A New Direction

Norm appeared in Forbes Magazine’s October 30, 2000, edition profiling the country’s 200 best small companies.

Norm's vision for John Zink was born from experience. During his time with American Standard in Detroit, Norm worked on heating and ventilation systems with business partners at General Motors and Ford Motor Company. In 1969, General Motors was building a new factory utilizing mainframe computer technology despite the fact that they had other factories operating below capacity. Norm wondered why GM was willing to invest in a new facility under such circumstances.

Though in their infancy, computers offered a new path to efficiency in manufacturing. A company executive explained that GM aimed to create a new organizational culture at the plant and that managers and workers at an existing factory would never accept it.

Norm saw parallels within the HVAC industry. Some companies had introduced computer technology, but only to support existing processes. He called it "computerized obsolescence," but knew that suggesting organizational change wouldn't be accepted at such successful companies. At John Zink, Norm saw a company small enough to change. And he thought he could be the man to do it.