WOODDALE – TMA has been training machine operators since its inception, but last year they offered their expertise to company leaders ready to take their businesses to a higher level. In December, TMA’s second series of Executive Leadership Institute classes will begin and enrollment is open now for interested participants.
“We’ve always provided technical training, but we’re moving from technical to shop floor to the front office,” TMA’s Manager of Training and Education Elizabeth McCabe said.
And that’s exactly what Zen Cichon (see-shawn), co-founder of Innovative Rack & Gear in Wood Dale, says he was looking for when he signed up for TMA’s 10-month course.
While he and his brother Jerry were trained mechanical engineers when they started their business in 1995, neither one of them had business administration backgrounds. Before they finished their degrees, the two of them worked at a company that made gears and gear racks, and that experience led them to starting a company focused on gear racks. But it wasn’t enough to equip them to build the company the Cichons had in mind.
“We took a small business course in the beginning when we were thinking of starting the company, and after that we never went back to class,” Cichon said. “There were always questions we had, and we were always feeling like this lone island in the middle of everybody, but we didn’t know who we could trust and who we could talk to. Then we learned about TMA.”
Cichon said when they talked to a TMA representative, they learned what the organization had to offer. When the ELI program started, it was exactly what he knew, as a company head, that he and the company needed.
Like most businesses, Innovative had been through valleys and peaks in its 19 years. They were doing fine when the 2009 economic woes hit worldwide, when they were forced to back off as the industries realigned. Then, just as things were picking up again, a major customer took their orders overseas. That was bad news for Innovative, which had recently moved to the Wood Dale location.
But as natural problem solvers, the Cichon Brothers found another in-demand niche with larger gear racks than they were making before. Things are very busy now and picking up even more, Cichon said. To keep the momentum going, Cichon said he knew he needed a higher level of business acumen.
“When the ELI program came across, I thought ‘Gosh, this is my chance to take a business course that I never took at a college,’” he said. “I’m really happy I signed up for the class.”
There were things he knew that as a company they were doing wrong, and there was a lot they were doing right, Cichon said. Learning those things is one thing, but putting them into effect is another. After finishing the class, Cichon said he’s energized and implementing the needed changes.
“For example, I knew it was important to keep the shop neat, with things labeled and organized, but I never put much emphasis on that. But I do see how it can help the company run more smoothly,” Cichon said. “Rather than always putting out fires, it’s helpful to be more organized.”
Cichon said he also learned that even though he didn’t think he was doing it, he realized during the ELI course that he was guilty of micro-managing.
“Now Jerry and I are trying to get out of that, and hire more employees because we try to do too many things ourselves. Trying to accomplish the ten things you had planned to do in a day gets pushed aside to deal with the things that come up during the day. Now we’re learning to hand things off – it will take time, but it’s a change we have to do,” he said.
Cichon said the ELI course also provides an important network for those in similar manufacturing situations to stay connected and learn from others in the business. He really appreciates the ELI mentor and the group of four peers with whom he studied among the 2013 class of 13 business leaders.
“We meet as a class, and we met personally with our mentor at the same time. As a group, we had a project of trying to save a distressed company. That was really a productive project,” he said.
Cichon highly recommends the ELI class to other manufacturing CEOs.
“I was probably the oldest in the class. I’m 48. It boggles my mind how we stayed in business all these years without being on top of all the business strategy, and all we really need now as we grow.”
Innovative Gears & Racks, which custom makes alloy steel and stainless steel gear racks, is located at 365 Balm Court in Wood Dale, Illinois or on the web at www.gearacks.com .
The next ELI class will begin in December. For more information, check the TMI Education webpage.
First published in TMA News Bulletin in 2015; Written by Fran Eaton, TMA News Editor
