Anything is Possible Show with Ray Scott – 07/18/2026

Well, it's an honor to be here, Jack. Thank you.

Yeah, well, I couldn't be more proud growing up in Flint. And you know, Flint's been through a lot, particularly over the last 20, 30 years. And I was born in 1965 in Flint, Michigan. So, saw a lot of ups and downs in the '70s, given the manufacturing environment, Buick, Chevrolet, AC, Fisher Body. There was a lot going on. Middle class was doing extremely well. People generally were doing extremely well. We had a lot of jobs, a lot of prosperity around the automotive industry. And everything was interconnected within Flint. You were directly or indirectly impacted by the auto industry. So, in the late '70s, with the recession, the national recession, Flint was hit at a multiple level, a real decline in manufacturing jobs, good-paying jobs. And so, you saw a lot of unemployment. So, what I think about when I think about my time in Flint, there's a lot of prosperity, a lot of good times, a lot of family, a lot of loyalty, hard-working people. And then you go through the downturn, and you learn how to work harder, how to think about taking on challenges, how to really come together as a community, build a bond that was very unique. And so, I would never trade my experiences. I've seen both sides of what is a very good environment in Flint and then obviously a downturn that really drove a lot of hard workers, a lot of ways to think about things, a lot of ways to come together. And the other thing that I'm very appreciative of about my time in Flint is my parents, although we didn't have a lot of money, always managed to send me to a Catholic school. And I didn't reflect on that till later on in life and appreciate that as much as I do today. But a lot of the discipline, a lot of the things I learned about my faith, a lot of the focus I have on family and community was really with my education, both my lower education and high school. I went to Flint Powers. And there's another great advantage of going to Catholic school. I met my wife. And so we started dating in high school at the age of 16. And so we continued our relationship all the way through college and then we got married. So not only did I have a great education, a great experience, really reinforce who I am as a person, but even better, met a big part of my life in a person that has been very supportive in our success as we've moved out of Flint and around the world.

It was a job. It was a job that paid money. And you know, it's interesting now as I reflect on Lear Corporation, Lear's been through a lot. What's interesting, here we are sitting in Detroit. Lear in 1917 was founded American Metal Products, 1917. I mean, so Lear's over 100 years old. And it was acquired, American Metal Products was acquired in 1966. And then the time I joined Lear, they were going through a leveraged buyout. Management was buying the automotive group of Lear Siegler and taking it private. And so, I didn't really have an appreciation for what I was learning at such an early age, but having the opportunity at Lear through an LBO, seeing how individuals that put their own money into a company run a company. For cost, operational excellence, making sure you're efficient. It was all focused around how we can make sure we're going to be successful. And you'll hear me talk about it a lot, but I think that survival mentality has been a part of my culture, my beliefs since growing up in Flint to really working at Lear. So, I learned it at Lear at a very early age that you're only as good as your performance. And so, in 1994, I got to witness us go public in Lear Corporation. And so, I've seen a lot, I've been able to really appreciate going through different types of environments in a company that's maturing extremely fast.

Well, I think back then it was I was lucky to have a title. It was really I was managing bills of material. I've talked about a tedious job. My job was to check the engineering drawings against the actual material on hand and make sure the quantities were right, that we had the right supply chain, that we were quoting to our customers the right percentages as far as increases of material and those type of things. So, I'll tell you, it was more of a grunt job, but I learned quite a bit. And I don't think my salary at the time was hardly anything, but it was, like I said, about survival, having a job. And I even remember the times when I think about it, going through an LBO and what that really taught me was there was times we couldn't make payroll. I mean, the company couldn't make payroll. And I say that to a younger generation today that every two weeks they're getting their check. And I remember, and I didn't at the time think of it as anything but a frustrating time that I couldn't get paid, but it was all part of us in a survival mode for the company. And so, cutting corners, cutting costs, getting paid were all part of that early development as a company as we were maturing and then eventually going public.

Well, the short answer is I surround myself with incredibly talented people that help me every single day in making decisions and thinking about where we need to position the company not just for today, but 5, 10, 15 years from now. And so, I think that's something that is absolutely essential is that there is no one individual, it is a team. It takes a team. And we have an incredibly talented team around the world. And so, I can't be more proud of the people that I surround myself with. And they're the ones that help me every day. And they're the ones that really run the company and drive the company every single day long term.

Yeah, I, one, I couldn't, like I said, that was one heck of an accomplishment. Again, I'll reinforce the fact that we had an incredible team that pulled that together from a total interior perspective. But I also think and I reflect on that, that is one singular opportunity in a lot that I've been given at Lear Corporation. I think Lear, with how fast we're growing, you're put into positions at a very young age to really drive productivity and growth and put yourself in a position that you can't fail. And that was one example. I have a number of examples throughout Lear. Living overseas, running different operations in Sweden or Germany or France, dealing with different OEMs around the world, learning to adapt and really drive changes as a leader, have been instrumental in positioning me for this role today. And I think as you continue to grow, taking on challenges that others quite candidly aren't interested in and putting yourself in those positions where you could fail, but you could also be very successful. I think of that as one stepping stone on a lot of different challenges that Lear has offered me and others to really grow as a leader and develop as a leader long term.

Well, again, it's the people you bring together. I always say this, you need people in the room that will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And I had to bring individuals in that had a completely different background, a different set of experiences, capabilities, and knowledge to really help us get to where we were going. And that's not easy. A lot of times relying on people that you have a lot of trust with or you're very familiar with is the easy option. But going out and bringing in different individuals that could disrupt a team or be a little bit more difficult to bring into a team in a culture that you absolutely have to fit is a little bit more work, but it's the right thing to do when you're trying to take on challenges or opportunities, in this case, that are very unique. And so, I find myself always going back to the people and making sure you're surrounding yourself with people that can really take you to where you need to go.

Well, the way I look at it, and I'm fortunate to travel the world. And I get to see different cultures, experience different beliefs, understand how people think, how people are motivated, how they're inspired. And you can't take things for granted. I think in some cases, you get too comfortable. And you just take ranch dressing for granted or whatever it is. But I don't want to simplify it, but you always have to... Yeah, barbecue or the luxury of air conditioning. There's a lot that when I travel that I talk to my family about often is that you can't take things for granted. And I think in some cases when you get to experience the luxuries and the style of living and the things that we have here, you can take them for granted. And I just remind people that from my experiences, don't ever take it for granted. It is a very special country, a very special culture, very special in what we've done. But you can lose it very quickly, too. And that goes not just for what we experience here in the US, but at a company or a family setting both professionally and personally. And so, you just have to kind of be on that comfortable edge where yeah, it is nice, but don't ever take it for granted.

Well, it's vivid memories right now coming back. It was very emotional. Very emotional. And I remember the groundbreaking day and the celebration and the work that the teams had done to get the facility ready. But if I go back, we were looking at locations all over in different areas outside of Flint. And I kept telling the team, 'No, you don't get it. Where this plant is going to be in Flint. It's going to be in Flint.' It was a very important part in a platform that I could drive a decision that I thought was the right decision. And what's really interesting about that, we put the facility on the location that used to be where Buick City was, the administration office. And remember the big white building. I used to work at Buick City in the summer times on the assembly line. And so I remember the work that I used to do at the unit flow-through terminal of just packaging up trucks and product that went over to Buick City. And worked at truck and bus on the assembly line putting together chassis for one summer. So I had a lot of fun memories of manufacturing in Flint. So to see Buick City down, but to still have that land in that location available was absolutely key. And when we put that facility up, what I didn't expect, we had over 600, 700 openings for jobs that we were going to supply in Flint. There were 4,000 applicants that came out to interview for a job at that manufacturing facility, and I didn't expect that. And then what I think gets somewhat overlooked is the quality of workers and the quality of the work that's being done every single day at that plant. I couldn't be more proud. It is one of our benchmarks when we think about employee relationships, job satisfaction, relationships with our workers in the facility. We continue to add new technology innovation for job satisfaction long-term. And so, it was a very emotional day when you bring back that specific day, but there was a lot of work that went into that before. There were decisions that were made that, fortunately, because of my position I could make sure I knew exactly where we were going, but to be on that site, that location is very special to me personally.

Well, when we think about Lear and I've been at Lear a long time and I've seen our culture grow, change, develop. And the way we message it is being innovative, being inclusive, and getting results the right way. I think of Lear and I say this all the time, I think of it as a family. When things get tough or there are challenges that we have, we lean on each other. And since my time as a CEO, we've come across some major industry challenges. Going back to the first major strike, obviously going through COVID, what we went through with a chip crisis, labor economics, material economics, what we're experiencing with tariff trade, the geopolitical situation with the different wars, the supply chain impacts. What I find is that our culture just steps up to the challenges and they really trust each other and they lean on each other and they get the job done. There are so many stories that I have that I could sit here and talk about through all the challenges we've seen over the last 7 years that are remarkable. Truly remarkable. Writing the playbook for the COVID situation, that was our team. And with my understanding, we got to have a playbook that we go to where we can help others out, not just in our own facilities, but that we can give to others that don't have the knowledge that we had. We have four facilities right in China that were experiencing COVID initially, and so obviously as things were spreading around the world, we had experiences. We had knowledge. That playbook was downloaded over 45,000 times by municipalities, by grocery stores, by... it wasn't just our industry. People used it to guide themselves through a very tough time. And I think that's one of the things that I look back on and I couldn't be more proud of, is that our team worked on that. It was dynamic. I struggled with putting it out at first because I didn't want there to be a potential issue with, 'Hey, this didn't work or that didn't work.' We didn't know everything. We just wanted to publish what we did know and what was working and what were the best procedures, what was the best set up in a manufacturing plant to protect your people. And that's exactly what we did. And we have story after story. And when I think about the culture, Jack, I think about that particular scenario. I think that's how we handle things. We step up, we do the right things, and we make sure we're doing everything to either give our employees the tools that they need to do their job or we're protecting them. And so it is a people business, for sure.

So, Jack, what I spend my time on, obviously strategy, where the company is going, running the business, but is that point and you have to work at it. You have to be consistent. You have to communicate. You have to talk. You have to share in successes. When things are happening, when you look at the culture that drove incredible results, celebrate those successes. Because I say this all the time to our employees around the world, culture is as strong or weak as one person. And culture, I can set the mantra, the words, but I can walk the talk, but you can have one plant manager that isn't following or towing the line, and that sets a terrible culture within that facility. You can have an individual in a program team. You can have an individual in a particular region. So, what we talk about and what we do is follow up. There's got to be consequences to particular actions or steps taken, but there's got to be recognition. So, I enforce and we just had a celebration the other day. We celebrated 200 employees for some incredible awards or progress or actions that they did in the company. It doesn't have to be just business related. It could be on a personal level. We focus a lot on giving back in the communities where we live and work, and that started long before I came to Lear, and the belief that you have an obligation to give back. And I think the more that you can impress on individuals through what you're doing, the actions you're taking, walk the talk. But you also have to have a firm fist and have consequences when people aren't building the type of culture you want in the company. But it's something that we work on every single day, Jack. Every single day, because it can go quickly.

Well, we have been and have done a nice job of tucking acquisitions and it's something you learn along the journey. There's no question about it. I think there's some things we've done right in the past and there's things we've absolutely done wrong that we've learned from. And I think to the point that you just made, Jack, you can look at a balance sheet, you can look at the numbers, you can look at the synergies, you can look at how you can scale things more appropriately, you can look at the customer profile. But the culture of the company that you're acquiring or that you're bringing in is absolutely as important, if not more important, and the fit in how that's going to work. And every acquisition is slightly different. They are. They're all different. And I think you have to be flexible in how you approach it. Some of them are a little bit more aggressive in how you might restructure or blend the organizations together. A lot of them are a little bit more open and flexible where you let the organization run and continue to run the way they're running it to best fit the company's needs long term. And so it's not easy, but I think that balance that you mentioned is very important. You just don't look at the balance sheet. You have to look at the people. You have to look at the culture, because that is as big, if not bigger, than the balance sheet when you think about long-term fit.

Well, there's two announcements. I'll add to that one, Jack. There's that announcement which... yeah, well, and there's one we can't name the OEM at this time, but it was a significant award that was conquested, two seat plants. In addition to that announcement with the Orion facility. And I think, first of all, I couldn't be more proud of the team. It was a great accomplishment, but a lot of hard work. And you mentioned the acquisitions and the companies we've been targeting. We've really been targeting companies that change the trajectory of our technology innovation and our manufacturing. This digital transformation, AI transformation, the automation transformation is, I believe, essential to our success. We believe that we've built a defensible moat that creates a competitive advantage for us, not just today, but long-term. And I believe that the scarcity around human capital will continue to become an issue for manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs continue to increase, so there's going to be a shortage of workers. And so, what we've done is we've done a lot with technology innovation. And those two particular awards were focused on innovation around automation and digital transformation and AI. And that's how we won those particular awards. And what's exciting about it is that when I walk through the plants, and we're walking through the plants right now, we have an innovation center. I was just there yesterday that's driving the next generation of technology. These companies that we've acquired, we are making our own capital and I'll call it manufacturing integration within the manufacturing plant. Where historically we would acquire 80% of our capital or more, we're now manufacturing 80% of our own capital. We're doing it at a much more efficient cost, much more efficient product use, much more efficient throughput, job satisfaction. But the point I want to mention is that I've been and I have the opportunity to see the technology throughout the world. And I walk through the facilities, what I gain knowledge on is obviously the quality improvements, the efficiency improvements, the throughput, the working capital improvements, but the job satisfaction, the employees. I mean, they are so happy. There's some tedious jobs that are tough jobs that we're making the job much more sophisticated, engineered in a way that's much easier and much more satisfying. So an employee that comes in and has an 8-hour job that has been very difficult, we're making it much simpler. And so we're seeing that progression. And those two facilities, and one will be actually one's going to be right here in our backyard, that will be up and running by the end of this year. And that will be the benchmark for some of the technology innovation that we're putting in place. And so it's exciting. It was a great announcement. We continue and we're on the cusp right now. We're going to have another announcement. I'm trying to think of earnings calls before this or after it, but that we're going to be announcing some good business wins, too, that will continue the trajectory of what I just talked about.

Yeah, we're just talking a little bit, too. As I reflect on my career, and I say this all the time, there's some tough jobs, there's some tough things I've done like living in Sweden. My wife retired from her job. She was doing well. We had two kids. I remember staring at the ceiling thinking, 'Boy, I just messed up. I messed up my life. What am I doing here?' And it was uncomfortable. It was very uncomfortable. But the ability to push through that, work hard, learn through it, understand how to inspire and lead in a different country, in the moment, it seemed like the worst decision I ever made in my life. It was uncomfortable. Five years later, I realized it was probably the most important decision I made professionally. And it was only five years later that I reflected on it and realized how important that was. And I think through all the things that we were talking about, they're uncomfortable.

Yeah, I think too many times we surround ourselves with people that tell you what you want to hear. Just because it's more comfortable. No one likes to really be brutally honest, but you need that. You really need that. And what I've found is that you find a room where people are talking candidly and have the right to talk and open it up so people are giving you good positive feedback on what you need to hear, not what you want to hear, it's extremely helpful.

Well, I think those are tied together. Like I said, there's a lot of times I raised my hand where I looked around and was wondering why no one else was volunteering and thinking, 'What am I doing?' And those are the times that I say this too, Jack. It's not just professionally, it's personally. There's a lot of things that you're uncomfortable in your personal life that you don't want to do. You just don't want to do them, but those are the things you have to do. And you have to push through them, and those are the things you'll learn from.

Yeah. You find people in your life that just totally inspire you. Father Tim is the person that really inspires me. He's unfortunately the guy I can't say no to either. So anything he asks for, when you have an individual like Father Tim that has aspirations and a goal to solve chronic homelessness in the city of Detroit, and he's worked so hard to figure out a path to do that, and he works every single day harder than I can even imagine someone working, you have to be inspired. And so, yeah, I love Father Tim. Like I said, it's hard for me to say no to him because he's a human being that every single day wakes up and tries to do the right thing for other human beings.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's everywhere.

Yeah, she is equally as inspiring and someone that I think there's duplicates of her. I don't know how she's in so many places at so many times. I'm not joking. I mean, she's in everything that I attend, and I know she's in other events where my wife works closely with her. And so, yeah, we've gained a lot of appreciation for her and she's doing an incredible job, too.

Well, I think work hard. It's not like it's a tough explanation of what's important. Work hard in what you're doing professionally, work hard in what you're doing personally. You're going to be challenged and pushed through them. There's no easy answers and just things will work out. Have patience. It's not an easy path. I think sometimes younger generation might be a little bit too impatient and I think you have to have patience.

Thanks, Jack. It's great to be here.