About Michael Olosky
Michael Olosky, President and CEO of Simpson Manufacturing, discussed the company's role in the building materials industry in interviews in October 2024. He described Simpson as a structural solutions provider whose products account for about 1% or less of building materials but are important to structural integrity. Olosky attributed the company's growth to its product line, service model, and a values-based culture derived from founder Bark Simpson's nine principles, which he said encourages employee ownership and decision-making. He stated that the company manufactures most of its connector products in the U.S. using locally sourced steel.
Olosky said Simpson is investing in digital solutions and artificial intelligence, including using AI to analyze blueprints for bill of materials and structural components. He noted the company has grown 250 basis points above market over eight years and 800 basis points above market over the past two years, while expressing belief in the housing market's mid- to long-term prospects. Olosky also mentioned partnerships with the Building Talent Foundation to address trade shortages and said the company is focused on water, energy, and waste reduction across its facilities.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Michael Olosky's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Judy0:09
Mike, it's great to have you on Floor Talk today. Thanks for joining me.
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Michael Olosky0:12
Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.
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Judy0:15
Now I want to start off by talking about the company. Tell me about Simpson Manufacturing and the role it plays in the building materials industry.
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Michael Olosky0:21
So we're a leading structural solutions provider to the building construction industry. Judy, typically our products or solutions are about 1 percent or less of the building material, but we're super important to the overall structural integrity of the building. Our main product line are connectors. These are engineered stamped steel products that connect wood in the housing industry. For residential housing, we're typically the metal in the house.
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Judy0:46
Now you've consistently outpaced market growth. What are the key factors in your business model that have driven this success?
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Michael Olosky0:53
So we take what we think is the broadest and deepest product line of structural solutions out to the building and construction industry as a one-stop shop in structural solutions. Then we help them build safer, stronger structures, and that typically results in a lot of specifications that drive our business. And then we also really focus on service. We take those 10,000 SKUs that we have and the 10,000 ship-tos that we send them to in the US, and if somebody places an order today, we typically ship it out this afternoon and they get it the next day. So that service is also a big part of our competitive advantage and the reason why we've outpaced the market over the last several years.
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Judy1:27
Now tell me, how does Simpson continue to innovate and manufacture products profitably in the USA?
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Michael Olosky1:34
So we've got a really big sales team, probably 300 plus people out in the field. They are working with our customers every day, so we get a good feel for what they're looking for. We have teams that are working with engineers and code officials to understand what they're looking for. And then we also have people that are doing a lot of testing. When we do testing on these big systems, and we've got a pretty unique lab that enables us to do that, we're able to find new opportunities where we can add value. We can make something stronger, we can make something safer, we can improve the efficiency of it. And then we run those through our product development and our engineering teams, and we come out with products that we manufacture in the US. For our connector products, we make almost all of them in the US. We buy all of the steel locally. We think that's great for the US economy and that helps us provide great service to our customers locally.
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Judy2:17
All right, and finally Mike, tell me more about the values-based culture, or the secret sauce, that drives your success.
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Michael Olosky2:26
So I think that secret sauce really is the individual interpretation of our nine values. And so our nine values came from our founder, Bark Simpson. He, in fact you can look it up on YouTube, did a recording on nine principles of doing business, and we've adopted those nine principles as our values. And so the secret sauce is really how do you interpret and you live those values. My example for this, Judy, is it creates a level of ownership. When you read those values and you live them out, that secret sauce creates a level of ownership that is fantastic for our customers and our teams. So they don't run everything up to the top and ask something before they should do it because they know what's best for the customers, and they just do it. And 99.99% of the time, that's the right thing for the customers and for us, and they're doing that because they feel like they're owners of the business.
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Judy3:12
All right, well Mike, it's been wonderful to talk with you. Thank you for joining me on Floor Talk today.
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Michael Olosky3:15
Thank you, Judy. Appreciate it.
