Cross & Crescent

Mike Odell (Denver) has made a living by turning companies around and making them profitable. His first lesson in this occurred at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house; and he has taken those skills and applied them throughout his life.

He began his professional career as a CPA for Deloitte & Touche. He went on to work in finance at Sears, Roebuck and Co. where he became vice president of finance and then operations of the Automotive Group.

“We turned that automotive operation around from losing money to making money over a two-year period, “says Odell.

Odell then ran the Southeast region for Sears stores, and had the top performing region for the three years he was in the position. He was then promoted to the senior vice president of operations for Sears’ stores, and then to the executive vice president for Sears’ stores.

It was then that he made the move to join Pep Boys as the chief operating officer and eventually CEO.

Leadership Philosophy

Odell has focused his business models around the need to be refocused on the customer.

“I always break it down into people, customers, sales, profit, and growth. It’s the way that I like to put it together,” says Odell. “I make sure we’re right on our people, make sure we’re delivering for our customers, and make sure that it drives top line growth so that it produces bottom line profit. That gives you the right to grow at the end of the day.”

Whether it’s Pep Boys, Sears, or the fraternity, Odell believes there needs to be a common point-of-view in terms of what is to be accomplished. Though a group of people may be individually talented, by all doing their own thing it doesn’t come together for the customer. Success takes harnessing all of their expertise and skills, then get it all pointed in a single direction.

“Like a sports team, if you’ve got a team with the five best basketball players but they’re all doing their own one-on-one, you’re not going to accomplish anything.” says Odell. “They all have to be pointed in one system, one objective that’s right for the customer.“

Besides the individual skill sets, you also have to look at a person’s character, Odell says. Without integrity a person simply can’t advance under his leadership model.

He also believes in empathy. “You’ve got to have empathy for the customers if you’re going to be in a customer service business. You’ve got to have empathy for your associates if you want them to believe in the company and believe in the mission. People like to work for somebody who they feel cares. Cares about them as a person, and cares about them in terms of their advancement and their personal motivation. It’s about being able to put yourself in someone’s position so that you can understand it. The more that you can understand it, the more you relate to it, the more you can act on it.”

Odell also believes in surrounding yourself with people with a can-do attitude, positive energy versus the glass half empty.

Pep Boys

Odell is not a skilled mechanic nor an ASE certified technician. He is focused on customers and focused on making sure that people are in a position where they can be successful with customers.

“I’m pretty good at making sure that it’s going to be a profitable model when we’re all said and done,” says Odell, “Sometimes you can do great things for customers and great things for sales and not make any money.”

Founded in 1921 by “Manny” Rosenfeld, “Moe” Strauss, and “Jack” Jackson, Pep Boys is a full-service automotive aftermarket chain. Headquartered in Philadelphia, it currently operates 570 stores and approximately 6,000 service bays in 35 states and Puerto Rico.

Since becoming CEO of Pep Boys in 2008, Odell has used this strategy at the once struggling auto supply company and it has again become profitable. Pep Boys had lost money for four years and been a little bit better than break-even over the last decade. This year Pep Boys will be profitable, making more money than the previous 12 years combined.

“It’s the same thing as what we’re trying to accomplish for our customers,” says Odell. “Let’s get our team organized around what we need to deliver for our customers, then drive sales and improve the profit model so that we can grow our store count. “

Under Odell’s leadership Pep Boys has focused on four core areas of business: service, do-it-yourself, commercial, and accessories. He expects the largest opportunity to come from growth in the service area.

“It’s the fastest growing, most fragmented, and it’s highly profitable,” says Odell. “We are looking to expand by taking our existing supercenters that have 20,000 square feet and surrounding it with smaller service and tire centers.”

He says Pep Boys has a little over a one percent share, but nobody has a two percent share of the service side. He thinks this share can be expanded due to a cost advantage Pep Boys has in buying power of the 600 national stores.

Looking to the future, Odell says Pep Boys goal is to become the market share leader amongst the automotive service providers. He expects to have more outlets and drive more business through service bays than anybody else.

“Our vision is to be the automotive solutions provider of choice for the value-oriented customer,” says Odell. “Then underneath that vision we have our strategies. Our strategy for service is to be the market share leader. Our strategy for retail is to be the automotive superstore. Between those, Pep Boys is the one place that does everything and has everything.“

University of Denver

When Odell entered college he did not intend to go through rush. He was invited by his roommate, who was rushing the fraternity, to attend a Lambda Chi football practice.

“I had a good time,” he says. “Got invited to the rush party that night, and basically just found folks that had common interests and were having fun together. “

He made close friendships with others rushing Lambda Chi. Odell loved the sports side of the Fraternity and the idea of being part of a large family. “I remember when they made me the offer to come join the house that I accepted so quick that they were almost like what’s wrong with him,” laughs Odell. The following year Odell became the chapter’s treasurer and began the first financial turnaround of his career.

“We really weren’t under control with our spending,” says Odell. “It was really the first time that I learned cash flow. We were in a deficit position and I had to manage the cash inflows and the cash outflows and make sure that we had the little equity that we needed.“

By the end of the first of two years in the office Odell had made the chapter operate with a surplus.

“I wasn’t always popular and we lost a few people because they wouldn’t pay,“ says Odell. “A standard isn’t a standard if you don’t hold people accountable. If you don’t adhere to your standards, what do you stand for? You don’t want to have standards that are meaningless. So if you’re going to have them, you’d better stick to them.”