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Cover Story


Abdicating the throne



How Gary Reeve let go of day-to-day operations to take MMS to the next level

By Mark Scott


Smart Business St. Louis | August 2008

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Gary Reeve has been in business for too long to expect that he’ll ever have it all figured out.

“There is always something unknown that is going to pop up,” Reeve says. “Even though you plan so much or so well, there is always going to be something that you don’t have control over.”

Five years ago, it was the cost of insurance that skyrocketed after the terrorist attacks in the United States. More recently, it’s been the rising cost of fuel that has forced companies, such as MMS — A Medical Supply Co., to tighten their budgets.

Reeve, the co-owner, president and CEO of MMS, says the key to good leadership through uncertain times is having the ability to respond to a situation both promptly and without panic.

This is much easier to do when you share the leadership of your business. By spreading the responsibility for running your company to others, you open the door to a wealth of solutions you may not have come up with on your own.

“You can have the greatest quarterback in the world, but if you don’t have a team, that line will never protect him,” Reeve says. “Business is no different. If you have a good team surrounding you, a lot of problems are handled long before they hit management.”

Reeve has taken MMS from a $35 million company in 1996 to $336 million in 2007 and now has 450 employees.

As the company has grown, he has not only had to assess how involved he should be with day-to-day problems but also whether the people under him are the right ones to keep the company moving forward.

The key to managing through such growth is to stay in touch with what your business needs. By doing so, you’ll know which of your employees have what it takes to grow with you.

“In some cases, you’re going to have to end up rocking the boat,” Reeve says. “You make some decisions and you move ahead.”

Here’s how Reeve abdicated many of his day-to-day responsibilities to focus on long-term strategic decisions and used his own knowledge of his people to figure out where they fit in the big picture.

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