I had a great time interviewing Anthony Schena, the CEO of Schena Roofing & Sheet Metal Company, for our cover story for the July issue. The union-affiliated commercial roofing and sheet metal contractor has been a fixture inChesterfield, Mich., for 45 years, but in the teeth of the Great Recession, the company was struggling.

Schena shared a story of how the company turned things around in 2009, and one key to the process was a visual image that put things in perspective. At a company meeting, Schena put two pictures up on the wall. The first showed a road intertwined with other roads going in different directions, congested with traffic. He pointed to it and said, “I feel like this is the road we are on right now.” He pointed to the second picture, which showed a single road, lined with trees under a beautiful sunset, and said, “I think this is the road that we want to be on.”

Anthony Schena (left) is the CEO of Schena Roofing & Sheet Metal, which was founded in 1969 by his father, George Schena. Photo by Karen McConnell.

“So we started to plan and create a vision for our road to greatness,” Schena said. “We began to work as a team to restructure Schena Roofing. We put together a plan, we put together a vision, and we put in a lot of hard work.”

He outlined his plan to restructure the company. The entire staff began reviewing, improving and documenting all of its processes. The hard work soon began to pay off. “In that first year, our sales grew 50 percent,” he said. “Our service department doubled. Everything seemed to be going so much smoother. Everyone seemed to be in the right spot for their talents and skills. Everybody was happy and excited to see things moving along, working the way we had envisioned.”

For more details, check out the story on Schena Roofing in the July issue. If you’d like to meet Anthony Schena in person, I invite you to join us in Marco Island, Fla., Sept. 22-23 for the 2014 Best of Success conference, where Anthony Schena will speak about the importance of creating a positive company culture. For more details about Best of Success, visit www.BestofSuccessConference.com.