How Joe Hinrichs is Getting CSX Back on Track

20 Apr 2023

How Joe Hinrichs is Getting CSX Back on Track

New CSX CEO Hinrichs (MBA 1994) discusses rebuilding trust with employees and customers

Re: Joe Hinrichs (MBA 1994)

Topics: Change-Change Management Leadership-Leadership Style Customers-Customer Focus and Relationships

Photo via LinkedIn

In a recent Q&A with the Wall Street Journal, new CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs (MBA 1994) discussed the steps he's taken to address challenges at the rail company since becoming CEO in September.

First up, the paper notes, was a listening tour. "The best-run companies that provide service to other companies focus on their employees," Hinrichs told the Journal. "They focus on employees' morale, their attitudes, how they're feeling about the company."

Hinrichs came to CSX after a long career in the automotive industry, including posts at Ford and General Motors, where he was often a customer of CSX—which offers him a unique perspective. "I've been very vocal inside CSX about what it's like to be a customer of the railroad over the years," he told the paper. "They want us to do what we say, to do what we commit to do, and then do it repeatedly. So they can have confidence in that because they run their business based on our schedules, based on assuming we're going to do our piece of it.