50 | FORBES ASIA JUNE 2018THE
RETOOLING
OF STANLEY
BLACK &
DECKER
Jim Loree wants to turn a 175-year-
old manufacturer into a company as
innovative as any in Silicon Valley.BY AMY FELDMANGLOBAL 2OOO
I
n 2014 Stanley Black & Decker set up engi-
neers in a Towson, Maryland, strip-mall oi ce
with instructions to come up with something
new in cordless power tools. Three months
later, James Loree, chief operating oi cer and
chief-exec-in-waiting, had a look.
The Towson engineers demonstrated a clever
way to arrange cells in a battery to make the volt-
age adjustable. Loree asked what they would need
to get the battery out the door in a year. The reply:
$30 million. “I looked at the CFO and said, ‘Are we
good for that?’ and he said, ‘You bet,’ and of they
went with their $30 million,” Loree says.
Stanley is an ancient fi rm, still making tape
measures in the rust-belt Connecticut city of
New Britain where Frederick Stanley opened a
hinge-and-bolt shop in 1843. How does a com-
pany survive for 175 years? By throwing money at
long shots like that battery. Says Loree, “History JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES