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AlumniNews(cont.)
Alumni Spotlight:
Jim Schaefer ’68
It requires a great deal of self-confidence to
end a presentation with the words, “questions, comments, insults?” especially to hundreds of oil refinery workers whose jobs are on the line and to whom you’ve just been introduced as a “turnaround expert.” Nonetheless, that was the phrase Jim Schaefer
’68 used to end his initial presentations whenever he took on a new corporate role.
“I picked up that line from Fr. Lou Pappas in English class. It always struck me as a good way to break the ice when I heard it as a student, and when I used it in my business career, it worked just as effectively,” said Schaefer.
His career was an odyssey of corporate rescues and successes, all the while saving jobs, plants and the economic base of entire communities during times marked by the change of business philosophy, which descended on so many American manufacturing and heavy industry concerns in the 80’s and 90’s.
Beginning at M.A. Hanna Mining in the 1970’s, Schaefer, a chemical engineer by training, landed at another Cleveland corporate insti- tution, Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) in 1981. As an executive with Sohio during the British Petroleum (BP) ownership years, Jim was tasked with improving productivity at numerous company locations throughout the region that had previously been lagging in perfor- mance. A particularly challenging case was when he was put
in charge of two huge Ohio oil refineries in Toledo and Lima, Ohio.
His bosses at BP tasked him with increasing profits by $7 million over three years. At the end of that benchmark, Schaefer and his team had achieved remarkable levels of growth. The refineries eventually booked $60 million in profit. He will tell you the extraor- dinary improvement was all about “tapping into the brain power of existing employees” and eating a lot of meals. Over the three years, he ate lunch with all 900 employees.
“By investing the team in decisions, you build trust. And by assuring them you are going to make improvements and then actually following through with genuine empowerment of workers...a different attitude prevails in the plant and all around in the business. Everyone eventually begins to work toward common goals,” said Schaefer.
Summer job experiences as a brick-layer’s and plumber’s assistant during his high school and college years, shaped Schaefer’s core approach to management. His philosophy was to work hard, stick to data-based analysis, even in the face of significant opposition
from all around you, add outstanding strategy, and cultivate true employee buy-in.
While at Padua, Jim learned the important lessons of meeting people where they are,
identifying and building on their strengths, growing organizations from within, and
being humble enough to recognize you don’t have all the answers. “The
Franciscan values we were taught, by men like Fr. Lou, Fr. Mario and Fr. Wayne were more than just words. They provided a road map for how to treat
people, professionally and personally, throughoutmylife,”hesaid.
Jim and his wife, Joan, whom he met while they were both Master’s in Business Admin-
istration classmates at Harvard Business School, have two grown daughters, Kelly and Karen, both of
whom are raising their families out west, in California and Oregon. “Now that we’re grandparents, traveling out to the west coast every six weeks or so is a joy. We are blessed to be able to keepourfamilyclose,despitethegeographicdistance,”heshared.
The Schaefer family embraces our Franciscan philosophy in other facets of their life as well. Jim and Joan began working with the African Leadership Academy (ALA) several years ago. “It’s a wonderful organization, doing remarkable work, and lifting up young men and women who otherwise might never have any chance to succeed,” Schaefer remarked.
ALA was founded 10 years ago in South Africa, identfying young people across the continent with exceptional academic potential and limited resources to participate in a rigorous academic environment that encourages entrepreneurship along with an intense secondary curriculum, to matriculate on to universities throughout the US and Europe.
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