“It's not magic,” Todd Thiele says. “There's no secret
to our success,” he continues. “It just takes a lot of hard
work.”
He would know.
As Vice President of Controls for the Harris Companies, Todd has been
a driving force behind the companies foray into the controls arena.
Founded in 1948 by Charles Harris, Harris Plumbing & Heating has
grown from its modest beginnings into one of the largest mechanical
contractors in the United States. Harris maintains operations
in nine U.S locations and one Canadian location.
As the Controls division leader, Todd Thiele is responsible for business
and technical operations of this business unit. The controls team
is an independent profit center within the Harris Companies. Todd
is responsible for such things as business planning and development,
sales training, finding new markets, and setting the direction and objectives
for his controls teams.
The headquarters for Harris Controls is in St. Paul, Minnesota.
But the company also operates a distinct controls unit in Salt Lake
City, UT and is now starting up a new unit in Washington D.C.
Wasatch Controls in Salt Lake was acquired about 4 years ago and is
now hitting their stride as a fully integrated member of the Harris
family. Capital City Controls is the name of the new controls
business unit in the U.S. capital.
Given the strength of the mechanical contracting arm of Harris, you
might suspect that the Controls division simply has to follow the mechanical
divisions around to get work. Not so.
“The vast majority of our controls-related work comes to us directly
from our customers and not as part of a mechanical project being performed
by Harris,” Todd says. “We have fostered customer relationships
for over 15 years and they make an active choice to use us for their
control-related needs.”
That work has taken Harris Controls to geographically dispersed locations.
“We have performed controls projects in nearly two dozen states
and Canadian provinces, says Todd. “If we are not licensed to
perform the install in a particular area we'll sub-contract through
local sources or use whoever the owner prefers. However, we do
all the project engineering and manage the other technical aspects such
as startup and commissioning.”
“The bottom line,” Todd concludes, “is that we'll travel to
wherever our customers want us. We're there to please the owner.”
Harris, as an overall company, is committed to turnkey solutions,
with innovation and responsiveness. The work of Harris Controls
also mirrors this direction.
Todd Thiele inspects a production
process at KMC headquarters during the
In Touch 2012 dealer conference. KMC's
Deb Pederson feeds the wave-flow solder machine.
“We're not the juggernaut in the Harris family,” Todd explains.
“We're a small part of a big company. But we have equal importance
with other groups and an equal responsibility to seek profitable work.
We seek projects that have challenging or high-tech environments such
as hospitals, museums, clean rooms, or biologics.”
Why?
Todd continues his explanation: “The controls business, as a whole,
is being commoditized. That leads to everyone buying on price.
And that's not our market. The challenging projects are more compelling
to us because they enable us to add greater value. And that keeps
the commoditization dogs at bay,” he says with a grin.
Beyond the hard work and strategic market focus, Todd notes one other
factor that has led to success in the Controls business of Harris.
“We've got a great team with hard-working and talented people,”
he says. “That has enabled us to grow.”
“That growth,” he continues, “is an outcropping of team diversity.
We don't look for a given type of individual such as CS (computer science)
majors to do programming or EEs (electrical engineers) to do engineering.
We seek and we have diverse backgrounds on our controls team.
You know,” he continues, “this is what made America great.
And I have similar thoughts about our controls team: we are a melting
pot. We treasure diversity and try to foster it.”
Winning teams of diverse members don't just happen however.
That's where Todd's style of quiet leadership contributes.
“Our guys work very hard,” he says. “And I find it personally
rewarding to create opportunities for them to grow and in seeing them
seize these opportunities.”
Harris after hours--a shot of Harris
headquarters in
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Each year, corporate objectives for sales growth and margins help
drive the overall team direction. Todd then expands these goals
into more specific quarterly challenges, with compensation-related tie-in
for specific team members. He also sets aside dedicated dollars
for training every year to keep his team current.
Beyond these team leadership responsibilities Todd is responsible
for overall strategic direction for Harris' controls business.
He considers emerging technologies that may have an impact on their
business. He helps open new markets and qualifies external resources
that might assist in project implementation. And he manages the
external partnerships that can help Harris Controls reach their stated
goals.
One other characteristic helps define what it takes to win for Harris
Controls. You see it in any routine interactions with them.
It is integrity. “We've been asked many times how we can do
business the way we do in this cut-throat world of contracting,” Todd
concludes. “To put it simply, we treat customers the way we
would want to be treated. It works for us.”
It certainly does.