#063: Black & Decker – Making a better drill‪.‬ The Empire Builders Podcast

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Dave Young:



Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those.



[Mother's Brewing Ad]







Dave Young:



Welcome to the Empire Builders podcast. I'm Dave Young, alongside Steven Semple. Steven, when you told me today that we were going to talk about the company that we're going to talk about. It hearkened me back to days when I considered myself a bit of a handyman, I still feel like I can do some things, but we're talking power tools today. I believe you're not much of a man if you don't assemble your own flat pack furniture.



Stephen Semple:



So you're an Allen Key man now?



Dave Young:



That's right. Traded in my Black and Decker for an Allen key, but Black and Decker is what we're going to talk about today.



Stephen Semple:



It's an interesting story, because it was founded back in 1914 by Duncan Black and Alfonso Decker in Baltimore.



Dave Young:



Well, that's all we need to know, I guess.



Stephen Semple:



That's all we need to know. Today they are the largest manufacturer of power tools in America, and here's the cool thing. They even have a drill on the moon.



Dave Young:



There's a Black and Decker drill on the moon?



Stephen Semple:



The astronauts take up tools for doing the core samples. Black and Decker was the manufacturer of that. And of course, they left it behind.



Dave Young:



Are they still making things in the US?



Stephen Semple:



You know what? I didn't look into where their manufacturing is. In 2010 Black and Decker merged with Stanley tools. Today, they're part of that fortune 500 company estimated to be worth 30 billion dollars, they're a big deal. Going back to the beginning, when it was just Duncan Black and Alfonso Decker, they met in Baltimore in 1910 while working for the Roland Telegraph company. They were both employed there and they became friends. The thing that's interesting is they both had very, very different upbringings. Alfonso came from a very poor family. He had to drop out of school to take care of his family, but he was always a tinker and he made lots of inventions to get out of chores. You'd love this one, Dave, he didn't want to get up early to feed the horses.



Dave Young:



Mm-hmm (affirmative).



Stephen Semple:



He rigged up this thing that when the alarm rang, so he'd set up a clock, and when the alarm rang, it would open up a feeder to feed the horses. So he didn't have to get up to feed the horses.



Dave Young:



I like this guy already.



Stephen Semple:



Duncan Black came from a much more comfortable home. He actually didn't have to work, but they met, and they became friends. In 1914, while at the telephone company, Decker suggested, Hey, he's opening his own company, and he wanted Black to come with him. They decide to open their own business and do their own designs, but they don't have any money. So, Duncan Black sells his car to Alfonso's father-in-law for 600 bucks, and Alfonso mortgages his house for $600. Between them, they've got $1,200 to set up this machine shop.



Dave Young:



Okay. So, it's a machine shop that they're opening.



Stephen Semple:



That's where they start.



Dave Young:



Okay.



Stephen Semple:



They focus on manufacturing existing designs and they got some jobs to manufacture candy mixers and pocket makers and things along those lines.



Dave Young:



Okay.



Stephen Semple:



But business is slow and they decide to take a look at the power drill.