Dick Spencer

Dick Spencer Notes

Successful businessman

Vice-president of a large manufacturing firm

Plant manager of modrow company, a Canadian branch of the tri-American corporation.

Tri-American was a major producer of primary aluminum with integrated operations ranging from the mining of bauxite through the processing to fabrication of aluminum into a variety of products.

Made and sold refractories and industrial chemicals.

Owned subsidiaries in five separate us locations

Had foreign affiliates in 15 diff countries.

Tri-American mine bauxite in the Jamaican west indies and shipped the raw material by commercial l vessels to two 2 plnts in lousiana where ti was processed into alumina.

Alumina is then shipped to reduction plants in one of 3 locations for conversion into primary aluminum.

Primary aluminum was tehn moved to the companies fabricating plants for further processing .

Fabricated aluminum ites included sheet, falt, coil, nd corrugated products, sinding, and roofing.

Tri-american employed 22,000 employees in the total organization.

Company was governed by b.o.director which included chairman, vice chairman, president, and 12 vice presidents.

Each subsidiaries functioned as independent units.

The board set general policy

Which was then interpreted and applied by the various plant managers.

Different plants competed with one another as though they were independent companies

This was called decentralization

it increased the freedom and authority of the plant managers, but increased the pressure for profitability

modrow was located in a border town in Canada.

Total work force was 1,000.

They was a fabricating unit.

Main products were foil and bulding products suchs as roofing and siding.

Aluminum products were gaining in importance in architecrual plans, and increased sales were predicted

Location, stable work force, were the advantages it possessed.

Modrow completed a modernization and expansion project.

Their research and art...