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Creating our present The CEO Series has allowed me to sit down down with a few of the most modern and provoking enterprise leaders on this planet to get their insights on what it takes to launch, develop and maintain a significant enterprise.
This episode took us to Ozinga, the concrete and constructing materials powerhouse. They’re based mostly in Chicago and for those who’re within the space, you are certainly aware of their iconic crimson and white vehicles. They’ve roughly 2,500 workers and I bought to have a tremendous chat with the man who oversees all of it, Marty Ozinga, the fourth-generation CEO of this 95-year-old firm.
Beneath are some highlights of that dialog, which have been edited for size and readability. Watch the total video above.
His method to management
“It is not the individuals are working for you, they’re working with you. That is the best way I used to be mentored and taught. All of us want one another. All of us have completely different roles and duties, however we’re working with one another.”
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Ozinga’s 95-year historical past
“Our household got here from the Netherlands in 1893, the 12 months of the World’s Truthful right here in Chicago. The household was all the time within the supply enterprise. Then in 1928, my great-grandfather was working with the Prepare dinner County Sheriff’s Division throughout Prohibition and coping with the hazards of Al Capone and all of that. He had 5 children at house and determined, “You understand what? I do not need to struggle Al Capone anymore.” So he began a coal supply enterprise. After which round 1950, prepared combine concrete grew to become the period’s disruptive know-how. Prepared combined signifies that it’s batched for supply from a central plant as a substitute of being combined on the job web site. And so Ozinga grew to become one of many first prepared combine suppliers within the area.”
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On their iconic vehicles
“We have provided concrete to iconic Chicago landmarks like Soldier Discipline and Wrigley Discipline, so it is enjoyable to be linked to locations like that. And we’re actually happy with our vehicles’ crimson and white stripes. I feel it was a mix of this eager sense of selling, but additionally of nationwide delight. However there’s additionally some joke that they have been Dutch and really frugal and people have been the 2 paint buckets within the storage. So I like each these tales.”
The ability of peacefulness
“Our dispatch workplace is the nerve heart of the enterprise. It is the place all of the orders are available in from our prospects, after which the place we dispatch the vehicles. It’s deliberately very quiet inside. We have tried to get it as quiet and peaceable as attainable as a result of traditionally the dispatch workplace is a really intense, chaotic, loud and loopy place.”
Constructing and sustaining a legacy
“There’s an emotional connection for my household and this firm. We have been actually lucky that we get to embed ourselves in communities all through the Midwest. We’re dedicated to our workers and our prospects — we need to be right here for the subsequent hundred years and longer. That is our intention. And whereas change is critical so you do not get disrupted and die and exit of enterprise, there are specific issues that you simply should not meddle with. Our core rules are the muse for who we’re and why we do what we do — that ought to by no means change.”
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Try extra profiles of modern and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Series archives.
