Jim Ziminski looks to innovation while empowering the Crane Renovation Group staff

Ziminski is using similar techniques the second time around. In his first Crane company, vinyl siding was on the downslope of its lifecycle, but sales, marketing and product innovation, along with a rebranding, propelled the relatively small player to something much larger within the industry. Ziminski wanted to do the same thing with Crane Renovation Group. But he initially underestimated how much harder it would be to rebrand 19 locations in the service industry, compared to his prior experience with one manufacturing location.
The effort to bring the brands together has increased their ability to learn from each other. Creating a hot zone, for example, in order to do digital mapping was initially geared toward the company’s residential roof business, but Ziminski says it’s been applied to the commercial side as well.
The commercial side’s service-centric culture, which includes giving out 10,000 bottles of their own barbecue sauce each year, and its discipline for how to work and manage projects is now echoed in some practices on the residential side.

Inspiration from outside the industry

One key lesson Ziminski has taken to heart is to not let an industry define you.
“I’ve always been a big believer that most innovation comes from outside of an industry, not inside,” Ziminski says.
For example, Crane Renovation Group embraced the 3-D models built by a San Francisco software startup HOVER early on. Employees take photos of someone’s home in an app and within 30 minutes have a 3-D rendering with accurate measurements and the ability to change siding, windows, roofing styles, etc.
“When we say we want to be different and innovative, we don’t look to other contractors or roofers. Nothing against them. We look outside our industry and say, ‘What are some cool, different innovations we’re seeing that could be applicable to our industry?’” he says.
The ability to stand out from its competitors is the byproduct of this approach.
The company knows, for instance, that residential customers buy a roof because they need it, and they expect to have a bad experience. Crane Renovation Group uses its service, systems and strong communication to overcome that expectation by doing things like, before a salesperson comes to the house, sending out a biography, photo and description of his or her vehicle.
Innovation is exciting, but it’s also important to get buy-in. Ziminski says sometimes it’s hard to obtain that from site managers who are used it doing things their own way. That’s why they need to understand the value and payback.
The same holds true for younger employees.
“People deserve to know why. I’ve always believed that, but it certainly comes to the forefront of all businesses now. The younger generation, in particular, they want to know, ‘Why am I doing this? What’s the value to this?’” he says.

A diverse mix

Since Ziminski joined the company in 2014, he’s also consciously brought in a wider range of talent — people who weren’t from the contracting space with 20 years of experience.
“It’s healthy to have a good mix, and when I got here, we didn’t have the best mix,” he says. “So, there was an effort to bring in a different way of thinking.”
Crane Renovation Group uses its size to recruit, letting new hires know they aren’t working for a small roofer with one location — there’s room for career growth. The culture of the parent company, the Crane Group, is also helpful. People outside of Columbus may not know the Crane family, but they can appreciate an environment that’s family-centric and philanthropic with open, honest communication up and down the organization.
The company is willing to be flexible. Ziminski gives his people flexible hours, encourages them to be on social media and offers them responsibility.“We bring them in, work with them, watch them and what I would tell you is, they push us, if we get out of their way,” he says. “Sometimes managers that have been around, that’s a hard thing to do when someone new is coming in and pushing you, but we encourage that and I think it’s helped us to get talent.”