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POWER PARTNERS’ CHAIRMAN
FORD BECOMES THE
COMPANY’S EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF CULTURE
Power Partners is very likely the only manufacturing
company in the world that is owned by a pair of organizational
consultants who are experts in work culture change.
Sherrie Ford and Steve Hollis, the chairman and chief
executive officer of Power Partners, respectively, are
also the principals who lead Change Partners, L.L.C.,
a consulting firm that helps companies around the world
create team-based cultures that adapt well to change
and embrace the concepts of lean manufacturing.
In 1999, Ford and Hollis began working with all of the
employees of what is today the Power Partners organization
on a culture change engagement that turned into much
more when the two liked what they saw in the people
at the Athens operation and discovered that then-owner
ABB was interested in identifying a buyer.
With strong support from the Athens local of the IBEW
and AWEA, the unions to which most Athens employees
belong, Ford and Hollis purchased the operation in May
2003. In the months since, they have continued to build
on work culture initiatives that were outcomes of their
original work with employees. It was only natural that
Ford started wearing a second hat recently — that
of the executive vice president of Culture for Power
Partners.
From this new perspective, Ford will become the leader
of the very active, cross-functional Communication team
that has initiated product line awareness meetings,
changeover meetings between shifts, quality recognition
events, and many more communications actions that help
everyone at the Athens facility do their jobs effectively
and know that what they do matters a great deal.
Ford is also stepping up her involvement in the equally
vigorous, cross-functional Training team that has tackled
projects such as creating a succession plan that ensures
skills remain intact when employees retire or leave
the company for another reason. Since May, both Ford
and Steve Hollis have been active participants in Power
Partners’ Leadership Forum, which is comprised
of Power Partners’ senior managers and the leadership
of the local IBEW and AWEA.
Power Partners’ new gain sharing plan is indicative
of the work culture changes continuing to take place
at Power Partners. Each quarter, the newly formed Gain
Sharing Team sets goals for employee achievement on
criteria such as attendance, variable costs, on-time
delivery, workplace organization score (the 5S System),
cash flow and the number of employees with completed
training plans for current and career development skills.
The goals are based on numbers that are achievable —
not pie in the sky — because employees have already
accomplished them at least once before. Depending on
how well employees do, they stand to gain as much as
six percent of the value of their pay on an annualized
basis, a rate that is virtually unheard of for a gain
sharing plan.
"I am passionate about what organizations can achieve
through superior engagement of the workforce,"
Ford said. "For Steve and me, it is gratifying
to be able to translate our work culture beliefs into
concrete action at Power Partners and see how employees
are responding to their new challenges and opportunities.
And we are only just beginning."
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