Nick Carthew inherited more than just a business when he entered his family’s electrical wiring harness manufacturing company. He walked into a battlefield of family conflict that would test everything he thought he knew about leadership.
AME Systems was established in the mid-1970s as a family business supplying the automotive industry. But by the early 2000s, succession plans had ignited tensions that would tear the family apart.
“There was some discomfort and heated debate about what succession should look like. It was a falling out between my brother and my father and myself, and my brother left,” Carthew, now Managing Director of AME Systems, reflects.
The board decided to appoint a general manager, and Carthew applied, but was passed by for the role.
“Given the history that had happened between the family members, it was seen that I wasn’t the best option for the business, which – looking back on it – was probably fair enough,” Carthew admits.
However, the new appointee struggled in the role, and the business began to decline. So when the search for a new managing director began, Carthew threw his hat in the ring again, despite knowing his reputation was damaged.
“My name was still mud and so I put my hat in the ring again anyway, because, you know, if you’re not in it, you can’t win it,” he says on CEO: Behind the Scenes.
To everyone’s surprise, including his own, external HR consultants recommended Carthew for the role. In December 2014, he was given a six-month contract.
“I think the six months was really just to prove to our external consultants that this kid doesn’t have it,” he says.
Radical change
But Carthew’s response was radical change, moving decisively to reshape the culture, removing dozens of employees in a matter of weeks to create what he calls a “burning platform” for change. He then presented an audacious growth strategy to the board.
“We presented to the board a strategy to triple the company’s revenues in a three-to-four-year period,” he says. “The board laughed. But strangely enough, everyone pulled together, and the culture shifted.”
The results silenced the skeptics. The company grew from US$15.8 million in annual revenues to approximately US$39.5 million in just 18 months, pivoting from automotive to specialize in heavy vehicles, defense and aerospace markets.
In July 2019, Carthew acquired the business. What followed tested not just his leadership, but his personal life too. Over the next several months, Carthew’s several family members passed away. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and all the while, Carthew was battling a severe health crisis that required brain surgery.
“Always stay on higher ground, even if you have to give it away.”
But the culture he had built in the company endured. During the darkest days of the pandemic, when the business faced potential collapse, Carthew’s employees demonstrated extraordinary loyalty.
“People agreed that they would work only two days and take two days’ pay and those sorts of things to defend the company. And more importantly, it was to defend me,” he recalls.
The company didn’t lose a single job through the crisis.
“Those people are all there now kicking goals every day of the week,” he says. “The company’s going from strength to strength, so it’s an amazing organization and more so, it’s a family.”
It’s this culture that continues to motivate Carthew, who still follows the business advice he received from a mentor at Melbourne Business School: “Always stay on higher ground, even if you have to give it away.”
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