CEOs You Should Know- Strategic Factory

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
iHeart Media Presents CEOs you should know. Hi'm John Dinkel, former president publisher
of the Baltimore Business Journal and nowfounder and CEO of Dinkel Business Development.
This is I Hire Radio's CEOs youshould know, and I'm here today with
Keith Miller, CEO at Strategic Factory. Welcome Keith, and thanks for being
here. Appreciate it. Thank youso much for having me. Looking forward

(00:23):
to our conversation. So let's let'sbegin by talking a little bit about the
organization and I want to learn alittle bit more about you as well.
So for those who may not befamiliar, could you tell us more about
Strategic Factory. Sure. Strategic Factoryis a single pointing providers for all things
printing, signage, promotional products,branded apparel, and then all things marketing

(00:45):
and branding. We work out ofapproximately one hundred thousand square feats, which
is divided across three facilities in Owen'sMove of Maryland, and we employee about
one hundred and fifty rock Star teammembers. Awesome, and what's your mission?
Our mission is truly to create ravingfans and build lasting relationships. We
firmly believe it's all about the peopleand we try and hire the best,

(01:07):
to retain the best so that wecan give our customers the best experience.
Awesome, And let's go a littlebit more about your services. I know
you've you've been continuing to grow theorganization for many years now and doing a
lot of different things. So talkabout some of the different I guess divisions
and specifically some of the services you'reproviding for your clients. Sure, I

(01:29):
mean, originally I moved here fromSouth Africa board a franchise. We just
did prints, quick print to bespecific. Very early on, we've made
the decision to diversify our product offeringto make sure that we could cater do
more than chest print. Today wedo, obviously the printed products we did
in the past, a lot ofcommercial print, direct mail, We do
a lot of signage, architectural signage, wide format, large format signage,

(01:53):
different promotional products, branded apparel,creative design, brand strategy, marketing campaigns,
pretty much anything you could think ofthat a customer may be trying to
broadcast a message or get their brandout into the public. Gotcha, well,
what are what would you say?Or if you have any most kind
of popular services, what do peoplereally kind of come to you at first

(02:15):
for and then you kind of maybecan branch out and talk to them about,
you know, more of their marketingstrategy and branding. So what are
kind of the most popular services?I mean, we get requests for everything
that feels like at the moment,our biggest request is signage just seems to
be a major need. Lots ofdevelopment, lots of new businesses opening,
lots of people branding the spaces,bring employees back into the office not wanting

(02:38):
to just playing painted walls. Yeah, so i'd probably go with that structural
snage, the indoor snage, alot of directional snages on campuses. Yeah,
I'd say that's probably the most popularproduct at the moment. Okay,
awesome, man, are you guysplaying on launching anything new or any news

(02:59):
services the next few months or nextyear? Yes, I mean, I
definitely think so. We've actually justbuilt out a sagnage division. We've moved
we consolidated all of a Sannage intoone roof here knowing's mills. So yeah,
there's lots of new product offerings withthat's more smart signage where you could

(03:19):
change the colors of signs, youcould do things like that and then packaging
has become a pretty big sector forus, so I see us doing more
of both of those. Awesome.And what would you say is your your
differentiator out there? I mean,why why do clients choose be a strategic
factory over a competitor or let's saydefinitely our brits of offerings as a single

(03:43):
point provider. We have a lotof expertise in each of those offerings,
and then we offer an exceptional customerservice experience. Great. And did the
pandemic have any you know effect onyou know, the way people were using
you guys? I mean obviously alot of people you know, went to
a hybrid environment or even just totallyworked from home at the beginning. Did

(04:06):
that have like an impact on certainsectors or the business, either positively or
negatively? I mean, I wouldsay initially it had a very negative impact.
We went from probably one hundred andfifty people down to thirty something almost
overnight, and we built back fromthere. A lot of our products and
services with servicing education, nobody wason campuses, a lot of it was

(04:29):
events. Nobody was going to events, so you know, I think everything
really dried up pretty quickly. Whatwe have seen since then is the world's
reopened. Lots of our customers,staff and clients are all working from home,
or that's changing more recently, buta lot of it is working from
home. So we did a lotof packaged promotional product bundles. So I

(04:51):
can think about a new hire kit, or a customer and or an employee
appreciation kit. Lots of those typeof kidding or brand on it that got
shipped to somebody's home, welcoming themto the team or welcoming them as a
new customer of a company. That'scool. That's a great idea. Talk
about your green initiatives. We've alwaysbeen a pretty green company. You know.

(05:15):
People when I first started was likeprint, oh, you kill trees,
You're not good for the environment.The reality is all the paper that
we use comes from sustainable forests.They replan it all the time. So
we take our commitment to sustainability verycuriously. We're constantly looking for new ways
to improve the environment and our environmentalfootprints as well. We use way less

(05:39):
waste than we ever did before.We recycle more. We use products that
can be recycled and are recycled products. We use soy based thinks we use
sola energy and we give back tothe planet by planning a tree for every
job we produce. That's fantastic.Appreciate you sharing that and the strategical factors
always been known as or kind ofyou as a philanthropic company. Could you

(06:03):
kind of talked about your strategy behindthat. I mean, see your name
at a lot of a lot ofnonprofits and you know, nonprofit golf outings,
things like that. You guys seemto be very in tune with the
you know, the philanthropic community becausehe could you talk about that a little
bit, I'm sure. I mean, lots of our clients in a nonprofit

(06:25):
states or all different types and nonprofitsas well, So wherever we can,
we want to support their programs,they fund raises, they gathers, their
events, do our part to giveback to the community that we serve.
So I think that's a major partof our strategy. Yeah, that's great.
Are there any particular industries that yousee are kind of on the rise?

(06:46):
I mean, I like what youhad to say about you know,
things are definitely opening up and I'veI've seen that as well over the past
even year that you know, networkingevents were really starting to open up,
and people are getting back out tothe street and doing breakfast and lunch meetings
and all that, even business travelersup. So are there any particular segments
or industry industries that you see inparticular growth. Then I don't think that

(07:12):
there's any one industry per se thatis really taking off for us. We're
seeing them all open up. Wehave a very diverse customer base. Yeah.
I've watched a couple of recessions thathave hit very definitive segments, and
I've had friends that have been inthose segments and really got beat. So
we've done our fair share of makingsure that we have a very diverse customer

(07:34):
base and product offering to protect ourselvesfrom any downturn. Yeah, I don't.
I mean, I see I seea lot of stuff reopening, a
lot of people doing rehiring, andfinally there are actually people available to rehire.
So yeah, I want to getit to that a little bit,
and you know, kind of maybeto switch the subject a little bit.

(07:55):
I love talking about leadership on theshow, but at first I'd like to
understand and you know, how wouldyou describe your leadership style. I would
definitely describe myself as what they calleda servants leader. I think it's all
about the people and one of themain geparts of my role is is to
ensure that the people that we havein the right seat, but more importantly,

(08:18):
they're the right people on the team. Yeah. Yeah, and I
love that the idea of around theservant leadership. And I have to say,
when I was, you know,leading the team at the BBJ,
I didn't really realize that at thetime, but that's exactly what I was
doing. You know. My myrole, I felt, was to walk
in that office every day, breakdown any barriers, do any mentoring coaching,

(08:43):
you know, provide the resources andyou know, kind of positive energy.
I guess you could say they're tolet people do their jobs the way
they would want to do them andas long as they got the job done
kind of thing. So I'm alwaysreally a big proponent of servant leaders up
and you know, I think Ithink some of the most successful CEOs you

(09:03):
know have that style. Yeah,I mean, I think that it's just
who I am Innately. I wantto make sure that people are taken care
of and we do whatever we canto support them. It's definitely a two
eight streets, and we need themto be boarding and do what we need
from them as well to make surethat the company is successful and our customers

(09:24):
are happy. Yeah, none ofit were exactly. Yeah. I remember
reading a book and I forget whatthe name of it was, but that
was the whole premise of the bookwas you know, it was about customer
service, but really the premise wasmaking sure that you knew and understood your
employees really well, and they werein the right roles and they were being
challenged and engaged. And because happyemployees and engaged employees met they were training

(09:50):
to the customers exceptionally well, becausethey just really loved what they're doing.
They were in the right fit.No matter what part of the organization was,
it all boiled down to, youknow, the customer experience. What
sounds like that's that sounds like theculture that you guys have created over there.
Yeah, I mean that's one hundredpercent what we're looking to make sure
that we continue to deliver on.Yeah, with the general threat of the

(10:13):
pandemic behind us, what would yousay, you know, looking back,
what would you say you've learned aboutmanaging or leading you know, your team
through that time. You know,from my history, change has always been
inevitable. I moved from South Africato America, different change, changed industries,
So change has always been something I'vebeen comfortable with. However, with

(10:37):
the pandemic, I feel like itreally affected everybody. So all of our
lives changed almost overnight, and itjust constantly reminded me that change is going
to happen no matter wats and weneed to embrace that change and have to
figure out a way to navigate throughit. I'm a firm believer there's always
a way. If you have theworld to figure it out, you can
figure it out. Yeah, anddid that change or that time, did

(11:01):
that change your culture? And howdo you how do you kind of maintain
that positive culture? Their strategic factor. So, I mean, it's definitely
changed our culture because we had whatI thought was a relatively good culture leading
into the the pandemic, and thenwe were I don't know cut by it.
I don't know. Two thirds ofour staff left during that. Some

(11:24):
of them came back, some ofthem didn't. We pretty early into that
process decided to embrace rebuilding the companyand making sure that we truly right people
the organization by putting the right peoplein the right seat. Yeah, and
we've worked really hard in this,Like I'm about a cuss now, So
I hope that that's okay on theair, But no sholes allowed. And

(11:48):
you know, we have it onour VPO, which is our Vision Traction
Organizer, and it's published that we'rejust not prepared to put up with people
that don't fit the culture. Yeah, and they're going to make life miserable
for other people on board. We'relooking for honest people that are going to
put in a concerted effort to advancethe company forward and in turn advance everyone
else in the company forward, becausewithout growth, nothing else happened. Yeah.

(12:11):
Now, completely agree with that.And you had mentioned earlier about the
kind of a little bit on thestaffing side and from a labor perspective,
like you know, when when youwent through that rehiring and getting back the
staff levels, how was that,how was it hiring? Were people ready

(12:31):
to come back? Are you know, how is the how do you feel
the labor forces? Now? Iget this talk about this a lot because
it's still I think people are stillkind of struggling with finding the right talent
and and and people wanting to goback to work and be in the office,
not just hybrid. Yeah, giveus a little bit of your experience
around that, because you've gone throughsome really interesting times over the past three

(12:54):
four years, and I'm sure ouraudience would love to hear your insight there.
I think the hardest partners that wehad a ton of people that had
a lot of institutional knowledge that didnot come back off the COVID for one
reason or another, so we hadto rebuild. We've embraced something called EOS,
which is the Entrepreneurial Operating System,where we're starting to document more and

(13:16):
drive more process so it's not asdifficult for us to onboard new people.
We've made a concerted effort to makesure that the people that were onboarding truly
fit our culture before we bring themin and before we hire them. But
in the middle of COVID it wastough. I mean, you know,
we're a manufacturer. We need peopleon site, we need people doing stuff.
They can't take their presses home ortheir welders home and build a sign

(13:39):
and then bring it back and getit painted. It just didn't happen like
that. So it's been a struggleto find the quality of people that were
demanding that can also do the job. We have a very diligent way of
vetting out our candidates. They fitour core vat use or they don't.

(14:01):
Our core values are really broken intothree pillars, which are can do It
is a competence or an effectiveness toexecute flawlessly. That is something that's negotiable
because most people can do most ofthe job, but it's on us to
train them to do a little bitmore or do it the way we want
it done. Let's say that's negotiable. But the other two pillars are will

(14:24):
do, which is an ownership ora willingness or a want to be dependable,
reliable, consistent. That's not negotiable. I can't drive that into somebody.
They're either going to take ownership orthey're not. And then that final
pillar is a happy to We wantpeople that are team players, lead by
example, have positive attitudes, andtruly no assholes or terrorists are out in

(14:50):
the organization. So you know,we're really driving pretty hard to make sure
that the people that we on boardfit those three cultural values before we really
say yes to onboarding them. SoI think that's made a major change and
there are more of those candidates available. I would say over the last ninety
days, maybe a little more.We've really managed to find a lot more

(15:13):
of those type of candidates than wecould over the prior three years. Yeah,
that's that's good to hear. Ihope that that trend continues and and
and overflows into the other industries,because you know, you know, the
past few months you have been talkingto other CEOs like yourself, and a

(15:33):
lot of them are still kind ofstruggling, you know, with with finding
finding good people. But but Iappreciate sharing all that. That's great,
great stuff. So so what getsyou excited about the future of Strategic Factory.
I think the people. I mean, we all really enjoy the people
that we work with. I dothese new higher lunches. Every new hire

(15:56):
is in the room once a monthfor the first ninety days, so I
get to meet to them three timesover this lunch and just watching the new
faces and the people and the smilesand having an exceptional culture, I think,
and everyone really comments about how happythey ought to be in the organization
and how nice everyone else is tothem. I think that speaks to the

(16:17):
fact that we've driven this cultural valuethrough the organization. But I think it's
the people that get me excited.And then understanding that all of our constraints
are truly internal constraints. There isenough business outside of our internal constraints.
We've just got to figure out howto capture that business, how to execute
on it. So I think tostore a lot of opportunity for us to

(16:40):
continue to grow, and it's onus to figure out how to navigate that
growth. Yeah, and that's whatgets me excited. I enjoy the growth.
Yeah, Yeah, that's that's funstuff. And actually you said reminding
me of something too, how you'reyou're you're touching you know, these new
and meeting talking to your new employeesat least you know, three times throughout
that they're kind of their first monthof employment, which I think is I

(17:03):
think it's huge, And there's there'sno matter what size your organization, whether
it's you know, twenty people,one hundred and fifty or fifteen hundred,
I mean, the closer you know, the CEO can get to, you
know, meeting everybody individually and learninga little bit about them the best.
I remember one mentor of mine thatI worked for a long time ago,

(17:25):
worked in a large company, twohundred and fifty employees, and every time
he can't. I worked in asatellite office, and he knew all of
my reps names, all, youknow, everybody's name, and we hadn't
probably seen him for three six months. He just he made it, he
made it sure that he understood andknew everybody's name that it just made such

(17:45):
an impact on probably everybody there,but especially me. So I love to
hear that you're doing something similar andreally getting try to know employees and you
know, because I think that themore you can, the more you can
know them, the better. Imean, that's I mean, I think
that there's a lot of informal touchpoints that happen time that we've really tried

(18:06):
to be very deliberate about saying,let's have some formality to it. Yeah,
make sure that there is a genderand topics and that the conversations are
very pointed to the entire audience.Yeah, which I think is making a
difference. Yeah, I agree.So what what keeps you up at night?
Not much? I actually sleep prettywell. You know. I feel

(18:32):
like I used to worry about everything, worry about nature, and I just
you know, you can control whatyou can control, and you can't what
you can't, and you need yoursleep. You need your rest to be
able to fight another day the nextday. I think what keeps me up
at night is just I want morefor a lot of the people that I

(18:52):
run into than they want for themselves. Yea. And striving to find the
right seats or the right combination keepsmy mind busy. I wouldn't say it
keeps me up at night, butyeah, I'm busy in trying to figure
that out. That's good. Ilove that. I appreciate sharing that.
Well, wrap things up, youknow. Is there anything else you'd like
our listeners to know about you andStrategic Factory. Yeah, I think,

(19:15):
firstly, thank you for having meon the show. Truly appreciate it.
I love the opportunity to tell allyour listeners all about Strategic Factory. I
think we're a great private company inOwings Mills, Maryland that more people should
get to know. If I couldthrow out a shameless plug, you know,
with the opportunity to work with everybodyfor different the direct mail, their

(19:38):
signage, promotional products, branded apparel, or marketing needs, whatever those business
challenges that they have that they're tryingto solve. Would love to be in
that conversation. Absolutely, And what'sthe best way for our listeners to find
out more information about Strategic Factory.I mean, I think the easiest place
to learn more is probably our website, which is simply Strategic Factory dot com

(20:00):
and it's contact information there and peoplecan reach out to me directly if that's
something that they feel they need andI can help point them in the right
direction. Thank you so much.I really appreciate it having the opportunity to
talk to they learned a little bitmore. Obviously, I've no Strategic Factory
and the great excellent work that youguys have been doing for a long time
and your philanthropic efforts out in thebusiness community and the nonprofit community. So

(20:22):
I appreciate that, and I'm gladto catch up with you and appreciate you
taking the time out. Keith,I appreciate it. Thank you John as
always enjoying my interactions with you,and I appreciate the opportunity to be on
the air. This has been iHeartMedia'sCEOs. You should know