When you think of people who pride themselves when a person dies, you must think of careless disrespectful individuals. When it comes to the city of Batesville, Indiana those are not the thoughts at Hillenbrand Incorporated. Rather, “to help families honor the lives of those they love.” (Hillenbrand Inc.)
Hillenbrand Incorporated was a holding company for 2 major businesses, Batesville Casket Company and Hill-Rom Company for over a century. To this day they operate Batesville Casket Company and K-Tron and are publicly traded on the New York stock exchange as HI. Batesville Casket Company was founded in 1906 when the Hillenbrand family rescued Batesville Coffin Company from bankruptcy. They are the leader in death care products in North America specializing in burial caskets, cremation caskets, containers and urns, and funeral home displays. They provide superior funeral products and services to help grieving families during a most difficult time in their lives. (Hillenbrand Inc.)
K-Tron is Hillenbrand’s newest acquisition since separating Hill-Rom in 2008. K-Tron serves the bulk solids material handling markets, which focuses on feeding and pneumatic conveying systems and screening equipment. K-Tron designs, produces, markets, and services their equipment. (K-Tron)
Hillenbrand Incorporated employs 3,200 of the 6,500 people in the city of Batesville, Indiana. Hillenbrand has a commitment to corporate governance. The board of governance consists of 12 individuals including the CEO of the company, Kenneth A. Camp. The board of directors is elected by its many shareholders that make up 215,845 shares of the company. Hillenbrand has 3 major core competencies. These tactics to effective governance is to apply strategy management, lean business practices, and intentional talent development. (Hillenbrand Inc.)
Hillenbrand’s view on strategy management is that it is the foundation for developing a game plan in business. Hillenbrand commits itself to sharpening their focus in strategies to execute effectively in the business environment which provides them a competitive leverage. They also implement lean business practices. Eliminating waste and improving their quality are their main focuses to increase their financial efficiencies in years to come. (Hillenbrand Inc.)
Hillenbrand prides itself on talent development. The business with the best talent has an advantage over its competitors is one of their mottos. They consistently recruit, develop, and retain top talent, according to their 2010 annual report. (Hillenbrand Inc. 2010 Annual Report) The majority of the industry that Hillenbrand Inc. facilitates is different than most companies. With about 2.2 million deaths a year in the United States, Kenneth A. Camp states, “We cannot increase market demand, and we cannot grow the market, we must serve our customers the best.” His quote is evident that customer service is of the upmost importance at Hillenbrand Inc. (Batesville Casket Company)
Hillenbrand’s profitability is seen with the use of their core competencies and leadership of the company. Hillenbrand has a strong heritage of strict fiscal responsibility. The use of this management helps Hillenbrand to expand. Maintaining cash flow and decreasing their debt ratio are primary responsibilities and they do this by using lean business practices. Their acquisition of K-Tron has helped improve their profitability as well. As they continue to implement their strategies into K-Tron, they will see a greater increase as that part of the business will increase. To recent date Hillenbrand’s gross profit increased 1.2% to $313 Million, from the previous year according to their 2010 annual report. This shows that even in a recession a company that is driven by proper leadership can succeed. For the recent quarter, they paid over $40,000 in dividends to its shareholders. (Form 10-K, Hillenbrand Inc.)
Batesville, Indiana would not exist today if it was not for Hillenbrand Inc. They pride themselves on social responsibility and it is engraved in their culture. They have donated millions of dollars to Batesville from improving recreational facilities to education centers. The Batesville YMCA, community swimming pool, and library were all donations of Hillenbrand Inc. Hillenbrand has also donated to Operation Iraqi Children. This charity collects school supply donations and sends them to Iraq and the American soldiers disperse them to the children. Hillenbrand Inc. takes social responsibility very seriously, as seen by donating to the local community in Batesville to internationally in Iraq. This organizational behavior is very important for Hillenbrand as it displays them with a good image. I think of it as an advertising expense for the company. (Personal Interview, Batesville citizen)
Hillenbrand Inc. is dedicated to ethical behavior. As stated in Hillenbrand’s Ethical Code of Conduct, “everyone at Hillenbrand should always do the right thing.” Hillenbrand has a proud tradition of using honesty and integrity in the business. Their core principles in doing so that are listed in the Ethical Code of Conduct are Fairness, Respect, Competition, Candor, and Prudence. (Hillenbrand Inc., Ethical Code of Coduct)
Hillenbrand’s employee engagement is at a high level. They promote equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and anti-harassment. Hillenbrand wants all employees to be respected, treated with dignity, have an environment free of harassment of any kind to work in, be able to express their opinions openly, work in a safe environment, and be provided with competitive pay and benefits. Employees of Hillenbrand are expected to have accountability and to report all unethical behavior to personnel. Failure to do so will result in a violation of the honor code and subject to termination. This organizational behavior helps create a positive work environment for everyone associated with Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand’s mission of “helping others honor the ones they love,” helps bring meaning to the work of the employees. Job Importance was discussed many times in our class and is a very important part of a business. If the employees know that they are helping families honor the ones they love, they can take heart to that and their job performance will increase. (Hillenbrand Inc., Ethical Code of Conduct)
Hillenbrand has implemented an Employee Matters Agreement. This agreement is to benefit employees with competitive wages, incentives, and retirement programs just to name a few. This organizational behavior shows that they really care about their employees during their time at Hillenbrand as well as when they leave Hillenbrand. This behavior gives each employee a sense of security and helps boost job performance. (Hillenbrand Inc., Employee Matters Agreement)
Hillenbrand does have a balanced scorecard. They are dedicated to customer service for each business which in return drives profit, social responsibility, and employee engagement. They spend time to improve each area of the business so that they can continue to be a successful company for centuries to come. The people at Hillenbrand care about the business, the community, and their employees. The roots have been set 6 feet under by the Hillenbrand family and are continued to be carried out today.