Michael bartholomeusz: shifting the paradigm.

• Author: Johnson, Melanie
• Position: Utah

Michael Bartholomeusz was hired as CEO of Draper-based company HZO in July 2013 to manage the company's growth and operational excellence. HZO has created a product that protects electronic devices from corrosion and extended liquid immersion, virtually making worrying about water damaging electronic devices a thing of the past.

Describe your business and the services you provide.

We provide a solution to our customers called a nano coating. It's the application of the nano coating inside of electronic devices so that you don't see it, touch it or use it. It's invisible to the end user. It's applied to the devices which renders them liquid proof. You can have your cell phone in your pocket when you're doing laps in the pool. You can drop your e-reader into your bathtub. The case is like the mosquito net. We are like the vaccination.

Describe your role at HZO.

The company has transitioned from commercialization to growth, and I was hired to manage the growth phase. My focus at HZO has been operational excellence to support that growth. Our business lifecycle involves three elements: initiation with the customer, execution with a customer and realization of the solution in the market with the customer. The challenge is to make those individual cycles as short as possible, so we're shrinking the life cycle of our product so we can go to market faster. By doing so we can increase our bandwidth to accommodate more and more customers. Six months ago, we had 20 customers. Today, we have 40 customers. In the next six months, we will have close to 70 to 80 customers.

Describe your contribution to HZO's growth.

A lot of my job has entailed hiring talent, putting together comprehensive organizational development programs, and ensuring that we have the right organizational platforms. I also ensure that we have the right enterprise planning and information-systems platforms so that...