Episode Details

Connect with Karen Norheim:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karennorheim/
• Email: knorheim@americancrane.com 

Show Transcript:

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Karen Norheim. Karen is passionate about all things manufacturing as a second-generation coming into the leadership role for her family's company American Crane and Equipment Corporation. Karen has sought to solidify the founder's legacy while putting her stamp on the company culture.

There's so much more in your background. Please share a bit about your journey and how you got to where you're at. So, welcome to the show, Karen.

Karen Norheim: Hey, thanks for having at least I'm excited to be here. Yeah, so my introduction to manufacturing came through my father. I work for our family's business. And so I have. I am the second generation coming in. What's interesting is I wanted nothing to do with it. I did not think any factoring was all that interesting or cool, and he recruited me to come work for him. And I very reluctantly said okay, Dad. I'll get I'll give it a shot. Well, thank goodness. I did because it has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Manufacturing is now my passion. I've been with our company for 18 years: amazing people, amazing products, and a wonderful experience to work with my father.

Lisa Ryan: I know that you are doing many things well when it came to your culture and keeping things going. So what did you see that worked best for you during these uncertain times

Karen Norheim: Well, about, I think we're going on two years ago, maybe two and a half years ago, 2020 has warped my mind as far as, you know, I feel like I'm in time travel and I lost a year. But we put a lot of groundwork in as I took over leadership from my dad; I saw that we needed to lock-in that founder's legacy, that culture that he created for us.

So we did a reboot, and we call our culture "Grit Matters." Perseverance, heart, and integrity. We did a lot of work on building our culture, cultivating our people, and nurturing our environment. Thank goodness we did because I think that is one of the key elements that we could pivot when we got to March of last year and figure it out.

There was a ton of pain, but we persevered in 2020 and survived the storm due to our people's cultural reboot and development. They have been amazing. I can't tell you how proud I am of how they have risen and stepped up in the crisis to keep us going and keep our business thriving.

Lisa Ryan: So take us back two years ago, before you decided to put this in process. What did it look like? What were some of the specific steps you did kind of build that culture you created?

Karen Norheim: Well, we had already had a good culture. It wasn't like we had a bad culture; it just wasn't written down on paper. We didn't have those ritual things that kind of keep it top of mind, and we were starting to shift into a can't do versus a can-do attitude. And so we saw that, and people needed to know that I was in it for the long run. I didn't realize that, which is what my father and I learned from him.

Through this mistake too is that we didn't. People don't know what you're thinking. Just because you know what's going on in your business, doesn't mean that the rest of your employees know what you're thinking. And we needed to communicate this. We needed to share what was is important. 

Employees wanted to know if I planned to stick around. We let them know that my family is committed to the business for the next 40 years. We need to put those things in place. 

It started with defining those behaviors. I think it's important to define