Two Steps Ahead: Justin Tevis

Some jobs are front and center. They are held by people who get their energy from interacting with the public. Quite often, these  people become the face of a business. Other jobs are behind-the-scenes. These employees sometimes get lost in the nitty-gritty details, hidden from public view, but are equally valuable.

In the business world, financial roles typically fall into the latter category. As Action Property Management’s Financial Planning and Analysis Manager, Justin Tevis is involved in plenty of meetings with other members of the Action team, but most of his days are spent not with people, but with numbers.

Every business knows the value that the right people can bring to the company, but without a solid financial plan, those people can’t do their jobs. That’s where Justin comes in. With a mind that is always thinking at least two steps ahead, aided by an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Pepperdine University, he’s built a career out of studying numbers. His strong understanding of what it means to truly analyze data and build solid financial plans based on those figures continues to propel him forward.

Justin’s path to Action brought him through a variety of positions. With experience in inventory, purchasing, finance, and data analysis, his resume is solid and his leadership and executive experience made him a prime candidate for the job. After just one year with Action, Justin has made several significant changes that have served to streamline the operation of the company.

Justin’s most recent project was in collaboration with the corporate accounting and finance teams. Together they enhanced Action’s internal chart of accounts by reducing the company’s general ledger accounts and adding multiple dimensions. This resulted in simplified profit and loss statements and the ability to perform more dynamic analysis.

With these changes, the door has now been opened for the next project which will be to create new dashboards and new metrics for presenting data to team leaders in usable formats.

He is also involved in leading the transition to a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that will further enhance the company’s ability to collect, analyze, and respond to data.

While numbers drive him by day, his nights are filled with challenges of a completely different variety. Seventeen years of Jiu Jitsu experience, with fourteen of those years in a competitive environment, has prepared Justin to become a sought-after second degree black belt professor. The primary focus of Jiu Jitsu that he teaches to his students is to use leverage and technique to overcome a stronger opponent. Like corporate finance, it involves careful planning and analysis to gain maximum benefit.

As with his day job, Justin is always thinking two steps ahead, finding enjoyment in both the physical and mental aspects of the sport.

His passion for his community doesn’t end there. During football season, you’ll find him continuing to give back from the sidelines coaching kids.

He’s also taken his passion overseas. This year he even had the opportunity to teach Jiu Jitsu in Thailand.

Though he works remotely from his home office, Justin values the contributions of all of his teammates. His days are spent analyzing numbers, but he knows that each one of those numbers has the ability to impact someone’s life. “We Care About People” is one of Action’s core values and it’s the primary driving force behind what he does.

Content with his transition from executive leadership at his former employer to data analytics and finance at Action, he enjoys the people around him. “I work on a bright team of number crunchers, analyzers, and thinkers that manage complex processes. We have developed a great team dynamic as we navigate through any challenge we face.  It's important for me to be on a team that functions in a healthy way. It really is all about the people,” Justin says about his team.

Whether he’s caring about people at work or in his community, Justin finds satisfaction in what he does. Driven by a desire to push himself to be the very best he can be, he leads by example and both his community and his company are better off because of what he does.