This father & son – both business whizzes individually – team up for a winning combination where rent-to-own rubber meets the road.
As a new retiree, Larry Sutton spent 1998 playing 297 rounds of golf. And it might have been the worst year of his life.
For this career rent-to-own veteran—who learned the business at the knee of his legendary uncle, Norman “Slats” Slatton of Buddy’s Home Furnishings; who owned and grew Tampa-based Champion Rent-to-Own into a wonder chain of more than 30 stores; and who earned the moniker “the Reverend of Rent-to-Own” with his impassioned devotion for his industry—it turned out retiring just was NOT his jam.
“I was bored, I was borderline depressed, and I began to hate golf,” Larry recalls. “I seemed to be just totally missing something. I knew I missed all of the action and the people, but more than that, I realized I didn’t have a real sense of purpose anymore.”
Of course, no one who has ever met Larry has accused him of being “retiring,” so it made perfect sense such a state didn’t agree with him. Having sold Champion to Home Choice with a no-compete clause, Larry spent a little while dabbling in other businesses [Tropical Smoothie, anyone?] before finding his way back into RTO—by founding Rent-n-Roll Custom Wheels and Tires in 2000.
At the same time, Larry’s younger son, Adam—who had been raised on rent-to-own—was just beginning his own career in design and video production; he lent his talents to helping his dad create the new company’s early brand and marketing materials.
Fast-forward through a couple of decades: Following a crash course in franchising and a few branding refreshers, Larry still leads a thriving RNR Tire Express. And Adam has evolved into an award-winning multi-media guru who launched, partnered, and eventually sold his own advertising agency, having worked with clients as monolithic as Disney, Microsoft, and Oprah.
Today, RNR is celebrating its 20th anniversary with Larry and Adam sharing the wheel. With 130 stores in 24 states and 400+ more under contract to open in the future, this dynamic duo is speeding toward record-breaking success, without a hint of hitting the brakes anytime soon.
The truth is, Larry and Adam Sutton have been working together in an unofficial capacity much, much longer than just the three years since Adam officially joined RNR. Adam’s childhood memories are of shadowing Larry as he checked in on various Champion stores and fantasizing about leading the organization someday. And Larry had informally included Adam in RNR since the very beginning.
“Even though Adam was out building an extremely successful company of his own, he was still on RNR’s ‘board of directors,’” explains Larry. “He and I have had a special sort of relationship since he was a teenager; we have always talked about business ideas and how to make them happen. So he has been my brain trust, my go-to guy, especially on all things marketing.”
In late 2016, with business booming, Larry realized the company was growing way faster than his existing corporate infrastructure could handle. He needed some help managing current and incoming franchisees, and amping up RNR’s home office for continued growth.
“To be honest, I needed someone to come in and take us to the next level,” Larry acknowledges. “Adam had sold his business and was entertaining some sweet offers from some bigtime national companies, and I thought, Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask. So I invited him to lunch.”
“It was the perfect storm,” Adam quips. “This opportunity came at just the right time. I was searching for what I was going to do for the next phase of my career, and while I had plenty of offers, I didn’t want to move from Tampa, and I wanted something that wouldn’t be 24/7, that wouldn’t take me away from my family. RNR just made sense, it felt right. And I knew it was going to be a whole lot of fun.”
Adam officially joined RNR in early 2017 as Executive Vice President, and immediately began hiring some extraordinary executive-level talent to help them view the company with fresh eyes and plot the right route to that mythic “next level.” The Suttons and their renovated corporate team began their work together by returning to the proverbial drawing board and reconsidering RNR’s entire identity: Who are we? What do we do? What do we want to accomplish?
“We took some of the tried-and-true value statements I’ve always depended on and determined how they work together for our business today,” says Larry. “We came up with our new mission statement, short and sweet: To be the best tire and wheel concept in America. It’s something all our associates can measure themselves by every day, regardless of their position. Next, how do we fulfill that mission? By serving people rather than just providing a service.
“Every business in America says they want to give good customer service,” he continues. “But there’s a deep divide between being a good customer-service person and acting as a servant to your customers. If we’re going to be the best tire and wheel concept in America, then we must be all about Serve, Not Service. And finally, if we do both of these, then what will be the result? We will improve the lives of our team members so that they will do the same for our customers; we call it Changed Lives Changing Lives.”
With these guideposts firmly in place, the Suttons began initiating other changes. They developed a whole new look and feel for RNR stores with new interior and exterior designs. They built a national RNR contact center and started handling calls and online chats for franchisees. They became much more selective in their recruitment and hiring efforts, and reworked RNR’s training to embrace the company’s new mission and purpose. And, they completely transformed their approach to franchising.
“We no longer sell franchises,” confirms Larry. “We award them— and that shift has made a huge difference. We had learned the franchising business by way of the school of hard knocks, and we assumed everyone who wants a franchise should get one. But we’ve built a valuable entity, and we should be choosy about who our franchisees are. Our culture is strong, and if we feel they’re not a fit, then it’s a no-go.”
The list of Adam-induced improvements is already impressive. But change is hard, organizational change is harder, and agreeing upon which changes move forward can be oh-so-challenging—even for a like-thinking, fun-loving father and son.
“We had some spirited conversations early on,” Larry confesses. “We had to overcome my tendency to depend on doing things a particular way because it was the way we’d always done them. But we got through it, once Adam convinced me that just because you’ve always done it this way doesn’t mean it’s right for today—let’s work together and try some new things. So we no longer have moments of me saying no, we’re not doing that, we’re going to do it this way. We’ve found a middle ground where I’m open to changes, new concepts and ideas, and Adam is open to listening to my experience and requesting my advice based on the past.”
Likewise, the pair has discovered over time how to best integrate their individual leadership styles, which are strikingly similar in some ways, but not so much in others. “My leadership style is always about valuing people over everything else,” begins Larry. “I knew if I did, they would be dedicated and would want to succeed. I just had to give them the tools and provide them with some motivation. But the one weakness I had, what I always have been lacking and still am today, is that I’m not good at holding people accountable. Adam has brought some real accountability to the table.”
“Well, I grew up watching and listening to the Reverend of RTO, preaching about taking care of people and rent-to-own being a relationship opportunity,” Adam adds. “So that is definitely a core tenet of mine—it’s always about people, which means your team members, your customers, and everyone in-between. Having the right people in place is key to successfully scaling a business, and so is having the right amount of accountability. You do have to have grace and understanding—not just act like a tyrant, and fire people left and right. But if someone’s not performing, you’ve got to figure out why and try to fix it. And sometimes, people just aren’t going to fit in with your company or culture, and if you don’t let them go, you’re really holding both of you back.”
In addition to making sure RNR’s personnel mixture is just right, Adam has tightened up operations overall; he says every department is working more efficiently, more effectively, and more productively. Not only has the backlog of business tasks that had been piling up been taken care of, but now, the lead team has the bandwidth necessary to tackle future projects.
“You’ll get swept up and left behind if you’re operating reactively rather than proactively,” asserts Adam. “So we started our strategic implementations with the people first, then the processes for productivity, and now, we’re prioritizing which projects to take on and deciding when to embark on them.”
If you think the Suttons aren’t managing all of this beneath the umbrella of a long-range plan, then you haven’t been paying attention. Of COURSE they’ve developed a five-year plan—though it seems some of its details have yet to be fully realized.
“In five years, we expect to be at a minimum of 300 stores, generating revenue of a half-billion dollars,” Larry proclaims—then Adam quickly interjects, “I’d toss an asterisk on that estimate, and say 300 to 500 stores. But who’s counting?”
Among the Suttons’ priorities is their continued involvement in and support of industry organizations like APRO, where Larry served as a board member, and received both the President’s Award of Excellence and the Ernie Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. Adam is currently serving his first term as a member of the APRO Board of Directors, and is the board liaison to the newly formed Emerging Leaders Council.
While he’s no Reverend of Rent-to-Own, Adam is clearly just as passionate, just as insightful, and just as much a believer as his dad is in the business known as RTO. “I believe the relational foundation of rent-to-own is its greatest secret and its greatest asset,” Adam declares. “And I hope the leaders within our industry are paying heed to what the next generation of customers wants and needs, because RTO is primed and ready to be the perfect solution for the millennial generation, which values relationship and experience way over transaction. There’s no other industry prepared and aligned with their core values and subscription-based mindset like rent-to-own. So, in many regards, I think we’re already there as an industry. But in other regards, I think we need to step up our game—offer better experiences in-store through design and out-of-store through advertising, remembering to talk with them rather than at them. As long as we pick up on these preferences and adapt accordingly, we’ll thrive, and we’ll continue to be the greatest industry in the world.”
With such a fine son/brilliant businessman committed and contributing so vitally to RNR and its continuing success, the question arises once again: Following the Great Golf Debacle of ’98, will Larry ever consider retiring from tires? The answer comes swiftly and distinctly: Flat, er, fat chance.
“At this moment, I can’t imagine anything being more fun than what we’re doing right now,” concludes Larry. “My idea of retirement is when I’m 85, I want to visit 200 stores, meet all of our people, and just keep going, having as much fun as I can. I want to do it in my very own Gulfstream jet, assuming I can get it past the budget committee…”
A beat of silence, followed by Adam’s quietly sarcastic retort: “Yeah, it’s not looking good, Dad.”
Kristen Card has been a contributing writer for RTOHQ: The Magazine for more than 15 years.
