Williams talks journey to leading Hankook Americas

AKRON — Rob Williams, president of Hankook Tire America Corp., has been in the tire and related industries for 36 years, and he's been in leadership roles for 33 of those.

He started with Goodyear back in 1988, moved from there to Michelin's Tire Centers Inc. commercial division and took a short detour as a vice president for AAA Car Care before landing at Hankook in January 2019.

Williams was appointed senior vice president of commercial and consumer sales in June 2022 for Hankook Tire America, and then in January 2023 was promoted to president of the business, which oversees the U.S. and Canada for South Korean parent Hankook Tire & Technology Co. Ltd.

Over those years, he's seen myriad changes in the industry, most significantly the advancement of the technology that goes into the manufacturing of tires. He recalls that treadwear and wet weather traction mattered early in his career, but customer expectations now have grown exponentially since then.

"Today the consumers' expectations have risen so much that I would say the very best tire back in the day today would probably not even meet the minimum standards of what consumers want," Williams told Rubber News in an interview after he gave the keynote address Sept. 11 at the Tire Society Annual Meeting and Conference in Akron.

"Whether it be the high performance capabilities, the wet weather capabilities, handling, dry traction. It's almost become an expectation of us to meet those needs of the consumer. ... When you look at the work the technical folks are doing, it is really unbelievable, and I don't think the average consumer sees that."

While navigating his career over this evolving landscape, the stops along the way and the lessons he's learned have brought him to where he believes he's in the perfect place to use his leadership skills. At a company that competes at the premium end of the market and is in a growth mode, both globally and in the U.S. and Canada, the regions he has been entrusted to lead.

Williams always says he learned the tire business from the ground up. He joined Goodyear on the consumer division in their management trainee program in a retail store. He spent 19 years with the company in a variety of roles, basically as a district region manager in the Carolinas running retail stores.

From there, he joined Michelin's TCI business in the commercial division. He spent nearly a decade with Michelin, in roles ranging from region director up to vice president of operations for the commercial division.

It was there where he unknowingly laid the groundwork for his future job at Hankook.

While TCI was Michelin-owned, they could sell other products, and Williams got to know the Hankook product quite well.

"At the time we had a very large fleet that was running a Michelin product, and we were on back order," he recalled. "I went to Hankook, and I said I really need you to fill this gap. And Hankook did that, and basically supplied the product that performed extremely well to the point where the fleet was kind of like, 'We really want to stay with Hankook.' Of course I was working for Michelin, so I had to talk them back into Michelin."

When he was at the next stop on his journey, with AAA, a recruiter said Hankook was looking for a senior director of consumer sales. Williams said he knew the firm pretty well and would be interested.

He interviewed with the president of North American and senior vice president of sales, and knew it was the right opportunity for him.

"It's been a perfect fit for me, given the size of the company, the fact we have so much invested in technology and rolling out new innovative products," Williams said.

The Hankook Tire America president has had plenty of time to work on what type of leader he wants to be. He was promoted to his first true leadership position at Goodyear in 1991, just three years into his career. Since then, he's had direct reports, and hasn't been at the individual contributor level.

And one thing Williams said he has learned during that time is he needs to cater his leadership to the individual.

"Having worked with so many different personality types, I think for me as a leader, you have to understand that personality type and kind of adjust your style to who you're speaking with and who you're leading," Williams said. "You can't lead everybody the same way."

He's become a better leader over the years, he shared, by listening more and asking questions.

"I'm probably one of those who asks too many questions, but I think that helps me understand who I'm leading by asking them what they need as far as a career," he said, "asking them what they need as far as becoming a better leader. Because most of the people I lead today are at a leadership level, so my focus is on making them become a better leader."

What's also helped Williams over the years is having a couple of mentors who gave open and honest feedback. Rather than just acknowledging that he's doing a good job, they will give a fair evaluation and tips on where he could improve.

"They weren't worried about giving me praise, but about giving me feedback to become a better leader. I tend to gravitate to that type of person because the only way you get better is to get some level of critical feedback," he said.

When working with his direct reports, Williams admits he likes to get in "coach mode." He asks them what they think they should do, and doing a bit of role play.

"I always use the phrase, 'Let's work from the answer backwards,' " he said. "If I'm coaching someone, I ask them, 'What do you hope the outcome will be?' And then how do we get there? Then I walk them through different scenarios, and let them kind of come up with the answer on their own."

Williams knows he's a hands-on leader, sometimes to a fault. Especially in his current role.

"As head of North America you have a lot of moving pieces to the business," he said. "I'll find myself getting on a call with one of my directors, helping them solve a pretty simple task. That's just kind of the way I am.

"I'm not a figure head leader. I still enjoy being in the day-to-day fray. A lot of times you have to learn to cut it off, though."

Williams said he'll let those who work for him decide what makes him the right leader for the Hankook America subsidiary at this point in time. But he thinks his strengths match what the business needs now, as the company is in the midst of a $1.6 billion expansion at its tire manufacturing plant in Clarksville, Tenn.

"When you're in growth mode, I think you have to know every element of the business and what's going on in every different department throughout the organization," he said.

With his experience in the business, being a hands-on leader, and his inquisitive nature, asking what Hankook can do better, all play right into what Hankook needs as it moves forward.

Many on his Hankook leadership team tend to have those same traits, and it's not by accident. They ask questions, empower their teams and push their staffs to become better.

"We've hired quite a few industry veterans," Williams said. "I would say each one of them I personally have vetted to make sure they are a good fit for our leadership team, and that they would understand the cultural diversity that we operate in. And that's very important that the leaders act as a local leader but understand that we're a global company. So the challenges of a global company might be different than that of a small company that's only based in Akron, Ohio, or Nashville, Tenn. (Hankook America's headquarters city)."

During his career, Williams has spent most of his time on the business/sales side. But as the leader of Hankook Tire America, he's had to learn about all aspects of the company.

To do that, he's leaned into his inquisitive nature. That's helped him learn about finances, how the unit affects the company's financial results and what they can do different going forward.

Those who work for him know that means if Williams is invited to a meeting, they might not get done in time.

For example, the day before his Tire Society keynote, staff at Hankook's nearby America Technical Center presented to him. Jay Ahn, vice president and head of the technical center, had a tight schedule planned to get Williams out for dinner. But once Williams started asking questions, the schedule kind of went out the window.

"I didn't want to just come here and be a figure head and say 'OK.' I want to learn and really understand what they are doing, and if there's anything I can do with what I call 'removing the barriers,' " Williams said. "My job, as much as anything, is to help them remove the barriers, but to do that I have to know a little bit about what they're doing."

One thing he learned at the ATC is the great work they're doing with OEMs, doing a lot of testing and design development that will help Hankook get a stronger foothold with some of the vehicle makers.

"That and we have some incredibly brilliant people in our technical center," Williams said. "Each of them know their job in great detail. All departments presented and went from one to another, and each of them knew their area of expertise extremely well.

"... So I don't think there's a part of the business that I'm not involved in or have not gotten involved in to some degree to understand it better. Not necessarily to give them direction, but for them to help me understand so I can guide the company as a whole in the right direction."