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Profile of Team Member – Susan Muma

Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the automotive industry, believes that “Building an exceptional company is the result of building exceptional teams with exceptional people.” Team 1 has been and continues to be a successful company because of exceptional people – its Team Members. Today continues a series of articles profiling Team 1 Plastics’ Team Members. Each month, you’ll be introduced to one of these exceptional Team Members, including Susan (Susie) Muma.

Position: Controller

Date of Hire: 6/30/98

Other Positions Held: Accounting Manager – 2 years; Human Resources Manager and Controller – 5 years

Favorite Story / Memory during Time Working at Team 1: Susie recalled the time when karaoke was featured at one of the Team 1 Plastics holiday parties. She said that co-owners Craig Carrel and Gary Grigowski got up and did the song, Picture, by Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock. “One of them did Kid Rock, and the other took the girl’s part, and it was hilarious! They made it through the whole thing. It was just fantastic! It made the night!” Susie said that it set the tone of the evening because after that amazing performance, everybody else quit being chicken and got up on stage to do their thing. Well … not quite everybody. Susie laughingly confessed that she didn’t make it up on the stage. She claimed that she was still shy.

How has Team 1 helped your Personal and/or Professional Development? Susie said that professionally, Team 1 helped her achieve her Bachelor’s degree. “I had my Associates degree when I started at Team 1. They gave me the opportunity to go back to school and finish my Bachelor’s degree. They supported me through the whole thing.” Finishing her Bachelor’s degree was something that Susie said she had wanted to do, but she didn’t think she could squeeze it into her schedule while working full-time. But, Team 1 worked with her schedule and helped her financially. “They made it possible, and I’ve always been grateful for it.”

In her personal development, Team 1 Plastics accommodated and encouraged Susie’s desire to work with therapy dogs. “I do pet therapy work at nursing homes and hospitals and with kids in places, like Starr Commonwealth and the AWARE shelter.” She said that Team 1’s Dogs at Work program was created as a tool to accommodate her work with pet therapy. She explained that she owned a couple of dogs that qualified to work in pet therapy. She would work at Team 1, and when she needed to leave to go to the pet therapy, she had to drive all the way back home to pick up the dogs and then travel to the place where the pet therapy was occurring. “I was spending longer hours away from work.” To solve this, the Dogs at Work program was created. “If your dog is well-behaved and trained and qualified, you can bring your dog with you to work at Team 1. It made my trips a lot shorter because I wasn’t doing all that traveling.”  And, she said that having her dogs at work with her became something everyone looked forward to. “It was almost like therapy at work, too. People would come into the office, but they didn’t want to see me or have a question — they wanted to see the dogs!”

Favorite Aspect of Working at Team 1: Unable to limit herself to just one favorite aspect of working at Team 1, Susie mentioned both the Freedom to Succeed and the working environment. She said that the Freedom to Succeed “gives people the strength to step out of their box or comfort zone and to reach for a different position.” And, the owners truly stand behind this tenet of the Championship Dream. “They give everyone the opportunity to succeed. I’ve been at Team 1 long enough to see people go from the floor to an office position to an upper manager position. If a person really has the drive to succeed, the opportunities are there.” She emphasized that Team 1 “will train you, they will educate you, they will help pay for your education, and they will mentor you.”

Susie then talked about the working environment. She said that it is so open and so different from her previous employer. “I worked for a purely autocratic company — it was almost a dictatorship. The President said something, and that’s what everybody did.” She compared that to Team 1. “Here at Team 1, yes, it’s what the President and Vice President say, but you have the freedom to speak up and say, ‘Hey, I see it in a little different way. Could we maybe look at this or at that?’” She explained what she meant. She remembered being upstairs in a group meeting during her first year of employment with Team 1. The meeting was after an instance when mistakes had been made. Gary said, “We don’t have a guillotine up here. We’re not here to chop your head off. It’s to learn and grow. Yeah, you made mistakes, but we try not to make the same one all the time.” Susie said she was stunned. “I was sitting there … and it’s like, did he just say that? I should speak my mind? I should have an opinion? It was something to get used to, and it’s been wonderful throughout the years. They’ve never changed that philosophy.” And, she added that she has never seen Craig nor Gary lose their temper or raise their voices. “They always have such composure, and I’m sure inside they felt the agony of the moment when times are rough, but they never let that carry into the workplace. It is always what can we do to work through this? What can we get out of it? Lessons learned type of thing.” She added, “I enjoy reporting to Gary. He’s very hands-off, and he doesn’t get in your face, even when there’s something to work through. I just really, really appreciate his style of management.”

What do you want to share about your life outside of Team 1? Family is always first and foremost important. She and her husband, who is retired, love to camp and travel, including heading south to Alabama in the winter. Because Susie works remotely for Team 1 Plastics, she takes her laptop with her and can work almost anywhere – with the help of her own WiFi hotspot. About a year and a half ago, Susie acquired a new dog and is currently in the process of training and qualifying her for pet therapy.

Piece of Advice and/or Encouragement for Future Team 1 Team Members: “Take advantage of the opportunities that are given.” Susie said that when she was in the Human Resources position, she realized that “there was so much that Team 1 offered but it was rare that anyone took advantage of it. Some did, but very few when you look at the percentage of participation. I think people get stuck or they’re scared to try something new, but you should take that opportunity because it’s not offered freely in a lot of places. And it is here … it very much is here.”

“And, get to know Craig and Gary. Maybe read the history of the company, because that is them. Hear the stories of how they started the company, and how they developed it, and where they were going with it. Each of them has their own personality and their own strengths.” Susie recalled that Craig had loaned her the book, “The Great Game of Business,” by Jack Stack when she first began at Team 1 Plastics. “He wanted me to understand the internal game that Team 1 plays … that’s the game of business. I read it, and I thought I was done with it so gave it back to him. And, then a couple of months later, I asked to borrow it again. I borrowed it so many times thereafter that he finally bought me my own copy which he had signed. I have it to this day and have referred to it many times over the years.”

Random Question: What is your favorite office supply? Laughing, Susie said that being the controller, one would think it would be her calculator. But, she said that it’s the second monitor on her computer, although she added that she’s not quite certain it qualifies as an office supply. “I got all geeked about having a second monitor when we first got them!”