Business Operations

If you’re looking for insights on digital transformation, cultural change and what’s ahead for manufacturing, it pays to consult an industry leader. Dan Dwight, president and CEO of Cooley Group, fits the bill.

Dwight was named the 2024 Manufacturing Leader of the Year in the Manufacturing Leadership Awards, presented by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, the digital transformation division of the NAM. Additionally, Cooley Group won the Small/Medium Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year and the Manufacturing in 2030 Award.

Recently, Dwight sat down for an Executive Dialogue interview with the Manufacturing Leadership Journal to share his secrets to success. Below are excerpts from the interview.

What leaders need: When asked what qualities manufacturing leaders need in the digital era, Dwight says that they must be willing to undergo big changes, but must also keep their teams in the loop. 

• “Successful leadership in the digital era demands, among other things, a higher level of transparency,” he explained. “Your team needs to see the road map in front of them because successful and sweeping transformations are extremely time consuming with a lot of jagged edges that the leadership team needs to address.”

How cultures should change: As for the wider cultural changes that will help a company through its digital transformation, resiliency and adaptability are crucial, Dwight said.

• “Cooley’s digital transformation began with a cultural transformation built around becoming more agile and adaptable,” he noted. “Every decision we make places long-term resiliency and cross-functional collaboration as our operational North Star.”
• “Cooley decentralized our decision-making structures, eliminating hierarchal instruction and empowering team members to communicate transparently and more frequently,” he added.

Small manufacturers’ advantage: When asked whether small and medium-sized manufacturers are at a disadvantage in the era of digital transformation, Dwight says that Cooley has turned its small size into an asset.

• “Our longevity is built on using our size to our advantage. We are more resilient, more agile, more adaptable than our competitors who are often [much larger] because we constantly invest in pro-growth strategies regardless of the economic environment,” he explained.
• “Our investments in innovation generate consistent new product revenue of over 20%, and our investments in Manufacturing 4.0 digitization generate consistent, robust productivity dividends,” Dwight added.

What’s next? Cooley Group is looking ahead to further transformations, including in supply chain management, Dwight said.

• “Our business architecture and change management team leaders are working within their respective teams across the organization to build into our processes a more outward-looking focus,” he said.
• “For example, our M4.0 implementation leader has added supply chain resiliency to her leadership responsibilities. Her team seeks to build out Cooley’s end-to-end business resilience.”

MLC in action: Dwight says that Cooley Group has always been able to count on the MLC to find the insights that it needs for digital transformation and its Manufacturing 4.0 journey. As he put it recently, “When challenges do arise, the MLC can help us think through what the future might look like.”

Watch a full video of this interview for more insights.