Reviving an Icon: Leadership, Innovation, and the New Goodyear Mindset

[Transcript]

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Today, I'm on location at the headquarters of a global iconic automotive supplier. A supplier that's been around for over 125 years. Now, how on earth do you revitalize a brand that's been around that long? It's a brand that you know and love. It's an iconic brand.

And when I'm talking about revitalizing, I am not just talking about technology. It's not just about the product. What about the operating system? Yes, that's right. The culture and the leadership. Joining me at the mic today to answer those questions and more is Mark Stewart, CEO and President of Goodyear. Mark, welcome to the show.

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[00:02:26] Jan Griffiths: Lovely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mark, who are you as a leader?

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Over communication is my style not just because I'm from the south and like to talk a lot Jan, but it really is about us making sure that we've got very clear KPIs that we're marching to, that we're tracking ourselves to them, and holding ourselves accountable to them.

And in the meantime, having a lot of fun with the people 'cause at the end of the day, it's all about our people.

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We were taught micromanagement. We were taught that empowerment was a sign of weakness. You have to raise the bar on people all the time and be tough, and that is not the operating model or the culture that will take us into the future. And Stephen Covey said, "Using command and control in today's workplace is like using a golf club in a tennis match." It's the wrong tool for the job. So how, Mark — growing up with a command and control model — how did you become the authentic leader that you are today?

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But I think I had a really great opportunity there to break free from the mold. It was definitely a different culture, as you said, right? There were a lot of old school plant manager styles. A lot of the command and control.

But one of the first roles I took on was third shift supervision in a hot forging and valve and piston plant. And for me, it's really about servant leadership, it's about participative leadership, it's about getting the job done, right?

And there's times when you have to command and control to get things done, but that should not be the norm, right? Because it really is about span of influence. It's about clear metrics and it's about getting things done together with the people. For me, that was always a recipe for success, but I'll laugh a little bit, Jan.

I'll have an unnamed leader of the past who's one of my biggest mentors, who one time said, "Mark Stewart. I don't know if you're an angel or a devil. I can't quite figure you out," because I was pretty different in those times, right? Not just my shirts, Jan. Those were also different. I did get called outta school for that sometimes too, but that's okay, right? We encourage that today, but it's one of the things that it really is about relating to your customer, relating to your folks, right? And making sure that we're staying current with the times.

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[00:05:24] Mark Stewart: Yeah.

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[00:05:45] Mark Stewart: They didn't exist in those days. They didn't exist. We all had converse, right? Bad for your feet.

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[00:06:02] Mark Stewart: No, that's right. Although, we'll say I probably broke through that mold a little bit early. I would call myself a pioneer in the crazy shirts. I was known for Crazy Shirt Friday that I just kept sneaking into, day by day of the week, right?

But I remember getting called in the principal's office once and actually my good friend, Neil Uck, you probably know him, right? He is like, "Mark, you need to tone those shirts down a little bit, man." I was like, "No, come on."

But no, it is really about being your authentic self, right? Yes, it is about allowing all of our folks to shine in their way. And to be your very best at work, feel your best, right?

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And when we think of something like that, we think of technology, right? And we think of tire technology, and we'll talk about that. But, Mark, what about the operating system? Over a hundred years, it has served us well in the beginning — the command and control.

And everybody knows exactly what they need to do, and if they didn't, if they messed up, they were fired. Okay. That served us well in the beginning. But now, as you look back on this company and you look back — I know you weren't around a hundred years ago.

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[00:07:30] Jan Griffiths: As you look back through a hundred years of leadership, there has to be some of that original DNA here at Goodyear that I'm sure is good, and some things perhaps in the culture that need to be unlearned.

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[00:07:44] Jan Griffiths: That need to transform and change. Tell us more about that.

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But important for me coming in as quote 'the new kid on the block' a year and a little bit ago, it's one of the things I said actually sitting in these chairs with my predecessor Rich Kramer, you know, how are you gonna approach things coming in? You're not a tire guy.

I'm genetically a tire guy. My dad was with Dunlop, with the company for 40 plus years. And in the union, my mom on the management side, which is a lot of what really formed me right? Of being able to relate to issues we've got with our union associates, the issues that we've got on the salary side, and to find the bridges and find the harmony there.

But coming in here, what was important for me was to take those first two months within every bit of my power, filling my books up with learnings, with questions, understanding the culture, and observing the culture. Taking notes about, "Hey, this is a great practice. Hey, what's up with this one?" And revisiting that. It's an approach that I started actually, many moons ago when TRW and ZF merged together, and it's really served well for that.

So, here at Goodyear, noticing some things that we needed to change is some of our structure in terms of how we're laid out to get things done.

When you look at the history, it's really unbelievable. Goodyear really invented impact marketing. When you think about the blimps, the blimps started out with one of my predecessors Litchfield in the Goodyear Aerospace Group, which was really from that time the blimps were being built in the hundreds that were out protecting ally ships during World War II.

But prior to that, Litchfield had a vision that the yachts of the ocean —  the blimps would probably be the yachts of the inland, right? Of the Midwest. That part didn't quite pan out as well. But what the legacy Litchfield left us in addition to protecting the allies in the war was as well to have an incredible icon that makes us still around the world in the top five brands that people know, right? And to have the honor and privilege to be able to lead Goodyear and to be able to make sure, you know, yep, we've gotta transform, we need to do things faster, we need to be more speedy. Part of the legacy culture, right? You get more conservative over time.

More, more, more of us are saying, "Hey, we've got incredible products. The last 10-15 years, we've been a little light on telling people that. We've been relying on the blimp and relying on our good slash great name of Goodyear." And so, we're reinventing ourself in marketing, sharing the amazing things that the engineers and our folks in the plants are doing, right?

It's a key part of that transformation. And it's having lots of open discussions, Jan, with our folks, right? Round tables on a weekly basis, you know, around the world with folks from all different functions and making sure that we're getting messages out and we're listening.

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[00:10:44] Mark Stewart: Yeah.

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[00:11:13] Mark Stewart: Yeah.

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[00:11:17] Mark Stewart: So, it was one of the things as we look, right? We've got a wicked group of skills in our engineering teams, right? From the chemist and the compounders. The chemies, the folks in the plants doing the different products, and to the general consumer out there, right? It's like, "Well, look at that. Looks like a black donut. Yep. It's a tire. Okay." There is so much that goes into the technologies and the chemistry, right? That are keeping people safe on the road, whether it's wet, whether it's dry, whether it's at speed.

All weather tires invented by Goodyear, stronghold in the winter space, and the continued iteration that comes from our racing heritage to a degree, but also to the lunar modules, right? All the different, the aerospace, a lot of people don't realize every time you're landing, there's a 30 something percent chance you're landing on Goodyear tires every time you take off and land on an airplane around the world.

And so, it's a lot more than that rubber donut. It's there are tremendous amounts of compounds, complexities, the engineering design that goes into that to make people safer, to make things longer lasting. Purposefully built, you know? Electric vehicle tires in a whole changing world. And it's something that is embedded in the DNA right? This technology and innovation is something I'm very proud of coming in to say that was alive and strong. That was there. We were not doing as great of a job of sharing that with the world that we used to do.

One of my most favorite commercials that will roll in — our chief marketing officer, like me, is a bit of a hoarder in terms of eBay shopping and so forth of looking for things — has collected some of the most amazing marketing campaigns that Goodyear's done.

One of my favorites — it's in print but also a commercial — it's the Ferrari rolling down the road, and it's like, why does every Ferrari have Goodyear tires? And Enzo Ferrari gets out and he's like, "Because I want it that way."

That's pretty powerful and that's what we're going to get back to, right? We're number three in the industry today, our goal is to be number one, and we've changed. When we talk about purpose and we talk about your leadership, your traits and gravitas, it really is about purpose and vision.

And so, instead of having a 'me too' vision

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[00:13:44] Mark Stewart: of many of the automotive companies. Mobility is still very important for us, and what we're embedded in. But it really is about back to the basics — let's be number one in tires and number one in service. Where the folks are coming into our retail centers or our affiliate centers, or whether they're coming in, we've got a tire for that consumer that's purposefully built with technology back that's gonna keep folks safe and do what they're looking for as a customer.

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Driving here, seeing Goodyear everywhere — Goodyear Heights, innovation way. Reading up on the history, the fact that the vulcanization process was actually started by Charles Goodyear, I think it was patented in 1844, but yet he was not the founder of the company.

So, all this history, it's right here. It's in Akron, Ohio. It's tremendously exciting, but keeping that going and revitalizing that? Whew. And everybody around you is falling flat.

I was reading just the other day about Macy's. You know, Macy's is struggling. You've got a lot of these big iconic companies, not just in auto but everywhere.

In every industry, they're falling because I think they get complacent with their culture. They don't have a strong vision. They don't know how to reinvent themselves for the future, and they're not able to get everybody around that vision for the future. So, 68,000 associates, Mark. That's a lot. Global company. How do you connect them to your vision? How do you do that?

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And it's a big responsibility, just across the street here at our race plant, right? We make every tire for NASCAR and we have for about 80 years, right? So, those folks take it very seriously, as do everyone in the building and all 68,000 around the world, right?

We are what connect people to the road. We are the safety zone, right? It is our purpose to make sure people are safe. And from that side, we take that serious, but when we look at it sometimes it's hard when you think about like enabling mobility was one of our purpose or our vision statements, right?

We are there to enable mobility, and we are, but it's harder to rally around Jan, right? To get to something that we can truly rally and say, "You know what? We can be number one in tires and service. We will be number one in tires and service," And that's something that's resonating around the globe.

So, we actually rolled that out towards the end of the year. I spent the bulk of last year going to as many factories around the world, the tech centers, sales centers, our customers, meeting with folks, pulling the knowledge base in, right? Into my head, as well, asking lots of questions and making lots of observations.

And a whole part of it is making sure that we are keeping everybody marching in the same direction, right? So, what can we rally around? So, we changed to that.

We're also changing our business model a little bit as well in terms of really focusing on our consumer or passenger business. Then, our commercial, our fleet and tire for commercial vehicle business and the aviation side. And then, retail being the fourth area for us. So, it's another thing. Clear accountability, clear product line structure, and we're starting to line ourselves up into that so that we can stay very focused on the prize.

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[00:17:49] Mark Stewart: I'm gonna cheat. I'm glad you didn't ask me for just the one. Even though, I was like, "Guys, we gotta focus on the few, right? Focus on the few KPIs always." But there's three, and I think you knocked it outta the park with all 21. For me, it just resonates for my leadership style as well as how I like to work  — the environment I like to work.

But again, I think it is the '"Vision and Purpose." I think it is really important, as we just talked. I think we all need to rally around to have what is our vision? What is our purpose as a company, right? What are we shooting for here? What are we going for?

The second for me is around accountability, the ownership, and the responsibility because each of us have our role and our responsibility and our function and our job, to make sure we're getting the right products developed for our customers. We're marketing to those customers. We're selling through those customers. We're doing innovations and looking for blank spaces in the marketplace to fulfill a customer need that maybe they don't even know that they need at this point.

I'm proud to say we've got some folks really doing some great work in that space, right? Coming out with things like our WeatherReady2, we talk about that all the time, but it is really just performing off the charts. Our Asymmetric 6 tires for performance.

And when we look to our electric drive, too, of purpose-built tires for the electric driving community, it's really important. Those cars are very heavy. It's a whole different animal of chewing up traditional tires very quickly.

And then, doing last-mile tires for big customers that show up at your driveway two, three times a day for longevity and cost of ownership. So, really working in all those spaces. So, it really goes back into the purpose, the vision, the ownership, the accountability for each of our teams and each of us.

And then, the third one for me — and I think I mentioned at the start — it is about transparency. As I sat here with Rich before I started, they're like, "What are you looking for?" And I said, "I want to listen, I want you to listen, and I'm asking you for transparency. I'm gonna be transparent with you guys. I need you guys to be transparent with me. We can't tackle an issue if we're not all on the same page."

And I think it's really important, 'cause at the end of the day, it's all about people.

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[00:19:56] Mark Stewart: Whether it's the customers, whether it's customers — meaning our middle customers, the end consumers, the one's driving the product — or our folks here at Goodyear.

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[00:20:06] Mark Stewart: And absolutely, all of our supply base.

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[00:20:21] Mark Stewart: Shocking, isn't it? That preceded me by the way.

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And now, we are going to have to embrace different ways of doing business and collaborating with other companies, whether you call 'em a supplier, a partner, whatever the agreement is, doesn't matter. You are working together to achieve a common goal, solve a problem, bring into the world a new technology. But that takes a whole different skillset in the world of purchasing and supply chain.

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[00:21:16] Jan Griffiths: But you managed to do that here.

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And so, our connected tires with the tire intelligence built into it tying into their dynamic software of the transmissions and so forth. But the steering and the brake systems are all integrated back into the connected vehicle so that we can take over, we can stop that vehicle safely. We can do it faster. We can predict what's gonna happen.

And when you look at the results — I was actually up at the M1 track in Michigan last fall with the ZF folks, we were doing a ride and drive together with the OEs. Folks are blown away with that collaboration, and as we look through it, it's really just a phenomenal product. And we're excited to get some wins on that this year. Holger and I have some joint KPIs for our combined teams. In terms of some wins we want to get with it this year.

But as well with our tires-as-a-service, or TaaS as we call, which is for the commercial products. And it's something we launched in Europe in an incubation stage under leadership of Grégory Boucharlat. And we've taken that live. And what I'm really proud to say is the concept, again, it's around total cost of ownership, but it's really optimizing that ownership of the tires.

So, we own the tires, take care of everything with it. We are basically the fleet management service group for the tires. And we do a lot of fleet management already. This is the next step and next generation of that. So, they don't have to worry about it. With the tire technology inside, if anything is happening with the road condition to the tire, we can flag that driver. You need to pull over at the next stop, right? Same time, we can automatically inflate, deflate, and optimize the use to get the maximum longevity out of those tires and the maximum safety. As the tread life is changing, we can change the dynamics of it as well. It's pretty powerful.

The end result is: almost every pilot customer that we had has signed on for five year contracts with us. So, big shout out to the team for that. Fantastic job.

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[00:23:34] Mark Stewart: Yeah.

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[00:23:43] Mark Stewart: Who owns the data? How do you do it? It goes back to that, as you said, the traditional tier by tier supplier relationships, OEM to the tiers, tiers to the tiers. And it really is a breakthrough of how we work together differently in a connected vehicle.

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[00:24:17] Mark Stewart: It's our mantra.

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[00:24:44] Mark Stewart: Yeah. Under my prior hat, we made some good inroads together with Ned and the team, really around more sharing of product roadmap. And me, having spent so many years in the supply base then going to the OE, right? When you see both hats and then returning to the supply base, it's one of the things as well.

And so, one of the things that we've done in our structural changes that we've just done at the start of this year, David Anckaert is really our product roadmap guy, he's our product specialist, coming out of engineering as well as the sales organization going back into this engineering role for us to get closer to the OEMs, get closer into our supply relationships as well, to say, "Here's the roadmap, OEM by OEM. Here's how we fit together. And let's move away from it being a purchasing transaction." Let's have a real partnership, right? And really work things together 'cause that's how we're gonna have more breakthroughs together.

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[00:25:45] Mark Stewart: Sure.

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[00:25:58] Mark Stewart: It is this right here, right? It's an honor, it's a privilege to be chosen, to be the leader for Goodyear. And for me, just to have that opportunity to come in and for us to work together, to take such an iconic brand and bring it back to a number one spot — it just gets the juices flowing every single day. It's really exciting.

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[00:26:49] Mark Stewart: For me, it's giving 1000% every single day. To leave no stone unturned for us to take a look and say, "What are the areas we're excelling that we don't wanna mess that up? What are the areas of opportunity that we need to change together quickly, at speed?"

Time is not on our side, dear. Right? You can never get it back. And so, it's really about going to that. My commitment is making sure that we will tackle roadblocks together, that we will have a clear plan, that we will track and hold each other accountable to that. But you know, our mission, my mission, and for all of us — all 68,000 of us, right? Is to get Goodyear super healthy and get us in a position that we are there for the next 126 years. For the next generations of folks to come.

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[00:27:45] Mark Stewart: Yep.

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[00:27:49] Mark Stewart: What do I not binge watch? Post-COVID, it gets to the what has we not seen on Prime? Hulu? Amazon?  Netflix?

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[00:27:58] Mark Stewart: I've got a couple favorites.

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[00:28:01] Mark Stewart: The most recent favorites was obviously the Tires, and that's just selfless promotion because they have a lot of Goodyear in the background that we actually didn't pay for. So, that's good.

But I love the White Lotus Series. I'm just starting three. I'm a little bit behind the game. My binge worthiness is I wait till the season is just about done so I don't have to wait in anticipation and suffer commercials, Jan. Right?

And then, I'm a big Anne Rice fan, so we've binge watched both seasons of the Interview with the Vampire and then the Mayfair Witches as well. Which is, yeah, that's just amongst the rest, but that's another what keeps you up at night? Binge watching on TV, right?

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[00:28:58] Mark Stewart: I used to do it of my own free will of going to the gym daily. Now it's a forced situation with Tony, but that's okay. I do it and I don't grump about it. You know, 'cause I used to be a big runner and the knees don't allow that anymore. So, finding the alternative cardio. Because running is so much fun, right? To be out and you just really can lose your thoughts for a while, or focus your thoughts — either way you want to go for that day. But doing it on the elliptical trainer, etc., is a little more challenging, but that's fun so I like to do that.

And since we've moved to Ohio, we love the Metro Park system. It's amazing. Take the chubby Labradors and the chubby me and out we all go, right? So, it's also a lot of fun.

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[00:29:41] Mark Stewart: I don't know if you've been down here, Jan, in the summertime, but one of the absolute blessings of living in Akron is just in our back door. There's a place called Blossom. And it's a huge park. It's kind of like on the north side of Detroit, uh, Pine Knob. It's like that on a massive scale. And it is unbelievable, here in our mid-sized, Midwest town, how many amazing folks come. So, the Cleveland Orchestra is world renowned, right? They are top-notch. I love Detroit Symphony, by the way, so we'll give props to those guys, too — I love them all. But it is really special to be able to see Cleveland Orchestra in the summer outside. And they had John Legend played this past year, which is one of my go-to karaoke guys at Sid Gold's in Detroit that like to, you know, we occasionally make that move, but just been so many great groups to see. It's phenomenal.

And this year my goal is to find a way to see Robbie Williams somewhere in Europe over the summer. That's my vacation plan. I've just gotta see if I can stalk it and make that happen.

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[00:30:46] Mark Stewart: I've never seen him live. I've always wanted.

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And I believe that Goodyear will be the model for other tier ones to follow. But like you said, Mark, time is not on our side.

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[00:31:10] Jan Griffiths: We have to reinvent. The time is not now, it was yesterday, but start now. My message to all tier one CEOs out there is really do what you just said. Listen, look at the legacy brand, there are good parts in that DNA that you need to keep. Don't throw everything out. But there is a definite need for massive transformation right now in everything you do: leadership, culture, how you select suppliers all of it, in addition to the technology.

And if that isn't enough, we have a new administration with all kinds of disruption. But you are up for the challenge, and I'm sure all the other tier one CEOs are, too. So, Mark Stewart, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining me.

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[00:31:54] Jan Griffiths: Thank you for listening to the Automotive Leaders Podcast. Click the listen link in the show notes to subscribe for free on your platform of choice. And don't forget to download the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership PDF by clicking on the link below. And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership.