THE CLIENT: Bradford White Corporation (BWC) is a privately held American manufacturer of residential and commercial water heaters, boilers and storage tanks headquartered in Ambler, Pennsylvania, with its main manufacturing facility located in Middleville, Michigan. The company is among the largest American manufacturers of water heaters – competing with companies such as Rheem and A. O. Smith. Bradford White has a longstanding business model where its water heaters are not sold directly to consumers or through big box retailers. Bradford White water heaters are sold only to wholesale distributors; who in turn sell them to professional plumbers and HVAC contractors. BWC products are considered best-in-class.
THE CLIENT’S OBJECTIVES: Bradford White’s dedication to quality execution extends to their “all hands” meeting; which is only held once every five years. It was critical that the meeting be highly relevant and run like clockwork. Ross Shafer was chosen as the keynote speaker and Emcee for the 3-day event in Palm Desert, California. The attendees were key personnel from the various manufacturing plants, sales representatives, internal team members, senior executives, and even key supplier partners.
ROSS’S RESEARCH: Several months prior to the event, Ross flew to the BWC headquarters (Ambler, PA.) to spend the day with the senior leaders; where he got an up close look at the history and future of Bradford White Corporation. The site visit was a unique opportunity for Ross and the senior leadership to cooperatively fine tune the specific goals, content, and structure of the Five Year Meeting.
MEETING EMCEE EXECUTION: As a multiple Emmy winner, Ross Shafer has hosted five talk/game shows on NBC, ABC, and USA. So he embraces the role of Conference Emcee seriously…while setting the meeting tone as fun and energizing. Ross “drives the bus” (keeping every element on task and on pace) but he never gets in the way of making his partners “the stars.” His assignments at this event ranged from interviewing key players on stage – to getting the audience to their breakout rooms – to hosting the awards presentation – to delivering a keynote speech on the “6 Behaviors of Relevance.”The Tonight Show host, Jay Leno, was hilarious as the primary entertainment, yet many attendees approached Ross afterward to say, “Wow! You were funnier than Jay Leno!” Since then, Ross hosted a factory expansion update video at the Bradford White manufacturing plant in Middleville, Michigan.
