Dean of Springs

By Dan Sebastian

The opportunity to be a part of the first 20 years of MW Industries (MWI) is one of the greatest honors of my life. I have been asked how we were able to take a failed attempt of a sleepy division of Rockwell International private and make it one of the largest spring companies in North America. The simple answer was “we.” It was a team of extraordinary professionals who came together to make it all work.

It all started in 1991 when I arrived in Logansport, Indiana, to help fix what was, at best, a midsize spring company that was in serious trouble. It was clear that the company had lost its way. I began by applying two management principles I had learned from the 23 years I worked at Associated Spring. 1. Developing a zeal and commitment to the spring industry by applying key principles presented by Tom Peters and

Robert Waterman, Jr. in their management book “In Search of Excellence.” 2. Good managers can manage anything, from the teaching of Peter Drucker.

The book “In Search of Excellence” provided analysis by Peters and Waterman which showed that the most successful businesses in America all shared a zeal and commitment for their industries. These companies were leaders in the technical side of their businesses, along with design, marketing and financial excellence. I knew the spring business, having served in positions of engineering and quality, manufacturing management and general management. In addition, I was involved with other spring companies as a member of NESMA, CASMI and the Michigan Spring Association, where I became the president for several years. I immediately got involved with SMI where I got to know many industry executives.

I had the passion for our industry, the trick was to make it part of our culture. We began by making everyone a “spring guy or gal.” We got them involved by meeting the equipment makers, allowing them to participate in industry training, sending them to trade shows and promoting from within the organization. The internal efforts were augmented by recruiting people from within the industry who had demonstrated spring experience. At the same time that we addressed the need for passion in the business, we also needed to fix the problem of profitability. Passion without profit is like playing music while the ship is sinking, which is heartwarming but deadly. Fixing profitability required strong management throughout the organization.

The second key to success was fixing the management problem.

MWI would require both leaders and managers. A good leader may not be the best manager, and a good manager does not always have the vision required to grow. We needed both.

At the outset it was apparent that there were potentially good managers at Logansport, but under Rockwell and the people that took them private, the leadership team was not professionally trained and had no experience. We had no time to waste, as the banks were not happy campers. My first task was to bring in Jim Callaghan, who I had worked with at Associated, to manage the financial and business issues, and Ron Orr to run the factory (Ron was the first supervisor I trained at Associated). I took on the technical and springmaking issues. All three of us were “Drucker” trained and shared a love for the business. We managed and trained the internal managers.

Peter Drucker was an Australian-born management expert and considered to be one of the founders of modern management theory. The senior management at Associated were great believers in his fundamental management theory. As a young manager, I was sent to numerous seminars and training sessions in the Drucker system. Peter firmly believed that managers were trained, not born to be managers. He constantly stressed that “Any good manager could manage anything.” MWI needed good managers if we were going to grow and prosper. I had observed many managers over the years, and I saw they had many different levels of success. It became apparent to me that the difference in their level of success was in their passion for the business. With the addition of the passion twist to the Drucker management system, we turned MWI around and positioned it for future growth.

The application of the two principles of passion for the business and sound management principles, along with internal training and recruiting industry-trained professionals, led to MWI growing to more than 15 times its original size in sales and much more in earnings over 20 years. It came from a combination of acquisitions and product development. n

Dan Sebastian is a former SMI president and currently serves as a technical consultant to the association. He holds a degree in metallurgical engineering from Lehigh University and his industry career spans more than four decades in various technical and management roles. He may be reached by contacting SMI at 630-460-8588.