Manufacturing Happy Hour: Achieving Success through Employee-Ownership

Our employee-owners are the foundation of our success, and our investments and support of personal growth help drive Sentry Equipment towards continuous improvement and manufacturing excellence. Sentry employee-owners share in the benefits of our hard work, positive results and continual improvement and innovation.

Marcease Warren, our VP of Manufacturing, recently appeared on The Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast, where he discussed Sentry’s culture and employee-owned business model with host Chris Luecke.

ESOP: Central to the Sentry Culture

When asked about Sentry’s culture, Warren highlighted Sentry’s ESOP as the cornerstone of the company’s dedication to employee-owners.

“The culture at Sentry is great. We’ve been employee-owned since the 19080s, and we’re still employee-owned today. As an ESOP, we live by the mentality that everyone has a voice or a say in what we're going to do. Every employee-owner can voice their opinion and help drive the company into the direction that we feel is appropriate,” he explained.

That sense of ownership spans across all levels through the entire company, which encourages a culture of respect, healthy competition and mutually beneficial collaboration.

“One of the things about our culture is the open door policy. Whether it’s me or our CEO walking through the shop, anyone can stop and question us. It's like, ‘Hey, we heard that our financials aren't performing quite the way that this should be. Could you explain to us why?’ It fosters a deeper level of questioning about why something is the way it is. Here, people aren’t just coming to work to collect a paycheck,” he said.

Busting ESOP Myths

Warren said many people can appreciate the potential benefits of working at an ESOP, but they often misunderstand how this business model works in the real world.

“A lot of people think they're putting their own money on the line, and that's not the case at all. You're literally getting something for free. You're investing your time and commitment into the organization, not necessarily your financial contribution,” he explained.

There’s also a common perception that salaries at ESOPs aren’t as high as those in traditional businesses. “You might think that people are paid less at an employee-owned company, but we pay competitively just as if we were privately owned or a publicly traded company,” he said.

How Culture Drives Competition and Innovation

Warren believes an ESOP business model sets the stage for a positive work environment that fosters growth-focused competition, allowing everyone to optimize tasks and processes within their roles. This is a natural part of the job at Sentry – especially for the engineers on Marcease’s team.

“You definitely have to have thick skin If you're going to be on my direct team. And it's not necessarily driven by me; it's driven by the team. I'm naturally competitive and my team embodies that 10 times over,” he said.

He said this strengthens the team’s ability to solve complex challenges and innovate on their customers’ and the company’s behalf. For example, the competitive spirit on his team drives a commitment to cutting costs and maximizing ROI as much as possible.

“We look at costs and margins as opportunities to improve. We also rise to the challenge from the sales team, when they might sell something without understanding what material it has to be made on. Or they give us a timeline that's almost unrealistic. My team looks at that as a challenge. It's like our backs are up against the wall, so we’re going to do something about it and we're going to prove you wrong,” he said.

Hear more about what Marcease has to say about ESOPs, Industry 4.0, the importance of listening to your team’s feedback, and how to define success as an engineer.

Listen to the full podcast here.