Agility Champions: Steve Richman, CEO, Techtronic Industries

When Steve joined Milwaukee Tool as president in 2007, the company was 83 years old and sold a limited range of traditional power tools

During his tenure as president, Steve led a remarkable transformation of the company’s strategy and culture that produced a steady stream of technical and product innovations. 

Today, Milwaukee Tool sells a wide range of cordless power tools for the building trades, and is the market share leader in North America and globally. This steady stream of new products has allowed Milwaukee Tool to deliver double-digit revenue growth, year-in and year-out, for nearly two decades. And over the past ten years, Milwaukee Tools’ parent company has generated total shareholder returns of 17% CAGR, versus 7% for its direct competitors and 11% for the industrial sector as a whole

Steve attributes much of the company’s success to great people and its distinctive culture. And employees agree. Employees have voted Milwaukee Tool one of Glassdoor’s best places to work for three of the last five years. Not only do employees love the culture, they also say Milwaukee Tool excels on its core values of empowered leaders, candor, and speed/agility/urgency. 

We analyzed how more than 40,000 employees described their company in Glassdoor reviews for 27 industrials. Milwaukee Tool employees were nearly twice as likely to mention empowerment, and discuss it more than twice as positively as the average industrial. 

In this episode Steve, who is now the CEO of Milwaukee Tools’ parent company, reveals the secret of Milwaukee Tool’s cultural success.