agency. If something happens to me and the entire company fails, what have I accomplished? Any succession plan must affirm the value of the other people in the organization, that they are capable and have the skill set and are as engaged in the business as I am.”
He notes that his predecessors, Duncan MacDonald and Kurt Fisher,“ did a great job of that over the years they’ ve been in business.”
Career Path
In order to appreciate how and why Gunstream got to this point in his career, it should be noted that he began his career as an independent manufacturers’ rep right out of college where he was a double major in music and business.“ I was as green as could be. I didn’ t know a ball bearing. I didn’ t know what a rep, distributor or OEM were. I did, however, know Duncan MacDonald on a personal level and learned that he needed a sales guy. Even in hiring me, he knew that while I had a strong interest in the job, I would take a lot of training— and I did. At the end of a couple of weeks of training he asked me what I thought.‘ Is this something you’ re truly interested in? If not, we can call it quits right now with no hard feelings.’
“ I let him know I relished the opportunity to work with a small company and found this whole new business world interesting.”
On the subject of training, Gunstream explains that wasn’ t all that difficult. What was an eye opener, however, was the travel schedule.“ While I was told from the outset that 50 percent of my time would be spent traveling, it turned out to be a bit more than that. That’ s something you’ ve really got to be okay with. For me, I was green, young, just out of college and married with no children. While that amount of travel might seem a negative, there’ s a positive and that’ s the flexibility. Basically, you get to decide when and where you’ re going to travel to meet with customers.”
Planning for the Future
With that as his career background, Gunstream addresses the subject of the agency’ s succession plan.“ When I joined EIP 13 years ago, both MacDonald and Fisher were in their 40s. While they weren’ t necessarily thinking about succession at that time, that changed by about 2009-10 when I had gotten more involved in the business. Our business had changed quite a bit. We had lost some large lines, gained others, but the economic downturn certainly affected us. I had become a bigger part of the planning for the company and was the treasurer at that time.
“ The question came up about planning for the future. Duncan and Kurt weren’ t ready to retire. The plan was still somehow off in the distance and there wasn’ t a major emphasis on it. They’ d occasionally make a comment such as‘ One day we’ ll probably sell the business,’ but that’ s as far as it went. At that point I left the company owing in part to the fact there really wasn’ t a plan.”
Following a relatively brief three years with another company, Gunstream opened his own agency in 2016.“ After about two-and-a-half years I had reached a point where I was going to make an