| Henniges Automotive: From the Ground Up |
| Automotive | |||
| Written by Meghan Flynn | |||
| Thursday, 01 May 2008 | |||
 Communication is helping this brand-new company find its feet and aim for global dominance.
Henniges Automotive, based out of Farmington Hills, Mich., was born out of 140-year-old, German-based Metzeler Automotive Profile Systems’ acquisition of its competitor in the automotive sealing system industry, GDX Automotive. With the combination of these two companies, Henniges gained GDX’s previous headquarters in Michigan and currently runs 18 worldwide facilities.  Robert DePierre, CEO That experience is important because today’s automotive industry is a tough environment. The US vehicle parts industry is expected to grow 5.4% by 2012—meager compared to 7% average industrial growth. Last year, new car sales fell 3%, a trend that is expected to continue with the general slow-down of the US economy. Automotive manufacturers need to head overseas to bolster their bottom line. Despite that, DePierre is optimistic and is full of the energy a CEO of a new company needs. “We have the opportunity here to build something new and interesting, which is thrilling for us,” he said. Piecing it together It’s a little early in the game to judge Henniges’ global reach; it has only been a company for four months. Once battling over marketshare, Metzeler and GDX have transitioned to working as one, with careful planning and an open dialogue. “I cannot emphasize enough how important communication is, not only to the execution of this acquisition but also in the general management of a company. It’s vital,” said DePierre. De Pierre has worked to personally meet as many of the combined companies’ 7,000 employees as he can and early on held a meeting in which he and his team presented an outline of the values and culture they wanted to foster at Henniges. That outline has evolved into a clearly articulated vision statement that emphasizes open-mindedness and honesty. “You can’t dictate culture. The point of that meeting was to communicate our vision of the future,” said DePierre. “It’s so easy for uneasiness and fear to take root during a merger like this, and the best way to avoid that is to always be honest and upfront with everyone.” That mentality has marked the merger throughout. As the process of combining the two companies progressed, DePierre and his team held town-hall-style meetings to provide a venue for relaying updates to the employees and hearing their concerns or questions. The process was much easier thanks to the hard work of Henniges integration teams, said DePierre. These teams, created before the merger, comprise employees from corresponding departments at the former GDX and Metzeler organizations. Each team created a “day one” plan to ensure nothing fell through the cracks and all the stakeholders of each previous company were taken care of when Henniges officially opened its doors. These integration teams still meet with DePierre regularly and are executing their 90-day plans to deal with whatever challenges have arisen during Henniges’ first few months. The results of a recent employee online survey showed huge support for the work the teams have done. Connecting the wires To conduct that survey, Henniges used an online service that collected and analyzed the feedback in one day, illustrating the leaps and bounds Henniges has taken to improve how it incorporates technology effectively into its operations. The consolidation of the two companies’ computer systems and IT departments was the most tangible challenge to the integration process, said DePierre. The companies had each been running on several different systems, none of which were compatible. “It’s taken a lot of work to get these systems running where they are now,” he said. “It’ll take some time, but we’ve got big plans for a comprehensive, fully integrated system that will help us work better as a company overall.” DePierre attributed his confidence in the future to the confidence he has in his leadership team and all the managers in the company. Recruiting and retaining the right people to carry Henniges through the merger has been one of his top priorities. The company has mostly relied on networking, he said, citing the importance of knowing and trusting the management team overseeing a complicated merger like this. He emphasized that rifling through resumes had only been the half of it. Among the top qualities he looked for in putting his team together was international experience to take Henniges to the top of the global market and attitudes that line up with the company culture. “You want to surround yourself with people who will challenge you and think creatively but share your philosophy,” said DePierre. “We’re trying to foster a certain culture here, one that is based on open communication and collaboration, so we have to bring people on that are going to perpetuate that.” |
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© 2008 American Executive - RedCoat Publishing. All rights reserved.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
