Q-Lab Westlake: A Winning Combination of Success and Culture

Customer satisfaction and the personal fulfillment of its employees are among the driving forces of Q-Lab Corporation, presenting sponsor once again this year for Celebrate Westlake 2018.

For more than 60 years, Q-Lab Corporation of Westlake has been a global provider of material durability testing products.

President Doug Grossman has taken the principles he learned from his father, founder George Grossman, and helped grow the company into an American manufacturing success story.

Their products and services are used to test coatings, plastics, automotive, personal care, roofing, inks, textiles, pharmaceutical, packaging and sealants internationally. They are a large exporter to China!

“Success does matter, but so does the personal job satisfaction of our employees,” says Brad Reis, now COO of the company.

“Some of the things I have learned from Doug may initially seem counterintuitive to the bottom line, but they are the right things to do in terms of serving our customers and creating a culture that attracts and retains the best people.”

That is why Q-Lab is such a prominent presence in events like Westlake’s Corporate Challenge (which Q-Lab won last week) and Celebrate Westlake, that sees are a large contingent of Q-Lab participants each year.

“These events build teamwork and camaraderie,” says Reis. “Folks that play together, stay together.”

“We love everything about Westlake,” says Grossman. “Working in Westlake is a big advantage to us in terms of attracting the people we need in our business at Q-Lab. We require highly skilled, highly qualified people who enjoy the quality of life Westlake offers. From the city’s safety and service personnel to the quality of the community overall, Westlake has everything we want. We love it here.”

Those are the qualities that also attracted Reis, a New York City product with University of Pennsylvania Engineering and Wharton School of Business qualifications to Q-Lab in 2011. “Why would an east coast kid like me come to Cleveland?” smiles Reis. “Lots of things – Cleveland’s sports teams, the quality of life here in Westlake, the opportunity to work close to home. Everything in Cleveland is low hassle. And, most of all, the ability to find personal satisfaction in working in a fantastic culture.”

Reis started his career on a corporate scale. The son of an orthopedic surgeon in New York, he was always a mechanical engineer at heart. He even started a profitable business at 14, using home-made robots to entertain at parties. He launched his career – literally- with the GE AstroSpace Division as a Communications Satellite design and integration/test specialist. “As a kid coming out of school, that sounded really great,” he said. “But what you do all day long is just a small part of what really makes you happy in a company.”

So he moved on to Gore, the makers of Gore-Tex® fabrics and variety of other high technology products. It was here that Reis discovered how culture could really impact a company. “I learned so much about culture and cooperation; it was a place where you learned how to lead and not just manage.” After 13 years, it was time to move on to GrafTech, a large publicly held company with local Cleveland roots. But after just about 7 years, Reis longed for a different environment.

Reis was looking for something special – a firm that was small, self-contained and family-oriented, international in footprint, and with a winning culture and business principles.

He found it at Q-Lab.

“Always do what’s best for the customer, and not necessarily what’s best for Q-Lab,” says Reis of the lessons he has taken from his mentor, Grossman. “It’s a unique position, a privately held company that doesn’t have to answer to shareholders, just the conscience of its leadership,” says Reis.

“Doug’s rules are simple – just do the right thing with customers. The bottom line will take care of itself if you develop a great product, sell it at a fair price, and truly serve our customers.”

Q-Lab employees are hired for the same qualities. Engineers, technicians and manufacturing professionals who share a mission of service. And that mission of service is not just for customers, but also for vendors and each other.

According to Grossman, it is this commitment to tried-and-true American values that fuels the success of his company. “We employ a variety of different people with different skill sets. But they all have one thing in common – they get satisfaction from helping other people,” said Grossman.

“Getting pleasure out of helping others is one of the things that makes our culture so attractive,” said Reis. “Yes, we know that a business exists to make money, but when you have a culture that also makes people happy, work can become a heck of a lot of fun.”

Q-Lab Corporation has been named a Top Workplace by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for 2018. This is the fifth time Q-Lab has earned this honor, and the fourth year in a row.