2022 Metal Construction Hall of Fame
After building a career at Butler Manufacturing that culminated with serving as national vice president of engineering, and also working as national sales manager at Gulf States Manufacturers Bob Lowe received a call from an executive recruiter who set up a meeting with Ken Iverson, the legendary CEO of Nucor Corp. At the time, Nucor Building Products, Waterloo, Ind., was losing $1 million annually, and Iverson wanted Lowe to turn it around.
“They were looking for an industry veteran that knew how to build a business in an entrepreneurial environment,” says Lowe. On Jan. 5, 1990, Lowe met with Iverson, who asked only about how he would take care of employees, customers and stockholders, then called his wife to tell her to start packing because they were moving to Indiana. On Jan. 9, Lowe took over as general manager of Nucor Building Products.
Company Growth
One of his very first acts was to change the name of the company to Nucor Building Systems to more accurately reflect what the company did. Over the course of the next 25 years, until he retired in 2015, Lowe built Nucor into a national company and helped change the shape of the industry through his involvement in the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA). He did so by focusing on the culture of the company and mentoring people who could thrive in that culture.
To help get the ship righted, Lowe implemented a bonus system for shop employees that drastically reduced the Nucor’s conversion cost per ton. “Under this plan, we became the industry leader among MBMA plants,” he says. “By 1995, we were operating at less than 50% of the MBMA average manhours per ton statistics.”
I always loved working in the construction industry because the value created for the American people was so real. With our engineering, manufacturing and distribution skills, we were able to provide facilities where American families could safely work, recreate and worship. I always relished the chance to get dirty at a job site knowing that I was part of a noble venture.
That financial health at the Waterloo, Ind., plant provided the springboard for Nucor to open plants in Swansea, S.C. in 1996, Terrell, Texas in 1999 and Brigham City, Utah in 2006. The company now had a national reach. It embedded itself further in the industry through the 2006 $280 million acquisition of Magnatrax brands, doubling the size of the company and bring on board the American Buildings Co., Kirby Buildings Systems, Gulf States Manufacturers and CBC Steel Buildings brands.
Company Culture
Following the example set by Iverson, Lowe established a company culture that rewarded performance regardless of pedigree. “The whole Nucor philosophy was to unleash the beast,” he says. “The smartest guy in the plant may be the welder or fitter.” His focusing the entire team on an agreed mission of excellence allowed every employee to contribute and get rewarded for it. He credits Jeff Carmean, current president of Nucor Building Systems, for defining the philosophy with an acronym: FOCUS. Steel that Fits, On-time delivery, Competitive pricing, Unbeatable service and Solutions that work. With that clarity, the company thrived.
But success came from more than just refining and communicating a company culture and mission. When asked about the most important successes in his career, Lowe points to mentoring. An avid youth baseball coach, mentoring and coaching are roles in his business and personal lives. “Part of the responsibility at Nucor,” he says, “was to develop future leaders for the corporation as a whole. I was to bring in young people. They always had the ability to make decisions.” That matched the Nucor Steel view of decentralized decision making and the foundation for it was common sense. “You have to teach common sense,” says Lowe. “We set up a lot of behavioral economics so virtually every employee would get exposed to make them understand from a common-sense viewpoint how business really worked. Then we hired people with great potential and ability to want to be accountable.”
The result is that about 40% of the upper leadership of Nucor Corp., comes from the Nucor Building Systems, which is the smallest division in the company.
Industry Advancement
Not only did Lowe change Nucor Building Systems, he also impacted the industry through his efforts at MBMA, where he twice served as president in 1999 and 2006, as well as serving on the board of directors for many years. In his second stint, he directed the MBMA Certification Committee, which was responsible for developing the AISC certification program that became a requirement for membership of all building systems companies in MBMA.
