Vanguard Magazine

40 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017 www.vanguardcanada.com G GAME CHANGER See the full interview online Q How did you start out in this industry, and how has it brought you to where you are today? My first real job out of university was as a Sales Engineer at a distribution company called MMWave Technologies, where I was responsible for sales of wireless Test and Measurement equipment. I was ini- tially in a "hunting" role, looking for near-term sales opportunities at wireless equipment manufacturers and academic customers. My role changed over time to Senior Account Manager focused more on long-term relationships with wireless network operators – so more of a 'farm- ing' role cultivating business relation- ships and longer term design wins that repeated multiple times over the course of a project. Later as Director of Sales, I was responsible for all the employees who were selling wireless and broadband equipment. Overall, my experience at that distribution company enabled me to learn about building customer and vendor relationships, identifying sales opportunities, and providing customer support – the full lifecycle of the sales process. I've brought that to my current role at Gap Wireless, which is the com- pany I founded with my partner Glenn Poulos to distribute products and servic- es for the mobile broadband and wireless markets. Q What is your role at your organiza- tion today? As President of Gap Wireless, I support and manage the sales team, manage ven- dor relationships and contracts, and serve on the Board of Directors that sets the direction for the company. Given I enjoy staying close to the technology and the sales process, I still carry quota and am responsible for two of our major custom- ers. Q What was your worst moment? That had to be when my first and now former employer went out of business, leaving behind many unfulfilled orders and frustrated customers and vendors. As a front-line sales person, a big part of the burden resolving those customer issues fell on me. My first child was two months old, and I didn't know what was in store for me, so that was the most stressful time in my career. Q What was your "Aha!" moment or epiphany that you think will resonate most with our readers? Ironically, it was the same moment when the company I worked for went out of business, and I realized that people val- ued what I did. It was an "Aha!" moment of self-valuation when customers, ven- dors, competitors, and new partners ap- proached me to continue the business be- cause of what I could contribute, based on my prior work. When my current operat- ing partner and I explored the possibility of setting up our own distribution busi- ness to close the gap, we pitched inves- tors on the idea. Response was positive, and we were able to launch our current distribution company, fittingly named Gap Wireless. That was ten years ago, and based on that critical point in time and self-realization, we've never looked back. Q What is the one thing that has you most fired up today? I'm inspired by technology in general, but especially technology that's not in the mainstream yet, talk of new technology that's not out yet, and anticipating what it's going to become. Things like IoT, Big Data and 5G are technologies that I find exciting and are being shaped and establishing standards as we speak. I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing I can contribute to defining a standard or even just being an early adopter. Q What is the best advice you received? In both my personal and professional life, I apply advice given to me by a mentor "Live like a poor man; invest like a rich man." In the near-term, be conscious of your budget and how you spend your money and what value you get for it. For capital expenditures, make sure the way you invest is well planned out, useful, and contributes to efficiency. Q What are some of the biggest impediments to innovation in your organization or industry sector? The speed at which technology is evolv- ing is in itself an impediment. A customer can ask us to stock a particular compo- nent, for example, and then within a short timeframe tell us there's a new and bet- ter equivalent they would prefer we carry. Managing inventory in the face of such rapid change is challenging. MARC BOUVRETTE PRESIDENT GAP WIRELESS

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