Page 164 - BWA FEB 2013

164 | Business World Magazine | February 2013
A little more than 38 years ago, the company
known as Whitehall Industries was estab-
lished in Whitehall, Michigan, and quickly
expanded toLudington,Michigan.The com-
pany gained recognition as a quality manu-
facturer of components that initially served
clients such as Kodak and Xerox. Company
capabilities were expanded in 2001 with the
addition of aluminum extrusion operations.
The company branched into other indus-
tries, particularly automotive, and seemed al-
together poised for continued growth. How-
ever, operating costs, leadership choices, and
an economic downturn coalesced to create a
much different picture by 2010. Dwindling
earning, looming bankruptcy and pending
bank receivership left more than a 220 work-
ers wondering about their professional, and
personal, futures.
The workers continued to come in,
punch-the-clock and carry out their respec-
tive duties despite uncertainty when, one af-
ternoon, a man stopped by to take a tour of
the plant. It would be difficult to determine
who was more studious in that moment, for
the man was certainly studying the work-
ers, and the workers, no doubt, recognized
this man was a little different than the stan-
dard variety industrialists traipsing around
in Ludington. There was no way the work-
ers could know that this man was about to
dramatically turn the company around, but