SUMMIT SPEAKER ENCOURAGES NEW STYLE

In order to compete in an international economy, businesses must realize the importance of cooperation between management and workers.

That was the message Friday to local business and education leaders from G. Rives Neblett, chairman and chief executive officer of Shelby Die Casting Co. of Shelby, Miss.

Neblett was the keynote speaker at the Education Business/Industry Summit Friday at Southeast Missouri State University.

He recently was profiled on CBS-TV as the 1993 winner of the National Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Neblett said Shelby Die Casting was a failing company destined for closure in 1991 before a "miraculous" recovery, due in large part to a drastic change in management philosophy.

Neblett said the company, situated in the Mississippi Delta region had for years operated under a "plantation" style of management: College-educated managers were hired to think and unskilled and undereducated laborers were hired to work.

Minorities comprised 95 percent of Shelby Die Castings work force and 35 percent of management.

"Our plant operated successfully from 1958 until the early 1980s by capitalizing on the socioeconomic conditions of the Mississippi Delta region," he said. "We managed workers by fear rather than leadership."

But when communication and transportation advancements opened up international markets and made foreign companies more competitive, customer expectations rose steadily. At the same time, Shelby Die Casting's productivity declined and the company began losing money.

"Our response, from a management point of view, was to put additional pressure on the workers," Neblett said.

Subsequently, morale continued to decline and absenteeism and turnover increased. Plans were made to close the Shelby plant and move its operations to an Alabama factory.

"I now realize that if we had done that, management would have failed for a lack of vision and the workers in the Delta region would have failed for a lack of opportunity," Neblett said.

While he spent weeks reading books on various management techniques, an incident in the factory sparked Neblett's realization of the real reason the company was failing.

One of the die casting machines was producing a defective product. Neblett said in-house engineers spent two days trying, unsuccessfully, to solve the problem, while the machine's operator sat idly by.

Finally in desperation the engineers turned to the elderly black operator and asked if he had any suggestions.

"Tom walked over to the machine, twisted a few knobs and made some adjustments, and within a matter of minutes the machine was operating and producing a perfect part," Neblett said.

Incensed, the engineers asked the man why he hadn't helped them earlier, to which he responded, "Well sir, you never asked me before."

"From then on we started including every employee in the plant in the operations," Neblett said.

Unfortunately, the company soon learned that the "ideal" workers of decades past unskilled and uneducated were ill-equipped for the task.

"Management had failed to provide the necessary training to enable these people to do the work that was demanded of them in the '90s," Neblett said.

The company, in cooperation with a local community college, started a training and education program to help the workers. Also, the management style was changed to give workers a stake in the company's success.

"We had to discard that autocratic style of management that was based on fear and results and replace it with a new style based on teamwork," Neblett said.

Management, though, was the toughest challenge, and weekly classes were set up to help supervisory personnel share their responsibilities with workers.

"New relationships formed between management and workers," Neblett added. "It was a complete reversal of the previous, failed system where managers were paid to think and workers were paid to work."

Incentives were introduced to reward workers for productivity. Also, a close relationship was formed with the local school system.

The company provided scholarships for area students and cash bonuses to workers whose children did well in school. A mentor program was started that brought students into the plant to work in various phases of operations.

"In less than a year nothing short of a miracle had changed the Shelby plant into a competitive, growing company seeking new challenges," Neblett said.

He said the principles implemented at that plant apply to any business today.

"The investment in people is directly related to the growth and success of a company," he said.

Neblett encouraged Southeast Missouri businesses and schools to work together to provide the types of workers needed for companies to succeed.

"If you give all people an equal opportunity to play the game of business, we can all succeed," he said. "I read an article recently where someone said that if you treat a person as he is, he'll remain as he is.

"If you treat a person as he could be or should be, then he'll become what he should be and could be."