Benco Dental’s chief financial officer is Karen Friar. After graduating from Bloomsburg University in 1999, Karen joined the family-run business. She received her MBA from Wilkes University and her CMA designation while working at the organization.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Describe your background and what did you do before you joined Benco Dental?
I’ve been at Benco for over two decades and actually started as an intern. Like most people fresh out of college, most of my early jobs were in various service roles in the food and retail industries. Those roles taught me the importance of focusing on the customer, which has carried with me throughout my professional career.
Over the better part of those two decades, I worked my way up from being a staff accountant all the way to the organization’s CFO. I have seen the transformation that Benco has gone through as it has evolved to become a national organization that drives change across the dental industry.
Tell us more about Benco Dental.
Benco Dental is a family-owned, full-service dental distributor continually working to simplify dentistry’s needs.
Benco offers a variety of supplies and equipment and provides dental practices with services such as marketing, consulting, financial support, and more! Also, as a family-owned organization, we have the luxury of thinking in decades, not quarters. Our long-term focus has enabled us to become America’s most innovative dental distributor, with world-class customer service.
Who is your target audience? How do you create services that align with what they’re looking for?
Our target audience is the dental community, specifically dentists, which starts with dental students just getting started and looking to build their practice up to established dental professionals with multiple geographic locations.
Benco serves over 20,000 customers, and like the medical industry, the dental industry is rapidly evolving with continuous innovation. Our team spends time focusing on and talking with our customers to ensure the services we are building support their immediate and long-term needs, along with the needs of their patients.
As a leadership team, we ensure we spend time with our customers by joining our sales team on over 100 co-travels each year. During this time, we spend the day in offices with our customers. Nothing compares to that hands-on experience, and it really drives our strategy and the services we create.
What are the major changes happening in client behaviour and the market operation since the pandemic?
The pandemic has really been a roller coaster. In the beginning, we had to ask ourselves a question: what happens if people stop going to the dentist? And how can we be there for our customers to ensure we are creating the safest environment possible for their patients? Our organization quickly evolved in a few short weeks, bringing forward innovation and leveraging our partnerships to ensure we had the product and services our customers needed.
A critical change from the pandemic is with our workforce, which was in the office before the pandemic. We had to make swift changes regarding IT support and setting up our associates for a home office work environment.
As a CFO, the pandemic is still very much impacting our business. Today we are dealing with the triple squeeze — persistent inflation (or pending recession), supply chain disruptions, and a tight labor market putting pressure on profitability. Solving these and planning for what’s next is top of mind.
Positively, the organization has never been stronger. The pandemic has undoubtedly strengthened the relationships between our customers, vendor partners, and team.
What gets you up in the morning? What are your responsibilities as the CFO of the company?
My kids! In all seriousness, mornings can be hectic as a mother of three kids (all under the age of 8). Transitioning from a mother to a CFO has its challenges, depending on the day. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a great leadership team and a solid, tenured finance team.
My overall responsibilities include staying focused on driving sustainable, profitable growth for our organization and partnering across the business with our leadership, board of directors, and owners to ensure we are aligned on the organization’s financial health.
As a leader, I am also focused on mentoring the next generation and giving the team the tools and coaching to ensure they are achieving their own career goals.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
I measure success by the achievements of the team and individuals that I lead and have led. Focusing on them and ensuring that they are advancing their careers and taking the foundations they developed here at Benco and either doing great things in other organizations or right here at our organization.
A testament to success is not always in the numbers but in building great teams and outstanding leaders. If we accomplish this, the results will take care of themselves.
What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?
When you’re early in your career, take the job no one wants! There are plenty of jobs out there for people who want to be comfortable, but to truly build a career, you need to take risks and put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid – you know you are learning when you are uncomfortable, and it is okay! You can get very far in your career by simply taking the initiative and stretching beyond your limits.
What are your future plans to sustain your and the company’s success?
We will continue to hire great talent and dedicate time to coaching the next generation of leaders while the organization continues our focus on innovation with deep attention to our customer’s needs and the needs of their patients.
Website: www.benco.com
