December 29, 2025 • 38 mins
Robert F. Posthauer
President, Rubbermaid Commercial Business, Newell Brands
With over 25 years of experience as a business and industry leader, Robert Posthauer currently serves as the President of the Rubbermaid Commercial Business at Newell Brands. His portfolio includes well-known brands such as Rubbermaid Commercial Products®, Mapa®, Spontex®, and Quickie®, which cater to the demanding needs of commercial facilities globally.
Before joining Newell, Rob served as Senior Vice President of Global Merchandising at Lowe's Companies, overseeing Private Brands, Product Development, Quality, and Global Sourcing. He also held various leadership roles at General Electric Appliances, culminating in his position as Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Rob holds a degree from the School of Management at Purdue University.
Rob is deeply committed to promoting the cleaning industry. He led efforts to create the "Behind the Scenes of Clean" campaign to honor custodial and maintenance professionals worldwide. This initiative, now in its third year, has celebrated over 17,000 professionals through more than 200 events. Rob is also passionate about corporate responsibility and community impact, evidenced by partnerships with organizations like Charlotte Football Club, Louisville Soccer Club, Davidson Elementary, and local festivals supporting U.S. manufacturing plants.
In addition to his professional work, Rob has been a guest speaker at the University of North Carolina, providing students with insights on global economics in a tariff-driven environment. His leadership and business acumen have earned him numerous accolades, including the 2022 Newell CEO Leadership Award for outstanding performance in revenue, profitability, and operational excellence, the 2023 Leadership Award for sales revenue growth, and the 2024 Executive Contact and Vendor of the Year Award from Grainger.
Rob remains active with Purdue University, managing a scholarship in honor of his mother, and is a dedicated supporter of his local community. He and his wife Heather, married for 16 years, enjoy traveling with their children, Beau (15) and Ruby (12).
Learn more about Newell Brands!
President, Rubbermaid Commercial Business, Newell Brands
With over 25 years of experience as a business and industry leader, Robert Posthauer currently serves as the President of the Rubbermaid Commercial Business at Newell Brands. His portfolio includes well-known brands such as Rubbermaid Commercial Products®, Mapa®, Spontex®, and Quickie®, which cater to the demanding needs of commercial facilities globally.
Before joining Newell, Rob served as Senior Vice President of Global Merchandising at Lowe's Companies, overseeing Private Brands, Product Development, Quality, and Global Sourcing. He also held various leadership roles at General Electric Appliances, culminating in his position as Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Rob holds a degree from the School of Management at Purdue University.
Rob is deeply committed to promoting the cleaning industry. He led efforts to create the "Behind the Scenes of Clean" campaign to honor custodial and maintenance professionals worldwide. This initiative, now in its third year, has celebrated over 17,000 professionals through more than 200 events. Rob is also passionate about corporate responsibility and community impact, evidenced by partnerships with organizations like Charlotte Football Club, Louisville Soccer Club, Davidson Elementary, and local festivals supporting U.S. manufacturing plants.
In addition to his professional work, Rob has been a guest speaker at the University of North Carolina, providing students with insights on global economics in a tariff-driven environment. His leadership and business acumen have earned him numerous accolades, including the 2022 Newell CEO Leadership Award for outstanding performance in revenue, profitability, and operational excellence, the 2023 Leadership Award for sales revenue growth, and the 2024 Executive Contact and Vendor of the Year Award from Grainger.
Rob remains active with Purdue University, managing a scholarship in honor of his mother, and is a dedicated supporter of his local community. He and his wife Heather, married for 16 years, enjoy traveling with their children, Beau (15) and Ruby (12).
Learn more about Newell Brands!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, and welcome to another episode of CEOs You Should Know,
brought to you by iHeartMedia powered by Thompson Child and
Family Focus. Today we have Rob Post Hour from newal Brands.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Rob Welcome, thank you, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Great, Well, let's just hop right into it. It's just
you know, we have a little time. We spend time
with CEOs in a market. I want to know a
little bit about them obviously, the brand and the business
that they run, and then also the community. So why
don't we start off with with Rob? What what what
brought you into leadership? Tell us a little bit of backstory.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, so a little bit about myself maybe. So I
grew up in Indiana and I'm a boiler Maker, went
to Purdue University. So, as we were talking about earlier,
that's a good thing from a basketball standpoint. Opportunities in football,
of course, and so you know, for my career, I
(00:55):
kind of traveled around, you know, with my paycheck. So
I started out in my first territory was Dallas, Texas.
I moved up to Traverse City, Michigan. If you've ever
been there, it's a beautiful area. Moved out to San Francisco.
That's where I met my wife. So I've been with
my wife for twenty seven years. I'm married for seventeen congratulations.
I guess I was on a probationary period fifteen years, right.
(01:19):
And then from from San Francisco, we moved back to Atlanta,
and I was working for Ge Appliances at the time.
Worked almost twenty years for GE, and I was responsible
for home depot, so got into home improvement. That'll come
into play maybe in a little bit. And then from
there I went back to headquarters for GE Louisville and
(01:41):
then moved to had an opportunity at Low's, so I
went to Lowe's after that, and then finally where I'm
at today, which is new all brands and running the
commercial business. So that's a quick summary of kind of
where it came from him.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, So, at what point in time during your career
pathway did you into leadership?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I think, you know, my first big leadership opportunity was
a GE and GE just you know, i'll call it
the old Ge of New GE's great as well, but
you know, with Jeff Immelt was the CEO, and their
executive development program was really one of the envies of
the world, certainly of the country, and I was had
(02:24):
an opportunity to spend some time in the executive development
program at GE and traveled around the world. We had
a program in Saudi Arabia for two months and I
did that and so you know, that was really when
I started my leadership growth opportunities at that time. And
that was I guess that was fifteen years ago probably,
(02:45):
And also that's when I started. I led the sales
and marketing team at GE Appliances too, But a great
program at GE.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, any of the influence from the Jock Waltch at
the time.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, you know the I got to go through this
Sigma process, right, Okay, so Green Bell Green. I don't
know if that's you know, certainly it was an opportunity
back then. But yeah, just just a great experience with
with CHI.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That's awesome. What was one thing you learned as a
newer leader there that again, we have a gamut of listeners,
people that aren't in leadership, people that are business leaders,
people in the community. But what's one thing you learned
early on in your leadership that maybe stuck with you
or that wasn't that great?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I think stretch yourself is what I always say. You
know your skill set gaps better than anybody else, so
don't be in a hurry to get to that next
big role. Work on your skill set gaps and that'll
broaden your opportunities long term. The other thing that we
always always talk to people about is I was almost
(03:57):
pushed into a lateral role at one point. I think
this is fifteen years ago. I'm going back, but really
thought I deserved a different role that was a promotion,
and my boss at the time thought I should take
a lateral role and I fought her at the time
and she was absolutely right. It ended up being a
really critical role for me to open up what the
(04:20):
product side. I was always in the sales and marketing side,
but not product and for my leadership and what I'm
doing now, that turned out to be a super valuable lesson.
So don't be in a hurry, work on your skill
set gaps and look at opportunities both you know, parallel
opportunities and advancements as well.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well. I love two things that you said. That at
lateral move is an interesting dynamic, right, because a lot
of times people think that that's a setback two years ago.
I had a senior leader in an organization we had
about sixty five leaders at Thompson where we talked about
sometimes you got to move sideways to have a clear
pathways up right and at the time the person really
(05:00):
struggled through that and then two years later got to
where they wanted to be. But that's that lateral mood
giving them more exposure and something different in our business
and our industry really helped move that forward. So I
love that that was an early lesson learned. And then
also just leading. Now I lead, you lead to to
(05:21):
take your time. Mastery is important, learn your craft. What
are you seeing in the workplace now, because I don't
necessarily see a lot of patients.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, it's it's interesting. I mean we always talk about
embracing change. That's not good enough. I mean, you have
to be proactive. You have to be thrive in an
environment of being uncomfortable and change. If that makes sense,
you really do, especially with you can't do an interview
without talking about AI. But seriously, on the AI front,
(05:52):
you have to embrace that. You've got to be powered
by people but supported and enhanced by AI and.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
It just makes you better. But you're right the world
is changing.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
The macroeconomic conditions this year were tough, you know, with
tariffs and other things that everybody had to navigate through,
including us. And we're my business is you know, call
it seventy percent US made, but we have some products
and some components that come from around the world, of course,
just like most companies, and just navigating through that has
(06:25):
been challenging. But yeah, to your point, it's you've got
to move fast and you've got to keep up.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, you hit on AI. Let's get back to that
in a minute. But I just realized because my wife
told me, which generally is is on point, but I
forgot how far back COVID was. So she's like, we're
actually five years in COVID, and I was like, oh
my gosh. Really seemed like yesterday sometimes. But to your point,
for me, this last five years, I've been on leadership
(06:52):
about twenty five twenty six years in our industry. This
last five years have been the most difficult in my
mind as a leader, just because of all the things
that have happened in the world. Obviously you've talked about
some of the recent things, but COVID really began a
lot of that. How have you felt there in that five.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Years same, It just reset and reshaped a lot of
different things, and you have a different perspective on how
you go about things. And you know, in our business,
we're in the business of cleaning. We'll get into that later,
but we make a variety of commercial products mop buckets
and rooms and things like that. So if you think
(07:31):
back to twenty when all that was not only essential products,
but the end users that we support and they support
our products, they were deemed essential as well. And that
was a tough time for everybody obviously, but it really
did shine a light on the janitorial profession and we
(07:52):
love that and you know, like everything, unfortunately that has
faded a little bit, but.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Not all.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It hasn't faded completely, I guess, And so we continue
to try to bring to shine a light on that
really important profession, the janitorial or custodian. And so that's
that's who we try to support every day. And we
have an annual event called behind the Scenes of Clean
and we go out and thank these folks.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Around the world.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Actually we had over two hundred events this year and
it's something simple. It's just going out and having serving
them breakfast and lunch and saying thanks, maybe raffling off
a few prizes, but it's the whole. The whole point
to it is putting down the selling deck and really
letting them know that what the work they do is
really critical.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And important to keeping the world active.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah. Yeah, I love that you shared that that event
and highlight on on a role that some people may
may either forget about in a company or in an
organization Aaron or may think is less important. But as
you know, or at least and I believe, every every
every member of the team is critical totally. There was
a book, have you ever read? The Fred Factor by
(09:07):
A Each I have ye talked about I think that
whole dynamic around the guy that was a gender and
that really stuck with me early on after I read
that book.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Cool that you guys did that. Yeah, so let's talk
about AI. Just last Monday, I was at a leader's
gathering in Uptown Charlotte about what's happening in AI, and
it was interesting that you know, you had you know,
multiple industries tech, banking, finance, service, consulting, accounting, and then
(09:41):
obviously they decided to bring in the not for profit guy.
So I was there representing the non for profit sector,
which I told them is not a sector, it's just
a tech status. So you know, we're in the health
and human services business. But most people just don't get that.
But I'm okay with that. But you know, the reality
of it is, if you're running an organization, in my
mind large, medium, are small, AI has to be top
(10:03):
of mine, and it's been top of mine for me
for the last few years. You brought it up without
me even asking about it. So how are you seeing
AI in your workspace currently? What are the potentials that
you guys are exploring moving forward? Is it? You know,
are you worried about the risk of AI? Are you?
Are you really more bullish on the potential?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Bullish on the potential?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Really, it's you know, it's it's scary for all of
us and a little bit, but once you get in
and I encourage my team to get in and just
play around with it really just like everybody else. And
at my staff meetings as an example, every other week,
we go around the table and just talk about how
(10:45):
you used AI, just to make sure that hey, look,
we're all starting from scratch almost what'd you use it
for and what do you find helpful? So but yeah,
I think I'm excited about the opportunities that exist. So
we're using it to you know, if you think about
digital content with our products, obviously that's a huge opportunity
(11:07):
and we've been utilizing AI for a long time now.
Just the speed to market from an innovation standpoint and
what you can do quickly with with new innovation and
helping to write briefs around the innovation just speeds up
the innovation process in general.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So we're excited about that.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
If you think about customer care and customer service, you know,
there's still questions about, hey, where's my product, whether it's
a consumer, an end user or customer of ours, where's
my product? Or how do you put this mop bucket together?
Things like that you still have to be I said,
(11:47):
powered by people, enabled and supported by AI. But there's
a tremendous opportunity that we're utilizing on the customer service
side as well. So there's a variety of areas it's
actually going go goes very deep and and really what
we're trying to do is is take it step by
step so you can use it obviously individually when you're
(12:07):
at your desk. If you think about for us, it's
like competitive comparisons. Instead of going in and and and
and doing that shopping on your own, AI can do
it for you. Uh, And it's just unbelievable. So that's
that's an opportunity. And then there's functional capabilities too, So
there's individual capabilities and uh. And then there's you know,
(12:30):
for the marketing team or the product team or as
I said, customer service, there's there's function wide opportunities as well.
And then for our business new business as an example,
we have a lot of different brands that we'll talk
about later, but then there's this enterprise opportunity that we're
using as well. So anyway, there's it's it's it's pretty
(12:54):
interesting where it's going to go. So it just grows
like it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, and again in that room, and I think to
CEOs in general. I actually was blessed to work at
a software company called SaaS, the analytics software, you know,
predictive analytics. It was it was the beginning of AI,
if you will, because that's all it really is, pulling
data together, getting it clean, and then accessing it very
(13:18):
quickly to answer questions give to help with the decision
making actually use logic in different ways. But it was interesting.
We always felt like that our two biggest competitors were
fear change and fear of innovation. That's so it's funny
when I talk to CEOs now, generally what you see
a little of that happening. Obviously, some industries are more
compliance or in it, and you have to be super
(13:38):
careful with data, keeping it closed and those type of things.
But given the workforce shortages in the world that started
in twenty one because of birth rates, you know, for me,
it's if I can go into efficiency and effectiveness and
speed and get better quality, we're all in. It's interesting.
(14:00):
A lot of people are worried and fearful that their
jobs will be replaced. I just heard this morning. It's
not a replacement of your job, but it's an augmentation. Right,
And then on the flip side of it is like
anything else, if your fear of being replaced, learn how
to use AI exactly, then the future could be limitless
for you.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
We are absolutely truly embracing it exactly what you said.
It can make you more effective, It will make you
more effective if you can have an agent help you
with things, get to know you and how you think
and what your responsibility is. It's just the opportunities are
just we're just scratching the surface.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Really.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
The other area is supply chain. If you think about
all the great customers that we serve, Low's Home Depot, Walmart, etc.
Service rate and in stock rate is really critical. So
the planning process, both on the supply side and demand
side can be complicated. And so having AI support you
(14:59):
on things like that and looking at trends and buy
trends and ship trends, things like that really helps us
and makes us more efficient.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I think we as humans, I think we fear that
somebody we're going to be we're gonna be. It's going
to be a demonstrated that our gut is wrong most
of the time, truly, that's right. We have a core
belief at Thompson and God we trust all others bring data.
I think that's a demming quote somewhere down line, but right.
And it's important to have facts and logic behind your decisions,
at least as a leader. So you had mentioned Newell
(15:28):
a few times. Talk to us, tell the tell the
community about Newell. What is new? What is new? What's new?
All about? What do you do? What's important to you?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
So you know, as I said, I've I've only worked
for three companies really in my life. I worked for
Ge Appliances for a long period of time and then
had the opportunity to go to Lowe's and that's what
brought me to Charlotte. And at Low's I ran appliances
because that was my background, and then I also ran
global merchandising. What an awesome opport that was the first
(16:00):
round of tariffs.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But what Low's is.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Just a fantastic place, you know, headquartered in Mooresville right here,
and they continue to grow and thrive. And then I
had the opportunity My mentor was the CEO of the
commercial business, and so I had an opportunity to work
for him again and so it came over to to
(16:26):
run the commercial business as a part of newele So
Newal Brands. To your point, we have over fifty brands.
We're in ninety percent of American homes. We'll have a
Newal product in their home. So that's pretty cool. But
you know, we were divided up not to complicate the group,
but by segments, and we have a writing segment and
(16:47):
I'm sure you've there might see it didn't take very long.
Sharpie is the products all around, that's right. Sharpie is
the big brand for writing. Dimo Expo, which you guys
have heard of as well. Also on the learning and
development side is what we call that segment. They have
(17:07):
baby products so greatco Car Seats is very popular obviously,
and Nook brands on the baby side. And then outdoor
and recreation is part of newle Brands as well, and
under that we have brands like Coleman, Coleman, Cooler's, Marmot,
the apparel. Somebody had a Marmot jacket on in the
(17:29):
other room, Bubba Cantigo water bottles, So that's all part
of outdoor and recreation. And then in my business we
call it home and commercial segment. There's a home side,
and on the home side we have kitchen brands like
obviously Rubber Made, food storage, Oaster brands, Kalfalon food Saver,
(17:53):
and then we have Yankee Candle as well, so in
our home fragrance business. And then finally on the commercial
part of the home and commercial is my business, so
I run I lead the commercial business, and that's rubber
made commercial of rubber made commercial. You've heard of the
Brute brand, Brute trash cans. Of course I have responsibility
(18:13):
for that. We have rubber made closet products, rubber maide sheds,
things like that. And then we have Quickie brand, and
Quickie is a also a cleaning you know, you'll find
that at cleaning brand at Deepot, Lows, a true value,
a lot of d I wise, so you know Newell's.
(18:34):
You know, that's a little bit about all the brands.
Just a fantastic diverse group of brands. It's a you know,
worldwide company. So sixty five percent thereabouts of our sales
are in the US and thirty five internationally. So we
have a big amia Apac Latam business. It's very important
to us as well. So it's it's a fun company.
(18:56):
It's general merchandise. It keeps us busy. You know. One
of the things that I love about it is I've
got a lot of general merchandise, which I just talked
about those brands, and then we have you know, like
pro brands that you would find as I talked about
at Home Depot and Lows. But we have a pretty
significant B to B business too, and so and that
(19:19):
B to B is you know, if you think of
office supplies here like property management, verticals like healthcare and
education and hospitality. We've got over forty percent market share
with our rubber main commercial products with cleaning carts and
hospitality carts at some major hotels too. So it's a
(19:41):
fun business and really diverse.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Wow. As we go back to your leadership journey, what
what brought you to New Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I really think the culture is is it's a fantastic
culture first of all, and really care caring one about
one another I think is really important.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know you as you.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Proceed in your leadership in your career journey, that becomes
more important to you, right And and how I can
best shape it in a leadership position and influence it,
I think is one of the reasons why I saw
the opportunity as a good one for me. So it's
a fantastic culture. The brands obviously, you know, when I
(20:25):
first started to think about the opportunity, I was focused
on the commercial business, so rubber made. But then as
I read more about the great brands, what a great
opportunity broadly for me as well. In other segments. So
the leadership team is fantastic as well. So culture brands
leadership team.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, well, let's hang out in a couple of those.
Let's start with brand as a growing now for profit.
So if you don't know about Thompson, we're getting ready
to sell one hundred celebrate one hundred and forty years
to turn twenty twenty six. Founded here on the Charlotte market.
When I got there eight and a half years ago,
we were basically in Charlotte. Today we're we're from the
(21:09):
mountains to the coast in both Carolinas, Tampa, Florida, Orlando,
everywhere in Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky and Bowling Green, which is
odd a one off right now growing and we historically,
which a lot of non for profit organizations, have never
really thought much about brand, brand management, brand guidelines, marketing.
(21:31):
I now believe that that's a critical part of growth.
It's embedded into our five year strategic plan. You know,
people need to know who you are, Yeah, absolutely, and
then you know not just who you are, but what
you believe in, how well you do what you do,
what's important to you. So we're investing more than we've
ever invested in. So as a leader to a leaders,
(21:52):
I'm learning this. How important is that to you?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It's critical?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Like what I always say, you're not entitled to anybody's
business next year, right, and uh, you know Brute and
Rubber Made Commercial might be a good example and Sharpe
even as well. What great brands well known high market share,
but we're not entitled to the business tomorrow kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And so you have to have that edge.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And you have to know that if you have market
share forty percent market share, fifty percent market share, that's
an opportunity for somebody else that they're working on. So
you better be equally as driven to uh to maintain
and grow that market share. So to your point on
the rubber Maid commercial side and Rubber Make Commercial for
the for the group is a billion dollar brand. It's
(22:38):
a big brand, right, And we had we had not
looked at modernizing the purpose of Robert Rubber Made Commercial
since you know it was before COVID we just talked
about and so updating that brand purpose was really important
important to us. To your point, the brand guidelines, things
just change different, you know, it's it's different. We're an
(23:00):
international or a global brand, and so you have to
take that into consideration. So our brand standards in in
you know, Europe, were different than than they were and
that worked probably fifteen years ago, but it's it doesn't
work anymore. So you have to be consistent in everything
you do from a branding standpoint. So when it's on
the shelf for at that hotel, they know that they
(23:23):
can they can count on rubber maid commercial or your brand.
So I agree with you one hundred percent. It's it's
critical and it's really important.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
I love I love that quote about not being entitled
to your business. I was at an opportunity to sit
next to a leader, senior level leader at a big,
big brand. You would know them. I want to be
respectful of the of the conversation. There was somewhere like
a rubber Maid, Yeah, people know rubber maids sure, or
Sharpie yep. You know my kids definitely know Sharpie, Like
where's my Sharpie? But you know, it's interesting and I
(23:53):
just said, people know your brand like inherently it's known.
They know what you do, they know how well you
do it, know how good it taste. In reference to
this brand, I said, you stop marketing tomorrow. What would happen.
He goes, we lose twenty percent market share, And I
was shocked because this brand is a staple, right, I
mean it's everybody knows the brand, and he goes, we
(24:16):
would lose twenty percent market share at the moment we
turned off this bigot.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
That's exactly right, and that's how.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And that was compelling. Yeah, also set with another retail CEO. Again,
I want to be respectful of the conversation. We would
know the name. The quote just came out. We stopped,
we stopped marketing, we start dying, right, And that was
just an eye opener for me. So it's it's good
to hear other leaders kind of aligned. And as I'm
(24:41):
learning and growing in this kind of concept of marketing
and branding and again in our industry, I had a
hard time telling my neighbor what I did. So you know,
that's not good. You shouldn't have a hard time telling
people what you do and where you work and what
you do and those type of things. So that's that's
cool that that's a big focus for you. You all so
mentioned I'm going to put culture in your leadership team
(25:03):
together a little bit. I know they're not well for
the sake of time. So tell me a little bit
about how you work to develop your team collectively individually.
We believe in leadership. I think John Maxwell said it.
You know, everything begins and ends with leadership. That's kind
of the first thing on our flywheel in our organization.
(25:25):
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah? I think for me, like.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
You know, some of the some of the things that
I'll mention are you know, basic leadership principles I think,
but super important and maybe undervalue these days. But listening,
you know, is uh, you know, the great great part
about my role is is of course I lead the business,
(25:51):
so I can. I've earned the right to make the decision.
But man, I've learned that my decisions are much better
surrounded by others thoughts and what they think we should do.
So listening and being a part of the decision and
make sure your your direct staff and your team are
part of that, I think is it goes back to culture, right,
It builds a culture and in the end, those decisions
(26:13):
are better than individually made. I think going deep, you know,
the the business is just more competitive.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Now you talk.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
We talked a lot about the brand and and what
happens if we start stop marketing. But if you think
of for us private label and just things like that
that are continue to grow. I think you just have
to go deep with all your team members to make
sure you understand their obstacles so you're supporting them in
(26:43):
the right way and then opportunities as well. And then
just being broad or an enterprise thinker for what's good
for the company and not only my individual situation, but
looking for those those individual those individuals, and we call
it accelerated talent to make sure that they're broad thinkers,
(27:08):
strategic thinkers of course, but certainly enterprise thinking like if
I do this, what does that impact? And connecting those
dots I think is really important. But you know, just
going back to caring of and supporting one another. You
know people talk about that, but really taking slowing down
and taking the time to walk around the office or
whatever it is, whatever your style is, I think goes
(27:30):
a long way for the team, and it's important to
be genuine in that.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Last thing I would say.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Is what I learned at GE early in my leadership
is over communicating is helpful, and so I send out
a little communication. I call it a post it note
because my last my nickname is post and everybody has
their version of this, or a lot of folks do.
(27:56):
But I'm as transparent, both good and bad, as as.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I can be.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
And you know, people come up in the hallway and
send me emails saying that they really appreciate that, and
so I think that's really critical. If things are going good, bad, indifferent,
let's talk about it. Let's get the skunk on the
table and tackle it together.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Bad news never gets better with time, right, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
But that's transparency, and that frequent communication is has proven
to be really helpful.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Oh man, I'm taking so much away. Let's get the
skunk on the table. That'll be something I'll repeat for
the next twelve months. My team was going to blame
you for it, that's right. I love the over communication.
And you know, I've had a mentor and a coach
tell me once the CEO is actually the cr the
chief repeating officer many times, and as frustrating as that gets,
(28:47):
that's just part of the job.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yeah, And I think you know you have to delegate
in your role as a key president's CEO.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
There's no question about that.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
And you want to trust your team members but I
try to show up in if if you know, if
I don't understand what's going on in a demand planning meeting,
I don't have to go to those meetings, but I
want to dig in and try to figure out, you know,
if I can help. So that's what I mean by
going deep is is you know, being proactive about some
(29:18):
of those areas that it means a lot to the
to the team as well.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
So yeah, that's awesome. You can delegate and be there listening,
being of assistance without doing the work of those leaders.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah. Yeah, I always say turned fifty three years ago,
most of what I learned about my leadership was wrong,
because I don't know if it's in our industry and
just other industries. We just learned that leading is doing
the job of those that you lead. That's just what really,
not what leading is. That's right, And to your point,
you have to delegate, you have to listen, you have
to help them solve their own problems, not be the
(29:53):
answer to all the questions and those type of things.
That's exactly right. It's definitely a challenge and a hard
thing if you're used to do doing doing much of
your career, right, and then you get into leadership. Well,
let's pivot a little bit kind of the third segment
of what we talk about is I just heard this
on a podcast. Coming in a family owned company, they
(30:13):
created this compass and in the compass they had four
key indicators and as you can imagine, it's you know, brand,
P and L growth and then the last one is
impact to the world. You know, as an impact organization
like Thompson, I wouldn't be doing my job to ask
corporate leaders about what are they doing to make this
(30:36):
world a better place? So does Newall do anything? Do
you guys have a corporate social responsibility arm or any
kind of a commitment to local community of the world
or anything like that. I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
So yes, and here in Charlotte what we do. So
we've been here, I guess we have about three hundred
employees up in Huntersville and that's growing, which is great.
And so we have an engagement team and every year,
a couple times a year we try to support local
(31:12):
nonprofit charity organizations. This year we take a whole day
of course to go out and support the community. Just
as an example, this year, we went to the Diaper
Bank of Charlotte. What a great organization that is. And
we spend all day packing diapers. And it's unbelievable when
you slow down because we're all busy and you do
(31:35):
something like that within the thirty minutes. First thirty minutes,
I was like, goodness, gracious, I need to do this
more often.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Actually feels good.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
It does, it does, so, yes, it brings the team together,
but it's it's not only the right thing to do,
but we should take the time to do it right.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
You have to you have to do that.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
So one out of every two new families has trouble
buying new diapers. Buying diapers, it's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So we do that.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
We support Bread, the local food bank, Angels and Sparrows
as well, and then Newell. We have a grant process
and here locally, the employees. We have the same thing
in Huntersville and all of our look are in Atlanta,
but in Huntersville the employees vote on the local nonprofit
(32:24):
charity organization. And this year's recipient for us was Bread, and.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
We do that every year.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
And then also, you know, like for my business, we're
in the business of cleaning. So if you think about
disaster relief, hurricane disasters, fires, those kind of things, we donate.
Helene was the you know, the most recent unfortunate example
of that. But we obviously we work with Home Depot
and Lows and others to try to help, and they
(32:53):
have incredible teams that go out and do that work
and use our products. But we also donate products and
products like again trash cans, mop buckets, squeegees, brooms, those
microfiber just to clean up since we're in the business
of cleaning up. So that's how we we support. And
(33:14):
then there's a you know, there's a big on the
product side. Sustainability is really important. And I tell you,
like the tip of the spear for us is is
our global business and really in a mea so and
I've got a great team in Europe and and boy,
the need for sustainable products is critical and so that
(33:37):
helps us here in the United States kind of be
in the forefront.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Well, that's awesome, awesome to hear both locally and global,
you know, helping out in local community and then also
helping out I think when you talk about sustainability in
the greater world of what the world will look like.
I think that's super critical. Are you finding where kind
of that being part of your culture, whether it be
whether be part of your values. How does that help
(34:02):
with employee retention, recruitment, any of that?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I think I think everybody. I think it helps tremendously,
quite frankly. And how true you are you are to
your values and how true the culture is to the values.
That's why you know, I mentioned it ten minutes ago.
That's why I'm here because the leadership team is really
true to these values and they provide an opportunity for
(34:27):
me to influence those important decisions too. But yeah, to
your point, whether it's you know, a new employee, experienced
or fresh out of college, that's generally a question and
we're pointed in the right direction. So I think it's
really critical.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
That's awesome and thank you for doing that. And as
an organization that impacts community and communities, it only motivates
me to hear other business leaders saying, hey, we care
about community in different way, shapes and form. It doesn't
have to be for Thompson. We'll talk about that at
another time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Maybe exactly knows we should.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, just kidding, but you know, it's important. It's motivating
for me when I see and interact with business leaders
that say, hey, this is part of what we do.
It's a little bit more. It's a it's a double
bottom line for us in a lot of ways. And again,
it doesn't have to be with our organization. It's motivating
just to hear that organization because there's a lot of
(35:20):
problems in our world. There's a lot of problems in
our community. There's a lot of problems in every community,
and you know, no, not one organization can solve them all.
So I'm happy to hear about bread and obviously the
diaper bank. And you know, we obviously have a lot
of challenges here locally, which is you know, sad to me.
And you know, once you start about internationally, it's a
(35:40):
different gamut. You know, I was sharing pre taping that
my wife was from Columbia, and you know, the first
time you go down to South America, Central America, you
realize how blessed we are, you know, but not everybody
is blessed. So we got to keep on working together.
I think businesses have a big, big role to play
in that, but they're also in business. You know, it's
(36:00):
okay too. You know, I'm not here to guilt businesses.
We do a lot of B to B work, I
promise you. We got several thousands of dollars of your
product land on our campuses and our buildings with our
cleaning crews and the like. So I think it's important
that businesses are growing, sustaining and doing everything that they
can to run good business. And then if they're running
(36:22):
a good business, then they can then they could do
more for community. When the business isn't functioning well, it's
really hard to do that's right and help. So I
appreciate that what you're doing there, Rob you bet As
we close out, I always like to ask our guests,
you know, again we have I'm a parent two adult
children senior in high school. Not to mention a fourteen
(36:42):
and twelve year old knuckleheads in middle trying to coach
them up to be leaders in society, leaders and business
leaders in school. But what would be one or two
nuggets of wisdom that you would share with younger people
coming up? What's important for you in leadership? You know,
(37:03):
just drop drop some knowledge on them real quick.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Oh that's that's a good question. I think, you know,
we talked about it in leadership when we talked about
it fifteen minutes ago or so. But I think it
it bodes well for for kids too. I think stretch
yourself in school.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
I think that that's critical. You know, I think building
your network starts at a young age if you think
about it, Like generally, I didn't realize how important the
network was, but you know, but working on my network
fifteen years ago was probably fifteen twenty years too late.
(37:41):
You know, you have your NEMEA that in college exactly.
Just I think that that's an important aspect of it.
We talked about technology and AI. I think getting started early,
and most schools have some sort of development program around that.
So those are and give back you know to those
(38:01):
who are. We just talked about it, but really that
helps you in a lot of different ways, and certainly
helps the community too. But we're fortunate, and so you know,
recognize that and and give back at an early age,
I think is some advice i'd get.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Well, thank you for that, Rob, and thanks for coming on.
And Noel's in good hands, there's no doubt about it.
And I've learned several things today from you, And thank
you for sharing and it's just been a pleasure to
have in you. And as we close out again, this
is Rob Post Hour with newal brands on CEOs you
should know, brought to you by our Heart Media, empowered
(38:41):
by Thompson.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Thank you, Rob, Thank you for having me appreciate it.
Okay, and welcome to another episode of CEOs You Should Know,
brought to you by iHeartMedia powered by Thompson Child and
Family Focus. Today we have Rob Post Hour from newal Brands.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Rob Welcome, thank you, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Great, Well, let's just hop right into it. It's just
you know, we have a little time. We spend time
with CEOs in a market. I want to know a
little bit about them obviously, the brand and the business
that they run, and then also the community. So why
don't we start off with with Rob? What what what
brought you into leadership? Tell us a little bit of backstory.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, so a little bit about myself maybe. So I
grew up in Indiana and I'm a boiler Maker, went
to Purdue University. So, as we were talking about earlier,
that's a good thing from a basketball standpoint. Opportunities in football,
of course, and so you know, for my career, I
(00:55):
kind of traveled around, you know, with my paycheck. So
I started out in my first territory was Dallas, Texas.
I moved up to Traverse City, Michigan. If you've ever
been there, it's a beautiful area. Moved out to San Francisco.
That's where I met my wife. So I've been with
my wife for twenty seven years. I'm married for seventeen congratulations.
I guess I was on a probationary period fifteen years, right.
(01:19):
And then from from San Francisco, we moved back to Atlanta,
and I was working for Ge Appliances at the time.
Worked almost twenty years for GE, and I was responsible
for home depot, so got into home improvement. That'll come
into play maybe in a little bit. And then from
there I went back to headquarters for GE Louisville and
(01:41):
then moved to had an opportunity at Low's, so I
went to Lowe's after that, and then finally where I'm
at today, which is new all brands and running the
commercial business. So that's a quick summary of kind of
where it came from him.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, So, at what point in time during your career
pathway did you into leadership?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I think, you know, my first big leadership opportunity was
a GE and GE just you know, i'll call it
the old Ge of New GE's great as well, but
you know, with Jeff Immelt was the CEO, and their
executive development program was really one of the envies of
the world, certainly of the country, and I was had
(02:24):
an opportunity to spend some time in the executive development
program at GE and traveled around the world. We had
a program in Saudi Arabia for two months and I
did that and so you know, that was really when
I started my leadership growth opportunities at that time. And
that was I guess that was fifteen years ago probably,
(02:45):
And also that's when I started. I led the sales
and marketing team at GE Appliances too, But a great
program at GE.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, any of the influence from the Jock Waltch at
the time.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, you know the I got to go through this
Sigma process, right, Okay, so Green Bell Green. I don't
know if that's you know, certainly it was an opportunity
back then. But yeah, just just a great experience with
with CHI.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That's awesome. What was one thing you learned as a
newer leader there that again, we have a gamut of listeners,
people that aren't in leadership, people that are business leaders,
people in the community. But what's one thing you learned
early on in your leadership that maybe stuck with you
or that wasn't that great?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I think stretch yourself is what I always say. You
know your skill set gaps better than anybody else, so
don't be in a hurry to get to that next
big role. Work on your skill set gaps and that'll
broaden your opportunities long term. The other thing that we
always always talk to people about is I was almost
(03:57):
pushed into a lateral role at one point. I think
this is fifteen years ago. I'm going back, but really
thought I deserved a different role that was a promotion,
and my boss at the time thought I should take
a lateral role and I fought her at the time
and she was absolutely right. It ended up being a
really critical role for me to open up what the
(04:20):
product side. I was always in the sales and marketing side,
but not product and for my leadership and what I'm
doing now, that turned out to be a super valuable lesson.
So don't be in a hurry, work on your skill
set gaps and look at opportunities both you know, parallel
opportunities and advancements as well.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well. I love two things that you said. That at
lateral move is an interesting dynamic, right, because a lot
of times people think that that's a setback two years ago.
I had a senior leader in an organization we had
about sixty five leaders at Thompson where we talked about
sometimes you got to move sideways to have a clear
pathways up right and at the time the person really
(05:00):
struggled through that and then two years later got to
where they wanted to be. But that's that lateral mood
giving them more exposure and something different in our business
and our industry really helped move that forward. So I
love that that was an early lesson learned. And then
also just leading. Now I lead, you lead to to
(05:21):
take your time. Mastery is important, learn your craft. What
are you seeing in the workplace now, because I don't
necessarily see a lot of patients.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, it's it's interesting. I mean we always talk about
embracing change. That's not good enough. I mean, you have
to be proactive. You have to be thrive in an
environment of being uncomfortable and change. If that makes sense,
you really do, especially with you can't do an interview
without talking about AI. But seriously, on the AI front,
(05:52):
you have to embrace that. You've got to be powered
by people but supported and enhanced by AI and.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
It just makes you better. But you're right the world
is changing.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
The macroeconomic conditions this year were tough, you know, with
tariffs and other things that everybody had to navigate through,
including us. And we're my business is you know, call
it seventy percent US made, but we have some products
and some components that come from around the world, of course,
just like most companies, and just navigating through that has
(06:25):
been challenging. But yeah, to your point, it's you've got
to move fast and you've got to keep up.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, you hit on AI. Let's get back to that
in a minute. But I just realized because my wife
told me, which generally is is on point, but I
forgot how far back COVID was. So she's like, we're
actually five years in COVID, and I was like, oh
my gosh. Really seemed like yesterday sometimes. But to your point,
for me, this last five years, I've been on leadership
(06:52):
about twenty five twenty six years in our industry. This
last five years have been the most difficult in my
mind as a leader, just because of all the things
that have happened in the world. Obviously you've talked about
some of the recent things, but COVID really began a
lot of that. How have you felt there in that five.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Years same, It just reset and reshaped a lot of
different things, and you have a different perspective on how
you go about things. And you know, in our business,
we're in the business of cleaning. We'll get into that later,
but we make a variety of commercial products mop buckets
and rooms and things like that. So if you think
(07:31):
back to twenty when all that was not only essential products,
but the end users that we support and they support
our products, they were deemed essential as well. And that
was a tough time for everybody obviously, but it really
did shine a light on the janitorial profession and we
(07:52):
love that and you know, like everything, unfortunately that has
faded a little bit, but.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Not all.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It hasn't faded completely, I guess, And so we continue
to try to bring to shine a light on that
really important profession, the janitorial or custodian. And so that's
that's who we try to support every day. And we
have an annual event called behind the Scenes of Clean
and we go out and thank these folks.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Around the world.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Actually we had over two hundred events this year and
it's something simple. It's just going out and having serving
them breakfast and lunch and saying thanks, maybe raffling off
a few prizes, but it's the whole. The whole point
to it is putting down the selling deck and really
letting them know that what the work they do is
really critical.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
And important to keeping the world active.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah. Yeah, I love that you shared that that event
and highlight on on a role that some people may
may either forget about in a company or in an
organization Aaron or may think is less important. But as
you know, or at least and I believe, every every
every member of the team is critical totally. There was
a book, have you ever read? The Fred Factor by
(09:07):
A Each I have ye talked about I think that
whole dynamic around the guy that was a gender and
that really stuck with me early on after I read
that book.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Cool that you guys did that. Yeah, so let's talk
about AI. Just last Monday, I was at a leader's
gathering in Uptown Charlotte about what's happening in AI, and
it was interesting that you know, you had you know,
multiple industries tech, banking, finance, service, consulting, accounting, and then
(09:41):
obviously they decided to bring in the not for profit guy.
So I was there representing the non for profit sector,
which I told them is not a sector, it's just
a tech status. So you know, we're in the health
and human services business. But most people just don't get that.
But I'm okay with that. But you know, the reality
of it is, if you're running an organization, in my
mind large, medium, are small, AI has to be top
(10:03):
of mine, and it's been top of mine for me
for the last few years. You brought it up without
me even asking about it. So how are you seeing
AI in your workspace currently? What are the potentials that
you guys are exploring moving forward? Is it? You know,
are you worried about the risk of AI? Are you?
Are you really more bullish on the potential?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Bullish on the potential?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Really, it's you know, it's it's scary for all of
us and a little bit, but once you get in
and I encourage my team to get in and just
play around with it really just like everybody else. And
at my staff meetings as an example, every other week,
we go around the table and just talk about how
(10:45):
you used AI, just to make sure that hey, look,
we're all starting from scratch almost what'd you use it
for and what do you find helpful? So but yeah,
I think I'm excited about the opportunities that exist. So
we're using it to you know, if you think about
digital content with our products, obviously that's a huge opportunity
(11:07):
and we've been utilizing AI for a long time now.
Just the speed to market from an innovation standpoint and
what you can do quickly with with new innovation and
helping to write briefs around the innovation just speeds up
the innovation process in general.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So we're excited about that.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
If you think about customer care and customer service, you know,
there's still questions about, hey, where's my product, whether it's
a consumer, an end user or customer of ours, where's
my product? Or how do you put this mop bucket together?
Things like that you still have to be I said,
(11:47):
powered by people, enabled and supported by AI. But there's
a tremendous opportunity that we're utilizing on the customer service
side as well. So there's a variety of areas it's
actually going go goes very deep and and really what
we're trying to do is is take it step by
step so you can use it obviously individually when you're
(12:07):
at your desk. If you think about for us, it's
like competitive comparisons. Instead of going in and and and
and doing that shopping on your own, AI can do
it for you. Uh, And it's just unbelievable. So that's
that's an opportunity. And then there's functional capabilities too, So
there's individual capabilities and uh. And then there's you know,
(12:30):
for the marketing team or the product team or as
I said, customer service, there's there's function wide opportunities as well.
And then for our business new business as an example,
we have a lot of different brands that we'll talk
about later, but then there's this enterprise opportunity that we're
using as well. So anyway, there's it's it's it's pretty
(12:54):
interesting where it's going to go. So it just grows
like it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, and again in that room, and I think to
CEOs in general. I actually was blessed to work at
a software company called SaaS, the analytics software, you know,
predictive analytics. It was it was the beginning of AI,
if you will, because that's all it really is, pulling
data together, getting it clean, and then accessing it very
(13:18):
quickly to answer questions give to help with the decision
making actually use logic in different ways. But it was interesting.
We always felt like that our two biggest competitors were
fear change and fear of innovation. That's so it's funny
when I talk to CEOs now, generally what you see
a little of that happening. Obviously, some industries are more
compliance or in it, and you have to be super
(13:38):
careful with data, keeping it closed and those type of things.
But given the workforce shortages in the world that started
in twenty one because of birth rates, you know, for me,
it's if I can go into efficiency and effectiveness and
speed and get better quality, we're all in. It's interesting.
(14:00):
A lot of people are worried and fearful that their
jobs will be replaced. I just heard this morning. It's
not a replacement of your job, but it's an augmentation. Right,
And then on the flip side of it is like
anything else, if your fear of being replaced, learn how
to use AI exactly, then the future could be limitless
for you.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Right, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
We are absolutely truly embracing it exactly what you said.
It can make you more effective, It will make you
more effective if you can have an agent help you
with things, get to know you and how you think
and what your responsibility is. It's just the opportunities are
just we're just scratching the surface.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Really.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
The other area is supply chain. If you think about
all the great customers that we serve, Low's Home Depot, Walmart, etc.
Service rate and in stock rate is really critical. So
the planning process, both on the supply side and demand
side can be complicated. And so having AI support you
(14:59):
on things like that and looking at trends and buy
trends and ship trends, things like that really helps us
and makes us more efficient.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I think we as humans, I think we fear that
somebody we're going to be we're gonna be. It's going
to be a demonstrated that our gut is wrong most
of the time, truly, that's right. We have a core
belief at Thompson and God we trust all others bring data.
I think that's a demming quote somewhere down line, but right.
And it's important to have facts and logic behind your decisions,
at least as a leader. So you had mentioned Newell
(15:28):
a few times. Talk to us, tell the tell the
community about Newell. What is new? What is new? What's new?
All about? What do you do? What's important to you?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
So you know, as I said, I've I've only worked
for three companies really in my life. I worked for
Ge Appliances for a long period of time and then
had the opportunity to go to Lowe's and that's what
brought me to Charlotte. And at Low's I ran appliances
because that was my background, and then I also ran
global merchandising. What an awesome opport that was the first
(16:00):
round of tariffs.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But what Low's is.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Just a fantastic place, you know, headquartered in Mooresville right here,
and they continue to grow and thrive. And then I
had the opportunity My mentor was the CEO of the
commercial business, and so I had an opportunity to work
for him again and so it came over to to
(16:26):
run the commercial business as a part of newele So
Newal Brands. To your point, we have over fifty brands.
We're in ninety percent of American homes. We'll have a
Newal product in their home. So that's pretty cool. But
you know, we were divided up not to complicate the group,
but by segments, and we have a writing segment and
(16:47):
I'm sure you've there might see it didn't take very long.
Sharpie is the products all around, that's right. Sharpie is
the big brand for writing. Dimo Expo, which you guys
have heard of as well. Also on the learning and
development side is what we call that segment. They have
(17:07):
baby products so greatco Car Seats is very popular obviously,
and Nook brands on the baby side. And then outdoor
and recreation is part of newle Brands as well, and
under that we have brands like Coleman, Coleman, Cooler's, Marmot,
the apparel. Somebody had a Marmot jacket on in the
(17:29):
other room, Bubba Cantigo water bottles, So that's all part
of outdoor and recreation. And then in my business we
call it home and commercial segment. There's a home side,
and on the home side we have kitchen brands like
obviously Rubber Made, food storage, Oaster brands, Kalfalon food Saver,
(17:53):
and then we have Yankee Candle as well, so in
our home fragrance business. And then finally on the commercial
part of the home and commercial is my business, so
I run I lead the commercial business, and that's rubber
made commercial of rubber made commercial. You've heard of the
Brute brand, Brute trash cans. Of course I have responsibility
(18:13):
for that. We have rubber made closet products, rubber maide sheds,
things like that. And then we have Quickie brand, and
Quickie is a also a cleaning you know, you'll find
that at cleaning brand at Deepot, Lows, a true value,
a lot of d I wise, so you know Newell's.
(18:34):
You know, that's a little bit about all the brands.
Just a fantastic diverse group of brands. It's a you know,
worldwide company. So sixty five percent thereabouts of our sales
are in the US and thirty five internationally. So we
have a big amia Apac Latam business. It's very important
to us as well. So it's it's a fun company.
(18:56):
It's general merchandise. It keeps us busy. You know. One
of the things that I love about it is I've
got a lot of general merchandise, which I just talked
about those brands, and then we have you know, like
pro brands that you would find as I talked about
at Home Depot and Lows. But we have a pretty
significant B to B business too, and so and that
(19:19):
B to B is you know, if you think of
office supplies here like property management, verticals like healthcare and
education and hospitality. We've got over forty percent market share
with our rubber main commercial products with cleaning carts and
hospitality carts at some major hotels too. So it's a
(19:41):
fun business and really diverse.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Wow. As we go back to your leadership journey, what
what brought you to New Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I really think the culture is is it's a fantastic
culture first of all, and really care caring one about
one another I think is really important.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You know you as you.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Proceed in your leadership in your career journey, that becomes
more important to you, right And and how I can
best shape it in a leadership position and influence it,
I think is one of the reasons why I saw
the opportunity as a good one for me. So it's
a fantastic culture. The brands obviously, you know, when I
(20:25):
first started to think about the opportunity, I was focused
on the commercial business, so rubber made. But then as
I read more about the great brands, what a great
opportunity broadly for me as well. In other segments. So
the leadership team is fantastic as well. So culture brands
leadership team.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, well, let's hang out in a couple of those.
Let's start with brand as a growing now for profit.
So if you don't know about Thompson, we're getting ready
to sell one hundred celebrate one hundred and forty years
to turn twenty twenty six. Founded here on the Charlotte market.
When I got there eight and a half years ago,
we were basically in Charlotte. Today we're we're from the
(21:09):
mountains to the coast in both Carolinas, Tampa, Florida, Orlando,
everywhere in Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky and Bowling Green, which is
odd a one off right now growing and we historically,
which a lot of non for profit organizations, have never
really thought much about brand, brand management, brand guidelines, marketing.
(21:31):
I now believe that that's a critical part of growth.
It's embedded into our five year strategic plan. You know,
people need to know who you are, Yeah, absolutely, and
then you know not just who you are, but what
you believe in, how well you do what you do,
what's important to you. So we're investing more than we've
ever invested in. So as a leader to a leaders,
(21:52):
I'm learning this. How important is that to you?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It's critical?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Like what I always say, you're not entitled to anybody's
business next year, right, and uh, you know Brute and
Rubber Made Commercial might be a good example and Sharpe
even as well. What great brands well known high market share,
but we're not entitled to the business tomorrow kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And so you have to have that edge.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And you have to know that if you have market
share forty percent market share, fifty percent market share, that's
an opportunity for somebody else that they're working on. So
you better be equally as driven to uh to maintain
and grow that market share. So to your point on
the rubber Maid commercial side and Rubber Make Commercial for
the for the group is a billion dollar brand. It's
(22:38):
a big brand, right, And we had we had not
looked at modernizing the purpose of Robert Rubber Made Commercial
since you know it was before COVID we just talked
about and so updating that brand purpose was really important
important to us. To your point, the brand guidelines, things
just change different, you know, it's it's different. We're an
(23:00):
international or a global brand, and so you have to
take that into consideration. So our brand standards in in
you know, Europe, were different than than they were and
that worked probably fifteen years ago, but it's it doesn't
work anymore. So you have to be consistent in everything
you do from a branding standpoint. So when it's on
the shelf for at that hotel, they know that they
(23:23):
can they can count on rubber maid commercial or your brand.
So I agree with you one hundred percent. It's it's
critical and it's really important.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
I love I love that quote about not being entitled
to your business. I was at an opportunity to sit
next to a leader, senior level leader at a big,
big brand. You would know them. I want to be
respectful of the of the conversation. There was somewhere like
a rubber Maid, Yeah, people know rubber maids sure, or
Sharpie yep. You know my kids definitely know Sharpie, Like
where's my Sharpie? But you know, it's interesting and I
(23:53):
just said, people know your brand like inherently it's known.
They know what you do, they know how well you
do it, know how good it taste. In reference to
this brand, I said, you stop marketing tomorrow. What would happen.
He goes, we lose twenty percent market share, And I
was shocked because this brand is a staple, right, I
mean it's everybody knows the brand, and he goes, we
(24:16):
would lose twenty percent market share at the moment we
turned off this bigot.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
That's exactly right, and that's how.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And that was compelling. Yeah, also set with another retail CEO. Again,
I want to be respectful of the conversation. We would
know the name. The quote just came out. We stopped,
we stopped marketing, we start dying, right, And that was
just an eye opener for me. So it's it's good
to hear other leaders kind of aligned. And as I'm
(24:41):
learning and growing in this kind of concept of marketing
and branding and again in our industry, I had a
hard time telling my neighbor what I did. So you know,
that's not good. You shouldn't have a hard time telling
people what you do and where you work and what
you do and those type of things. So that's that's
cool that that's a big focus for you. You all so
mentioned I'm going to put culture in your leadership team
(25:03):
together a little bit. I know they're not well for
the sake of time. So tell me a little bit
about how you work to develop your team collectively individually.
We believe in leadership. I think John Maxwell said it.
You know, everything begins and ends with leadership. That's kind
of the first thing on our flywheel in our organization.
(25:25):
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah? I think for me, like.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
You know, some of the some of the things that
I'll mention are you know, basic leadership principles I think,
but super important and maybe undervalue these days. But listening,
you know, is uh, you know, the great great part
about my role is is of course I lead the business,
(25:51):
so I can. I've earned the right to make the decision.
But man, I've learned that my decisions are much better
surrounded by others thoughts and what they think we should do.
So listening and being a part of the decision and
make sure your your direct staff and your team are
part of that, I think is it goes back to culture, right,
It builds a culture and in the end, those decisions
(26:13):
are better than individually made. I think going deep, you know,
the the business is just more competitive.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Now you talk.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
We talked a lot about the brand and and what
happens if we start stop marketing. But if you think
of for us private label and just things like that
that are continue to grow. I think you just have
to go deep with all your team members to make
sure you understand their obstacles so you're supporting them in
(26:43):
the right way and then opportunities as well. And then
just being broad or an enterprise thinker for what's good
for the company and not only my individual situation, but
looking for those those individual those individuals, and we call
it accelerated talent to make sure that they're broad thinkers,
(27:08):
strategic thinkers of course, but certainly enterprise thinking like if
I do this, what does that impact? And connecting those
dots I think is really important. But you know, just
going back to caring of and supporting one another. You
know people talk about that, but really taking slowing down
and taking the time to walk around the office or
whatever it is, whatever your style is, I think goes
(27:30):
a long way for the team, and it's important to
be genuine in that.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Last thing I would say.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Is what I learned at GE early in my leadership
is over communicating is helpful, and so I send out
a little communication. I call it a post it note
because my last my nickname is post and everybody has
their version of this, or a lot of folks do.
(27:56):
But I'm as transparent, both good and bad, as as.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I can be.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
And you know, people come up in the hallway and
send me emails saying that they really appreciate that, and
so I think that's really critical. If things are going good, bad, indifferent,
let's talk about it. Let's get the skunk on the
table and tackle it together.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Bad news never gets better with time, right, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
But that's transparency, and that frequent communication is has proven
to be really helpful.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Oh man, I'm taking so much away. Let's get the
skunk on the table. That'll be something I'll repeat for
the next twelve months. My team was going to blame
you for it, that's right. I love the over communication.
And you know, I've had a mentor and a coach
tell me once the CEO is actually the cr the
chief repeating officer many times, and as frustrating as that gets,
(28:47):
that's just part of the job.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yeah, And I think you know you have to delegate
in your role as a key president's CEO.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
There's no question about that.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
And you want to trust your team members but I
try to show up in if if you know, if
I don't understand what's going on in a demand planning meeting,
I don't have to go to those meetings, but I
want to dig in and try to figure out, you know,
if I can help. So that's what I mean by
going deep is is you know, being proactive about some
(29:18):
of those areas that it means a lot to the
to the team as well.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
So yeah, that's awesome. You can delegate and be there listening,
being of assistance without doing the work of those leaders.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah. Yeah, I always say turned fifty three years ago,
most of what I learned about my leadership was wrong,
because I don't know if it's in our industry and
just other industries. We just learned that leading is doing
the job of those that you lead. That's just what really,
not what leading is. That's right, And to your point,
you have to delegate, you have to listen, you have
to help them solve their own problems, not be the
(29:53):
answer to all the questions and those type of things.
That's exactly right. It's definitely a challenge and a hard
thing if you're used to do doing doing much of
your career, right, and then you get into leadership. Well,
let's pivot a little bit kind of the third segment
of what we talk about is I just heard this
on a podcast. Coming in a family owned company, they
(30:13):
created this compass and in the compass they had four
key indicators and as you can imagine, it's you know, brand,
P and L growth and then the last one is
impact to the world. You know, as an impact organization
like Thompson, I wouldn't be doing my job to ask
corporate leaders about what are they doing to make this
(30:36):
world a better place? So does Newall do anything? Do
you guys have a corporate social responsibility arm or any
kind of a commitment to local community of the world
or anything like that. I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
So yes, and here in Charlotte what we do. So
we've been here, I guess we have about three hundred
employees up in Huntersville and that's growing, which is great.
And so we have an engagement team and every year,
a couple times a year we try to support local
(31:12):
nonprofit charity organizations. This year we take a whole day
of course to go out and support the community. Just
as an example, this year, we went to the Diaper
Bank of Charlotte. What a great organization that is. And
we spend all day packing diapers. And it's unbelievable when
you slow down because we're all busy and you do
(31:35):
something like that within the thirty minutes. First thirty minutes,
I was like, goodness, gracious, I need to do this
more often.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Actually feels good.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
It does, it does, so, yes, it brings the team together,
but it's it's not only the right thing to do,
but we should take the time to do it right.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
You have to you have to do that.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
So one out of every two new families has trouble
buying new diapers. Buying diapers, it's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So we do that.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
We support Bread, the local food bank, Angels and Sparrows
as well, and then Newell. We have a grant process
and here locally, the employees. We have the same thing
in Huntersville and all of our look are in Atlanta,
but in Huntersville the employees vote on the local nonprofit
(32:24):
charity organization. And this year's recipient for us was Bread, and.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
We do that every year.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
And then also, you know, like for my business, we're
in the business of cleaning. So if you think about
disaster relief, hurricane disasters, fires, those kind of things, we donate.
Helene was the you know, the most recent unfortunate example
of that. But we obviously we work with Home Depot
and Lows and others to try to help, and they
(32:53):
have incredible teams that go out and do that work
and use our products. But we also donate products and
products like again trash cans, mop buckets, squeegees, brooms, those
microfiber just to clean up since we're in the business
of cleaning up. So that's how we we support. And
(33:14):
then there's a you know, there's a big on the
product side. Sustainability is really important. And I tell you,
like the tip of the spear for us is is
our global business and really in a mea so and
I've got a great team in Europe and and boy,
the need for sustainable products is critical and so that
(33:37):
helps us here in the United States kind of be
in the forefront.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Well, that's awesome, awesome to hear both locally and global,
you know, helping out in local community and then also
helping out I think when you talk about sustainability in
the greater world of what the world will look like.
I think that's super critical. Are you finding where kind
of that being part of your culture, whether it be
whether be part of your values. How does that help
(34:02):
with employee retention, recruitment, any of that?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I think I think everybody. I think it helps tremendously,
quite frankly. And how true you are you are to
your values and how true the culture is to the values.
That's why you know, I mentioned it ten minutes ago.
That's why I'm here because the leadership team is really
true to these values and they provide an opportunity for
(34:27):
me to influence those important decisions too. But yeah, to
your point, whether it's you know, a new employee, experienced
or fresh out of college, that's generally a question and
we're pointed in the right direction. So I think it's
really critical.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
That's awesome and thank you for doing that. And as
an organization that impacts community and communities, it only motivates
me to hear other business leaders saying, hey, we care
about community in different way, shapes and form. It doesn't
have to be for Thompson. We'll talk about that at
another time.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Maybe exactly knows we should.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, just kidding, but you know, it's important. It's motivating
for me when I see and interact with business leaders
that say, hey, this is part of what we do.
It's a little bit more. It's a it's a double
bottom line for us in a lot of ways. And again,
it doesn't have to be with our organization. It's motivating
just to hear that organization because there's a lot of
(35:20):
problems in our world. There's a lot of problems in
our community. There's a lot of problems in every community,
and you know, no, not one organization can solve them all.
So I'm happy to hear about bread and obviously the
diaper bank. And you know, we obviously have a lot
of challenges here locally, which is you know, sad to me.
And you know, once you start about internationally, it's a
(35:40):
different gamut. You know, I was sharing pre taping that
my wife was from Columbia, and you know, the first
time you go down to South America, Central America, you
realize how blessed we are, you know, but not everybody
is blessed. So we got to keep on working together.
I think businesses have a big, big role to play
in that, but they're also in business. You know, it's
(36:00):
okay too. You know, I'm not here to guilt businesses.
We do a lot of B to B work, I
promise you. We got several thousands of dollars of your
product land on our campuses and our buildings with our
cleaning crews and the like. So I think it's important
that businesses are growing, sustaining and doing everything that they
can to run good business. And then if they're running
(36:22):
a good business, then they can then they could do
more for community. When the business isn't functioning well, it's
really hard to do that's right and help. So I
appreciate that what you're doing there, Rob you bet As
we close out, I always like to ask our guests,
you know, again we have I'm a parent two adult
children senior in high school. Not to mention a fourteen
(36:42):
and twelve year old knuckleheads in middle trying to coach
them up to be leaders in society, leaders and business
leaders in school. But what would be one or two
nuggets of wisdom that you would share with younger people
coming up? What's important for you in leadership? You know,
(37:03):
just drop drop some knowledge on them real quick.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Oh that's that's a good question. I think, you know,
we talked about it in leadership when we talked about
it fifteen minutes ago or so. But I think it
it bodes well for for kids too. I think stretch
yourself in school.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
I think that that's critical. You know, I think building
your network starts at a young age if you think
about it, Like generally, I didn't realize how important the
network was, but you know, but working on my network
fifteen years ago was probably fifteen twenty years too late.
(37:41):
You know, you have your NEMEA that in college exactly.
Just I think that that's an important aspect of it.
We talked about technology and AI. I think getting started early,
and most schools have some sort of development program around that.
So those are and give back you know to those
(38:01):
who are. We just talked about it, but really that
helps you in a lot of different ways, and certainly
helps the community too. But we're fortunate, and so you know,
recognize that and and give back at an early age,
I think is some advice i'd get.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Well, thank you for that, Rob, and thanks for coming on.
And Noel's in good hands, there's no doubt about it.
And I've learned several things today from you, And thank
you for sharing and it's just been a pleasure to
have in you. And as we close out again, this
is Rob Post Hour with newal brands on CEOs you
should know, brought to you by our Heart Media, empowered
(38:41):
by Thompson.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Thank you, Rob, Thank you for having me appreciate it.
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