September 2012
| Business World Magazine | 117
ships,” he adds, citing the company’s mission
statement. Those relationships are not only
with customers – they are also with co-work-
ers, suppliers and communities, and if they
get those relationships right, then they also
have long term relationships with quality in-
vestors.
AN “AND” COMPANY
In 2011, Noranda Aluminum achieved suc-
cess despite the volatility that affected the
aluminum industry as a whole. Smith credits
this achievement to their focus on relation-
ships, and also their focus on creating long-
term sustainability through “Six Sustainable
Workstreams of Our Operating Model.”
At their core, those streams are: productiv-
ity, value added growth, focus on financial
management, process improvement, envi-
ronmental health and safety, and employee
engagement.
Each one of those workstreams has a man-
ager or “owner”, and each one of those own-
ers report to Smith. “Our mission, our focus
on relationships, our focus on integration,
and those workstreams – when you add that
all up, that would be the CliffsNotes version
on how we achieve our success,” he says.
