(The following story by Crystal Forester and Leslie Wimmer appeared on the Fort Worth Business Press website on August 25.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — In the past year Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. has realized a revenue growth of about a billion dollars and continues to hold its head high through turbulent times with the help of CEO Matthew K. Rose and his management team.
Already in 2008 the company has had to deal with flooding across the Midwest as well as rising fuel costs and a slowing economy.
“Our basic business model is very compelling in terms of providing transportation in an environment with high energy prices, road congestion and entering into an era where people will pay more attention to greenhouse gases and general environmental issues,” Rose said. “Our goals are really centered around capitalizing on those strengths, providing a great place to work for our employees, services that our customers want to buy and returns to our shareholders that reflect our long-lived assets.”
BNSF went from $14.98 billion in revenue in 2006 to $15.8 billion in 2007 with an employee base of 40,000. About 2,900 are based in the Fort Worth area. All BNSF employees contribute to the company’s success, Rose said.
“The BNSF team is what makes a successful company,” Rose said. “Successful companies usually have CEOs that are a part of that process. CEOs rarely make the company by themselves and this is certainly the case at BNSF.”
The company’s current goal is to make the world accessible to all American’s by “using speed, agility and resourcefulness” to bring products into businesses and homes, according to the Web site. The company transports various products and commodities, including consumer, industrial, coal and agricultural products.
“It’s all about creating a vision for employees, customers and shareholders to understand,” Rose said. “For us at BNSF, it’s really simple. We want to provide transportation services that consistently meet our customers’ expectations. All three constituents have to win in the process. If any one of the three doesn’t win, the company will not be successful. Also, leaders matter, and most importantly, people watch leaders’ actions more than they listen to their words.”
Rose joined the former Burlington Northern Railroad in 1993. When the company merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1995 he was appointed vice president, chemicals. He continued to move up the ranks. In 1997, he was made chief operations officer, then president and chief operating officer in 1999. He will continue to hold his head high and get the company through tough times
“My personal goals are really around providing direction to our company to steer through issues such as economic cycles, workforce transition and preparing the next level of leadership for the future,” Rose said.