"We have somewhat of a hero model here and I have grown up and have been a part of the model during my 20 plus years with the company," said Reale. "We - as an organization - we have always been very conscious of our costs. So from the staffing perspective, we have always asked our people to be multi-taskers. Our people have been great; they have been heroes, when something comes up people are willing to go above and beyond their call of duty into fix things." But now he says that he is learning that to be an effective and scalable organization it is necessary to spend a lot more time planning than reacting. "I am learning that discipline is one of the keys to have in an effective organization."

USG continues to invest in leadership and learning. It has a program that helps groom its future leaders, and while they may be able to stand out as individuals it still all comes down to working hard and in a team environment.

"In our emerging leaders program we look at people that can have an impact on the business that are, obviously intelligent, are motivated, that can bring in their own ideas but also adapt those ideas in a collaborative manner with the team to make things actionable and deliverable and to move the company in the right direction," he said. "You can have the smartest person in the world but if they can't work as a team, they are going to struggle throughout their career."