The three sons of Odom.

• Author: Oswald, Lori Jo
• Position: Officials of the food and beverage wholesale and distribution company

The three sons who oversee the Odom Corp. and its several subsidiaries learned their trade working weekends, after school, holidays and summer breaks at several company warehouses in downtown Anchorage.

Their father, Milt Odom, started the food and beverage wholesale and distribution company in 1933 and taught the boys to work hard, take care of customers first, and focus on sales.

"My father never took you by the hand and said, 'This is what I'm going to teach you.' Instead, he'd say, 'Here's the truck, here's the product, go out and deliver it,"' recalls Bill Odom, executive vice president.

John Odom, CEO and president, says that when growing up, the company always fascinated the brothers. "Fortunately, the business was large enough that we could each pick out an area where we are interested and grow in that area."

The Odom Corp., headquartered in Anchorage and Seattle with most of its sales in Alaska, grossed $122 million in 1998. Operating divisions include Anchorage Cold Storage, Northwest Distributing Co., Coca-Cola Northwest Bottling Co., ANCO Shipping Transport Services, ANCO Foodservice and Aurora Vending. It has had to undergo major changes since the senior Odom passed away in 1988.

"The truth is," says Joe Davis, a Seattle attorney on the board of directors who has worked with the Odoms for 20 years, "Milton started the business in the mid-1930s and by the time he died, the marketplace had entirely changed. The Odom brothers had to virtually reorganize every aspect of the business to gain the efficiencies and the trust and loyalty of their employees in order to succeed.

For the first 10 years, they were trying to hang on to what their father had built and accomplished, and now that they've succeeded in that phase, the brothers are expanding and using that as a foundation to grow their own business enterprise recognizing the need to bring the company into the 1990s.

John Odom, who spends much of his time in the Seattle offices, says that the company is fortunate that it had very strong people to begin with, who helped form the company as well as additional talent hired since the brothers took over, to help carry the company forward. But the most important factor is that "we've given them the power to make decisions on their own."

"When Milt was in charge, all decisions were vertical - he made the decisions and...