Building a Future-Ready Company

Jeffrey S. Edwards, Chairman and CEO of Cooper Standard, recently sat down for an interview with industry influencer Jan Griffiths, discussing how the Company’s strong culture has been a driving force in its ability to continuously evolve and adapt to changing industry demands over its 65 year history, allowing us to foster innovation, deliver lasting value to all our stakeholders and become a leading global supplier. Below are several excerpts from his conversation, edited and condensed for clarity. To check out the full interview, entitled “How Do You Build a Future-Ready Company? Jeff Edwards on Culture & Leadership,” click here. 

• “Why is culture important to us? Well, I think that, at the end of the day, it's not the sign on the building, right? It's the people within it. And our customers have become very accustomed to how our people deliver, and how they keep getting better. If they have a problem, they own it and fix it. That's how I would describe cultures in successful companies. You speak the truth. You say what you mean, you do what you say. That’s who we are.”  
   
• “We have a vision statement, we have a purpose, we have our values, but that isn't a paper that hangs on the wall. It’s what is in the hearts and minds of our leadership team because they own it, and it's in the hearts and minds of our employees because they embraced it when they joined our Company.”  
   
• “Speed is defined much differently today. The timeline that we used to discuss was three to five years. Now we're talking about just months that you have to develop a product and get it into the market. Our organization’s mindset has to align with that pace. To meet that challenge, we have made hundreds of millions of dollars in investments in our business, in engineering, in manufacturing, finance, program management and more.”  
   
• “Now we have fast access to more data, and our employees are using that data in sophisticated ways, you know, we're no longer Excel spreadsheets and napkins. So that requires people to really buy into how they're going to do things differently. And, if you don't have a culture where folks are willing to do that, I mean, you can conquer any mountain, but when you turn around and nobody's there with you, it makes for a pretty long day. So, culture can be part of virtually everything that you do, especially this continuous improvement, with lightning speed changes.”  
   
• “What do we look for in people that we hire? I think you have to have the right work ethic. You have to care, you have to be a teammate. And if you’re a leader you still have to be a teammate. I mean, there isn't a leader in the Company, me included, who doesn't have to be a good teammate. And we really put tools in their hands to help them and, make them better and, and ultimately the Company better.”  
   
• “You have to have people that are willing to commit and are willing and go make it happen and aren't going to run for cover when things get difficult. And I'm really proud of that aspect. I mean, we have people that have been here a long time, and clearly, that sets us apart. People want to work here. People enjoy working here. And when we need folks to come join us, we usually have a line around the building. And that's not because of the sign, that’s because of the culture we’ve built together.”  
   
• “We’ve gone through quite a transformation at Cooper Standard around organizational structure. You need to pick a structure appropriate for the particular period of time that you're in and understand that in two or three years that's going to be obsolete. What we did two years ago was create product-focused organizations. It's also very flat, with the smallest global leadership team we've ever had.”  
   
• “One thing we really pride ourselves on is how we run our factories and the quality and safety records in our factories. It's a total safety culture. It exists from the boardroom to the shop floor, and everywhere in between, and it doesn't matter the country. And so, our focus is zero accidents in every facility. And we achieved that in over half our plants last year. We're even ahead of that pace this year. There's no better way to invest in your employees than to send them home at night in the same condition that they arrived at work that morning.” 

These are just a few brief excerpts, and, again, we invite you to listen to “How Do You Build a Future-Ready Company? Jeff Edwards on Culture & Leadership,” in its entirety, here.