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CHATTING WITH ...
Current, past and future leaders in the equipment rental industry
Published on August 31, 2020
Patrick Stephens
Patrick Stephens is the Vice President of Product Management at Wynne Systems. Patrick has over 25 years equipment rental experience, starting off originally learning from his grandfather, Sam Greenberg, who is arguably one of the founding fathers of the equipment rental industry.
Image: Patrick Stephens from Wynne Systems
How and when did you get into the equipment rental industry?
My grandfather, Sam Greenberg arguably started the Rental Industry in the US back in the 1940’s, so I’ve been involved in the industry since early childhood. From working in the yard, leaning, repairing, and renting equipment, to working in the office and doing customer paperwork, Early childhood memories of hooking up trailer lights, towing equipment, and negotiating with customers inform my decisions to this day.
What type of roles and responsibilities have you taken on over your career?
I’ve worked in almost every position available in the rental industry, with many responsibilities along the way. From the yard to the boardroom, sales, support, even cleaning bathrooms. One quote that my grandfather used a lot was, “I’ll even rent you the chair I’m sitting on".
Who played a big influence in your career, and would you consider being a mentor for someone in the next generation?
Over the years, in different roles, I’ve had many mentors. From the very early days of my career, learning how to safely work in the ever changing environments of a yard, to the jobsites, sales, and ultimately information technology. Mentoring is critical to everyone’s role. While building and creating value is important, it’s critical to help others. It’s not the things that we create that are our legacy, it’s the people we help and the work that we enable them to do that is our greatest legacy.
How has the equipment rental industry changed over the years?
Back in the day, small tool rental was king. There was a rule that if a piece of equipment couldn’t pay for itself in three days, then don’t buy that equipment. Sadly those amazing ROI’s are hard to capture in today’s market with the emergence of the “disposable” economy of cheap tools that are readily available to anyone. Many companies have adapted by going into more quality and larger fleet items. These large pieces of equipment have their own special needs around safety, regulation, and safety. As the market has changed, we have adapted by becoming much more formal, and ensuring that our customers needs for compliance and risk management are handled.
Rental has always been a place where strong personalities have been able to succeed and this hasn’t changed over the years, but some of the old “cowboy culture” has been replaced by a more formal approach. Used Equipment Sales used to be something a rental company would only do in a very desperate situation, because the thought was you might be either giving equipment to the customers so they wouldn’t rent from you, or worse, you’d be giving equipment to potential competitors so they’d be able to offer lower rates on the equipment than you could. That’s totally changed in the last 20 years or so. Now used equipment is a profit line on the books of many large companies, and even considered to be a feeder program for small rental companies so that they can grow to a useful size to be acquired by the big companies. Speaking of which, in the current environment (2020 COVID) our customers have found a way to make things happen, but there have been slowdowns, which will inevitably mean acquisitions of rental companies by other rental companies will start to surge again. Unlike back in the day, when the big fish were eating the little fish, start to look for the big fish to start eating the big fish. Ultimately the whales will start eating the whales.
What one piece of advice do you think would have helped you early in your career?
Learn how to lead people by focusing on the bigger picture, rather than the day to day. Details are important, but the overall goal always has to be kept in mind. As an example, “how does turning this wrench contribute to that equipment being available, which makes the utilization go up, the equipment last longer, reducing CAPEX for the next year as we get more life out of an asset?” and so forth. It’s often very easy to get lost in just turning the wrench, the better focus is on how you can lead other people to ensure that *all* the wrenches get turned, all the details are managed, and everything/everyone pulls together towards the common bigger picture goal.
How do you define success and what was a defining moment or event in your career?
Success has many dimensions, but can be broken down into two large categories, personal, and professional. It’s always important to keep in mind that the two can, and should, feed into each other. For me, success is measured in how smoothly and easily things can happen. There’s a great deal of satisfaction in driving by a monumental piece of construction and knowing that we played a part in making that happen. From the roads we drive on to the houses we live in, rental is a critical part of the world. Making the entire rental process as smooth and flexible as possible is something that gives me great satisfaction. As an example, it used to be a herculean task to simply know how much fleet you had, and what it was doing at any moment in time. Having contributed to some of the worlds largest systems to enable easy, yet complete, management of assets, gives me a feeling of great success. Ultimately, my definition of success would be to make what we all do, rental transactions, as simple as ordering from Amazon. Our transaction information needs are inherently complex, but there are many ways to greatly simplify this. Is it possible to do a one click rental transaction? Yes. Will we be able to do that with everything? Probably not. But, every year, we get closer and closer.
How can people connect with you?
I’m always available to answer questions about Rental, Construction, or IT, at Wynne Systems.