Winnebago wins accolades for its lean management

Iowa-based Winnebago is being touted in the February edition of an online business magazine. Paul Keegan is senior editor at a journal called “Business two-point-Oh.”The assignment for an edition based on “doing more with less” was to find a company with frugality as its basis and experts recommended this company. Keegan says it’s all very well to operate with a low overhead.He says if you fire too many people, cut too close to the bone, you’ll alienate workers or cut quality of your product. Keegan says Winnebago C-E-O Bruce Hertzke has rather a reputation locally for penny-pinching, an admirable quality in the business world.As an example, he donated the nice corporate office building to a local school and moved the company offices next to the “rather foul-smelling” manufacturing plant. That kind of attitude pays off, says editor Keegan, in a national economic downturn like this.National R-V sales are down, yet in the last year Winnebago’s tripled its stock price and taken over the number-one position from RV maker Fleetwood. Some of the good business practices make it clear why Winnebago’s a good place to work.If execs get a bonus, so do assembly line workers, and every Friday the CEO hands out checks to anyone whose idea saved the company money. The article on Winnebago’s frugal business practice is in the February edition of “Business two-point-oh.” To view the online magazine, surf to “www.business2.com”.