View This Article in BOSS Magazine
This manufacturer is a perfect example of Timken Company’s company culture.
The Timken Company is a 120-plus-year-old organization that manufactures, engineers, and markets bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, belts, couplings and chain, and related products across a variety of industries. With 14,000 employees in 28 countries, Timken is the leading authority on tapered roller bearings, and pushes the boundaries of applied science every day to keep the world in motion. In fact, you can find Timken products are hard at work wherever wheels and shafts turn, from submarines, elevators, satellites, oil rigs, freight trains, and wind turbines to farm tractors.
The Timken Company started in the United States, but its expansion into Canada nearly 100 years ago was incredibly successful and drove further global growth. Today, Timken Canada employs more than 200 staff members in three offices, and is the perfect example of its umbrella company’s passion, culture, and commitment to excellence.
“Our focus is on improving industries as a whole while also working closely with individual companies to provide friction management solutions that fit them,” said Frank Mascia, Timken Canada President. “As we continue to expand our offerings in established markets, we are developing new options to meet new challenges at the same time.”
For Timken Canada, this means becoming even more involved in the mining, forestry, oil and gas, and aggregate industries.
Mascia, who at 45 is the youngest person to serve as president of Timken Canada, is committed to seeing further penetration into these markets during his tenure. Prior to joining Timken, he spent 16 years in the fluid power and power transmission industries, working alongside distributors and manufacturers in the industrial mechanical space.
Mascia’s age gives him a fresh perspective in a mature industry, where many senior executives have served for 30 years or more. He notes that earning the respect of his team was challenging at first given his age, and acknowledges that the changes and shifts he has made in the time since have brought the team together in a way Timken in Canada hasn’t experienced before.
“Our management team today is dynamic, with many different characters, personalities, and strengths,” said Mascia. “I’m very clear on strategy—we’re focused, team-oriented, and passionate about what we do. And regardless of who you ask, you will get the same response.”
Part of his strategy was to diversify the management team across age, gender, and background. Succession planning took precedent, however, because many of the Timken Canada team was eligible for retirement within five years of when Mascia joined the company in 2011.
“We had to do some aggressive restructuring,” he said. “Timken has an excellent reputation of recruiting from a diverse and experienced talent pool, and we send them right on to our own Timken University. Our succession planning has worked out extremely well. The young graduates, as well as our mid-career employees, are in a great position to grow with the company and make a lasting impact.”
This new internal approach accompanies a shift in Timken Canada’s outward strategy: creating more visibility for itself in the industries it serves. As Mascia explains, this largely relies on implementing sales approaches in new and innovative ways:
“We support our end users with our three-tier and upstream sales models,” he said. “We literally support customers from the shop level with our service engineers up to executive management. Above all I want to make sure this company provides added value to the client, and that we do so by working at a higher level with distributors and local management.”
Mascia spends much of his time engaging with customers two or three tiers higher than a typical manufacturer/sales relationship, citing that close collaboration with executives helps his team to outthink and outmaneuver the competition.
As a result, Timken Canada is able to implement its sales approaches more efficiently and with greater confidence in customer outcomes. As Mascia explained, it is this team empowerment that ultimately earns the respect of customers.
“In short, our company culture is so strong that others can sense it,” Mascia said. “What’s important is that my team believes in our strategy first and foremost. They love what they do, and I love what I do. It’s my job to inspire them as much as possible and to make sure they have the tools and skills necessary to succeed.”
Timken is a 120-year-old company with world-class engineering expertise behind it. Timken Canada, approaching its own centennial, not only has time on its side but also a newly diversified team and genuine enthusiasm that is hard to find.
“I’ve grown from a manufacturing employee to one with business acumen and enterprise leadership, something that I’ve learned at Timken,” said Mascia. “The coaching and mentoring here are fantastic. I’m quite fortunate to be part of a passionate company like this.”
“The coaching and mentoring here are fantastic. I’m quite fortunate to be part of a passionate company like this.” - Frank Mascia, President
“Timken values its customers and keeps them at the center of everything it does, which is strongly reflected in Frank’s vision for Timken Canada,” said Mike Connors, Vice President of Global Marketing, of The Timken Company. “While improving our customers’ applications is the ultimate destination, it is our core values as a company including integrity, teamwork, and excellence that are the roadmap that guide our daily decisions. That’s how Timken continues to deliver reliably and efficiently in every instance.”
The Importance of Associations
Networking or being part of an association is critical to an organization. Frank Mascia is part of the Young Presidents Association and the Power Transmission Distributors Association, where he sits on the manufacturer’s committee.
“The YPO strengthens my personal growth and benefits our Timken business. The organization consists of entrepreneurs, successors to family-run businesses and hired guns,” Mascia said.
Timken Canada is part of the Bearing Specialist Association, Automotive Industries Association of Canada, Heavy Duty Aftermarket of Canada, and Canadian Association of Railway Suppliers.
“You may all come from a different background in different industries; however, we are all challenged by the same issues,” he said. “Networking with other leaders gives you many different perspectives and experiences dealing with day-to-day business.”
The Timken Company engineers and manufactures bearings and mechanical power transmission components including gear drives, belts, couplings, and chain. The company also offers a spectrum of industrial bearing repair and powertrain rebuild. As the leading authority on tapered roller bearings, Timken Canada applies its deep knowledge of metallurgy, tribology, and mechanical systems to improve the reliability and efficiency of equipment, machinery, and vehicles worldwide.
Known for its quality products and collaborative technical sales model, Timken posted $2.9 billion in sales in 2015. With more than 14,000 employees operating from 28 countries, our associates and our products keep the industry in motion and make the world more productive.
The company's growing product and services portfolio features many strong industrial brands including Timken®, Fafnir®, Philadelphia Gear®, Carlisle®, Lovejoy®, Drives®, and Interlube™.
