How likely is it that a local graduate of a New Berlin high school would end up leading a global company that excels in innovation?
Frank Krejci is the CEO of STRATTEC Security Corp., a global company that designs and manufactures access control products for the automotive industry and other markets. If you own an American car, you’re likely using STRATTEC’s technology to gain access to your car.
Krejci was a student at New Berlin High School when his wrestling coach asked him if he had considered going to Yale for college. Krejci didn’t know where Yale was. He ended up wrestling at Yale and then went on to Harvard Business School, where they taught business thinking instead of structured equations.
He learned to be innovative when he took on the role of an entrepreneur trying to turn around a struggling furniture company in Ixonia. He dealt with the challenges of keeping the company going. The market for American manufactured furniture was being eroded by foreign competition, their factory burned down and the economy for furniture cratered with the great recession in 2008.
Innovative leadership is not an inherited trait; it is often learned by necessity.
It’s obvious in meeting with Krejci that he gets excited about the products STRATTEC is bringing to market. STRATTEC ships its products worldwide and last year had sales of $348 million.
There are multiple lessons Krejci took away from running a struggling furniture company. These are some of the practices that have become part of STRATTEC’s culture:
- Vision: It has to be aspirational so everyone associated with the organization knows precisely what they’re trying to accomplish. It has to be revisited continually.
Previously, the focus of the company was on automotive access control products. Through their planning process, his management team suggested changing it to just access control products, thus dramatically expanding their thinking about markets for the company’s innovative products. - Board of advisors: STRATTEC created a board of advisors made up of diverse leaders from the company for each business unit. The board acts as a brain trust to evaluate strategies and new product ideas identified by the management group. They bring a different perspective to the innovation process while they themselves learn to think more strategically.
- Partnerships: After partnering with two privately held companies to establish a global footprint, Krejci is continuing to look for new growth partners. STRATTEC knows its core competency and so it is always looking for organizations that can bring other skills to the table. For example, it invested in a small company that can identify fingerprints for secure entry. This is going to be a growth market in the years to come, so why reinvent the wheel when STRATTEC could identify a partner with which it could work?
- Reducing risk: The company doesn’t rely on a projection to manage risk. For example, weathermen predict the chance of rain as a percentage. Instead, STRATTEC relies on a range of projections and a range of their related implications. Management collectively uses its experience and knowledge to assess the difficulty or ease of reaching minimally acceptable outcomes, and decides accordingly.
- Urgency: To drive change, there needs to be broad involvement. Then the laws of physics kick in. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.
- Fun: A sense of fun comes with being creative. Humor is part of the culture, as well as taking time to celebrate the victories.
If you get the opportunity to run your own shop, do it and become an entrepreneur. It’s the greatest training on the planet for someday running a worldwide innovative company. If that opportunity doesn’t come along, then feel free to visit BizStarts, as we’re working with entrepreneurs every day and they could use a mentor. Both of you will learn and you’ll be the better for the experience!
– Daniel Steininger is the president of BizStarts. He also teaches a creativity workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the president of Steininger & Associates LLC, which helps companies drive revenues from innovation. He can be reached at Dan@BizStarts.com.
