Employers

Every employer and every job function performed throughout a career contribute to  the overall capability of a potential employee.  It is not the latest position that an employee has held that determines potential contribution but the sum of all the pieces.

The best university-trained, brightest graduate student may be no match for a seasoned professional.  Additionally, an individual who has performed the same job function for 15 years may be no match for an individual who has a varied background of experiences.  

Each staff member brings a different vision and function to every position s/he holds.

I have been fortunate to have been employed by a series of employers who were attempting to expand the horizons of their market.  From Dalton High School who initiated a program to complement carpet industry operations by teaching marketing and advertising to Salem Carpet who began development of a sales training program that would transition the industry from selective distribution to mass distribution.  Each employer had a vision for changing the methods of business as usual. 

Every position I have held has been a foray into uncharted territory. While not every vision may have been my own, I felt uniquely engaged and challenged in working to fine tune this vision, and apply my own unique fingerprint on the position.  Becoming a contributor in the shaping of a new enterprise will take pieces of each individual participant's DNA and mesh them into a successful activity.

From a Carpet perspective I have moved from the manufacturing floor to sales (retail and wholesale) to technical and industry communication.  I have a unique vision of the industry from top to bottom and have a unique perspective of Carpet Industry history.

Glidden/Home Depot	The Glidden/Home Depot was a unique experience.  This program used three program components (communication, training, third-party relationships) to increase Glidden market share within Home Depot.  The program was immensely successful in leveraging space for Glidden within Home Depot.  In the end, moving away from this program caused a complete collapse of Glidden within the Home Depot environment.  Moving away from core concepts and the adoption of these concepts by Behr resulted in complete collapse of Glidden corporately.
Collins & Aikman	Working with C&A in Technical and in helping to develop their closed-loop recycled flooring was a satisfying experience.  In working with C&A to alter their message from a "recycled only" focus to helping them focus on (innovative) reduced maintenance costs and lowered long-term lifecycle cost of customers was a new concept for carpet.  At the time carpet was under pressure for the high cost of maintenance required for satisfactory service life.  The carpet industry (as a whole) was focused on stressing the need for more maintenance to limit biological concerns.  I introduced a concept that C&A Carpet Tiles were less expensive to maintain than other flooring systems, if an organized maintenance program was introduced.  I personally, put together these maintenance plans for each large customer.
Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI)	An employee rarely ever has the opportunity to work for an entire industry.  Even more rare is the opportunity to step into a crisis firestorm and travel through to the other side as the result of a highly successful communication plan and solid, coordinated industry strategy.  The carpet industry transitioned from daily attacks by the media, 21 class action suits and significant loss of market share to holding it's own with limited media attack.  While design trends have changed to prefer hard surfaces, this is a temporary shift due to aesthetics rather a concern for health impact.
Salem Carpets/Shaw	I was among the first wave (#3 recruit) of sales reps who came through with the Stainmaster revolution.  Mike O'neill (Salem) hired hundreds of sales reps and put together a comprehensive training program to crank out this continuous training process.  This was a unique experience because, after Shaw, Salem was the first carpet manufacturer to grow it's dealer base tenfold.  This was not easy for those of us who led the way.  Moving from 5-7 retailers in the Indianapolis Market to more than 50 required top-notch negotiation skills and integrity.
Carpet Buyers Handbook	The CBH was a very worthwhile experience.  It was an original concept that grew out of my efforts at CRI.  Part of my job function at CRI was to publish enormous amounts of information for consumers on buying carpet.  However, I could never be completely honest in the information I published.  In other words, I could never say "Olefin crushes".  The CBH was published and uploaded to assist consumers in buying more carpet.  In 1999 - 2000 it was one of the first all infosites on the WWW.  It became the first website to offer online competitive price quotes from a variety of vendors.  It became a Google authority site and had the power to raise/lower the ranking results of advertisers on the site.  The site was sold in early 2007 to Quinstreet - the proprietors of Lending Tree.
Dalton High School	DHS has always been one of the most innovative school systems in the US.  In 2009, DHS offers High School courses on website design.  In 1982 the concept of teaching marketing and advertising to high school students was cutting edge.  In 1982, this was "so" cutting edge, I was forced to use my University of Georgia textbooks to construct my own course outline.  There were no plans to follow or prior objectives to meet because I was developing this course material and trying to teach high school students.  This experience set the course for everything (career) that followed.  I am well-versed in creating my own roadmap.

Michael Hilton

706-463-2168