Growing up in Ohio, Ike Herman liked cars well enough, but he was no wrench-spinning gearhead.
Yet, he’s spent a career improving the lives of wrench hands at OEConnection, an Ohio company founded by General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Snap-on Business Solutions in 2000 to improve the efficiency of the automotive parts distribution and ordering business.
In 15 years at OEC, Herman has been in thousands of dealers’ parts departments. The work he and his team have done has helped revolutionize the way franchised dealers and independent repair shops locate, stock and order parts.
One example is D2DLink, a platform Herman launched that helps dealers locate hard-to-find parts, see the inventory in stock at other dealerships and helps keep their parts inventories moving.
Herman, a graduate of Bowling Green in Ohio with an MBA from Ohio State, says he and his team are focused on helping make OEC’s customers more successful.
“We have so much opportunity to help dealers and customers be able to move so fast,” he said.
He’s been promoted eight times, but Herman says he isn’t “chasing titles.”
He sees himself at OEC for another 10 years and still working to help dealers run their parts businesses more efficiently.
“I’ve always had a can-do attitude,” he says. “I’m always thinking, ‘What can I do to make customers successful?’ I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and I grew up with the business.”
-- Richard Truett
