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Influential Outliers
PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY
FEBRUARY 2016 •
PPB
• 55
59
AT THE FIRST of the
year, Matthew Crownover
assumed the role of presi-
dent at the company his par-
ents started. Now a second-
generation leader of supplier
Identification Plates, Inc.
(UPIC: ID-LINE), Crownover
is applying the skills and
leadership approach honed
in his previous career as a
hospital chaplain to the job
at hand. He shared his
thoughts on shaping the
future of ID Plates in a recent
interview with
PPB
.
PPB
Your professional back-
ground has run a different
path than the job you hold
now. What approaches to
work from your previous
career will you bring to
your new role as president
of ID Plates?
Crownover
I spent 15 years
in professional chaplaincy,
which is a tough industry to
get into—you have to earn
certifications and go through
clinical education. In my case,
it was oncology and psychia-
try. One of the things you
learn in chaplaincy is that you
can’t fix all of someone’s
problems, but you can help
identify resources and tools
that will help someone. That’s
really what management is,
so I walk around the company
and listen to people. You
won’t survive in business, or
in ministry, if you think you
can solve everyone’s prob-
lems. My team knows what
they’re doing, but what I can
do is listen—and that’s intu-
itive for me.
As my parents looked at
their retirement, the question
arose about what would hap-
pen to this business. The fact
that we have 70 employees
who count on us became a
powerful thing for me to think
about in terms of steward-
ship. In deciding to keep the
business in the family, I’m
driven by that sense of stew-
ardship. So I really haven’t
left ministry, I’ve just shifted
my context.
I think it’s important to
help people find meaning. I
Five Minutes With
Matthew Crownover
President, Supplier Identif ication Plates, Inc.
Etching Industries Corp.
PROMOTIONS
66
An HR Heads-up
MANAGEMENT
63
TECH TALK
IT LOST THE BATTLE of 1970s TV-
movie recording appliances here in
the U.S., but Sony’s 40-year-old
Betamax player enjoyed a (some-
what) long and fruitful existence in
Japan, where the technology was
apparently deemed worthy of the
price tag. Sony announced last
year that it would stop manufactur-
ing Betamax tapes; the player
itself hasn’t been sold since the
early 2000s.
Other technologies we said good-
bye to in 2015 include Windows 8,
Google Glass and Apple HopStop.
HopStop was available in more than
300 cities to guide users via public
and private transportation, and in
2013 it was acquired by Apple—
dropping support for Android
devices not long after.
Continued On Next Page
BETAMAX, WE HARDLY KNEW YE