Charlie Brammer (l), vice president, and Bob Brammer, president

Youth is daring, creative, and innovative - which are also the key ingredients of entrepreneurship. And it is these qualities that are changing the face of an old company in the RV industry - Stromberg Carlson Products, Inc. Lead by one of the industry's youngest management teams, Stromberg Carlson has redefined itself in the past few years since the torch of leadership and ownership was passed from Bob Brammer, Sr., to his sons, Bob, Jr., 35, and Charlie, 32.

Bob started with Stromberg Carlson after college in 1983 and has been actively leading the company for more than six years, but it wasn't until Bob, Sr., passed away in 1993 that Bob officially took the title of president and chief executive officer. Charlie, who joined Stromberg Carlson in 1992 as operations manager, is vice president.

Founded by their grandfather David Stromberg and a partner named Carlson in the 1930s as a tool and die job shop, Stromberg Carlson - under Bob Sr.'s leadership - became a major supplier-manufacturer of steps, leveling jacks, stacker jacks, bike racks, pickup truck tailgates, and a variety of other products for the RV, manufactured housing, mobile office and automotive industries. And while the products remain substantially the same, there is little resemblance between the company RV News saw in 1992 when we last visited - and Stromberg Carlson today.

Bob and Charlie completely restructured the company and built a new facility in Traverse City, MI.

RV News asked how the company is different. Bob said, "Dad's not here - that's different. But we talk about him every day."

When the Brammers talk about their father, there's a hint of irreverence but also an obvious love and respect. They talk about him as if he were watching their every move, and frankly, the brothers are not convinced that Bob, Sr., would approve of the direction they have taken the company.

But there's no doubt about who is running the company. Bob is making the day-to-day decisions. He said, "I guess that may be the most significant change. Instead of Bob Brammer, Sr., making the decisions, Bob, Jr., is. Dad was autocratic. He asked opinions, and I think I do the same thing; I ask everybody's opinion, but I don't listen to them all. I make the decisions. I'm either going to succeed or fail on my decisions; I'm not going to succeed or fail on somebody else's."

Stromberg Carlson is a much more aggressive company today than it was before Bob and Charlie became owners. Bob explained, "When I started working here, Dad would have been 52. So here he is in his early fifties trying to make one more push at a big deal. He had already made some money, and his company was doing okay. The product lines were lacking a little bit, I think, and the quality was lacking a little bit too. Something he would do better than us is that he probably shipped on time, better than we do. But there were some things he was never going to do. You have to understand he had invested in an oil tool venture that backfired, and he lost half-a-million dollars of his own money. And when he lost all that money, I think he got scared. I would have been scared. And so he was being pretty conservative. And of course, for me and Charlie just coming into the industry, it was real easy for us to be maybe too aggressive. And, hey, it's not our name on the paper, right? Dad's got enough money so it's easy for us to say, let's go buy a new punch press; let's build a new building; let's go buy a new paint booth, and I was probably too aggressive. I wanted to do everything."

Even when he finished school and started working for Stromberg Carlson, Bob had a vision for what he wanted the company to be. He saw where the company was and he wanted to grow it to its maximum potential. He looked around at other industry companies and wanted to build Stromberg Carlson. He said, "I wanted to be like Barker and Tekonsha, I mean those guys have had a professional program for a long time, but we were not on their level as far as our programs, capabilities and product. We want to be at their level. And not just be the company that Barker is but the people that Jack Budrow and Joan McKinnon are. It's not hard to look around the industry and recognize the companies that are respected and why they do well. They have good products; they are good people; and they treat people right. Maybe that part hasn't changed. Dad was that way. He wanted all those things too. But Dad wasn't going to launch forward; he was going to hang on." Continued