Dennis Brown started his logistics business from scratch seven years ago and has learned

some useful leadership lessons along the way.

Leaders should not get so consumed by day-to-day tasks that they fail to plot a growth

strategy, he said.

&#8220If you&#8217re not focusing on growth, you&#8217re shrinking, whether you realize it

or not,&#8221 said Brown, chief executive officer of Logistic Dynamics in Amherst.

Advice and insights on developing a business flowed freely Wednesday at the Western New

York Leadership Forum in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Innovative leadership was the

topic.

Brown was joined on a panel by Sam Heleba of Graphic Controls, Peter Hunt of Hunt Real

Estate Corp. and Rick Posa of SAMCO Technologies. They reflected on how their companies have

overcome obstacles and acted on growth opportunities.

Brown&#8217s company, which arranges transportation services by truck, rail, air and ocean,

employs 25 people locally and has 37 branch locations in North America. It recorded sales of

$18 million in 2009 and is targeting $100 million in revenues in 2015.

Some of Brown&#8217s leadership advice centered on effective employees. He cited a theme he

liked from the acclaimed business book &#8220Good to Great&#8221: Get the right people on the

bus, get the wrong people off the bus, and get the right people into the right seats.

As for compensation, Brown said his company&#8217s &#8220pay for performance&#8221

incentive program has generated strong results. &#8220People don&#8217t mind doing more if

they have the opportunity to earn more,&#8221 he said.

Graphic Controls&#8217 plant in the Exchange Street business district, built under

Tyco&#8217s ownership, is a key part of the company&#8217s success, Heleba said.

&#8220We built a brand new factory, state-of-the-art, and that in itself differentiates us

as a relatively small company but with a big-company facility,&#8221 he said. And that counts

with customers who visit to scrutinize the operations, he added.

Heleba said recruiting the right people is also essential, which he described in sports

terms as &#8220draft well and find good free agents.&#8221

Graphic Controls&#8217 products include charts and marking systems, medical recording

papers and entertainment and gaming tickets. The company was acquired in the late 1990s by

Tyco, a multibillion-dollar conglomerate, and regained its independence in 2004. Heleba said

Graphic Controls has tried to &#8220keep the good from corporate America and get rid of the

bad.&#8221

The company makes acquisitions that are a natural fit and has broadened its product lineup,

Heleba said.

Under Tyco&#8217s control, it faced a challenge from within. Several years ago, Tyco

stripped away its medical business, subtracting millions of dollars of annual sales.

&#8220Quickly we had to reinvent ourselves,&#8221 Heleba said.

In 2001, Graphic Controls expanded into the gaming industry and is now the global leader in

that segment, with sales of more than $30 million, he said.

After separating from Tyco, a noncompete agreement kept Graphic Controls out of the medical

business for three years. The deal expired a couple of years ago, and Graphic Controls now has

its medical products in more than 600 hospitals, and it counts GE Medical as its largest

customer in the segment.

Heleba said Graphic Controls has achieved those results by learning its customers&#8217

needs and how to address them, and by distinguishing itself from the large-scale competitors

in the medical segment.

&#8220We saw that some of the larger players were just ignoring their customers, and we

weren&#8217t going to do that,&#8221 Heleba said.

Hunt Real Estate has offices across New York State as well as in Florida and Arizona. Hunt,

the CEO, said the company has concentrated on making its people as productive as possible to

grab more market share and has expanded its menu of services far beyond home sales.

The company has enthusiastically embraced the Internet and technology tools to connect with

customers, he said. The person in charge of its new technology platform is 22 years old.

Hunt Real Estate has added content to its Web site to appeal to visitors, Hunt said.

&#8220It&#8217s extended the time that a customer will spend looking at a real estate-related

issue,&#8221 he said.

Hunt said he sees part of his leadership role as maintaining a family business here that

dates to 1911. In 1997, he had an opportunity to sell his company and move to New Jersey to

work for another organization. But he said the idea just didn&#8217t appeal to him.

Posa, CEO of SAMCO, said he attends trade shows not only to drum up business but to take

the pulse of his industry. He also pays visits to customers to find out what their concerns

are.

SAMCO makes equipment used for handling water, wastewater and process filtration. Several

years ago, faced with stagnant sales, the company took a thorough look at its operations and

identified markets it could expand into to stimulate sales, he said.

&#8220Clients don&#8217t want to spend money to clean up waste,&#8221 Posa said. The

company has found new opportunities selling in the industrial and energy markets, shifting

away from the remedial business.

Posa said SAMCO&#8217s sales were going strong last year until orders dried up in July,

fallout from the economic downturn. &#8220We&#8217re starting to see a pickup in new

orders,&#8221 he said.

Wednesday&#8217s forum was presented by several organizations, including Jaeckle

Fleischmann & Mugel, Lumsden & McCormick, and World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara.