Beyond Profits: People-First Leadership

Episode notes

About the Guest: Say hello to Bob Chapman, CEO of the internationally renowned Barry-Wehmiller, a machinery industry company with over 12,000 employees in over 100 countries. Bob’s first title at the company was “Somebody He Could Trust”—meaning he was tasked with helping his father (the owner) make business decisions. But all did not go as planned. “I worked with my dad for six years, was put in the position of VP of finance, and I think it was October of ’75, he had a severe heart attack and died. The next day I was president of the company at age thirty, and the first people I met were the bankers, who immediately pulled our loans.” Bob goes on to detail the many ups and downs of the company after his sudden rise to the top. He says he went from “phenomenal success to traumatic decline and then a phenomenal recovery.” And phenomenal it is. Today, Barry-Wehmiller is a $3.6 billion company. Bob attributes that to many factors, including his creative approaches, his tenacity in the face of crisis, and his focus on people as the main drivers of success.