Transportation and Logistics
Storing success
How Tom Ryan is taking PODS Enterprises to the next level
By Brian Horn
Smart Business | September 2009
Page 1 of 3
There’s no denying PODS Enterprises Inc. experienced amazing growth in the last 10 years. Under the guidance of co-founder Pete Warhurst, PODS grew from a start-up company in 1998 to a company with systemwide revenue of about $200 million in 2005.
But, it was time to take the company to the next level, which is where current president and CEO, Tom Ryan, entered the picture in 2008.
“The truth is, it was led by and grew through the typical entrepreneurial activities that you would see in a company,” he says. “When a company’s going through that pace of change and growth, it’s pretty usual for somebody within the business to say, ‘OK, I’m not sure how we are going to do X, Y or Z this year, so we are going to try a couple of different things.’ Maybe it’s 100 different new initiatives. If 15 of them stick on the wall, it’s 15 more than they had last year.”
Now, with 2,000 employees and about $350 million in revenue for fiscal 2008, that type of process isn’t the most effective way to generate more growth.
“It’s critical that you actually go through a pretty regimented process as to what initiatives you are going to ask people to execute on,” he says.
Here’s how Ryan is building a foundation to take PODS to the next level.
