Twelve years ago, Walter Boomer rode triumphantly through Kuwait City atop an amphibious landing vehicle. A three-star Marine Corps general, Boomer had been deployed to the Persian Gulf in August, 1990, less than two weeks after Iraq stunned the world by seizing Kuwait. His mission: To retake the oil emirate from Iraq.
Over the next six months, he assembled the largest Marine force ever under a single command -- 92,000 soldiers -- and on Februray 24, 1991, they launched their offensive. In just three days, with the Iraqi army in pell-mell retreat, the fighting inside Kuwait was over, and Boomer was touring the newly liberated capital, cheered by flag-waving Kuwaitis.
Today, the 64-year-old Boomer spends his days in a one-stop-sign town in northeastern Connecticut. After a 34-year career in the Marines, he retired in 1994 as a four-star general and the No. 2 officer in the service. Three years later, he moved to Rogers, Conn., as chief executive of Rogers Corp. (ROG
). When Boomer left the armed forces, the Marine Corps had a budget of $8.5 billion and more than 175,000 uniformed personnel. Rogers is a $220 million company that makes plastic panels and sheets for circuit boards and foams for gaskets and shoe soles. It has 1,300 employees.
BONUSES FOR ALL. One wall of Boomer's office is decorated with framed photos from Operation Desert Storm, including an autographed shot of him and President George H.W. Bush in the Arabian Desert. On the opposite wall, windows look out onto the company parking lot. Well, there are all kinds of glory. Indeed, the civilian job is in many ways as challenging as any that Boomer had in the military (see "Résumé: Walter E. Boomer"). As he has learned, being a CEO means more than drafting battle plans and rallying the troops. Serious and disciplined yet accessible and down to earth, Boomer does know how to create esprit de corps.
One of the first things he did at Rogers, for example, was to give out bonuses to all employees, equal to 2% to 4% of pay, whenever he and other senior managers qualified for such awards. "He really, truly cares about people, and truly takes care of them," says General Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps and formerly Boomer's executive assistant.
Boomer admits he has been frustrated by his inability to make sizable acquisitions. He hasn't found many suitable purchases, and those he has found, he couldn't come to terms with. The finance side of even his small-cap company also has been daunting, while the global marketplace has been complicated and unpredictable. "This is not particularly easy," he confesses. "I knew I wanted a career in business. But I'm not going to try to bullshit you. I've had a very steep learning curve."
MOVING TARGET. Most officers have an easier time. They generally leave the service at an age when they can easily start a second career and sidle into a consultant's job in the defense industry. In theory, a general's training would more than adequately prepare him to run a company. After all, what does an officer do except manage his troops and carry our missions? But in practice, the demands on a CEO are often greater than expected and the victories more elusive (see BW Online, 4/10/03, "Few Soldiers Conquer the Corner Office").
Case in point: Shortly after he signed on in 1997, Boomer vowed that Rogers would hit $1 billion in sales in five years. In his first years, he was right on track. Sales leaped 30%, from $189.7 million in 1997 to $248.2 million in 2000, swelling profits to a record $26.7 million, as the telecom market boomed. Manufacturers such as Motorola (MOT
) ordered Rogers components for mobile phones and radio towers.
Then the market imploded, and Rogers' revenues and earnings plunged before modestly rebounding last year. Today, Boomer maintains his $1 billion goal, to give employees something to strive for, he explains. But, chastened, he no longer sets a timeframe.
CLOTTED PIPES. Nonetheless, the fact that Rogers' numbers are again on the rise even as many of its customers are still skidding can be traced directly to Boomer and his military schooling, say investors and industry analysts. Recalling one of those lessons -- getting the basics right -- Boomer refocused Rogers on manufacturing, implementing the numbers-driven rigor of Six Sigma to boost product quality and, in turn, win more bids.
He also drew from his overseas experiences and opened Rogers' first factory in China. The new plant not only lowers costs but smartly puts Rogers closer to customers that are transferring assembly work there, too, notes Andrew Knuth, chief investment officer at Westport Asset Management (Rogers' largest stockholder, with 1.8 million shares, or 11.6%). Boomer even turned his strikeouts at takeovers to the company's favor, taking its cash stash and paying off all of its long-term debt.
His biggest impact, though, may be on Rogers' personnel. Like much of Corporate America, Rogers was clotted with older white male executives when Boomer arrived. As a result, even many veteran employees had no hope of a shot at management.
IN THE FIELD. What a waste of talent, Boomer remembers thinking. After all, at 22, he was a platoon commander, and before he was 28, he was leading a company of 200 soldiers into combat as a captain in the Vietnam War. He quickly imposed a mandatory retirement age of 65 for top executives, as a signal to the ambitious that they could advance. He followed up by sending recruiters to college campuses to hire new engineers.
Well aware of his own shortcomings, Boomer also brought in a new chief financial officer and a new chief information officer and readied his own successor, President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Wachob, 55, who is scheduled to take over in April, 2004.
Maintaining another Marine Corps tradition, Boomer puts all his top managers through leadership retraining every quarter, when they go off-site for two or three days. Among the lessons: Listen to the folks on the front line. Push everyone hard, but be forgiving of mistakes. And forget the notion of ordering subordinates around -- lead instead by example. "Military or civilian, it's all about people," he says. "The fundamental truth is, whoever has the best people wins."
ANOTHER DOOR. Without a doubt, Boomer was a tough sell when he interviewed at Rogers. Every director worried that all he knew was the military, recalls Harry Birkenruth, then-chairman and CEO. And for good reason. Though no one else in Boomer's family was a career soldier -- his dad ran a coal and ice shop in rural North Carolina -- Boomer enrolled in the Marine Reserve Officer Training Corps while barely out of his teens at Duke University.
Moreover, Boomer was upfront that his first civilian job, in upper management at oil-service company McDermott International (MDR
), ended disastrously when he was fired in 1996 after butting heads with CEO James Dutt. Plus, Rogers couldn't afford a big support staff, like Boomer had at Marine Corps headquarters, or duplicate the thrill of combat. Yet Birkenruth says Boomer won the board over almost immediately with his enthusiasm and confidence. "The chemistry was excellent," he adds.
Boomer swears he has never regretted relocating to Rogers, which is tucked off a two-lane highway a half-hour west of Providence, R.I. "I tend not to live in the past," he says. "When I left [the Marines], I shut that door." Still, he acknowledges that he misses the camaraderie of the Corps, as well as its peculiar custom of shutting down at midday so everyone could work out. He now must make do with a 5:30 a.m. run on his home treadmill.
Soon, though, he'll have time to go back to the gym. For the second time in his life, Boomer will be retiring in 12 months. He's already mulling a third career, as a motivational speaker. His topic? Leadership, naturally.
By Michael Arndt in Rogers, Conn. Edited by Beth Belton
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