Lessons in Leadership

Three years ago, Brainerd-based Stern Co. Inc., now called Revolv, faced three challenges common to many manufacturers: It needed to clarify its core values, instill them across operations in different locations, and navigate a change of leadership to the next generation.

How Revolv leaders addressed all three challenges while establishing a path for future growth is the focus of an outstanding feature by writer Mary Lahr Schier in the upcoming issue of Enterprise Minnesota® magazine.

In 2022, the company rebranded its manufacturing arm as Revolv Manufacturing, referencing the rotating molds it uses to make everything from kayaks to giant fuel tanks to delivery robots at its three locations across Minnesota. The name change coincided with a shift in the company’s core value statements as well as the increasing role of the next generation of company leadership.

A top priority for Revolv was clarifying what drives the company. “We had things like ‘integrity’ as core values,” says Julie Henne, the company’s director of human resources, “but shouldn’t we always have integrity? So, we asked ourselves, ‘Honestly, what are our core values?’”

The company’s leadership, which includes owner Shawn Hunstad and his sons, Cole, now the company’s vice president, and Jordan, director of operations, came up with three statements: We Show Up. We See the Possibilities. We Make It Happen.

The most important of these is “We Show Up.” Jordan Hunstad says that’s because it captures what should drive employees each day. “It’s being engaged with continuous improvement, looking at the processes we have and seeing what we can do better. That’s a big thing for our operators and secondary operators to be fully engaged in what it means to be here.”

CEO Shawn Hunstad started Revolv and its sister company and sales arm, AxisNorth Solutions, in 1995 as a broker and small manufacturer in the plastic and rubber business. Hunstad’s sons joined the company, which generates joint sales of $42 million, more than a decade ago.

Jordan started in 2012, working in almost every capacity on the production floor before being named director of operations in 2025. Cole joined the firm in 2015, starting on the floor as well, but soon moved into sales. He currently runs AxisNorth and is vice president of Revolv, with the plan that he will eventually move into the president’s chair.

With a goal of growing the joint business to $100 million in 10 years, the company has acquired the equipment, spaces, and employees from two other rotational molders who left the area. Five years after the last acquisition, Revolv must merge those operations more fully and create an aligned, excited workforce.

The article details the type of learningsl the company has implemented and describes both its automation efforts and its approach to driving each area of the company to meet specific production standards. It also outlines the manufacturer’s approach to transitioning leadership to the next generation.

Check out the full feature in the summer issue of Enterprise Minnesota® magazine.

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