties.

Minor, who was a catcher on the VMI baseball team, is even thinking about coaching Little League. Just one condition: He doesn't want to be the head coach.

-- October 3, 2005. Republished with permission from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  

Craig Smith (left), who has been president of Owens & Minor Inc., is stepping into the CEO's job. G. Gilmer Minor is descended from those who founded the company in 1882.
DON LONG/RTD