Bishop, Paul

You have to be willing to change, in life and in business.

My father started this company by producing gas conversion burners for old coal furnaces. Then he started doing some metalworking when, one day, out of the blue, a man came into the office and asked if he knew how to bend metal tubing. Dad didn’t know how, but he learned.

The most formative event in my life happened when I was 10 years old.

We were visiting friends of my father when someone walked up to us and said our plant burned down. We piled into the car and drove to the site. A reporter from the Canton Repository walked up to my father, flipped open his notebook and said, “I suppose this is the end.” My father looked around, staring at the wreckage, and told the reporter, “We’ll ship in 10 days.” And we did. My father, to this day, is my hero.

His intellect, his entrepreneurial spirit, his ability to work with people and his technical knowledge just made for an unbelievable combination. And that was all packaged in an irreverent, irascible devil. He was just crazy.

My mother has always been a staunch ally, a stickler for detail, a punctual wizard. If Dad was always late, Mom was always on time. If Dad was the messy entrepreneur, Mom knew how to put a ribbon on it and make it look good.

In the military, it didn’t matter who you were, what your net worth was or what your family circumstances were. Once you were brought into a military unit, you needed to collectively devote your efforts to the cause you were involved in.

I’ve taken this same philosophy into my business life. People who don’t pull their weight are a drag on the mission of the whole organization. Not only do they not accomplish what they are asked to do, but they are a detriment to what the entire organization is trying to do.

The only employer I’ve ever had, other than H-P Products, is the military. That is very meaningful to me.

Life can change in an instant. In April 1976, I was driving with my mother to our advertising agency in Marion. We were talking about Watergate, and I thought she started yawning. She was having a stroke and never saw the office again. I was 33, and I’ve been in the front office ever since.

Family is more important than any business I could ever run. I married my college sweetheart, and we’ve been together for 42 years. We have two daughters, and they are the lights of my life.

I love to cook. I started when I was 10, though not by choice. It was just after the fire, and Mom started working for Dad seven days a week. I basically became an employee of my parents, taking care of my brothers, cooking meals and cleaning the house. I never got to go out for sports, and I resented that a bit, but doing that work instilled a great work ethic in me.

I keep a red rubber nose in my pocket, most often during business meetings where I’ve been asked to speak. If somebody spends too much time introducing me, talking about all the great things I’ve done, I’ll walk up to the lectern and begin my speech wearing my red rubber nose. I like to take a little of the hot air out of the room.

People want to believe in something. They want to work toward something. They want to take risks if they know there is a safety net of some type.

Pushing people out of their comfort zones is important to me. After all, a rubber band is useless if it’s just lying on a table. The only way it has any value is if there is tension. As leaders, we have to create the right amount of tension to advance the cause.

I watch and think about all the professionals I have worked with over the years. I learn from everyone.

People do things for their own reasons, not yours. That is not, in itself, good or bad. It’s just human nature.

Leadership has two main elements, and both have to exist or there is no leadership at all. First, there needs to be a vision, a direction, a goal. Secondly, a leader has to be able to communicate that vision or direction to others, and what you expect them to do to help you get there.

I’m a serious amateur photographer. Being a good photographer is a lot like being a good leader. You have to be able to deal with people. You have to communicate to them what they need to do to give you just the right look.

I didn’t know how generous my father was until his funeral. He never sought recognition. He just made things happen. He taught me you have to persevere, to be decisive, to be a man of your word and to have integrity. And you need to have a hell of a good time while doing it.

BISHOP'S CAREER TIMELINE

1943: Paul Bishop is born in Elyria to Harold P. and Mabel Bishop, owners of a small office repair and equipment business.

1945: Harold Bishop and his brother-in-law, Paul Schumacher, form a partnership to manufacture gas conversion burners for residential coal furnaces.

1953: A fire destroys H-P Products’ Broad Street plant. The company rebuilds.

1955: H-P Products shows the first home-based central vacuum system at the National Home Show in Chicago.

1965: Harold Bishop dies after a series of heart attacks at the age of 51. Mabel Bishop becomes president of H-P Products. Paul Bishop graduates from The Ohio State University with a degree in marketing, enters the Army as a second lieutenant and is ultimately stationed in Youngstown.

1967: Paul Bishop is discharged from the Army and joins H-P Products full time.

1973: Paul Bishop graduates from the University of Akron’s night law school and passes the bar.

1976: Mabel Bishop suffers a series of strokes and is forced to leave the company. Paul Bishop becomes president at age 33.

1981: H-P completes construction of a second manufacturing facility on Main Street in Louisville. David Bishop assumes the vice presidency of H-P.

1985: H-P begins mass production of automotive parts.

1997: H-P partners with U.S. Coupling to provide METFLO compression couplings. H-P completes a 60,000-square-foot addition to the Main Street plant.

1999: H-P produces its 5 millionth stabilizer bar for the automotive industry. H-P is first in the central vacuum industry to offer consumer online ordering, at vacuflo.com.

2005: VACUFLO, the first central vacuum system for homes, turns 50.