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Speaker 1: Connectivity. It's huge. It's table stakes in a way, but

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Speaker 1: we find that people don't have connectivity, they spend less

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Speaker 1: time camping. And we got over our old attitude about

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Speaker 1: what camping means disconnecting from technology and you know, communing

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Speaker 1: with nature to look, if people are able to stay

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Speaker 1: connected when they want to be, they'll stay out in

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Speaker 1: nature longer. So it actually makes that experience better, not worse.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. As you

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Speaker 1: may know, I've spent the last fifteen years covering technology

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Speaker 1: and learning how it works, demystifying everything from massive parallel

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Speaker 1: processing to advanced robotics and everything in between. Yet it's

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Speaker 1: the conversations with some of the most forward thinking leaders,

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Speaker 1: those at the intersection of technology and business that fascinate

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Speaker 1: me the most. Today we're bringing you a conversation I

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Speaker 1: had with Bob Wheeler, the president and CEO of Airstream.

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Speaker 1: You know Airstream, the company famous for camping trailers with

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Speaker 1: that distinctive curved aluminum body. And you might think that

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Speaker 1: it's an odd choice for a show that's focused on

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Speaker 1: the tech sector, but as we found out, there's an

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Speaker 1: awful lot of technology involved from collecting and analyzing data

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Speaker 1: and an effort to evolve the product line to the

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Speaker 1: actual technology built into the trailers themselves. Bob has guided

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Speaker 1: air Stream through some transformative eras as the company embraced

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Speaker 1: connectivity as a way to encourage more people to set

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Speaker 1: out on a road trip adventure of their own. We'll

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Speaker 1: hear about the amazing e Stream prototype vehicle, which tackles

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Speaker 1: challenges like how do you create a towing trailer that

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Speaker 1: an electric vehicle can tow without draining its battery after

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Speaker 1: just a few dozen miles, And we'll learn about how

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Speaker 1: the pandemic had a counterintuitive effect on the company. But

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Speaker 1: first I wanted to get to know more about my guest. Bob.

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Speaker 1: Let me start off by thanking you for joining us

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Speaker 1: on the Restless Ones. Welcome to our show, Hey Jonathan,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you having me on and look forward to

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Speaker 1: our chat me too. And I always like to take

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Speaker 1: some time to get to know my guests before we

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Speaker 1: really start jumping into tech and innovation and leadership. So

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Speaker 1: what was your career journey to Airstream? Yeah? Sure, so

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Speaker 1: when I got out of my undergrad with a mechanical

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Speaker 1: engineering degree that was the University of Rochester. I went

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Speaker 1: to work for General Motors and worked there for five years.

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Speaker 1: Great first job, learned a lot, learned a lot about

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Speaker 1: it what I didn't want to do. And one day

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Speaker 1: a recruiter called the office for a different guy, and

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Speaker 1: he said, I'm not going anywhere, but there's this young

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Speaker 1: guy over here I don't know, so he transferred the

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Speaker 1: call in this. You know, this is how life works, right.

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Speaker 1: If I hadn't been at my desk, there's no way

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Speaker 1: she would have called back because she wasn't even calling

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Speaker 1: for me when I happened to be there, and she

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Speaker 1: recruited me into the RV industry, recreational vehicles. I moved

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Speaker 1: to Indiana and joined Fleetwood Motor Homes and Decatur, Indiana,

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Speaker 1: and I've been in the RV industry ever since. Wow,

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Speaker 1: talk about right place, right time. Can you tell me

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Speaker 1: a bit about sort of what your career trajectory has

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Speaker 1: been within air Stream? Yeah? Sure, So I came here

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Speaker 1: in two thousand two. I was the vice president of

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Speaker 1: product development and engineering and working for the then president.

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Speaker 1: A guy named Dicky Regal whould come in to help

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Speaker 1: turn the company around. He got promoted, went back to

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Speaker 1: our parent company, and I got promoted to take his place,

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Speaker 1: became a president. And I love Airstream. I've always loved

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Speaker 1: the aesthetic. I've always found it really captivating. I often

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Speaker 1: associate Airstream with nostalgia, But how has the company actually

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Speaker 1: innovated and evolved its products over time? The brand has

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Speaker 1: been around since n This is our ninety first year,

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Speaker 1: and you know, the brand came really into its glory

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Speaker 1: in the fifties and sixties and that great post war

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Speaker 1: period of See America and Root sixty six. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's why people associated a little bit with nostalgia,

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Speaker 1: and the fact that the silver bullet and iconic Airstream

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Speaker 1: travel trailer really hasn't changed that much visually in a

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Speaker 1: lot of years. A lot of our focus on innovation

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Speaker 1: has been in technology, so we know that people as

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Speaker 1: they developed technology and convenience in their homes, they want

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Speaker 1: the same thing in their home on the road. Things

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Speaker 1: like smart connected products that allow you to control and

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Speaker 1: monitor your air streams either locally or remotely, cloud enabled

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Speaker 1: app support and control, smart monitoring of resource usage, which

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Speaker 1: matters a lot when you're in an r V. You

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Speaker 1: don't think about it when you turn on your tap

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Speaker 1: in your house, but in an RV, you've got to

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Speaker 1: pay attention to that and power and LP and tanks

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Speaker 1: and so making a convenient and using tech not for

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Speaker 1: techt sake, but to make a better experience. Connectivity it's huge.

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Speaker 1: It's table stakes in a way. But we find that

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Speaker 1: if people don't have connectivity, they spend less time camping.

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Speaker 1: And we got over our old attitude about what camping

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Speaker 1: means disconnecting from technology and you know, communing with nature

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Speaker 1: to look, if people are able to stay connected when

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Speaker 1: they want to be, they'll stay out in nature longer.

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Speaker 1: So it actually makes that experience better, not worse. So

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Speaker 1: it took a bit of a paradigm shift for us,

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Speaker 1: but we're we've really embraced it. I love that you've

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Speaker 1: already touched on something that I really wanted to talk about,

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Speaker 1: which was the connectivity part of it. We're living in

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Speaker 1: an era where people undergo actual stress responses if they

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Speaker 1: are without their smartphone or if they see that those

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Speaker 1: bars go down to nothing. I know a lot of

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Speaker 1: people who over the last six months have started exploring

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Speaker 1: again and and traveling across the United States, and I

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Speaker 1: really feel that that connectivity part of it is an

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Speaker 1: absolute necessity for it. It allows them to stay in

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Speaker 1: touch with work. And since we've now moved to sort

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Speaker 1: of a hybrid approach with a lot of places, that

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Speaker 1: means you can work from anywhere, doesn't have to be

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Speaker 1: your home, and it also just gives them that extra

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Speaker 1: sense of comfort while they're still getting to engage that

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Speaker 1: adventurous side of their personality. Is that sort of the

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Speaker 1: philosophy that kind of guided air stream as you were

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Speaker 1: looking to do things like really support connectivity within your products. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that you really hit the nail on the head. It's

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Speaker 1: the ability to stay connected when you want to and

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean every minute, but you have the option. It's

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Speaker 1: not having the option that scares people, right, the ability

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Speaker 1: to stay connected with work. You know, we we say

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Speaker 1: you know w f H s w F A work

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Speaker 1: from home is worked from anywhere, and we've really promoted

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Speaker 1: that message during the pandemic that exploded and that's become

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Speaker 1: a real part of our customer base. It's safety. People

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Speaker 1: want to know if there is an issue, whether mechanical

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Speaker 1: or an injury or something and they're in a wilderness spot,

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Speaker 1: they can pick up the phone and get help. So

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Speaker 1: it's that sense of comfort and safety. So it's not

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Speaker 1: staying connected all the time, but it's having the option

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Speaker 1: that really drives these better experiences. We've been promoting the

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Speaker 1: idea of wilderness camping or boon docking, dry camping, camping

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Speaker 1: on National Use Force Service Lands, Force Foundation lands, national

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Speaker 1: wilderness areas. There are millions and millions of akers, So

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to camp somewhere you like you see in

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Speaker 1: the brochure exists, but in those places it's much much

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Speaker 1: tougher to stay connected. So we're trying to think about

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Speaker 1: the real use patterns moving forward and what we need

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Speaker 1: to do to support it from a technology standpoint, well,

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Speaker 1: out of curiosity, do those antenna include the ability to

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Speaker 1: receive and transmit in in five G frequencies? Yeah, we're

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Speaker 1: four G right now, but five G we're already scouting

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Speaker 1: good five G systems and as that becomes the standard

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Speaker 1: that fifth generation cell coverage becomes the standard, will migrate

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Speaker 1: to that just for the band with well, I love

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Speaker 1: talking about all this high tech solutions to improving and

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Speaker 1: evolving airstream. Is it ever a challenge to implement innovations

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Speaker 1: while also maintaining those customer expectations and staying true to

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Speaker 1: the aesthetic. Yeah, that's a great question. When I first

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Speaker 1: started at a stream, one of my friends said, what

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Speaker 1: do you do the product never changes? Yes, it does,

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Speaker 1: And let me tell you how. Most of the changes

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Speaker 1: we make and the innovations come under the skin and inside.

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Speaker 1: And luckily that shell is really the perfect example of

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Speaker 1: form follows function. It really functions beautifully for exactly what

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Speaker 1: it is. There's not a whole lot of need to

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Speaker 1: change it. So we're able to respect our past and

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Speaker 1: honor it, but not be constrained by it, and we're

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Speaker 1: able to push the brand forward and pack in innovations

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Speaker 1: and technology like connectivity. I talked about smart connected products,

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Speaker 1: really smart resource monitoring, So we're not afraid to push forward.

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Speaker 1: And frankly, our founder, while he buy them, he created

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Speaker 1: an industry, and he was inventing products that went on

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Speaker 1: their own then became major suppliers to the RV and

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Speaker 1: marine industries, like flush toilets and refrigerators and furnaces and

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Speaker 1: water heaters and awnings. And he invented these things because

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Speaker 1: they didn't exist. So the legacy and the history of

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Speaker 1: of innovation and pushing design and function forward is so

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Speaker 1: core to Airstream that we don't shy away from it.

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Speaker 1: Conventional thinking says you have to pay more to get more.

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Speaker 1: I want the world. But Team Mobile for Business uses

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Speaker 1: unconventional thinking to deliver premium benefits for better r o

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Speaker 1: I from customized five G solutions to three sixties support.

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Speaker 1: We help you reach your business goals right now, I

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Speaker 1: want it now, innovating to improve business today and tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: That's conventional thinking from T Mobile for Business. Capable device

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Speaker 1: required covers not available in some areas some US require

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Speaker 1: certain planter features Mobile dot Com. There was something else

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Speaker 1: I wanted to touch on, which is that I understand

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Speaker 1: airstream is extremely active in promoting environmental efforts. How does

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Speaker 1: air stream strategy align with environmentalism? How does that play

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Speaker 1: a part in your approach? So we think of our

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Speaker 1: our efforts to support sustainability in three buckets. One is

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Speaker 1: in the manufacturing process, the next is on the road

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Speaker 1: when it's being towed, and then the third is when

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Speaker 1: it's being used in its camping locations. So in the

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Speaker 1: manufacturing process, we've built a very efficient facility here where

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Speaker 1: we do our manufacturing in Jackson Center, Ohio. Led lighting,

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Speaker 1: variable speed compressors, recycling our rain bay test water we

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Speaker 1: use for leak testing, the products zero Waste to Landfill program.

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Speaker 1: We're looking at more sustain able energy sources. We buy

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Speaker 1: renewable energy credits today, which is a way to contribute

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Speaker 1: to renewable energy. We're looking at the potential of solar

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Speaker 1: fields here in Jackson Center to help support our energy consumption,

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Speaker 1: reduce our carbon footprint. And then when the vehicles on

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Speaker 1: the road, you know, how do we reduce the carbon

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Speaker 1: created when an air stream is being towed or driven?

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Speaker 1: And maybe the ultimate expression is this EA stream trailer.

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Speaker 1: I talk about where the battery on board can help

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Speaker 1: power the trailer forward, solar power on the roof. Almost

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Speaker 1: everything we ship out of here has some solar panels

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Speaker 1: on the roof, depending on the size of the trailer.

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Speaker 1: And then finally in the campground where it's being used,

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Speaker 1: solar power allows you to keep your batteries tapped off.

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Speaker 1: Low flow water fixtures allow you to keep your water

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Speaker 1: consumption low. So those are the three areas were able

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Speaker 1: to touch on sustainability and environmental support. It's great to

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Speaker 1: see a company practice these philosophies and then promote that

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Speaker 1: further all the way down to the customers, so that

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Speaker 1: we have this kind of ongoing chain of responsibility and

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Speaker 1: accountability while simultaneously enjoying everything nature has to offer. Well, Bob,

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Speaker 1: I want to learn all about the eastream concept and

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Speaker 1: the purpose that it serves with an air stream. Can

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Speaker 1: you give us kind of an introduction as to what

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Speaker 1: E stream is? Yeah? Absolutely, So the Eastream is an

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Speaker 1: airstream travel trailer. It looks pretty traditional and typical on

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Speaker 1: the outside to the naked eye, but underneath is a

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Speaker 1: fully integrated battery pack and power train drive train that

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Speaker 1: drives the axle at battery, two motors, wats of solar

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Speaker 1: on the roof, full smart control system with integrated app control,

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Speaker 1: Alexa voice control for some functions. So this is a

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Speaker 1: pretty high tech piece of engineering, and it's really driven

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Speaker 1: by the movement. And we started seeing this two years ago,

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Speaker 1: but it's really intensified in the past twelve months, even

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Speaker 1: six months. This move towards electric vehicles. So we make

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Speaker 1: motor homes and beautiful ones, but a lot of our

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Speaker 1: products are travel trailers that are pulled behind vehicles and

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Speaker 1: as those fleets start to migrate to electric evs and

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Speaker 1: battery power. But what do we need to do to

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Speaker 1: change our products to accommodate that. What can we do

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Speaker 1: to make sure that people don't have to make a

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Speaker 1: compromised toe with their evs. So that led to this

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Speaker 1: idea of the East Stream. It's a pretty simple concept

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Speaker 1: that's takes a lot of technology to execute. That big

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Speaker 1: battery pack which runs all the systems, allows you to

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Speaker 1: live off the grid with air conditioning, some pretty high

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Speaker 1: consumption appliances. And then also this is this is what

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Speaker 1: people are really interested in, even though it's one of

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Speaker 1: the minor features. So there's this lore and legend within

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Speaker 1: the RV industry that you know, backing a travel trailer

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Speaker 1: into a campsite is like this thing. That's this rite

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Speaker 1: of passage, and the air stream saying is wherever your

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Speaker 1: marriage is headed, backing in airstream up together, we'll get

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Speaker 1: it there faster. So this Eastern trailer, because it's got

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Speaker 1: powered wheels, you can get it near your campsite, unhitch

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Speaker 1: it and news use the app and your finger on

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Speaker 1: the phone, you can back it into the campsite without

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Speaker 1: your tow vehicles. So we call it the marriage saver,

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Speaker 1: and we think it's going to be a pretty popular feature.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of the money shot of mixture good optics.

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Speaker 1: But the real benefit of this platform is in all

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Speaker 1: those other areas. We packed a lot of concept and

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Speaker 1: technology into this and ways that will bleed down into

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Speaker 1: the product, our products for years to come. That's incredible.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you can do something similar for two

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Speaker 1: person kayaks, I would really appreciate it. I found that

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Speaker 1: that is probably the fastest route for marital disputes. And

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Speaker 1: tandem bikes. That's the other one I hit. Tandem bikes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: anytime you have two people having to work together very closely,

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Speaker 1: somehow the person in the back is never peddling, regardless

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Speaker 1: of who they are, not, right, that's right. Yes, it's

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Speaker 1: speaking to my heart here, Bob Well. I love all

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Speaker 1: the features you were mentioning with the east Stream, and

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Speaker 1: I think it's incredibly forward thinking for Airstream to be

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Speaker 1: looking at this, because, as you point out, we've already

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Speaker 1: seen countries around the world start to place a date

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Speaker 1: on when they will no longer allow the sale of

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Speaker 1: new internal combustion engine vehicles. And we even have a

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Speaker 1: couple of states in the US that are talking about

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Speaker 1: something similar. So the east Stream is essentially like an

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Speaker 1: R and D platform that demonstrates various technologies that you

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Speaker 1: anticipate are going to find their way into different airstream

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Speaker 1: models moving forward over the next several years. And that's right,

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Speaker 1: this was a halo product. Like I said, we packed

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Speaker 1: a lot in there. Now we need to go back,

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Speaker 1: and we are going back to say, all right, what

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Speaker 1: a customers really need, what's practical, what's affordable? Out of curiosity,

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Speaker 1: did you have any other experimental connectivity features in the

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Speaker 1: Eastream apart from the ones we've already discussed. I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously using your phone to control at trailer would be

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Speaker 1: a big one. Yeah. We already have a fully developed

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Speaker 1: smart control platform and a lot of that has to

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Speaker 1: do with remote monitor and control, so you can keep

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Speaker 1: track of your resources, which matter a lot when you're camping, obviously,

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Speaker 1: water power, LP, tank levels, temperature. You know, you're out

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Speaker 1: on a hike and it's hot and you're gonna be

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Speaker 1: home in twenty minutes. You can pull out your phone

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Speaker 1: and turn on your air conditioning. We'll put your owning in.

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Speaker 1: There's a storm coming in, and we you know, we

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Speaker 1: could have gone local and done it in bluetooth, but

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Speaker 1: we thought it was important and have remote connectivity and

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Speaker 1: cloud connectivity, and that also gives us access to a

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Speaker 1: lot of product data which is really going to help

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Speaker 1: drive better products in the future. Fantastic. I would love

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Speaker 1: to be able to talk about data analysis all day

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Speaker 1: because I find it so fascinating to be able to

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Speaker 1: find the signal amongst the noise. I mean that we've

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Speaker 1: gotten to a point with data collection where we can

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Speaker 1: get so much that the challenge then becomes how do

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Speaker 1: you find the meaning within all of that? And you

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Speaker 1: turn data into knowledge. Yeah, that's that's the challenge. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and then knowledge into actionable things you can do to

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Speaker 1: improve I mean, it's it's a multi step process. Before

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Speaker 1: it was how can we collect the data? Then it

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Speaker 1: was all right, we've got all this data, now what

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Speaker 1: can we do with it? And now we're at the

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Speaker 1: point where people are really innovating in the space of

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Speaker 1: analysis and then taking action based upon that analysis. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: AI applied to that massive data set can do some

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Speaker 1: amazing things. We're very focused on improving the customer experience,

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Speaker 1: the user experience, and there's so much we can do.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we can mind that for years to come

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Speaker 1: in ways that only make the product better. Well, let's

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Speaker 1: transition a bit to talk a bit about some challenges

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Speaker 1: and opportunities. We've mentioned a couple already, but one I

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Speaker 1: wanted to know about is what type of strategic partnerships

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Speaker 1: are important to the continued progress and innovation at Airstream. Well,

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Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. You know, you think about the

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Speaker 1: partnerships it took to get the EA stream to market

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Speaker 1: with companies like z F that manufactured the drive train

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Speaker 1: system and batteries. Are connectivity partners, are cloud connected platform partners,

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Speaker 1: even our cellular data partners that provide the data flow

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Speaker 1: for those connected trailers and people's you know, on site WiFi.

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Speaker 1: So really we are a brand about partnerships, and luckily

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Speaker 1: we've got a brand that people really like in respect,

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Speaker 1: so there's hardly a door we can't get open when

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Speaker 1: we come knocking and at least have a conversation. Can

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Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about maybe a challenge

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Speaker 1: you've faced while at air Stream and how you addressed it? Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: how much time do you have? I think all the

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Speaker 1: time you need. When the pandemic hit in the spring

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Speaker 1: of we immediately started to see these recessionary pressures, you know,

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Speaker 1: wages dropping, unemployment spiking, consumer spending dropping, and we immediately

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Speaker 1: harkened back to the recession of a eight o nine

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Speaker 1: was a broad spectrum recession and the RV industry to

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Speaker 1: com beat down, including Airstream, and so we immediately assumed

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Speaker 1: that it was going to be like that for us again,

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Speaker 1: and we cut of the company, just really got proactive

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Speaker 1: and we knew where things were headed. Well, lo and behold.

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Speaker 1: You know, we came back from our six week in

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Speaker 1: post shutdown and things weren't as bad as we thought.

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Speaker 1: They weren't great, but then within the following two months

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Speaker 1: this would have been May, June, and July, our sales

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Speaker 1: exploded through the roof dealer inventories cleared out, backlogs exploding.

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Speaker 1: So we really miss judged that this pandemic induced recession,

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Speaker 1: if you will, was very specific to certain industries and

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Speaker 1: really was a boon to others, and we were lucky

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Speaker 1: enough to be in the others category. So we'd laid

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Speaker 1: off folks. We didn't really need to lay off. We

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Speaker 1: should have kept producing at high speed and just didn't

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Speaker 1: anticipate at this this response. Now, we hired them all

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Speaker 1: back by August, so I feel good about that, but

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Speaker 1: we missed a market opportunity in the meantime. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's easy to cut production rates and very hard to

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Speaker 1: get them back up. When you're building a product by hand.

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Speaker 1: It's very crafted and you know, a lot of labor

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Speaker 1: hours go in. We should have been more thoughtful about

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Speaker 1: When I say well, I mean I should have been

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Speaker 1: more thoughtful about what we were really looking at and

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Speaker 1: not just thinking it was another broad spectrum recession. So

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Speaker 1: that was a painful lesson, but I'll take that one

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Speaker 1: with me. Before I could let Bob go, I had

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Speaker 1: to ask him one more thing. What's the best piece

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Speaker 1: of advice You've ever received? The best piece of advice

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Speaker 1: I've ever received. Hire people smarter than yourself, which luckily

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Speaker 1: is not that big of a stretch in my case.

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Speaker 1: And I have a sun world in a fantastic team.

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Speaker 1: I will I say, I have no talent except recognizing

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Speaker 1: talent and others. And I actually stole that quote from

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Speaker 1: somebody I don't know who. So, you know, surround yourself

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Speaker 1: with people that are committed to the cause. Don't be

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Speaker 1: afraid to hire smarter people than you are. They keep

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Speaker 1: you out of the weeds. They help make your common

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Speaker 1: cause that much more achievable and effective. So I've tried

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Speaker 1: to do that. Well, Bob, this has been a real pleasure.

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Speaker 1: I've really enjoyed our conversation, and after all of it,

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to get outside and do some more exploring. Yeah, thanks, Jonathan,

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Speaker 1: great chatting with you. Really appreciated a great questions and

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Speaker 1: you know, I hope we see it down the road.

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Speaker 1: Bob's philosophy is clearly aligned with air Stream's mission statement,

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Speaker 1: a company dedicated to craftsmanship, promoting outdoor activities, and staying

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Speaker 1: relevant in a world where technology plays an increasingly important role.

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Speaker 1: Hearing about how air Stream is committed to supporting customers

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Speaker 1: with value added features that in turn encourages those customers

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Speaker 1: to take some time to enjoy nature is well, it's

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Speaker 1: just cool. There's a restore orative effect you experience when

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Speaker 1: you get out there exploring parks, visiting new states and

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Speaker 1: just experiencing a new lifestyle for a while. And of course,

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Speaker 1: incorporating technologies that make getting away easier helps a lot.

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Speaker 1: I hope we see many more companies in the tech

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Speaker 1: sector adopt Bob's point of view when it comes to

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Speaker 1: finding ways to combat climate change and promote environmentalism and

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Speaker 1: innovate while still meeting customer expectations. And I really hope

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Speaker 1: I get a chance to spend some time in an

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Speaker 1: airstream myself before too long. Please be sure to join

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Speaker 1: us for future episodes of The Restless Ones. As I

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Speaker 1: talked to more leaders who are serving as the pioneers

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Speaker 1: of our future, I'll see you then. T Mobile for

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Speaker 1: Business knows companies want more than a one size fits

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Speaker 1: all approach to support. I want the work, so we

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Speaker 1: provide three sixty support customized to your business, from discovery

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Speaker 1: to the post deployment. You'll get a dedicated account team

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Speaker 1: and expertise from solutions engineers and industry advisors already right now.

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Speaker 1: I want it now, three six support that's customized for

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00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:21,160
Speaker 1: your success. That's unconventional thinking from T Mobile for Business