W&WP salutes Joe Cannon, Metz Award winner.

The owner of a small custom woodworking business, hailing from the nation's smallest state, is the winner of the first Jerry Metz Achievement Award.

Joseph Cannon Jr., president of Greenwich, RI based CAS America, received the award from Wood & Wood Products for his strong commitment to not only educating and training his own workforce but for his personal involvement in helping to improve Rhode Island's education and business development programs.

Cannon volunteers his time and energy to a variety of groups. Among them, he sits on the executive board of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Extension Service and the foundation board of the Community College of Rhode Island. He views the time he donates to these and other groups as a "give back" for all of the help these institutions have contributed to his company's success.

Walk the Talk

Cannon's consideration for the Metz Award stemmed from his presentation at Stiles Education's Executive Briefing Conference in June. He delivered his topic, "Employee Development: It's Not an Option!" with a passion that sprang more from the heart than from the PowerPoint software that organized it.

During the presentation, Cannon related how he worked with RIMES and the community college to develop a Lean Certificate program for his employees. In addition to going through a series of workshops offered by RIMES, Cannon and nine other CAS America employees are beginning their fifth semester of night classes together at the community college.

Talk about leading by example.

Spokesmen for both RIMES and the community college say that Cannon's dynamic and passionate approach to educating and training his workforce should be a lesson to other manufacturers.

Thomas Sepe, president of the Community College of Rhode Island, says, "Joe is goal directed and knows that training is a good investment. We and the RIMES people shake our heads at how few companies take advantage of our programs. By not looking at the long-term gains of educating their employees, these dinosaurs are going to die."

'A Great Guy'

An interesting coincidence occurred while researching the article profiling Cannon. (See page 43.) When informed that I was working on a story about Joe Cannon, the respective receptionists at RIMES and the community college, each commented, "Joe's a great guy." Those were also the exact words that Sepe used at one point during his interview.

John Cronin, CEO of RIMES, who has known Cannon for nine years, draws the same conclusion about Cannon's character. "Joe takes pride in treating his workers like family. He's very loyal to his people and they are very loyal to him. He really encourages his people to grow. Because of this, he doesn't have much turnover."

For his part, Cannon says he is only doing what he feels is right.

"I had a lot of jobs and had a lot of bosses that taught me what not to do. I had people over me that got me really upset. So I went over the things that I didn't want to have in my company before I even started it.

"When Gladys (his wife) and I started CAS America, we tried to put in all of the systems, organization and cultural issues that we believe are important, It's all about recognizing the dignity of the American worker. The color of your collar doesn't matter because everyone makes a contribution. If one guy doesn't do his job, then everyone else is going to be slowed down. That's something we don't want happening here."