It’s not business, it’s personal

Please indulge me with this post, but I promise there is a lesson in here and this also will serve to apologize to those I didn’t get to see at IMTS. It was busy!

Although my father owned a one-man machine shop in Paramount, California and his father had one in Globe, Arizona. I never intended to be in this business. I studied kinesiology in college and spent a few years in the low rungs of minor league baseball. Waiting for a high school teaching/coaching gig to open up, I took a job selling cutting tools and 35+ years later I am still here. I met my wife in this business and my children grew up in offices that we converted into their playrooms.

This was the first IMTS since 1988 that I wasn’t working a booth. Two drawbacks; you have to carry all your stuff with you and no one can come to see you, you have to go to them. Lots of walking. At IMTS 2004, I walked the floor with a major venture capitalist, Bill Frezza, whose firm was looking at investing in our company. Unknowingly to me, he was conducting a “trade show test”. If people made eye contact and then looked away, you failed. If they recognized and enthusiastically greeted you, you passed. Ultimately, they didn’t invest, but he told me I passed his test. I thought of that this year when I walked the show and saw so many great people from so many years gone by.

As you walk the show floor at IMTS you see huge exhibits from major global conglomerates, but the industry is really made up of a lot of multi-generational family companies. 

I ran into Bill Selway of Selway Machine Tool and his son-in-law Pat Hayes. I hadn’t seen them since I moved to Pennsylvania 16 years ago. I first met Bill 33 years ago when he and his brothers (seemed like there were 20 of them) wildly took over the Lawry’s the Prime Rib in Beverly Hills one night after WESTEC. Bill and his brother Dan pulled me right in. When I started my own company in the late 80’s, Bill took a chance on us and quickly became our largest customer. Jim Ellison and Ellison Technologies was a close second and although I didn’t see him on this trip, in the years since if I needed anything all I had to do was ask. Just a couple of years ago, I was in the office of the president of a $200B company and Jim called in just to give me an endorsement. Jim's son and daughter, Patrick and Amy, have followed him and are executives in the industry.

I was able to meet with Andy Weber of Rego-Fix. Many years ago, when Andy first came to the U.S. he called on my company to explain why we should sell his ER collets, very humbly mentioning that his father INVENTED them, What he and his brother have built is amazing. His other family, Bill Obras, a nicer guy you would never meet, along with Dave and Jeff were great to catch up with at the show.

I saw Tom Haag of Kyocera/SGS. His father Jack helped me start that company, giving me trade credit and consigning a starting inventory. As did Allan Curran of Royal Products, who has known me since I was a 17-year old painting used machinery. That’s a lot of rings on the trunk and it was so good to see him.

In college, I worked for a company that made carbide taps for Fullerton Tool of Saginaw, Michigan, working with the fathers of the current owners, Patrick and Mat Curry.

I caught up with Mark Drazba from Kenbil Engineering. We literally grew up together in this industry. His father, Wally and brother in law Dave helped me at the start over 35 years ago. Just crazy to think about. Spent time with Jim, Nick and Joe at M.A. Ford. We discussed high performance carbide endmills but back in the day we bought their "chatter-free" uni-flute countersinks from C.A. Pafenbach in L.A. Who knew chatter would become my life's work. I didn't get to see Shawn Arnold from CNC West magazine this time, but his dad coached the Lakewood Pony League team against the Paramount team I was on (in the 70's!). I also saw Dan Shaeffer who started out as a competitor in San Jose, but soon became a trusted manufacturer's rep.

Off the family topic a bit, though the chief executive of a huge company, Makino’s Don Lane always takes time to say hello, to show me what’s new with them and is always open to hear what’s new with us. I feel the same way about Milton Guerry at Schunk. They both were great to my unaffiliated self at this year’s IMTS.

Spent some time with Bill Coyle of Heritage Cutter. He might get mad at me for writing this. Bill was a private equity guy who bought a group of cutting tool companies; Brubaker, Weldon, Fastcut, New England Tap and Dataflute. 15 years later, I think he’s become a tool lifer. He cares about the people and families that have worked for generations for his companies. He is a steward for the legacy of these brands, some a century old, and the communities where they are made. And he is an American Patriot, a West Pointer.

Again, off topic, I ran into John Forrest of Tool Alliance. If you don’t know about him, you should. He introduced tool coating to the United States over 30 years ago. I remember sitting with him in an empty hotel conference room for a tool coating seminar that no one attended. I hope he walked around and saw all the coated tools on display and running demos. That is his legacy. 

Bryon Deysher, the recently retired President of Methods Machine Tool is not a member of the McIver family, but as he told me at IMTS, he sure is treated like one. Bryon and his wife Cynthia have given generously to our other family, Penn State University. One of the most memorable evenings of my life came at their house, involving a moving van, a chopper and a famous football coach.

Speaking of Penn State, I was able to meet with alumnus Andrew Benson of Iscar and Tom Raun, their milling director. Tom is as good a milling guy as I have ever worked with. If there were a thousand Tom Raun’s, I would be rich. While now owned by Warren Buffett, Iscar was always a family company. 35 years ago, my wife Elizabeth was the office manager for a tiny Iscar office is Walnut, California. She was pregnant with our first child. The birth was difficult and the insurance denied our claim. Iscar’s founder Stef Wertheimer learned of this on a U.S. visit and personally interceded on our behalf (and sent a baby gift). 

In the last decade or two, I have the honor of working with some other great family companies

I met with Andreas Haimer and his U.S. president Brendt Holden. I bought a balancer for our lab from them in 2004 when it was just Brendt and his wife in their new office. What they have built since is remarkable. 

I did not get to see Pete or John Haley of Gosiger on this trip, but had the pleasure of saying hello to Jane Haley in the Okuma booth. I was with the best application engineer I have ever worked with, Brian Stall. If there were a thousand Brian Stall’s, I would be rich. Pete Haley has been the single biggest supporter and advocate of our work. I was able to say hello to Brad Morris of the Morris Group. His father, Lee Morris, recognized what we were working on over a decade ago and has championed us ever since. Both Gosiger and Morris are hugely innovative organizations. They know you don’t make shots you don’t take and I have appreciated their encouragement in our work.

Lastly, I need to mention perhaps the greatest family company I have ever seen, Gardner Business Media, better known as the publishers of Modern Machine Shop. Led by the Kline family, Rick Sr. and Jr., Melissa, Don, Steve and Allison. Then there are the non-Kline members of the family: Tom, Travis, Mark, Pete, Dave, Jeff, Tori, Chris, Derek, Bob, Tonya and so many others. I once went to a meeting at Gardner’s headquarters in Cincinnati. The night before, I arrived at the room they reserved for me at the Mariemont Inn and the phone is ringing. “Come to the bar across the street” says the voice on the line. There I find everybody, well, just about everybody from Gardner having the greatest time with each other. I have since learned that is every night, at least during IMTS week. I haven’t drawn a payroll check in over 30 years, but if there were ever a place I would like to go to work everyday, it would be Gardner. Gardner is tasked with chronicling the history and presenting the future of our industry. They are the best.

Okay, I promised a lesson out of all of this. Here are my observations of the traits common to these hugely successful people:

1. THEY ARE ALL ABOUT FAMILY – Is there a greater legacy than to have your children want to follow your footsteps? If they are the second generation, they speak of their founding parents with great reverence and respect.

2. THEY ARE REALLY GOOD PEOPLE -They will greet you warmly and ask how your family is doing, not because it is a technique (Michael Scott’s color-code rolodex cards on The Office) it is because they really care. I have received notes and messages when life has challenged us. I am not close to being one of their peers, but they all treat me like one.

3. THEY ARE A BLAST TO SPEND TIME WITH – Take it from personal experience, if you go to dinner or a beer with any of them, you may do a little business, but will spend the rest of the time laughing your ass off.

4. THEY CALL BACK - Please don’t use this as an invitation to bomb them with cold calls, and I try not to abuse the privilege, but if I call or email, they always reply quickly. A good trait to emulate. 

5. THEY ARE LOYAL – And people are loyal to them. Their families include many people with different last names that have been with them for decades. 

6. THEY ARE HUMBLE –They let others take the spotlight. 

7. THEY ARE THEIR BEST SALESPERSON – It doesn’t matter if they are the CEO, if they are with a customer or a prospect, take a chair and wait your turn They know what is important.

8. THEY WORK HARDER – Saturdays at IMTS are odd. Most of the star salespeople go home on Friday, leaving newbies to man the booths that are now slowly starting to get packed up. Over the last decade, my then company was a guest exhibitor in variously themed Gardner booths. I sent everyone home on Friday, but I made sure I was there from opening to close on Saturday. Why? Because Rick Kline, the CEO of Gardner was working! I was not going to disrespect his hospitality by not being there. There was another reason and good example for all. Gene Haas would walk the show on Saturday with an entourage of one, usually Jeff Endean or Bob Murray. He would stop in and ask me the same question every year, “What are you working on?". And, just that quickly he would be off. He won’t remember sitting in my office at Rutland Tool 35 years ago looking at 5C indexers we were importing, but I do. I also remember looking at his VF-1 in 1988 and thinking that things were about to change. If you marvel at Haas Automation’s success, think about his walkabouts on Saturdays at IMTS. Clearly he never stops learning and thinking.

I am in the last chapter of my career in metalworking, but if you are just getting started and if you are fortunate enough to be working for, or with, one the great family-owned companies in our industry, you are in good hands. Not too proud to say I got a little misty eyed on the drive home thinking about all the years gone by.

Finally, we have reached the age when health issues are beginning to impact our spouses and us. To all my industry friends facing that, said or unsaid, know that my thoughts and prayers are with you.