LEADERSHIP Conversations with the Captains of Industry Karla Trotman: Wired to Reshape Manufacturing
Before she became CEO of Electro Soft Inc., Karla Trotman earned 25 cents an hour marking wire with a ruler in her parents’ basement. The company—founded by her parents in 1986—served as both a family business and a training ground. As she grew, so did her skills: From wire stripping to operating a wave soldering machine, Trotman learned electronics from the inside out. Today, she leads the company in delivering high-stakes manufacturing solutions for clients in aviation, rail transit, and beyond. In college, Trotman leveraged her skills and business sense. “There was one phone in each dorm room for two people to share,” she recalls. “On top of that, the cord was too short.” Because Trotman grew up around electronics, she started a small business splitting the phones’ jacks and making the cords longer so both roommates could have phones at their bedside. Trotman holds an MBA from Drexel University and a B.S. in Business Logistics from Penn State University. IL: How has your perception of small business changed? Even though I grew up in a small business, I initially felt I needed to work for a big, glamorous company. But as I had my children, I realized how important legacy is, and how important small businesses are to the economy. I love being able to create the environment that I walk into every day. I want other people to enjoy coming to work. That was a game changer in the way I thought about small business. IL: What challenges are top of mind? Supply chains work as long as everything is perfect and there’s predictability. We’re currently dealing with unpredictability when trying to identify costs associated with tariffs. When there are drastic changes or unpredictability, companies stop everything. This impacts orders and cash ow. That’s a huge concern; things are a bit rough for businesses. IL: How do you navigate family and business? First, it’s not as tumultuous as people on TV make it out to be. When you’ve grown up in a business, you respect it as an entity because many other people—employees, suppliers, and customers—are stakeholders. With that in mind, we make decisions about the business and not personal decisions. Sometimes there are hiccups because people get
Karla Trotman, CEO, Electro Soft Inc.
From cutting wires for quarters to leading a multi-million-dollar electronics company, Karla Trotman says legacy, grit, and humility power her approach to business, family, and the future of American manufacturing.
by Karen Kroll
18 Inbound Logistics • July 2025
Powered by FlippingBook