[piano intro] - Hello, I'm Nido Qubein.

Welcome to "Side By Side."

As a teenager, my guest today picked tobacco and fruit from dawn to dusk in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Today, he will soon supervise many thousands of employees in a North Carolina factory the size of 1,300 football fields.

Those employees and our guests will help make North Carolina one of the world's crucial hubs in creating the future of transportation.

Today, you and I will get to meet Sean Suggs.

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[light upbeat music] - Sean Suggs, welcome to "Side by Side."

I'm intrigued how a gentleman who was born in the state of Maryland, served in the Army for eight years, rose all the way to be the President of Toyota Battery Manufacturing with literally thousands of employees.

What is it about you that made your rise so quickly and so well?

- Well, first and foremost, it's an honor and a privilege to be here today.

And I can tell you I've been very, very blessed in my life to have had a lot of adventures.

Starting in Maryland, moving to Indiana, joining the military.

Helping me pay for college, that was a big deal why I went in.

I was able to get out of the service.

- And you went to Oklahoma City University?

- I went to Oakland City University.

I got my bachelor's degree.

And there was a golden opportunity for Toyota who started a truck plant in Indiana.

And I was one of the new hires.

Filled out an application, was able to get a job, and eight promotions later I sit before you today as the president of Toyota North Carolina Battery.

It's been a phenomenal ride.

It started 26 years ago.

And you cannot do that without having great team and great leaders around me and surrounding me.

So I sit on the shoulders of a lot of great leaders.

- Well, you've certainly earned it, Sean.

You've been around the block a couple times.

You've earned the right to be the President of Toyota Battery right here in North Carolina.

In a mega site, in a new place.

And Toyota is investing something like $14 billion in building and expanding.

Tell us about that.

- Well, it's the largest investment in our company's history.

It's also the largest investment in the state of North Carolina.

And we feel like the electrification movement is real.

However, we also believe in a multi-pathway approach.

So by the investments that we've made in North Carolina, which offered us everything we needed, the infrastructure, the talent pool is amazing, it's all in this area.

And we're gonna try to take full advantage of that, giving the customers exactly what they need from a hybrid, plugin-hybrid, and all-electric battery.

We feel like what we're gonna produce here is gonna provide batteries for all of the vehicles in North America production.

That's our goal.

- I read somewhere where the size of the plant is gonna equal something like 1,300 times a football field.

I can't even imagine that.

- Yeah, well, the site's two by two miles, and it's 1,800 acres, and we'll build on about a thousand of those acres, and we'll have seven solid buildings there.

The smallest building will be 500,000 square feet, and the largest will be a million square feet, and we'll have three of those.

And the most important thing we're excited about is we're gonna employ 5,000 people, and we'll be able to impact 5,000 families and their lives.

We're really excited about that.

- Tell me how you find 5,000 people in, essentially, the Piedmont Triad area, what we call Carolina Corridor here.

Carolina Core.

Where do you find these people, Sean?

- Well, the good news story is in a 12-county area where our plants located, there's 1.7 million people.

So we're gonna take full advantage of the population, the population growth, and also the partnerships that we've already established with the community colleges, great universities throughout the state.

And also we believe that the Toyota Way is very attractive to people that want to try something new in an innovative company.

We're gonna be able to provide that.

We've already hired over 700 people in a short period of time, and we haven't had any issues to date.

- What is the Toyota Way?

- Well, the Toyota way.

- There's a book written about that.

- There is.

And I'll tell you, that it's something that's ingrained in all of our team members.

It's continuous improvement and respect for people.

The continuous improvement piece, we're always looking for a better way every single day to make our company better.

But most importantly is the respect for people.

We treat everyone with dignity and respect, and it's a core principle for us.

So when a new hire comes in from day one to 26 years later, we hope they have that passion, that respect for people is paramount.

- You went to Auburn for your MBA?

And do you cheer for Auburn now?

- I do, it's a War Eagle thing.

Yes, I do.

- Okay.

So where was your last assignment with Toyota?

- My last assignment was at our headquarters in Plano, Texas.

I was the diversity officer, social innovation officer.

So I was able to impact the enterprise with great initiatives on helping children with Driving Possibilities.

$115 million project.

I was able to lead that to help support 360 services in all of our operating communities.

So I had a great time there, but when this opportunity came up, I was like, "Wow, I've gotta get to North Carolina."

- You started with Toyota making, what, pickup trucks?

And where was that?

- That was in Indiana, the Tundra plant.

The original Tundra was built in Indiana.

It has now since moved to San Antonio, Texas.

But that plant in Indiana now started with 1,200 team members.

Now, it's got 7,000 team members.

Similar to the growth that we believe that will happen in North Carolina, where we started an announcement of about 1,200, and now we're already up to 5,000.

- Well, I mean, I think a lot of people like to hear that made in America.

Anything that we can create jobs and economic impact.

And speaking of economic impact, what do you believe the economic impact will be for the state of North Carolina and for the 12-county zone that you're operating in?

- Well, not only the $14-billion investment that we're making, but as I mentioned earlier, touching 5,000 families and how that will have a trickle-down effect for the population.

I mean, I think the impact for those families and the communities is gonna be tremendous for our state.

The per capita, the education systems and things of that nature.

- [Nido] Earnings?

- Earnings, yes.

The per-capita earnings.

We're gonna have a competitive wage, competitive benefits that will be second to none.

- When a Toyota comes in and hires thousands of people, do you get pushback from other companies already here saying, "You're paying them more than I'm paying them, "and I'm worried about you taking some of my people"?

How do you deal with that?

- Well, I'll tell you, our approach is to be the best in town, and then we want be be the best in the state, and then we want to be the best in the country, best in North America, et cetera.

And we just keep our head down and focus on what we can control.

And when I'm having conversations with other CEOs in the area, I believe there's a big old ocean out there.

North Carolina's the ninth-largest populated state.

It's got 10.9 million people.

- [Nido] And growing.

- And growing.

So I think there's enough for all of us, I really do.

- So many people moving to North Carolina.

They love our climate, they love the mountains and the ocean.

They like our legislative agenda quite often in terms of economics, and so we're proud of that as Tar Heel citizens.

We're very proud of that.

Sean, you know, when I think of you and when I talk to people about you, the word leader comes out, extraordinary leader.

You have been able to develop leadership skills that clearly have brought you up the ladder to be responsible for such a mega investment.

This is a serious investment for any company, for any organization, for any government, frankly.

What is it that makes you a good leader?

- Well, thanks for the compliment, and for whoever said that, thank you so much.

Three key things that I try to focus on, energy, excellence, and evolution.

I try to bring a high energy because I think team members follow people with passion and energy.

- [Nido] Well, what is energy, what does that mean?

- I believe that when I wake up in the morning every single day, I'm trying to make a difference in the lives of the people that we employ.

That's a really important thing to me.

And I think leading by example with that is really important.

And excellence, the other E that I mentioned to you, is we're always trying to strive for excellence and being the best that we can be in any given field, no matter what that is.

And, evolution, it goes back to the word kaizen that we use in Toyota, or continuous improvement.

We're always looking for a better way.

So every single day I wake up and think, "How can I have great energy and passion?

"How can we strive for excellence, "and how do we continue to evolve "in this ever-changing world?"

- Yeah, I mean, that's a lesson for all of us, right?

And when you speak to young people, as I know you do, or there's a college campus or some new hires that you attract, first of all, what are the ingredients, what are the traits you look for in a new hire?

And then what is it that you do with him to bring him into the Toyota Way and then sustain that over a long period of time?

- Well, we hope that every applicant that wants to come to us, they're intrigued by something new and better.

If they are, we've got a place for 'em.

We're always looking for someone with integrity.

That's a big deal for our company.

And we try to sense early, are they a person that has that respect for people trait?

Are they a person that's a critical thinker?

Are they always trying to look for a better way?

If they have those qualities, we can take care of the rest.

- Yeah, you can then educate, train, and improve and develop.

- [Sean] Absolutely.

- And what is it that you do?

Is there a training program that they go through?

- Absolutely.

So we have a temporary office right now in Greensboro, and we have an entire floor dedicated, we call it a dojo or training center, where we can take you.

- [Nido] You call it a what?

- It's a dojo.

In Japanese, that's a training and development center.

Almost like a martial art thing.

- You speak any Japanese?

- Only the greetings like arigato gozaimasu or dou itashimashite, or thank you very much, that kind of thing.

- Just enough to get you with the big guys so you can keep moving up the ladder.

- Absolutely.

So we have training centers in our site that can take a person that has no skill.

Similar to me 26 years ago, I had no automotive experience, and Toyota gave me the basics and the fundamentals.

And I will tell you, 26 years later, being brilliant at the basics, those fundamental traits never leave you.

- What are those basics?

What are they?

- It's the Toyota Way, but, most importantly, when you build things.

- Toyota Way as in being kind to people, respectful.

What else?

- But it's the Toyota production system.

It's how we actually produce things in a just-in-time fashion, always looking for ways to eliminate waste and take care of the customer.

- Efficiency and productivity?

- Yes, big deals for us, because we're doing things in seconds and minutes, and the customer quality is extremely important.

So we're always looking at our... - So when you say we're doing something in seconds and minutes, give me an example.

What does that mean?

If I come into the factory, what is it that I see?

- For an example, if you went to a truck or car factory, we produce a car and a truck in every minute and a half or two minutes.

- You produce a car or a truck.

- [Sean] Yes.

- Not from beginning to end?

- So once the pipeline is filled, the 24-hour pipeline, every.

- [Nido] Pipeline with parts?

- With parts and everything that goes into a vehicle, once it rolls off the assembly line, every roll-off is in about a minute and a half once the entire pipeline is full.

You take our battery world, we're gonna be doing multiple cells in seconds, 20, 30 seconds.

- This is all automated?

- All automated.

But we also have human interaction.

That's why we're hiring so many people to not only control the cells and the product that we have to put together.

- Is this robotics?

Are you using artificial intelligence?

What is it that makes?

- All of the above, all of the above.

We're using robotics, but in our battery factory, we're also using AI technology to help us quickly understand and detect the problem and fix it immediately.

- Help me understand what AI technology is as it applies to your business.

- So, for an example, let's say we can put in a system, a manufacturing operating system, that can store a history of problems that we may have had with the robot.

We can hit a button, and that button can tell us the robot history and the likely causes of the downtime.

And we can do that in minutes and seconds.

Compared to 20 years ago.

- Then you can correct?

- We can correct the issue and continue to run at a high speed, whereas 20 years ago it was all manual.

You're dissecting and trying to figure things out on the fly.

But this is cutting-edge technology that we're doing at this site, which we're really proud of.

- So I want to make sure I understand.

I would not be a good associate for Toyota Battery.

The technology... - You would be an excellent associate because you've got all those other traits.

We can teach you, we can teach you.

- So you are saying to me that if the production line has all the pieces.

I don't know what you begin with, with an axis or whatever it is you begin with, all the pieces are there, to assemble the car takes a minute and a half?

- Yeah, once we fill the pipeline from the stamped panel in a full day, a 24-hour day, we can take a part from the press panel, the paint panel, to the assembly panel, and fill that entire pipeline up with about 700 vehicles.

So when we turn it on, every minute and a half, there's a car coming out of the factory.

- Wow.

If that's the case, how come we have sometimes shortage of cars around?

- It's a great question.

You know, when COVID hit, it hit us pretty hard, and we're still recovering from a supply-chain perspective.

- It's the parts, it's what goes in the car?

- It's not the human capital, it's more of a supply base issue.

And we're correcting that, by the way.

- Yeah, yeah.

So do you give tours in your operation or is that highly secretive and confidential?

- Today it is, but we're just starting our production trials for the battery plant.

Our start of production will happen in the first quarter of next year.

And we will provide cells and batteries for the hybrid battery cars in the Kentucky plant first.

- So, you know, Sean, I'm thinking as a North Carolinian now that I'm very proud of the fact that North Carolina has been able to attract a lot of companies, Toyota, Supersonic, Honda, others who've come here.

Those are the ones that are in the Piedmont, North Carolina.

Then you look at, you know, the Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham area, and you see a whole new group of technology companies and so on.

This is phenomenal for North Carolina..

This elevates the future of North Carolina in many ways.

What is it that you worry about?

I mean, you have a big responsibility.

When you're finished, you'll have how many employees?

- We'll have 5,000.

- You said 5,000?

And you said in seven buildings?

- Yep, roughly seven buildings.

- Seven large buildings.

You are the boss.

Toyota has entrusted you with an incredible investment in a brand new place really from the ground up.

You don't look worried to me.

You don't look stressed, you look relaxed, and you have your act together.

- I am.

And let me tell you why.

You know, one of the things that I've never forgotten is being a frontline supervisor.

I've never forgotten that.

And I lead that way every single day.

And no matter what position I've had in my company, I've always tried to have the opinion that I've gotta take care of the line team members first.

They're my number one priority.

The second thing is, you've gotta hire a world-class team to help you.

You can hire great leaders with same character principles, makes your job so much easier.

The other thing is, the state of North Carolina has been wonderful.

You know, they've helped us out with everything that we've asked for.

They've delivered the infrastructure, everything we've needed.

So it makes my job so much easier.

So I don't have a whole lot of fears.

When you've got all those key components together, you can make great things happen.

- You don't have any concerns about, you know, "I'm not gonna meet the goal for this for this month.

"I'm gonna get the big guys, "you know, in headquarters calling me "and, you know, hitting me.

"Hey, listen, your efficiency is not as high"?

- Well, they always do that.

- You're used to that.

- I'm used to that.

They're always checking, as they should.

It's a major investment.

We have several visitors coming to check even from Japan, and we just show 'em the great news, you know, the great things that we're trying to do here.

Now, I'd be foolish to say there won't be any bumps in the road.

- Especially for, effectively, a startup.

- Absolutely.

We're gonna always have bumps in the road, but we treat those bumps just like they are, a bump in the road, not the entire road, because we know there's a strong journey and a pathway forward for us.

- So you are new to the area, but your grandmother lived in Rocky Mount.

And you've come to to Rocky Mount many, many times.

You still have family in Rocky Mount?

- I do.

I still have aunts there and cousins, et cetera, and I try to make my way back there to see them all the time.

- [Nido] They gotta be very proud of you, Sean.

- I'll tell you what, I've been very, very blessed.

And I hope they are because I'm trying to represent my family, as well as the team members as well.

So it's been a great experience, great experience.

- You know, Sean, when I read some of the interviews you've done in print, when I hear you speak, I've heard you a number of times on a panel, you don't talk about adversity.

Did you have adversity in your life?

- Absolutely.

Growing up, the youngest out of seven kids, the first one to graduate high school, growing up in the inner city of Baltimore, - You're the first of the seven?

- [Sean] To graduate high school in 12 years.

- Were you the youngest, the oldest?

- I was the youngest.

- [Nido] The others never finished high school?

- Now, since then, they've gone on to do great things, but I was the first to go 12 years through school and graduate, first one to get my college degree.

So I've seen a lot of adversity, and I felt a long time ago that I wanted more and better, and I've been able to achieve a lot of those great things through the grace, you know, that I've had.

- I mean, you exude excellence at every level, but as a man of color, you are an example to so many of all backgrounds.

Are you doing stuff in the Black community to say to young men and young women, "Yes, you can, you can change the world"?

"Look at what I've done "in a very competitive, difficult world."

I mean, you operate in a very competitive world, industrial world, and you've risen to a very high level.

And I hope that you're doing a lot of that to set the example for, maybe you should write a book.

- I have, I've written three books.

I have three books on Amazon.

One's about my life, one's about leadership, and the other one is a passion that I have about golf.

I played golf in all 50 states.

- You played golf in all 50 states?

How do you do your work, Sean?

- It's actually my stress reliever.

Golf's actually my stress reliever.

- Was that a goal of yours, "I will play golf in all 50 states"?

- I did it, it took me 20 years, but I finally knocked it out.

- [Nido] You played golf in Alaska?

- I have.

I played in all 50 states.

But to answer your question specifically on the give back, my wife and I have a scholarship fund for underserved communities that we've been giving to.

We set it up five years ago.

It's going really well.

And anytime that I can speak or engage with anyone from a diverse perspective, I'm all in.

Because my story can be replicated.

I really do believe that.

- What did you say in your books?

Summarize for me the two or three basic messages in your book.

- Well, I'll just tell you this, it's a story or typically messages about, I can, and I will.

You know, a lot of people talk about, they read things, but I want them to take some action when they see it or read it.

"What will I do and what can I do "based on what I've learned?"

And it's simple principles about being a man of integrity, making sure you surround yourself with great people, and typically great things happen.

And remember, when you fall, it's just an opportunity to get back up and start again.

So it's general things like that.

- Yeah, very helpful things.

These are real things.

Timeline for the fullness of growth for Toyota Battery?

- So the timeline, we started the construction almost a year and a half ago.

We've got another about a year of trial activity that we're doing.

We've already got equipment installed in our first and second building.

We will start producing batteries for cars at the first quarter of 2025.

So we're almost there.

And we've already hired over 700 people.

We've had over 1,000 people accept job offers.

So we're in a really good position right now.

- And so, at fruition, it would be, what, three years from now, five years from now?

- Yes, in about three and a half years, we'll be at that 5,000 mark.

- What is the competitive sector for Toyota Battery?

- Well, from an electrification perspective, obviously Tesla's the leader, and we respect that.

But Toyota's approach has always been a multi-pathway approach.

We want to give the customer hybrid options, plugin-hybrid options, all-electric options, fuel cell and the combustible engine.

So when the customer demand changes, we'll change.

The plant that we're building gives us that agility.

- And your prediction is what, that we'll eventually all go to electric?

Obviously not, obviously you believe there are other models.

- We do believe that.

Like for an example, in 2030, our projections show that about 30% of the U.S. will be in electric, not 50% or 100%.

We think it's gonna take some time for the United States to get on board 100%.

So we want to continue to offer them options.

- Sean, thank you for being with me on "Side by Side."

You are a most interesting leader and executive.

We welcome you to North Carolina.

We are very appreciative of the new opportunities you are creating for so many.

- Thank you so much for having me today.

I appreciate it.

[light upbeat music] [light upbeat music continues] [light upbeat music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "Side by Side" with Nido Qubein is made possible by.

- [Announcer] We started small, just 30 people in a small town in Wisconsin.

75 years later, we employ more Americans than any other furniture brand.

But none of that would've been possible without you.

Ashley, this is home.

- [Announcer] For 60 years, the Budd Group has been a company of excellence, providing facility services to customers, opportunities for employees, and support to our communities.

The Budd Group, great people, smart service.

- [Announcer] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.