President’s Message – June 2025

By Shawn Nowak

What Would Grandpa Do?

Picture it: 1944. The world is crawling out of World War II. The country’s trying to make sense of peace again. Resources are scarce, optimism even scarcer. And in the middle of New Orleans, a man named Benny Nowak is pounding the pavement—brown leather bag in hand, sweat in his collar, and no guaranteed paycheck.

He wasn’t pitching dental supplies because it was glamorous (spoiler: it still isn’t). He was doing it because he had mouths to feed and believed that if you treated people right, they’d come back.

He built this company one handshake at a time. No internet, no CRM, no stockholders —just honest hustle. He didn’t care whether you were running a kitchen-table operation or one of the biggest labs in the region. If you needed something, he’d find a way to get it to you.

Fast forward 80 years, and I still hear his voice every time we land a big win. Just last month, one of the largest labs in the country made the switch to Aidite zirconia through Nowak. Not because we shouted the loudest. Not because we gave the deepest discount. Because we listened. We stocked what they needed. We adjusted our inventory levels around their workflow. We treated them like a partner, not a PO number.

That’s the Nowak difference. And I guarantee if Grandpa Benny were here, he’d tip his hat, and say, “You did it the right way.”
So here’s your reminder this month: whatever challenge you’re staring down—pricing pressure, production delays, burnout, bureaucracy—ask yourself:
What would Grandpa do?

Then go do that. With grit. With heart. And maybe even a brown leather bag.

—Shawn