Stephen Shafer became President and CEO of A. O. Smith on July 1, 2025, after serving as President and COO starting in March 2024. Previously, Steve led 3M’s Automotive and Aerospace Solutions Division, consulted at McKinsey, and held operational roles at Ford and NASA. He serves on WorkBoard’s Executive Advisory Board and holds an Industrial Engineering degree from Northwestern and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
The Challenge
- Long-range and annual plans using Hoshin Kanri, complex and time-consuming business review cycles
- Limited ability to adapt and mobilize the organization as the world changes faster (first adopted during Covid and supply chain crisis)
- Labor intensive to assess alignment, progress and risks – so they were considered less often and issues were identified late
- Long-cycle products made it hard for team to know where to focus and connect today’s work to lagging financial measures of success
The WorkBoardAI Solution
- Personal scale, visibility and efficiency for CEO. He reviews overall execution using WorkBoard – no need for prep or meetings to insights
- More efficient, modern approach to driving strategy execution and getting visibility and accountability across the enterprise
- High, visible alignment on the most important outcomes
- Excellent strategy execution data and AI-driven insights from it
Conclusion
WorkBoardAI helped A.O. Smith Leadership operationalize an always-on strategy and quarterly recalibration cycle, improving transparency and organizational alignment in the face of rapid change. By establishing a single source of truth, managers could have more direct, data-backed accountability conversations and identify misalignment or low-performing execution patterns earlier.
