Legend has it that when IBM started to sell computers in the 1960s, business owners couldn’t find programmers because they all worked for IBM. So they asked the tech juggernaut what type of person is best suited for this line of work. IBM replied: musicians.

This makes sense to Jonas Temple, chief information officer at Top 40 supplier The Magnet Group (asi/68507). Having graduated with a degree in jazz performance, he quickly adapted to the world of coding and algorithms once his friend invited him to a self-taught programming course. “When you play a song, you follow a logical progression,” Temple says. “It’s a universal language. Programming is similar because I have an end goal, but I have to think about it abstractly before I approach it.”

Temple has achieved much over the past seven years at The Magnet Group – a period during which the supplier has increased its sales by about $40 million. Temple created a business-intelligent system that allows users to determine why business was up or down during a specific period of time. He’s also spearheaded developing a system for electronic data transfer in which the company can accept orders from customers in a multitude of ways. It’s an exciting initiative for Magnet because the lack of uniformity regarding electronic order acceptance has been a long-time industry issue that coalitions like PromoStandards have worked toward solving.

“I’m excited to see those standards, but realistically, it will be some time before they’re adopted universally,” Temple says. “What we’re trying to do is create a process that when we build it, we can reuse it for other purposes. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel every time.”

Previously, Temple worked for a company that made refrigeration valves, a highly engineered, yet very repetitive process. The promotional products industry has been quite the contrast as custom orders are the norm and every day brings a new challenge. “My responsibility is to make sure I’m managing the projects so I don’t overwhelm my staff,” Temple says. “I serve as a buffer for new opportunities, thinking strategically about what it will take to make them happen while fully understanding the capabilities of my team.”