 Welcome to this episode of Door Hardware Nerds. I'm your host, Mia Merrill. Today, I am joined by living Asa Abloy legend Tom Harris. He has been in the industry for just under 43 years, and he is going to sit down with us today and give us some of his wisdom that he has picked up over the years. Welcome, Tom. Thanks for joining us today. Well, I appreciate the invitation. I don't think we've ever shared where the name Door Hardware Nerds came from, but you're actually the originator of that. How'd you come up with that? Well, we just, well, we are nerds. I mean, this whole industry, we're full of nerds. And when you get in it, it's something you think about. And it's actually really what we said informally. So why not use it? Yeah. So you did. We did. We took it, we ran with it. It fits. You are known for tomisms, we like to call them. Can you explain what a tomism is? Oh, it's actually an attempt at being funny sometimes. But also try to capsuleize an idea in a few words. So we're going to run through some rapid fire, and I want you to explain what they mean. Okay? It's easy to get wet when it's raining. Well, you know, when the economy's really good, you can start feeling good about what you're doing, which is okay. But you've got to realize that, you know, this is an easy environment. It's going to get tougher. So realize that you're in that type of environment when you're there, because you've got to get ready for when it's not raining. Okay. Air talk. Oh, goodness. That's when happens too often when you basically sit around and just chatter, and nobody takes notes, and there are no action points. And it's a good idea, but there's no assignments. It drives me crazy. It drives me crazy. Air talk. We all do it. We do. Just because it has four legs doesn't mean it's a horse. You know, there are race horses, and I guess they're carriage horses. They still have four legs. They don't do the same thing, and products are a lot way too, because, you know, we have to build product for really tough environments. And some of the lighter duty stuff doesn't fit a tough environment. I think it's something that we need to recognize. To do business, you have to break bread. So that's a good one. That's an old one. I don't use much anymore. But I used to live in Asia, and food is so important. It's such a big part of business. And so if you did want to develop a relationship, no matter what you were eating, or where you were going, you needed to participate. Is there a favorite Thomism that we didn't talk about? I think you did pretty good. I think that's good. Was your first job out of college in this industry? Actually, even before. Okay. I started in college. I worked two or three years in college at the Monroe factory, putting together door-closer arms. So I have two, three years, and then I have the 43 years. So you're actually close to 45 years. And if they counted that. Yeah. They should, shouldn't they? Yeah, they should. They should. You've been here. So what, in high school, what got you in there? Was that just like a normal job? A family friend. A family friend. And do you regret them being a friend now? Oh no, no, no. It was actually good. And it was at the Monroe plant where they make door closures. And part of their thing was prepare you for life. There were a lot of college students we hired back then. They worked us pretty well. They wanted us to go back to college and study. That's funny. All right. So what was your first official role within the industry? Well, back in the day, we've restarted again through the RDP program. And I think they're sales trainees. The industry was full of trainees and sales. And I was one of, probably in two or three years, one of about eight or nine. Some of them retired out of the industry, but many, many people started through the sales training program in the field. So it was your first brand that you worked on? Yale. Yale. So you started with Yale. You're finishing with Yale. Absolutely. You had to get out before. No, no, no, no. I'm excited about Accenture. It's tough, but I'm still excited about it. Yeah. I think it's a nice future forward. Yep. Yeah. What did you wear your first day on the job? Do you remember? Or what car did you drive? Well, I knew I dressed poorly. That's for sure, because I had no money. And I had a mud-colored cutlass. Oh my gosh. It would barely run. So you started with Yale. How many acquisitions has Yale gone through since when you started to now? Five. We were about starting back in the 80s. We were part of Eaton, then we were part of Scoville, and then on and on and on. It was a lot of change, because each company had a different culture or lack of a culture. Prior to Asa Abloy, those were tough periods. Yeah. We were not valued as a brand. We weren't valued as people before Asa Abloy. That was really the turning point for the company, because we started investing in the business, we started investing in people, we started using logic for business decisions, and just steady improvement, improvement. What's the biggest change you've noticed in the past 43, well, 45 years. Yeah. Okay. You've given me the two. I'm giving you the two. There's one big thing that's happened, and when you reflect back, you see it. We did not see it at the time, but the industry has changed dramatically. And I talk about societal trends that have impacted our industry. And so these trends have largely contributed to opportunity for us. A lot of times when the world is changing, if the company doesn't change, you get swamped. We didn't get swamped. But there's so many things in society right now that are demanding on our products that weren't there 40 years ago. Privacy, classroom security, aesthetics, touchless, mobile. I'm even missing some. And those have all resulted in new products and new product development. That's the biggest impact, really, on our industry, big picture-wise, in my opinion. Okay. So you have talked about your overseas roles in Asia, but that's not the only overseas role. Can you tell me about the time you've spent not stateside? Oh, well, living-wise, I lived in England, which one of the things I would say for people's career, I think that if you get a chance for an overseas assignment, I think you should take it. I would even if you have a family or whatever, if I was able, you could enable that. I think if it fits your lifestyle, I think you should really do it. So I lived in England and in Hong Kong, both. And I traveled, I think I've said I've traveled and done business in 43 countries over that time, which was kind of neat. What was your favorite thing about living internationally, and it could be different for both England and Hong Kong? Well, I like food. So we start with that. Asia's just an amazing place in terms of coming from North Carolina, Monroe, North Carolina, and then being exposed to the types of food that you've never seen in your entire life. So that was a neat part of it, just different cultures. And the one thing I try to do is when I travel somewhere, is learn a little bit about its history, its people, and its culture, which really made it a lot more meaningful. Can you talk about your favorite project you've ever worked on? It was in China in 1986, and we were in Shanghai, working out of Hong Kong back to Shanghai. It was a Hilton hotel, which was the first international hotel in China, in Shanghai anyway, that had been built in probably 40 or 50 years. And I think what was fascinating about that is traveling to Shanghai, there weren't a lot of foreigners there, there weren't a lot of Americans there, there weren't a lot of places to stay. You know, we had to get a hotel when we got there, you couldn't book in advance, and they made us stay in the same room. It was a large hotel. We never figured that out. That's funny. Yeah, it was odd. All right, so who is someone that has inspired you in your career? I think you have to look for is people that help mentor you, and sometimes it may not feel good at the time. They may challenge you a lot. And I think I've been fortunate to work for quite a few people, and I think some better than others, and I always say my best boss is my current boss, and there's a little bit of truth to that at all times, but I think you learn a little bit from something, from everybody you work for, you know, how to organize maybe, or how to do a sales call, or how to present a product, or how to organize and lead something. I think you learn a little bit from everybody you work for. I think one of the things I've been fortunate is to work for so many different people. You know, that's part of belonging to so many different companies as well. One company, but bought and sold so many times. So what's next for you, Tom? You starting a band, you going on vacation? A little bit of everything, not a band, though. You know, you're supposed to have a big plan, right, when you retire. I have plans, but I don't have grandiose plans. I've been with the company 43 years. I've been married for 31 years, and I've had the same walking friends for 28 years, and we've walked together for 28 years. I don't join them during the week, but I'll join them again, and that'll be something every day. Exercise, travel a little bit, a little bit of consulting. A little bit. A little bit. We'll see you. It'll work out real soon. You don't need a big plan. Yeah. They say you do. That's true. That, I don't think so. Hope not. Yeah. What advice would you have for somebody that's just starting out in this industry? Many years ago, this was before those societal changes and our business changed so much, it was not as interesting a business as it is today. But, you know, while we're not Google or Apple, we do a lot of things that technology companies do, and that's pretty neat. And, you know, we have all kinds of job descriptions that we didn't have even five years ago, even two or three years ago. Beth has marketing people and jobs that we didn't have before. So I think it's all right here to have an exciting career. And one of the nice things about it is we're in a very good industry. So you can take the technology, you can, whether it be in product technology, manufacturing technology, marketing, etc., and apply it here. It all fits. And the nice thing about us is we're willing to invest even to take risks in some things. And we do, we actually say, this is a risk, let's do it anyway. What is your most memorable or favorite product that either you've worked on or we've released? Well, that's a good question. I guess, and it's recent, and you know what it's going to be. Indicators. And, you know, this whole trend with privacy, I think we saw it coming. Related to classroom security, privacy, restroom. And I know that's late in my career, but that's one of the most interesting things to me. There's been a lot of other things, but that's been quite interesting, quite frankly. And it's interesting to see all the evolution of products and we've applied it in so many different places. And then, as we know, they've sold very well. So that's been a lot of fun. Yeah, I would say you have the Godfather of Indicators. Indicator, man. Yeah, you're a very Godfather. Yeah, there you go. But that was fun and everybody bought into it. I mean, we all did it. And people came up with different ideas and what if we did this and what if we did that? And we just did it. Yeah, and we're still evolving it and coming up with new concepts. And we didn't overthink it, we just did it. Yeah. What's your biggest hope for the industry's future? Well, I actually feel very optimistic about the industry's future because I think what we do is very important to society. You know, I talked earlier about life safety, which is our traditional, life safety and security was our traditional definition, but now we have products that help who thought we would have climate products? You know, shelter in place products. And I think that's just going to continue. I don't think that's going to stop. I think, you know, we tell the story that we did ADA levers in 1980 something and that was a societal change. It made it easier to access a building. But now we do something like that almost every other year, some new society. So I think that looks quite bright for those type of things. People won't help. Yeah. So you mentioned the lever chain, basically from lever to knob. That was one of the biggest. Nobs to lever. I'm sorry. Yes. That was like a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. You were also here basically for the crossbar to push bar. Crossbar to push bar. Yeah. What was that like? What was it like going through those types of changes? One of the things, I'll give you an example. We used to make, believe it or not, cast iron mortise locks when I started. And they would bow and do all types of things. And I met John Trafalgar because of that. We were in a hotel changing all the locks because they were cast iron broken. And his room was in the hotel. We knew he was there. And so I'm the one that went in. And he was very nice. So that was kind of cool. Yeah. At the beginning of your career, did you ever expect to stay in this industry for so long? One of the things about the industry, and we talk about it, people tend to stay. There's something about it that gets in your blood. And I was talking to someone just recently that came from a different industry. And he was talking about how unique it is that people stay so long. You know, I have 43 years, but I can walk out here and find people that have just as many, if not a few more, years than I do. So that's quite interesting. People tend to stay. It's a stable industry, but also I think it's a part of a culture. And I think that we are just a bunch of nerds. We are just a bunch of nerds, yeah. Do a hard way nerds. Something quite interesting. To me, and we don't think about this in these terms, but our products are in the background. They're taken for granted, which is a good thing that people can take them for granted. They don't worry about their life safety. They don't have to worry about getting out of the building. But we make hundreds of thousands if not millions of products every year. Think about this. In our North American market, our products are used probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of times a day, billions of times a year. And they work. People take it for granted. And I don't think you can think of another industry that's that hidden that is so ubiquitous in our lives, that is used so often. I mean, you literally cannot walk to a commercial building without being impacted in some way by an outside product. And it's kind of neat. That's a neat thing. I can't think of another industry like it. I've thought about it, but I can't think of anything quite like it. Yeah, I like to say, if we're doing our jobs, you don't think about what we fight. Exactly. All right. All right. Well, we thank you for your service for the past 45 years to the end. Thank you for the ad. I appreciate that. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel.