Finding Tomorrow’s Leaders - Hiring and Training for a World Class Organization

1. Finding Tomorrow’s Leaders - Hiring and Training for a World Class Organization Session Chairs: Kelly Ferrara, Eric Seiler

2. Finding Tomorrow΄s Leaders – Hiring and Training for a World Class Organization • Moderator: Eric Seiler • Presenter: Alex Elezaj - Whitlam Label Company • Panelists: • Alex Elezaj - Whitlam Label Company • Brian Gale - I.D. Images, LLC • Tara Halpin - Steinhauser, Inc. • Tracy Tenpenny - Tailored Label Products, Inc.

3. Alex Elezaj – Whitlam Label Company Alex Elezaj, Chief Operating Officer Alex is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Whitlam Label Company, responsible for the overall performance of the business. Prior to taking on the COO role in 2011, Alex was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Whitlam, where he helped develop and implement a successful turnaround plan when he entered into the business in 2008. Alex holds a BA degree from Walsh College, an MBA from Michigan State University, and has completed executive development at the Harvard Business School. Alex currently serves on the TLMI board of directors, and is the Chairman of the TLMI Young Leader Development Organization. Alex and his wife Gina have 4 children, and reside in Bruce Twp. Michigan.

4. Brian Gale – I.D. Images, LLC Brian Gale, President Brian D. Gale is President and majority owner of I.D. Images, LLC, a leading label converter located in Brunswick, OH. He joined I.D. Images in 2003 and completed a successful management buyout in 2007. Under his leadership, I.D. Images has more than tripled its revenue. Prior to joining I.D. Images, Brian worked as a strategy consultant, investment analyst, and investment banker. He holds an MBA from University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree from Harvard University. Mr. Gale resides in Strongsville, OH, with his wife and young son.

5. Tara Halpin – Steinhauser, Inc. Tara Halpin, President Tara is the current president and fourth generation owner of Steinhauser, a certified women owned business located in Newport, KY. After many years of learning the business she assumed her current role as President in 2005. With her brother, Trevor, as Vice President they made the decision to transition from a commercial printer to a dedicated label converter in 2008. This strategic move has allowed Steinhauser to thrive and grow in the past five years. Tara resides in Fort Thomas, KY with her husband, Scott, and two children.

6. Tracy Tenpenny – Tailored Label Products, Inc. Tracy Tenpenny, Vice President Sales & Marketing Tracy Tenpenny is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Tailored Label Products (TLP), a producer of custom engineered specialty labels. Tracy has over twenty years of experience in the industrial label industry, which includes roles in sales and business leadership, strategy development, and company acquisitions. Tracy joined TLP in 2004 and is responsible for leading the sales, marketing, and communication initiative for the organization.   In addition to Tracy’s commitment to the printing and label industry, Tracy also has a strong passion for his community and is a proud supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, United Way of America, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

7. Finding Tomorrow’s Leaders - Hiring and Training for a World Class Organization Alex Elezaj Chief Operating Officer Whitlam Label Company

8. Presentation Outline • Our presentation will cover the following topics: • The 3 Rules for Success • Find and Keeping the Best People • Organizing the Family Business

9. The 3 Rules for Success! Harvard Business Review studied 25,453 Companies over 44 Years to Find: The 3 RULES for making a company truly great! • RULE 1: Better Before Cheaper • RULE 2: Revenue Before Cost • RULE 3: There are NO other rules

10. RULE 1: Better Before Cheaper • In other words, compete on differentiators other than price. • Every company faces a choice • It can compete by offering nonprice benefits such as a great brand, style, functionality, convenience, etc. OR • It can meet some minimal acceptable standards along these lines and try to attract with lower prices. What is the difference between your label company and mine?

11. RULE 2: Revenue Before Cost • Companies must no only create value, but also capture it in the form of profits. • Very rarely is cost leadership a driver of superior profitability. • Where is your time and investment being utilized?

12. RULE 3: There are NO other RULES • Change anything you must to follow the first two. • They are foundational concepts on which can help build greatness over many years. • These concepts can help you make the right decisions: • When income is declining, many executives are tempted to make the company results look better by slashing assets and investment to reduce costs. • Great companies typically accept higher costs as the price of excellence, putting significant resources, over long periods of time, into creating nonprice value and generating higher value.

13. Finding and Keeping the Best People • What is means to work here • The risky business of hiring stars • Growing talent as if your business depends on it • How to keep your top talent • Let’s hear it for the B Players! • Generational Governance

14. What it means to work here • The HR Equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses: • In their quest to find and retain top talent, businesses often try to match competitors’ offers, ensuring that their compensation schemes, health care benefits, training programs, and other talent-management practices are in line with the rest of the industry’s. • While this strategy may be useful for bringing job candidates to the door, it’s not necessarily the most effective way to usher the right people across the threshold.

15. What it means to work here • To foster deeply committed employees, you need the following: • A comprehensive understanding of the types of people who will be productive in your organization over the long term. What kinds of skills should they have? What should be their attitudes toward work? • A well-defined, well-communicated signature experience that conveys for potential hires and reinforces for employees the attributes and values of the organization. • A coherent employee experience—none of your company’s environmental elements misrepresents what it’s really like to work there.

16. What it means to work here – Whitlam Label Whitlam Label believes it is important that new team members gain an initial understanding of the products and manufacturing process prior to getting into the details of their new role. We believe the time spent helping a new employee understand our total business results in a greater knowledge and appreciation for the value we provide our customers.

17. What it means to work here – Whitlam Label • As apart of the new hire on-boarding process, each new employee completes a unique two-week “training agenda”. This process enables each new employee to: • Better understand the company and the company culture • Establish relationships • Feel apart of the team much sooner • See the “bigger picture” • Provides first hand knowledge of the end-product • Develop an understanding of how their role impacts the deliverables

18. What it means to work here – Whitlam Label • New Employee On-Boarding Schedule: • Day 1 • Human Resources • Job Specific Supervisor • Days 2-7 • Pre-production • Production • Post production • Shipping & receiving • Maintenance

19. What it means to work here – Whitlam Label • Days 8-9 • Sales • Marketing • Finance • Engineering • Quality • IT • Purchasing • Day 10 • Return to home department to discuss the training

20. The risky business of hiring stars • Top performers sometimes resemble comets more than stars: once they’re lured to another firm, their performance plummets by as much. • That’s because just 30% of a star’s performance stems from individual capabilities; 70% derives from resources and qualities specific to the company that developed him—such as reputation, information technologies, leadership, training, and team chemistry. • The lesson? Grow your stars, don’t buy them. Recruit bright people through disciplined hiring strategies.

21. Grow your talent as if your business depends on it • Companies whose boards and senior executives fail to prioritize succession planning and leadership development end up either experiencing a steady attrition in talent or retaining people with outdated skills. • Such firms become extremely vulnerable when they have to cope with inevitable organizational upheavals. • Create an integrated leadership development program

22. How to keep your top talent • Why do companies so often end up with a shortfall in their talent pipeline? • Recognizing them early and often, explicitly linking their individual goals to corporate ones, and letting them help solve the company’s biggest problems.

23. Know your talent risk

24. Let’s hear it for the B Players! • B players—competent, steady performers far from the limelight. • A companies long-term performance, even survival, depends far more on the unsung commitment and contributions of their B players. These capable, steady performers are the best supporting actors of the business world. • B players prize stability in their work and home lives. They seldom strive for advancement or attention—caring more about their companies well-being. • Infrequent job changers, they accumulate deep knowledge about company processes and history. • They provide ballast during transitions, steadily boosting organizational resilience and performance.

25. Generational Governance • One size does not fit all! • The 2 year old computer • Why do I need to come to work? • I walked 10 miles to school? • So, you want to be the CEO next year? • Move over, the kids know best.

26. Organizing the Family Business • What you can learn from a family business • Avoid the traps that can destroy a family business • Hired professional management • The end game

27. What you can learn from a family business • They are frugal in good times and bad. • They keep the bar high for capital expenditures. • They carry little debt. • They acquire fewer (and smaller) companies. • Many show a surprising level of diversification. • They retain talent better than their competitors do.

28. Avoid the traps that can destroy a family business • Trap #1: There is always a place for you here. Escape: insist on proper training and screening. • Trap #2: The business can’t grow fast enough to support everyone. Escape: manage family entry and scale for growth • Trap #3 Family members remain in silos accordingly to bloodline. Escape: appoint nonfamily mentors

29. Hired professional management • Study of many thousand medium sized firms in 20 countries, qualifying their management practices over operations, monitoring, profitability, sales growth, and survival. • 18 questions were combined to form an index of management rating from 1 (truly awful) to 5 (outstanding in all dimensions). • The results persist even after consideration for variables such as age, size, industry, skills, and so forth. • These findings are only averages – there are many excellent family firms. Nevertheless, they are a reminder that consideration for outside management may be the best alternative.

30. What the average data shows

31. The end game • Focus on your desired goal! • The major end-game options are: • Next generation ownership • Sell the business in its entirety • Taking your business public through an IPO (initial public offering) • Sell the assets from the business and dissolve the remaining entity

32. Thank You!!