Two of American manufacturing veterans—Nick Pinchuk, chairman and CEO of Snap-on, and Farooq Kathwari, chairman, president and CEO of Ethan Allen Interiors—have navigated their organizations through decades of disruption, transformation and uncertainty. At the 2025 Manufacturing Leadership Summit, they offered not just tactics but a philosophy of leadership that transcends today’s headlines.
In times of chaos, your conviction becomes your company’s greatest asset. "A CEO's biggest task is to lay belief," Pinchuk said. "If the trumpets sound uncertain, who will prepare for war? It's as true today as it was 2000 years ago. You have to be a certain trumpet or people will lose faith."
This doesn't mean projecting false confidence. Kathwari balances this with authentic transparency: "It's very important to get the message across to your team that there is stability, that we want to take care of them. Yet, also be frank with them to say that if business is slow, we might have less work to do. You gotta be honest."
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