In his folksy writings and speeches, LeRoy Walls takes much of the mystery out of the concept of teamwork. Walls grew up on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, and his works recount the wonders of his family's workhorses, Beauty and Babe. They were ill-matched physically, but terrific steeds as a team. Walls also remembers the mischief wrought on his family when he and his sister teamed up.
As the CEO of Woodpro Cabinetry, Inc., Walls has brought the powerful simplicity of teamwork to the furniture making business he founded 25 years ago in the tiny Ozarks town of Cabool. In fact, the concept of teamwork – everyone working together, openly and honestly without barriers – runs through most everything Woodpro does.
As the company grew to more than 100 employees, Walls worked hard to maintain basic values of fairness. There are no "us-and-them" trappings, such as executive parking spots and dining areas. Though it may be only symbolic, Walls has also banished the term "supervisor" from the Woodpro lexicon, replacing it with "coach."
In fact, in preparing to set up self-directed work teams of 20-25 members, one of the first steps Walls took was to strip away layers of management. Each team, with its leader and backup, takes on a broad range of responsibilities, such as arranging schedules and assignments, covering for absences, preparing for morning meetings with coaches, managing quality improvements, and organizing the cross-training of all members in a department. "Nobody does the same production job for more than two hours at a time," says Debby Curtis, a customer service representative. "This helps make jobs really interesting." Walls notes that the teams can also be real taskmasters. "Sometimes they are tougher on their team members than we might be," he says.
To re-enforce the importance of teamwork, Walls introduced the Quality of Life Club in 1986 to promote spirit, pride and collegiality. The QL Club, made up of nine elected board members, annually recognizes a team of the year, a rookie of the year and a team leader of the year at an annual banquet. Winners are presented with plaques, not a check. "We used to provide money," recalls Walls, "but it took away from the importance of the award itself." In between banquets, the QL Club organizes a variety of company outings ranging from skating or swimming parties to potluck picnics. To fund these activities, Woodpro provides a corporate contribution and gives the QL Club a percentage of the sales from employee purchases of soda and snacks.
Walls believes such relatively simple and inexpensive touches have been crucial for the company's recruitment of new employees. From the earliest days, Woodpro has competed for potential hires with a higher-paying local employer. "We try to do things for people to offset the higher salaries," Walls says.
Woodpro also offers an innovative suggestion program. Since the program's inception in 1988, employees have put forward 10,000 ideas (they need not have solutions). The incentive is clearly not money. Each suggestion gains the employee a two dollar bill. If the idea is implemented, the employee may earn as much as $22 more. "The number of suggestions is a really good way to judge the mood of the employees," Walls says.
Walls is convinced that the combination of smart and low-cost programs has been instrumental in enabling the company to persevere through a rough couple of years. The company has been forced to overhaul products, distribution and pricing since superstores such as Home Depot and Lowe's took out many of Woodpro's retail customers.
Last year, employees took 5 percent pay cuts to avoid significant layoffs. Meanwhile, senior executives made it widely known that they were also taking 20 to 30 percent cuts to their salaries. "Everyone worked really hard and the quality stayed up," Curtis says. The outlook is brightening and Walls can give credit to his longstanding and simple belief that teams matter, whether they are people or animals.
Company: Woodpro Cabinetry, Inc.
Web site: www.woodpro.com
Industry: Furniture manufacturing
Location: Cabool, Mo.
Number of employees: 100
Sales: $10 million
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