Evolve, and quickly, for Success

One Last Thing

Evolve, and quickly, for success

Robyn Smalletz, Gloria Duchin Inc. President and CEO

Gloria Duchin Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of metal ornaments, jewelry and accessories founded in 1979 in East Providence. The company employs 150 Rhode Islanders during peak manufacturing season. PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELY

In 2008, it became clear to me if we were to sustain our business during the shock and awe of the Great Recession, we were going to have to recalibrate our thinking on how to operate our business. The narrative of business changed, and our company would have to as well. I have always believed in collective wisdom, and the struggling economy accelerated my plan of reorganizing our team, which now is termed in today's vernacular as a flat organizational structure. From open-door policies to collective thinking, we are more nimble and execute ideas more quickly than before. We continually sharpen and assess our focus, are more accessible to our team and customers and move at a faster pace. I attribute much of the latter to technology. And it is technology that has allowed our company to be competitive with offshore manufacturing, enabled many of our team to work remotely and provides us with greater access to information. In 2014, we increased our market share by 30 percent by instilling a clear set of priorities: Aggressively pursuing different account bases with new product; Investing in new manufacturing technologies like 3-D modeling to better control costs; Enhancing cross-training development with the office-management team as well as on the factory floor. Innovation in management philosophy and technology has been fundamental to our success, allowing us to keep production in the U.S. and continually expand and develop with the changing market.