Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Gates.
Scott, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I like to tell people that Western Window Systems is a 60-year old start up. The company has been around for a long time, started as an insulated glass manufacturer and really started making windows and doors in the early 1980’s. For 25 years, Western supplied high quality aluminum windows and doors to the modern luxury housing market in a few states in the Southwest. In the mid 2000’s, new ownership came in and really started thinking about expansion. The business model shifted from full manufacturing, sales, install and service to more of a manufacturing focus only. The company began to expand its distribution presence and grow sales just as the great recession hit. I joined the company in 2011, at a time when construction was still down, but Western’s owners and key leaders were committed to investing to beat the market out of its slow recovery. A rebrand, a refined sales focus and better connection to the true value proposition customers cared about helped fuel rapid growth.
Starting in 2011, Western entered a phase where we had (5) straight years of 50% growth. In that time, we defined that our vision for the company was to “have fun creating a winning company that changes construction and helps our partners live better.” The vision to change construction meant that we were going to build products that the market hadn’t seen before, including moving glass walls that open entire living spaces to the beauty of the outdoors. However, not only were the products innovative, but the business itself had evolved into something that was unlike anything the market had really seen from a building materials manufacturer. This sense of fun and entrepreneurial spirit made our business contagious and unique, and it formed a culture that has been at the heart of our success. We have grown from a $6M company in 2011, to a company budgeted to do 20x that in 2018. We now have an office full of ping pong tables, shuffleboards, arcade games, lego sculptures, and even a slide. But more than that, we have a group of people showing up to work everyday genuinely believing they can change the world. They can fuel growth, launch (14) groundbreaking new products in one calendar year, achieve record level of quality, on-time delivery, etc.
Western is a special place full of amazing people and the business is poised to reshape the window and door industry in a massive way.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Rapid growth is full of complexities. In the second year of our growth run, our sales demand completely overwhelmed our manufacturing capacity. We were running out of parts everyday, on-time delivery and quality plummeted, the costs spiraled out of control as we lost our footing from all the turbulence. We couldn’t hire staff fast enough, all of our equipment was breaking down and our customers were furious with us in ways we had never experienced before. It’s in these moments that growth companies decide who they really are. Can they work their way out of the eye of the storm or will they be consumed by the fires that are burning all around them. I can honestly say it was in the depths of these challenges that the culture, resilience and spirit of the company that we are today were truly formed. Western had always been a good company that loved its staff and built great products. I believe it was in these low moments that we learned how to be a great company, one built to scale and committed to reinventing itself every few years to keep up with where our business had evolved into.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Western Window Systems story. Tell us more about the business.
It starts first by having a steadfast commitment to manufacturing products that that make peoples lives better. We tend to run away from things everyone else does and instead, focus on game-changers for our customers that will enhance their living experience. For example, our multi-slide and bi-fold door systems are designed with incredible technology that utilizes cutting edge aluminum, fiberglass, and glass technology. However, the features of the product specifications are secondary to the actual life enhancement they bring to the customer. Homeowners love our products because on days when the weather is perfect and they are entertaining guests, they can open a 20′ wall of glass and connect their outdoor patio and make it part of their living space. Then, when their guests leave, they can close the door system and still have a beautiful glass wall that captures their view, allows in natural light, yet still has state-of-the-art energy efficiency. Door systems like this were originally priced and built only for the super wealthy. With our innovative approach to manufacturing and supply chain management, we’ve been able to bring door systems like this and make them work in homes as low as $150,000. Our vision is to change construction for everyone, not just the super rich! But honestly, I believe even these products are not what we are most known for. Our culture has truly become our secret sauce. Innovative products, a fun and one-of-a-kind office space, lean/automated manufacturing techniques, all of these in and of themselves are amazing… but I believe people would say they are simply byproducts of a talented group of people committed to doing it better, faster, and more fun than everyone else.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck is always at play in business. So much comes to being in the right place at the right time. I use this analogy often. You can stand out in the middle of the ocean with your surfboard, hoping for a great wave. You can’t do anything truly amazing unless a great wave comes. However, even if that wave comes, you still have to be able to get on the board, keep your balance and ride it all the way in, back to the beach. I tell our staff all the time to keep two lists in each of the pant legs of their pockets. In one pocket, should be a list of all the reasons they are great, unstoppable, smarter, better and the real reason our company has grown. In the other pocket, should be a list of the reasons we were lucky, at the right place, at the right time and even list out all the things we tried that didn’t work. I believe it is that recipe mix of crazy confidence coupled with uncertain humility that makes us special. I refuse to let our hubris pull us into bad decisions, but at the same time, I will ride our confidence in our ability to execute into business decisions that other leaders would find far too risky. That is the chaos of Western’s culture and I absolutely love it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2200 E. Riverview Dr.
Phoenix, AZ 85034 - Website: www.westernwindowsystems.com
- Phone: 877-268-1300
- Email: info@westernws.com
Image Credit:
Western Window Systems
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