How much organizational influence should finance wield when it comes to human capital decision-making? Join us when Ben Mulling, CFO, Tente Casters Inc., reveals his talent development mind-set and explains how U.S.-based manufacturers can compete and win in the global economy.
Made Possible By
Over the next 12 months, what are your priorities as a finance leader?
Ben: Yeah, I think our priorities are probably a couple different things. One is to be more efficient in our production and operations environment. You know, everybody’s required to do more with less, and that’s no different in our company. And so, how we drive efficiency, and how we can weed out the non–value added activities throughout the organization are always a priority and continue to be a high priority for me.
I think the second thing, which is probably 1-B, with the first one mentioned being 1-A, is human capital management—how we get good talent in the building, and how we can develop this talent even further. I think that’s really what’s going to allow companies like our size to be competitive in a global marketplace, because my competitors aren’t in Kentucky, they’re not just in the Midwest, or in the States. My competitors are the entire world.
That requires me to do a lot of different things in order to be competitive in terms of personnel management. So, we put a lot of effort into how do we train our employees? How do we bring people up? How do we bring up the next generation of managers and leaders within our organization? Because I firmly believe, firmly believe, that you’re only as good as your next successor. So, that’s one of the things that I put a high priority on in my job.