Peter Provenzano is the President & CEO of SupplyCore, a leading supply chain integrator responsible for optimizing information, material, and financial flows for the U.S. military. Peter also founded MPOWR®, SupplyCore's social enterprise division that helps communities and businesses with strategy execution so they can come together, achieve outcomes and systems change.
On this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, Peter joins us to talk about his experience growing the family business, his advice for entrepreneurs and family business owners, and what he learned about thinking strategically about the future.
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On scaling the family business
When Peter returned from college, he was tasked with growing the family business. At the time, SupplyCore was just 12 employees. While his parents continued to work on the legacy business, Peter dedicated himself to learning and plotting a strategic direction for the company.
Early on in his early twenties, Peter was full of ideas. He would eventually link with the head of the MBA program at Rockford University, who would become his mentor. Together, they dug into the company vision, the blueprint of the company, and the goals for the future. He also joined a peer group, and began immersing himself with everything and everyone that he could learn from. Eventually Peter presented the first growth plan to his parents, complete with a vision, goals, sales projections, and a math model for the sales process.
Fast forward to today, Peter's ambitious plan allowed the company to experience growth like never before, thanks to the structure he helped put in place. They went from a supplier of mechanical components to the military to a supplier of aftermarket components and production components to commercial buyers like Raytheon.
Along with winning several accolades for the success of SupplyCore, Peter also founded MPOWR®, SupplyCore's software and social enterprise division. His goal with MPOWR® is to help communities, businesses, and organizations execute on their strategies, achieve outcomes and systems change, and collaborate more effectively.
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Advice for younger entrepreneurs & older business owners
Peter's advice for young entrepreneurs is simple - older people want to help. Peter looks back on his time as a young entrepreneur, and remembers learning so much from people older than him with practical smarts (that you can only learn being on this Earth a while). He encourages younger people to get out there and engage with experts in your industry, as they're generally eager to share what they know.
Peter also shares some valuable advice business owners looking to let younger family members into the business. He recognizes that family dynamics are usually complicated, and add an extra layer of confusion on top of the regular dynamics of running a business. His advice is to first work to understand those dynamics of both the family and the business. Who's in charge? Who makes the key decisions? Next, he says family businesses owners should look for help externally as much as possible. That could mean hiring a consultant who specializes in family business, joining a peer group, or reaching out to a local university with a family business center.
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To learn more about Peter's businesses, SupplyCore and MPOWR, visit the websites:
To connect with Peter and learn about his other business endeavors, connect with him on LinkedIn:
