How Global Helped MSE Change Six Figure Losses into Six Figure Profits
Matthews Studio Equipment celebrated its 35th anniversary in June. That’s no small feat in today’s business climate. The Burbank, California-based company has made a name for itself as the premier manufacturer of high quality, specialized grip industry hardware for the film, television, still photographic and theatrical industries.
”We grew to be substantial without a lot of competition,” says Ed Phillips, president of Matthews Studio Equipment. “But as the industry became global with less concentration on Hollywood, the competition increased.”
Beginning in the mid 90s, revenue started to fall off and profits eroded, resulting in six figure losses. “The company was really operating in a dysfunctional kind of way,” Phillips says. “When trouble hit us we were without the necessary tools to do anything about it.”
“It felt like I was piloting a 747 with all 100 of my employees, their mortgages and kids’ college funds onboard,” Phillips says. “The nose was down and I was seeing the earth approaching at a very rapid speed.” That’s when Phillips turned to Global Leadership & Management Resources for help.
The result? In two short years the company has turned six figure losses into six figure profits. Here are four important lessons Phillips learned from Global that helped him regain control of the company:
Lesson #1. Take an honest look at your company
“When things are going poorly, it’s easy to feel that problems are insurmountable,” Phillips says. “Global showed me that there are methods, means, and tools to turn companies around."
Phillips attended a two-day Global workshop, as well as intense, on-site follow up at Matthews' headquarters, where he focused on improving his own company and learned that the simple disciplines of business are the ones that are most often overlooked. He studied Matthews and its departments from various angles. “It didn’t take long for me to realize that things were not being done correctly,” Phillips says. “It wasn’t rocket science. It was business best practices that we simply overlooked—or ignored.”
Lesson #2. You can't change a company by yourself
Phillips left the workshop excited to implement what he’d learned. But what he soon realized was that he had acquired new management tools, and a new language of managing, but no one else at the company knew what he was talking about. “Without buy-in from the rest of management, you can’t begin to make changes, even if you’re the president of the company,” Phillips says.
Six members of Phillips’ executive team attended Global workshops. “You could feel the energy beginning to flow through the company,” Phillips says. “We all learned the tools that we needed and how to use them.”
Lesson #3. Don't be afraid to make tough choices
It takes discipline, goals, and accountability to turn a company around. Some employees simply won’t want to come along. Usually, these employees don’t like being held accountable because they are not meeting goals. “We had to make personnel changes,” Phillips says, “because some people just couldn’t get on board. These were tough decisions. One person had been with the company for 22 years. We could see who were becoming obstacles. The discipline came in defining obstacles and removing them.”
Lesson #4. Set goals and hold employees accountable
Phillips looked closely at every department in the company in a fresh, new way and saw that the primary mistake at the company was a lack of goals and accountability. “I never clearly told employees what I expected from them, let alone set up a means of measurement where I could see if goals were being met.”
Employees knew that nothing was really expected of them. The company’s turn around started with regular weekly meetings that emphasized successes from the prior week. Goals were given out for each employee. “It’s important that everyone in the company had long term goals as well as short term goals and that each employee had a specific action plan,” Phillips says.
Success breeds success. As the company improved, so did employee morale. “People enjoy being successful at what they do,” Phillips says. “Today we’re having fun and making money.”
To make sure the company builds on its successes, Phillips brings Global in once a month to assess operations. “It’s easy to get complacent once the company starts towards profitability,” he says.
Want to see first hand how our workshops helped Matthews turn its business around? Here's your chance. As a FirstThingsFirst subscriber, you have the opportunity to attend our Focused Leadership Workshops at a savings of 15%. Call 877.236.8665 to reserve your opening today.
| |
Workshop Overview |
Workshop Schedule |
Workshop Agenda |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Back to top
The Three Ways of Great Leaders
Morale on the Rise
100 Ways to Be a Better Entrepreneur
Back to top
BY-THE-NUMBERS
Fortune’s 100 fastest growing companies
HR JOBS
Senior VP, Human Resources—Coldwater Creek
Director, Human Resources—Fox Entertainment Group
Director, Management Development & HR Planning—Home Depot
VP, HR Shared Services—Countrywide Financial
Back to top
The Global Leadership team has been assisting leading CEO’s, Presidents and Executives in achieving goals and taking their great organizations to higher levels for more than twenty years. Hundreds of organizations have had the benefit of using Global’s tools, systems and processes to rewrite their expectations of profitability and control. Visit us online at www.glamr.com or call us at 818-782-6880.
Thanks for reading FirstThingsFirst! If you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts on how this publication can best fit your needs, please contact us at info@glamr.com.
Article title four that could keep on running this long if it needs to
|