Dave Richard, President of Harmony Systems & Service, LLC (Harmony) is a manufacturer through and through. An engineer by trade, he’s always thinking about ways to improve quality and efficiency, and he loves a documented process. Richard joined Harmony, a privately held, custom plastics injection molding manufacturer located in Piqua, Ohio, in 2005 as Plant Manager.
At the time, Harmony was a small company with $5M in sales, 35 employees, and 5 key customers in the automotive space. Today, they provide injection molding and product assembly to consumer and industrial clients across North America. They cover everything from high-quality plastic parts to complex product assembly, with a focus on customer satisfaction through tailored solutions to make sure products are made, packaged, and delivered right to them.
Strategic Evolution and Expansion
When Dave joined the company, he promised the owners, Ed and Nellie Adams, to grow and diversify the company. “We had razor thin margins in automotive, so we made a conscious decision to move into consumer goods, industrial products and, more recently, packaging. We were lucky enough in 2007 to get a contract with the Playtex Corp to make Diaper Genie®. For 13 years every Diaper Genie® in the world was made at Harmony, and we still manufacture them today," Richard says.
In 2017, Harmony was purchased by a private equity group with a desire to invest in and grow the company vs. spin it off. Richard shares, “As part of our growth plan, in 2021 we bought another injection molding company that gave us expanded capacity in our plant. At the same time, our business development leader retired. We decided that instead of directly hiring another one, we wanted to understand more modern ways to reach out to people to achieve our growth goals. We were referred to CMO-OnLoan as a marketing consultant that could help.”
Expanding Reach to Foster Growth
Amy Connor, Founder, and CEO of CMO-OnLoan, says, “Harmony has this incredible business built by great customer relationships, referrals, and repeat business. But they wanted to double in size, and to do that they needed to find new revenue sources. We helped them clarify their promise and secret sauce (what makes them different). We overhauled the website and set them up with an ongoing awareness building program via LinkedIn. We began testing digital ads as a source of leads. Importantly, we set up a tracking system to measure the impact of the work they are doing.”
Richard says, “I love that the CMO-OnLoan team came in from Day 1 and said, ‘We have a documented process for this.’ Anybody in manufacturing looks for a process that can be documented, repeated, and measured. That’s what Amy laid out for us.”
Connor is proud of the work they did together. "Harmony has a website that helps them in a way it never has before. We helped them understand the best approach for them to stay engaged on LinkedIn. They are already seeing the benefits with 3x the engagement and more website visitors. But mostly, I’m proud they are seeing the link between actions and results.”
Today, Harmony delivers over $25M in annual revenue with just over 100 employees. As a top 5 company in Piqua, Richard wants that impact on the local community to continue, and he knows the only way to do that is to continue to innovate and grow.
Harnessing the Strength of Harmony's Story
Connor shares, “Harmony is a hidden gem. I’m so excited they are now telling their story, and my guidance is to just keep telling it. Don’t underestimate the power of sharing what you do every day.”
Richard closes saying, “With some consultants, when they leave, nothing has changed. It doesn’t feel that way with CMO-OnLoan. We have changed.”
The manufacturer in him can’t stop before adding, “And at the end, I love that we have a documented process and a scorecard.”