Shop Talk: Q&A With Chuck Edwards, Lenze Americas
Photo/Christina H. Davis
Chuck Edwards, President, Lenze Americas, Uxbridge
Chuck Edwards is a man in motion with a global perspective. He’s the new president of American operations for Germany-based Lenze SE. He’s technically based at the company’s Uxbridge location (known as Lenze AC Tech), where they make and sell motion control systems to assembly line manufacturers. But with operations sprinkled around the world, Edwards expects to spend only two weeks per month in Central Massachusetts. Here, Edwards discusses how he copes with cultural differences as well as how Lenze’s business has fared through the “Great Recession.”
>> How do you manage the amount of travel that you have to do? What are the tricks that you’ve learned?
I’ve actually managed staff during my career in more than 12 different countries. What I’ve learned is that if you are willing to be open-minded, you will quickly find what motivates people in different parts of the world is fundamentally the same. People want to do a good job. People want to be recognized for what they do. They want clear direction on what the expectations are. You then have to be willing to appreciate cultural differences that affect the interactions between people.
>> Can you give me a specific example where you’ve noticed a cultural difference and thought that’s smart, I want to bring that back to the states?
There are times as Americans that we like to go around issues. I can criticize you, but I better finish with a compliment. That’s very American because we don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings. As you go into Europe, especially in the Germanic countries — Germany, Switzerland, Austria — direct, candid and honest feedback is expected and you need to be very specific. I think it’s actually helped me be a better manger in the Americas because I’ve learned how to give more direct feedback and not skirt around the issue. I think that’s important especially with the speed at which we’re trying to do business nowadays.
>> Sometimes just managing a business with multiple locations in the same state is difficult. Managing operations globally must be incredibly difficult.
It is, but if you learn to be a little slower to react because something’s different you can learn to become comfortable in different cultures. It’s also nice to know, given my travels, that there are a lot of major cities in this world that if I got stuck, I could pick up the phone and call somebody because I’ve got a friend in that town.
>> What are the reasons that Lenze is able to actually have people making things here in Uxbridge when so much manufacturing has gone overseas due to costs?
There are a few things. First of all, we’ve found that in this area, there’s actually a very strong labor force. Also, a fair amount of what we do here is automated, so the labor content of the products is not that great. But when you look at the size and weight of the products, you find that in many cases you need to build the products in the same region of the world where your customers are located. Otherwise the only people that get rich are the shipping companies. That really requires us to have a regional, meaning a global regional, manufacturing strategy.
>> How has Lenze been impacted by the economic slowdown?
A major portion of Lenze’s business in Europe is tied to the German manufacturing economy and that’s been hit especially hard. However, over the past few months, we are starting to see solid recovery, and very aggressive, double-digit month-over-month improvement in business. The downturn did not affect this operation in Uxbridge as much, even though there was a downturn. It flattened out last June and we have seen steady improvements month-to-month since then.
>> What’s kept you in this sector?
Somebody once told me there’s only three ways that you create wealth. One is you grow it, second is you extract it from the ground and third is you convert it, meaning you take the material and turn it into something different. And that’s the whole manufacturing process that I really find interesting. I love walking through manufacturing plants and seeing the process and seeing how they’re working.
Watch as Chuck Edwards explains what he most enjoys about his job:
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