By Andy Slawetsky – This week I had the pleasure of visiting everyone’s favorite leasing company – GreatAmerica (GA) in Cedar Rapids Iowa. I’ve never been to the Hawkeye state!

I was here to provide GA with an overview on industry trends and discussions about What’s Happenin’ with the office equipment industry. I was also there to soak in some of the culture and learn a little bit about who GA really is.


Click here for all my pictures from this visit


It’s all about the people at GA. My day began with a tour of the 500+ person facility given by none other than Chariman and CEO Tony Golobic himself.

Tony has been with GA from the start. It’s his baby and he’s rightfully proud of what he’s built. Culture is the most critical part of GA. They want people motivated and happy and there was no shortage of evidence of this on my tour.

Each floor had inspiring quotes on the walls such as “Today is the best day ever, and tomorrow will be even better” and “Excellence is never an accident.” People all had little labels next to their work areas identifying how long they’d been with GA. Tony joked about some with 13-year tenures that were still new. It was actually pretty impressive how long a lot of these people have been with GA. They also had digital signage EVERYWHERE that scrolled important information about accounts as well as pictures of employees for birthdays, recognition of accomplishments and stuff like that. Very cool.

The facilities are immaculate and very modern. There was lots and lots of light and open space, a beautiful entry area, etc. They own the building and keep it in pristine condition.

GA works with an open floor plan. There are no doors, other than meeting areas and a few select places (HR, guest work spaces, etc.). Even Tony works in an open area. And the cubed areas are done in a way that the walls are low enough so that you can see everyone at their desks from a sitting position. It creates a real feeling of community.

You might think it would be difficult to work in an environment like this but surprisingly, that’s not the case. Very low-level white noise is pumped in keeping the actual noise levels pretty low and people get used to working in an office like this.

Most of you reading this know GreatAmerica for their leasing services. About 60% of their revenue comes from the Office Equipment Group but this number is changing as GA has made strong gains in markets such as Telecom, Automotive and others. And they’ll keep expanding into other verticals. The sky seems to be the limit for GA.

GA is different from other leasing companies in our industry. While these are typically massive banks, the office equipment industry is a fraction of where most of them make their real money. We’ve seen these banks swallow each other up over the years, getting out of the copier world in the blink of an eye.

They’re extremely flexible and are often able to help dealers with custom contracts that others can’t or are unwilling to do. I spoke to a dealer recently that loves using their private label leasing as it allows him to present a lease package to his customers that looks like it’s from his company, not a random bank. They’re always willing to go the extra mile.

At the end of the day, GA is a leasing company. That’s all they do and they’re 100% tied to the success of their leasing program. Talk about a vested interest! That means all of their focus is on the leasing needs of their customers. Or is it?

Not only does GA offer leasing programs that can integrate directly into most popular industry CRMs and ERP systems, but they also have developed some pretty amazing programs for these customers outside of the financial arena.

The number one issue for dealers continues to be, and probably will always be, finding and keeping good talent. GA has a program that focuses on exactly that. The PathShare program offers dealers help with finding qualified sales people, hiring them and keeping them. What other leasing company does this?

They also have created a standalone Managed Services company called Collabrance that provides dealers with programs to enter this lucrative market. They help with everything from starting out to building and expanding into a profitable program. Again, what other leasing companies do this? None to my knowledge.

And, GA provides dealers with a managed print services program, yet another example of how focused they are on helping dealers succeed and grow. Not a bad plan. If dealers sell more hardware and solutions through GA’s help, GA gets more lease business. To quote Steve Martin from The Jerk, “I get it, it’s a profit scheme.”

This was a great visit with GreatAmerica and I learned a lot. What really struck me was the attitude of the people I met. Everyone was smiling. During one of my meetings I watched a hilarious video made during a team-building event. These guys got the group pretty fired up. Under the theme Mission Possible, they had the meeting attendees rolling. They’re a fun group that seems to get along great, to say the least. Like a family.

Late in the afternoon I walked around with VP Jennie Fisher and her team as we delivered cookies they had made in celebration of their recent awards from MPSA and The Cannata Report, who had just announced that dealers had once again rated them the best leasing company to work with.

The cookies were decorated with the awards. And the people of GA ate them up. How sweet. 😉

Oh, and I also learned that if you’re late for a meeting at GA you have to do a jig.

This was an excellent and informative visit with an amazing company. Thanks for having me speak and for letting me know What’s Happenin’ at GreatAmerica.

-Andy Slawetsky


Attract, motivate, and retain your employees