Saylor Huang | CEO | Skyreach

Regardless of what, why, and where you lead, you—as the leader—are directly responsible for engaging those who follow you. And engagement is assisted by your culture, which you are also responsible for as a leader. This is why leaders must set the right tone for the organization—engagement, culture, and the employee experience. Leadership means inspiring others to achieve specific outcomes, whether you are leading a family, a class, or a corporation. And it’s up to a leader to decide whether they are leading positively or negatively—and whether they choose to focus on engagement or merely output.

Saylor Huang believes that a key to effective leadership is the capability to define outcomes and then help individuals put their talents to utilize to get there. He feels the best leaders know their people and are more informed of those people’s strengths than they are of their flaws. Great leaders aren’t blind to their own or others’ weaknesses; they know their competitive edge lies within their strengths. The attributes of Saylor, the CEO of Skyreach Group, which contribute to the company’s success, include patience, perseverance, humility, willingness to learn, and hard work, but most importantly, the ability to identify opportunities and associate himself with quality stakeholders – within and outside the organization. His business instinct and market and financial analysis helped him maneuver through challenges and crises.

The modern world looks significantly different than it did only five years ago. The emergence of a more innovative, connected world has dramatically changed customer and employee expectations. At the same time, successive crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertain economy have forced businesses to stay on their toes and learn to react in real-time. As these changes have shaken companies to their foundations, the most successful leaders have cultivated new skill sets to handle emerging challenges better. Saylor states empathy, communication, decision-making, resilience, delegation, self-awareness, and agility constitute today’s business environment’s seven most important leadership traits.

Curbing Industry Challenges

According to the pioneering leader, numerous challenges plague the present window and door manufacturing industry, including the increasing pressure to provide highly thermally efficient window and door products due to the worldwide Green Initiatives and increasing energy costs. Alongside this, inflation and labor shortages increase manufacturing costs.

Skyreach has designed and introduced new windows and doors with higher R values. The energy-efficient windows include multi-chamber design frames, triple-glazed IGU with better coating on the glass lites, and more effective seals. Alongside sourcing, supply chain improvement and production automation will improve cost savings. Inflation and rising interest rates may reduce demand for home renovation, but more importantly, new home construction; hence, Saylor and his team monitor the market, applying flexible production capacity where required.

Skyreach Group Incorporated was reinvented from its precursor, formed in 2004 as a Patio Doors manufacturer and Window Profile Systems distributor. In Concord, Ontario, Skyreach Group serves patio door and window customers in the GTA, Canada & USA. They live by their simple and effective core value system, striving for continuous improvement in every business area.

Creating A Brand

The success story of Skyreach Group Inc. (“Skyreach”) symbolizes hard work, patience, perseverance, and collaboration with key people within and outside the organization. Saylor started a humble company in 2004, designing, subcontracting, manufacturing, and selling/distributing equipment and tooling/dies for the extrusion of polymers, especially PVC (“vinyl”). Its primary customers are in the window, patio door, and door manufacturing companies, but it reaches out beyond the industries, as mentioned earlier. In 2006, Skyreach expanded its business downstream by offering extruded PVC profiles – custom profiles and its own window and patio door systems – across North America. Skyreach also provided its customers with prefabricated patio doors to complement the windows manufactured by its customers.

In the early 2010s, Skyreach took its products and services to the next level. With the consolidation of the extrusion business, Skyreach saw the opportunity to provide a “complete technical solution” for its small to medium-sized window manufacturers, which the larger extrusion companies neglected. It provides services, including testing for certification, production software and automation, Bill of Material creation, technical manual, and QC and QA process and procedure. Skyreach’s services to small and medium-sized window fabricators enable them to compete successfully against their larger competitors, thus empowering them to grow in revenues and profits.

In 2016, Skyreach started a division called Skyview Windows and Doors (“Skyview”) to fill the vacuum that its customer network of window manufacturers cannot load. Skyview does not compete directly against the (small and medium-sized) window manufacturers as it targets large home builders and developers. It now sells to homeowners in territories across North America where its window fabricator network cannot be serviced.

In 2018, Skyreach started Ultraseal Glass Corp. to manufacture Insulated Glass (IG) units for its window fabricators, thus becoming a one-stop shop for its customer network. Skyreach supplies over 5 million sf of windows and doors for replacement and new construction markets.

Towards A Successful Future

Skyreach has been successful in Ontario and a couple of neighboring states in the USA. It plans to repeat its success in other provinces in Canada and grow in the other states in the USA. Increasing product designs to meet the tastes and requirements in the new territories requires market research, product development, and market penetration strategies.

For the days to come, Skyreach plans to grow its revenue by 20% – 30% each year while maintaining or increasing its bottom line. Skyreach has also tried to increase the supply network of the window and door market, including hardware and other accessories. Skyreach has also expanded (and will continue its expansion) into other building products. An outdoor product company, Nextwood, was launched in 2020 to manufacture and distribute decking (cellular PVC) and fencing (rigid PVC) and has grown by 600% in 3 years. Other complementary building products are already on the drawing board. Skyreach has also acquired a lot in Southern Ontario and is planning to build a centralized manufacturing and distribution facility by 2025.

Skyreach’s path has evolved from a supplier of equipment and tooling for plastic extrusion to a multi-faceted building product conglomerate. “Every failure and every success have built the company to where it is now. No bridge was broken so badly that it cannot be rebuilt,” says Saylor. “There are numerous opportunities to collaborate with not only peers but also those who want a great future and have similar goals as you. We are looking forward to the future with a positive mindset and determination to make a change.”