MMT Chats: 5 in 5 with Mark Gauvain

^{This episode is brought to you by ISCAR with New Ideas for Machining Intelligently.}

For this MMT Chat: 5 in 5—that’s 5 best practices in five minutes on ways to improve efficiencies—I chat with Mark Gauvain, one of MMT’s Editorial Advisory Board members who made the move to moldmaking/molding consulting.

Here are his five quick answers in a nutshell (watch the quick 5-minute video for his full answers):

1. How do you create and maintain an employee centered culture?

Gauvain:  Caring for your people, showing compassion and empathy. Trust and transparency too.

2. What are your top three best technology, investments and why?

Gauvain: Liquid silicon rubber molds for medical device, aerospace, consumer products and packaging industries; automation and design capability and the convergence of different materials (thermoplastics, engineering elastomers, metals, glass).

3. What about what is your latest or something that you've seen the latest process improvement?

Gauvain: Adopting the Statement of Work to understand your objectives, scope of work, key stakeholders and expected outcome—whether it’s buying a new machine tool or hiring a critical resource.

4. How do you measure success?

Gauvain: I use Strategy on a Page, which is nothing more than taking your top strategic imperatives and put them on a one-page document to focus and drive the team toward those goals. It shows what you're doing, why you're doing it, and then how are you measuring it.

5. How do you stay competitive?

Gauvain: Stretch yourself at the individual and company level, aim high and expand your network.