Our Unique Company Culture

As I approach my 10-year anniversary with Okuma, I think back to the early days when I first joined the organization. One of the things that was apparent to me right away was how well established the company culture was (and continues to be). We’ve intentionally worked to take that strong foundation and build on it, to create what I believe is a unique company culture in our industry today. Here are just a few of the values we live by on a daily basis.

The Success of Our Customers

Okuma’s core culture is focused on the success of our customers, plain and simple. We go out of our way to make sure our customers are taken care of, not just before the sale, not just during the sale, but each and every day the customer has an Okuma machine tool sitting in their shop.

MAKING THINGS RIGHT

How do we take care of our customers? As an example, let’s consider machine warranties. Strange things can happen, and occasionally they happen shortly after a warranty expires. Okuma will often err on the side of the customer rather than stick to the letter of the law when it comes to honoring warranties. As long as the machine hasn’t been abused, it’s been maintained, and so on, we’ll do what it takes to make things right. Our goal is to make sure our customers are making money on their machine tool, and that it’s an asset that’s producing for you. This part of our culture is deep.

THE ANSWER IS YES

We have employees in our shipping dock who’ll drive in to work at 9:00 at night to get a part to FedEx at the airport. Employees in our spindle repair department will work all weekend to get a spindle turned around for a customer in need. These are just a couple examples of putting the customer first that I see on a regular basis. We have a mindset of “Let’s do everything to take care of the customer.” One of my mentors taught me a saying, “The answer is yes. Now, what’s the question?” This, to me, is the spirit of what we do.

COMES FROM WITHIN

Without values, you have no culture. So a few years ago we worked on deepening our mission, vision, and values. Our approach was not to impose these things on people, but to raise up and spotlight the best of who we are and what we do. We polled our employees, our distributors, and even some key customers about what was really important to them. As a result of this inclusive process people really bought into the core concepts that we now live by every day. Because it comes from within, nothing feels irrelevant or forced. Our values are a natural expression of who we truly are.

EMBRACING OUR VALUES

Once this work on our mission, vision and values was complete, our next task was to help every Okuma member live them each and every day. One way we do this is, every time we have a meeting, we start the meeting by reciting one or two of the values that pertain to what’s going to be discussed. We have a consistent slide that everyone uses. I start every all-employee meeting with a conversation about key employees and how they’ve lived the values of the company. All of this reinforces our behavior and makes it very intentional. Every day our executive team shows employees that it’s okay to take care of the customer first. Do this, and watch your culture flourish.

“YOU GUYS ARE DIFFERENT”

When customers visit Okuma, they notice our culture right away. By the time they leave, they usually tell us, “Yes, you guys are different.” They notice how welcoming we are, and how we want to be helpful. Everyone they talk with wants to help them succeed. Customers truly get a feeling of, “Wow, this organization is dedicated to me.” Sometimes they pull me aside and say something like, “I wish my company could have this level of intensity around customers.” Having a strong culture really does affect the success of your business because it permeates out to your customers, your vendors and your community.

EMPOWERING THE ORGANIZATION

For an organization to truly thrive it has to start at the top, which means it needs to start with me. I need to live our values every day and by doing that, it empowers the organization to do the same. People need to see that living our values with passion, a desire to be better than we are, is what we want. If you ‘ve worked with Okuma you’ve probably heard us say “We passionately pursue a customer for life.” When we speak about our passion for our customers and our industry, it’s so entrenched it comes out of our pores. I see that happen across every aspect of our business now. When our employees stand up in front of groups and speak, it’s with the love and passion for the business. “Love” might be a strange word to use in business today, but I think our employees truly do love our company and our customers.

New employees often tell me this is the first company they ever worked at where everybody in the organization wants to help them be successful…everybody. As for myself, I make sure people know how to get to my office, because if there’s anything urgent they need to talk about I want them to come find me. I encourage people to approach me when I’m walking out in the plant; I’m not someone who’s disengaged from the day-to-day operations of the company.

CELEBRATING CULTURE

In summary then, how do you build a successful company? First, it’s built on a strong set of values and a mission that creates a strong culture. Then there’s continual reinforcement: this is how we behave, this is what we expect, and we reward people who demonstrate our culture in their actions. Once a year we celebrate employees who have been exceptional by giving an award for each one of our values, including cash and a trophy. Yes, we have a Hall of Fame for our employees!

AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY

I pinch myself every day and I truly am blessed to have the opportunity to manage and be managed by this organization. It’s just an amazing opportunity. I spent my entire career formulating a vision for what might be, and here we are living that vision. It’s an honor to be a part of the Okuma family, and I hope you feel that way too.

About Jim King
Jim King is President and COO of Okuma America Corporation, a world-leading builder of CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machine tools, founded in 1898 in Nagoya, Japan. Okuma is the industry’s only single-source provider, with the CNC machine, drive, motors, encoders, and spindle all manufactured by Okuma. The company also designs its own CNC controls to integrate seamlessly with each machine tool’s functionality.

Company: Okuma America Corporation
Website: www.okuma.com
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