Stephen Smith: How Employee Empowerment Drives Success in Industrial Manufacturing

In this episode, host Gaurav Batra, President & CEO of Ayna.AI, welcomes Stephen Smith, Chairman, President & CEO of Amsted Industries, a diversified global manufacturer of industrial components. Operating since 1962, Amsted has 75 locations in 13 countries across 6 continents and is 100% employee owned. Steve joined Amsted in 2005 as Amsted Rail President, became General Counsel in 2007, and President & CEO in 2017. Previously, he was at GKN plc as General Counsel and President of shared services operations in North America from 1999 to 2005.

Steve shares his perspectives on Amsted's heritage, ownership culture, growth strategy, and innovation. He emphasizes employee empowerment, investing for growth, and optimizing talent and capital management for value creation.

Discussion Points

• Amsted's 100% employee-owned model provides competitive advantages in strategic focus, talent acquisition, retention, and resilience through economic cycles. However, it also has its tradeoffs like any corporate organization.
• Business growth in Amsted’s key end markets supported by robust macro tailwinds, including data center demand and industrial electrification towards eco-friendly technologies.
• Amsted represents a winning example of the benefits of portfolio diversification and the conglomerate business strategy – tempering overall cyclicality and routinely beating performance benchmarks.
• The Amsted management paradigm is based on driving authority and accountability down to the business unit level, which includes strategic M&A ideation and execution.
• Successful corporate leadership boils down to finding and enabling the right people and deploying scarce capital for its most promising use.
• Key technologies transforming Amsted’s businesses include additive manufacturing, vision systems using AI and various elements of factory automation.
• Stephen Smith’s business leadership mantra is “leading by questioning” – thus enabling his management team to think independently and gaining their buy-in on key decisions.
• The industrials sector is often underappreciated and misunderstood, requiring greater awareness, appreciation, and encouragement for investment.

Ayna Insights is brought to you by Ayna.AI—a managed service provider that combines domain expertise and transformation capabilities to create alpha—performance superior to market indices—in the industrial and industrial technology sector. Ayna.AI is an affiliate of Fernweh Group. The host of this episode, Gaurav Batra, is the President & CEO of Ayna.AI. Fernweh Group is an investment company that is adapting an engaged investor and operator model to create “segment of one” leaders in the industrial and industrial technology sector.

For More Information

Stephen Smith LinkedIn

Amsted Industries

Book: The Titanium Economy

Ayna.AI Website

Fernweh Group Website