Dean Woods likes to be on the right side of a problem. That’s not to say that he expects to always be right, but he does seek a positive platform from which to operate.
“I tend to focus on positive things,” he says. “When I walk away from a situation, I think about what we did right and what we can do differently, rather than what went wrong. There are plenty of negative influences. If you allow them in, they can overwhelm you and affect your performance.”
It’s this kind of thinking that took Woods to C.J. Hodder Lumber Co. 16 years ago. Woods had been working for the Lincoln Financial Group selling mutual funds, insurance and retirement annuities, when Skip Hodder, who is now company president, approached him about joining his family’s business.
Hodder and Woods had become friends while both were members of the Jaycees, a service and social organization that focuses on building members’ business and management skills.
“It was an opportunity for me to become involved in a successful family business,” Woods says. “I felt that if I didn’t try it, I might regret it. If it didn’t work, I could always go back to what I was doing before.”
Woods will be the first to tell you that it’s worked out just fine. He’s found a home at the company, which began in 1957 by providing industrial lumber for crating and packaging materials. C.J. Hodder Lumber made its first foray into the bedding industry in the 1960s when it began providing bed frame materials to Simmons Bedding Co., a relationship it maintains to this day.
About 15 years ago, the Pittsburgh–based company decided to focus its efforts in the mattress industry.
“This is the Rust Belt and some of the other industries we had been working with had changed economically,” Woods explains. “The bedding industry was consistent so we decided to become a specialized business offering a specialty product.”
The company’s commitment to the industry extends to active participation in efforts to strengthen it. For Woods that means consistent, long–term involvement in the International Sleep Products Association. Woods serves on the ISPA board and its Executive Committee and is chairman of the Suppliers Council. He also serves on ISPA’s Better Sleep Council and is a member of its Mattress Disposal Task Force.
“You get out of something what you put into it and we’re vested in the long–term success of the industry,” Woods says.
True to form, Woods sees many of the challenges currently facing the industry, including market instability, currency fluctuation and raw material price volatility, as opportunities.
Woods points to ISPA’s efforts to maintain a duty exemption for radiused foundation components in the current Softwood Lumber Agreement between Canada and the United States as an example of meeting challenges head on.
“This was a real political football,” he says. “We worked with ISPA and (ISPA President) Ryan Trainer for a long time until there was a successful result.”
Music, music, music A quick look at the playlists on Woods’ iPod reveals a man who loves music—all kinds of music. Scroll through and you’ll find ballads, rock ’n’ roll, heavy metal, blues, rap, jazz. Favorite performers include Tony Bennett, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Kid Rock and B.B. King. He attends as many concerts as he can and fondly remembers proposing to his wife, Lisa, after a Tony Bennett concert.
Ol’ blue eyes Speaking of music, Woods is an unabashed Frank Sinatra fan who grew up listening to the crooner. One of his favorite memories is of attending a Radio City Music Hall event that combined 1950s–era film clips of Sinatra with performances by the Rockettes and the Radio City Music Hall orchestra. “I went for the whole Sinatra experience,” he says. “I wore his trademark Fedora all over town and had dinner at Patsy’s Italian Restaurant, where he used to hang out.”
Everyday heroes An avid sports fan, Woods follows the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins closely. These days, however, he’s having a hard time respecting all of the players. “I admire people who go to work every day, work hard for their families and try to do the right thing. I enjoy sports and entertainment, but a lot of these guys are proving themselves not to be heroes.”
Bedside reading Woods is reading The Last Lecture, a book based on a talk given by Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Randy Pausch after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Throughout the book, Pausch, who died in July 2008 at age 47, stresses the importance of living life to the fullest. “Because of his age and the age of his children, I can relate to Pausch in a lot of ways,” Woods says. “I’m finding the book very uplifting.”
Bio in brief
Name Dean Woods
Company C.J. Hodder Lumber Co.
Title Vice president
Location Pittsburgh
Education Woods earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Robert Morris University.
Age 46
Family He and his wife, Lisa, have been married for six years and have two young sons.
