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GSI

501+ employees Dec 23, 2024 11:33:23 PM Topgrading %

Leading manufacturer of agricultural systems for grain storage and handling as well as swine and poultry production systems. Annual sales exceeding $700 million, 2,500 employees primarily in North America, Asia, and Brazil.

 "Topgrading was not just useful, but essential to our success."

Scott Clawson, President & CEO

Number of Employees : 2,500

Industry : Grain Storage

Highlights:

  • 90% of executive team hires turned out to be A Players
  • C-Suite executives and candidates assessed by Topgrading Professionals
  • Balanced the urgent need for change with communication and buy-in

The Challenges

Centerbridge Partners, a private equity firm, purchased GSI in 2007 and hired CEO Scott Clawson to lead the company. Centerbridge had lofty goals to provide excellent returns in a short time frame. Clawson estimates that in the original top team, only 2 of 9 qualified as A Players.

Solutions

Having worked at Danaher, a Topgrading company, Clawson was familiar with the Topgrading methodology and its results. When he started as CEO at GSI, he asked Gary Parkinson, the head of Human Resources, to:

Require all managers to read Topgrading, 3rd Ed.
License the Topgrading software
Have Chris Mursau, President of Topgrading, train all key managers
Require managers to use the Topgrading Interview and reference check approach
Use Topgrading Professionals to interview candidates for senior positions

The Results

Using the Topgrading professionals’ assessments, 90% of the candidates hired to the executive team turned out to be A Players.

Mis-hires occurred where managers circumvented the Topgrading process, so Clawson and Parkinson instituted a system to measure not just hiring results, but the extent to which all the Topgrading processes were used.

EBITDA quickly improved from $71 million to $122 million. The company was subsequently sold.