1. How has David Pinder embraced ethical leadership to create an ethical culture at Cardinal IG?
2. How has Cardinal’s principles and values shaped the ethical behavior of employees?
3. How has Cardinal empowered its employees to practice responsible and accountable leadership?

Cardinal Glass Industries, Inc., is a corporation that specializes in the design and manufacture of high technology insulating and solar glass. It is organized as a privately held S corporation with 70 shareholders, all of whom are employees. From the corporate offices in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, CEO Roger O’Shaughnessy oversees two research facilities and 29 manufacturing subsidiaries in 16 states. Cardinal Glass is the largest company of its kind in the world. Its 5,500 employees serve customers throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

In any organization, ethical leadership is paramount to success, and by all accounts Cardinal Glass Industries is a successful corporation. Although the corporation as a whole has been profitable since its inception in 1962, one of its manufacturing plants, Cardinal Insulating Glass (Cardinal IG) in Fargo, North Dakota, consistently outperforms all others in production efficiency and financial performance. Its workforce is the most diverse of any Cardinal subsidiary. The company consists of over 50 percent New American employees (many who speak limited English and recently arrived from unfortunate circumstances in their home country).

This case study explores the main factors contributing to the Fargo plant’s success through the stories of plant manager Dave Pinder, his leadership team, and the Cardinal IG employees. When Dave Pinder, the newly hired plant manager of Cardinal IG, arrived in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1998, the future plant site was nothing but a flat grain field. He had been hired to start the plant from the ground up—build the new factory, hire and train new employees, and develop relationships with his customers. Along with these responsibilities, CEO Roger O’Shaughnessy gave him complete autonomy to establish the corporate vision of “designing and fabricating the most advanced residential glass products in the industry.”

The 33-year-old Pinder brought an unlikely background to the position. A graduate of West Point, a commander in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, his last military assignment had been tactical officer in charge of 200 cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. While in the service, he completed a master’s degree in leader development and counseling from Long Island University. He spent a brief time with International Paper before being approached by O’Shaughnessy to join the Cardinal leadership team. Getting started was a daunting task, beginning with building the leadership team. Pinder did not hire glass experts. He couldn’t find any. Instead he hired people with leadership potential, a positive attitude, and a passion for learning the business and teaching others. In his words,

“We started with a group of 40 people in a 140,000 square foot building. We knew nothing about making glass. Our first employees jumped into a van and traveled to Iowa for training at another Cardinal IG plant to learn how it was done. We asked those first employees to trust us.”