Selected
Article:
Woods Eastland of Staplcotn
(Woods
Eastland is president and CEO of Staplcotn in Greenwood.)
DBJ:
What was your first job and who gave you your start in the
business world?
After serving in the JAG Corp in the Navy for a couple of
years, practicing law as a civilian for a couple of years,
and farming for twelve years, my opportunity at Staplcotn
was given to me by LeRoy Percy of Greenville and Hank Hodges.
LeRoy was the most influential member of the Board, and
Hank was the retiring CEO of Staplcotn.
DBJ:
If you could change or improve one thing about your business
or organization, what would that be?
Little if anything. In management, you want to be able to
play with the best cards you can get. Everyone has an imperfect
hand. The sheep and goats are separated by how well you
play the hand you’ve got, as you continue to make
improvements.
DBJ:
Are there any business books you would recommend to other
CEO’s? Or do you have a personal source of inspiration
in your work? Who or what?
I read at work at least a couple of hours every day, and
therefore to tell you the truth I do not read books. It
is not a source of inspiration, but the great sense of satisfaction
I get from my work is in trying to correctly get the right
people plugged into the right slots to make the company
operate very efficiently. To manage effectively, you’ve
always got to be willing to pay the price.
DBJ:
What has been your proudest moment as CEO?
There has been no particular moment. This is a business
and our job is to get satisfactory results for our owners
year in and year out. The thing that makes all of us here
the most proud is that we have been able to do that consistently
up to this date.
DBJ:
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
We are a service organization whose job it is to generate
results in marketing, warehousing, and lending that are
satisfactory to our members. The rewarding part of the job
is to get that job done in all three divisions, year after
year.
DBJ:
What is the most challenging?
The success of our Marketing Division depends on our hedging
operations in the cotton futures market being better than
those of growers who are not members of Staplcotn. Deciphering
and understanding the futures market is by far the most
challenging.
DBJ:
What do you think the next five years will bring for your
business or organization?
We operate in the agricultural infrastructure. That means
that we are very volume sensitive. One effect of the Farm
Bill, which will remain in effect under current law through
the 2007 crop, is that there should be a lot of acres of
cotton, soybeans, corn, and rice planted, and the government
is affording a level of price protection that is similar
to what was afforded under the 1985 and 1991 Farm Bills.
Thus, volume-wise, we should be in good shape. The biggest
challenge we face is that our traditional customer base,
the U.S. textile industry, has been decimated by foreign
imports. We are having to re-orient our marketing efforts
into the export market. DBJ
