The Society of Entrepreneurs is inducting two new members into the organization in 2022. Frank Cianciola, chairman of the board and CEO of Banc3 Holdings, Inc. and executive chairman of the board of Bank3, and Randy Stepherson, president of Stepherson Inc., Superlo Foods were chosen to join the organization that was founded in 1991 to honor the contributions of area entrepreneurs. The 30th Annual Dinner and Awards Banquet will be held April 9th at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis.
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photograph by lisa buser
Frank Cianciola
As founder, chairman of the board, and CEO of Banc3 Holdings, Inc., Cianciola began his financial services career at Union Planters in 1973 and since then has held a variety of executive positions. He holds a master of science degree in finance from the University of Memphis and is a graduate of the Graduate School of International Banking (University of Virginia), the Graduate School of Commercial Lending (University of Oklahoma) and the Effective Executive Program (The Wharton School).
Inside Memphis Business: You went to school at Christian Brothers High School and Memphis State University. How did you get into the banking business from there?
FRANK CIANCIOLA: A good friend and fraternity brother — Bill Carkeet — was with Oden here in town and got us Pi Kappa Alpha members jobs. We were collecting past-due BankAmericard accounts and we could work our own hours. It taught me a little bit about banking, although I didn’t see it as an overly desirable job in banking, but I told myself I’d give this thing a shot. I was 17 and worked 40 hours and went to school full-time. I didn’t realize I would go on to get my master’s degree and do some things in banking. And it just became kind of a fun journey where I realized that you surround yourself with good people and learn from them and try to help them in their careers. And you’ll do pretty well yourself too. It’s worked out a few times.
IMB: How did you build up your resume?
FC: Somewhere in the early ‘80s, I started trying to get a different type of background. I was for a short period of time president of a venture capital company. Then I was head of underwriting for Asian markets and Western Europe for Union Planters Bank. I got to travel a lot — 15 or 20 countries. I was working on my master’s, so I would go to the embassies in these places and I would write my thesis or my papers on those experiences. It was a good way to learn about the Asian dollar market, for example, or Singapore, or wherever I was at the time.
IMB: Describe the culture at Bank3.
FC: We’re very careful about our culture here and very careful about the people we choose. All of us have strengths and weaknesses. I know what mine are, and I’m always trying to hire my weakness. I’m trying to fill that gap of who can take us to another level in this particular area. I’ve got just a crackerjack group of folks here. You think more about the people that were around you and maybe you flipped that switch with them. I know people did it for me, and that still drives a lot of what I do today.
IMB: You’ve worked at big banks but you prefer being in a smaller one. Why is that?
FC: I hope somebody will say that I won’t be able to do something. And when I hear that, I think this is great. How much fun can you have? People think you can’t do this. It just sets a challenge out there that gets you going every day. We’re here to serve our clients. We’re here to create value for our shareholders. We’re here to make a career path for our folks. And for it to be profitable for those of us that invest our money in it.
IMB: What’s your style of management?
FC: As for the staff, we work together and I don’t get in their way. These people are all big boys and girls. I won’t micromanage them and I trust them. A problem comes up, I say please come talk to me about it. I’ve been doing this for a while, but y’all make the decisions and when y’all get it figured out, come back to me and let me know how we’re doing. And I try to learn something new every day. I’ve learned from 20-year-olds and 70-year-olds, so I’ve got the youthful exuberance on one end and then there’s the guys like me that have been around for a while, that are conservative enough to make sure we don’t get overly excited because this is a risk business. But I can tell you in each group — 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s — every one of them has something unique.
photograph by lisa buser
Randy Stepherson
Stepherson, Inc. was founded by the Stepherson brothers in 1944. Eventually, Randy Stepherson (the son of one of the brothers) and his brother-in-law acquired the grocery business. Today, they operate eight Superlo Foods and one Stepherson’s location in Memphis.
Inside Memphis Business: How did you get started?
RANDY STEPHERSON: I was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. My dad was in the grocery business with my uncles, his brothers. They had two stores I worked in through high school and college. I was studying accounting at Memphis State University and got a job with a local CPA firm. I got my certificate but didn’t feel I was cut out for spending my days in somebody else’s back office. So, I came back to work with my dad. They laughed at me at the CPA firm and asked what I was going to do. I told them I was going to run a meat market and take a $5,000-a-year raise.
IMB: Eventually, you and your brother-in-law, Bob Reed, bought out your uncles. After a few years, you came up with the Superlo concept and did that with the store at Colonial and Spottswood. How did that work out?
RS: We did it and never looked back. We dropped all our pricing, we quit running an ad. It was just everyday low prices as best we could do. And the store took off and that was in the fall of 1993 and it did very well. Then my dad decided to retire, so we bought him out.
IMB: What was next?
RS: We had an opportunity to buy out of bankruptcy the Mega Market on Covington Pike. That was a scary thing. We had two stores behind it to support it, and we proceeded to lose a million dollars the first year in that store. We weren’t making a million dollars out of the other two stores, but it came around as volume started building a little after a year. A couple of years later, we bought the Piggly Wiggly at Watkins and Frayser Boulevard. We got an immediate bump in volume as we went in.
IMB: Since then you’ve acquired more stores and now have nine of them. And there was, as you said, often quite a bit of risk. What were some entrepreneurial lessons you learned?
RS: It was kind of scary. We weren’t sure we would be able to hang on through all of that, but you just had to go to work every day with a smile on your face and let the employees see you smiling. And when they expressed any concern, you had to go, it’s all good. It’s going to be great. We’re growing. See? And it happened. A lot of being successful is showing up every day.
IMB: You’ve said that’s what your father taught you. What other wisdom did he impart?
RS: He said to spend less than you make, save the difference, and invest it. Over the years we never took home all the money that we made — and many years it wasn’t that much — but we left some in the company so that it could renew itself as we went along.
IMB: How did the pandemic affect your business?
RS: I actually feel guilty, because we prospered. I say I feel guilty because I know so many companies have not prospered through the pandemic. But our business took a nice leap forward. Initially, the restaurants got shut down and everybody had to eat at home, so that helped the grocery business. The schools closed and kids weren’t getting their meals at schools, so people had to buy food for their kids for lunch and that helped the grocery business. The government then realized that they weren’t feeding the kids through the school program so they increased food stamp allotments. Some of our stores are in what was food deserts, and those areas tend to have heavier food stamp users, so that was good for our business. We’ve had troubles with our supply chain. I was shopping in one of our stores a few days ago and the biscuits were wiped out. And sometimes the cheese section will get in trouble.
IMB: Talk about the corporate culture at your stores.
RS: If your senior people care, they control everybody else. They set the tone. You create a culture and they maintain that culture.
IMB: What do you see in the future?
RS: We’re looking for opportunities. We’d love to grow. We don’t mind moving out. We could possibly buy a store in a small town nearby Memphis. I don’t want to go six hours away, but something close enough that we could keep our eye on it.
