Overview
By implementing Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), Morey defines and aligns on six core components. Watch as Dana Morey and Vince Petrella explain how Traction® keeps Morey agile.
Video Transcript
Dana Morey Hey, I’m Dana, and this is a Morey Moment.
And right now I’m here with Vince Petrella, our CFO.
And Vince and I go back a long time. Vince, what year was it?
Vince Petrella 2001
Dana Morey And we had just moved into this facility.
Vince Petrella Literally maybe a month before I started.
Dana Morey So you’ve been here for really two decades. And there’s sort of an interruption in your career here.
Talk about that. So you were here for a long time.
Actually, at one point you were president of the Morey Corp.
Vince Petrella Yes. And decided that I wanted to pursue other interests and work for a couple of startup companies, did some consulting and we kept in touch.
Dana Morey Yes.
Vince Petrella As we’ve been wanting to do forever with all of our personal interests.
And as time went on, I came across a couple of companies that I thought would be good customers for Morey, brought them in and we started talking.
And there was a gap with the finance department that you asked me if I….
Dana Morey “Ask” is generous, I think it was more of a plead. But yes.
Vince Petrella You know, I’ve spent so much of my life here and so much of my life because of Morey,.
That it was an easy decision to make. And we came back we started right where we left off. Very little hiccups.
And here we are, continuing forward again and but just with a different backdrop.
Dana Morey Awesome. So here’s something I think that would be interesting for people to know.
You were here and you saw a company, obviously, that you love because you ended up president and you’ve left and now you’ve come back.
And we’ve been in the process of reinventing ourselves.
So I’d be interested to hear a little bit about what you loved then and then what you’re seeing now that is excited you enough to say, you know what, I’m back, I want to do this.
Vince Petrella And this is so easy to answer because I’m a very family oriented person and coming to a third generation family run business, you know, you can’t ask for a better home / work / life, where you feel you are a part of a family, yet part of a business. And that’s how it was when I started. Very traditional. We’re a manufacturer. We’re in the United States, third generation.
Here’s the products we build, you know, Fortune 200 companies. But that was it. And that was the story.
Not that that was bad, but it was just very traditional. And now you fast forward to today’s world where life changes every 15 minutes and you can be behind the curve in those 15 minutes.
The difference that I see now is that this is an agile company that is willing to be on the forefront.
Yet what makes me welcoming and want to come back is that family feel is still there.
You can be fast paced, you can be quick, you can be agile, but you can still be a family.
And you can still have what it feels like to be part of something that isn’t just the business cranking out numbers or in our case, parts.
Dana Morey That’s really gratifying because that’s what we want. There’s there’s such a huge part of our life is invested in our career.
And if you can be in a place that feels like home, it feels like family, that you know, that people love you and have your backs, that I think makes the work really worthwhile.
Vince Petrella This is you know, people can talk about working for a family run business or a family environment.
But I can tell you personally, because I’ve come back, that the only reason why I came back is because of my tie to you personally and the affection and just heartfelt emotion I have about this place.
I work, put my kids through school, they’re married, and all of that is a product of working here.
And yeah, I could have worked somewhere or somewhere else, still paid those same bills, but I wouldn’t have the same love that I have for the company that I do here.
Coming back here is, like, never leaving. You know, you want to talk about the prodigal son and call it whatever you want,.
But, you know, I will, my heart will always be in this place because of the way I was treated, the way I felt, the way I was respected and being part of a team that is trying to make a difference.
Dana Morey So you can see why I was so eager and excited to get Vince back.
So Vince,something else I think is really interesting, and that is you not only came back yourself, but you did a little recruiting.
Vince Petrella Yes, I did.
Dana Morey So tell us a little bit about that recruiting story, because to me, you know, it’s one thing to decide “I’m going to work with these people. I’m going to be a part of this team because it’s a family.”.
But you you’ve taken it to another level, which is the level I love, by the way.
But tell us about that one.
Vince Petrella So, you know, I talked to Ryne and Dana about coming back and we decided that there was a place for me, I could help.
And as I came back and started assessing things, you know, I felt that there was a need for another position and another person.
And if you want to talk about putting actions behind your word.
Dana Morey Right.
Vince Petrella I don’t know of any other way of doing that other than to say, I talked to my son, who was looking for a job.
He was unhappy with where he was at and wanted something different. And I told him about this opportunity and I said, look, I understand, you know, I’m not trying to sell you on this,.
But I’m telling you, your future is here. And I think you should really think long and hard about interviewing.
So he came and met with Dana. That was Ryne. He calls me up and literally said, Dad, when can I start? I want to be a part of this.
And, you know, as a father, you always want what’s best for your son.
And there is no way I would ever introduce my son into an organization that I didn’t feel it could do for him and his wife, what it did for me and my family.
You know, so I will put my money where my mouth.
Dana Morey You know, and your son’s stud. I’m really grateful he’s here.
Vince Petrella He loves it and is just so happy to be a part of this.
And I really do think, you know, that is the future.
And he is gravitating to the movement that you and Ryne are putting forth. And it’s going to be a great ride.
Dana Morey That’s awesome.
And I get to see it both inside and outside.
So, Vince, yesterday we just had another quarterly review.
And one of the things that has changed fairly significantly since you were here the first time is that we have introduced a couple of tools that for our company, I really believe are game changing.
And the one I really want to talk about is our TRACTION, right?
There’s an acronym, EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System. And the specific iteration of that that we utilize is TRACTION.
So talk about that and what’s your experience? Because it’s cool.
Vince Petrella By far, it is the tool that got me excited about coming back.
Dana Morey Really?
Vince Petrella Absolutely. Bar none. Because, again, if I look at the previous version of Morey because I don’t want to say all because the previous Morey was pretty damn good, you know,.
But it was for its time. And today’s times, like I mentioned earlier, it’s fast paced.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Vince Petrella And you have to manage fast. You have to be able to track and know where everybody is doing and you cannot be on everybody’s shoulder.
You have to trust and you got to be able to look into tools to know that people are progressing in the direction that you want.
And if there’s an issue, it gets addressed right away.
And when I first got introduced to the TRACTION to me this was one of those lightbulb moments like this is how you become an agile company.
This is how you scale and this is how you hold people accountable and give them the feeling of pride and sense of ownership.
Because, to own it, you got to believe in it and you can’t believe in it if you can’t see it, touch it, feel it.
And that to me is what TRACTION and EOS in the Morey Corp is doing.
It’s allowing the leaders to pass that ownership down to the level, to the level, to the level below, so that everyone understands how their piece moves the peg forward.
Dana Morey And I think that’s really insightful because everybody wants to know how they’re contributing.
We want to see what my effort, you know, I left home and kiss my wife goodbye. I want to know today that I won the day, that I’ve done something that was meaningful.
And what this tool does is it gives us super clarity on what our outcomes are.
We’ve got a crystal clear ten year picture. We’ve got a three year vision, we’ve got one year goals, we have 90 day goals.
And then every week we run these sprints and we can get to the end of the week and say, either I won or I didn’t.
Vince Petrella Absolutely. It is, you know, the days of annual reviews. And if you were lucky, if there was a progressive company, maybe your boss talked to you six months, halfway through the year,.
But that was unheard of. To be able to have that rolling conversation weekly and have everybody in the organization understand,.
Wow, I did it this week and oh my God, I didn’t do it this week. I need help.
And you have a vehicle in which you can raise and elevate these issues so you’re not solving things by yourself.
You can command the efforts of your coworkers, and now you make it on the next one, or maybe it’s the one after that,.
But you have a vehicle and a mechanism to reach the goals.
Dana Morey [00:10:25] So that’s that’s another thing I love about it is that, there are problems.
There doesn’t have to be an any emotion anymore, right. It’s just an issue.
And we put it on the issues list. And if we need help, then we get help and we resolve the issue and we move on to the next one.
And the stress that that takes out of the system is just incredible.
Vince Petrella Right. You have to get out of the mentality of I failed.
It’s not about I, it’s about we. And TRACTION puts your role and your responsibilities into the greater good so that you understand that you are part of this.
And if you are failing, it’s not you failing. It could be the system, it could be the process.
It could be a million reasons. But you’ve got this kind of support system and vehicle to help you get past it.
Dana Morey So, Vince, that’s one of the keys to our organization, and this is down the center alley of who you are. But really it’s our values.
Because it’s more important who we are than necessarily what we do. Because what we do should be a reflection of what’s really inside of us.
And one of the values that is highlighted and really important to us is honoring one another.
We want the people that are part of this team, and the people a part of our extended team, our suppliers and our customers, to experience, honor.
That, we see them as valuable. We see them as important.
And how does this EOSs help us live out that value?
Vince Petrella It removes conflict from the negative to the positive. In the past, conflict was always bad.
It was people were afraid of conflict. I could be chastised, reprimanded.
What if I make a mistake? And in this new ecosystem of agility and moving fast and TRACTION, conflict is what helps us grow.
And you want to foster the environment of “don’t run from the conflict, run to the conflict” and get more people involved and own it, resolve it, get your teammates together and figure it out.
Because, from that conflict, we will learn so much more that we may avoid the bigger conflict down the road because we had the smaller one today.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Vince Petrella And that’s the thing I think that TRACTION changes the most is that most people would tend to defer and wait and wait, wait.
Well, then it becomes a hill that’s too difficult to climb. But when you get it in one week sprints, it’s not that big of a hill.
And it’s so much easier to get over and manage and own and feel a part of the victory that when you look ahead and if you do see a hill, you’re like,.
“oh, that’s not that bad. I could tackle that one.”.
And it just that energy and drive is what’s going to keep Morey moving forward ahead of everyone else.
Dana Morey Vince, you brought your son to the Morey Corp, so I think you’re really well qualified to answer this question.
If a young person were looking to build a career and it’s the beginning perhaps, or they’ve had a job or two and they’re thinking about coming to the Morey Corp,.
What is it that you would tell them to say? Yeah, you should pursue that or something else.
Vince Petrella Right. And, you know, when I thought about that, Dana, I think about what was important to me when I was at that age and where I wanted to go and and the values and the career goals and aspirations.
And what I told my son was, if you want to be a part of something, if you really want to be a person in a vehicle that is going to create and make change, then you will not find a better opportunity.
And as a young person who is just starting their career a couple of years, three, four, maybe even ten years, you want to be a part of something.
Everyone wants to be on a winning team. To me, there is no greater joy.
You know, winning covers a lot of things. Well, the one thing it covers the most self-esteem, self pride, just knowing that you did your best and you see that it had an impact on the organization.
And most importantly, the organization pays it back by rewarding you with recognition and honor and trying to make your life fit into the work life.
And to me, I couldn’t ask that path for anyone that I loved better than this.
And, that’s why I told my son about this, because I just truly believe that, as a person starting in their career a few years out of school, I don’t think you could find a better place.
Dana Morey Alright Vince, I’ve got one more question for you.
And you and I are a little bit older than than your son, certainly a lot of people that are here.
And we have seen a lot. We’ve seen a lot of changes. We’ve seen the world shifting in all kinds of different ways.
And here we have now this huge vision. Older people sometimes have a little bit more difficulty believing, creating enthusiasm.
Getting their heart and mind around it. So here it is. You’ve come back. We’ve got this huge vision.
You know us incredibly well because you’ve spent 20 years of your life here.
Where are you at with our vision?
Vince Petrella It is so exciting
Dana Morey So are we going to hit it? Are we going to do it?
Vince Petrella Oh, there’s no doubt. There’s just no doubt to me that the emotion that is behind the goals isn’t just, hey, rah, rah, you know, let’s try to do this. It’s “we’re going to do it”.
And that’s not a question that if it’s when. And that excitement, even for someone who’s on the tail end of their career …
I think about this and I think, “God, I hope I can keep up. I hope I’ve got the stamina to keep up because these are crazy, unprecedented times.”.
And you have to think in unprecedented ways.
And I hope I can continue to learn and grow and keep up because this is good stuff.
Dana Morey Vince, when you first started at the Morey Corp, we were a contract manufacturer, which means we received orders from another company.
We put their stuff together, we shipped that, sent them a bill.
During your time here, we had an epiphany. We had built our first satellite track here.
It was for one of the best companies in the world. And we were monitoring engines in the Saudi desert from a desk in Illinois.
And you actually watched that transition. Now you’re seeing that wireless technology in the connected product world just mushrooming.
It’s it’s expanding everywhere. What what do you think of when you’re looking at this world and how big is this going to be?
And how how long is this going to be sustained? Is this something that’s going to stick around for a while?
Vince Petrella I think…You hate to use words like limitless, endless, no ceiling.
But when it comes to the edge, which is what we’re talking about, I don’t believe we can even see that far to say when it might be.
Whether you’re talking about the edge of the network or IoT, we’re talking about products that are out everywhere and somehow communicating back quickly, accurately, effortlessly, without disruption.
And you cannot get better technology than that. And what we’re doing here at Morey and the innovativeness that is being put into these products just is so exciting.
That tells me that we’ll never see the end in our lifetime. It is, and I don’t even know if my son will see the end of it.
It is fast becoming the market, the only market that matters.
Dana Morey Vince, it’s really been great catching up. I’m really grateful that you’ve come back.
It’s just wonderful to have you around. You bring a ton of talent. You bring a wonderful attitude and a man of integrity.
So it’s an honor that you know us so well and you’re still fully in the game.
Vince Petrella Absolutely So thank you, it’s nice to have a home to come back to.
Dana Morey Thanks, Vince.
Vince Petrella Thank you, Dana.
Dana Morey So that was another Morey Moment. I’m Dana Morey. Thank you.
