|
That last job,
“a really big deal” for Stage
Decoration as Thurston describes it, is typically Texas sized —
8,000 square
yards of fabric as tall as 150 feet with a cost of $400,000. The
company had to
rent temporary warehouse space in Browns Summit
to have enough room to complete the job.
Finding outlets in the business world for his
creativity was not the problem for the Columbia, Mo.--born
Thurston, whose father
was a postal worker and mother was a homemaker. What was problematic
though, he
says, was unlearning the management style that served him so well
on-stage and
off in the chaotic and volatile theater world — a style that did
not always
play as well on the sewing-room floor.
“I used to be a screamer,” Thurston says with
the bluntness that’s still a trademark of his direct and
no-nonsense style. “It
was sort of management through intimidation.”
It’s understandable. By temperament, drama
students are not exactly shrinking violets. “Someone had to be in
charge,” he
says. Once upon a time, he routinely “spoke to someone 3 inches
away from their
face at 85 decibels.”
Flawed or not, that management style
continued to work for him in the business world. The company thrived
after he
bought it with a group of partners in March 1989.
“Stage Decoration is the top-quality
performer in the market because of the dedication to quality and
innovation
that Bob Thurston demands,” says Bob Lewis, president of KM
Fabrics Inc., the
Greenville, S.C.-based manufacturer of most of velour that Stage
Decoration
uses. “He is tough on his suppliers but raises the bar when it
comes to a
quality operation.”
Taylor made
Started in 1923 in the living room of Raymond
and Bertie Taylor, Stage Decoration and Supply was run for years by
Raymond
Taylor, who was the dean of UNC-Greensboro’s theater program, the
man whose
name is on the front of Taylor Theater on Tate Street on campus. The Taylors’
son, Bill
Taylor, ran the company until 1981 and was Thurston’s friend and
mentor.
Thurston said that when he took charge of
company, originally named Stage Equipment Co. of America, he
immediately
realized he needed to change the way it priced its jobs. The business
plan, he
says, seemed to be “sell cheap and go fast.”
What was needed, Thurston decided, was no
less than a sea change in the company’s basic philosophy:
“At that point I said
we’re going to be the best in both product and services, and the
profits will
take care of themselves.”
Thurston developed a spread sheet that the
company still uses to price jobs, not just by the linear yard as had
been done,
but factoring in how much work went into the laborious sewing at the
bottom and
top and edges of the curtain and how long it took to add grommets,
hooks, eyes,
tie lines and the chains used to weight the bottom of the curtains.
“I knew how to price curtains,” he says. Next
came quality control. “What I say to the employees is, ‘The
only time something
can leave here that’s not perfect is because I said so.’
All they need to do is
make it perfect or just say we’ve got a problem, and then I say,
“Yes, it’s a
problem or not a problem.’”
Thurston used the same management style to
get his point about quality control across as he had as a theater
director.
“I fired the sewing-room supervisor. That one
event is what gave me credibility,” he recalls. “I said,
‘You are no longer working
here, and it’s not because you don’t know what you’re
doing, but it’s because
your personality is affecting our product.’”
He also decided he couldn’t accept any and
all business that came in the door and still maintain the level of
quality he
wanted.
Charles Tuttle, a Greensboro
management consultant to small-
and medium-sized businesses, says, “Stage Decoration is one of
the few
businesses I know of that is thriving when everyone else is suffering.
Bob does
something that others do not: If he cannot make money with a customer,
he will
ask that customer to get another supplier. For Bob, not all customers
are
created equal.”
Finding
balance
Thurston actually himself admits “firing”
customers who “get on their high horse. It’s silly to have
this expertise and
not to offer it,” he says. That kind of attitude, though, has
prompted some
interesting feedback — and ultimately, some personal changes for
Thurston.
“Have you been a control freak all your life
or has this been a recent thing?” he remembers one of his
employees asking him.
Of his rants and raves, Thurston says, “It probably hurt me more
than them.”
Although he counted himself successful both
in his business and private life and could play a mean game of
competitive
tennis, Thurston realized, “I didn’t feel good about
myself, and I didn’t feel
good about playing tennis, win or lose. I was never happy about
it.”
Then he saw an item in the paper about a t’ai
chi demonstration. T’ai chi is a 2,000-year-old Chinese
discipline, originally
a form of self defense, but now practiced mainly as a form of exercise.
It uses
deliberate, smooth body movements to attain a state of relaxation, for
both the
mind and the body. After attending the demonstration, Thurston was
hooked: “I
don’t know what the forces are, but it gave me a way to calm
down.”
It also affected how he viewed his business
and private life.
“Balance is a big deal in t’ai chi,” he
says,
“balancing physically and emotionally. And I started applying
that to my
business, our profitability, our product quality in the workplace. It
wasn’t
immediate, but it was strong.”
And he says it changed his management style:
“I’m the poster child for a manager who calmed down.”
“Bob was a stickler for detail,” Tuttle says.
“He pushed people hard. Now he gets more done by pushing at
select spots in a
calm way. He realized through his t’ai chi practice that relaxed
intent can
move large objects.”
“It made me a better person,” says Thurston.
What’s more, he says, Stage Decoration & Supply “became
a calmer, more
productive place. And I can tell you one thing, our employees sure like
it
better.”
Company
Profile
Name:
Stage Decoration & Supply Inc.
Address:
3519 Associate Drive,
Greensboro 27409
Phone:
(336) 621-5454
Web site:
www.stagedec.com
No. of employees:
35
Year established:
1923
Biggest problem:
Keeping our suppliers on their toes to maintain quality standards
Solution:
Constant
vigilance
|
