Guest Commentator: Peggy Kelly, President and Owner, Spectrum @Spectrum_HMI
What best practices have you learned in your journey as a leader taking an established business and reinvigorating its image with a fresh approach?
As a business owner of PK Spectrum since 2017, the journey forward has been filled with twists and bumps – but it has been an exciting journey with much to look forward to nonetheless. Leading and growing a new business is tough, but I would say it is even tougher when you are taking an existing business and moving it to a new mindset and culture from where it once was. When I bought the company, it was owned by the manufacturer Herman Miller and it had a reputation for over 50 years of identifying with the brand and strong execution on projects. The team had become accustomed to working in a manufacturer mindset in a distribution model. The challenge was to take an existing company closely tied to the manufacturer, honor its past, yet think forward as a distributor and coach the team to feel empowered to make choices to take care of the end-user. The company had become stagnant with the concept that ‘we have always done things a certain way.’ As a leader, I had to challenge the norm and say ‘how can we do things differently, what will make an impact with our customers today, and what tools do we need to get us there?’
Rallying a team to make changes comes with helping people understand whether they are comfortable with change or not, and making decisions to stay and grow or move on. Building a team is done with strong support from internal leadership and followership. I am a firm believer in putting people in the right role, and doing the right work allows them to do their best and feel proud of their accomplishments. This helps build community. We work as a team, communicate, coach, and focus on what matters most to us in our work. We want to make a difference creating spaces that matter and make impact with the community in a sustainable way with great furniture solutions for commercial, healthcare, education, hospitality, and government. We use technology to help elevate the experience with renderings and real-time charting of projects. Creating an organization that allows employees to have more responsibility and involvement in important conversations fosters trust.
Getting back to focusing on our initiatives is key this year after the pandemic. We are living what we share with customers. Getting back to work ignites ideas, communication, and community within an organization and is necessary for growth. As our clients look to return to their offices, we are solving for both newer and existing issues in working that have been difficult in the pandemic, such as hot-desking, collaboration between remote and in-person participants, cross-team sharing, engendering belonging, and fostering culture. What matters is evolving, and office design is pivotal to supporting the new behaviors we are learning..
As a highly engaged Chamber events attendee, what draws you back to our programs?
The relevant topics the Chamber is offering to help grow my business have been key to the participation. As well, putting groups of leaders together to talk about their challenges and success has been insightful. As an owner with no partners, it is nice to hear from other owners about what they are thinking and doing with their companies and the advice has been helpful.
The Chamber’s Middle Market Action Team (MMAT) is a consortium of leaders driving rapid growth in companies with annual revenues between $10 million and $1 billion via targeted programs and strategies.
Upcoming Event
[Virtual] Growth Opportunities in New Markets: A Middle Market Executive Roundtable
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Gain insight into how your peers have opened new doors to growth by establishing new lines of business, penetrating untapped markets, and launching new products, services, and offerings to clients.
