The 2016 Mel Bedwell Small Business Person of the Year clearly reflects the business acumen and community commitment that earned him recognition as this year’s winner of this prestigious small business award.
The Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce recognized Jeff Cocks, owner of Corporate Networking Solutions, for commitment to his clients, customers and the community at the annual Business Development Month kickoff luncheon on Monday.
Mr. Cocks is the 18th individual to receive the Bedwell Small Business Person of the Year award since its renaming to honor the contributions of the late Mel Bedwell and 23rd to receive the award since this recognition program began. Bedwell was one of the most loyal and supportive members of the Small Business Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, which coordinates Business Development Month.
Staying power, growth in number of employees, increase in sales or unit volume, innovativeness of product or services offered, response to adversity, and evidence of contribution by the nominee to aid community-oriented projects form the basis for this award.
Formed by Mr. Cocks, Corporate Networking Solutions has evolved into a “force to be reckoned with” since its establishment in March 1999. Cocks has devoted himself not only to the success of his business but also to the betterment of the community and region.
“It is no exaggeration to say that during the last decade, I have been witness to the success of a brilliant man whose imaginative and innovative mind has helped businesses, both big and small, to navigate the technological revolution,” said nominator Hurley Buff, director of the Cleveland Bradley Business Incubator. “At the same time, I have been humbled to see countless acts of selfless generosity and compassion.”
According to Mr. Buff, Mr. Cocks was one of the first tenants of the Business Incubator when it opened in 2000, putting a deposit on a space long before the doors opened and remaining an anchor tenant today.
In the 1990s Mr. Cocks worked for a Fortune 500 company that provided financial services through a popular Internet banking product. As a young businessperson, he recognized a need for a supplemental product that would significantly increase the potential market share by allowing more banks to take advantage of Internet banking. However, he met opposition from his colleagues and the product was not developed. Because he believed in his product, he opted to leave that Fortune 500 company in the late 1990s and start his own business.
Mr. Cocks and his family moved back to Cleveland where he formed Corporate Networking Solutions (CNS), providing technology services in such areas as networking, support and software development. He seized on the opportunity to produce the Internet banking product he had pitched to his previous employer. Collaborating with a developer, he began creating FILink, short for Financial Institution Link.
In late 2000 a large bank in the Northeast implemented the first installation of FILink. Six years later, more than 200 banks in the United States were using FILink daily to update their Internet banking applications used by thousands of customers each day.
In 2008 CNS leveraged its knowledge of the banking industry and its technical skills to create a new product for converting text banking statements into electronic statements as Adobe PDFs. Today Internet banking vendors use this product to interface their online banking application to statements produced by the banks’ processor. As with FILink, the e-statement product provides an information bridge between the bank and the Internet banking vendor and offers flexibility and a speedy implementation process.
Mr. Cocks has faced a variety of adverse situations throughout his ownership of CNS. In addition to opposition to the Internet banking software, he faced a sudden shrinking market for one of Corporate Networking Solutions’ core software products due to forces within the sole licensee. Mr. Cocks responded by taking advantage of relationships cultivated within that organization over the years and found a niche for a new application to interface with customer data files. The new application quickly extracted, formatted and delivered data and subsequently relieved a backlog of work within the company.
Many local customers know CNS as the “computer guys” who assist with computers, networks, websites and technology. However, they continue write custom application software used by hundreds of banks and credit unions across the United States.
“Jeff is viewed by his clients as a critical member of their team,” business strategist Catherine Boettner said, noting that his work is thorough and well done. “His clients have good reliability and little down time due to technical issues related to the design and installation of the network by Jeff. While he works in a technical field, he is able to explain his work in terms that make it easy for the client to understand what needs to be done and why.”
Steve Robinson, president of Cleveland Plywood Company, agreed.
“Jeff’s chosen profession is one that changes almost weekly as anyone with a computer network certainly knows. Yet he stays current in his knowledge to guide his customers to the best opportunities for their businesses to grow…. I have great respect for his business advice and consider him a friend and a brother in Christ.”
Monday’s award winner continues to reach out to others with his spirit of innovation. His most recent endeavor was the opening of a new business, MacPC Market, in November 2015 in Cooke’s Plaza. This shop sells refurbished Macs and PCs, as well as both Apple- and Droid-based tablets and accessories. He also offers residential computer repair and networking, bringing innovations normally reserved for big business to the public for home use.
“This marked Jeff’s first substantial foray into the residential computer market,” Mr. Buff noted, adding that the new business created additional jobs for the community as well.
Physical and fiscal growth also reflects the success of CNS. The business began in less than 300 square feet in the Business Incubator with Cocks as the sole employee. Before the end of the first year, he added an employee. This led to an expansion of his operation into a 500-square-foot office the next year and the addition of a second employee.
“Jeff’s company grew again into two offices, then three and then four…. Well, you get the picture,” Mr. Buff explained.
Mr. Cocks now has a full-time staff of five and several part-time employees, with plans to hire additional employees this year. He has expanded into a 2,700-square-foot suite at the incubator where he can house his operation as a whole.
“With each stage of growth, Jeff took care to ensure that once he had made a hire, he was in a position to sustain that hire,” the incubator director pointed out. He also made sure that his employees knew business was sound and offered such benefits as health insurance—“a big feather in a small business’s cap.”
Despite the growth of CNS, success has not changed its owner.
“When one runs into Jeff on the street, you would never know from his demeanor what a smart and successful man he is,” Mr. Buff said about this modest small businessperson. “The only thing about Jeff that may have changed is his ability to indulge his generous spirit, as he gives freely of himself and his resources, which these days are substantial.”
Service to the community is also a criterion of the Bedwell Award, and Jeff Cocks is no stranger to exhibiting concern for and interest in Cleveland and Bradley County.
Among many service projects, he has taken abandoned and used computers and upgraded or repaired them for donation to local schools, churches and nonprofit organizations. Additionally, he has donated equipment and his considerable expertise to new entrepreneurs at the incubator and throughout the community.
“Jeff is a community supporter but never seeks the limelight,” Ms. Boettner said. “He works quietly behind the scenes in organizations that speak to him. He is quiet and unassuming and an asset to our community.”
Mr. Cocks served four years on the Chamber’s board of directors, with two of those years on the executive committee as vice chairman of the community development division. He currently serves on the board for the Cleveland Civitan Club.
This year’s Bedwell Award winner attributes his decision to start a small business that specializes in technology to the influence of his parents—his father, who was a “technology early adopter,” and his mother, who is the “definition of the American Dream.” Mr. Cocks says his father taught him not to be intimidated by technology but rather to embrace it. His mother, who is from the Philippines, taught him by example that establishing long-term relationships with customers is the key to success. She also taught him the value of hard work and filled him with an entrepreneurial spirit that gave him the courage to start his own small business.
A devoted family man, Mr. Cocks also acknowledges the support of his family—wife, Mary Tom, and two sons, Thomas and James.
Mr. Cocks joins an impressive list of previous winners of the Small Business Person of the Year: Greg Hicks, Impressions Catering; Roger Pickett, MurMaid Mattress Inc.; Debbie Melton, Don Ledford Automotive Center; Shannon Ritzhaupt, Café Roma; Ed Jacobs, Ed Jacobs & Associates Inc. and Northwestern Mutual Financial Network; Hal Roe, Bradley Rentals; Jim Workman, Bender Realty LLC; Don Geren, Cleveland/Bradley Business Incubator; Steve Robinson, Cleveland Plywood; Lynn Jones, Lynn Jones Enterprises; Ross Tarver, Tarver Distributing Co. Inc.; Loye Hamilton, Coldwell Banker, Hamilton & Associates; Kenneth Higgins, Santek Environmental Inc.; Kay Jenkins Cowan, Jenkins Restaurant & Deli, Dan Cooke, Cooke’s Food Store and Panera Bread; Catherine Boettner, Cleveland Tubing; Jim Duggan, Robinson Building Center; Reba Garrison, State Farm Insurance; Ron Braam, Manufacturers Chemicals LLC; Susan Shelton, Bradley News Weekly; Larry McDaniel, Town Squire; and Mel Bedwell, Cleveland Business Machines.
The Small Business Committee of the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce sponsors Business Development Month as part of the Chamber’s commitment to the business development of its members, the economic growth of the region, and the highest quality of life in our community.