About Garrett
I started on the floor.
I'm Garrett Bradford. I started as a carpenter foreman in a precast plant in San Marcos. Over more than twenty years I ran crews, departments and plants, and built the systems that let them run without me standing over them. In 2025 I started Servant Leadership Strategies, Inc. to bring that to owner-operated businesses here in Central Texas.
Preaching it before I'd studied it
For years I preached servant leadership to my teams: as the lean guy at Clark Pacific, and again when I ran Clark Metal Works. I had never studied it. I didn't think I needed to. The name says it all: you're supposed to serve the people you lead.
Years later, I finally decided I ought to learn what it really was. I read The Servant, and it told me something that should have been obvious: the source of servant leadership is Jesus Christ. So I set out to study Jesus as a leader. My job had me driving between plants for hours, so I listened. The Torah, in English, in the right order. The Koran. The New Testament, read by Johnny Cash.
"Things are going the way they're supposed to."
Then came a hard stretch. A new system rollout had been pushed down on us, it wasn't going right, and my people were working long hours. My team was coming to me in tears, overworked and stressed out. One day I had it out with corporate, who wanted my team to take on even more, and I was driving home.
On that drive, I got the message. It was a voice, and it said: things are going the way they're supposed to.
I'd always understood that part of the Christian message is that there's a plan. It had never moved me. This did. I started sobbing, overcome with gratitude and thankfulness, and in that moment I was granted the gift of faith. I no longer needed a logical reason to believe in Jesus Christ. I understood that I hadn't truly believed before. Now I do.
That is the root of the name Servant Leadership Strategies. A leader's job is to serve the people they lead so they can reach the goal, and before I judge anyone else, the first question is whether I'm leading right. SLS is that message coming to fruition.
Where the method comes from
In all my continuous improvement work, things went great while I was driving them. When I turned my head, they slipped. Daily management, a team-based, visual check-in held on a regular rhythm, showed me the missing link. I built on it into what I call time-based leadership: the right check-in at the right cadence for every level, from minute by minute on the floor to monthly at the top.
My lean experience is at the Master Black Belt level.
Add 5S, standard work and a few honest numbers, and a business can run the same way whether the owner is in the building or not.
The work history
2025 to today
Founder and President, Servant Leadership Strategies, Inc.
Canyon Lake, Texas. Bringing everything below to owner-operated businesses across Central Texas, one free look at a time.
2023 to 2025
Senior Lean Programs Manager, ParkUSA and Geneva Pipe and Precast
Led the lean and continuous improvement program across six plants: ParkUSA in Texas and Geneva Pipe and Precast in Utah.
2021 to 2023
Multi-Site Operations Manager, ParkUSA (Park Environmental Services)
Ran the P&L for three Texas plants in Houston, Ferris and San Antonio, and beat the 2022 goals for revenue, profit margin and safety.
2020 to 2021
Operations Manager, Capital Precast
San Marcos, Texas. Ran the plant, set the business plan and used daily visual management to cut man-hours per yard while steadying the crew.
2018 to 2020
Clark Metal Works, Clark Pacific
Department Manager, then Associate Director of Manufacturing over rebar, metal fabrication and forms. Built a real P&L with accounting and brought the department to profitability after seven years of losses.
2016 to 2018
Plant and quality leadership
Plant Manager at Amerimax Windows & Doors, then Continuous Improvement & Quality Manager at Milgard Windows and Doors, both in Northern California.
2011 to 2016
Continuous Improvement Manager, Clark Pacific
Built a company-wide improvement program across engineering, procurement, scheduling, sales and estimating, three plants and the field. Developed the manufacturing operating system for Apple’s Campus II, the largest precast building in the world, using 5S, TPM and SMED.
2009 to 2011
Continuous Improvement Manager, Supa Door
Universal City, Texas. Built the production system from the ground up: safety, HR, plant leadership, flow and layout.
2007 to 2009
Production Manager, Heldenfels Enterprises
San Marcos, Texas. Ran all phases of precast production for the Dallas Cowboys Stadium: risers, wall panels, patching, finishing and loading crews, with daily schedules matched to the field erection sequence.
2006 to 2007
Lean Coordinator, Groth Corporation
Stafford, Texas. Managed the lean manufacturing program, put corrective and preventive actions in place and coached teams to improve performance.
December 2004 to April 2006
Continuous Improvement Manager, Heldenfels Enterprises
San Marcos, Texas. Led the move from traditional to lean manufacturing, including strategic planning and financial reporting.
January 2001 to December 2004
Production Supervisor, Heldenfels Enterprises
San Marcos, Texas. Started as a carpenter foreman, was promoted to Continuous Improvement Supervisor to lead the lean program, then advanced to Production Supervisor to put lean concepts to work directly.
On the mat
I'm a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I started it the same day I started intermittent fasting, with a simple measure: train four times a week, every week. That's the same way I'd want to test any strategy in a business: pick the measure that proves it's being done, then watch whether the result follows.
Home
I'm married, with a son and a daughter, and I live in Canyon Lake. I meet owners in person from Austin to San Antonio, including San Marcos, New Braunfels, Boerne, Wimberley, Dripping Springs, Fredericksburg and Kerrville.
It starts free.
Garrett looks the business over, finds the easy fixes and starts fixing them. Phone, video or in person at the business.