Jay Mutschler joined Staples in 2008 with the company's acquisition of Corporate Express. Having served as president of Corporate Express (US) he was appointed senior vice president of Staples Advantage, the business-to-business contract division of Staples.
He began his career in Southern California as executive vice president and general manager of Eastman (no connection with Eastman Kodak). After Eastman was sold to Office Depot in 1993, he was appointed president of US Office Products. In 2001, the company was acquired by Corporate Express.
His appointment in November last year as president of Staples Australia/New Zealand (Corporate Express) followed a period of poor performance by the local operation, marked by a severe deterioration in the company's revenues and customer service levels.
Mutschler succeeded Paul Hitchcock, who left the company to pursue other interests.
While Sydney is a long way from his home in Denver, Colorado, and Staples' head office in Boston on the US east coast, Mutschler was relatively familiar with the Australian market.
"I spent years observing Australia and New Zealand from afar – in management meetings and various business discussions – and the region was always respected for its high growth and profit levels," he said.
"Australia and New Zealand were always mentioned as among the fastest-growing and most profitable markets and Corporate Express (Australia) was always on the radar," he added.
According to Mutschler, Staples expected Corporate Express to continue to grow and deliver an expected a level of profitability.
"But the company had fallen on hard times and it was largely self-inflicted," he said. "I was very conscious of what had happened to the company over the past four years."
Staples global president and chief operating officer Mike Miles was in Australia in April to review the company's progress under Mutschler's leadership.
Mutschler said he planned to be in Australia for three years with an option to stay on.
"It could turn in to five years depending on how things are going after three years," he said.
Among Mutschler's initial actions was a restructure of the company's field organisation, moving from a decentralised business to a centralised one.
Inevitably, the company's head count became an issue.
"The downsizing (reported as five per cent of the head count) was driven by the fact that our cost structure didn't align with our revenue," Mutschler said.
"While we have taken out some of the administration side we've re-invested in the sales and growth side of the business," he said. "We've re-invested in our future growth."
Corporate Express now has around 2000 employees in Australia and the ratio of staff to turnover is in line with the company's global business.
The company's turnover is in the ballpark of $1 billion, making it significantly larger than its nearest competitor.
Mutschler said that company's core service matrix – things such as on-time delivery, order accessibility, order fill rate and ease of invoicing - had been negatively impacted over a period of time
"Our supply chain groups have done an outstanding job and our service metrics are now the best of class across our global network," he said.
Mutschler said the company's problems were exacerbated by a series of major internal projects, including a new distribution platform and completely new SAP enterprise resource planning system.
"A lot of things were happening and, individually, they were good things with merit," he said. "The issue was that we took on too much in too short a period of time
"While the aim was customer focussed and sales driven, we were inwardly focussed and we basically lost our way," he said.
"It is extremely important to communicate our actions to our customers, such as the benefits that SAP will bring to both sides. If you do that you usually get a pass," he said.
Speaking of communication, Mutschler is not rushing into the transition of the Corporate Express name to Staples.
"In the US, the Staples name is ubiquitous and easy to identify with because it's a US$25 billion global company. If you look the success of Staples, it is contract and dot com business," he said.
Staples is the world's largest office products company and invented the office superstore concept in 1986. It ranks second in the world in e-commerce sales. With 90,000 associates worldwide, Staples operates in 26 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
"In Australia, the Staples name is generally only known among people in the industry. Most people don't associate with the Staples name.
"A name change is not top-of-mind – our priorities are increasing market share and customer service," he said. " But the co-branding process is underway and the transition should be completed in 18 to 24 months."
Meantime, Mutschler has identified the mid-market – defined as businesses that have between 20 and 200 office workers - as a priority for sales growth.
"We have not had a high presence in the middle market in Australia until now. The mid-market is strong globally but not in Australia but we are rapidly gaining market share," he said.
"We are an extremely brand-focussed company – with 4000 different SKUs – and there is an outstanding line of Staples-branded products.
Mutschler said he was "too new to Australia" to comment on how the company should promote itself in the future but as it moves more into the mid-market and dot com area, it will employ brand-building programs.
"I see an enormous opportunity for us in mid-market and dot.com," he said.
One of the company's fastest-growing lines is the 'green' EarthSaver range, which encompasses janitorial, floorcare and cleaning (the latter under the Brighton name named after Staples' first retail store in Massachusetts).
EarthSaver is the company's internal classification program that quickly identifies its environmentally preferable products whether they are manufactured by Staples or by another supplier.
The EarthSaver range has expanded to include products such as paper, pads and envelopes, writing instruments and general stationery, toner cartridges, canteen products, facility supplies, furniture and IT solutions.
Staples in the US recently announced the launch of a managed print service and Mutschler said the company is currently working on bringing a similar solution to Australia.
"It's a vendor neutral solution in partnership with a number of companies, including Lexmark, Ricoh and HP."
Mutschler said the Office Products Wholesale division was still a functioning business, in which customers see "great value."
In summary, Mutschler said the company has gone back to basics – "We are focussing on fewer things and doing them better. The overriding priority is the customer."
Mutschler said business in Australia was conducted along similar lines to that in the US although there was emphasis here on "relationships".
"The economy here is strong on the surface but the reality is that the mining sector only accounts for a small percentage of employment," he said.
"Large corporations are feeling the same sort of pressures as the US and Europe – they are taking costs out and this affects us very directly.
"I have a positive view for the next 12 to 18 months but it will be challenging," he said.
In April last year, Mutschler was presented with the The Spirit of Life Award, City of Hope's most prestigious humanitarian honour, in recognition of his business and philanthropic accomplishments. The City of Hope is one of the US's leading research, treatment and education centres for cancer and other diseases.
The City Of Hope and other causes are an important part of Staples Soul, the company's social responsibility platform.
Mutschler said he is looking at which organisations Staples Soul can be aligned with here to give back to the community.
In May, Corporate Express launched its second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which details how the company plans to contribute towards indigenous reconciliation.
