Bourdage practices mentoring over monitoring

As chief financial officer of Romeo RIM Inc., Michelle Bourdage said what she believes sets her apart is her business sense. While she is in charge of the finance and IT groups at the Romeo, Mich.-based company, she walks the plant floors on a regular basis.

"I try to look at the whole organization," she said. "Part of the thing that I think is important is being seen through the organization. … As a result of that, I am able to offer solutions that are not just maybe the gatekeeper of finances, but also solutions that help the business move forward."

She said Romeo RIM follows servant leadership, the philosophy and practice of shared power and shared visions.

"From the executive team down to the plant floor, we look at everybody as leader, not just the executive team," Bourdage said. "We look to mentor vs. monitor."

As a "big believer" in information being communicated open and fast, Bourdage utilizes dashboards, also called business intelligence systems, which could be compared to a car's control panel where you see whether you need gas or an engine check.

"For each functional area, I've created dashboards with easy information to see visually, down to the detail," she said. "But those things allow managers to make quick assessments. For me as CFO, I am happy to be able to put that information quickly in front of people so that we can work on problems and not spend so much time gathering data."

Additionally, Bourdage said they operate under the "Hoshin Kanri" method, which aligns company goals with middle management and employees. It involves creating a strategic plan, developing tactics, taking action, reviewing and adjusting.

"We don't set strategic initiatives only at the top," she said. "Each one of our employees has an initiative they're working on, so we kind of set a three- to five-year goal, we set a current year [goal], and then we say who is going to do what. I have them, then my staff has them and makes sure I meet my goals, and then anybody underneath who is influenced on that."

She used reducing scrap by 5 percent as one example of a goal.

"It looks pretty complicated," she said, "but when you break it down, it's kind of like, 'Oh, this makes sense.'"

Bourdage, 49, attended Macomb Community College and Walsh College, both in Michigan, where she studied accounting. She was the first in her family to attend college.

She spent 15 years at what was previously the privately held Amphenol, of Clinton Township, Mich., as an accounting clerk, accounting supervisor and controller. She took over as CFO after its acquisition. Other previous positions included vice president of business operations at VIA Information Tools, of Troy, Mich.; controller at Tweddle Group, of Clinton Township, Mich.; controller at Revstone LLC, of New Haven, Mich.; and CFO of Dokka Fasteners, of Auburn Hills, Mich. Bourdage joined Romeo RIM as CFO at the start of 2016.

"I will tell you that, from a career standpoint, I have on two occasions been able to take companies that were privately held and help them successfully sell the companies to a profit for the owners," she said. "In one case, we split 80 percent of the business off and the owner as able to continue on with what was remaining and make that successful. I think, in all those cases, they would come back to me if they needed in the future. I'm quite happy with those."

Romeo RIM — standing for reaction injection molding — has been owned by the Reserve Group, which owns 13 companies, since 1982. Bourdage said the company has 19 presses, 150 employees and annual sales between $25 million and $50 million. Its largest markets are agriculture, highway and the spa industry.

A notable accomplishment from 2016, Bourdage said, was the purchase and installation of a rotary carrier system, which increases output and decreases scrap. For the years ahead, the company seeks to expand in the spa market and add functionality, including thermoforming.

Bourdage said she loves to spend time outdoors, including gardening, running and hiking. She has also been actively involved in youth sports programs, and she mentors college students "to help inspire them to become successful business leaders in the future."

Bourdage has been married to her husband, Wayne, for 16 years, and she has three children: Garrett, 24; Gabrielle, 23; and Savannah, 19.

And it looks like they are following in their mother's footsteps.

Garrett graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and is a financial analyst, "leading the path to changing the culture in the organization to build future leaders," Bourdage said about her oldest child. Gabrielle also graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and she works at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. Savannah is still in college, but she had an externship with Whirlpool last year and will intern with Deloitte this summer.

The advice she would give to students or young professionals starting out their careers are to not be afraid of asking questions, to learn everything you can from other people and to have internships. Bourdage said she passes down this advice to her children.

"I think through internships, you can kind of see where the fit is," she said. "You get, what I feel, is at least three opportunities throughout your college career to go to internships, and each one of those can allow you to get a flavor of an organization as well as the activities you're going to do."

Bourdage said if someone wants to become the CFO of an organization, he or she needs to know more than just what debit, credit and balance sheets are. Instead, "it's knowing what the business is about."

"I believe leadership is a good opportunity to serve," she said, "so I think that a leader whose actions inspire other people to do better or to learn more, want to do their job, I think that's a sign of a good leader. I think it's to influence, not to necessarily be authoritative."