Q&A with Ben Speciale, Yamaha Marine Group president

Posted on 31 May 2010
Written by Beth Rosenberg

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Ben Speciale took over May 1 as president of Kennesaw, Ga.-based Yamaha Marine Group, a unit of Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A. In addition to overseeing the outboard business, Speciale directs Marine Group companies and subsidiaries that include Skeeter bass boats, G3 aluminum fishing boats and Precision Propeller Industries.

Yamaha has approximately 2,000 marine dealers and is an OEM engine supplier to 120 independent boat brands in the U.S.

Involved since childhood in his family's marina and dealership, Speciale joined Yamaha in 1987 with Yamaha Marine Parts and Accessories, and has held Marine Group positions in marketing and promotions. He left Yamaha in 1992 to become fishing production manager at Fenwick Fishing Tackle in Huntington Beach, Calif. He returned to Yamaha Marine in 1996 in strategic planning and financial operations. He was promoted to vice president of operations and planning in 2005.

Speciale is a native of Spring City, Tenn., and a 1987 graduate of Ohio State University. He and his wife, Kim, reside in Kennesaw with their two daughters.

Q: How has the transition from Phil Dyskow been going?

A: Phil and I worked together for a lot of years. Everything's been real smooth and transparent so far for everybody. I have been involved with most parts of the marine side for many years. And Phil's really not walking out the door today; he's going to be around for a while. He'll actually be in the building, for sure, until Oct. 1. After that he'll basically be half-time with us for at least another year.

The hardest part for me is going into his office and sitting at his desk. I haven't even done it, and he moved out about a month ago. He keeps saying, "When are you moving in?" And I say, "I'm going to wait." He'll be a very active consultant or senior adviser for me for the next 18 months. I'm really happy about that.

Q: You started with Yamaha in 1987 and Phil began in 1981. It seems there's a tradition of moving up and promoting from within. Is this the case?

A: A lot of companies talk about great products and great customer service, and they tell their employees that they're the most important asset. I always say words are really nice, but it's really about the actions [taken].

I think we have become an industry leader over the last 15 years because we implement tactically, and I think that shows up in our customer service team and our product team, but I also think it shows up in our transition of management. If you look at a good company, the true responsibility of the most senior managers [is] to plan that transition. I think this is a good testament that the company is [making] sure we continue with those business philosophies that have made us successful - that foundation - [and] continue to add to it with the team of people so that it's not a dramatic change.

On that side of it, I think we've been very, very successful.

Q: What do you see as Yamaha's biggest challenges?

A: I don't see a "biggest challenge." I tend to look at the economy, the market, regulations, consumer trends and all the other items as just conditions of business. My basic plan is to continue to focus on fostering strong relationships with our dealer network and our boatbuilding partners so we really understand their needs better and better.

We will continue to focus on product that exceeds the performance expectations of the consumer. That's what brought us to our success - knowing the consumer and the product - and I think we'll continue to find ways to improve our customer service. I don't just mean the service-service but how we do sales, how we do training, how we develop tools to make it easier to do business. We can reduce costs to the dealer and improve that relationship by making things easier.

We also need to continue to be flexible with our business model. We know the economy is going to surprise us with things we don't understand. We need to be adjusting our model to be more flexible in dealing with the ups and downs.

And we always need to look forward with our business to make it less complicated. If you watch companies, they tend to say, "Let me explain how complicated this is." Nah, business is easy. It's simple. It's how less complicated can we make [our business model] so that we can focus on what's really, really important to us and what's really, really important to our customer.