Entering Excellence with Boon Edam: Recent Episodes
Boon Edam
With Boon Edam, you'll get an unwavering commitment to protecting your entrances, employees and guests. This is Entering Excellence, your definitive guide to security solutions.
Lean manufacturing has become a buzzword in the production space over the last several years.
Everyone wants to be the most productive. But, for Patrick Nora, President and Managing Director of Boon Edam Manufacturing USA, lean manufacturing as an ideal doesn’t matter if that productivity doesn’t follow on from safety and quality.
“For us at Boon Edam, I wouldn’t say we are a lean manufacturing facility. I would say we are a facility that’s working toward lean manufacturing principles,” Nora said. “I think, for me, I define it as being on a journey, and it’s a goal that you will never achieve. You’re going after operational excellence with lean manufacturing process. It’s really important to view it that way, because lean manufacturing is building a learning culture.”
Here's how to get your foot in the metaphorical door at Boon Edam, the North Carolina-based manufacturer of revolving doors and security barriers. On this new episode of the JobCast, host Sean Heath sat down with Brian Worrell, field technician manager at Boon Edam to discuss the open role of Field Service and Installation Technician. This position provides necessary technical support for installation, service, and maintenance of equipment to regional managers, distributors technicians, and end-user customers.
"This position is the core of our finished product out in the field," Brian said, explaining the ideal candidate has strong communication skills and a strong mechanical background. "Our installation service department is the front line. We're out there in front of the customer, making our product work properly and beautiful." Brian answered one of our signature questions -- If this position was a celebrity, who would it be -- with a salute to Tim "the Toolman" Taylor.
Job basics:
Location: Throughout the United States
Hours: 40-60 hours weekly, Monday through Friday with occasional weekends
Travel involved: 75% travel
Experience: A few years with doors helpful, but not required
*Educational requirement: 2-year degree in low voltage electronics or equivalent
If you'd like to apply for this position of Sales Account Manager, head to boonedam.us/about-us
What does a 147-year-old company have in common with a classic British metal band?
It may seem far-fetched, but for JC Powell, Vice President of Sales Regional and National Accounts with Boon Edam USA, if his company were a band, there’s no doubt it would be Iron Maiden.
There’s no Eddie the Head at Boon Edam, but the family culture and close-knit work groups make sure their employees and customers have plenty of peace of mind.
“Boon Edam would be Iron Maiden, not because we have crazy, large, inflated heads that pop out behind screens, but, if you know anything about the band Iron Maiden, they are a large extended family. They travel together on a plane flown by the lead singer,” Powell said. “When you look at Boon Edam, from our president and managing director down, that same responsibility is taken. We view everybody as part of this family.”
That family includes a number of Regional Sales Managers who have to create relationships and listen to customers to understand their needs.
“What I’m really looking for in a potential candidate is somebody who is hungry, somebody who is humble, somebody who is a life learner, and somebody that is always curious, never complacent,” Powell said. “That goes back to the learning style and understanding, well, ‘Why did they buy my product?’”
From there, the process becomes something that is replicable rather than a one-off. That’s how Boon Edam turned into a company that has plenty in common with a band that started in 1975 and is still rocking today.
If Chris Grabowski, Director of Sales Support for Boon Edam, Inc. could fill his open Inside Sales position with legendary quarterback Tom Brady, he would.
But, since Brady is unavailable due to prior commitments, Grabowski is looking for the next superstar to join the Boon Edam sales team.
Boon Edam is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of security entrance solutions, revolving doors and security portals. Located in Lillington, North Carolina, halfway between Raleigh and Fayetteville, this inside sales position may require light travel to various territories a couple of times a year.
As for experience, Grabowski said they are looking for someone with a bachelor’s degree or equivalent job experience.
“Someone with inside sales experience and project management experience (would be) very helpful for this role,” Grabowski said.
Other qualifications Grabowski is looking for are professional communication skills, experience with a CRM or an ERP, and someone that can complete assignments on their own.
Grabowski hopes someone with a lot of passion, enthusiasm and energy who wants to pursue a long-term career path considers applying for the position.
“There’s so much opportunity within this company. Although we’re global, we’re still a small, family-oriented company. People here know who you are. You’re not just an employee number,” Grabowski said.
To learn more about this open position, go to https://www.boonedam.com/careers.
In this podcast hosted by SDM Magazine’s Courtney Wolfe, Tracie Thomas, Vice President of Marketing at Boon Edam, discusses the results of a recent tailgating survey. This survey reached end users, security consultants and integrators to gather their perceptions about the risk of tailgating into their facilities.
This podcast discusses the results to the following questions and more:
- What would be the cost of a tailgating incident to your facility?
- What strategies do you have in place to mitigate tailgating?
- Are you recording tailgating occurrences?
Security is never a one-size-fits-all solution, and that's especially true for different types of building entrances, which have needs as unique as the companies themselves.
On this episode of Entering Excellence, a Boon Edam podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Vice President of Sales JC Powell and Regional Sales Director Brian Marshall to discuss scalable security.
"Companies are very different, even companies that offer similar goods or services to consumers," Powell said. "We never lump two companies as the same, even though they both may be data centers, financial or insurance companies."
The concept of scalable security takes into account the unique needs businesses have for throughput, safety, technology and service. Boon Edam evaluates how people move through a client's building to better understand their needs.
"How these companies exist within their own cultures really dictates what type of security entrance they would be interested in in order to promote and protect their assets," Powell said.
Boon Edam helps companies educate their employees about the need and purpose of security entrances that both help keep their workforce safe inside and keep unauthorized visitors out.
"We not only help companies implement the right security entrance, but we also help get their workforce to understand how to utilize that entrance," Marshall said. "Now you might think, 'What's so difficult about swiping a card at an entrance?' But we're helping promote employee education and communication long before the security entrance is implemented."
From the experts at Boon Edam, here are tips for making the case for physical security systems
- Introduce security awareness among all team members in your company, not just the C suite.
Most team members understand the inherent threat of workplace or public venue security. Don’t tell your staff about security threats, teach them making staff members active participants in the companies awareness of insecure entrances, non-ID'ed visitors, and other security situations. This helps create ownership that executives want to see from staff. Using a security metaphor: don’t lock them out of awareness, but bring them in to proactiveness.
- Make the case for ROI and risk versus reward.
The most credible threat is not a global, catastrophic threat, but often a tangible threat in your own neighborhood, so to speak. Security technology providers can often offer concrete examples of security threats and subsequent solutions based on similar location, size of company or building, or intended purpose. Discussing the most common threat can lead to a productive ROI conversation about the best technology fit for your most credible threats.
- Emphasize that security is not a one and done thing.
Once the technology is implemented, it’s easy to want to set it and forget it. But security should become a part of your company's fabric. Teach building management or IT staff how to troubleshoot common problems so that inadvertent gaps in security coverage don't boil down to, "The system wasn't working right, and I didn't know what to do."
- Address management's concerns about the effect this physical security will have on company staff.
Use terms like it’ll have a non-effect on personnel, which can help ease minds -- both management and staff. This helps underscore the point that the security solution is not difficult to implement or live with. Actually the best security system is one that works so seamlessly it’s not disruptive.
Host Tyler Kern spoke with Valerie Anderson, President and Managing Director of Boon Edam, about how businesses can build successful company cultures. Anderson's more than a decade's worth of experience in the building entrances and security industry gave her a first-hand opportunity to learn the secrets of what goes into a successful company culture.
People are one of the great assets we have in an organization, and I think the way we continue to develop our people and attach them to the vision of the company is what gives them a sense of self-worth, Anderson said.
She described her leadership role as putting herself in the employee's shoes, and envisioning a culture they'd want to work in. Anderson put emphasis on company vision and the importance of ensuring not only all employees understand the vision but are in the right positions to use their talents to further that vision.
Later in the conversation, Anderson mentioned how successful company cultures should be customer-centric to the point of obsession. It's taking every part of your organization, no matter what your role is, and getting you to think, how would I want this customer interaction to go if I were in their shoes, said Anderson.
Anderson wrapped up the conversation by discussing how she overcame various business challenges on her leadership path.