Everybody Matters

“Guiding Principles of Leadership”

Today, Chapman and Sisodia explain, Barry-Wehmiller (BW) is a worldwide capital equipment supplier and engineering consultancy. It was a much smaller firm back in October 2005, when it purchased a Green Bay, Wisconsin, company that built machines for the world’s largest tissue suppliers, the Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC). 

Even then, the authors relate, the people of Green Bay considered PCMC one of the town’s best places to work despite the wild swings it underwent before BW bought it. PCMC endured cycles of receiving large orders followed by periods of drought and layoffs. Its corporate culture became toxic, in part due to mistaken rightsizing efforts. In its final year under family ownership, PCMC lost “$25 million on $200 million in revenue.”