Electro Soft’s president and CEO prioritizes a long-term talent retention strategy over short-term profits.

Many CEOs in manufacturing are thinking about reducing their workforce as tariffs hit. Karla Trotman, president and CEO of Electro Soft, Inc., a contract electronics manufacturing firm in Montgomeryville, Penn., in contrast, sees her team as the business’s greatest asset — one essential to the company’s long-term future.

“With tariffs which have impacted our bottom line, I’m able to say, ‘No, we’re going to hold on,’” she says. “And we may not make as much money this quarter, but I feel like in the long term, we’re maintaining our employees, remaining our staff, people are feeding their families. And we’re going to do that because that makes more sense to me in the long run than a short-term gain in profit because if that was what I was chasing, I probably would’ve lost half of my workforce.”

It’s personal for Trotman. She grew up in Electro Soft, the family business her parents founded in 1986. She joined the firm in 2009 and took the helm in 2020, overcoming reservations about forgoing a corporate career in favor of embracing the family culture her parents had built, one where every employee mattered.

She’s carried the torch, taking steps such as covering 60% of healthcare costs and 100% of dental, as well as providing access to counseling and legal services.

Seeing the importance of workforce development, she has partnered with regional organizations such as Philly Works to train and attract new talent for the advanced manufacturing industry. “We really try to focus on marketing manufacturing better so that we can attract more people to the workforce,” she says.

She has also relied on seasoned team members to train the next generation.

“We have five generations that work in our company . . .,” she says. “We have them work side by side. The young people will sometimes implement AI, taking what the older generation has been teaching them and help marry it together so that we don’t lose all that institutional knowledge that they’ve accumulated over the years.

Although manufacturers face headwinds in the current business environment, Trotman is a champion of the industry. She published her recent book, Dark, Dirty, Dangerous: Building the Vibrant Future of Manufacturing, in 2024.

In the meantime, she is determined to stick by her team, no matter what challenges tariffs bring. “I want to protect my people at all costs,” she says, in the true spirit of a Social Capital leader. “I want to be able to offer my customers great service, great products and continue with that. I’m constrained by that. Whatever happens outside of it, how do I make it happen? And I think some of the best ideas are born out of that.”

She spoke recently with Chris Benguhe, founder & president of the Dave Alexander Center for Social Capital and publisher of the Social Capital Insider. Click below to watch the interview.