‘@ Work: William Maybury

January 1, 2017

William Maybury
Company: Maybury Material Handling
Title: Controller
Years on Job: 1.5

I started working at Maybury Material Handling about a year and a half ago as a Financial Specialist. Having grown up around the industry and the company, I had some background but it’s different when you actually start to work inside the industry. I’m just trying to be as big of a sponge as possible and absorb as much knowledge as I can from the people around me. In my current position as Controller, I not only oversee our fantastic accounting department but I also work directly with our President, John Maybury, to understand and help set up our strategy heading into the future. When I first graduated college, I went to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hartford, CT preparing corporate, partnership and individual tax returns for clients. So I left PwC with some of the financial skills that transferred to this job, but the day-to-day is so different. Every day brings a new and unique challenge. Every customer is different. And being able to help our external and internal customers and help shape the direction of the company is the thing that keeps me excited and engaged at this job. I love it.

Technology
We constantly strive to be on the leading edge of technological advances. One of the big changes our company has been going through is a focus on the Internet of Things. All of our service technicians have Microsoft Surface Tablets (soon to be Samsung Android Tablets) that they carry with them. We have the capacity to bill same day. We can generate work orders (soon to be invoices) on the tablet and have the customer sign right there. Everything is electronic and that has accelerated our invoicing, which accelerates our receivables and collections and turns our cash cycle faster. When we look into the future at succession planning, a huge part of what we want to be able to do is transfer the knowledge from our experienced team to the next generation and that is made easier by utilizing the latest technology. That’s ingrained into our culture and will really help us in the future.

Strategic Thinking
To come up with a successful strategic plan, I think you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. The industry is changing at such a rapid pace, especially with technology, that if you get stuck in your ways and can’t adapt to the changes it can really impact the productivity of the company. We have a strategic planning team here that gets together frequently to discuss where we’re heading, how we’re going to get there and what processes are and aren’t working for us. It’s not only having the foresight to see what will change but also being adaptable enough to implement the necessary changes.

Drive
It’s difficult to be successful without the drive to succeed. And for me, a lot of that drive comes from the passion I have for this job. I want to wake up every morning and come to work. You have to like what you do and you have to be motivated to go into work every day and give it your best and really want to see the company and the individuals around you grow. It’s exciting to take what we’re successful at and build on it to take us to the next level.

Communication
Communication is key. It’s one of the things that we’ve focused on in our strategic planning process and will continue to look at going forward. One thing we’ve discussed is to communicate less through email. Communication can easily get lost through email. And between direct emails, emails to a team and emails with cc’s, sometimes it gets confusing as to who should be doing what. So I try to be as transparent as possible with my communication. Transparency and communication go hand-in-hand. You have to be respected in order to get things flowing and get the team to work together. And being up front honest, and transparent is the best way to gain and keep that respect.