If you try telling Webco Industries CEO Dana Weber that her business has 1,400 employees, she is liable to correct you. 

In her mind, she has 1,400 entrepreneurs.

“Most people think an entrepreneur is someone who goes out and starts a company,” Weber said. “I have a different definition. To me, if you take ownership of your job and your team and your task and your responsibilities, and you strive every day to keep getting better and be the best at what you do, then you are an entrepreneur and you think like an entrepreneur.” 

That philosophy has served Webco well. 

Steeped in the business teachings of Weber’s father, F. William (Bill) Weber, who founded the company in 1969, Sand Springs-based Webco remains a major player in the specialty steel tubing sector. It boasts $600 million in annual revenue and five manufacturing facilities, four in northeast Oklahoma and one in Pennsylvania. 

Dana Weber, a member of the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s executive committee, was keynote speaker at the Chamber’s most recent Manufacturers’ Council meeting at Tulsa Tech’s Sand Springs campus.The meeting was sponsored by OmniTRAX. 

Weber spoke about Webco’s 16 guiding principles, a new company facility set to open next month and the best practices learned from her father, who spent 15 years at U.S. Steel before branching out on his own. 

Bill Weber struggled, his daughter said, with U.S. Steel’s “arrogant” persona. 

“Their attitude was that customers were privileged to be able to buy from them, so they had zero customer service,” Dana Weber said. “So, when he started Webco, he wanted to take a very different approach, one that reflected his values.

“He believed in people. His original motto was ‘Where People Make the Difference’ and he meant it.

Bill Weber, who died in 2018 at age 92, developed personnel, promoted from within and rewarded employees by allowing them to share in the company’s success, Dana said. 

“Many companies have a business plan that revolves around building a business and then eventually selling,” Weber said. “That was never my father’s plan. He always wanted to build something that would last for many generations.” 

That legacy will be further cemented on June 4, which is the grand opening for the F.W. Weber Leadership Campus. The more than 72,000-square-foot building will house Webco’s corporate leadership team, Webco University and the Webco Tech Center. 

“It’s definitely bold,” Weber said. “And as my father once said when we had just completed an earlier expansion, ‘I guess we’ll just have to grow into it.’” 

The Chamber sponsors bi-monthly meetings of the Manufacturers’ Council, which convenes Chamber-member manufacturers for networking and discussion on issues impacting their companies and the sector. For more information about the Manufacturers’ Council, please contact Brien Thorstenberg, the Chamber’s vice president of economic development, at 918-560-0231.