After 40 years in project management and product ownership for the financial service industry, dealing with everything from futures to equities to basis trading, I thought my brain couldn’t possibly manage another acronym. But, in a world that constantly changes, I too had to evolve further. Looking back at my career, lumber never crossed my path.
When starting MaterialsXchange (MX), a digital marketplace for buying and selling raw materials, my partners and I needed to choose one commodity with which to begin listing. We had to start somewhere, and since Mike Wisnefski (CEO) and Ashley Boeckholt (CRO) had been buying and selling lumber for years, lumber seemed the logical inaugural commodity. Currently, we are listing wood products, like OSB and SPF, but I had to learn what that all meant. Innovation is a function of ingenuity; MX is innovating the lumber industry, so I had to be ingenious.
As an entrepreneur, connecting past experiences helps generate new things. I had been accustomed to “SPY” meaning the Standard & Poor’s exchange traded fund, and now I know that “SYP” means Southern Yellow Pine. The longest acronym I had known was “TEFRA” (Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act), but that has now been surpassed by “NLBMDA” (National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association). A small fraction in trading is a “Teenie” (one-sixteenth of one basis point) which doesn’t seem so small in fin tech. Yet frankly, I now struggle with the concept of 96” (stud length) being different from 8’ (lumber length), but I’m learning! I am committed to looking at my own knowledge schemes to help us grow.
The reason some entrepreneurs succeed is that they identify a better way to create and deliver value to customers based on their previous dealings. My past put me in a position to mentor my co-founders on “trading-like” applications and adapting financial services technologies to fit the LBM (yea, another acronym). Mike and Ash’s past helped them teach me about wood categories, grades, types, regional growing patterns, and requirements. And after studying the differences between trucking and rail as it pertains to lumber buyers and sellers, I’m cataloging it all in my brain.
Once the lumber and freight information was in check for me, I taught my team the tech side of things. Since MX is a means of doing away with paper and pencil contracts, having EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) allows us to electronically communicate information via files. Our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) manages interactions of current and potential customers with real-time and historical data analysis, improving business relationships and, ultimately, driving sales growth. The API (Application Programing Interface) is the traffic cop ensuring that all data exchanged follows specified formats programmatically. It’s the go-between that defines the kinds of calls or requests that can be made with data on our exchange. Finally, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) are systems which allow MaterialsXchange to communicate directly with a client’s inventory control system, instantly, without human interaction.
Now I know that the OSB we are listing (Oriented Strand Board) is similar to particle board but with wood strands in specific orientations. And the SPF we list on MX is not protecting me from the sun. It’s just a combination of Canadian spruces, pines, and firs growing in different regions of the country with high timber grade, and grade is important. See? You’re never too old to learn, get good grades, and become a Lumber Joe.
Joe Campagna spent the first 15 years of his career in back-office operations and technology, serving in roles as Global Operations Manager for BZW (Barclays Bank), Managing Director of GMI Software in Sydney, Australia, and Senior VP, Technology Marketing and Development for ABN AMRO Incorporated, among others. Joe has spent the last 25 years of his career managing front- and middle-office proprietary solutions as well as vended applications. In addition to co-founding MaterialsXchange and serving as its COO, Joe owns Countryside Consulting, a firm that specializes in financial services project management and product ownership. Past clients have included Merrill Lynch, Newedge/Société Générale, BP Energy, TradingScreen, and ABN AMRO.