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For all the intelligence, creativity and dedication demanded of a business owner to make a company succeed, an extra dose of honesty may be the most important leadership trait. Truthfulness can be shown by giving credit where it's due, working ethically to best serve customers, or simply by knowing one's own limitations.
Chuck Homier jokingly downplays his own business acumen when he says "I'm not that smart, but I'm not stupid, either." Instead of throwing around tired business buzzwords or espousing some finelycrafted corporate vision, Homier simply enjoys his job and revels in the collective success of the 350 co-workers who just happen to call him the boss.
This affable, easy-going and down-to-earth approach has defined the style of ownership that Charles F. "Chuck" Homier has brought to his family's Huntington business, Homier Distributing Co. Inc., for more than two decades. Although the company has become a multi-million dollar global operation under Homier's leadership, both he and the business have survived many challenges on a long but rewarding road towards today's current success.
Homier majored in accounting and graduated in 1978 from IPFW with a degree in business. He worked for a public accounting firm for about six months, and then officially joined Homier Distributing Co., the company his father had founded nearly a quarter-century before. It was in 1958 in Andrews, Ind. when Charles Homier Sr. had decided to put his dream of being his own boss into play by beginning a series of local weekly auctions. The auctions often featured new, used and consignment items such as tools, furniture, housewares, and many other odds and ends.
Like Chuck Homier today, his father at the time also approached running the business with more intuition and personal interaction, rather than subscribing to a formal business plan.
"My dad's genius was timing," says Chuck Homier. "He would recognize and then act on the latest trends in the business, and nine times out of ten his instincts were dead-on."
Chuck Homier Sr.'s instincts helped grow the business enough that within a few years he and his wife, Laura, were both working full-time hours to keep up. The Homiers now owned several buildings, including a Homier's Furniture store in Andrews where they maintained a small but growing...