Camco’s new executive has been collaborating with team members, walking facility floors and providing operational insight in her first 90 days with the supplier.
Danielle Conner became Camco’s chief operating officer in August. Conner said she planned to leverage her strength in facilitating company growth to advance the supplier.
“One of the things that I find that I am very skilled at and also really gravitate towards,” Conner said, “is evaluating operations teams and supply chain teams and understanding how we can be better, what are the things that we can do to become a great organization, and that just really excites me.”
To grow the company Conner said, “I want to make sure that we have a robust routine so that as our business grows, that routine also can grow with it.”
Conner was tasked by leadership to focus on Camco’s employees. She has prioritized three major intentions for the year.
Her first goal is to achieve cross-functional collaboration throughout the company.
“When I think about what makes great companies great, it is not about the specific functions and how they work independent,” she said, “but it is about how they work together to deliver what is needed for the business to be successful.”
To achieve her objective, Conner is observing Camco’s cross-functional operations and ensuring the company has efficient routines. She is facilitating communication and understanding across departments. She said each division will gain insight into other departments’ responsibilities and support one another.
Her second priority is employee engagement.
She said, “I think it is very important that everybody in the organization feels a personal tie to the business and to our customers.”
Conner said she intended to make each team member feel they can contribute to Camco’s success. She said she would see this through with further communication in the factory, “so that every employee feels a sense of pride and ownership for what they do that enables our consumers to have the experiences that our products bring to them.”
Conner said she was aiming to build camaraderie, teamwork and pride across the Camco workforce.
Finally, Conner will focus on operational discipline. She will support the company in identifying goals and providing plans and tools to meet the goals.
She previously held operations leadership roles at Captek Softgel International, DuPont, The Clorox Co. and Ventura Foods.
According to Conner, she enjoys coaching her colleagues to help them achieve success. In her new role, she said she looked forward to the “satisfaction of seeing others become more capable.”
To bring the company’s plans to fruition, Conner holds weekly one-on-one meetings, walks the factory floor to talk with line workers, assists with client meetings and participates in the hiring process.
