“I am a strong believer in products,” says Jim Cunningham a long time CEO and a visionary in such industries as agriculture, glass, lighting and pet products. Cunningham’s knack for identifying new product concepts transformed these industries once and for all. In all of his endeavors he has been bold, a true team player, and was able to transform vision into actionable plans. Having countless accomplishments in various industry segments, he is now sharing his knowledge with Private Equity groups in need of counsel.
Cunningham, a man of quiet demeanor, is known among friends and colleagues as a “Midwest guy”. “What you see is what you get: no hidden agendas,” Cunningham introduced himself.
His career started right out of college when he joined International Harvester (IH), now Navistar International, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and heavy duty trucks and construction equipment.
Like many young men back in the late 1960s, Cunningham was drafted to military service and was deployed to Vietnam.
Cunningham’s father, who was his role model, once told him “Accept that change is going to be a constant part of your life,” Cunningham recalled his father’s words. His voice trembled: memories of those days and his father’s advice are still poignant. And so, he did as his father recommended: he acknowledged “the change” as his unvarying partner and off he went.
On his return from South Asia, he went back to IH and joined the management training program and became the manager of a one million square-foot components parts plant which employed over four thousand people. He was an integral part of restructuring the component parts division of the company. Cunningham meticulously studied the agricultural machinery industry and concluded that hydraulics would be critical to their success in the future. With that strategic trend identifi ed, IH made subsequent acquisitions of robust facilities and built what many, called a state-of-the-art technology.
Soon, IH got into trouble because of strategic errors. Among the blunders was the investment in high horsepower equipment much before its time. Continuous marketing errors as well as aggressive stance with the United Auto Workers resulted in a six month nationwide strike. The combination of all these signaled to Cunningham that it was time to move on and gain from the experience.
Cunningham left with Ken Ortman, one of IH Division Presidents, to glass fabricator Apogee Enterprises. “And, boy, what a wonderful experience!” admitted Cunningham.
As General Manager for Viracon, a glass fabricator for architectural and consumer products, a subsidiary of Apogee Enterprises, Cunningham took on the mission to look into the future and determine new trends in glass production. Predicting trends became his specialty.
Viracon was originally founded to make TV faceplates. The key was the curvature of the faceplate, which reduced the refl ection of any light. The company’s non-glare glass production technology was especially welcomed in the picture framing industry. Not only did it reduce the refl ection of the light, the glass also fi ltered the UV rays that stopped the destruction of the print and the canvas.
Under Cunningham’s leadership Viracon picked up a lot of new business. For one, microwave ovens were just starting to come into vogue and were a good fi t for Viracon’s line of production. “We could do specialty plating and coating on glass,” he explained enthusiastically.
But Cunningham knew there was a finer, more promising and yet untouched niche. He saw the trend in computer screens. “We knew that curvatures and the non-glare technology would keep some of the refl ections off and we started coating faceplates for the computers. So, that changed the business,” recalled Cunningham.
After conquering the vital market of computer screens, Cunningham then looked into the world of architecture. He reached out to no one else but Helmut Jahn himself; winner of some of the most prestigious awards in architecture. Jahn served as a visiting professor of architecture at both Harvard (1981) and Yale (1983). Cunningham knew about Jahn’s love of curves and setbacks in glass.
“I met with Helmut Jahn and asked him what he would do with glass if he had creative, wild ideas,” recalled Cunningham.
“Build circular glass buildings,” followed Jahn’s immediate and confi dent answer.
Cunningham partnered with glass provider The Glass Tech. Together they broke a lot of glass but, in the end, revolutionized architectural glass-curving technology. Thanks to this collaboration Jahn and other modern architects can use curved architecture glass and erect some of the most dramatic skyscraper designs of the twentieth century.
The Glass Tech owned the intellectual rights for the technology and was in a position to offer Apogee to buy its Viracon business.
Cunningham’s next step was to Beatrice Corporation, particularly to their Stiffel Lamps business. After a short term in the operation’s department he then transitioned to the product development arm of Stiffel Lamps. And, although Cunningham was an “operations guy”, as he says, he always had fl air to tweak things, to modify the product and generate greater consumer demand.
He took on a mission to bring in an outside designer, Joe Kornick.
“I was inspired by Joe: a young, aggressive guy,” said Cunningham.
Kornick had just finished the design of the Sprite bottle. He knew shapes and forms. If anyone, Kornick had an understanding of what the consumer liked and disliked. And so, they started working together.
Kornick would bring cut-outs from different magazines like Homes and Gardens, Modern Living, and would put together collages and would try to fi gure out how lighting would fi t in into a home.
One day the inspiration fi nally struck the designer and Cunningham received a call. “Gee, Jim, I was out at the cottage this weekend and I was inspired,” Cunningham tried to imitate his conversation with Kornick. “I tossed a pebble out in the lake and it rippled and there was a splash … It was an experience and I sketched out some lamps.” In no time, Kornick and Cunningham were discussing the design over lunch.
Memories of this conversation invigorated Cunningham so much that he took a piece of paper and a pen and sketched the lamp. It had a ripple, like a splash, all circular if you looked at it from the top, had a long column and at the bottom it had a splash.
The contemporary design of this lamp was made in brass, nickel, and chrome, which would match the contours of the contemporary homes. One of the garment producers in New York City offered a fluted fabric, which had riffles as the perfect final touch to the new design.
Cunningham modernized the production technology while lowering the production cost and increasing affordability for the end users. These lamps became one of the most sold products in the history of the Stiffel Lamps.
As with any product, there is always a competitor and, in only a couple of years China‘s competition became unbearable. Cunningham and his partners sold the business. “For the first time, I made significant dollars,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham has always challenged himself to aim high. After the sale, he was determined to look into a completely new industry, a new direction he would enjoy. He turned to his family for inspiration. Brizzy, the beloved family dog (Cockapoo, a cross between the Cocker Spaniel and the Poodle) provided the answer. That, coupled with the right opportunity at the right time, led Cunningham to become the CEO of Harper Pet Products.
He quickly rebuilt the entire management team, equipped the plant with new technology and in early 2000s started working with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Indiana University and its Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory to produce dental care products for pets.
Besides all the challenges of the new business, Cunningham had a dilemma with raw materials. Harper Pet used beef hides for making its products, which became scarcer due to plant relocations to China and diminished cattle slaughtering in Europe, because of BSE, better known as mad cow disease. Cunningham looked for new partnerships in Brazil, where the pet industry was emerging. He allied with Bertin family, Bertin Ltda.
“This was a fully integrated four billion dollar beef producing family business. They had the cattle herds, slaughtering plants, tanneries, a shoe factory, and a soup division, which is a byproduct of the animal tallow. The mission of the Bertin family was to utilize all the byproducts and they wanted to enter the pet industry.”
Bertin and Harper were meant for each other and soon Bertin acquired Harper. Together, they rebranded their product lines and started taking business away from their main competitor, The Hartz Mountain Corporation. The management of The Hartz Mountain Corporation did not wait long. Soon, Cunningham received a phone call from Hartz with an offer neither Bertin Family nor Harper Pet could decline. Again, everyone was happy with the transaction.
Still full of ideas, energy and prepared for change, once more Cunningham was on his own aiming to new heights. Today, James Cunningham helps Private Equity groups to make smart investments in the pet industry. His knowledge, profi ciency and experience in this fi eld are invaluable for the investors.
His energy and fervor to create new products inspires teams to success. Despite his youthful resolution to accept that change is invariable, his creativity and passion for continuous innovation remain ironically unchanged. “In each transaction, you have to fi nd out what the other person really wants. And if you can fulfi ll each other’s needs then it’s going to be a good transition. It is all going to work out,” explained Cunningham.
About the Writer: Ruzanna Tantushyan is a Marketing/Communications and Research Associate for Cook Associates. She has written for both national and international publications on a variety of topics including analysis of economic achievements of India and Israel, Canada’s leadership and investments strategies of Royal families. Ruzanna Tantushyan just completed her Master’s degree in journalism from DePaul University.