Driving Company Modernization, Adam Becker

It became apparent early in Adam's time at PJPS that he had a passion for our company and our culture. In his first three years, Adam transitioned from his initial role at PJ to become a Product Manager and then to become Director of Inside Sales. His path has been marked by excellence every step of the way. In January 2020, Adam Becker was promoted to VP of Operations, which is his current position.

We’re excited to announce that Adam was recently honored as part of the next class of Modern Distribution Management (MDM) Future Leaders with nine others in the distribution industry. Below is his feature spotlight from MDM that was originally published on mdm.com.

By: Elizabeth Galentine

Adam Becker began his career at Palmer Johnson Power Systems in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, without a background in industrial distribution, but the 32-year-old has made — and continues to make — a mark on the family-owned distributor of heavy-duty, off-highway parts and equipment.

After a few years excelling in sales, Becker was promoted to product support manager (which he called an inside sales manager role), where he managed a group of inside salespeople. He then rose to director of inside sales, a position he held for five years during which he also joined the company’s leadership team.

In January of this year, Palmer Johnson spun off its engineering group and made a strategic acquisition, becoming a family-owned business of three standalone companies. With that change came some personnel moves, and Becker again changed roles, rising to VP of operations for Palmer Johnson Power Systems.

Becker now oversees customer service, product support, marketing, IT, and warehouse and inventory planning. Throughout his tenure at Palmer Johnson, he has been a key driver of modernization, including the implementation of the Salesforce CRM system as part of the company’s goal to become more customer-centric.

Though Becker found it sometimes difficult to assert his voice as a younger member of the leadership team, he took a measured approach to bring his ideas to the team and showing their benefits as Palmer Johnson transformed itself into a more modern company.

“I never claimed to be an expert with our products or markets; all of that takes a long time to learn,” Becker says. “Kudos to all of our tenured people who possess that knowledge; ultimately, that’s what makes us successful. But — and this is just my nature — I’m always looking to make things better, and I’m not afraid of change. I also have a knack for getting along with people, which can make things a little bit easier, especially when change is coming. If you have a good rapport with people and build their trust by showing them that you ultimately have their best interest in mind and the company’s best interests in mind, you can win them over.”

In his nomination of Becker, Palmer Johnson President Craig Swenson — who outlined the many initiatives that Becker helped develop or led — said this about the company’s rising star: “Adam has advanced quickly within our organization over the last eight years and has brought many fresh and innovative ideas that have helped us along the way. Not only that, but he is also always willing to dig in and do the hard work to bring those ideas from concept to implementation.”