Reno Deaton is the Executive Vice President at Greer Development Corporation (GDC). In his role, Reno supports recruiting new businesses, supporting a company’s development, and growing the city to ensure it is enticing for companies to consider making Greer, SC home.  In today’s episode, Reno shares his story and the unique ways the GDC and the manufacturing community work hand in hand to grow and develop the upstate of South Carolina.  In addition to supporting current manufacturing sites, The GDC has specifically created programs that are entrepreneur friendly so that no matter the size of your company, the GDC can help. This episode is perfect for anyone who is looking for ways to grow their business.  Reno and his team at the GDC are shining examples of how a community and a manufacturing business can support each other. 00:29 – Welcome Reno Deaton 01:28 – Reno’s Career Story 03:40 - Reno a distinct guest for Manufacturing 365 05:25 - Greer an Economic Development Organization 07:39 - Reno’s favorite project 09:09 – Greer’s impact in South Carolina 11:30 - Challenges and opportunities of working with 2 different counties 13:54 - Strategic efforts in creating unique programs that recruit and support new business 16:09 - The Entrepreneurship Innovation Play 16:59 - The Bootcamp: a 2-day immersive experience 22:35 – How to find a similar role as a career 25:38 - End   Connect with Reno Deaton · Reno’s email: rdeaton@greerdevelopment.com · Reno on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reno-deaton-bb4b6a7/ · Greer Development’s website: https://greerdevelopment.com/   Connect with Christina Stroud · Set up a 30-minute introductory call: https://calendly.com/christina_group928/30-minute-discovery-call · Christina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-stroud-sphr/ · Group928 website: https://www.group928.com/

Over the last decades, personnel departments have been replaced by Human Resources departments, and todays’ guest would like to see HR continue to evolve into a new, strategic function called People & Culture. In this Episode, Ashley Larochelle shares her experience in creating an intentional culture within a growing business. She knew that as her company was moving from a distribution focus to a manufacturing focus, that the people were the key to making the strategic change a success. Her business mindset helps her create new and innovate ways to ensure retention rates are high. Ashley created an incentive plan that worked for all employees, added benefits that were low cost to the company but high value to the employees, and focuses a lot of her time and effort in recruiting the best candidates who can add value to Thermacell. Listen as I chat with a forward-thinking HR professional who sets the bar high for all other HR Executives. 00:00 - Introduction 02:24 - Thermacell history 03:40 - Why did you join Thermacell? 05:12 – Ashely does not lead Thermacell as a traditional HR function 08:36 - Ashley’s journey and accomplishments in Thermacell 09:31 - Getting the right people on the bus 10:30 - From Distribution center to Manufacturing 11:31 - New incentive program for all employees 12:49 - Key to why people thrive – attracting and retaining the right talent 14:33 - The Human not the Resource 16:05 – Be an employer that focuses on caring 18:05 - Employees using time for Physical and Mental Health 19:01 - The unique benefits Thermacell offers 22:59 - The game changer 24:33 - How did you get into HR? 25:28 - Treating people as humans and not resources 32:35- End Connect with Ashley Larochelle · Ashley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-larochelle-5b655a53/ · Thermacell’s website: https://www.thermacell.com/ Connect with Christina Stroud · Set up a 30-minute introductory call: https://calendly.com/christina_group928/30-minute-discovery-call · Christina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-stroud-sphr/ · Group928 website: https://www.group928.com/

Episode Outline and Highlights: Many professionals in the manufacturing industry find themselves making challenging business and personal decisions in a fast-paced environment. Managers must balance their technical and their people responsibilities, decide if they want to manage global responsibilities, join a young, fast-growing a company, or take a leap and embark on an expatriate assignment. All these decisions are multi-faceted and should include considering the needs of the family involved. Clemens Schmitz-Justen built on his Engineering foundation and served in various Executive roles in global manufacturing and now owns an international consulting firm. He was also the Honorary Consul in South Carolina for Germany while after he was in South Carolina as Plant President for BMW Manufacturing. During this episode we discuss his fascinating career steps, how he managed the technical and people needs at the same time, and the pros and cons of moving internationally. Clemens shares stories and examples from his career and how his family was impacted by the choices made. 00:30 - Welcome Clemens Schmitz-Justen 02:10 - Clemens’ career story 03:54 - Clemens becomes President of BMW Manufacturing 05:15 - What Clemens is up to now 06:54 - Large company versus startups? 07:51 - Motivation and reflections 09:25 - Why manufacturing as a career? 13:01 - Challenges of manufacturing leaders: Balancing the technical and people side 15:00 - Story of resilience and persistence and picking the right crowd 16:14 - Creation of the Win-Win situation 17:51 - “..a disadvantage for you may turn exactly the opposite way of your career…” 18:30 - Engineering is a leadership tool 19:05 - The hard part of the Engineering 20:42 - Suggestions for engineers who want to lead people 23:01 - Going international and how it impacts career and family 32:53 - What is he doing now? 39:30 - Life is too short - create a career you are happy with 40:43 - End Connect with Clemens Schmitz-Justen · Clemens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clemens-schmitz-justen-a5a4a721/ · Clemens’ website: http://www.easc-group.com/ · Clemens’ email address: csj@easc-group.com Connect with Christina Stroud · Set up a 30-minute introductory call: https://calendly.com/christina_group928/30-minute-discovery-call · Christina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-stroud-sphr/ · Group928 website: https://www.group928.com/

Welcome to Manufacturing 365 where we spend time learning from each other. We will hear from manufacturing rock stars, startup founders, thought leaders, and others, to support this platform’s purpose – We will share ideas, set examples, and be a little thought provoking in the manufacturing world.