Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/285855
24 | I nsIgh t • A p r i l 2 0 14 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m d on't expect to find Rick Chernick in his office. e president and CEO of Camera Corner Connecting Point in green Bay logs about 50,000 miles in the air each year and business associates attest he's always on the go. On the off chance he is there, you might find him downing his daily protein drink and vitamins, ready to start his jam-packed day, which usually starts around 5 a.m. Chernick's high energy level serves him well as he runs a business fueled by constant change. ough he cut his teeth and grew his business around cameras – and the word remains part of the name – retail sales, including cameras, now make up less than 5 percent of sales. today, CCCP is a $57 million small business solutions provider, selling, servicing, training and maintaining all things digital for its clients. Cameras have been part of Chernick's life since 1967, when he joined his father's retail business. And although he seems to always be looking ahead, Chernick never forgets how he got there. norman Chernick and fellow lawyer Bob Collins opened Camera Corner in 1953 at the southeast corner of Washington and Walnut streets in downtown green Bay. In 1960, the business grew and moved to a building in the opposite corner. In the early 1960s, it added a second store as one of the first retailers to open on green Bay's Military Avenue. e west side location closed in 1988, when the business ventured into more outside and commercial sales and expanded into a new, 21,000 square-foot building at the northwest corner of Main and Monroe streets, which was eventually expanded to its current 28,000 square feet. Chernick, who has a degree in business and marketing from the University of Wisconsin-green Bay, began working for his dad doing odd jobs until he worked his way up to sales and then, later, vice president. e company had three employees when he started. "I never thought we'd hit 20," he says. Technology, training trump camera sales C CCP's current 125 employees include service technicians, sales staff and engineers, a concierge to answer calls and greet visitors in the retail store, a floor staff selling everything from smart phones and tablets to hD televisions and (yes!) cameras. e company's main downtown location also includes a state-of-the-art classroom and data center with a managed services facility. (e 25 engineers work in a facility on Broadway in green Bay.) Even though retail now makes up a tiny part of the business, Chernick admits he still loves walking the retail showroom and "Digital Café," seeing customers awestruck at high-tech offerings. Among the latest gadgets he likes to show off are the goPro cameras that sports and racing fans buy to shoot video from their foreheads or other unlikely vantage points; the Phantom 2 Vision drones – which look like remote control mini planes and allow users to shoot videos for a bird's-eye view; and a rugged, high-quality underwater camera popular with divers and ice fishermen. "We want to be e sharper Image of green Bay," Chernick quips. he's always wondering, "What can we sell that's different? e retail part is the fun part. You will always see people smiling. It's a happy place." On the commercial side, relationships with local and national businesses are growing. e company posts an annual ranking of its top 50 corporate clients on the office walls as a point of pride and inspiration to employees and visiting clients. Among them are some of the region's most familiar names in banking, health care, manufacturing, colleges and school districts. Its client roster includes KI, schreiber Foods, Bellin health, green Bay Packaging, Breakthrough Fuel and Brown County, to name a few. today, CCCP is sharply and profitably focused on high- powered, sophisticated data solutions, including servers, workstations and storage, document management, AV " What he does in a day is very comparable to what the state of Ohio does in three days. Every year, his shows seem to deliver new content and updated technology. There's always something new to learn." — John Guyer, director of technology for Summit Academy Management in Akron, Ohio