M Business 5th Edition by Ferrell,Geoffrey Hirt,Linda Ferrell

Exercise 2

Even at an international manufacturing company, leadership should be more about people than the supply chain. That's the message of Bob Chapman, longtime CEO of Barry-Wehmiller. The company has annual revenues of $1.7 billion from a variety of manufacturing, technology, and consulting industries. After taking a hard look at the company's culture in 1997, Chapman began to integrate this principle deeply into his firm; now, the company and CEO are known for it. Barry-Wehmiller's Guiding Principles of Leadership describe how it is a people-centered organization: "We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people." Calling his approach Truly Human Leadership, Chapman believes leaders and companies need to learn how to care about the people who work for them, and not see them merely as "functions" to a corporate goal. This principle finds practical application in various aspects of the firm. For example, the company discontinued the use of timecards after discovering factory workers felt mistrusted because, unlike office workers, they could not make phone calls, get coffee, or perform other normal daily non work tasks without punching in and out. The company also has its own school, Barry- Wehmiller University, to teach its principles and values to employees. The approach seems to have made a real difference. Whereas studies generally find that about 80 percent of employees feel their organizations do not care about them, an independent survey of Barry-Wehmiller employees found the exact opposite: 79 percent believed the company did care. Not only that, but the firm's continued success-15 percent compounded annual growth since 1988-backs up Chapman's claim that human focused leadership is good for the company as well. 34
Do you feel that this type of approach is suitable for a manufacturing company?