Executive Profile: Joseph T. Charles, President and CEO of Charles Industries, Ltd.

Charles Industries, Ltd. is the product of a self-made man who saw an opportunity and launched a business venture out of his family’s Illinois basement in 1968.  An acute attention to catering to specialty niches in manufacturing and technology set up the company to comfortably fill empty market needs—and it was a success from the very beginning.

Joseph T. Charles is a business savvy individual with a vision to provide quality products, services and innovative solutions to telecommunications, municipality, utility, and marine, and industrial markets worldwide. He harnesses a scarce type of patriotism, proudly supporting “Buy American” initiatives and brands all his products with, “Made in the USA”.  This dedication to quality and a belief in the American industry has garnered Charles Industries an empire, including 21 acquisitions ranging from products to entire companies.

Charles Industries started making load coils, a device to reduce noise on copper voice lines for the telephone industry, and has worked tirelessly to grow both the company's Telecommunications Group as well as grow the Marine & Industrial Group which provides sport, commercial, and recreational boaters with the highest quality  to AC and DC power systems, shore-power cabling, and onboard communication systems…not to mention their active development and supply of products for use in U.S. Armed Forces M1A1 Abrams tanks and U.S. Coast Guard vessels.

Spanning the United States with four manufacturing facilities, Charles Industries and its' employees are guided by their founder's guiding principles of “Safety. Quality. Pride…in everything we do.” And it is with the same dedication to growing the company he founded to giving back to the industry he loves. 

MarEx recently had a conversation with Mr. Charles to find out about the man behind the success story, and to catch up with what’s happening with his ever growing company.

MarEx: Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your background. 

Joseph T. Charles (JTC): I think of myself as a driven entrepreneur with a knack for creating niche businesses, working with customers to develop solutions that not only solve their challenges but offer greater value, and through it all building long-term relationships. I’ve always looked at problems as opportunities yet to be addressed. Having been born in Kokomo, IN and raised in the Midwest, I feel my Midwest roots contributed greatly to my personal and professional work ethic. My wife and I both attended college at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, MO and were married shortly after graduation. I graduated with a business administration and economics degree. My first job was as a company salesman selling plastic and rubber molded parts for Mayfair Molded Products in Schiller Park, Illinois. I learned a great deal from my first boss but knew I could do, and be, far more.

MarEx:  Is there or has there been anyone that you’ve looked up to that has influenced or that has inspired you in your professional career?

JTC: My father-in-law, the consummate salesman, coached me on my selling skills.  After he retired from where he was working he came to work with us in inside sales. He did that for years until he finally retired...again. And my father, in my opinion, was one of the best manufacturing minds around. He taught me the art of manufacturing a product efficiently and with impeccable quality. My father was Vice President for TRW's electronic division and retired and came to help us in the manufacturing area and eventually just merged in and took over all of the manufacturing for us. That was a great find, and close to home so it worked out really well.  The combined effect that both of these men had on me were profound and a significant formula for my personal as well as professional success. Both joined our company early on, contributed greatly, and retired as Charles Industries employees.

MarEx:  We know that Charles Marine is a family-owned business; do you wish to keep the company within your family?

JTC:  It’s privately held now, and it’s our intent to maintain it as a privately held company. I’ve had several opportunities to either sell the company or merge with companies that are already publicly held.  There is just too much involved in publicly held companies.

MarEx:  Will your son J.T. take over for you?  Is that the succession plan?

JTC:  It would be great if someday he would but that is clearly his decision.  He is currently Vice President, Marketing and Communications but is also involved in communications, technical support, contracts and proposals, inside sales, customer services, websites - you name it. We have a strong senior management team led by our chief operating officer/ senior vice president. He works closely with J.T. as well as with the rest of our senior management team. So while it is a family business, it is not necessarily run as a family business. 

MarEx:  What do you mean by that?

JTC:  Well, you know, so many family businesses are…how can I say this in a nice way?  I guess not very democratic.  I’m the type of person who always feels that in order to be successful you have to be surrounded by successful people, and good people.  Take our senior management team, any one of them have nothing less than a Master’s degree. All of our plant managers are college graduates, some with advanced degrees.  I like to hire people who bring something to the party, if you will, and have some extra expertise.  Then sit back and let them do it.  I’m not the owner who looks over people’s shoulders. I expect people to do the job they were hired for and I don’t bother them. I give them the latitude to manage and they have the responsibility and authority that goes with it.  Most unsuccessful managers have a tendency to micromanage everything and feel like they have the only idea and that their ideas are the best.  Far from it!  I think I have a lot of great ideas and often bring them up at senior management meetings and find out they aren’t so great! You have to listen to them.  Our senior staff have what we call “operational review meetings” once a month and I have only one vote.  And they say, “But your vote’s louder.”  And I say “No, I have one vote.”  I’ve been voted down on a lot of things, whether they are acquisitions or changes in products.  If you don’t listen to your people, you’re in deep trouble.  Good managers don’t have a hearing problem.

MarEx:  That’s true leadership.  So you are an American company, everything’s made here, and you’re very democratic.  We like that… a real, true American company.

JTC:  We put “Made in USA” on all of our boxes and not very many companies in the United States today can say or do that. If I can’t make the boat for example, I’d like to at least put everything inside of it.  I’ll settle for that.

MarEx:  What’s your biggest market for the marine industry - recreational, workboat?

JTC:  I guess you’d have to say unit wise, it’s currently the recreational boating industry.  We sell a great deal of transformers and battery chargers to recreational boat manufacturers all the way to the end users. We continue to develop new battery chargers for us on commercial vessels so that business continues to grow.  Outside of the marine market, our battery chargers are found on Army M1 Abrams Tanks and USCG Coastal Patrol Boats.  We’re on the replenishment vessels for the oil rigs.  In addition to that we make the transformers for the FAA that power the wave-off lights at airports. In the event of a terrorist attack, these lights will signal air crafts to safely divert to other airfields.

MarEx:  We know you have interest in pleasure boating yourself, did you have this interest before you entered the marine industry or is it something that started after you entered the industry?

JTC:  I started sailing on a fraternity brother’s boat before we were ever in the marine industry. I loved being on his boat but felt it took a lot of people to race hi boat. Russ was the one who initiated my buying our first power boat, something that didn't take a full crew. One of our early acquisitions was a company that manufactured battery back-up systems for overhead magnetic cranes for shipyards, believe it or not.  So we were making these battery back-up systems and I had our first boat at that time that had this "black box" on the engine room wall. The charger had all the same components in it as our battery back-up systems so I said, “Why don’t we make battery chargers for the marine industry?”  That’s how the first battery charging system we developed came about.  Then we started expanding that business making high voltage transformers, and three phase transformers for electrical utilities and for electrical distribution.  We took that same technology and we started making isolation transformers for the marine industry.

MarEx: Did the marine division take off quickly?

JTC: It’s kind of interesting how some of these things happened.  The fellow I hired as a sales manager for the marine division was my pledge son in college.  So I brought Bob on board and we immediately had a whole network of manufacturing reps that covered the U.S.  - almost overnight.  All of our products in the marine industry have been designed by boaters for boaters. Over the years, our product offering has grown as many of our employees were boaters, including our current general manager of our Marine & Industrial Group. I have my 100 ton Coast Guard license, as does my son, so we have a keen sense of marine requirements and applications.  Outside of Charles Industries I opened two marine storage facilities in Florida that are very unique in being the state's first climate-controlled storage facilities built to hurricane construction standards. One is in Stuart, FL and one is in LaBelle, FL. We’re on both sides of Lake Okeechobee and we have almost 200,000 square feet of air conditioned buildings where we store and service vessels of all sizes. 

MarEx:  Can you tell our readers about the program you’re involved with at Broward College in South Florida?

JTC:  We were giving a tour of Broward College to members of the NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association), and I wanted to get them involved in funding a classroom to train marine electronics technicians.  Broward College already had and an aviation school and an automotive school, and we saw the need in the marine industry for a program to focus on marine electronics, electrical, engine propulsion and other specialty certifications.   With the new 18 month Marine Engineering Management Program at Broward College, students earn an A.S. degree in marine engineering and 8 certifications for American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC).  Part of my mission is to develop at least 7 of these Marine League Schools across the United States, all using ABYC certification standards.   We have 3 at the present time, and we’re working on implementing programs at Wisconsin, and Lynn University in Missouri.

MarEx:  What motivates you to jump start these programs?  

JTC:  I guess I think it goes back to my roots as a boater and being in several different boatyards trying to get your boat fixed.  Anyone with a boat, yacht, or ship knows the problems in trying to get things fixed whether it’s AC, engine, electronics, etc.  There are a lot of folks out there that just aren’t trained techs.  Many of the people that are in the electronics business are kind of homegrown. You can go to Detroit MTU and be a certified mechanic, that’s probably one of the most successful programs.  So the motivation was, how can we develop good technicians? We’re talking about developing a full-fledged person with a meaningful degree, not just someone with a screwdriver and a pair of plyers; someone who can go out and write up a purchase order and communicate with customers.  We’re breaking the mold with a completely different model and creating a whole new program.  The marine industry has rallied to fund classrooms and provide equipment to get this program off the ground.

MarEx: Where is the company going? What goals do you have for Charles Industries?

JTC:  Development on the Marine & Industrial side is focused on the new IMC (Intelligent Marine Charger) Series and other AC and DC products that are part of our SOLID POWER product offering. Our Telecommunications Group is actively engaged in supporting projects associated with the government’s universal broadband initiatives through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition, Charles is supporting wireless service providers deployment of 4G and LTE services with our universal broadband enclosures. I am very optimistic about our company’s future. Through continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, enabling our customers to better serve their customers, and the ability to quickly adapt to changes by our customers and markets, we are well positioned for growth.

MarEx:  And lastly, when you’re not busy running Charles Industries or giving back to the communities and industries you’re a part of, what do you do for relaxation?

JTC:  When I am not involved in a project, which is seldom, I enjoy my SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) shooting which has led me to develop the OK Gun Club in Okeechobee, FL. In addition, my wife Barbara and I spend whatever free time is left cruising our boats on the Great Lakes, the keys and coasts of Florida.

For more information on Charles Industries, please visit www.charlesindustries.com.