Standing strong in home-remodeling industry

Corey Schiller had barely turned 30 when he became chief executive of what was then a $130 million home-remodeling company.

Now Power Home Remodeling Group, of Chester, employs 1,350 and will report, Schiller said, $300 million in revenue for 2014.

Schiller, 32, a soccer-playing history major, was 21 when he and his best friend started at Power as junior salesmen right out of college. Two years later, Schiller earned a promotion to lead a marketing department of 40 people. He was 23 years old.

Question: How did that go?

Answer: There's never a good reason to have a closed mind and that, unfortunately, is a situation I stepped into. We had a lot of people that had been here for a really long time, that had never been held accountable, that had never been pushed, and the professional standard, in my opinion, was very low. That, in addition to being a young man, in addition to not having a lot of experience, meant that it was really hard.

Q: How did you earn respect?

A: I've done almost every job here at Power. And I realized along the way that the only way you can be an effective leader of someone - no matter what their position is - is you have to know their position and you have to be able to do it with excellence, so you can teach them how to do it with excellence.

Q: Some young execs strive to create an informal atmosphere - jeans, beer on Fridays.

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Standing strong in home-remodeling industry