Getting noticed on the Web - BedTimes

UpClose
Industry veteran Lilly still going the distance
Former CEO of Serta finds new challenges in consulting firm
By Dorothy Whitcomb
Ed Lilly has been running—literally
and figuratively—for most
of his life. As a track star in
high school and college, he piled up
an impressive string of victories. As
a corporate executive charged with
leading whole teams to victory, his eye
was seldom off the finish line.
In business as in track, agility, the
ability to act strategically and endurance
over the long haul lead to success.
A look back at Lilly’s long career
in the bedding and furniture industries
proves the point.
After leaving the Army and working
at Philadelphia department store
Strawbridge & Clothier for nine years,
Lilly joined mattress maker Sealy in
1978. He worked there for 11 years in
senior corporate and sales management
positions. Landing the Sears
account was a highlight of his time
with the company.
“I was a good salesman and I was
able to convince them that we could,
as a single mattress supplier, provide
all of the services that three suppliers
could,” Lilly says. “The next year, Sealy
was chosen as Sears’ Vendor of the
Year out of 12,000 vendors.”
Lilly worked his way up to senior
vice president of national account
sales for both Sealy and its Stearns &
Foster brand.
But when the company asked
him to move to Cleveland in 1989,
he declined and joined Townhouse
Penthouse Industries, a Northbrook,
Ill.-based manufacturer of privatelabel
upholstered furniture.
“TPI had 14 plants and, in 1989, a
volume of about $350 million a year,”
Lilly says. “Being the vice president of
marketing was a great opportunity.”
Lilly sees all of those positions
as preparation for the career
64 | BedTimes | April 2011
Garden getaway Ed Lilly enjoys both working
in and just enjoying the garden he tends with
his wife, Nancy. ‘It gives you time to yourself
and allows you to see things in new ways
while accomplishing something very
satisfying,’ he says.
challenges that lay ahead.
“I learned the business from the
bottom up,” he says. “There’s a real
advantage to knowing something
inside out. It helps you create strategies
that actually work. You grow into
responsibility.”
In 1990, Lilly was appointed
president and chief executive officer of
Serta and, in 2001, was named chairman
of the board. When he joined
the company, Serta’s sales volume
was about $240 million annually. Ten
years later, U.S. sales had tripled and
Serta was the second-largest mattress
producer in the country.
“Being president and CEO for 14
years was the greatest accomplishment
of my life,” he says. “Staying that long
doesn’t happen these days and was a
reflection of what we accomplished. It
was very satisfying.”
Lilly left Serta when National Bedding
Co.—the largest Serta licensee—
acquired control of the corporate
entity in 2004.
“I wasn’t ready to retire. The offense
and defense of business was still
in my blood, but I had no interest in
ever working for another corporation,”
Lilly says.
In 2005, he founded Lilly Management
Group, a consulting firm that
provides management and development
services to the bedding industry.
Staffed by former Serta executives,
LMG leverages the talent and experience
they once used to triple Serta’s
business to help other mattress companies
grow theirs.
Although LMG has evolved in a
different direction than Lilly originally
imagined, he is pleased with what his
team has accomplished.
“We have worked with about 350
clients over five years,” he says. “The
bulk of our business comes from suppliers
and smaller manufacturers. We
really duplicate what larger manufacturers
do for themselves.”
The bulk of LMG’s business comes
from corporate communications,
branding and FR programs, but it
offers a broad range of consulting
services, including strategic planning,
procurement, best practices and crisis
communications.
In the garden Lilly’s wife, Nancy, is a
master gardener and he is her willing
apprentice. “Gardening is good for
you,” he says. “It gives you time to
yourself and allows you to see things
in new ways while accomplishing
something very satisfying. We go out
in the morning with coffee or at night
with wine and just look at the garden.
It changes all the time.”
www.bedtimesmagazine.com