Building a Manufacturing Culture of Accountability, Accuracy, and Respect with Allison Giddens

<p><strong>Connect with Allison Giddens:</strong></p><p>Email: akrache@win-tech.net</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisongiddens/</p><p><strong>Lisa Ryan</strong>: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. Our guest today is Allison Giddens. Allison is president and co-owner of Win-Tech, a precision machine shop based just outside Atlanta, Georgia. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and criminal justice, graduate degrees in conflict management and manufacturing leadership, and certificates in cybersecurity risk management and finance. And she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Welcome to the show. Allison.</p><p><strong>Allison Giddens</strong>: Hey, thanks for having me.</p><p><strong>Lisa Ryan</strong>: Now, share with us a little bit about your background about your journey, what led you to president and co-owner of Win-Tech.</p><p><strong>Allison Giddens</strong>: So it was a stumble, to be honest with you. I left college and worked in sales and marketing for a large media conglomerate outside of Atlanta. I can let you guess who that is.&nbsp;</p><p>As much as I was learning, it just wasn't for me. The corporate world just wasn't for me. I happened to be pet sitting for some neighbors, and I knew that he was a business owner. I said to him; I want to come work for you. And he said you don't even know what I do. I said I don't care. I know it's a small business, I think I want to get involved in that. So he said, You can come in for an interview.</p><p>I laughed and said, Well, I'm already working for you, shouldn't I get a job? (because I was young and stupid, and I thought, that's how things worked.) But I came in for an interview and got to know that group. He hired me on as an admin assistant of sorts. And I grew to learn a little bit about everything, and he threw me to the wolves on a couple of projects, which was good. I quickly realized that this whole manufacturing overlapped with a small business thing that was for me that was