Driving change throughout an organization takes patience, energy, drive, creativity, resolve, but most importantly it has to be a team effort. Bradley Gillman, I look at it as a four-part process: Engage, Enlighten, Empower, Evolve. Evolve, because no one likes change, but nothing in any business stays the same. As I stepped into my new role as General Manager, and then President/COO, I was facing the need for a massive organizational change to create a foundation for the business evolution to come.
Bradley Gillilan; C-Suite Business, Operations, and Finance Leader
Over a 7-year period the company had grown from $5Million to $14Million, and from 30+ employees to over 70. The small business style employed previously by management left a Production Manager with almost 50 direct reports, but also an open door for all to the President that undermined management’s decision-making powers. This internal culture led to slower production times, frustration within the staff, and a major resistance to change. One additional challenge was that the prior President’s greatest strength was his empathy for others that worked for him, so staying engaged and available, while rebuilding organizational structure was critical to success.
First, I engaged six business leaders from different parts of the business and assembled them as my new management team. I focused on transparency and enabling them to make decisions based on a simple philosophy of three questions: Is it good for the company? Is it good for the customer? Is it good for the employees? I then focused on our manufacturing division along with our Production Manager, and restructured the plant into 8 departments, each with a working lead to oversee them. I enabled the Production Manager to develop these new leads and start handing them decision making power as well.
Throughout these initial phases of Engagement, and Enlightenment, we developed a trust amongst leadership, and began to see positive change. Next, I empowered my management team by bringing them in to help develop the next Strategic Plan for the organization. We started with a one-day retreat, and then followed up during regular staff meetings giving the team a sense of ownership of the evolution we were about to drive. Behind the corporate strategic plan, I worked with each leader on a simple supporting department plan with custom KPI’s to measure success.
The evolution that follows was an ability to introduce and adapt Lean Manufacturing practices to a custom build environment, drastically reduce training time for new hires, improve workflow through the warehouse, improve inventory management, and maintain market share as the industry started into a downturn. Over three-years we were able to improve margin on manufactured goods 150%, and despite a $2Million drop in sales we improved Earnings 60 percent.
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