Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Lerchbacker.
Hi Alan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I got out of the Navy I wanted to be a CEO. Today, I realize that was a bit of a pipe dream, but for the most part, people either told me I was too old and to forget about it, or they were helpful and they told me about their path to becoming a CEO. Right out of the Navy, I was hired by MWD, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. A great company. I would still be there today, but along with getting out of the Navy, I realized I need to get an MBA. I wanted to know what I didn’t know because for the last 26 years, I had worked internally to the government. I was guided to get an EMBA, and Executive MBA vice an MBA and I was so blessed to have taken that route, as all my classmates were some kind of member of their company’s C-suite. CEO, CFO, COO, President, CRMO, CMO, ect. Super powerful men and women in their own right.
My classmate was Mike Gage, who was at that time the City Manager of LA and MWD’s Chairman of the Board, so my bosses, bosses, boss. Our last class at Claremont, Professor Jay Sprag told us he was going to show us a video and then we could have a party. I didn’t want to embarrass him, so after class I identified that we were going to have a real party. I brought two cases of Corona’s, limes, and my knife and immediately after the video, I started to pop tops, slice limes, and pass out beers.
Mike came up to me, and mentioned how did I with all my energy work at MWD? I told Mike, “You pay me a ton of money!” Mike told me he would double my salary if I would be his COO!! I had no idea what Mike was doing, but doubling my salary, as long as it was legal, I was in. Mike had started CALSTART, and together he and I and our team grew it to be the largest business incubator in the United States, 700,000 square feet, 5 states, and 54 companies, launching 14. I loved it and learned a ton.
I was then asked to be President of Taylor Dunn, at that time the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles out of Anaheim California. Again, another great company. We teamed with Maserati and sold to Polaris.
I then was hired for my first CEO job. Austal USA. I have to caveat at that time we had 65 employees, a dog, a trailer, and 47 acres on the Mobile River. We grew that to over 2000 employees and won a multi-billion dollar contract to build ships for the U.S. Navy.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Struggles are everywhere. Any entrepreneur that indicates he or she did not have troubles, obstacles, or challenges, has a bad memory!! At MWD, our new GM was brilliant and forward thinking. He wanted to optimize our performance everywhere internally and externally. Others who had been at MWD for more than 20 years, realized we were an over $6B company at that time and we didn’t need to change. Huge internal fighting.
At CALSTART, we were running along magnificently, but we were not taking an interest in the companies we were launching. We had our own internal council, who had written up the agreements for us to take a small 5% interest in each company, but leadership felt it was too risky.
At Taylor-Dunn, we had 17 family members who worked at the company. The company was outstanding and performing well, but when we sold to Polaris, the Polaris leadership fired our Chief Engineer and our Director of Sales, two of the most important people leading two of our most important teams. Failure followed immediately.
At Austal USA we teamed with General Dynamics and Boeing bidding on a multi-year, mult-ship multi-billion-dollar contract. GD never had less than 100 people on their bid team, Boeing never had less than 60 and on our Austal USA team we had 4. We would provide answers to our GD/Boeing teammates in less than 4 hours, whereas they couldn’t get us answers to our questions in less than 3 weeks. No one on the GD/Boeing team wanted to make a mistake. We on the Austal USA team knew the Navy had no idea what they wanted so we couldn’t make a mistake.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My partner and I, though decades of leading major manufacturing, have learned how to lead teams, hold them accountable, and become servant leaders to our foreman and workers, which we can the Foreman First method. Today very few manufacturers hold daily accountability in shipbuilding, but rather look to quarterly reporting, which does nothing but advocate finger pointing instead of problem solving.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Understanding what kind of an entrepreneur you are will help you tremendously see and create your future.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Austal USA
