Data-Tel: Mark Ward II & Paige Jones
Born and raised in Topeka, Mark Ward II, president of Data-Tel, understands the meaning behind and the value of having deep community roots. Data-Tel, a provider of NEC phone and voicemail systems, was founded in 1981 by Ward’s parents as a mom-and-pop operation before expanding into a multigenerational family business with the onboarding of Ward.
“My first day of work was back in 1996,” Ward recalled. “A big storm had rolled through that evening, and Mom and Dad had a lot of projects going on and had to scramble all the guys to put out some ‘fires’. Dad pulled me out of bed and said, ‘You are officially old enough to work in the state of Kansas. Get your clothes on; you're going to work today.’”
Ward started off working in the summers and during school breaks, and has been part of the business ever since. In 2005, after graduating college, he took a full- time role at Data-Tel and never looked back.
Fast forward to 2014. Ward’s parents—still working full-time in the business alongside their son— began to contemplate retirement and what that would mean for the business they had poured their time, attention and hearts into over the previous three-plus decades. To answer that question, Mark stepped up to the plate and offered to take over the business.
THE SIBLING EDITION
“My dad deserved retirement more than anybody, but I knew once Dad left, Mom was not too far behind, so I knew there was a void that would need to be filled,” said Ward. “I had no business doing the inner operations of the business, so that’s where Paige got involved.”
Enter Paige Jones, vice president of Data-Tel and Mark Ward II’s younger sister.
“I worked a little bit at Data-Tel when I was younger, but I went to KU and then to grad school,” Jones said of her history with the family business. “I got a job out of grad school as a financial systems consultant in the Kansas City area. I was traveling about four days a week and did that for six years or so. I wanted to do my own thing and I loved it, but I got married and then had a baby, and it turns out it’s really hard to travel four days a week when you have a baby at home.”
This was around the same time Ward had been considering taking over the family business, and he—and his parents—never missed an opportunity to remind Jones what a great addition to the company she would make.
“It took me a while to come around, but I soon realized this could be a really good opportunity,” Jones continued. “Mark and I could really start working together and take this over, and it would allow me more personal flexibility. So, I joined full time in May of ’17.”
Once Jones was on board, she and Ward continued to take on increasing levels of responsibility, paving the way for their parents to retire with peace of mind that their life’s work would be in good hands.
PHASED PROCESS
There was no official retirement, Ward said, but rather a gradual phasing out—an incremental passing of the torch from one generation to the next. Their father, for his part, still stops by the office regularly to see the family and help with anything he can, particularly with longtime Data-Tel customers who Ward himself may be meeting for the first time. As of today, though, the business and all its major decisions and responsibilities fall squarely on the shoulders of Ward and Jones.
But by no means do they feel alone in the journey.
“I feel like it’s actually easier to work together as siblings since we know each other so well, and I mean that in the sense that we don't have to tiptoe around each other,” Jones said. “We’re incredibly honest with each other about everything—the good, bad and ugly. There hasn’t ever really been a rivalry or competitiveness between us, and I think that’s because we do such different things as far as the business is concerned. Our strengths and weaknesses complement each other really well.”
For the most part, Ward focuses his time and attention on sales, customer-facing work and working with employees, whereas Jones’ areas of expertise encompass behind-the-scenes workstreams such as handling the financials and working with the company business systems.
“I was all for Paige taking over those aspects from the beginning. Paige is a very sharp person,” Ward said. “When I started taking overthe business, a lot of the executive decisions were starting to land on my shoulders, and I knew I had someone I could bounce my thoughts off and get her true, honest opinion.”
APPLES & ORANGES
Jones echoed the feeling of mutual trust and honesty. However, despite the mature, productive relationship the brother-and-sister duo now enjoy and leverage to grow their business, that may not have been the case during the school-yard days.
“We did not get along when we were younger,” Jones said with a laugh.
“Like apples and oranges,” Mark quipped. “Growing up with a 5-year age difference, I was always off doing my own things and she was off with her friends. One thing I’ve learned to appreciate is that working together allows us to spend more time together under the same roof. We’re discussing business most of the time, but it allows us a chance to stay caught up with each other and recreate that sibling bond that wasn’t as strong when we were younger.”
IN LOCKSTEP
Despite whatever typical childhood differences may have existed then, when it comes to looking to the future, Ward and Jones couldn’t be more in lockstep.
This may be best illustrated by the recent company decision to add a new, cutting-edge technology to its portfolio of offerings.
“The new system is a unified communications platform. Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m as old-fashion as my father was,” Ward said. “I like the traditional phone system. I like to put a phone on everyone’s desk and program it up with a voicemail and everything, but the industry is going to cloud-based solutions, and Paige saw the opportunity. It took a while for her to convince me, but I’ve got to give her credit. She’s the one that’s been pushing me down the road, and I find her teaching me things now—and I’ve been in this business for over 20 years.”
Even though Ward and Jones might make a brother-and-sister operation look easy, they both agree on two critical components that any business partnership— with siblings or otherwise—must have to be successful.
“It starts with the communication,” Ward said. “Communicate with each other. If you see something that doesn't look right, let the other person know. You’ve got to be working together, moving in the same direction for things to work smoothly.”
“I agree with Mark on open communication,” Jones continued. “You also have to have a lot of trust.”
