John W. Fisher is an honorary director and retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of Ball Corp., who presently serves as chairman emeritus of the board of directors. He spoke at Ball State Sept. 22 as part of the Miller College of Business "Lessons Learned in Leadership" lecture series.

Thank you, Dean Richardson, for the privilege to respond to your theme, "Lessons Learned in Leadership," after which I'll try to field questions that may be on your fertile minds. As you have heard, my career with Ball Brothers spanned a period of time from 1941 thru 1986 although I stayed on the Executive Committee thru 1992. This manufacturing career was most exciting and I feel most fortunate that I was privileged to work that long with one organization, which isn't the case of so many executives today.  

Additionally, I had the pleasure of working for and knowing two of the five Ball Brothers: Frank and George. Earl Conn's book Beneficence relates some of my experiences with them.

Consequently I was exposed to management styles and admirable characteristics of men who had been in business more than 60 years — or stated another way — lessons learned from men born before the War Between the States.

Richard E. Douch, who is the chairman and CEO of American Axel and Manufacturing Co., and served as chairman of the National Association of Manufacturing, made a few comments recently regarding manufacturing that I think might be appropriate for what I will try to convey to you. I quote, "Manufacturing is emerging from a prolonged recession of unprecedented duration and is, at long last, experiencing increasing demand and rising investment with 43 consecutive months of manufacturing job losses coming to an end. Manufacturing has emerged as a significant issue in the 2004 political campaigns. Much of the political focus is on outsourcing of United States manufacturing jobs to other countries. 

Many politicians who have never before demonstrated much concern about manufacturing and a few who have consistently voted against manufacturing related support are suddenly avowing great concern and offering a variety of proposals, many of them without substance. On the one hand, there is increasing public discussion about protectionist measures. On the other, people are contending that the loss of some jobs to other shores is a natural and positive phenomenon that bodes well for the nation's economic future. Most of the current hoopla about outsourcing is greatly exaggerated.  The best estimates place the number of American jobs outsourced at less than 1 percent of U.S. jobs and no more than 10 percent of the overall job loss since the beginning of the recession. Ninety percent of the U.S. owned production overseas is meant to serve foreign markets, not to sell products back to the U.S. and more than half of outsourced jobs go to domestic firms, not foreign ones. We must also recognize that outsourcing is a two-way street. For example, Toyota North America employs 36,000 workers here and last year spent $19 billion buying parts and services from 500 U.S. firms in 45 states. No one in the United States is complaining about that outsourcing.

Sometimes outsourcing is necessary to compete in an incredible global marketplace where customers demand global pricing and the cost of domestic production continues to escalate. The real issue is not outsourcing, but the short-sighted laws and policies that drive U.S. jobs offshore. If the political critics were really concerned about the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs they would take action to reduce the cost of production in the United States caused by high corporate taxes, excessive regulations, runaway litigation and soaring costs of health care and energy, particularly natural gas. That is — if they are really concerned about manufacturing and not just trying to score political points." End Quote. 

I give you this background, for I believe it outlines most appropriately some of the facts surrounding a lot of political talk today. Also, I'd like to bring another point of view to you. Jeffrey L. Bleustein is the chairman and CEO of Harley-Davidson, the successful motorcycle manufacturer. He states five points of light that govern the policies of Harley-Davidson. They are "Harley-Davidson demands that all employees tell the truth, be fair to all stake holders, keep their promises, respect the individual and be intellectually curious. Those are the values that we insist on for all of our employees. Tell the truth and tell it early so that we can fix things that may have gone wrong. If employees don't follow these values, it's one of the few things that can get you fired from Harley-Davidson," says the top executive. He also points out in an article from Leadership for Manufacturers the "aha factor." If anything keeps Bleustein up at night it's thinking about how to make sure the company isn't blindsided. "I focus on the things that are beyond the view of our radar, but that could have a very large impact on our life down the road," he observes. "I'm looking for the "aha" information. I don't want to be the next IBM that didn't pay attention to the personal computer market, or Motorola that didn't recognize the change from analog to digital or Kodak that was slow to react to digital cameras. I don't want to be forced into a comeback mode. I want to anticipate technologies and social trends before they drastically affect our business. I want to read the tea leaves before the tea is ready."

Some leaders grab for centralized power and control; others, like Bleustein distribute it.  Harley uses a unique team organizational structure that speeds decision making at senior level and gives top managers the opportunity for input. Here's how it works: A total of 30 vice presidents are grouped into three broad functional teams, or circles, of 10 executives each. These executive circles make the routine business decisions for their respective functional area. The Create Demand circle broadly includes sales and marketing for motorcycles, parts and accessories. The Product circle includes engineering, manufacturing materials, cost management, quality functions. The Provide Support circle includes finance, human resources, legal information system, communication and strategic planning. All three circles overlap to create the Leadership and Strategy Council comprising about 10 functional vice presidents from the three circles. Council members are either appointed by Bleustein or elected to the Leadership and Strategy Council by their respective circle peer group. 

This same magazine has an article titled "Get Out of Your Own Way." In other words, learn how to delegate and inspire others. I bring you these opening statements as a background to my years of experience at Ball Corp. First of all, a few personal comments. I've been a very fortunate person, for my parents taught me very early in my life to be a good reader and to be alert and perhaps, best of all, to be a good listener.  Consequently, learning came to me very easily. 

Some bards say that curiosity is a trait with which one is born, but I'm not so sure of that observation. It seems to me that alertness, combined with extensive reading, breeds curiosity. Believe me, to be successful in the world of business you have to be curious. You have to seek knowledge, read, study, ask questions, keep your eyes open, listen and stay healthy.   

That leads me to Lesson Learned #1. Stay healthy. Without good health, one can miss so many opportunities to live a successful, rewarding and productive life. At age 13 while carrying newspapers, I survived an accident in which a car ran over me. Three months later I left the hospital after two operations of three hours each. 1928 medical skills were void of antibiotics, cat scans, MRIs and many of the miracle drugs available today. It was the skill of a surgeon that saved my life. During recovery I kept up in school by way of schoolmates and teachers who visited me. I also read at least a book a day after I was able to read lying flat on my back. This experience and a fortunate recovery brought about a resolution to do everything I could to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Managing any business is stressful. There are times when even a day away can be very costly. A vigorous leader brings out the best in his team — the will to win when the odds may not be in your favor. 

Lesson #2 - Curiosity. My first job after college in 1938 was a field secretary for the Delta Tau Delta fraternity for $125 a month plus travel expense. I'd been fortunate as a youngster, prior to the great depression of the 1930s, to have traveled with my family quite extensively, so I chose the traveling assignment over a $100 per month trainee job at Procter & Gamble, Goodyear, Burroughs and Phillips Petroleum, where I would have played basketball with the Phillips 66 Oilers. I kept a log book of interesting alumni I visited and noted what they were doing. Sometimes I had a few spare hours, during which time I visited several manufacturing plants, again noting names and interesting manufacturing processes. This interest was quite natural, for my father's family had been manufacturers for four generations in America after emigrating from Germany. Later in my career I found these encounters most valuable, especially during World War II days when machinery and supplies were at a premium and very difficult to obtain. 

Learning as much as possible about your customer enables one not only to service the account promptly but it uncovers opportunities to improve quality, reduce costs, and earn additional profit for both supplier and customer. Let me give you an example: Hiram Walker operated the world's largest distillery in Peoria, Ill., in the period from the mid-1930s until they discontinued operations in the 1990s. Ball Corp. was a minor supplier to this company and we determined there were several opportunities if we could obtain the ear of someone other than the purchasing director. We had observed the manner in which trucks were received with supplies and how this company handled its outbound trucks. So we put together a plan which we believed would save a considerable amount of money for the customer, as well as for the trucking company and Ball Corp. as a supplier. We presented this plan to the purchasing director after which he brought in their engineers and their plant superintendent. Our plan was fairly simple — if Hiram Walker would call in their orders by three o'clock in the afternoon we would load out trucks with their mix of half pints, pints, fifths and quarts with three different labels in the order in which their production would take place in their plant the next day.  We guaranteed to have the trucks at their docks by 7 a.m. 

To accomplish this we rented two vacant lots near the plant in Peoria to which we delivered trucks. These trailers were then delivered to the shipping docks in 15 minute intervals, unloaded in the order in which their production was scheduled. This might be termed "just in time inventory control" in today's management terms.

At the same time we made some suggestions of a change of material flow in their plant that would enable the same trucks to stay in place and be reloaded with outbound product for delivery to their customers. This took a little bit of re-engineering on Hiram Walker's part, but it was not very costly and not very difficult. This system worked quite effectively. The customer was so impressed with it that we soon had tripled the orders we received from this company and in a period of a few years we became their largest supplier because we didn't stop at this innovation, but we made several other suggestions to them with regard to their production lines, the design of the bottle and the shipping containers, all of which saved them considerable money. The resulting back hauls to the trucking company enabled them to lower our trucking charges, for the transportation company received a premium for delivering the finished product with their back hauls that made the system very efficient. Consequently, our increased orders to the supplier took all the pressure off for cutting prices to meet competition. 

When your company is the packaging supplier, curiosity can sometimes enable one to redesign high speed filling lines, better labeling, cheaper shipping containers and many other cost reducing actions. In other words, you're selling more than the primary product. You're selling valuable know-how, but you cannot do that unless you have his trust and his confidence. Be close enough to that customer so that he seeks your counsel when they have a problem. You can do this without being a nuisance. Curiosity combined with alertness often can take advantage of good luck. Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just could not control himself during a line-up. When detectives asked each man in the line-up to repeat the words, "Give me all your money or I'll shoot!" the man shouted, "That's not what I said!" 

Lesson #3 - Communications. A manager must be a communicator not only with customers but first of all with his organization. He must be concerned with the well-being of all employees, to create opportunities for advancement, minimizing concerns of safety, health care and family responsibilities. 

The manager must communicate with the community, his financial sources, his shareholders and other stakeholders that should appropriately be informed of significant events and developments, always with forthrightness. Credibility can be the manager's most important asset. Ethical conduct stems from the leader being forthright. One example — in 1973 there was a very heavy demand for home canning lids and jars because of a good growing season. Somehow the word got out that there were going to be shortages. We responded with a seven day a week, 24 hour a day program of providing lids. We had ample jar capacity. Early on we did have to allocate lids to customers, but we did it in a very evenhanded manner, playing no favorites. We received complaints from the governor of Connecticut, several state representatives and congressmen. We responded to all of these inquiries the same, explaining to them what we were doing. We even ran some ads in newspapers to alleviate fears. Consequently, when the crisis was over, we came out of this extremely well because we had answered all complaints. Many of them I answered personally when they were directed to me. We were even in Washington answering to an agricultural committee of the House of Representatives and to the Secretary of Agriculture. Forthrightness paid off very well and we were commended by those who criticized us when they knew the facts.

This reminds me of an example of unfortunate communications. A man spoke frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart." "Is this her first child?" the doctor asked. "No", the man shouted, "this is her husband."

Lesson #4 - Employee Support. Employees, when properly informed and accept the goals and objectives, will act like owners. New ideas, cost containment and waste control emanates from a dedicated work force. Take these employees to customers' plants so they can understand rigid quality and service requirements. Employees become proud ambassadors once they see and are involved in the process. An example — Gerber baby foods had to switch to glass from tin early on in World War II and we became a supplier. One of my first moves was bus a load of employees to the Gerber plant to see the rigid quality control standards in place in that plant and for them to understand that a breakdown on one of those filling lines was very costly and time consuming, if an imperfect jar caused the downtime. These employees returned to the plant and became our best quality control supporters. 

Lesson #5 - Planning. Planning is not on a scale of lesser importance than any of the other points I've made. In fact, planning is number one in my mind as my colleagues used to know. Strategic and long range planning have different priorities depending on the business in which one is engaged. If large capital expenditures are required, long range planning takes the forefront. Where style, changing taste and short life of the product are involved, strategic planning takes increased importance. However, both types of planning are essential for any business. A successful plan must be supported at all levels of management. 

Planning becomes a way of life which enables managers to concentrate on those elements which need attention. A quick example — in 1958 and 1959 we realized the large manufacturing plant here in Muncie was not in the best interest of our customers. We needed to have plants spread out over the United States if we were going to be a good service organization and be close enough to our customers to work with them as we knew was necessary. We'd had a series of labor problems brought on by two rival labor unions that were vying for the representation of our employees and our Muncie plant had suffered from this internal bickering. Also, the freight required to ship throughout the country was growing to be a very detrimental element in our sales plan. At that point we began to look at locations for new plants. Finally in 1961, after building two additional plants to go with the three plants we had at other locations at that time, we shut down the Muncie production after 77 years of glass production in Muncie. We tried our best to relocate as many employees as we could, but obviously a great number lost their jobs. 

As you can see on my left, the history of Ball Corp. is diagrammed by the changing demand for and creation of new products. By the way, the first such chart was presented to investment bankers in 1971 when we were exploring the possibility of a public stock offering. The bankers could not understand the diversity of the company.  From time to time thereafter we updated the chart, using it for new employee orientation, explaining the company to visitors and on many occasions, customers, when they visited our headquarters. You'll note that this one ends in 1998. The only significant change that has taken place in the company after the headquarters were moved to Broomfield, Colo., was the purchase of the second largest metal container manufacturer in Europe, Smalbach, which took place in 2002 and has significantly increased the opportunities for the $5 billion in sales corporation. 

I will explain a few of the highlights in the history of this wonderful old company.

How and why did the company go through so many changes and product lines? It was, and is still, the case of survival. Ball will be 125 years old next year and is more profitable than at any time in its history under the very successful management of David Hoover, who is continuing to practice many of these lessons that I've outlined here. 

This brings me to my last lesson — #6 Managing Change. Earlier I alluded to the Harley-Davidson CEO, who never wanted to be blindsided. He was keeping alert of new developments and social changes that affect all organizations. Involve yourself with others, whether it be in trade associations, Toastmasters clubs, alumni gatherings, chambers of commerce, manufacturers associations, political organizations or other types of organizations that can keep you alert to what's going on around you. In other words, be alert and in your planning process have some alternatives and other plans in case events take place that cause changes in your plans. There are many instances in the history of Ball Corp. where we have introduced new products and their lives lasted only a short time because of various changes. Early on we had the best plastic food containers that could be used, either for dry products or used in a freezer. We introduced these through our normal grocery store outlets only to find that this method of distribution proved to be too expensive. We were blindsided by home party distribution by a competitor. The same was true in our zinc operation. We had, by far, the best printing plates but because that the etching of zinc required an acid based etchant, environmental concerns eliminated this product in favor of a plastic plate that produced inferior ink impressions that causes your hands to get dirty handling newsprint.                                                    

Ben Franklin summed up successful management very well. He said, "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn." Never, never stop learning and it comes abundantly when you are alert, in good health, curious, listen and work like you want to succeed. 

I know I've probably left a lot of unanswered questions in your mind.  I'll try to field those as best I can.