Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
Good afternoon.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast, and today we are talking about the MITER acronym, M I T E R. And I'm very excited about having Matt DeSoto on the phone.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: So welcome back to the podcast, Matt.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Hey, thanks, Jerry. It's good to spend some time with you today.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Yeah. Sorry you're not in Florida. It's 83 and sunny. But, you know, you'll be back.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: I will. It is, I think, 53 and sunny in Pennsylvania, which we will take for March as compared to what we saw a couple months ago.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: Right, exactly. So MITRE M I T E R. Can you talk just briefly about the history of the acronym and why it exists and maybe what it means?
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Sure, I'd love to. This one's pretty near and dear to me and all the leadership team, and I hope more broadly the entire MITRE team. Mitre, really first, I guess, got legs, the concept of having a parent brand or a team brand. That concept came about in 2021. So Mi had acquired no Guard in 2019 and then went on to acquire Sunrise in 2020. And in early 2021, I remember sitting through a leadership discussion and can't remember if we were at a plant or just out in the field elsewhere. And there was still a lot of we, they, us, them, or how Sunrise does it versus how MI does it, or how, you know, how we at Milgar do it versus you at MI do it. You're probably following where I'm going with it. And I walked out of that session just thinking, gosh, how long does it take us as a team to where we're all saying what we're doing together? And I found myself in that session, in many sessions leading up to that and still today, helping us as a team adjust our vocabulary to we are doing this together instead of us, them, you, you know, etc.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: So then that led to a discussion with our marketing leader and we went out and met with a group that we've done a lot of work together with called Interrupt. And I had shared that I really think we need a team member brand and that MI has a really good recognition in the eastern part of the country, no Guard, really good recognition in the western part of the country. And Sunrise, certainly a nice brand recognition in the eastern repair and remodel dealer market. But we were at the time still referring to ourselves as ourselves as compared to working as a team collaboratively with the way that we talked as a group. So that was the beginning of saying, what are we going to come up with for a team brand? So during that discussion, the kickoff discussion with Interrupt and Tony, our marketing leader, I said, there's a couple things that are important to me. Everything else I'll let up to the experts. One is I wanted to have am I being the team member name. So those two letters, I wanted to be a part of the team member brand that we had. And whatever we came up with, I wanted it to mean something. So connection with the culture and a connection with how our team would feel, how our customers would feel, how our suppliers would feel, and how the community would feel as a result of doing business or partnering with any one of our brands. So in spring of 22, about a year later, we first launched this at our national CX meeting. We were in Dallas and that is the first group that saw that. I think it was in March of 22 and really excited that that was the beginning of us then having an official team member brand and allowing us a lot of opportunity to introduce different product brands along the way. We had already had a few. Clearly now we have more with combination of PGTI and Mitre. And what I had hoped and what I think as a team, we had hoped it would do and that is create a common ground that regardless of the products that we make or sell, that we are all on Team Mitre now.
[00:04:22] Speaker C: I love that. And so the M, and this was what really impressed us when we first became acquired was the M is for manufacturing, which is our first and foremost objective. And then the I is inspiration. But we're changing that and that's what we're going to talk about. T is for trust, E is for experiences, and R is for relationships. Right. Did I get them all?
[00:04:50] Speaker A: You got them all.
A plus.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: Okay, good. I was like, wait, I should have this written down. Oh, wait, I already know this. I've got it. So we are going to be announcing. This is actually part of the announcement in coordination with the United Nations World Creativity and Innovation Day, we are actually changing the I from. From inspiration to innovation. So obviously there's a nice timeline around Manufacturing Innovation Day and we were PGT Innovations. So is that what inspired the change, do you think?
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Well, I will comment first to the acronym as a whole and then if you're all right, I'll start there and I'll move into why we are changing the eye from inspiration to innovation. Sure. So I think everything has to have a meaning, like, what's the purpose? What are we trying to drive towards? And when we talk with our team, customer, supplier, community, how is it affecting them? As I said earlier, and so manufacturing, you said it like, okay, we are a window and door manufacturer, so if we want all those people who we work with to be really proud of their partnership with Mitre, we darn well ought to not only design really great products, but also follow through on making them at the promised quality that we presented when we earned the opportunity and then of course, delivering them on time and in full. So manufacturing is, I think, quite obvious as to why we chose that for the M. Then on inspiration. Up until this change, inspiration was really derived from the fact that it's our view that you've got to be inspirational if you want people to continually be excited about working with you. And so it wasn't as much around like trying to inspire creative projects. I'm sure our marketing team would have maybe rather me spend a little bit more energy talking about the inspiration we can bring to creative project design. With homes. It was all around leadership and what we were doing to inspire those that we work with, Team, customer, supplier, community, then we move on to trust and the T. And you know, I think that if you want to build anything special, whether it's a one to one relationship or the ability to work with a larger organization, you've got to have trust. People are going to be loyal to others if they trust them. They'll be passionate about the cause if they trust them. And trust cannot be built in a moment, in time. That's not how trust works. It's got to be built time and again and over a long period of time. And all of us as Mitre team members, we have the ability to influence how people feel about our brands and about our team based upon the things that we do and following through and what we say we're going to do and just building trust through our actions and our sincere care. So essential experiences that really was focused on every one of us having the opportunity to keep the experience neutral. So what you got yesterday is what you'll get today. Improve upon the experience. So elevate the experience. So the little up every day concept. And so what you get today is going to be better than yesterday because we learned something new and we learned how to improve or unfortunately in some cases we go backwards. We for some reason allowed ourselves to lessen the intensity and deliver an experience which was lesser than what we did yesterday. Clearly we're going for either one of the first two, optimally, the second option that I presented and hopefully minimizing the number of times that we present the third option. And it's not just in the product. It's how every one of us interacts with our team, our customer, our supplier and community. Whether it be on the phone, whether it be in person, whether it's the line that we make a product on, whether it's in the break room that we have our lunch in, whether it's a dinner that we take a customer out to or a team member out to to acknowledge unique effort. It could be at a meeting, it could be a trip that we auction off at the foundation. You're getting the point. Like, everything is an experience, right? And we always have to be focused on delivering an experience which is better each and every day. And second to none would put up against any one of our competitors, regardless of the activity. So a lot of intensity around experience. And then R is relationships. And I think in trust work pretty closely with one another. And that is against my belief and I think on behalf of the entire team, I do feel that as a team, this is our belief that when we have really strong relationships with people, when we trust each other, when we understand what each other expect, when we know what we need to grow professionally but also know what matters to us personally, that we can advance quicker than anyone else when working together. Because the relationship is in a place where there's no second guessing and there's sincere care for the person, not just trying to act like you're interested. Again, people read through that really quickly. You got to sincerely care about the person. And when you do, you see things and you hear things that others don't because you care about their outcome.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:10:37] Speaker C: Exactly. I love that. Well, thank you for walking through a little bit more depth of what each one really represents. You can tell there was a lot of thought put into that and I didn't know the organization prior to that. So for me, I'm like, well, yeah, that's what it is. So it was exciting to have that memorized finally, like, oh, I got it. M I T E R. And so now the I is changing to innovation. So what does that mean for Miter Brands now?
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Well, let me first comment that I had no clue that we were going to officially announce this on More Creativity and Innovation Day. This is another example where the team is, as usual, much further ahead of me in the way that they're thinking on behalf of the business. But where it came from is, you know, I think early on when Mitre was studying PGT innovations, one thing that became very clear to us is there was a core competency around innovation. And this wasn't just something that happened in the last couple of years. This is something, you know, that goes back the founding days of PGT and certainly got, you know, some pretty significant acceleration in the 90s and early 2000s as Rod was leading the team in really developing the impact window and door market. And of course it evolved, has continued to evolve in many ways since those early on days. And so what we felt again outside looking in at the time was that one of the biggest synergies, opportunities to grow together was going to be bringing innovation into the rest of the business.
So, you know, mi, we sort of looked at it this way. The MI brand had long been known for pretty solid manufacturer, like really learning how to make a lot of windows and doors down a particular line or in one plant and doing it pretty consistently over time. The Milgard brand, albeit, was very good at making product really the best. Again, at least this was the view at the time we were looking at that business. The best attributes that business had beyond the team was its marketing. So really solid brand and did a great job at creating consumer pull through for its dealers. So just an exceptional strategy at building a consumer brand for a product type that generally was not known to have a consumer brand.
[00:13:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: And then when we looked at pgt, we said, well, geez, yes, again a great team, clearly knows how to make products, has done a pretty good job at building multiple brands. But by far the biggest strength beyond the team was innovating products and bringing them to market. And I guess we felt it was like the trifecta, if you will.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Right. The Innovations Lab helps a lot with that, the Ilab.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: And we were really impressed by that the first time we saw it. And leaders like Dean and Kevin and the teams that they lead, they're just really impressive and it's been remarkable to watch. And of course now that we've come together a year ago, it's hard to believe that a year has gone by that quick. I know we've seen a lot of examples where innovation is living, growing and expanding every day. Our PGT brands. And we're already seeing early signs of having that core competency being brought into The MI and Milgard brand as well.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah, it's exciting to have more people and more opportunity and a bigger impact in the industry. For sure, it is.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: And I think this is one of the biggest benefits we get as team members as we serve our customer and our supplier in the community is as we grow and we pick up really thoughtful, caring people that are exceptionally good at different disciplines and we bring them together towards one vision and common purpose, we have the ability to continue to differentiate and provide more value to those we work with and continue to increase the barrier to entry.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: Yeah, we definitely want to do that. What innovations are you most excited about that you can talk about whether that's a specific product or a specific process or a specific market. Is there anything that comes to mind around an innovative idea or product?
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great. I'm going to have to be mindful of time as I answer this because it is like all over the place. And that's what I love about the concept and the transition from inspiration to innovation. I think we all have to continue to remember that being inspirational people is just a sort of like having a ticket to the game.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: But if we want to win, we've got to constantly be innovating whatever it is we're doing. So from the team member perspective, I think innovation, it really is about thinking bigger, challenging our mind and everybody that we work with to think bigger and innovate whatever it is that we're choosing to do and what we are responsible for doing. So, like put it into a manufacturing line. It's getting our team members involved at every level of the organization and presenting ideas on how we can do what we do more efficiently and provide a higher quality or higher pace, more consistent delivery. But the innovations that come into the equipment, recognizing the things we do, you know, within equipment, largely large, majority of the time they come from a team member saying, have you ever thought about. And then that gets the wheels turning. Well, it's the same in the field for our sales team. When our sales team members are out working with customers in the field, we've got to be looking for the points that cause pain. What is it that they need help with so they can be more efficient out with their customer. So helping to build the home quicker, install the window more efficiently, and have it be a product that doesn't have callbacks at all. We've done a pretty good job minimizing them, but we've got to get to the point where there's none at all.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Looking for consumer trends inside model Homes and understanding what it is on the new home side that builders are looking to have. And then on the repair and remodel side, what options are being picked and seeing what we can do, take those options and move them into the new home design. So it's helping our customers really innovate inside the products that they produce and bringing new technologies to them. So it can be so simple, but yet hard to follow through on every day. So from the team member perspective, I start there because I think that innovation isn't always at least where my mind initially goes. And that is, wow, I never thought of having the iPhone, but now that it's here, I couldn't live without it. Like, clearly that's innovation, but sometimes it's not that complicated or that big of a change. But then if I look at things that our advanced manufacturing group is doing on the equipment side, things that they are observing and then bringing into the environment and saying, hey team member, will you try this? And what I call first to first jobs. So look for the jobs that no one would want to do.
[00:18:01] Speaker C: Right.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: But yet we still have people doing and we've got to work really smart to get those jobs out of the system and bring innovative machinery design in there so that our team members don't have to perform those jobs day in and day out. And then on the product side of things, I couldn't be more pleased with some of the concepts that I see in our innovation lab and just R and D centers of influence around the country, whether it be diamond glass and what we're going to do with that both on Coastal Impact and on energy efficient thin, triple the mag roller or a new patio door design that I saw down in the I lab here a few weeks ago. Thin line aluminum product out west, a thermal core product that our Northwest team is working on. And the list keeps going on and on and on and on. And we have a fiberglass next gen that's going to launch here at the end of the year. And like the innovation that's coming out of MITRE over the next five years is going to be so significantly different and a much higher volume and pace of commercialized products than what we've seen in the last 20 years. So it's pretty neat.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: Yeah, that's exciting. Well, it's well timed and I think that we as a large organization now can really gather some good momentum and we've got some sharp minds and some great experience under our belt and it's going to be really exciting to see where things go. So I think that kind of does it for us. We've touched base on all the things. Matt, I so appreciate your time today. Thank you for taking a little bit of time out to chat with me and to talk about the new MITRE acronym. And I look forward to seeing you the next time you're in Florida.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: That sounds great. Thank you, Sherry. It's always good to catch up, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
[00:19:49] Speaker C: Yes, you too, Matt. Thank you so much.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: All right, bye Bye.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: All right, take care. Bye bye.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: The Clear Impact Podcast is brought to you by Mitre Brands University. We are a part of Mitre Brands, a family of leading window and door brands united by our passion for quality and relentless pursuit of 100%. At Mitre Brands, our common purpose is to deliver value by manufacturing the finest products, services and customer experience every day, everywhere. Our window and door brands deliver regionalized expertise, products and services, all backed by a national company. Mitre Brands University is here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
