Insider Secrets: 20 Manufacturing Secretsthe Fortune 500 Know and You Dont
By Dave Clark
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Table of Contents Introduction 3
1. Learn From Your Mistakes 4
2. Pick a Few Things and Do Them Well 5
3. Share the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 6
4. Pick the Right Goal 7
5. Be On Your Best BehaviorManagement Behavior 8
6. The 80/20 Organization 10
7. Put Your Ear to the Ground 12
8. Reinforce Change Repeatedly 13
9. Innovation Is Your Future 14
10. Weed and Feed 15
11. Align HR Goals with Business Goals 16
12. Lemons Make Great Lemonade 17
13. Know When to Get Involved 18
14. Hire Right 19
15. Take a Holistic Approach 20
16. Follow the Margins 21
17. Follow Your Heart 22
18. Go Lean 23
19. Get Engaged 24
20. Leading From the Middle 25
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Introduction Since Fortune magazine published its first Fortune 500 list in 1955, being among those select few companies is something every company and business leader strives to achieve.
To be on the Fortune 500 is to be part of the major leagues of business, to be part of an elite group of enterprises who represent not only financial success, but industry dominance and leadership.
Of the hundreds of thousands of businesses competing in that largest of marketsthe U.S.these 500 do it better than anyone else. Their revenues are larger, their profits are higher, their payrolls among the largest in the world.
But none of these companies started out as monolithic giants with hundreds of thousands of employees. None began their corporate life as a multinational organization. They worked their way up, building their businesses in every industryfrom finance and retail to mining and manufacturingone sale, one dollar, one fiscal quarter at a time.
Yet, something distinguished these companies from the rest of the pack and now, that legacy of success draws the best and brightest business minds to these organizations. Some of these executives graduated from the nations best business schools, others from the school of hard knocks. Either way, they have a lot of experience and a lot to offer a manufacturing exec looking to not only survive, but to thrive no matter what comes their way. Take these lessons and put them to work in your plant and start to think and act like a major league manufacturer.
*Fortune 500 rankings and company revenues derived from the May 2010 list.
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1. Learn From Your Mistakes Company: Procter & Gamble
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 22
Annual Revenues: $80 billion
In the 1980s, P&G was preparing to launch its color-safe, low-temperature bleach product, Vibrant. The company chose to test market in Portland, Maine, some 3,000 miles away from Clorox, its Oakland, California-based rival in this market space.
Somehow, Clorox picked up on P&Gs plans to market in Maine. Before P&G could pour the first drop of Vibrant into a washing machine in Portland, in the weeks leading up to the test launch, Clorox literally flooded the market with free gallons of Clorox to every household in Portland. By the time P&G came to town, the game was already over; its advertising campaigns, sampling tables and coupon giveaways were irrelevant. Everyone in town had all the bleach they need for quite some time to come. It was a failure, P&Gs then CEO A.G. Laffley wouldnt soon forget. But also one from which he would learn.
The technology behind P&Gs product however, was revolutionary. Several years later when Clorox decided it would invade P&Gs turf by introducing a laundry detergent, the company quickly modified the technology it had perfected in Vibrant and fired the first volley in the battle for market share by introducing Tide with Bleach. Riding the coattails of Tides long history of success and brand loyalty in the marketplace, Tide with Bleach quickly caught on, took the wind out of Cloroxs attempt at laundry detergent sales and grew Vibrant to a $500 million a year business for P&G.
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2. Pick a Few Things and Do Them Well Company: General Electric
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 4
Annual Revenues: $157 Billion
Scope creep seems to be an inevitable fact of life in any endeavor. After all, peopleemployeesjustify their value to the company by how much they do, how many things they invent, create or modify. It makes for good conversation when employee reviews and bonuses come up, I did A, B, and C this quarter and dont forget that last quarter, I contributed X, Y, and Z. But more isnt always better; in fact, as the saying goes, less is more.
When Jeffrey Immelt took over the reins at GE from its legendary CEO, Jack Welch, one of the first things he did was narrow the companys R&D focus. He trimmed the number of projects down from some 2,000 to just 80. Molecular medicine - we're going to own it. Nanotechnology - we're going to own it. Renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmental technology - we're going to own it, he told Fortune magazine in 2006. Pick the areas youre going to own, Immelt advises, then go out and do just that.
Not coincidentally, Ford Motor Co., under the leadership of Alan J. Mulally, applied this same principle, selling off its Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Volvo brands to concentrate on what Mulally dubbed One Ford, the notion that Ford is not several diverse brands cobbled together for the sake of growth.
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3. Share the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Company: Ford Motor Company
Ranking on the Fortune 500: No. 8
Annual Revenues: $118 Billion
When Alan Mulally got behind the wheel at Ford in 2006, the venerable automaker was in dire straits. The company was bleeding cash, losing market share and couldnt seem to figure out in which direction it should steer, let alone what the destination was. Five years later, Ford is profitable, was the only American automaker to not take federal bailout money during the Great Recession and its sales and market share grew geometrically against the competition. What does Mulally know that you dont? How to motivate a workforce and cut through the bureaucracy and politics that often cloud a corporate culture and make it impossible to succeed.
Mulally knows that intuitively, people want to take pride in their jobs and the company they work for, so he gave Fords team something to strive forbuilding the highest quality, most fuel-efficient, stylish, safest cars on the road, bar none. Then, he gave them the tools and resources to pursue those goals. Everybody at Ford knows why they get up and come to work in the morning and theyre proud and happy to be there.
Mulally also created a culture that values and rewards the truth, however painful it may be. He holds weekly review meetings with team leaders to see how things are progressing toward the goals they set for themselves. Admitting shortfalls is okay, covering up shortcomings is not okay. People are encouraged to embrace the truth and seek solutions to their problems.
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4. Pick the Right Goal Company: International Business Machines (IBM)
Ranking on the Fortune 500: No. 20
Annual Revenues: $96 Billion
When asked by the Wall St. Journal whether he was concerned that competitor HP had overtaken IBM as the technology company with the highest revenues, Sam Palmisano didnt hesitate to respond clearly and succinctly: No.
Why not? Because, Palmisano continued, thats the wrong place to focus. HP, he argues, had become a serial acquirer of other businesses, which boosts its top line, but doesnt do much for its bottom line. Instead of focusing on revenues, Palmisano has guided IBM toward consistent earnings growth and margin expansion. The result, under Palmisanos steady leadership, is 30 straight quarters of sustained earnings growth and margin expansion, a claim only IBM can make among the Dow Jones 30 largest industrial companies. Yes, IBM makes acquisitions too, but only where they see an opportunity to expand margins and generate cash for investors.
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5. Be On Your Best Behavior Management Behavior
Company: Google
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 102
Annual Revenues: $24 Billion
True, Google isnt a manufacturer in the traditional sense, unless you consider manufacturing $6 billion a year in profits something youd like your company to be able to do. The companyever focused on datadecided to study their own data to see what makes a good manager in a study they called Project Oxygen. The results were surprisingly unsurprising but honed in on eight key behaviors good managers consistently display:
Be a Good Coach - Provide consistent, constructive feedback. Balance the negative with the positive. Set aside some quality one-on-one time with your people and help them find solutions to their problems.
If You Love Them, Set Them Free - Give your employees the space to do what you hired them to do. Dont micromanage. Set goals that require them to stretch just beyond what they think is possible.
Show Them You Care About More Than Just Work - Get to know about your employees lives outside of work. Show an interest in the things theyre interested in. Help new employees feel comfortable when they enter the fold.
Git-R-Done - Help the team set priorities and use your position and influence to remove any stumbling blocks preventing them from reaching their goals.
Straight Talk - Be honest and encourage open communications from your team. Talking is easy; listening is hard. Be a good listener.
Coddle Their Careers - Help your employees achieve their career goals. Give them the tools, resources, and feedback they need to advance.
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Laser Focus - Strip away all the tumult and turmoil that happens in every company and help your employees keep their eye on the prize. Have employees help you set clear goals, then keep those goals squarely in focus day to day.
Know Your Stuff - Take time to work side-by-side with your employees every once in a while to keep your job skills current and fresh, and to keep your perspective on what its like for them on a daily basis slogging away in the trenches.
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6. The 80/20 Organization Company: Kraft Foods
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 53
Annual Revenues: $40.3 Billion
Whether youre a large multinational or a regional player, you cant help but be affected by how your company is organized. Centralization is goodup to a point, explains Irene B. Rosenfeld, Krafts CEO. When a request to review a pricing decision for the companys German coffee business crossed her desk, she knew that the pendulum of centralized decision-making had gone too far. Instead of 80 percent local, 20 percent global, she learned that Kraft had swung in the opposite direction. We werent managing our brands and categories at the appropriate level to understand their competitive dynamics. We werent as nimble or responsive as we needed to be, and it was affecting our results, she told Strategy + Business in 2009. To right the ship and the pendulum, Kraft embarked on an initiative it called Organizing for Growth. Kraft change reporting lines, operating units and the businesss overall structure. It built up its sales capabilities and put new operating metrics in place along with the financial incentives to motivate managers in the direction they wanted them to go. Having made the transformation successfully, Kraft executives offer this six-point reorganization plan:
Have a clear strategy, then, organize around it. Krafts strategy was to bring business units closer to the consumer to better and more quickly respond to changing market conditions.
Think outside the org chart. Its not enough to reorganize, go deeper and develop the workflows, decision points, career paths, corporate policies and talent development strategies needed to make the change happen.
One size does not fit all. Yes, there are guidelines for all major components of your business, but they wont work everywhere all the time. Be flexible.
Talk things over first. A lot. Preplanning discussions and meetings go a long way toward enabling fast decision making when youre in the throes of a major reorganization.
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Lean on your leaders. Youll need more than lip service from your senior executives supporting the initiative. They need to be out in the field as needed, not just supporting, but guiding, the process, seeing what works and what doesnt and using their clout to fix the things that need fixing.
Expect a long, sometimes bumpy, ride. Change isnt easy and it doesnt happen overnight. The bigger your enterprise, the longer the transformation will take; sometimes, it may take several years to get from Point A to Point Where You Want to B.
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7. Put Your Ear to the Ground Company: Caterpillar
Rank on the Fortune 500 List: No. 66
Annual Revenues: $32 Billion
Soon after he took charge of Caterpillar, the renowned manufacturer of earth-moving equipment, Doug Oberhelman called a meeting with his executive team. Be in your seats at 8 .am., he instructed them. When they arrived, there were no seats, just a directive to Get on the bus. The bus took the managers to a landfilla garbage dumpsome 50 miles south of the companys Peoria headquarters.
The thrust of the exercise was to demonstrate Oberhelmans commitment that customers come first; that seeing how Caterpillars equipment functions in the real world was more important than sitting in a board room talking about it.
The whole point was, Oberhelman said in an interview with the Financial Times, whatever the customer has to say, youd better be listening. He makes it a point to get down and dirty with customers at least once a week to hear what they have to say.
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8. Reinforce Change Repeatedly Company: Coca-Cola
Rank on the Fortune 500 List: No. 72
Annual Revenues: $31 Billion
Like any successful company, Coca-Cola had become complacent over time, disconnected from its customer base. To put the fizz back in their business model, the company embarked on Vision 2020 to reconnect everyone from executive management to front line employees to their customer base.
To ensure the vision was clear from top to the bottom, the company began by holding an intense three-day meeting with its top 300 leaders. Then, they sent them back to work to consider all they have covered in those sessions.
Four months later, they reconvened to gather everyones feedback and finalize the framework to move forward. With the framework in place, Coke used every electronic means available to spread the word to their second and third tier leaders so each could impact their followers.
They held town hall meetings at company headquarters in Atlanta and broadcast them worldwide. They visited every nook and cranny of the globe, leading by example and constantly reinforcing their manifesto of connecting with customers.
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9. Innovation Is Your Future Company: DuPont
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 86
Annual Revenues: $27 Billion
Even before the Great Recession took hold, DuPonts executives were bracing for the worst. Several of their key lines were beginning to show signs of a downturn so they began planning where the cuts would be made when the recession took hold. Fixed cost reductions totaling about $730 million were identified and some 2,500 employees and 4,000 contractors were set to be released, but none from R&D. And, the research and development budget held at about $1.4 billion. "We felt we needed to emerge from the global financial crisis in a position that would enable us to help our customers be more successful," DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman told Chemical and Engineering News. And the best way for us to do that was to innovate and develop new products that would enable our customers to succeed in their markets." Kullman adds, "I believe that without innovation, price goes down."
Instead of the 40 percent of its business historically carved out for new products, DuPont sought to increase it to 50 percent. But the focus on innovation would not continue in a business-as-usual fashion. Now, more than ever, researchers had to justify their projects and prove they could contribute to the bottom line in a meaningful way. They targeted the growing demand for alternative energy, food, and eco-friendly, healthy products. While the recession deepened in 2009, DuPont engineers filed 8 percent more new patents than they had the year before. As the global economy recovers, the company is perfectly positioned with new products to meet customers ever-evolving demands.
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10. Weed and Feed Company: 3M
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 106
Annual Revenues: $23 Billion
With more than 1 million SKUs and 80,000 product segments, managing complexity comes with the territory at 3M. The trick, says 3M CEO George W. Buckley whose brands include Scotch tape, Scotch Gard, Post-It Notes, and Ace bandages, is to take a gardeners weed and feed approach, weeding before you feed.
There are initiatives underway to keep track of the total number of SKUs so those products that dont perform well can be weeded from the garden and new ideas, new products can be planted in its lineup. They track the number of products they remove and, via a new product vitality index, they monitor all products added to the portfolio in the previous five years.
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11. Align HR Goals with Business Goals Company: Kimberly-Clark
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 126
Annual Revenues: $19 Billion
In late 2002, early 2003 executives at Kimberly-Clark (manufacturers of such iconic brands as Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers) realized they had been floundering in their efforts to adapt to a changing world and a global economy. A decision was made to reorganize the company from a consumer products manufacturer to a global health and hygiene company.
To do that, HR had to rethink how Kimberly-Clark (K-C) evaluated and motivated employees and how they would be held accountable. They needed a faster, more consistent performance management, one that would align employee behaviors with company goals.
They implemented a global HR information system to ensure consistency worldwide. At the heart of that system is a multidimensional feedback (sometimes known as 360 feedback) model. Employees would be rated by their managers, peers and direct reports to ensure they were fully aligned with company goals. The process was then calibrated by teams consisting of senior managers, their direct reports and an HR facilitator, to ensure ratings were consistent companywide. Role bands were created to account for the differences between jobs; an engineering visionary, for example, is very different from a finance leader.
When an employees rating has been calibrated, then discussion begins about compensation rewards.
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12. Lemons Make Great Lemonade Company Name: Whirlpool
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 136
Annual Revenues: $17 Billion
Long before the recession took hold in 2008, Whirlpool was already feeling the pinch in its business. The housing bubble burst in 2005 and along with it, consumers desires to buy new appliances. Along with demand shock (2006, 2007 and 2008 all saw negative demand), the company faced currency shockinvestors were turning the capital markets upside-down, and cost shock as the price of components skyrocketed.
Led by CEO Jeff Fettig, a firm believer in making lemonade when life hands you lemons, the company took a three-pronged approach to the crises it was facing. Whirlpool began by narrowing its focus on the things it did best. Company leaders followed that up by changing how and where they advertised. The economic downturn meant first-time appliance buyers would be fewer and farther between; this market was going to be a replacement market so they shifted their advertising budgets in North America and Europe from television and print to point of sale advertising, targeting customers right at the point of making the decision to buy.
The most crucial thing a company has, Fettig says, is liquidity. So, Whirlpool took on cost reduction with a vengeance; whatever it took to generate cash, preserve cash and ensure funding took center stage in their operations.
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13. Know When to Get Involved Company Name: Bristol-Meyers Squibb
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 114
Annual Revenues: $21.6 Billion
Its tempting, during tough times, for leaders to batten down the hatches and take control of nearly every aspect of their business operations. But, by and large, James M. Cornelius, CEO at Bristol-Myers Squibb, does the opposite. Senior staffers got to be senior executives because theyre good at what they do and theyre generally not the sort to whom micromanaging appeals. So, Cornelius, gets out of the way and lets them do what they were hired to do.
On the other hand, to emphasize the pharmaceutical manufacturers commitment to cost containment, especially in the area of hiring, Cornelius implemented a policy that required his signature on every new hire; not because he wanted to be the gatekeeper, but because he wanted to emphasize the effect of hiring on profitability. In the three years since the policy has been in place, head count dropped every month. In the same time, sales went up 50 percent.
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14. Hire Right Company: Xerox
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 152
Annual Revenues: $15.1 Billion
By the time, a job candidate made it to Anne Mulchays office for an interview, when she was chairman and CEO at Xerox, it was a given they had the experience and competence to do the job. Consequently, Mulcahy wanted to know whether or not they would be a good fit. She would never ask why Xerox should choose a job candidate, she wanted to know why they were choosing Xerox.
It gave her insight into what the interviewee felt they could bring to the company, how they could help it be more successful. The question also served as a sort of pop quiz. Have they done their homework, do they understand company culture and values, and are they aligned with their own take on success?
Mulcahy also looks for flexibility and adaptability in a new-hire. Markets and market conditions change more rapidly than ever before, employees must be able to go with the flow and not feel out of sorts when things arent always black-or-white or their job role is constantly evolving.
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15. Take a Holistic Approach Company: General Mills
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 155
Annual Revenues: $14.7 Billion
Many manufacturers focus on supply chain productivity, but not the early risers at General Mills, makers of Cheerios, Green Giant frozen vegetables, Hamburger Helper and nearly 40 other renowned food brands. Instead, under Kendall J. Powells leadership, the company uses holistic margin management (HMM) to guide its every move.
HMM involves virtually everything, from product development to packaging innovations, convenience to product placement, from manufacturing to logistics to marketing to sales with the business units taking the lead coordinating role, Powell told Supermarket News.
The strategy paid off in spades. In 2009, General Mills was the only Top 10 food manufacturer to grow their share of sales. HMM generated enough cash to enable them to increase consumer marketing support 19 percent.
http://supermarketnews.com/profiles/kendall-powell-2009/http://supermarketnews.com/profiles/kendall-powell-2009/http://supermarketnews.com/profiles/kendall-powell-2009/http://twitter.com/home?status=Take%20lessons%20from%2020%20Fortune%20500%20manufacturers.%20Get%20free%20copy%20of%2020%20secrets%20they%20know%20but%20but%20you%20don%E2%80%99t-@hubspot%20-%20http://bit.ly/gkOekv
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16. Follow the Margins Company: Kellogg
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 184
Annual Revenues: $12.5 Billion
Its sales soggy, its profits plummeting, and competitors taking away market share faster than you can say Snap, Crackle, and Pop,, Kellogg, makers of arguably Americas most well-known cereal brands, such as Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, and Rice Krispies, knew it had to take some drastic measures to turn the business around. Things were so bad, John A. Bryant, who at the time headed up Kellogg International and would eventually become CEO, said, Doing the opposite of what we had been doing was a good idea.
The company appointed Carlos Gutierrez as its CEO. Gutierrez was a pull-yourself-by-your-bootstraps Cuban immigrant who, at 20-years-old, started by driving a Kelloggs delivery truck in Mexico Citys seedier neighborhoods. Gutierrezs turnaround strategy, dubbed Volume to Value would increase sales by shifting resources to its higher margin products, such as Special K, which appealed to weight-conscious women, and Nutri-Grain bars, a kind of portable breakfast bar. The companys staples, such as Corn Flakes, had been knocked off as a generic so many times, it had become commoditized and margins there were abysmal.
The new influx of cash would be used to increase advertising and promotional budgets and research and development focused on new high-margin products, a self-sustaining growth cycle that lead to a 6.5 percent net sales increase in the first quarter after it was fully implemented and a path that led it to regain the No. 1 cereal maker position it had lost to General Mills earlier.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/09/06/380333/index.htmhttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/09/06/380333/index.htmhttp://twitter.com/home?status=Take%20lessons%20from%2020%20Fortune%20500%20manufacturers.%20Get%20free%20copy%20of%2020%20secrets%20they%20know%20but%20but%20you%20don%E2%80%99t-@hubspot%20-%20http://bit.ly/gkOekv
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17. Follow Your Heart Company: Avon
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 228
Annual Revenues: $10.3 Billion
When asked which business leader best exemplifies the thesis of his bestselling book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2007), author, former Medtronics CEO, and Harvard Business School professor, Bill George, made what for many might have seemed an unusual choice: Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon.
George believes that the most successful business leaders possess five critical character traits: They are self-disciplined, passionately pursue their purpose, foment lasting relationships, have strong values, and perhaps most important: they lead from their heart.
As the CEO of a company with a direct sales force of 6 million and growing everyday Jung faced a challenge in 2005 as the company began to falter and lose its edge. Earnings were flat, revenues were up a scant 5 percent. Avon had become an anachronism, out of step with the 21st Century. Jung looked inside herself to find the path she believed would put the company back on the path to growth and prosperity.
She trimmed $300 million in costs and told shareholders she was not putting any of it toward the bottom line in the short term and she was suspending the practice of providing earnings guidance. Wall Street reacted by dragging down Avon shares 30 percent. Jung used the money to add another 1 million independent sales reps to its venerable door-to-door force (including 300,000 in China), boosted advertising budgetsnotably a Super Bowl ad that stupefied traditionalists until they found out 40 percent of the viewers were young womenand realigned manufacturing processes. The result: a 40 percent increase in share value from its low point in 2005 and revenues poised to break company records, all while it gains a foothold in China, one of the most important markets for the future.
http://www.billgeorge.org/page/true-northhttp://www.billgeorge.org/page/the-thought-leader-interview-bill-georgehttp://www.billgeorge.org/page/the-thought-leader-interview-bill-georgehttp://twitter.com/home?status=Take%20lessons%20from%2020%20Fortune%20500%20manufacturers.%20Get%20free%20copy%20of%2020%20secrets%20they%20know%20but%20but%20you%20don%E2%80%99t-@hubspot%20-%20http://bit.ly/gkOekv
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18. Go Lean Company: Parker Hannifin
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 230
Annual Revenues: $10.3 Billion
If your business uses motion-control productshydraulics and pneumaticsyoure familiar with Parker Hannifin. Theyre the worlds largest manufacturer of motion-control products used in everything from airplane and tractors to theme-park roller coasters. Facing sinking sales numbers and falling profits in the last recession, the company cut costs, of course, but set the stage for the future by implementing lean manufacturing processes from stem to stern.
Teams of employees now manage their own workflows from procurement to completion of production. That one change alone freed up 25 percent to 30 percent of the factory floors, eliminating wasted space. Instead of a procurement department managing orders, workers on the front lines place orders when they need them.
The company used to view things in terms of setup timehow long it took to setup a machine and how many widgets needed to be produced to justify setting it up. Under lean principles, when the orders come in the process begins and the orders are shipped out. Nothing sits on shelves waiting for the orders to come in. Inventory is reduced and efficiency is enhanced. The move to lean manufacturing has let Parker Hannifin cut capital expenditures to just 2 percent of sales.
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19. Get Engaged Company: Campbell Soup
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 299
Annual Revenues: $7.6 Billion
Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup Company likes a challenge. He likes it so much that, in his first 18 months on the job, facing the worst economic downturn in nearly 80 years, he replaced 300 of his 350 top leaders. Why? Because they werent fully engaged in the work the company was doing. And being engaged, Conant believes, is critical to any companys success. Engagement fosters trust and inspiration, and inspired, trusting employees, can accomplish practically anything.
Once the right teams were in place, they became self-governing. Instead of talking about how their department could move forward, the conversations shifted to how the company could move forward. Employees felt accountable and they didnt want to let their co-workers down. The strategy paid off. Productivity went up, profits went up, and innovation no longer was put on the back burner.
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20. Leading from the Middle Company: Cisco Systems
Rank on the Fortune 500: No. 58
Annual Revenues: $36 Billion
In tough times, chief executives have a tendency to want to take charge, go into command-and-control mode. That was John Chambers, Cisco CEO since 1995, approach until a few years ago. That was when he realized that, in an organization as large and diverse as Cisco, it took quite some time for information about problem areas to reach him. By the time he could make a decision, in many cases, it was too late, or at best, too little too late.
To remedy the situation, Cisco moved to a collaborative governance model, where cross-functional business networks manage their own divisions and solve their own problems. The result is that instead of the company only being able to deal with one or two major issues at a time, these collaborative groups of managerswho, incidentally, Chambers said, reach the right conclusions and in a very short amount of timenow enable the company to face challenges on two dozen initiatives at once.
It was the biggest change in the management of the company ever, Chambers told Harvard Business Review. We (CEOs) have been very successful at command-and-control, therefore we know how to do it well. But, Chambers notes, it can also be an organizations biggest stumbling block.
http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2008/10/cisco_ceo_john_chambers_on_tea.htmlhttp://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2008/10/cisco_ceo_john_chambers_on_tea.htmlhttp://twitter.com/home?status=Take%20lessons%20from%2020%20Fortune%20500%20manufacturers.%20Get%20free%20copy%20of%2020%20secrets%20they%20know%20but%20but%20you%20don%E2%80%99t-@hubspot%20-%20http://bit.ly/gkOekv
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Next Steps from HubSpot If you are a manufacturing company that wonders how effective your website is at generating traffic, engaging social media, and attracting search engines, then its time you got your website graded. Take a few minutes and submit your site to Website.Grader.Com, the free SEO tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website If you are a manufacturing company interested in finding out how you can easily integrate your social marketing, SEO, PPC and lead generation for better results, sign up for a HubSpot demo.
If you are a manufacturing company that understands the value of inbound marketing but have difficulty launching a successful business blog, read the 24-page ebook Better Business Blogging in 2011. If you are a company that is interested in growing your business and generating leads, use HubSpots free 30-day trial to learn how HubSpot can help you.
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