Manager recounts success philosophy

Press, 16 February 1978, Page 11

Manager recounts success philosophy

As managing director of a big vehicle-assembling and engineering company that has managed to resist years, Mr R. D. H. (Rod) Steel says the business philosophy inherited from his family has a lot to do with the company’s resilience.

Rod Steel is the direct, third-generation descendant of one of the two brothers who founded Steel Bros (N.Z.), Ltd. He inherited from them belief in hard work, good staff relations, an inability to take no for an answer, and an innovation and versatile bent that helped the company through lean times. Something of a dogmatic spirit developed in him on the first morning at work, when he joined 32 years ago. “What’s this young fella doing here?” barked the works manager. “The third generation never does any good.” The need to provide helpful and courteous service was ground into him by his father. “Always look after every client who comes in the door, and particularly the one who wants to spend only sixpence,” he was told. “And always remember, if you

have no problems, you have no business.” This is the training Rod Steel is now’ passing on to his son, who is being groomed to take over the business.

“We had to be prepared to put in the hours W’hen it was necessary,” he said. “We were always at work by 7.30 a.m. and we knocked off at night when the job was done!—anytime from 5.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The principle we worked on was not to do anything in office hours that could reasonably be done after work at night.” People are also vital in Rod Steel’s scheme of things. “The most important factor is staff relations. This means looking at the problems and the ideas with staff at all levels, so that, in the main, everybody is conversant with the aims of the company.’’

This method seems to have borne fruit. In a piece of information not volunteered by the managing director, a centenary organiser said that on his return from a recent short trip to Europe Rod Steel was welcomed back with a card signed by all the plant’s 150 staff.

Rod Steel believes that the loyalty and enthusiasm

of his staff originate in the shared objectives of the company. A high percentage of his staff was very skilled, able to cope quickly With diversification, he said. Diversification has been a survival factor. “You need to be able to make a move quickly in a country of only three million people,” Rod Steel says. “Because you cannot produce volume, you have to fall back harder on variety." “It is only ambition that keeps us going, I suppose,” said Rod Steel. “Staff have long since learned that there is no such word as can’t. Thinking like this we are able to look ahead, anticipating changes, and come forward with new products, and new ideas. This helps us retain a healthy business position. “We have never gone to the Government and asked for protection. We believe that if we cannot manufacture an article economically, we had better not tackle it.

“It is the company’s policy that the major proportion of its future expansion must come from exports, and I intend making an announcement with a bit of meat in it along that line this evening,” he said.