013: Doug Clark, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Corcentric

Ray Hoffman introduces Doug Clark. It's only about a 30-mile drive from where Doug grew up to the Cherry Hill, New Jersey headquarters of Corcentric, the company that he has been building over the last two decades. Corcentric's proprietary technology helps companies optimize their back office transactions, as in the way they purchase, make payments, and get paid. It's also only about a 30-mile drive from where Doug grew up, in a slightly different direction, to center-city Philadelphia, where, as a young man, he went on the board of directors of the company that eventually became Drexel-Burnham. But when you grow up on a farm in Elmer, New Jersey, the way Doug did, in the 1950s, making your way into the worlds of accounting and finance, then truck leasing and later, technology, it isn't as easy as just pointing your car — or your ambitions — straight up New Jersey Route 55. He's been at it now since 1965. 'It' being this business of capitalism.

Key Takeaways:

[1:24] Doug Clark created Ameriquest in 1997 during the dotcom era, having a vision of making companies more efficient. When the dot-coms crashed, Corcentric became available and Doug acquired it in a stock trade.

[2:42] 2,000 customers do business with Corcentric. They have customers as well, so their influence is 'huge!' Doug's risk when he took over was the question of whether the market was ready for their product. Corcentric was a disruptor.

[4:24] Before electronic transactions, all money and finances were handled on paper.

[6:02] Doug credits leadership school within the Boy Scouts and an accounting class at the University of Miami for preparing him to serve on corporate boards.

[8:17] Doug talks about running a small truck leasing company. He worked with a group of operators. In 1997, they all put together $1 million, bought Electronic Trading Solutions, created a financial services company, and called it Ameriquest. Ameriquest was the start of Corcentric.

[10:31] Doug and his team tried to imagine the customers' needs and pain points, and they built solutions on those.

[10:48] Doug helped Daimler Trucking North America get new customers, and re-engage past customers, using Corcentric technologies. Daimler keeps their trucks ahead of the competition. Corcentric helped them bring their back office into this century. They went live in February 2013, and it has only gotten better for them. Listen in for details.

[15:53] Doug Clark — 30 years into his career, he invented a way for companies to get out from under all their back office paperwork so that they can spend more time listening to their customers. This is capitalism.

Mentioned in This Episode:

AmeriQuest

Corcentric

Drexel Burnham

Deloitte, Haskins & Sells

Daimler Trucks North America

Stephens.com

This Is Capitalism