Cover Story
Strength in numbers
How Suri Suriyakumar acquires and integrates entrepreneurs to drive American Reprographics’ growth
By Mike Cottrill
Smart Business Los Angeles | August 2008
Page 1 of 4
Suri Suriyakumar has a pretty straightforward view of leadership.
“I totally believe in the fact that a great leader will be able to
inspire teams to accomplish goals that they did not think were
possible,” he says. “You have to inspire them and make them
believe that they can accomplish these goals, because otherwise, they would have done it themselves — the reason they
haven’t done it themselves is they look to you to motivate and
inspire them.”
Suriyakumar, president and CEO of American Reprographics
Co., keeps that in mind with each step his company takes. Already
the largest provider of document management services to the
architectural, engineering and construction industry in the U.S.,
American Reprographics has acquired well over 100 companies
ranging from a few million dollars in revenue to $75 million in the
last two decades. With so many of those deals made directly with
owners, Suriyakumar and his leadership team have done extra
work to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in each company
they’ve bought.
Rather than just pulling the resources of a new company into
the giant arms of American Reprographics, Suriyakumar keeps each
one independent to spark its growth. While many companies will
wave goodbye to large percentages of a staff when they acquire a
new business, American Reprographics focuses instead on respecting the assets that already exist. Introducing a few of the best practices that American Reprographics knows in a way that comforts the
acquired team, Suriyakumar slowly eases them into the company by
allowing them the autonomy to act independently to leverage their
local expertise while their systems are being fine-tuned. The
result is 300 individual reprographics companies growing with
entrepreneurial spirit under one giant umbrella. Using that philosophy, American Reprographics’ net sales have increased from
$416 million in 2003 to $688.3 million in 2007.
