Chase Marshall Reflects: First Year as CEO of SMG

After 10 years at Suburban Manufacturing Group, Chase Marshall stepped into the role of CEO just one year ago. After a record breaking year, Chase sat down with us to reflect on the past year and give us a glimpse into the future here at SMG.

What brought you to Suburban Manufacturing Group?

I had a Major in Entrepreneurship and minor in Art & Design. Those interests collided and I wound up taking on a Marketing Internship that I found through meeting Brad Barger while in between shifts at the local men’s hockey pickup game. I quickly learned that Suburban provided me the latitude to grow professionally; I also found that my often-ambitious and entrepreneurial mind was something that could be mutually beneficial for the company and my own personal growth goals.

Just a short 365 days ago, you became Chief Executive Officer Suburban Manufacturing Group. After one year, how have you grown personally and professionally?

First and foremost, I’ve been lucky to spend time learning from some of our brightest minds throughout the organization. This has provided me the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the organization’s internal strengths and opportunities.

What past experiences have helped you adjust to your new role?

Anything and everything that is physically and mentally challenging.

Related to my time here at Suburban, Sales & Marketing - the world of sales is uniquely pressure-ridden. On the other hand, Marketing’s longer-term and brand-oriented perspective has provided me a great counterbalance. Both require an explicit understanding of the companies value proposition.

"without the grit from our entire production staff, we never would have achieved the double-digit growth we saw in 2022."

As Chief Executive Officer, you interact with countless individuals daily.  What has been a standout interaction/moment for you in the last year?

2022 presented a number of memorable scenarios and there are were countless moments throughout the course of the year that were positively impactful. The immediate recall for me - walking out on the production floor, both early and late in the year, and witnessing the resiliency of our production teams; working together and finding ways to get the job done regardless of that week’s specific obstacles. We struggled to fill open positions and without the grit from our entire production staff, we never would have achieved the double-digit growth we saw in 2022.

How do you see yourself growing with Suburban?

We will need to continually reinvent ourselves in order to stay innovative and competitive. Our people are truly vital to Suburban’s ability to adapt. This will challenge all of us, including myself, to zoom out and refine our current way of doing things. The problems that we’ll face tomorrow will be vastly different from those we face today. Myself and the organization will need to become more proficient at solving complex problems so that we can then blueprint and repeat the process.

We know that a year goes by very fast. What can we expect from Suburban this year?

New products – we’re focusing on expanding our existing product lines and speeding up our go-to-market. We want to provide our design and manufacturing engineering teams greater intimacy with each diverse product line to improve our value to the market and efficiencies through production.