It’s easy to drive past the plain building in Orrville that houses The Will-Burt Co. offices and not realize what’s going on within the brick walls and the plant behind it. Will-Burt, a manufacturer of telescoping masts and emergency light towers, occupies more than 250,000 square feet of plant area between its main location and a site in a new industrial park downtown.
Jeff Evans, president, chairman and CEO, admits Will-Burt is not a household name, but he isn’t phased by that. Because while the company’s name isn’t on the tip of people’s tongues, its products are in use worldwide.
“Every TV truck at every station in every city in the United States has a Will-Burt mast on it,” says Evans.
Will-Burt masts are used in the fire industry to light rescue scenes and at large-scale events to provide temporary cellular service. But when it comes to competing globally, Evans says, “You have to do the things that make you an international company.”
His office walls are ringed with a world map border, and Evans quickly and proudly ticks off the number of Will-Burt executives with international experience. One formerly ran Rubbermaid’s Mexico operations; one was born in Poland and lived in Israel; and one is a Canadian who came to the United States on a hockey scholarship and got an MBA from an Ivy League school.
Evans, himself, was an international auditor with Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and was responsible for Penn Racquet Sports worldwide when he worked for GenCorp Inc. But he has traveled more during his 11 years with Will-Burt than he ever did in previous positions. He encourages fact-finding trips for his employees and last year sent Will-Burt’s purchasing and quality directors to Asia.
“We wanted to learn what was available that could support our business in China, whether it was buying tooling, having manufacturing done over there, finding a supplier over there to fill in some gaps,” he says. “You have to be in the game, and by going there, you’re in the game. It’s not enough to try to do business from this part of the world. You have to get into the markets that you’re trying to satisfy.”
On the map
Will-Burt was introduced to the Ohio Department of Development Far East program about 20 years ago.
“It was critical to our success in the early years to generate the start we needed in international business,” Evans says.
Since then, the company’s management team has worked closely with Shirley Co, a state of Ohio employee who lives in Hong Kong.
“When we go to China, Shirley is there and available to work with us, to help as a translator, to give us introductions to people,” Evans says. “Those options are available to other Ohio companies, but we’ve availed ourselves of them very heavily.”
As a result, Will-Burt employs 300 people and records annual revenue of between $30 million and $50 million. Last summer, its mast division was named 2004 Exporter of the Year by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft. With 25 percent of its annual sales exported, Evans’ company is following in the footsteps of global players such as Honda of America Mfg. and Orrville’s J.M. Smucker Co.
International Will-Burt dealers call on militaries worldwide. The U.S. Department of Defense uses Will-Burt masts in the Patriot missile program, and masts have been purchased by the Israeli military and Finnish navy.
“As (Will-Burt dealers) see a need come up for our product, they will say, ‘We know someone who can help you out here,’ but more often than not, (customers) already know about us, and they will come find us,” he says, attributing that to Will-Burt’s long-term reputation and multilingual Web site.
A long-term relationship with Disney led Tokyo DisneySea Park to use Will-Burt masts for special effects in its light shows.
“We helped them with engineering the product and developing exactly what they needed,” Evans says. “And then, we produced it for them.”
Competing globally sometimes creates legal challenges. Evans says Will-Burt was selling lighting towers in China through a distributor, and the product recently was counterfeited and sold in China bearing the Will-Burt name.
But Evans didn’t want to walk away from the business or try to stop the counterfeiters through legal means, government assistance or political pressure — he recognized the futility and cost involved.
“The only other option is to compete in China,” he says. “So we found partners in China that are willing to make our product and sell the product for us. We are working with them to be the face of Will-Burt in China.
“We initially met (one partner) through a sales contact at a trade show, but the more we’ve worked together and built trust between each other, we got to the point where we could eventually let him be our manufacturer and salesman in China,” Evans says.
The difference between the counterfeiter and Will-Burt’s sales partner is that the partner is selling official Will-Burt product — a distinct difference that the partner promotes.
“The Chinese will pay more for the original product from the States than they will for the locally manufactured product,” Evans says. “So there was enough extra premium in there that he could continue making sales. He could make money, we could make money and we could still satisfy the customer. Lots of people have set up businesses in China and are hoping someday to be profitable. We’ve been profitable.”
Industry leader
More than 80 years after it was founded by William Tschantz and Burton Cope, The Will-Burt Co. became 100-percent employee-owned in 1999.
“Every CEO would like to develop an ownership culture,” Evans says. “We have that because our employees are owners. If an employee tries to figure out, ‘How can I make this product for less and save some money?’ or ‘How do I reduce our expenses?’ that goes into their pockets because they’re all owners of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and the ESOP value will go up if they try to make things better.”
Investing in Will-Burt “gets everybody’s hearts and minds into the company,” Evans says. Cross-functional teams provide ideas for improvement and a strong board assists Evans on long-term plans.
“If you’re a public company, you have to satisfy Wall Street every three months with quarterly reports. We don’t have to do that,” he says. “We can make a decision that, in the short term, might not look as good on financial statements but in the long term will make us a better company.”
Not surprisingly, Will-Burt is in Evans’ blood. A member of a “four-generation Will-Burt family,” Evans’ grandfather worked there as a machinist, his grandmother was a Will-Burt receptionist, his mother was a secretary in Will-Burt’s sales department, and two of his children worked there during summer breaks from school. He was named president and CEO in 2002 and chairman in 2003.
He says communication is the key to managing a successful company. To that end, Evans holds quarterly all-hands meetings, issues quarterly newsletters and holds weekly senior staff meetings. He also invites eight to 10 employees to join him for a monthly “Lunch with the President.”
“When we had our all-plant meeting a few days ago, at the end of the meeting I walked around with a cordless mic and took about 15 questions on all subjects,” he says. “You take that risk but the questions are all good. People want to know what’s going on because it’s their company.”
An employee action committee meets monthly to discuss company issues, as well as make lighter decisions on company picnics or corporate Christmas parties. It also administers a scholarship for children of Will-Burt employees.
“If there’s another way to communicate, I don’t know what it is but we’ll do it as soon as we find out,” Evans says. “E-mails, bulletin boards, factory postings of company results — as much as we can, we try to keep everybody understanding where we’re going.”
Evans views at his roles at Will-Burt in two distinct lights. As chairman, he looks at how the company manages risks and fiduciary responsibilities, and as president
an
d CEO, he studies where the company should invest its money to be a better competitor.
“If you stay one step ahead of the competition technologically, you’re going to have a pretty good chance of maintaining your markets,” he says.
Jim Collins’ book, “Good to Great,” has also influenced how Evans manages the business.
“What Jim Collins says is, ‘First who, then what.’ My first task here was to build a team that I thought was going to be able to take us to the next level, and I’m very happy to say we’ve got a great team here now,” he says. “Most of our senior team is new in the last four to five years, and that balances well with the factory and a supervisory group that, in many cases, has been here for a very long time. You need that balance between new blood and long-term experience to be successful.”
But Evans doesn’t believe in setting consensus or communal visions.
“A vision has to be stated by a leader,” he says. “Beyond that, you should have the team involved in determining the strategy.”
Once that occurs, the Will-Burt team develops goals that Evans calls Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Based (S.M.A.R.T.) objectives and makes day-to-day action plans.
“Strategic plans are just a piece of paper unless you tie them down to what you are actually going to do with it,” Evans says. “Then you just implement like crazy.”
Even with strategy in place, sometimes companies make mistakes, and Evans says company executives need to “stand behind it and make it right.” Several years ago, a problem occurred with Will-Burt masts sold into Israel, and the company sent a 12-member team to that country for a month to correct the problem.
“This company has always recognized that you’ve got to take care of the customer first,” Evans says. “If there’s a problem, meet it head-on, deal with it and correct it. I’ve seen too many times where companies try to avoid dealing with problems, and they never recover from it.”
HOW TO REACH: Will-Burt, (330) 684-5211 or www.willburt.com
