We sat down with Terry Horan, president and CEO of Stihl Inc., during the Equip Exposition in Louisville, Ky., to talk about his new role at the helm of the OPE manufacturer. Horan joined the company April 1, 2022. He had previously spent 17 years running the Bosch Power Tools group.
What key factors do you think are driving buying habits in the market right now?
Horan: If you break it down to the buying habits of our dealers and buying habits of our users, you might think about it a little bit differently. With the buying habits of our dealers, supply chain is on their minds and has been a challenge for most companies and continues to burden the industry, particularly around electronics. I think maximizing the productivity of their set and making sure they've got all the products in stock at the right place and at the right price is important. Also, having the right training for their people is important, something that STIHL spends a lot of time doing.
From a user perspective, it's really finding the right product for the application. And there's a lot of talk, obviously, about electrification in many industries, including ours. We've been at the forefront of that for many years, and we continue to innovate in battery-powered products. But battery isn’t right for every job. We think you still need the variety to choose from so that our users are getting the right product for their project, and a trained STIHL Dealer can help with that selection process.
That dovetails really well into the next question. Talking about innovation, what do you think is the most important innovation not just for Stihl but the industry as a whole over the last 10 years?
Horan: You have to, of course, look at battery and the technology that has evolved with batteries. I was around when we were selling nickel-cadmium batteries in the power-tool industry. I watched that evolve to lithium-ion, and then brushless motors, and now stacked lithium. You see the technological improvements in battery, and that will continue. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And we're excited about the future and some ideas that we have to bring to the market.
Let's talk about the zero-turns and Stihl’s entry into that market. Is it a departure for Stihl, which is synonymous with the products that you've been doing forever? How do you see that improving your space in the market and making things better for dealers?
That's a great question. I'd refer to it as an evolution rather than a departure because we've been in the walk-behind lawnmower business for some years now, and now we're entering the zero-turn business. It is a bit of a natural evolution, given our professional orientation as a company, but also the residential market is sizeable as well. This line of mowers expands our breadth of portfolio. STIHL users love the brand, and they love to be STIHL users. I think offering customers more in our portfolio really just complements what we have to offer them in hand-held, and it's setting us up for a brighter future as well, as we become a bigger, broader company.
Is there anything that keeps you up at night?
Horan: I don't know if it keeps me up at night, but it's something that's always on my mind — do we understand our users well enough? Do we understand what they maybe love about our competition? Do we understand the areas we need to improve to increase overall performance?
Are we then making necessary changes with enough speed? The market has changed. There's a lot of new competitors, and a lot of them came from the power-tool industry. It's an industry I'm very familiar with, and speed is something they're quite good at. For our company, we have to adapt. But that's something we've been doing for nearly 100 years. So I'm comfortable we will rise to that challenge.
What are you most excited about in this new role, not just for you or for the company, but for the industry?
Horan: I think it's really just maximizing the potential of the STIHL brand. To me, it has almost unlimited potential. I joined the company with such a strong foundation, so being able to build from that and find ways to grow, innovate and create truly new, innovative products and parts that make a difference in a meaningful way. STIHL strives to support our users with the tools that positively change their work and how they go about their jobs. And then just extending the brand. How far can the brand go? I think that's a really exciting opportunity.
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