The Biggest Lesson in Worzalla's Turnaround

Charlie Nason, the President of Worzalla Publishing, is a good friend of mine that I saw last week at the Lindenmeyr Paper Annual Outing. Knowing that over the past few years, Worzalla has fashioned an incredible evolution recovering from significant erosion from China, I asked Charlie to share with me how it was accomplished. He said it would be difficult to say in a few words, but that he would e-mail me, which he did the following day.

He outlined three things: 1) Willingness to Diversify 2) Right-Sizing the Operation 3) Effective Communication These in themselves should not be surprising to many of us, especially those that read the Harvard Business Review. However, I happen to know a good deal about Worzalla & Charlie, and I think there is an incredible HOW here that Charlie is too modest to tout.

First, the background: Worzalla is 100% employee owned and has been that way for some time. Charlie realizes that he only is President for as long as the employee owners choose to have him. Accordingly, and because Charlie is naturally a person who sincerely cares about his people, he has stayed close to them.

When China began to negatively impact the U.S. print industry, he went on an extended trip to learn everything he could. Upon his return, he was very vocal in his concern for American Industry, and his people. When their erosion in 4 color book printing declined drastically as a result, the first place he went was to his people. Because of his relationship with them, he chose to trust them to be part of the solution.

So yes, they rid themselves of 4 sheet fed 4 color presses & replaced them with 2 new presses and increased capacity by 23%. HOW they did this was to work together with each other to involve everybody in the solution. What this did was to achieve incredible buy-in due to the complete understanding of the situation and their response. When folks understand and are treated as equals, they will do most anything to achieve a goal.

And yes again, they did reduce staffing from as many as 625 to 360 full time ESOP employees. Even though their sales dropped from $61 million to $44 million, it then recovered to $65 million, all with just the 360 employees! You you can just imagine how much more profitable they are.

And finally, yes once more, it was the communication that did it. They not only kept everyone a part of the solution, but they updated them regularly on progress. They close their plant once every quarter to have an employee meeting where their sales activity and financials are shared. Equipment acquisitions, training, and manning issues are also reviewed. Questions can be submitted ahead, and answered in front of everyone.

To sum it all up, Charlie stated, "If your people know where you are going, (and are part of the effort) it makes it easier for them to step up and follow!"

Thanks Charlie for the information and data, but as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now you know the REST of the story"