Which is to say that he tries to see the sunny side in our Smartphone era.
“ All of the advances in that area have been really tremendous the last couple of years,” he says.“ So what I think is you ' ll continue to see all of this with data centers and AI now. And that ' s going to create even more opportunities. It’ s really going to be interesting to see what happens in the next five years, I think. The people who are able to figure out how to get in and use that on the industry side, particularly, I think will be very successful.”
Mississippi began constructing their new warehouse in 2025.
seems like more than just a just a standard pullback. It probably raises more red flags than just with standard slowdowns. And you ' ve got these things that have been swirling around for a while that I think causes uncertainty. And people don ' t like uncertainty.”
As examples of these things, he points to the rise of RTDs and cannabis beverages.
“ The states seem to be trying to figure out how they ' re going to regulate those, or if they ' re going to regulate those,” he says.“ The federal government, apparently, is trying to figure that out as well. That creates uncertainty. I think the markets don ' t really like uncertainty; they like to know how things are going to be regulated.”
He also brings up the“ better for you” movement that has made many younger consumers, especially LDA Gen Zers, turn away from alcohol for what they perceive to be healthier alternatives. But he wonders if this is more of a fad than a trend, as the same allegedly health-conscious shoppers also regularly consume questionable products like cannabis and vapes.
“ There has been at least a narrative created about,‘ Hey, I ' m going to avoid [ alcohol ] for these health reasons’. But then you go look at those folks and they ' re not doing it across the board,” he says.
“ And so there are some interesting consumer trends,” he adds.“ I think that that the industry has got to try to figure out where that ' s going. I don ' t know exactly where it ' s going, but you know, this market, this industry, has been around for a long time. It ' s sustained, I think, tougher times for sure. And I think it will be fine. It ' s going to be a matter of time.”
Graham believes it is important to try to meet these younger consumers where they are.
“ You start talking about those people who are under 30 years old; how do you reach them?” he says.“ Is it going to be through some brand that you ' ve got to go create? You know, the proliferation of social media influencers has just been fascinating to watch, how people can influence entire groups by some video they put on the internet.”
HIRING AND TRAINING
Bringing on and educating employees is a critical component of any leader’ s role. At the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Graham says,“ We look for people who get things done.”
“ You want to find somebody who ' s a self-starter and self-energized and willing to do things in our business,” he adds.“ You have to have people who can go out and solve problems on their own, and don ' t have to come back to you, and they don ' t have to be motivated.” Graham has noticed a shift in hiring since Covid-19.“ We saw the Great Resignation, just like everybody else did during Covid,” he recalls.“ We had to change our approach to recruiting. A place like ours, historically, would have people come to us looking for jobs. Now, we have to go out and meet people where they are and do a lot more recruiting, a lot heavier recruiting, than we used to have to do before the Great Resignation.”
Once brought on board, employee training has also changed— especially for younger workers.
“ I think the younger generation likes to see a lot of meaning in their work,” Graham says.“ So we spend a lot of time talking with our folks and educating them about how this task that you ' re doing, how that has an impact on everything from education to public safety, because we ' re in the business of collecting money and providing funds to the state.”
“ And so we spent a lot of time talking with our folks about the importance of what they do, because you always see that when you ' re dealing with a committee, or a taxpayer who might be irate, and we like for them to see the other side of that as well, which is we ' re supporting all the public functions of government,” he adds.“ We ' re providing most of the funding for the state. So we really spend a lot of time educating our folks on the importance of what they do and how it really helps the state operate.”
Looking ahead, Graham eagerly anticipates the completion of Mississippi’ s new warehouse.
“ We ' re really excited about it,” he says.“ It ' s been a long time coming. It ' s been something that we ' ve been working on since 2020. We got the funding for it in 2024, and we ' ve been constructing it since 2025. We ' re really looking forward to completing that in 2027, and modernizing our warehouse operations so that we can provide top service to our permits in the state. We ' re really excited about getting to the finish line on that.” •
22 StateWays • Summer 2026 www. stateways. com