Get to Know Rob Borislow, POWER’s Chief Production Officer

Culture

What does it take to go from an entry-level position at POWER to the C-suite? Just spend a few minutes with Rob Borislow to find out.

Rob Borislow began his journey at Power Home Remodeling in the field as a Customer Development Representative, back when there were just 25 other employees. Thirty years later, Rob sits on the leadership team as the Chief Production Officer, and POWER is one of the largest and highest-rated residential exterior remodelers in the nation.

In that time, Borislow has become the principal architect of POWER’s supply chain, established and grown its Delivery department, and won many fans throughout the business.

Let’s find out what makes him tick.

Fast Facts

Hometown: Plymouth Meeting, PA

Secret obsession: I’m a theater geek. I have to sit in the first 5 rows… The best show I’ve ever seen is probably Rent.

Bucket list: Building a house on a lake where I can walk out the door and jump into the water on a kayak or paddle board.

Typical lunch of choice: Yogurt or a turkey sandwich…gourmet, I know.

Favorite books: I like memoirs or autobiographies. My entire life I only read business books, so now I change it up. Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman is towards the top.

Favorite shows: That ‘70s Show! And yes, I already watched That ‘90s Show. On the weekends, I wake up before the rest of my family and sneak in a few episodes. I probably should use that time to make us all breakfast…

Favorite sports teams: All the Philly teams, but, my favorites in order are the Flyers, the Eagles, the Phillies, the 76ers, and the Union.

Powering Our Production

Rob Borislow — Borislow mentors a POWER employee, as part of the company’s leadership development program.

A Chief Production Officer is… different than a Chief Product Officer. You oversee anything from the point of sale all the way through installation and fulfilling warranty promises. At POWER, we sum it up as our Delivery department, which includes Project Services, Installation Services, and Supply Chain. My focus is specifically on Supply Chain, so all of the relationships with manufacturing partners, distributors, and vendors that supply and provide Power with product.

No day is… the same. Let’s just say that whatever problem is most urgent, that’s where my day takes me.

An exciting project I’m working on at Power is… building out our product warehousing. We only started to bring this in-house in 2018, and now he have a warehouse in every single one of our territories that runs efficiently and is staffed by POWER people.

My proudest Power accomplishment has been… creating the foundation of what we now call Delivery. For the first 13 years we were in business, we didn’t have an installations arm. So when it came time for us take on installations ourselves, I stepped up. It’s come a long way.

There’s a misconception that only working at one company your entire life… is a disadvantage. I started off entry-level right out of college, so if you asked me this back then, maybe I would’ve agreed because of a lack of experience. But POWER has brought in so many experts in the last handful of years, and that external expertise fills voids that you then get to learn from. It doesn’t matter where you are or how long you’ve been at a company, as long as you’re learning.

In five years, my goal for Delivery is… that in every territory and for every product vertical that we have, we are installing with maximum precision and speed.

Expert Insights

The biggest leadership philosophy I live by is… allowing people to get to know me and for me to get to know them. When you really understand your people, it allows you to form honest and authentic relationships.

The best advice I ever received was… to work hard when you’re young, so you can play hard when you’re older. Wise words from my dad. It’s the only good advice he’s given me.

Bridging the Skills Gap

POWER craftsmen learn fundamental construction skills as part of the company’s up-skilling program, the Dan Price Craftsmanship Academy.

Working in construction… gets a bad rap. There’s an assumption you won’t find a company that you can call home for the long haul. That there’s no culture.

There’s a high demand for… skilled labor, and a very low supply. People are not getting into the skill of construction like they used to. And we want to change that.

In order to offer a customer the best experience… we, as a business, need to have control over the entire process. If POWER people are performing the installations, they’re trained on POWER values and processes from the ground up. Everything POWER now does in-house, at some point in the company’s lifetime was outsourced. We operate from the mindset that we can always find a better way to do it ourselves.

The Dan Price Craftsmanship Academy… is POWER’s version of bridging the skills gap though our own, proprietary up-skilling construction program. We’re creating it from the ground up, and we’ve taken our time. I’m talking years, and years, and years of discovery work to build it the way we want to build it. And we’re not in a rush, we’re focused on getting it right. But sometimes getting it wrong is a bigger learning lesson in the long run. Our mission is to have POWER people who love what they do wowing customers and knowing their experience from beginning to end is going to be top notch every time.

Women, specifically, in our construction roles are… thriving. We see women excelling in every part of the business — not just Delivery. In the beginning, it was a conscious choice to send the elevator back down to bring more and more women into leadership roles. Now, it’s natural.

The Person Behind the Title

I wake up at… 6:30 a.m. and I’m out the door before 7. I get up, take the dogs out (my black labs, Lucky and Molly), shower, get dressed, and grab a yogurt. 23 minutes is my average.

The most influential person in my life is… my wife.

Being a dad… changed me. It’s opened my eyes to how someone becomes who they are meant to be. I have four uniquely different but good kids, and it’s the best thing. But don’t ask me if I have a favorite because my kids might read this!

The best jokester in the C-Suite is… a tough question to answer. J.D. thinks he’s the funniest, so let’s just give it to him. It’ll make him feel good. But it’s really me, though.

My dream ‘Quest’ lineup at POWER’s annual holiday party would include… The Hooters, Tom Petty (reincarnated), Billy Joel, and the headliner would be Miley Cyrus. I just love her — she’s very relevant in my book!

One word to describe POWER’s culture is… unmatched.

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