Each month, HomeWork features an AHAM member’s insights on careers, success, life outside of work, and AHAM membership. This month, we spoke with Rick Roth, an AHAM member for more than three decades, an air cleaner expert, and fellow in nutritional product development and analytical sciences with Amway.
Name three goals (personal or professional) are you pursuing in 2018.
1. Define and implement a new stability program prospective trend tool (predictive modeling) for product performance.
2. Develop a single-use personal, very inexpensive, hand-held monitoring system for specific chemical species.
3. Teach a 15 year-old student with cerebral palsy to hand write letters and form basic words.
How do you jumpstart your morning?
Well, coffee is a requirement, but I take a short walk on our property and out to the barn every morning regardless of weather. Often, I’m cold and wet (or both) when I get back, but I’m awake and ready. At the office, the first thing is to review listings of new technical publications in the areas of health, technology, and theory from the day before – while drinking coffee.
Predict an innovation that will revolutionize the next generation.
I’ll predict two.
The first is a set of global subterranean probes equivalent to WiFi that will provide a real-time tectonic plate interactivity profile tied to all public and personal communications systems.
The second I will call “Presence” or “Place” – an expandable personal, family, or group sensory system that monitors the surrounding environment for safety/security, comfort/energy use, location, and interactivity. A system that is capable of: differentially adjusting energy use to the individual/family/group presence; monitoring health vitals; notifying of schedules and security threats – all upon request or automatically, if preferred, and using pull not push technology.
What is the best career advice you have ever received?
If at all possible, love what you do, but also be good at it. And perhaps the best advice I’ve given is to “learn or die.” It is always best to have a passion for what you do and to stay current with the industry technology and market trends.
What home appliance can you not live without?
You would expect me to say air cleaner, but I will say refrigerator. I think the refrigerator is the greatest appliance ever marketed. The refrigerator has permitted people to maintain food in a clean, preserving environment for extended periods. Without refrigerators, we would have more illness, more daily time spent on travel, lower quality food, and less available food. Refrigerators alone could likely be traced to have enabled the growth of modern cities.
What do you gain from your involvement with AHAM?
Standardization, uniformity, and information. AHAM provides a “home” for performance standards that evaluate and test products; an environment and culture for a uniform “playing field” with an open market; and the means to acquire and disseminate information for regulatory conditions, technical best practices, and market status.
What is your best advice you have for somebody who wants to succeed in the home appliance industry?
Get involved; know your products, markets, and customers. And by the way, AHAM provides a place for all of those.
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Melanie Cook
