With Gregory A. Woods’ arrival came the start of big changes for a data-visualization technology company in West Warwick. Its name, for one.
With Woods as president and CEO, Astro-Med became AstroNova Inc. And its rebranding and new strategic direction are proving their worth in the form of increased free cash flow. In 2013, gross revenue for AstroNova (then Astro-Med) was $68.6 million. In 2014 it rose to $88.3 million and hit $94.7 million in 2015. The just-completed 2016 saw record revenue of $98.4 million.
Woods’ strategy involved, among other things, eliminating the company’s medical business. It was a big step, and out of the comfort zone of existing team members.
“It’s human nature. Most people don’t like change. The key is empowering individuals to do it,” said Woods, who served in other manufacturing leadership roles prior to joining Astro-Med in 2014.
This empowerment, said Woods, involves a fundamental set of core values to guide company decisions. But AstroNova didn’t have these fundamental core values written down anywhere, so Woods and other team members set to work.
“As far as a company, what do we really believe?” Woods remembers asking employees. “I think there were about 200 different ideas. … I knew we had to have a little session on this.”
Some areas just needed solidifying. Values such as “customer first” didn’t require a companywide transformation, he said. “It was ingrained in the culture anyway, from our customer-support effort,” said Woods. “But we needed it established in writing to ensure that new people coming onboard would understand.”
In addition to streamlining the search for new employees by attracting appropriate candidates, core values provide a framework for annual employee reviews, said Woods. They also guide decisions and reduce risk; no matter how great a deal may look. Core values keep everyone grounded.
“Where you run into more risk is when there is a business to acquire, let’s say,” said Woods. “They have great financials, but that’s where strategy helps us stay focused.” AstroNova builds a checklist off its core values, which Woods says keeps the company moving toward its goals. “If we start getting ‘No’s,’ we have to say, ‘Why are we doing that?’ ”
Woods is a proponent of lean management, which he says can take a while to produce results. Going lean – finding and implementing more efficient ways of doing things – is a system that has been around for a while now, and one he is surprised more companies don’t adopt.
At AstroNova, Woods brought in a consultant to introduce Kaizen, the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement and efficiency. Team members from different departments worked together to look at operational processes and practices. People from the finance department, for example, came to the production floor and offered their unique input.
“Over time – with enough critical mass – we have more and more people speaking this new language. … What is really exciting for me now is seeing people come up with ideas on their own,” he said. “That’s great; it means it has taken hold.”
Beyond promoting a strong sense of a company’s identity through its core values, Woods looks for solutions to industrywide manufacturing challenges. Such as finding folks to help implement growth, for example.
The problem of identifying qualified workers for advanced manufacturing positions is ongoing. Woods said it can take three to four months to make a hire. A strong partnership with New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich helps from the education angle, says Woods, as does automation, which can remove some lower-level tasks in the manufacturing process and offer consistency to AstroNova. More internal trainings and promotions also help.
But with this challenge and others, resilience is key in Woods’ playbook.
“Everything doesn’t go perfectly all the time,” he said. “It’s how you readjust.” •
