Michael Werner had been searching for a new business opportunity to satisfy his creative urges, but he never expected to find it over breakfast in a small restaurant nestled in the mountains of Colorado.
It was here that he used a napkin to draw up his plan to make a lot of money for Scott Ouyoung, founder and chairman of Globe Union Industrial Corp. The two men were on a trip to do some hiking in the mountains, but the topic on this morning was not over which trail to take. It was about business.
“I didn’t have any paper, but I was chock-full of ideas and I was kind of laying it out for him,” Werner says. “We really started laying out the foundation of what we wanted to build.”
Ouyoung wanted to expand his faucet business and Werner felt like he had a plan to make it happen. Some people would probably question how one could satisfy a creative urge by selling faucets, but Werner says your approach to a product can often do a better job of fueling your creative spirit than the product itself.
“You might say a faucet is not that innovative,” Werner says. “But our business model and the way we approach things is innovative.”
Werner and Ouyoung realized that they could help each other achieve their goals if they joined forces. Ouyoung took the first step by making Werner his head of North American operations as president and CEO at Globe Union Group Inc. in Chicago.
Werner quickly rewarded him for his faith. The Danze faucet brand went from nothing in 2002 to $100 million in sales by 2009 and global revenue increased from $125 million in 2002 to more than $700 million in 2009.
North American revenue totaled more than $400 million in 2009.
“It’s all been based upon the strategy and plans that I literally inked out on a napkin with him when we were hiking in the mountains of Colorado,” Werner says.
