Chapter 16 - CARTER CYCLE WORKS
The recall nearly broke Carter Cycle Works.
Costs exceeded estimates.
$18 million after retailer credits, shipping, replacements, legal fees, and lost sales.
One retailer terminated its youth-bike contract.
The Columbus plant reduced shifts.
Eighty-seven jobs disappeared over eighteen months.
Those workers had not altered data.
Not signed false reports.
Not smashed a child’s bicycle.
They paid anyway.
That fact followed me longer than Richard’s conviction.
Grace became interim CEO.
Then permanent CEO after an outside search.
Not me.
Good.
The board reorganized:
Independent safety committee.
No family executive could override engineering holds alone.
Digital signatures required individual multifactor approval.
No stored signature templates.
Quality data archived automatically.
Employee safety hotline reporting directly to the board.
Bonus structures excluded held inventory from performance metrics.
Simple controls.
Expensive lessons.
Family ownership diluted through capital raise.
Employee ownership grew.
May you like
The Carter name remained on buildings.
Its authority did not.
