“Did we knock down walls? Absolutely. If you look at our building we knocked down all the walls. And we actually located people right next to each other so they’re now their neighbor,” Crum says.
That physical move is backed by a philosophical shift in how the departments are to interact, and how they’re managed. Crum says this would allow employees on the innovation side to hear active calls with potential new customers to better understand needs and challenges in the marketplace.
It would also give employees from the varying positions time to talk more casually with colleagues in the aisles, at their desks and while getting coffee.
Within this structure, business development folks who are out looking at new markets and new product applications can now collaborate in this open space with Seaman Corp.’s innovation and technology people.
“So they’re talking to the director of innovation and technology and he says, ‘Yeah, if I apply this coating and I apply this textile, and I apply this additive, we should be able to meet that market need.’ The velocity inside of that innovation and technology department should give that business development person a product very quickly, sometimes in a matter of a couple of weeks, to take back out and to have real-life feedback from the customer base.”
Crum has adapted Seaman Corp.’s reporting structure to facilitate this behavior. Now, business development, innovation and technology people all report to the vice president of innovation and business development.
The idea for the department was first formed in January 2014 and the department was officially launched in February 2014.
“That’s how quickly we moved on this,” Crum says. “We made our leadership change and Richard Seaman (chairman and CEO) and myself worked through the structure. We talk through it with the strategic leadership team (and they) wholeheartedly embraced it and said this is the right thing to do.
“So we went forward with it immediately when we looked at this and how we might accelerate our new product development, new market development. We adopted it at that point in time.”
But that speed to change hadn’t been typical at Seaman Corp.
“To be honest, that’s typical of John Crum’s management style,” he says. “I tend to run faster. Velocity has always been my style. Once I know 85 percent of the facts, I’m going to move and I’m going to make a decision. If it takes another six months to get the last fact known, probably someone else has entered into the market space.”
Winning formula
The moves Crum has made are about more than corporate culture. They’re about taking care of Seaman Corp.’s customer base, applying innovation in the field and achieving organic growth.
“We’re a privately held company, and one thing that we pride ourselves on is developing or growing our company within. And to do that, you have to grow by introducing new products or entering new markets,” he says.
