“It’s one of the biggest lessons my parents have always taught us: your family is No. 1,” said Ramirez, whose family moved to the United States from Peru when she was young. So it’s only fitting that Ramirez works for D’Addario, which is well-known in the industry for being a family-run and family-oriented company. Starting out as an administrative assistant for D’Addario’s national sales manager and vice president of sales, she moved up the corporate ladder over the years into positions that include export customer service supervisor, global customer service manager, and, in August 2007, sales operations manager.
“When I first arrived here, I set some goals as to where I wanted to be in five years. I’ve come to reach each one of those,” she said proudly, adding that she now has a new 10-year plan “to have my boss’ job. David Via, our vice president of sales, is my immediate boss and he’s mentoring me. Right now I am focusing on doing my part to see D’Addario eclipse $150 million, $175 million, and ultimately $200 million in sales,” she continued, “a lofty goal, but one we all see on the horizon.”
A lot of Ramirez’ growth at the company can be attributed, once again, to family. As a family-run company, Ramirez finds D’Addario is particularly understanding to the plight of working mothers like herself.
“People tend to understand a little bit better if you have some personal problems or daycare problems,” she said. “I [didn’t] see [the same] flexibility in other companies I’ve worked for, because I guess in those places you tend to be sometimes just another employee. Here, they bring you in and they try to [treat you] as one of the family members. They try to embrace you that way.”
At the same time, Ramirez adds, “without having my husband with me, and the support of my family, my parents, and my brothers and sisters, I wouldn’t be able to balance it the way I do right now, which is sometimes a little overwhelming but also exhilarating. Most of the time things just fall into place and it’s easy.”
A Real Go-Getter
Not having worked in the music industry before, the job didn’t start out quite as easy. “Learning the product in the beginning was a little bit of a struggle, but it came over time. Just being around the people here, most of the coworkers are musicians so you get to pick up a lot of the stuff day in, day out,” she said. “I’ve always loved music.”
In fact, Ramirez played piano from the age of 5 to the age of 10. “I played a little guitar in seventh grade and then I didn’t follow it up,” she conceded. But that could someday change.
Dealing mostly with the company’s international business has actually been beneficial for her during these difficult economic times since, “Much like other manufacturers, our international business is growing as a result of a weak U.S. dollar and our aggressive push into untapped and underutilized markets around the world,” she said.
Plus dealing with such varied clientele keeps her on her toes. “Sometimes with the ups and downs of the industry, working in customer service is a lesson each day as you go. You’re dealing with different customers and different problems and you try to satisfy everybody,” said Ramirez. “Internationally it’s been a little challenging because men tend to run the companies in a machismo kind of way, especially in Latin America, so the culture changes have been a challenge in some locations,” but she added, “customer service really is, to me, the same everywhere. It’s basically satisfying the customer.”
Be All You Can Be
Though she brought up some of the international “machismo” she encounters, Ramirez has never felt held back by her gender—again going back to lessons learned in her upbringing.
“I’m the youngest of six—three boys and three girls. I’ve learned a lot from that,” she said. “My parents said, ‘You can all be whatever you want to be.’ And we were always pushed to achieve whatever we wanted to, whether we were a boy or a girl.”
In the end, Ramirez says it all comes down to the kind of person you are. Thanks to her upbringing, the close atmosphere at her job, and her own strengths, she’s poised to meet her next set of goals.
“Sometimes people have said maybe I’m too assertive at times. But you know what? Most of the time you really need to be assertive because that’s how you get things done,” she said. “And I also have my soft side. I have my [two] kids, my family and friends. That’s I guess the balance of being a Gemini. You know, twins [Laughs].”
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