James E. Brown: keeping it in the family at Bremen Castings.

Working alongside family members has been perceived as a "recipe for disaster" for quite some time. Many who do not work side-by-side with family and even some who do go to great lengths to keep their office and home lives as separate as possible.

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On the contrary, James E. Brown, 46, president and CEO of family-owned Bremen Castings, Inc. (BCI), Bremen, Indiana, relies on the contributions of his family in order to run his foundry.

"When you need help, guidance, reassurance and the ability to brainstorm, you should be able to trust what your family says," said Brown. "You have support from family members you can't get from a large, non-family business or corporation or even a smaller one. Plus, you don't worry about whether you're going to be fired tomorrow."

BCI, today a medium-sized gray and ductile iron foundry, was founded in 1939 as Bremen Gray Iron Foundry by Brown's grandfather, Ellis, along with Harold Heckamen and Charles W. King, and passed on to his father, James L. The company has benefited from the family involvement and atmosphere weaved from generation to generation. Since James became president in 1988, the company has increased sales by 15% every year and has doubled its sales in the last five.

Redefining the Company

The major impetus behind Bremen's turnaround was the task of redefining its customers, in which Brown had a personal touch. "When I took over, we were not a 'healthy' organization," said Brown. BCI was accepting any order it could get its hands on and, in turn, was not making a profit. Brown's strategy was to go to each and every customer and make sure an understanding existed between the two on what was expected of each other.

According to Brown, whether or not the customers were good matches for BCI and if it could satisfy their needs were the main issues - not just pricing.

And Bremen could not meet everyone's expectations. "It was easy to say, 'We can't fulfill your needs. Do you think it's better that maybe you find another foundry to do business with?'" said Brown. "I think they were happy about it because no one ever sat down with them and asked 'What's important to you? What do you want out of us?'"

When most customers responded with the need for castings on time, Brown let go of those whose needs could not be met and changed the company's focus, redefining whose requirements it could fill. This was anything but a disappointing period for Bremen as it began to discover a customer base it could grow and prosper with. In fact, its on-time percentages skyrocketed from 15% to 90% within 2 years of Brown's term as president. In reference to the customers they parted with, Brown said, "We're better off and they're better off."