In 2000, Mike Bellsmith was recruited on a four-month contract to fix the bank reconciliations at Gescan. Shortly after, he was appointed as Finance Accountant for the BC region. After a few years of closely monitoring accounts, he went on to become Process Improvement Manager. From there, he became Operations Manager. "Initially, our goal was to build processes and work very closely with the branches so they could do day-to-day customer service smoothly. My role was to help integrate finance and operations, training our branches, and finding out if the processes were delivering results," said Mike.  

Following a sequence of different positions within the company, in 2009, Mike was promoted to Pricing Manager and later Supply Chain Director. Since 2015, he's also handled vendor relations and strategies as Vendor Relations Manager. 

Mike saw each role as a chance to bring change internally and externally, "To be aware of what one can do with Sonepar's presence as an influence was motivational. It helped me get out of bed every day to further this exploration. To be able to help people improve and to have that influence was just great," said Mike.  

Pricing and inventory 

Beyond working with vendors on executing pricing strategies, Mike attests that being engaged with products directly at the branch level along with Gescan associates and customers is key to getting the right pricing and inventory in place. "Really getting into the products means you're really getting into the business. It's no longer part numbers on orders and inventory lists," Mike said. "Now it's knowing what these products mean to our customers. When someone comes back saying they can't sell something because the customer finds the price is too high, that is an opportunity to look deeper into the business."  

When it comes to inventory, "The goal here is to provide a high-quality inventory with the right products stocked in the right quantity," Mike said. "That means ensuring we've got the best assortment, the best quality, and the right products in the right quantities to drive value for our customers so that they want to walk into our branches every day." 

Servant leadership and mentors  

Servant leadership is the idea that your only job as a leader is to help those around you succeed. "In this concept, you are leading leaders or future leaders. It's a very different thing than traditional management," Mike said. "To lead a potential leader involves interacting closely, coaching and helping every day in that direction. Imagine leaders running your business. That is a much better team than staff following instructions alone. Effective leadership is really about everybody else and not about yourself," he added.  

Mike has had two very influential leaders mentor him in his career, "While one taught me how to impact people, the other showed me how to build a business."  

Mike elaborated, "As an introvert, I had to work on thinking less about myself while meeting people and being more open about the project at hand. I owe Chris McVittie (BC General Manager for Gescan when Mike was new to the team) for having tweaked my personality to be able to accommodate this very important aspect of business."  

Mike looks up to Jeff Derkuch, former Gescan President, for a very different reason, "He taught me how to be a strategic thinker; how to consider all the possibilities and not jump to a conclusion. Jeff is in the back of my mind always. He reminds me not to think tactically, but strategically."  

Building a strong culture  

The end goal is to create a memorable business culture that helps everyone in the future. Mike said this has been a reality with the new leadership at Gescan. "Everyone knows Javi and loves him. Do you know why? He's that gregarious guy. All natural," said Mike.   

He added, "Javi is the leader of the future. He knows how to rally people together and bond with them individually, and at the same time, give them enough autonomy to do their best job. Javi-style work culture is very inclusive."

Braving the pandemic together 

Javi became president of Gescan during the pandemic. When COVID-19 brought the world to a stop and most companies were worried about how to mitigate losses, Gescan made a conscious effort to support the industry. Mike explained that Gescan's family-centric approach to work culture led the way: "If we helped other families through their business, we were, in turn, helping our own families and business too."  

"We have a role to play to keep our customers feeding their families. Most of our customers are small business owners who need materials and service to keep their business operating smoothly. It was our job to be there so that they could finish jobs, get paid and feed their family,” said Mike. “We were in it together. We knew to keep each other safe so we could all keep working. Many were closing doors and not allowing customers to come in and get the service they needed; we kept the doors open," he concluded.   

Words of wisdom  

Mike recalled that the best advice he ever received came from the owner of a bicycle shop he worked in as a teen, "Wherever you go, whatever you do, leave something behind of yourself, so you are missed when you move on."   

Reflecting on his 23-year career at Gescan with these words in mind, Mike said, "All the different roles in accounting, operations, purchasing and pricing — I got an opportunity to be a part of the team because wherever I was asked to help, I could leave there, memorably. That's how one thing led to the other. The advice stayed in my subconscious mind and created this little path."  

Mike also attributes his success to introspection, a skill he acquired through Gescan’s leadership training. He advises colleagues, "Engage in self-reflection. Understand yourself better and find that spark, that unique thing that will help you perform your role better." To improve communication with others, he concluded, “Pause and think — what is it that I didn't do and could have done? If I want to have an impact, if I want to have influence, and if I want to be helpful, then I must change.”  

Outside of Gescan, Mike is passionate about learning new subjects and embracing the slow life. "My wife and I moved up to a little town called Oliver in BC, a wine town with farming at the heart of it all. On weekends when I'm home, I pick from our garden and love to pickle, ferment, dehydrate and fill our cupboards with all organic goods," said Mike.