Your Career, Your Business: Jack Truong on the Art of Reinvention
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention — but it’s often the mother of reinvention as well, according to innovative chemical engineer and seasoned CEO Jack Truong, whether you’re working toward creating a fulfilling, successful career or building a resilient business model that’s got both the tenacity and agility to survive unexpected pitfalls, stretches of less than ideal market conditions, and an ever-changing technological landscape. As someone who’s spearheaded three major corporate turnarounds, brainstormed 11 groundbreaking patents, and lived and worked on three continents over the course of his career, Truong should know.
Transitioning From Engineer to Executive
There’s more to Jack Truong’s success than the old “a shark has to keep moving forward or perish” mentality. Forward momentum is indeed fundamental for establishing and maintaining a flourishing career or business; however, even more crucial to continued growth is having the ability — and the desire — to adapt to new challenges. Truong cites his own career trajectory as a case in point.
Fresh out of university with a newly minted Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Truong landed a coveted spot in the research and development division of the U.S.-based multinational 3M conglomerate. Out of the gate, Truong was tasked with improving and adding to the company’s wide-ranging portfolio (which currently boasts 60,000 products across a dizzying array of industries and applications). In his first two years at 3M, Truong developed 11 unique U.S. patents — including one that led to the introduction of the brand’s revolutionary Scotch-Brite microfiber cloth.
Truong’s energy, focus, and propensity for problem-solving garnered him notice and won him accolades within the framework of 3M’s corporate hierarchy. Recognizing Truong’s larger potential, he was offered a role in management. “That’s when I transitioned from being in the R&D and technical side of the company to the business side, and I was moved to Europe to run 3M’s home cleaning product line,” Truong recalled in a CEO Magazine profile.
Switching gears from inventor to executive was a natural progression for someone like Truong, who embraces the value of transformation as an essential part of any journey. Truong continued to evolve into his leadership role at 3M. After a series of promotions, in 2003, he returned to the company’s U.S. headquarters to take charge of its office supplies division. Truong’s recently acquired responsibilities coincidentally occurred at a watershed moment in technology that ushered in a whole new digital age.
How Jack Truong’s Reinvention of a Core Wheel Kept 3M’s Profits Rolling
At the heart of the latest industrial revolution was a device known as the BlackBerry. A precursor to the smartphone, while the original BlackBerry’s capabilities might seem extremely antiquated by today’s standards, its impact irrevocably altered the way the world does business and put one of 3M’s core products — the Post-it Note — at risk of extinction. As hungry consumers eagerly flocked to the highly touted timesaving and networking capabilities of BlackBerry and other emerging devices’ techno-wizardry, the call for many traditional office products began to wane.
Rather than let the Post-it Note go the way of the dodo, Truong came up with a brilliant strategy to reinvent it. A deep dive into market research revealed consumers’ increasing use of cellphones and laptops for sending and receiving quick communications. Truong saw that there were still some instances when only a hand-written note would do. He seized on that unique need and parlayed it into a wholly revitalized product line.
“Every time someone sent a text, that was one less Post-it note used,” Truong told CEO Magazine. “We found people still wanted to be able to leave messages, but not always on paper … Sometimes, they wanted to stick a note to a computer screen, to a chair, or a cubicle wall.”
But in order to take advantage of that specific need, the Post-it Note would have to undergo a radical transformation. Originally designed to stick paper to paper, a new product line was created that allowed the product to better adhere to nonpaper surfaces. “We invented a new-to-the-world adhesive that did,” Truong said. “Then we made them in very catchy colors and in different shapes and sizes so people wouldn’t miss them. We reinvented a business of paper that sticks on just paper to a business of paper that can also stick on any vertical surface, which is a much larger opportunity.”
The Jack Truong-inspired renaissance of the Post-it Note reversed his division’s once-flagging sales figures and transformed it into a highly profitable enterprise. “All of a sudden, the business took off significantly because we created new applications to address the unmet needs of consumers,” Truong noted. Post-it Notes remain one of 3M’s most popular and bestselling product lines.
How Jack Truong’s Professional Evolution Transformed Electrolux
Having achieved glory after 22 years at 3M, in 2011 Truong was ready to take on new challenges. The next step in his career saw him lead the Electrolux corporation on a similar upward trajectory to the trail he’d blazed at 3M. Using the same strategy, Truong assessed the company’s assets, identified an unmet need in the market sector, and then set about boldly restructuring resources to satisfy that need.
Truong recounts that when he signed on as president and CEO of Electrolux’s U.S. holdings, while it was a $4.2 billion business, it was just treading water as far as profits were concerned. “The company saw North America as a mature market and didn’t expect any growth,” he said. “In fact, when I took over, the company wasn’t growing and profit was declining.” But at his first global leadership meeting, Truong made it clear he wasn’t buying into that scenario, telling his international counterparts: “There’s no such thing as a mature market, there’s only mature business managers.”
From Truong’s perspective, North America was a huge market still rife with opportunity if you knew where to look for it. Studying the landscape revealed Samsung and LG — heavyweights in the consumer electronics sector — were Electrolux’s chief competitors. Thanks to cutting-edge innovations with phones and televisions, both companies enjoyed reputations as technological giants. For Electrolux, historically associated with old-time vacuum cleaners, any chance of beating them on that score came at long odds.
But Truong’s further consumer research revealed that while the majority of high-end products produced under the LG and Samsung labels might be chock-full of electronic gizmos, many consumers actually preferred home appliances with fewer bells and whistles that were both easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. Bingo. The unmet need was identified. “We put more focus on the design to make our products eye-catching, beautiful, and easy to use,” he recalled.
With Truong at the helm, Electrolux’s value more than doubled. Once barely afloat, the company rose from third place to second in the U.S. market and is now considered an elite brand known for its dependable, decorator-friendly appliances.
Jack Truong: A Final Thought on the Positive Power of Reinvention
While Jack Truong understands that letting go of the familiar can be difficult — especially when the status quo has served you well in the past — in the business world, he firmly believes for anyone hoping to remain at the top of their game, the risk of not taking risks can prove much more damaging in the long run. “Throughout my career, I also have been the face of change at companies. It has not always been easy, but I suspect I have a slightly different perspective that enabled my success, he revealed in the Insights section of his website.
“As a leader, I seek opportunities to create something meaningful. Some of my favorite memories are when I was inventing things. But not just in the literal sense. Business transformations are also opportunities to invent — or reinvent — people, businesses, brands, and reputations.”
Originally published at https://thebossmagazine.com on May 16, 2024.
