Southwire Company and Georgia Schools Innovative Partnership Increases At-Risk Students’ Graduation Rates
A Conversation with Burt Fealing and Ethan Rouen
Burt M. Fealing (left) serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Corporate Secretary for Southwire Company, a privately held global manufacturer with approximately $9 billion of revenue. Fealing serves on numerous nonprofit organizations including the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Fealing earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in economics with honors and psychology from Williams College and his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.
Ethan C. Rouen (right) is an assistant professor of business administration in the Accounting and Management Unit, where he teaches the elective course Reimagining Capitalism, and the faculty co-chair of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project at Harvard Business School. His current research interest focuses on understanding economic inequality and the measurement of human capital. Professor Rouen earned a BA in history and English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MS in journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. From Columbia Business School, he received an MBA in finance and accounting, an M.Phil. in accounting, and a PhD in accounting.
Gina Lázaro: I had the privilege of participating in a discussion about Southwire Company in Ethan’s Reimagining Capitalism class at Harvard Business School last year. Burt, could you start things off by telling us about Southwire and the 12 for Life program?
Burt Fealing: Southwire is a manufacturing company based in Carrollton, Georgia, which is about an hour outside of Atlanta. We are a 73-year-old, family-owned business. Currently, we have more than 8,500 employees across more than 30 locations in the United States and internationally in Canada, Mexico, China, and Honduras. We manufacture wire and cable used in residences and businesses, as well as the cable that criss-crosses the US for electricity. We make the wire needed for electricity, as well as the tools used by electricians to install and repair that wire. Also, we recently acquired a business to service wire sustainably.
In terms of the 12 for Life program, roughly 16 to 17 years ago, we felt there was an opportunity for Southwire to get even more involved in the community. Our organization thinks about how we connect with communities and how to be a better steward for those around us. We saw an opportunity for the company to connect more broadly, and we recognized the low high school graduation rates. The leadership team at the time wanted to create a program to give at-risk students access to employment opportunities at our plants. Many of the students had challenges. Some were already parents in high school, so we thought about how to help them to be good parents, good students, and good workers. The genesis of the program was to give the students more than compensation for their work. We also wanted to help them develop life skills such as managing money and planning course work to meet graduation requirements.
Lázaro: What are the benefits of 12 for Life for the students, the company, and the community?
Fealing: We identify students who are at-risk and not likely to graduate from high school. We bring the students into our facilities, and we put resources around them. Initially, 12 for Life was only at our Carrollton, Georgia location, but we now also have the program in Florence, Alabama.
The students complete four hours of educational instruction daily, and then work up to 20 hours per week at our facilities. We help the students to get more guidance counselor time and attention, as well as with time management and goal setting. We bring in teachers to tutor the students, and we give them mentors. If food issues are a problem, we make sure that they get fed as part of the program. We help the students to think about a career path where before most were only thinking day to day. We want them to think beyond graduation and give them the concept that graduation is a goal that is achievable.
To keep the students safe, we staff our 12 for Life facilities with employees who are specifically trained to work with and guide the students. For the most part, the students are working at dedicated facilities with other students. We pay the students competitive wages, and we invest in the social aspects of the program. The company benefits on two fronts. One, we have a product that is going out the door, and it makes money for Southwire. Two, with 12 for Life, we give back to the communities in which we operate, and it differentiates our company. Initially, there may have been thoughts that the program could provide future generations of employees, but we recognize that only a few students will want to continue to work for us. Some of the students will go to college, some to military service, and some to other organizations. That is all okay with us, because by the students being successful after high school, we are improving the communities that we operate in.
Lázaro: Ethan, what are the key aspects of the 12 for Life program that drive its success? Is there something about Southwire that made it uniquely suited to develop and implement this program?
Ethan Rouen: I don't know if unique is the right word as much as they were in the right place at the right time and recognized the need. The biggest driver of their success was the trust developed among the parties. Southwire, a for profit organization, is asking a community, schools, and parents to trust them with their children. That is a hard sell without being a known entity and having the presence in the community where everybody knows this company, and everybody knows people who work for this company. Southwire has a strong reputation, and they are trustworthy. So, those are aspects that really differentiate the company. The other aspect is that Southwire approaches the issue with humility. I've seen organizations come in with money and want to determine exactly how that money is spent. Burt, you can correct me if I’m wrong here, and we don't explicitly bring this out in the case, but it is pretty apparent that the executives at Southwire were not the experts in the room on determining the best ways to help at-risk students, and they did not try to be. Southwire brought all the experts into the room and listened to them. The company realized that they were not going to be the ones, nor should be the ones, making the educational decisions. For example, guidance counseling is super important for the at-risk population, and Southwire did not dictate who the guidance counselors would be or when the students would have access to them. The schools are determining the educational parts of the program.
Fealing: That is exactly right. And quite frankly, we do not pick the students either. We work with the schools to establish a framework: Is the student at-risk? Are they attending their classes or not? Do they have other factors causing them to need additional attention, and if they do not get the attention, would these students drop out of high school? Those questions are all part of a rubric that the schools manage. I say schools because there are now multiple schools across multiple counties. When we started 12 for Life, we were working with one county. Now just in our Georgia program, we deal with five counties and one city school system. The schools participate in this process with us to encourage their students and get them moving forward.
Lázaro: Can you speak about the metrics? From the case, the improvements in the graduation rates are impressive.
Fealing: When we started the program, at least in the first county, graduation rates were probably in the mid-60%, because there were so many students at-risk. Now graduation rates are about 92% of students earning a high school diploma. I'm not saying that 12 for Life is the only factor driving the increased graduation rate, but it is clearly a big factor, because we are targeting specific, at-risk students. Within our program, just in the Carrollton location, we have anywhere from 100 to 250 students depending on the needs of the business and the ability of the schools to provide students. At one point pre-pandemic, we discussed changing the rubric because many students were doing better, and the at-risk population in our partner schools was getting smaller.
Ethan talked about trust. There is genuine trust that comes from the superintendents to allow a corporation to come in to help, recognizing that everybody will talk about the problem and the need to solve the problem will be even more visible. We trust one another and share the problems and the solutions, and eventually the success. We also work across the school system, because if we do not work with the superintendents, the principals, the teachers, the guidance counselors, and the nurses, the students in 12 for Life will not be successful.
Lázaro: When Southwire started 12 for Life, did you think about this program as philanthropy, and was the ambition always to improve graduation rates up?
Fealing: One of the hallmark tenets for Southwire is giving back. We have five main tenets. The first is “Growing Green” focused on sustainability and the environment. The second is “Living Well” and that is about improving the lives of our employees and others. Third is “Giving Back” and 12 for Life fits here. Fourth, “Doing Right” is our ethics and compliance program, and our fifth tenet is “Building Worth”. We recognize that by doing all these things, we can build the organization financially, and we can also build communities, and ultimately the lives of many people not just our employee base. It is critically important for us, it is in our DNA, to give back in many ways.
With 12 for Life, there are other nuances that you would not think of. Yes, we are providing a benefit to students, but the students are providing a benefit to us because they are helping us to think about our business: Are there ways to be more efficient in what we are doing? Are there new ways to connect more with the communities? We are also connecting with the parents because we are mutually focused on their children.
Lázaro: I'd like both of you to comment on this next area. Why aren't more companies working in partnership with school districts or local governments to increase high school completion as a path to improving social mobility?
Fealing: The biggest factor for our success is the commitment throughout the organization and executive team. For Southwire, it starts with our shareholders. We have five main shareholders, as we are a family-owned business. Our shareholders and board are focused on our tenets and are interested in what we do to give back and connect with our communities. The interest and support of the shareholders, the board and the management team are key critical elements of the success of 12 for Life.
It also helps when outside organizations acknowledge our work. The fact that Harvard Business School wrote a case study on our 12 for Life program continues to give recognition and positive feedback to our organization. We sometimes bring people who are running the program or from our HR People and Culture group to the Harvard class when the case is discussed. We want our people to be part of the discussion and to connect with the professors and students. This is a reward in itself, motivates our people, and continues to keep us excited on top of all the benefits and progress from the students in the program.
Rouen: That's one of my favorite parts of the semester when Burt brings his colleagues to the class. My students and I see firsthand the passion and buy-in across Southwire. We see what makes 12 for Life successful, and from my observations where other companies struggle, is that Southwire has made a long-term commitment. This is slow, patient capital that you are investing here, and to expect results right away or to expect a smooth path toward progress is not realistic. It is also not realistic to expect immediate acknowledgment for the good deeds you are doing.
To make substantial change, you must take on some risk. There is the real possibility of failure. If that were not the case, there would be many other organizations already doing this important work. That is one of the places where Southwire stands out and where other organizations can seek to improve is thinking about programs like this as long-term projects. In addition, as Burt mentioned, thinking about all the surrounding pieces is also important. It is not just about making sure the students graduate from high school and knowing how to hold onto a job. It is about helping them learn how to become adults and to think about budgeting, because these students are from situations where it is not always easy to get financial education and the like. I've seen this in other cases where management comes in and rewards employees with more money which will hopefully make them better off financially, but they do not see the expected response right away. The problem is that it is hard to explain to people who have been living paycheck to paycheck the benefits of wealth building. It is hard to instill the skills that let them build savings on their own, and it is hard to communicate how the collective benefits of everyone working together will better a diverse group and communities.
Lázaro: We spoke in class about the challenges of scaling. Southwire clearly has been able to scale 12 for Life to other locations within the company. What about other companies around the country? Ethan, is the approach scalable and what are the scaling challenges?
Rouen: The challenge with scaling, more than anything, is trust. As we teach in class, scaling is difficult, and it seems to be a challenge outside of Southwire. Where I see 12 for Life being most scalable is in the conditions it lays out for success. So, it is not necessarily that 12 for Life has created a roadmap that if companies follow steps A, B, and C, they will succeed in implementing a similar program. Rather, Southwire provides a roadmap for the conditions needed on the ground to even begin implementing this type of program. These conditions are being a good employer and being an outstanding and visible corporate citizen. It is about investing in your workforce, while you are investing in the families of your workforce. It is all these factors that over time lead to this giant ball of trust that then you can start picking from to take these big risks.
Lázaro: Burt, would you comment more about trust, and the impact that the 12 for Life program has had on students’ lives?
Fealing: As Ethan said, trust does directly affect the conditions of success. We have had the benefit of having one of the US Secretaries of Education visit our 12 for Life program, and the Atlanta Fed President has spoken about its positive impact. The program receives significant recognition, and everybody gets excited about helping current students, the future generation of workers, especially during times of worker shortages. With respect to the students, 12 for Life helps them develop skill sets that they would not otherwise have. They learn to juggle their hours worked, their in-class work, and their homework. The students know to respect other individuals as they are employees of Southwire. They learn about our culture and the requirements that come with being an employee as to how to treat other people. There is trust between the student and the company and our people.
We share our expectations and say we would love to have them as employees. If they work hard, there is a job post graduation at Southwire. Our impact comes from providing real opportunity and hope. We want our students to continue to be successful in life, and we share that with them. They can take what they learned through Southwire and go to college, to technical or professional school, or into the military. We want them to know that the people they meet through our program and through their schools believe in them and in their future success.
Lázaro: Ethan, you met many Southwire executives and taught this case, what advice do you have for our readers — practitioners and those interested in social impact — to help drive real change?
Rouen: The biggest takeaway from Southwire is that patience is perhaps the most important characteristic followed by trust, and trust comes with patience. It is acknowledging that financial and capital resources to execute an ambitious program like this are not enough. Southwire did not have the solution when they started. I cannot imagine, Burt, that Southwire started this program intending to build high schools in your facilities and employ high school students. And so, just because you have the capital does not mean you have the solution. It is critical to listen to the stakeholders and to think of your investment as not just your investment, but as the investment among all the stakeholders. While you might be providing capital, everyone else is providing equal, if not more valuable, resources to get this done.
Fealing: Leaders of organizations need to ask themselves whether they can make a difference as an individual. The answer is yes, an individual can make a significant difference if you are passionate about something, pursue it, and find a way to make it happen especially if you have the educational background and are leading an organization. If you are excited about making social change, you will be able to get others to help you and make an even bigger impact. To everyone who is reading this, find a way to bring your passion into something that aligns with your leadership role. Others will follow, and it will be exciting to see what you can accomplish when you set your mind and heart to it.
Lázaro: Burt, now that 12 for Life is 16 years old, what’s next?
Fealing: We want to continue to provide benefits to students and help our communities. COVID was a challenge for schools, and it was a challenge for us too. When schools were closed, we could not operate because students were not going into the schools. Even now, schools are having a lot of difficulty. Their graduation rates may be up, but the situations are still challenging. There is teacher burnout, high rates of teacher retirements, and stricter educational requirements. So, we look and say, how do we continue to energize and support, and how do we become an even stronger, better partner for the school systems because the challenges that they faced in the last three years are not disappearing anytime soon. We will continue to work with our partners, and that is where the trust can sometimes mean you pull on one partner a bit more to help get you through.
Lázaro: Ethan and Burt, do you have any concluding words?
Rouen: I do not want to be overly pessimistic on the scalability of what Southwire is doing. If more organizations came in with the intentions and thoughtfulness that Southwire did when they started 12 for Life, the world would be a much better place.
Fealing: We see that our employees love engagement and participating in activities like 12 for Life, which allows them to find an even stronger connection to the company. For all those organizations looking to retain their talent, get deeply involved and connected to your communities, find out how employees want to engage, and create opportunities for people to bring their passion to the work. You will find that it will benefit the organization and the communities in which you work.
Lázaro: Thank you both for this insightful discussion on this exceptional program and for the practical advice on developing partnerships between corporations and schools.
About the Author:
Gina Lázaro is a 2021 Harvard ALI Fellow and Editor in Chief of the Social Impact Review. She serves on the board of Education Pioneers, a non-profit building the leadership and management pipeline for the education sector, and on the advisory council of HighSight, a non-profit focused on educational opportunities for low-income African American and Latino youth.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.