Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 11, 1990 TAG: 9003081328
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In today's aggressive global competition, "we have to be more productive than the other guy," Tenzer said during his last week of a decade of managing GE's Drive Systems Operations in Salem.
His white Cadillac Seville isn't parked in the first slot beside the plant's front door anymore but his competitive philosophy lives on inside.
Tom Brock, his successor as general manager, spent his first week on the job in Japan meeting important business customers. Tenzer plans to take some overseas trips with Brock to make introductions to longtime business associates.
"You have to be there in person. We've done business with over 60 countries. I've been to a lot of them. You have to touch the flesh," he said.
Tenzer admits that he has wondered how it would be to start over in industry. It would be a challenge, he said. "Problems will be tougher, competition keener and we will be dealing with a world demanding more of itself and its neighbors."
Priorities and products will change and pressure on the environment will intensify, he said. "Technology will have to continue addressing the issue of how to put less stuff in the water and the air than we've already put there."
As the finished products change, so will the tools, and more operations will be computer-assisted, Tenzer said.
Change, competition and global technology are terms scattered throughout Tenzer's conversation.
He looks back on a decade of transition from hardware to software - from manual and mechanical operations to computer-controlled functions. At the same time, the Salem work force was cut almost in half from near 4,000 to just over 2,000.
"If you think the '80s brought change, the '90s will be a rollercoaster," he predicted. "Time will shrink. Things will be happening faster. Those who don't adapt won't be around anymore. You have to have flexibility."
The electronic industry will do things differently in 1993 "and by 1995, you won't be able to recognize what they did in 1990. It will not be in nice, neat, little boxes."
Tenzer won't speculate on the future size of the Drive Systems work force. "The size of an organization is a function of many things. How successful it is globally? Does it have technological leadership? What can it do better?"
He does say the Drive Systems headquarters will remain in Salem. "They will develop strategies here. There will always be a shop and parts system here. We can't do without it. There will always be hardware, always tradeoffs between software and hardware. The digital world provides speed, capacity and flexibility, features that provide the means for better solutions to problems."
Tenzer said the Salem plant will be shipping products to different parts of the world and working with people there, sometimes in partnerships.
He believes business will continue to grow and the plant will continue to be successful.
Tenzer probably stabilized employment as much as any general manager at the plant, said Bob Semones, president of Local 161, International Union of Electrical Workers. "He always believed in keeping the work force intact, in case we got the orders," Semones said.
The Salem-based department, making systems that control steel and paper mills, could not survive in a domestic economy, he said. "We had to reach out and develop relationships, organizing the mechanics and sticking to competing globally. We are a global enterprise."
The Salem plant has employees from 35 different countries and they bring their own cultures, languages and behavior patterns.
GE has a global mentality, he said, so the company has less transition to make than many companies in the world market. "Global change and opportunity are not threatening to us."
The new freedom in Eastern Europe and Russia "will bring giant marketing opportunities," he said, but it will take time to develop the mechanisms for people to play in those markets.
Global mentality will win the day for American industry, he said, but an international approach cannot be legislated or mandated. "It has to be fought for in the trenches."
GE is willing to compete anywhere, Tenzer said, but he anticipates a shift of markets, a shift of demand and supply, and a sorting out of what's good and what isn't. These changes call for "a need to be astute in recognizing niches and relationships. That will separate the winners and the losers."
West European countries will have an advantage because they're closer to the new markets and they have a common culture in most cases and fewer language barriers. "This will be an uphill battle for American enterprise to win."
In the world market, Tenzer said there is no such thing as "looking parochial, looking inward. Everyone has to look outward."
The new freedom in Eastern Europe and Russia may be just the beginning, he said. Look at South America, Africa, the Philippines, India and someday, China again. These are the parts of the world with the largest populations "and everyone is aspiring to improve the quality of their lives."
But as a nation in the '90s, "we need to develop an understanding of what it takes to win in a global market."
Tenzer sees the U.S. as language-deficient, a nation with comparatively few multilingual people. "We don't have a good understanding of cultural habits and lifestyles of many people in different parts of the world. We have to work harder at it. We start with education, lifestyle and the ability to look at the world as a globe, as opposed to what we see on the horizon."
Tenzer said he had been thinking about stepping aside for some time and he moved when he saw a window of opportunity. He decided that Drive Systems business is in "very good shape."
Not everything is shipshape, he said, "It never is. But we are as fit and battle-ready as we can be. We have in place a top-notch management team, the best, most skilled and talented group in the world."
Every manager dreams of leaving the business in better shape than he found it, to have the plant operating smoothly and to have a backlog of orders that will give the new team time to get in full control, he said.
The Salem plant catches only the ripples from economic downturns, according to Tenzer, because it is a long-cycle business and many of its orders come from other countries. In global operations, he said, the plant tries to smooth out the peaks and valleys in the market.
In its work-force reduction, the plant also cut management ranks in a process called de-layering. "We used to have a lot of layers of management but we don't have that now. As a result, we are better able to survive."
While many in the electronic industry did not survive the '80s, "we remained first or second in the fiercest, bloodiest competition in the world. They're all grizzlies, no teddy bears."
Travel with his wife, Judy, and limited association with GE are ahead in his retirement years. "My plan is to be involved in some corporate boards, do some special projects, if they fit my interests, but not full time."
He rules out politics, a field chosen by his predecessor, Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, after his retirement from GE. "I've lived a life that is structured. The last thing I want is to be structured again."
The Tenzers have three children - Margaret, a business planner in Boston; Stephen, who sells GE appliances in Vermont and New Hampshire; and David, who is finishing at the University of Virginia and plans to enter law school.
The Roanoke Valley "has been good to the Tenzers. It's home and we plan to keep it that way," said the retiring executive.
by CNB