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Anthony balances client and customers

By: Jane Pribek//August 19, 2013//

Anthony balances client and customers

By: Jane Pribek//August 19, 2013//

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Chad-Anthony_klhChad Anthony has one client but about 160,000 customers at Johnson Controls Inc.

The company is his client and employer, but his many co-workers around the world are his customers. And, somehow, he has to balance the needs of both in his role as commercial counsel for Johnson Control’s Building Efficiency business unit.

The Glendale-based company, which provides equipment and controls for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and security systems, is organized into many business units. They all are interwoven to some degree, and one unit’s activities often affect another.

Balancing all those interests for the overall good of Johnson Controls keeps the job fresh and exciting, Anthony said.

For instance, he said, he recently helped with a six-month reorganization of the Building Efficiency unit. During those six months, the legal team had to make sure it continued to provide company employees with quality, responsive legal support, while trying to efficiently meet the needs of the business.

“By utilizing new tools — for example, an online contract review tool,” Anthony said, “and deploying resources in a more targeted and efficient manner, we tried to meet the goals of both our many customers and one client.”

Anthony did not always have to strike the same type of balance. Before joining Johnson Controls in fall 2011, he worked at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren SC, Milwaukee, for seven years, principally in mergers, acquisitions and general corporate work.

In one instance, he said, he had to balance the needs of a Milwaukee-area family business with those of the large company that wanted to buy it. The acquisition helped the larger enterprise go public, and, Anthony said, it was rewarding to see the individual he worked with at the family business ascend to a high-level position with the public company.

The rewards for Anthony at Johnson Controls involve only one company, but the need for balance remains. In reorganizing the Building Efficiency unit, he said, the legal team streamlined contracts, added consistency and redesigned the ways in which his unit offered transactional support for Johnson Controls.

By helping the one client, Anthony’s team also helped the thousands of customers.

“Our legal spend has decreased,” he said, “and our efficiency has increased.”