Hitting the Nail on the Head

Denise Nemchev's natural affinity for leadership took center stage at an early age. At 16, in her hometown of Akron, Ohio, Nemchev worked her summers at a small home improvement store— first working as a cashier, then working her way out onto the floor, eventually giving advice to customers usually more than twice her age on which box of nails to buy.

"I've always worked my way up pretty quickly," say Nemchev, now 37 and the youngest president of Stanley Bostitch.

As a kid, Nemchev was a straight-A student and self-proclaimed rubrics' cube wizard. "I've always been intrigued about figuring out how things work." To further pursue this innate curiosity, Nemchev went off to college to obtain a mechanical engineering degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a minor in psychology. She then pursued a Management of Technology MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "I wanted to not only know how machines and business work, but how people work too," she says.

After graduating in 1992, Nemchev applied for and was awarded an entry-level job as a process engineer at Stanley Tools. She moved up faster in the organization than she anticipated. "I wasn't necessarily looking to get ahead in the company," she says. "But I was presented with many opportunities and I took them."

Within 10 years, Nemchev was President of the Assembly Technologies Division, becoming the youngest—and first woman president—of any Stanley Works division in the company's history.

Nemchev says it took a few years for her to feel comfortable walking in "leadership" shoes. "I finally figured out that it was ok not to know everything," she says. She categorizes her fast-paced move up the Stanley corporate ladder into three basic groups: "I spent three to five-year increments as an individual contributor, then a manager and now, as a leader," she says. "With each change came more responsibility and the opportunity to learn and grow even more."

She dismisses the notion that women can't be taken seriously as a strong leader in, arguably, a male-centric company. "The ‘negatives' that people perceive about being a woman in this business are more perception than reality," she says. "If anything, being a woman has helped my career. I actually get more questions about my role at Stanley from other women than from men."

Ultimately, people will follow a leader who has the desire and track record of winning, she says. Nemchev prides herself on knowing "a little bit about a lot of things," and empowering people with the resources to carry projects from point A to point B.

You can hear the excitement in Nemchev's voice as she talks about a Stanley Bostitch product she's seen to market: the HurriQuake smart nail, released last year. "People spend a lot of money in construction, and new materials are emerging everyday. But something taken for granted, which hadn't received an innovative upgrade in years, is the nail." she says.

The nail's design features a 25 percent larger head that increases the holding power as well as a new shank design that reduces withdrawal failure. The nail is up to 50 percent more resistant to earthquake conditions and can withstand twice the resistance to high wind conditions in hurricanes. In fact, the nail's design was so unique that Popular Science named the HurriQuake nail the "Best Innovation of the Year."

"We tested the nail in simulated hurricane and earthquake labs," says Nemchev. "Now that was fun to watch."

The development and successful marketing of the HurriQuake nail is a perfect example of Nemchev's leadership style. "I made sure everyone had what they needed to make it successful," she says. "Then I let them work their magic."

Perhaps one of the most important lessons the youngest president of Stanley Bostitch has learned is that it's OK to make mistakes. But only "as long as you are learning and applying what you learn on your way from point A to point B," she says.