Joe Carrabba has always been in his element in a team environment. Growing up as a football player and wrestler, he always enjoyed the spirit of competition and the atmosphere surrounding a team. But he didn’t realize that those elements he appreciated as a youngster would affect his career as chairman, president and CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., a mining and natural resources company.
“When I went into the mining business, you work in some pretty remote spots, and you deal with some very difficult environmental effects around you, and in a mine, you don’t call for assistance or help down the road,” Carrabba says. “You have to rely on that group of people or that team to get the product out and get the production for the day. That atmosphere is built very heavily in the mining business, and it’s pretty easy to see how those values carry forward. The world just moves too fast to work in a silo. You’ve got to open up and work in a team atmosphere.”
That’s just one thing that Carrabba has tried to instill at Cliffs, and doing so has helped him successfully lead the company through the difficult economic environment. While many businesses have struggled during the past couple of years, Cliffs saw its revenue from product sales and services grow from $1.9 billion in 2006 to $3.6 billion in 2008, before dropping in 2009. While revenue was down 43 percent through the first three quarters of 2009, the company was still profitable and reduced expenses from $41 million in the third quarter last year to $28 million in the third quarter this year, and it is starting to see a steadily improving demand for its products.
He says the key to his success in the downturn was building that team atmosphere during the good times by creating a great place to work, hiring the right people, communicating and setting goals.
“You’ve got to treat people well in the good times, so you can get their dedication and respect in the bad times,” he says. “We have that kind of team here. Prior to this financial meltdown, we had three or four spectacular years. The commodities business is very cyclical, and you’re going to have very highs and you’re going to have very lows. And you have to plan your business and people have to understand that and then you have to treat everyone equally, fairly and the right way, and that’s what brings the team around.”
