From There to Here
Brett Worthington: Veteran To Innovative Disruptor
by Alison Bishop
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go together.” African Proverb.
This African proverb is a core value of Brett Worthington, senior vice president of business development at Frontdoor. It symbolizes many things along his journey and in his life today. “I heard it from a great leader of mine whom I consider a mentor. I share it with anyone who’s ever worked for me and anyone who ever will work for me in the future, because it genuinely is a core value of mine.”
Worthington’s journey is rooted in developing and leading high-performing teams, driving innovation and creating meaningful change for people and businesses.
From a young boy growing up working on his grandfather’s farm, to his service in the Army, to becoming a true disruptor in businesses of all magnitudes, Worthington is no stranger to overcoming challenges and truly innovating in life and business in order to make something better.
Worthington grew up no stranger to hard work and a strong work ethic. His dad was a banker who received his MBA. Both his grandfathers were farmers and ranchers, which is where he spent many summers working. “I got paid $5 a week. Every Friday my grandfather and I would walk to the bank. He would hand me $5 and say, ‘One dollar is yours, pay yourself first. The other $4 is to do whatever you want with.’ He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known.”
Worthington’s original career plan was to become a lawyer, until the age of 18 when he knew he was meant to do something bigger—bigger than his plan, than himself. He was going to make a difference.
“A series of events led me to a phone conversation with an Army recruiter. On that call he wanted to talk about my ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) score. To be honest, I don’t remember taking the ASVAB. I sat down with the recruiter for four hours at a Military Enrollment Processing Station and I told him I was going to make a difference.”
Worthington enlisted as a 11 Bravo Infantry and dual MOS 12 Bravo, which at that time was a combat engineer. “When I told my parents, I had two weeks until I left. I will never forget the look on my parents’ faces, but it’s the best decision I ever made.”
Worthington’s experience in the military not only shaped him as a leader and innovator, it taught him that you have to use the data and the inputs to make informed decisions, but it’s also important to trust your instincts and stay true to your values.
“I think most successful entrepreneurs and leaders have that similar mindset. As long as you have the will and you’re grounded in who you are, and take a critical look at the opportunities ahead, whatever decision you are making—whether business, investment, family—those principles are there and sound.”
After his time in the military, Worthington attended college where he earned a degree in political science from the University of Utah. From there, he went on to start building his resume and experience, which landed him an internship in the White House during the Clinton Administration, and he started forging his new path towards innovation.
Over the last 13 years Worthington has been at the forefront of bringing new and innovative products to life. He served as vice president of global business development and strategic partnerships for Samsung SmartThings where he was responsible for the development of global partnerships and services as well as its go to market strategies. He led the development of an IoT smart home platform and served as director of business development for Ingersoll-Rand. He fostered and led innovation, invention and growth in the residential IoT Marketplace while at Quirky and Wink.
Fostering innovation to drive change in the home
With a passion for innovation and making a difference in the lives of others, it makes sense that Worthington sees tremendous opportunities to re-define how home services are delivered and experienced—especially now, with homes more essential to families than ever before.
Frontdoor’s flagship brand, American Home Shield, has been providing home service plans to homeowners across the nation for 50 years. It’s leading home service plan brand founded the home warranty industry. In that time, the company has had more than 70 million service requests.
“I didn’t know anything about the home warranty space before joining Frontdoor. But when I looked at the home and the opportunity to truly innovate and become the go-to solution for home services, I knew I had to be part of that transformation.”
Worthington notes that after five decades of serving homeowners through its home service plans, the company is tapping into its strengths and expertise not just to drive transformation within its operations, but across the $400 billion U.S. home services industry.
“What really drove me to take this role, outside of the opportunity to innovate and build a marketplace, was the culture at Frontdoor,” Worthington said. “To truly foster innovation, you have to have a culture that supports it and that is grounded in that mindset.”
The foundation of Frontdoor is its House Rules, its commitments to obsess over customers’ problems; be an owner, not a renter; be transparent, build trust; and do great things every day. “The culture and the foundation of innovation and doing great things every day is what I get out of bed for every morning. Love problems, not solutions resonated with me. I think true innovators love digging deep to thoroughly understand a problem they’re trying to solve, never jumping to the easiest solution.”
“When you think of owning a home, or several properties, you know there will inevitably be breakdowns to the home systems and appliances. When you add a home service plan to that home, you are adding convenience and budget protection for when those items wear down. Now, think about having that same protection plus the added access to maintenance services to keep your home running throughout the year—this is the marketplace, the go-to solution we are innovating to create.”
Frontdoor has made great strides in this direction, with the acquisition of Streem, an award-winning technology startup and the leading augmented reality (AR)-powered visual assistance platform, as well as the launch and expansion of its on-demand home services.
“Acquiring Streem, a Portland startup anchored on augmented reality and machine learning, was a no-brainer for us. If you think about the core services we provide, and then add in this cutting-edge technology that allows us to virtually diagnose, troubleshoot, and capture data with a homeowner before we roll a truck to the home—that is game changing.”
The events of the past year brought about significant change in people’s lives. The home is more essential to families now more than ever. “We recognize that, we feel that, and we want to walk alongside homeowners as they navigate these times of in certainty.”
“When the pandemic hit, we instantly saw a need to further escalate our plan to roll out the use of our Streem technology out to our network of contractors, real estate team, as well as other businesses like Lowe’s that relied on working with homeowners directly.”
“This is just the beginning when it comes to transforming how people manage their properties and homes,” said Worthington.”
