Air Technologies Featured in “Smart Business” Magazine
Phil Derrow, the President and CEO, is featured in “Smart Business” magazine’s December 2011 cover story by Dennis Seeds, “Keeping the Faith: How Phil Derrow Invested During the Recession to Set Ohio Transmission Up for Growth.” Air Technologies is a division of Ohio Transmission Corporation along with OTP Industrial Solutions, formerly Ohio Transmission and Pump Co.
The article explains how Derrow used his belief that the recession would bottom out and that the future would improve to take action and put the company back on the growth track.
In the article, Derrow was quoted as saying, “Continuously invest in yourselves and your company. I make a big deal about the fact that investment is a continuous and ongoing process, and it is an essential statement of a belief in the future. If you believe based on knowledge that recessions always end, then you continue to invest. It’s no more complicated than that.”
Along with rebranding Ohio Transmission and Pump Co. into OTP Industrial Solutions, creating a new logo and website and investing in employees and a new factory for Air Technologies, Derrow focused on the human factor– managing during a recession.
Derrow was quoted as saying, “We have 360 people now, and you can’t manage through such a challenging period without engaging the people in the organization. We believe in being open and honest with our people and telling them what’s going on, telling them the company’s position, telling them our strategy and making them part of the process from start to finish.”
What was the result? The annual revenue for 2011 will finish more than 60% above that of 2008, market share has grown and the company has increased employment by 10% during the same period– 380 associates across eight states.
Read the “Smart Business” article in its entirety: “Keeping the Faith: How Phil Derrow Invested During the Recession to Set Ohio Transmission Up for Growth.”
