toledoblade.com --

IF DANA Holding Corp.'s new chief executive officer has any words of wisdom that he tries to impart to those younger than his 65 years, Gary Convis tells them this: "Manage as if you have no power."

It was advice that the longtime Toyota Motor Corp. manufacturing executive received from his management mentor many years ago.

But Mr. Convis' personal mantra may be challenged now as he finds himself atop a Toledo auto parts company with 35,000 employees and thousands of impatient shareholders, in a marketplace so fraught with danger that the slightest misstep can put a company out of business.

Still, those who know him say they doubt anyone else would be better at navigating the troubled waters.

"If there's anybody that's going to be able to turn [Dana] around, it's someone like Gary," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, and a longtime friend of Mr. Convis. "He functions like a coach. He motivates people to perform well."

"He earned a great deal of respect over the years with that basic philosophy," Mr. Cole said.

Mr. Convis, a 40-year veteran of the domestic auto industry, was tapped this month to take the helm at the $8.7 billion global auto parts manufacturer, where he has been a board member for four months.

He retired last year as head of Toyota's North American manufacturing operations.

He replaced Mike Burns, 53, who resigned Jan. 31 as CEO as Dana emerged from 23 months of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Mr. Convis is a thin, soft-spoken man with an ingrained belief in collaboration. A native of Battle Creek, Mich., and a graduate of Michigan State University, he loves playing golf and riding his motorcycle.

And though he maintains a home in California, he plans to spend "16-hour days" working at Dana's Dorr Street headquarters.

His writings, speeches, and interviews signal that he may represent the beginning of a new culture at Toledo's largest employer.

"To me, culture really is an outgrowth of what we stand for, who we want to be, and the standards to which we hold ourselves accountable," Mr. Convis said. "Certainly, there are elements of Dana's culture that made the company special and are still very relevant to our ability to compete and win. Moving forward, we will seek to identify and build upon those meaningful, constructive elements."

He wants to simplify what is a very complex company, to focus its thoughts and energy on manufacturing, and to get all employees working in one direction, he explained. The firm, known for its axles and other under-vehicle parts, has 100 operations in 36 countries.

"Frankly, we still have a distance to go in terms of becoming one company - one Dana," he said.

In a column for the Society of Automotive Engineers, he wrote of his 18 years in the domestic auto industry before he joined Toyota and came to believe in what the Japanese company calls its Toyota Production System.

At its heart, the system proclaims that the customer is first, but it defines the customer not only as the person who eventually buys the goods, but also as the next worker on the assembly line who builds the product.

If a component is bad, or something goes wrong in the process, workers in Toyota plants have the ability to stop the assembly line and deal with the problem. It's a practice not found in most American assembly plants.

"For this concept to flourish, there must be no artificial barriers walling off one area from another or one department from another," he wrote.

"Rather, the entire organization shares problems and must work together to ensure that a solution is found."

Mr. Convis spent years with Ford Motor Co. and earlier with General Motors Corp. before cutting his Toyota teeth as the plant manager for what was, in 1984, a historic collaboration between GM and Toyota.

New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., in Fremont, Calif., is a massive auto plant that turns out hundreds of thousands of Toyota Corollas, Pontiac Vibes, and Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks.

The San Francisco-area facility was Toyota's first experiment with manufacturing vehicles in North America, and the plant's success ultimately led the Japanese auto giant to build elsewhere in North America, including a 7.5 million-square-foot manufacturing behemoth in Georgetown, Ky.

Mr. Convis took over the Georgetown plant in 2001, when he became the first American to serve as president of a Toyota production plant anywhere in the world.

In 2006, the Battle Creek Enquirer, his hometown newspaper, did a profile of Mr. Convis and his role at the Georgetown plant.

Peggy Ferris, a conveyance manager in the Georgetown plant who has known Mr. Convis since he came to the plant in 2000, said in the story that he was a president who connects well with workers.

"To me, Gary is always teaching," she said. "He's a president that's very involved in the daily activities and projects. When he sees you're at a stumbling block, he offers support and follow-up, and then follow-up on that support to see if it's helped you. He's out there on the floor and he's interested, and people respond to that."

Ms. Ferris said he was typically very available for workers to talk to.

Mr. Convis was named to Dana's reconstituted board of directors late last year, in one of the last steps before the company emerged from bankruptcy.

At the time of his appointment, Dana's board was viewed as an impressive collection of veteran automotive and financial executives who would know what the company had to do to survive.

In an interview with The Blade after Mr. Convis' appointment was announced, Dana Chairman John Devine wouldn't say how far the company had looked to find a new CEO.

But he added that the company board couldn't have found anyone better.

"We certainly believe, and the board certainly believes, that we have an ideal choice with Gary. He's willing to come in and shoulder the strong workload," said Mr. Devine, who is himself a retired top automotive executive.

Dana board member Stephen Girsky is an executive with Centerbridge

Capital Partners LLC, the private equity company that funded much of Dana's emergence from bankruptcy. He said Dana employees and stockholders couldn't find a better person to return the company to profitability by refocusing on manufacturing.

"In Dana's glory days, going back to the 1970s and mid-80s, this company had a real manufacturing culture," he said. "The board felt that we'd like to try to instill that culture again."

Dana's board met recently at one of the company's plants in Fort Wayne, Mr. Girsky said, recalling that board members had dinner with local union officials and took a tour of the plant. Both employee morale and Dana's stock price now appear headed in the right direction, he added.

"The company getting out of bankruptcy helped, and these guys [on Dana's board] have put their reputations on the line. The thing is, people want to work with John [Devine]. People want to work with Gary. Morale starts to get a little better internally, and you're able to attract top candidates and attract attention from the market."

Traditional institutional investors should get back into Dana, he said, as the company moves forward. "Once you go off people's radar screens, it's hard to get back on."

Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:
lvellequette@theblade.com
or 419-724-6091.

Permanent Link