Keith Thomas took over as the CEO of R.D. Abbott in 2001. During his time at the helm, the Garden Grove, Calif.-based materials science, engineering and distribution firm has preserved and built on its reputation as one of the top rubber industry names on America's West Coast.
In 2023, the company celebrated its 75th anniversary with Thomas leading the charge on the celebration efforts. He believes that collaborative relationships between leader and follower are key to a healthy business relationship within any company. For this year's Rubber News Leadership issue, Thomas offered a look into his personal leadership style at the company.
How would you describe your management style at R.D. Abbott?
This is probably a question best answered by my colleagues, but my focus is on people and purpose. This starts with individual and team development, accomplished through the basics. I try to build genuine relationships and trust, as I believe it is important to understand where a person is before you can help them move forward. Next, I work at fostering high-performance teams that are built on safety, empowerment, collaboration and distributed decision making. At the highest level I communicate a clear and compelling vision, as well as set the high-level strategy and the organizational structure that keeps us growing into that vision.
What is your plan for R.D. Abbott's future, both in the short and long term?
We will stay true to our roots and focus intently on serving the rubber industry with high-value products and services. We have always invested heavily in technology, mostly in terms of chemistry and engineering, but now we are in a season of investing in our IT systems such as ERP, CRM and demand planning. We believe these investments will drive simplicity and speed, while eliminating waste.
R.D. Abbott recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. How will you continue the momentum you built during the anniversary year?
We celebrated by doing "75 acts of kindness" in our local communities. Building on the desire to serve others is pretty easy at R.D. Abbott, it is one of our most centrally shared values. As we move into 2025, we will focus intently on delighting our customers in all areas of our business, especially in ease of doing business, exceptional technical support, and high customer engagement.
Rubber News has named R.D. Abbott one of its best places to work in recent years. What makes R.D. Abbott's leadership so special, and how do you plan to further improve it?
We focus on people and relationships first and foremost. We also recognize that the MVPs of any organization are the individual contributors that deliver on the company promise. Management should always be working to support those people, and an org chart properly represented would resemble an upside-down chandelier."
What is your advice to those looking to move into leadership roles, and what traits do you look for in potential management candidates?
Leaders are easy to spot, they have followers. And if you want real followers, you must earn them. The traits I look for include a curious mind, a servant's heart, a humble spirit, as well as calloused hands.
