The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Garry Ridge hopes the squeaky wheel gets a healthy spray of WD-40.
This iconic brand has an interesting story behind it. In 1953, there was a problem with condensation and corrosion on the outer skin of the Atlas space rocket in San Diego.
“The chemists at the Rocket Chemical Company started mixing up some stuff in their lab,” explains Ridge, CEO of WD-40. “They tried 39 times to solve the problem. The 40th try worked. So, our name stands for ‘Water Displacement, 40th formula.’”
Sun Never Sets
Ridge grew up in Australia and came to the U.S. in 1994. He became CEO in 1997.
“The blue and yellow can with the little red top is in 176 countries around the world. The sun never sets on WD-40,” Ridge says. “There’s lots of squeaks out there for us.”
Headquartered in San Diego, WD-40 has 500 employees who work in 15 countries. Ridge says his top priority is the company’s people.
“Most people think leadership is about being in charge,” Ridge explains. “Leadership is not about being in charge; leadership is about taking care of the people in your charge.”
The goal at WD-40 is to create a place where people contribute to something bigger than themselves and are happy.
“Happy people create happy families, happy families create happy communities, and happy communities create a happy life,” Ridge says.
At WD-40, Ridge says, team members don’t make mistakes. Instead, they have learning moments.
“A learning moment is a positive or negative outcome of any situation that needs to be openly and freely shared to benefit all people,” he says. “We call ourselves a tribe, not a team. One of the great desires people have is to belong.”
A Winning Equation
Ridge uses this equation for business success: Culture = values + behavior x consistency.
“We are a values-driven organization,” he explains. “People work at our company because they like our values. At WD-40 Company, 99% of our employees
globally say they love to tell people they work at WD-40 Company, and 97% say they believe their values align with the company values. You have to have the values; you encourage the behavior, and you have to do it consistently.”
Good leadership, Ridge says, is all about balance and serving others.
“We need to be fantastic listeners,” he says. “As a CEO, you’ve got to have what I call ‘bleeding-tongue syndrome,’ which means you bite your tongue a lot.”
