Interview with Erin Koss, CEO of Syte

You’ve built such a powerful team of consultants at Syte Consulting Group, each with unique skills, passion and experience. Where do you feel you bring the most value to the table for the privately held manufacturing companies you serve?

I’ve always had a heart for helping business leaders solve problems. I do my best work when I’m in a room with them, working through their challenges side by side. I love the energy, the sparring, the back and forth. When you get smart people in a room and everyone brings their unique qualities to the table, energy and forward momentum naturally become the result.

This happens to me all the time, actually. Everywhere I go! I can be at a restaurant, and I’ll end up talking to the owner about his business challenges. (laughs)

What’s your educational and work background?

I grew up working for my family’s small business. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a business degree with a focus in accounting, I parlayed that to work for a large national accounting firm where I was able to finish my CPA credential and join their consulting practice. I have been a CPA for 25 years, and I have used that in a nontraditional way in management consulting.

Back in the 90s, when Tier 1 ERP was first a thing, I got to be kind of a pioneer in ERP implementation. For the first implementations that were done in the Pacific Northwest, I was part of creating the methodology and tools. In 1999, I founded Syte Consulting Group where we focus on midsized companies because the solutions were now accessible and I felt like I could have more impact. I wanted to strike a balance between my love of large enterprise and my passion for smaller, privately-held businesses — and so I came into the middle market to focus there.

What is your favorite thing about your company and your team?

Syte allows me to serve privately held companies and do things I care about. It’s an avenue to serve people and help their companies to grow. It allows me to set a stage for companies to scale and evolve, to improve and become better — to do more than they thought they could do. And while I’m involved and I contribute in meaningful ways through Syte, I believe it’s the overall combination of our team, our clients and our partners that make that happen.

What’s even more special to me is that this positive influence that we have trickles down to people’s families and communities. I love that. For me, Syte is a platform for that kind of growth and evolution.

It’s really this “family” element that I’ve found to be most powerful in the mid-market manufacturing space, relative to how the Syte team and I care for and nurture one another internally; how our client relationships run deep; and how personally we take our opportunity to help companies and the people in them level up.  “Family” has started to take on multiple meanings for me over the years. I’m not sure I can convey the depth of this, but how this plays out internally and with our clients IS what makes us different.

When it comes to the Syte team, though, what I love is that I don’t have to be an expert in everything. This team is really well rounded. Our secret sauce is emotional intelligence — we hire people who have a high level of self-awareness and therefore other-awareness too. In our line of work, it’s important for us to be able to recognize when a client is having a bad day. Interestingly, because we’ve prioritized this emotional intelligence factor, we also tend to attract partners and customers who have the same capability.

Syte is such a people-focused company. Let’s hear about the personal side of its CEO. What’s something interesting about yourself that your clients might not know?

I was never a dog person growing up, and now I have three Brittany spaniels that drive my day. Dogs rely on you all the time, kind of like children. They force you to focus on something outside yourself, and take you out of your narcissism. They also force me outside and to move my body — they force me to mix things up and put my brain and body in different places, which helps me evolve and grow professionally and personally.

Tell me something funny about yourself.

My dance skills are Elaine Bennett-like. (laughs)

Also, we just got ourselves a new Airstream. When my kids were growing up, they loved this show called Bob the Builder. On the show, Bob had a female sidekick named Wendy. I joke that now that we’ve been married for 30 years and figured out how to divide and conquer in so many circumstances, we’re like Bob and Wendy when we solve a problem. So now with the Airstream, we both “own” our piece of the maintenance of it. When a new challenge comes up, we say “Should we Bob and Wendy this thing?”

What is one thing your clients say (or would say) about working with you?

I’m a driver. I’m going to get things done and challenge them and keep the ball moving. When our clients hire us to get them from A to B, we’re going to do everything we can to get them there. We will drive to get results.

Also, I’m authentic and transparent. What you see is what you get. We’re real folks here at Syte.

You’ve been working with manufacturing companies for decades. What trends are you noticing that manufacturing CFOs and CEOs of growing, privately held companies should be keeping an eye on?

Hiring has gotten more expensive and difficult — from the shop floor to senior hires. Our People Operations Consulting Director, Judy Moore, can speak more to how to solve for this, but it’s definitely something I’m seeing.

Supply chain challenges are tough coming out of the pandemic, too, but they’re also being impacted by trade politics. Manufacturing companies are having to get more creative with this. How they build relationships has never been more important.

Believe it or not, these things impact the conversation around ERP. Companies call us because they think they need ERP, and as we work together, they see it’s all about strategy. Where you’re going and how to get there. It’s about the people, processes and tech coming together, evolving in harmony and creating the right foundation. The broader conversation becomes about business transformation; including the planning required so you avoid going down expensive side roads. From there we back up into the conversation around ERP solutions. We help our clients keep their eye on the prize.