John Sheptor had only been president and CEO of Imperial Sugar Co. for about a week when on Feb. 7, 2008, an explosion at the company’s plant in Port Wentworth, Ga., killed 14 people, injured 40 and shut down 60 percent of the company’s production capacity.
He had been brought in a year prior as chief operating officer to be groomed for the top spot as the company built itself back up after emerging from bankruptcy in 2000, but nothing could prepare him for the crisis he now faced.
“When I started, I was given the responsibility from the beginning to prepare a vision for the next phase of the life of this company around building operational capacity, giving this company new tools and capacities for its next steps into the future,” he says.
Sheptor was in the process of taking that next step when the explosion occurred. He had planned to spend his first two weeks having town-hall meetings to talk with as many employees as possible and share his vision with them. Instead, he had to deal with tragedy.
“Then this all happened and a few other priorities jumped their way onto my plate,” he says.
By trusting his team with responsibilities earlier than he would have liked to, the company worked through the disaster.
“I had to delegate and release critical success areas for this company to others and believe that the limited amount of time that I could give to them would be adequate to coach them to be successful,” he says.
As a result, the company is well on its way to finishing the more than $200 million reconstruction of the plant by the end of the year, which is an important first step to ultimately returning the company to profitability.
Crisis or no crisis, you can’t let go of your vision or strategy regardless of short-term demands and you can’t try to do everything yourself.
Sheptor trusted in his team to help move the $592 million company forward when times were tough.
“Because, at the end of the day, we do it as a team,” he says. “Somebody leads, somebody does the visioning, but we all collectively have to do it together or you can’t be successful.”
Here’s how Sheptor built a foundation that helps Imperial Sugar work toward a better future — no matter what the situation.
