PBN 2020 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Tom Stocker | Managing director, Owner’s Edge LLC
TOM STOCKER’S JOB is to help other people do their jobs better.
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As East Greenwich-based Owner’s Edge LLC’s managing director, Stocker works with corporate owners and CEOs to help them figure out their vision, strategy and execution.
“Owners will agree they need a vision and a strategy, but they’re not always sure what that means,” Stocker said.
He uses a phrase called “Find Your Omaha.” There are five U.S. cities called Omaha, he said. Which one do you want to go to? And once you’ve figured that out, how do you get there?
Stocker worked for Nortek Inc. from 1997 until 2006, then started Owner’s Edge in 2007.
“I got tired of [traveling] 100,000-plus miles a year on airplanes, especially after 9/11,” he said. “With Owner’s Edge, I’m able to take what I learned from a large business with Nortek to help smaller businesses become more valuable, more focused, more profitable.”
Stocker said his clients have revenue ranging between $1 million and $50 million a year. Most companies, he said, are not paying enough attention to their financial statements.
“The financial statement is essential to your business,” Stocker said. “Use that as the operating document. It tells you a whole lot about your business.”
Stocker recommends a close monthly review of financial statements. One of Stocker’s innovations is a CEO forum for executives and owners to talk to their peers – on Zoom these days – about common problems and solutions.
“It gets you off that deserted island,” Stocker said.
Owner’s Edge usually works with between five and 10 companies at any given time. Until this year, they were mostly in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. But since the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the business landscape, Stocker’s company has gone national, with clients in California, Chicago and Florida.
Stocker said the pandemic has actually improved his own business life. He’s spending a lot less time in his car, and instead is taking between four and eight Zoom meetings a day.
