New Guardian Automotive President Discusses Future Plans, Focus
September 14, 2010

Mike Morrison

Guardian Automotive's new president, Mike Morrison, recently discussed his future plans and new focus in his new role with glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine. Morrison was named to his new position in mid-August.

"Like any good businessperson I'm focused on making a profit just like our customers expect their businesses to be profitable," he says. "I think it means providing products and solutions to meet our customers' needs and expectations and really focusing on things that maybe they don't know yet. We're bringing some new technologies to the market, and I'm looking at our own internal operations to make sure we have highly efficient manufacturing and all the right people to make the quality that the product needs today and in the future."

Though Morrison previously worked in the company's flat glass division, he says he plans to bring the overall Guardian philosophy to the auto glass arena.

" … It's not so much that I've been with the flat glass side, it's that I've been with Guardian for [more than] 20 years. So really it's bringing that overall Guardian philosophy that we drive our businesses with our people," he says. "We don't allow bureaucracy to occur in our business, and we really drive to be a profitable business, but you have to have the right manufacturing, the right people in our manufacturing and the right customer base. I think pulling all those items together is key."

Morrison also sees some new technologies on the horizon.

"Obviously there are some products that are used today in Europe, for example IR [infrared-reflective] and also HUD glass for the windshields that we're looking to produce, assuming that the industry wants that in the [United States]," he says. "We're looking at some laminated product, both laminated and acoustic laminated, for sidelites. And we're looking at sunroofs-it used to be a product that just let the air in and now you have anything from solar panels to switchable glass to lamination for safety, so [there are] a lot of new things on the horizon. Hopefully we're looking a little bit ahead of it."

Be sure to watch for the September/October 2010 issue of AGRR magazine for more from this exclusive interview.

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