Joe Gingo doesn’t remember how he stumbled upon his pattern years ago. What matters is it works.
During his more than 40 years of moving up the ranks of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and as chairman, president and CEO of A. Schulman Inc.* (Nasdaq: SHLM), the pattern he uses when it comes to tackling the challenge of a new position has withstood time.
“Every one of the moves I made, whether they were in Goodyear or when I came to Schulman, has been different and has represented its own challenge,” Gingo says. “The challenges are different, but I think how you overcome them is relatively the same. What you have to do is you have to develop a vision of the future state that you would like to have, a strategy of how to get there, clearly communicate that vision and strategy to your associates, and then empower them to execute the strategy.
“As I moved up to a bunch of different positions, each one became a little bit bigger, a little bit wider. But I always employed the same technique in how I overcame them.”
When you’re faced with challenges, you need to rely on past experiences — wins and mistakes — and let the information guide you.
When Gingo arrived at A. Schulman at the beginning of 2008, the supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins was being sold and it was losing money in the United States, while its overseas operations were doing well.
Here is how Gingo created a strategy that included turning around A. Schulman’s U.S. operations.
