Kevin Surace, CEO of Perfect Commerce at 38, built software that cuts manufacturing procurement negotiations from weeks to hours. His web-based platform could save U.S. companies $700 billion annually, according to Aberdeen Research. Surace credits his musical background with shaping his leadership approach.
And our CEO of the Week is a part-time music maker. He's sort of a semiconductor. I'm Brian Van Miller.
Hello, I'm Pam Cook. The high-tech business news from Silicon Valley starts now.
Straight ahead, our CEO CEO of the week, Kevin Serrace of Perfect.
The CEO of Perfect Software is not your average chief executive. As Judy Peterson reports, he's a pretty cool engineer when he's leading an orchestra.
Ready?
And yeah.
Yes, thank you.
If Kevin Surace led a really charmed life, he'd be a professional musician.
Music is a joy I've had, you know, since 5 years old that I've participated in some way in the music scene. And so to bring that back and bring that joy back into my life, I think is important. It helps me during the day. And it actually has helped, you know, refine many of my own management skills.
At Perfect Commerce, Surace and his team have created a web-based software package that makes it easy for buyers to negotiate for the products they need.
So if I were a manufacturer of telephones, there's probably 300 to 600 components inside each phone. And there's everything from electronic components to LCDs to a backlighting system to To plastic components, to metal components that have to be forged and, you know, etched and whatever, to an assembly service that might assemble the phones for me. All of those are negotiated.
Aberdeen Research says software programs like Perfect's can save U.S. companies nearly $700 billion a year. At $1 million a pop, Perfect's software isn't cheap, but Surace says in the end it pays for itself.
We help the supplier make the right kind of offer back to the buyer. And then help them both negotiate very quickly. And what used to take 3 to 6 weeks can now take literally hours, certainly less than a day, to do everything that you would have done for weeks over the phone.
Surace became CEO of Perfect Commerce in late 1999, but this is not his first CEO post. He achieved that distinction when he was only 29.
The fact of the matter is nothing can replace the experience of age. I mean, you know, the the time of working with people and trying different things and finding what works and what doesn't.
Now, at the ripe old age of 38, Surace is savvy enough to realize that life needs balance, and he finds it in music.
To the beginning. Tonight, the thing that's gonna take it to the next level is just the excitement, you sharing that excitement. I mean, I want you to make me, you know, fall off my chair, right? And go, oh my God, these guys are doing a great job. So share the emotion, let the emotion spill out.
Let's hear you, and— Present!
Thank you.
Judy Peterson, Silicon Valley Business.
And his first CEO job at 29. Where else can that happen?
I know, that's absolutely amazing. And a good musician.
Absolutely.
And we have one more piece of tax advice for everybody. It's the weekend. Don't forget, Monday night by midnight, file those taxes.
Yeah, at least an extension if you don't have them done. And that's the high-tech business news from Silicon Valley. I'm Pam Cook.
And I'm Brian Bandmiller. Please join us next Saturday and Sunday night at 10 for Silicon Valley Business. Thanks for watching. Good night.
Bye-bye.
